Intercultural Communication and Translation News

Translation mistakes can really have a negative effect on your business and brand and you might end up losing customers if you do not invest enough time and money on the right translator for your business.
Here are ten translation mistakes that have proved costly for companies and organisations across the world:
1)    German doctors did not fit knee joints properly when they did not get the translation right for a medical device.
2)    In 2004 patients who were being treated for prostate cancer in a French hospital were given fatal overdoses of radiation when the hospital did not use a translator to translate the instructions.
3)    A translation mistake on the video game Call of Duty instructed Japanese gamers to shoot dead all of the Russian soldiers instead of talking to them (frustrating!)
4)    Translation mistakes can also come when the culture of a country is not taken into account by the translator. Colgate brought out a toothpaste in France called Cue – which is the name of a pornographic magazine in France (awkward!)
5)    Parker (of pen fame) made a translation mistake when they said that their pens would not leak and therefore would not make you pregnant!
6)    American Airlines’ translators told Hispanic customers that instead of enjoying the leather seats in first class that they would enjoy flying naked in first class!
7)    The Swedish vacuum cleaner company Electrolux told Americans that “nothing sucks like an Electrolux”
8)    Clairol messed up with their translation in Germany and made the mistake of trying to sell customers a manure stick instead of a mist stick for their hair!
9)    Pepsi (who have made numerous translation mistakes in the past) told its Chinese customers that their drink would bring their dead relatives back to life.
10)    Coors Beer told customers that their beer made people have diarrhoea. What they meant to say was that it “loosened you up”!

Kwintessential’s founder Neil Payne travels (a lot!), his work with his company takes him all over the world providing companies with services such a translation, cross-cultural training and multilingual design. Kwintessential have offices all over the world in the United States, Argentina, South Africa and The United Arab Emirates, so Neil often finds himself on business trips making sure that the global operation is running smoothly.
In a recent interview with the travel company cheapflights.co.uk Neil revealed that travelling so much can be an bit of a nightmare for him as he is a not a good flyer. In the interview he tells us what he does to unwind on the times when he is travelling for pleasure (he likes a good old fashioned beach holiday!) and gives us some travel tips that have come about from his years of travelling the world (always say thank you being of them!). Neil also explains the differences between going to a country for pleasure and travelling there on business and how the locals react differently to you when you are just a tourist.
But it is not just his work that often sees Neil waiting at an airport lounge; he has quite an interesting sport too – Horseback archery! This takes Neil all over the world for competitions in counties such as Korea, Sweden Iran and Turkey.
If you want to know a little bit more about what makes the man behind Kwintessential tick, read on …. Waiting to Board

Kwintessential, has continued its expansion by opening a new office close to Croydon town centre. The new premises in South End were officially opened by the Mayor of Croydon, Councillor Graham Bass on Thursday, June 2.

The company started life in Purley in 2003 and was run single-handledly by the now managing director, Neil Payne.

As the company, which specialises in translation and interpreter services, expanded it relocated to Somerset and opened a series of global offices including in the USA, Argentina, South Africa and the UAE. UK operations alone now turn over in excess of £1m a year with sales continuing to grow.

Company chiefs see the move as “coming home.” Asif Afzal (pictued above with Mayor Graham Bass), the company’s Sales Director who lives in Sanderstead, said: “At our heart we have always been a Croydon company. Although the company moved for tactical reasons in its early stages, there was always a longing to come back. We feel at home here. We see potential in Croydon and want to be part of an exciting future.”

As part of the opening celebrations the company hosted a seminar entitled “Doing Business Abroad – the Pitfalls of Language and Culture” which was attended by local businesses and stakeholders.

UK tabloid newspapers are reporting that Hollywood actress Gwyneth Paltrow and her rock star husband Chris Martin are looking for a multilingual tutor for their two children who are aged five (Moses) and seven years old (Apple).
Paltrow and Martin have supposedly placed an advert with the prestigious tutor agency “Tutors International” in the hope that they will find a multilingual tutor for their two children.
The famous couple lead a very busy lifestyle and will no doubt be looking for an adaptable tutor who will be able to fit in with their international lifestyle. When you add into the mix that the successful tutor will also have to put up with the family living in the media spotlight due to their A-list celebrity status, then it makes for quite a job.
According to the UK press the couple plan on paying the multilingual tutor around $90,000 per year, along with any travel expenses and also giving them the use of a flat in London (which works out to be quite a benefit package!).
However, the tutor that Paltrow and Martin pick will have to be of top notch quality in order to bag this cushy job. Although the actual advert has not been publically released sources close to the couple have said that the multilingual tutor must speak Ancient Greek, Latin, French and Spanish. The couple also require the tutor to be grade 8 standard in at least two instruments (obviously linking to Martin’s passion for music), and be keen about sailing and other outdoor pursuits.
However, despite the fact that finding such a person might seem like a tall order it certainly means that the couple won’t accept anything less than the best for their children.

A six man Kwintessential team, and one volunteer, took part in the Corporate Challenge 2011 to raise money for Children’s Hospice South West.

The event involved completing team tasks along a course which involved a 10 km hike and 20 km mountain bike route across the rough Dartmoor terrain. Just to add to the pressure, all teams had to battle against freezing winds and driving rain!

Despite some injuries Neil, Asif, Emma, Emily, Phil, Janine and Ben pulled through and have, to date, managed to raise over £1,000.

A big well done!

If you would like to add to the total raised so far, please visit >>> CHSW

In a recent poll that was carried out by badoo.com the Germans have come out on top as the nation who is considered to be the least funny (as perceived by the rest of the world).
The culture poll was run by the social network and online dating website Badoo.com. It ran the survey across 15 countries and asked 30000 participants to rate countries in order of those which they thought were the funniest in the world.
The results that came from the poll were quite revealing. The Americans were the highest ranked in terms of their humour in the culture survey and the Spanish came a close second, as they were voted as having the funniest culture in Europe.
The Germans won the title of the nation that was least likely to crack jokes. They topped the poll by an absolute landslide beating off competition from Turkey and Russia.
The UK came a poor 15th place in the race to be the world’s funniest nation, far behind the Americans, Spanish and the French. What is even more worrying for the UK culture is that the UK was only fourth from the bottom, far too close for comfort to being seen as one of the least funniest nations in the world.
The Americans were no doubt voted as the funniest nation due to the popular TV shows such as Friends, Frasier and The Simpsons whose humour has travelled very well all over the world.
The organisers of the survey (who are themselves a UK company) said that they were surprised that the UK came so far down the list, considering it gave the world shows such as The Office and Monty Python. Badoo.com said that it did hope that the UK would have ranked higher in the culture survey.

Many business brains are currently focussing on taking their products and brands to China in order to seek out the new business opportunities in the Chinese market, which is becoming more and more westernised and as a result is looking ripe for the taking for multi-national companies. Many global brands are looking upon the Chinese market as a blank canvas on which they can expand and grow.
However business experts are warning these very same businesses that are looking to expand onto Chinese soil that the same expansion can work the other way too. Many companies are not considering the risk to their business for when the onslaught of brands and businesses arrive on their soil from China. Many Chinese brands are looking to expand rapidly in the West and are hoping to capitalize on the complacent attitude of the Western businesses.
This is not a theory, this is already starting to happen as the Chinese are seizing the chance to stop being the production line for the rest of the world and start to push their own business up the food chain.
US brands such as McDonalds, KFC and Pizza Hut are all climbing over each other to grab the business in China but it also seems that Chinese food brands are also on the way over to the US.
This type of business migration is really healthy for commerce and trade and a good bout of healthy competition never hurt anyone! It seems though that global business leaders are going to have to watch their backs and spend a little time coming up with a strategy that will help to combat the influx of business coming over from China.

Basis Technology has announced the release of a new form of translation software service that is hoped will transform the way in the social media is used by Arabic users in the Middle East.
The translation software called the “Rosette Chat Translator for Arabic” is set to help Arabic users in the Middle East to make better use of the social media sites.
Recent turmoil in the Arabic world has meant that there has been a rise in the number of Arabic speaking users on social media sites and as a result Basis Technology felt that there was a need for translator software for Arabic. This would mean that the Middle East would be able to make better use of the current global social media sites.
The issues that they are having currently are that the Arabic chat language of Arabizi is used by users in the Middle East. This is an informal language that is based on phonetic words in English and Arabic. It does not have any formal construction and so spellings can differ from region to region. This therefore means that there is a lot of room for misinterpretation and loss of information, which can cause all sorts of problems across social media.
It is hoped that the new translator software will be taken on by Arabic businesses and government agencies as it will reduce errors in translation when Arabizi is being used.
The online translator is programmed to take all of the variations of a word that is written in Arabizi and then translate it into the correct modern form of Arabic, which will then mean that information exchanges via social media will be a lot more efficient and accurate.