A friend emailed me a joke on how languages can be misinterpreted if not communicated properly. Some of you may have heard it before, so here goes…

Confusing Chinese Names

Caller : Hello, can I speak to Annie Wan (anyone)?

Operator : Yes, you can speak to me.

Caller : No, I want to speak to Annie Wan (anyone)!

Operator : You are talking to someone! Who is this?

Caller : I’m Sam Wan (Someone). And I need to talk to Annie Wan (anyone)! It’s urgent.

Operator : I know you are someone and you want to talk to anyone! But what’s this urgent matter about?

Caller : Well… just tell my sister Annie Wan (anyone) that our brother Noel Wan (no one)has involved in an accident. Noel Wan (no one)got injured and now Noel Wan (no one) is being sent to the hospital. Right now, Avery Wan (everyone) is on his way to the hospital.

Operator : Look if no one was injured and no one was sent to the hospital, then the accident isn’t an urgen t matter! You may find this hilarious but I don’t have time for this!

Caller : You are so rude! Who are you?

Operator : I’m Saw Lee (Sorry).

Caller : Yes! You should be sorry. Now give me your name!!!

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Here’s another one..

 Why Chinese shouldn’t have Christian names:

 
Anne Chang => Dirty (Mandarin)

Anne Chin => Keep Quiet (Mandarin)

Faye Chen => Dusty (Mandarin)

Carl Cheng => Buttock (Hokkien)

Monica Cheng => Touching your buttocks (Hokkien)

Lucy Leow => You are dead (Hokkien)

Jane Tan => Frying eggs (Mandarin)

Suzie Leow => Lose till death (Hokkien)

Henry Mah => Hate your mum (Mandarin)

Corrine Tai => Poor fellow (Hokkien)

Paul Chan => Bankrupt (Mandarin)

Nelson Tan => Bird laying eggs (Mandarin)

Leslie Tong => Rubbish Bin (Mandarin)

Carmen Teng => Leg hair long (Hokkien)

Connie Mah => Call your mother (Cantonese)

Danny See => Squeeze you to death (Hokkien)

Rosie Teng => Screws and nails (Hokkien)

Pete Tsai => Nose droppings (Hokkien)

Macy Koh => Never die before (Cantonese)

Machine Translation (MT) is generally understood as the process in which a “machine” (specificaly a computer program or software) is substituting words and phrases in one langauge to another.

But if you do understand a little bit of the language in which you have translated your document into, you will quickly notice the translation problems.  And the end result is definitely not what you have desired and clearly not of publishable quality.

MT Softwares consist of dictionaries and algorithms to compose a sentence according to grammar rules of a language. The inherent difficulty in machine translation is that it does not discern the context and intended meaning the way humans can.  It doesn’t take into the meanings of words, word combinations, sentences, paragraphs, or the whole text structure. It knows nothing about rhetoric and style. It only diligently substitutes words and expressions taken from a dictionary into another language.

Of course, nobody wants their document content to be turned into a meaningless word mesh.  And there are specific styles of translations that machine tools cannot handle properly.  The basic purpose is to translate the message and meaning of the document and not just words and phrases. For this, it is always better to engage the services of professional translation agencies that employ native speaking human translators.

A human translator is still needed to correctly convey the exact meaning of the source text. No matter how advanced translation tools have become, they cannot be regarded as a substitute for a competent human translators.

It is true that MT can offer better alternatives in term of speed and cost. But if you intend to have a good translated document or marketing collaterals, accuracy is still of utmost important.  As of now, MT has not achieved that kind of high accuracy yet.   In a way, you would not want to submit a document full of syntax and grammar errors to your clients.  The “translated” copy will not make any sense to your clients.  Eventually, it will cost more if the documents need to re-translate again by a human translator.

Developers of Machine Translation software recognize these limitations and advise to use these translations as drafts only.  This is to enable the users to check the meaning of the foreign language document quickly and inexpensively.

According to an online dictionary website, it is defined as “a written communication in a second language having the same meaning as the written communication in a first language”

I believe this is the most fundamental definition we know all along. However, if we ponder further, we will know that translation does not only mean written communication. Translation could also mean bring two different cultures closer to understanding each other.

When we go to a foreign place, where the language or culture is not anything near to our own, we feel uncertain or even fearful of them as we do not understand them. However through a local guide, who acts as a bridge between two cultures, we learn and appreciate them.

One example is in a village located in Papua New Guinea, boys going on to manhood have to go through a “cane-swallowing” ritual, whereby cane as thick as 1cm in diameter is bent and to be swallowed, pushed down the throat, all the way to the pit of the stomach, and pulled out. In this process, they suffer internal bleeding. If it is not successful, they may die.

As people who live in culture and developed cities, we find this very inhumane and wonder why they are crazy enough to even want to go through it. But as we learn from the guide, we realize that this is part of their culture and it is an important chapter of their lives. Only after going through the ritual and the boys “truly become man” and be able to build their own houses and go out of the village to make a living. Only through the bleeding can they “purge out” their mothers’ blood that is within them and be independent. It may seem primitive, but it is their way of living.

Cross culture understanding helps bring everyone closer to each other, hence become One People. In closure, we know that without the correct translation, life-changing ritual such as this will only remain as a hideous scene to us.

Do you think that translators only do document or manual translation?  Well, think again… our job can be fun and challenging at times.

Some of our clients come from the Advertising industry.   Most of the times, they do not want direct translation.  They would prefer copywriting.  This means that our translator would need to write in a creative style and still capture the essence of the whole copy.  Yes, the skill level needed for such job is higher.

Having to say that, if you have great passion for language semantics, I believe it would not be too difficult to translate into a good copy.   Moreover, it would be a great satisfaction to see your translated copy being published for the mass public.  You can also keep the published copy in your portfolio and show to your future clients.  This will definitely raise your profile as a translator.

So, what are the types of translation jobs that you can expect to get from a Advertising agencies?

1.  Above-the-line advertisement.

Above-the-line is the term for mainstream paid advertising.  Such advertisement is to appear in newspapers, magazines, transit ads, outdoor poster etc.

2. Commercials

Script translation for television and radio commercials

3. Sales and Merchandising Promotion

These will include brochures, leaftlets, pamphalets,  posters, signage displays, window banners, floor stickers, shelf stickers etc…all these marketing collaterals would definitely need translation if the client wish to create a greater brand awareness to the public.

If you wish to know more, we welcome you to send your enquiries to us at hr@whizwordz.com.

In your view, do pictures really mean a thousand words? If that is so, can we just do away with words, and just use pictures only?

Let’s try…

So what is this trying to say?

That Frosty the Snowman is celebrating Christmas on a starry December night, and he is asking for a hug from Santa?

Many a times, just purely visual ads do not really help a lot in communicating what your thoughts are to your clients. That is why, a copywriter is very important, to make the visuals stand out and attract readers, and hopefully make them your loyal customers.

To have your ad in another language, it does not just take translation to do the job. It has to be translation plus copywriting skills. You, as a renown company, would need to think twice, before you give this piece of art to your translator. A direct translation would ruin the meaning totally.

To copywrite it, the translator also need to understand the local needs of the market, whether phrasing it in this way would make it right for people reading it. And what I mean by “right” is that the phrases used are fit for the language in that country. What you use in 1 country does not necessarily be appropriate in another. That was what we talked about in the Importance of Localisation topic earlier.

So be very selective in who you choose to be your partner in your copywriting needs.

Some may wonder why native translators are most preferred. Well, not only do they know the culture of their country and hence able to bring out the meaning of the translated text for the people to understand, they also understand the language of what they are translating. Because if they don’t, this is what will most probably happen…

Have you often wondered why some fellow translators are more sought as compared to others?  And are you such translator?

I have the privilege to work with some good translators in my line of work.  Often, I will assign more jobs to those competent and dedicated translators whom I think will do their best to accomplish the job for us.  Let me give you some tips on making yourself to be a better translator.

Tip # 1: Always to double-check on your translation before submit to your clients.  Nothing will frustrates your client more if they found out that certain terms are mis-spelled, not correctly interpreted or inaccurately translated.

Tip # 2:  Be truthful to your client.   Since your client is your pay-master, it is only right that if you made any mistakes in your copy, you should admit to your client before it is published.  Otherwise, you will never hear from them for long, long time.

Tip # 3: Do not miss your deadline if you have already committed to your client.  If due to some unforeseen circumstances that you need to stretch your deadline, do highlight to your client in advance.

Tip #4:  Seek to understand your clients better.   If you have any clarification about the job, it would be good to highlight to them at the beginning.  The client will also appreciate your effort as this shows that you want to submit in a quality job.  Think win-win.

Tip #5.  Always seek for improvement.  Think of ways to be more efficient in your work.  Example keep a glossary list of those common used and translated text, using memory software to assist your translation,  do background research on the articles before starting to translate etc etc.

Tip #6:  Go the extra mile for your client.  At times, be prepared to work harder at a shorter time frame for your client.  They will definitely appreciate your hard effort and reward you accordingly.   This is because you have proven to be dependent on.

As you all might know, Singapore is a multi-racial country. The four official languages in Singapore are Malay, Mandarin, Tamil and English.

English is the most common language used. Children are taught in English at school but also learn their mother tongue to make sure they don’t lose contact with their traditions. This is made compulsory by our education system where every child is given a chance to take up an additional language as their Second Language (example Mandarin, Malay or Tamil).

Public signs and official publications are in English, although there are usually translated versions in other official languages.  Some of the advertisment, marketing collaterals and newsletter will often be translated into other languages for ease of understanding.

During festive seasons, there are also a higher demand for certain language translation.  This is obviously due to advertisers who wish to promote their services or products catering to a bigger market during these seasons.

For Lunar New Year and Mooncake festival, we see that there are more demand for Mandarin translation.  Likewise for Hari Raya and Deepavali,  there will be higher demand for Malay and Tamil translation respectively.

Sometimes, you may find different languages in a single brochure.  Naturally, such brochures are catered for greater public audience.  The multiple languages add a unique feel to such brochure too.

We do believe that there are also other countries having the same  experiences as us.  Do share your comment with us.  We love to hear from you too!

The message at the end of the commercial leaves its viewers to ponder over the meaning of 不要吵死人, whether it meant “do not disturb the dead (with your ringtones)” or “do not disturb people to their death”

In this context, the commercial brought the idea across with a pun.

Many times as when we say something, what we understand and put across may not be what others understand. That is where copywriting comes in. Copywriting helps to smoothen out the content without losing its original meaning that the writer is trying to put across. Some of us may thing that copywriting is not necessary, then take a look at all the books you see at bookstores – from fiction to biographies to self-help categories. Have you ever wonder what makes Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code” a bestseller? This book went through more than eight times of copywriting/editing and proofreading before it was printed!

Somehow, the meaning of the content can be amplified and “beautified” just by putting the right words together, and this is the wonder that copywriters can do.

Here’s another one: what do you understand from 打死老虎 ?

Not all of us are born designers, and when you are not, you have to learn it either the hard way (through getting blasted by clients), or you get some tips from people who have done it before.

We have come a long way in this field, through lots of knocking of heads and being blasted by clients. At that point in time, you might be thinking &^%$^@, but it is through comments and feedbacks that we all improve.

Some tips that we can offer here:

Tip 1: If possible, avoid trucations of words. For example, if the word is too long and it gets trucated to the next line, making it look like this “cele-bration”, it is difficult to read. Try to put everything in 1 line. You can change the kerning, or justify the sentence to make the spacing appropriate.

Tip 2: Spacing in between sentences should be appropriate for reading purposes. Some languages, unlike English alphabets, have squiggles on the characters. The spacing in between the sentences should take into account these squiggles, and not have them stick to any lines above and below it. One such example is the thai wordings.

Tip 3: It is always good to have look alike fonts for the copy that you are doing, so that the design looks similar, be it for Chinese, for English or for Japanese. Below is an example of what it looks like. The sizes should also stay the same, unless there is not enough space or too much blank spaces to contain the characters, which might happen sometimes.

Tip 4: There must be consistency throughout the copy, in terms of font sizes, kerning and leading. If you find that along the way, your font sizes have to change because of the spacing issue, the changes must be applied to the layout that you have done at the beginning.

Tip 5: When typesetting, sometimes a couple of words may drop to the next line to end the paragraph. It would be good then, to either have the couple of words squeezed into the line before that, or to increase the kerning so that more words are added to that last line. This example is illustrated below.

These are some of the tips that can help you in your layout, but always remember, no matter whether you are a translator or a typesetter, we should always seek to improve ourselves. Let us know if you have some more tips to add to this list.