Kwintessential's Blog

Some interesting news pieces this week around language learning, the impact of Welsh on gas prices, Pokemon localization and a cross-cultural analysis of "fairness".

McDonald's have managed to make a mess of their latest effort to target ethnic minorities in the USA with a billboard advertisement that means nothing.

What's been happening this week in the news? Elise Kuip picks out some highlights focusing on language, translation, cultural awareness and business.

Novel translation. What do you picture? Chained doors? Publishers of Dan Brown’s Inferno have taken the concept of "top secret" to a whole new level -  11 of the novel’s translators were locked up in an Italian bunker to translate the latest product of Brown’s pen!

I am currently in Ghana developing our translation services for local languages spoken in Ghana. You may have read my colleague Caroline’s blog yesterday about her first day over in Accra? We are here developing Kwintessential’s skills and know-how and we plan to blog each day to give insight into our trip.

What English words translate from Arabic? Arabic to English translation intern Zoe, explores some of the shared linguistic history between the English and Arabic languages...

Travelling to the Arabic speaking world? Learning some Arabic phrases? 'No' is one of the most crucial words you will need to know. Arabic - English translator, Zoe Trunks explains why.

Any idea what a ‘Raute’ is? Or what a ‘sfigato’ is? Probably not, but imagine all the new English words invented every year and you get a sense of how the digital age and internet neologisms are challenging languages across the globe.

‘Shambolic’ is the word Justice Select Committee Chairman Alan Beith used to describe the privatisation of court interpreting services in the UK in a recent Guardian Online article. Why?

During these past four days in Accra, we have often been asked what we make of Ghana – the culture, people, food, etc. It’s been an exciting and eye opening 4 days. Interestingly, one of the most surprising factors have been the traffic jams during rush hour and the extent to which these influence timeliness – we have experienced this ourselves on most days, so to avoid unnecessary frustrations, I have had to surrender to the traffic and simply go with the flow (and try not to inhale too many fumes!).

All week, in Ghana, we have reached out to a broad spectrum of successful  Ghanaian businessmen to help determine how they have managed to attain success.  Our meetings focused on hearing their experiences, their challenges, as well as their formula for breaking out of the crowd.

Based on my experiences of organising business meetings in Ghana, of which I wrote about in yesterday's blog post, I am going to elaborate on business etiquette in general, with the hope to give a few more insights, explanations and tips for doing business in Ghana.

“There’s no food for a lazy man”; a common saying displayed all over Accra, and one heard too. In Ghana there are many proverbs to illustrate the values of Ghanaian people, and this one just stood out today (first day here!).

According to culture awareness expert Andy Molinsky, 'global dexterity' is key to successful cross-cultural understanding. Awareness of culture and cross cultural differences are increasingly important in our global economy; Molinsky explains more in an interview with Forbes.

Ever thought a celebrity such as Robery Downey Jr. would need and use localization to market himself and his latest flick Iron Man 3? Here are some tips that might have aided Downey, but can definitely help you market your products properly in foreign markets!

What is the state of the games localization market? What are the pressures being put upon localization agencies and especially translation companies who feed into the localization and gaming industry? Aaron Lee and Develop give us new insights into today’s game localization market.

In order to help multinational and multilingual websites to provide their audiences with the right landing pages, Google has introduced a new rel-alternate-hreflang annotation.

Looking for business development opportunities abroad? Considered Africa? Lots of potential and opportunities but always remember localization!

We read a lot about localization, translation and cultural adaptation within the video games industry. However, most of the time its about "us" adapting to a "them" (a foreign culture or country). Not much attention is paid to video games manufacturers in Asia localizing for Europe or North America.