Business - Multilingual Connections

Now is the time to make sure your brand speaks Arabic

April 3, 2013 By bridget

“Now is the time to make sure your brand speaks Arabic.” That is a great line from a post on the Common Sense Advisory Global Watchtower, a language industry publication, called “Waking Up to the Arabic Spring.”

The Common Sense Advisory published research showing that “Arabic has now surpassed Russian, French, and German in total online population. The language now ranks as #11 in share of world online wallet, notching the fastest growth between 2011 and 2012 – even outpacing still-surging Simplified Chinese.”

That means that global businesses are missing a huge swath of potential customers if they are not communicating in Arabic. The Common Sense Advisory found that only one in four top global brands communicate in Arabic.

Multilingual Connections offers document translation and live interpretation in Arabic. Contact us for a quote on translating your website, printed materials, advertising, HR manuals and many other documents into Arabic. Don’t miss this opportunity to reach a growing market!

Filed Under: Business, Cultural competency, Demographics, Global business, Translation

Adding pictograms to translated documents

March 8, 2013 By bridget

One great resource for a multilingual workplace is using images, or pictograms, in documents. Images can be especially useful in safety manuals or policy and procedure documents, where communicating detailed information is essential to business and human resources.

Translating important information from the majority language (say English) into the minority language (Spanish, for example) is crucial to a safe and fair workplace. Using pictograms to communicate can help those with limited language skills in either the majority or minority languages.

Multilingual Connections can not only translate your workplace documents but also add pictograms to be sure that all employees understand the important communications to remain safe and content at work.

Filed Under: Business, Cultural competency, English in the Workplace, Immigrant workforce, Spanish in the Workplace, Workplace diversity

Top Bilingual Careers

February 1, 2013 By bridget

Bilingual and multilingual people are fortunate to have a natural skill that sets them apart in the workforce. Whether for translating purposes, or reaching markets that span multiple languages, the ability to speak more than one language fluently opens the door to a list of in-demand careers.

If you are bilingual but don’t have a certain career path in mind, consider what type of worker you are.

Do you prefer working with large groups of people, limited numbers of people or alone?
Do you need a rigid schedule or can you work your own hours?
Do you thrive in a business setting?
Do you work better in the same office or classroom every day, or can you perform equally well in a changing setting?
Are you a good writer in your native language?
Can you travel?
What jobs have you held in the past?

Once you answer questions like these (this is a very basic list), you’ll start to determine the skills that can point you toward the right type of bilingual job, besides fluency in multiple languages.

Language school teachers often enjoy interacting in groups, and can maintain a semi-routine schedule. Bilingual people with strong writing skills and high levels of concentration and organization, who can work on their own, can thrive in the written translation setting. Fluent speakers who don’t mind a varied work setting, and enjoy small groups of people, might make a good interpreter.

The worst thing you can do is pursue a bilingual career just because you speak the requisite languages, when your skills and personality would normally send you in a different direction. Be realistic about the day-to-day job expectations.

Certainly, teaching, translating and interpreting are some of the most well-known bilingual careers. But multilingual skills can be an asset to any career, particularly in business. According to The Bilingual Job Fair, a web resource that connects bilingual people with jobs and businesses, the fastest growing bilingual careers are:

1) Bilingual Interpreters & Translators
2) Bilingual Nurses and Bilingual Medical staff
3) Bilingual Marketing Director
4) Bilingual Teachers
5) Bilingual Human Resources staff

Almost any career favors bilingualism these days – from web design to management, government, manufacturing, hospitality, non-profit, administration, child care and beyond – since many businesses operate across multiple countries, or their target market spans multiple cultures and languages.

The best advice we can give is to specialize in industries with which you connect. Interested in law and justice, but didn’t go to law school? A career in legal translation could be a good fit (just remember, being bilingual isn’t enough to become a translator; proper training is required!). Have a background in non-profit or community building? Bilingual social workers are in huge demand.

For instance, at Multilingual Connections, we only work with translators that specialize in the particular industry for which they are translating. We wouldn’t assign a translator who specializes in medical translation to work on translations for a mass retailer. That consideration is how a translation agency can be the best possible resource to its clients. Besides, when you are connected to your industry, you might find you enjoy the work more.

Finally, if you’re looking for employment as a translator, contact us! Or, take the very first steps on your bilingual career path by taking language classes at our language school Multilingual Chicago.

Filed Under: Business, Employment, Global business

Huggies Pull-Ups Campaign Aimed at Latino Families

January 10, 2013 By bridget

Toilet training is certainly a milestone for toddlers, but some consumer research conducted by Huggies shows that families are hesitant to start potty training their kids. “Moms don’t look forward to potty training,” said Pete Sawin, the brand director for Pull-Ups at Kimberly-Clark. “Many of them procrastinate and put it off. They start training well after their kids are ready to.”

A new ad campaign hopes to encourage parents to celebrate their child’s “First Flush.” The general message is to encourage successful toilet training, and of course, promoting the transition away from diapers and into Pull-Ups. Interestingly, Huggies developed a separate, targeted message for Latino families.

“In the Latina’s world, the pressure came with sticking to the process,” said Victor Paredes, vice president at LatinWorks, the agency that worked on the Spanish-language ads. “They had some preconceived notions of the process needing to be fast and the gold standard was transitioning to regular underwear, and not understanding the transition that happens.”

Huggies saw an opportunity in the Latino market and directed targeted advertising to Spanish speakers. “If one in four kids is Hispanic, that’s not a business opportunity, that’s a business imperative,” Paredes said of the recent growth in the number of Latino children in the United States.

The Spanish-language ads will begin in February and will run on Univision’s broadcast network, on Web sites like Mamás Latinas and Batanga and in print publications like Siempre Mujer and Vanidades.

Filed Under: Business, Demographics, Latino, Marketing

Forbes Magazine’s case for “Why Your Next CEO Shouldn’t Be American”

November 19, 2012 By bridget

After reading the recent University of Chicago study on how people behave more rationally when they think in another language, Forbes contributor Roger Dooley published an argument against companies continuing to hire English-only speakers as their CEOs. Read the complete article: “Why Your Next CEO Shouldn’t be American.”

Dooley contends that the average CEO relies too much upon emotion and less upon rationality when making decisions. Knowingly or not, this behavior can be to the detriment of the business.

“Management blunders are often caused by behavior that is less than rational. Executives protect pet projects, stick with strategies that are clearly failing, become swept up in passing fads, or can’t bring themselves to make difficult personnel changes – all irrational and emotion-driven decisions,” says Dooley.

Bilingual CEOs could exercise their rationality by working through problems in a second language. Making the choice to think rationally could help CEOs make tough decisions that benefit the business. Which leads us at Multilingual Connections to wonder if a company culture that encourages multilingual hires, under the leadership of a multilingual CEO, would lead to more rational problem solving throughout the workforce.

Though language shouldn’t become the primary criterion in hiring, Dooley hopes these findings will make hiring managers and boards of directors less likely to dismiss multilingual candidates based on “negative concerns… like cultural differences or lack of subtlety in English.”

A believer in the rationality study, Dooley suggests bilingual CEOs attempt to problem-solve in their secondary language(s). “Read background material and briefings in that language, and outline your choices in the same way. By forcing your thought process into a language foreign to you, you will take at least some of the emotion and bias out of the decision process.” That way, CEOs can make reliably decisions that benefit their business in an unbiased way.

Filed Under: Business, Workplace diversity

Latino Population and Workforce Growth in the Midwest

November 13, 2012 By bridget

When we think of areas in the United States with large Latino populations, we often think of border states like California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Florida, or metropolises like New York City and Chicago.

However, the Latino population is booming in Midwestern states like Iowa, Minnesota, Indiana and Nebraska. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal explores this increase in Latino population in the Midwest. In fact, between 2000 and 2010, the Hispanic population in the Midwest swelled 49%, more than 12 times the 4% overall population growth there, according to the 2010 census. The number of Latinos living in Iowa alone climbed 82% during the last decade and now represents 5% of the state’s population.

Why is America’s heartland appealing to Latinos and recent immigrants? “It’s much better here than in California,” says José Rodas, profiled in the WSJ piece, who moved to Ottumwa, Iowa in 2001 to take a job at the Cargill pork plant, after more than a decade eking out an existence in California and Nevada. “There’s lots of work, it’s tranquilo and the cost of living is low.”

Not that life as a recent immigrant in a small, Midwestern town is easy. Some municipalities have taken measures to make it illegal to rent property to undocumented immigrants. That being said, some towns hit hard by the recession are seeing a welcome increase in population and taxable property revenue. With so many new residents, shopping centers are opening and empty storefronts are filling with Latino-owned grocery stores and restaurants.

“Hispanics are pulling this town out of a long recession,” says Nicole Banner, a loan officer at U.S. Bank and a member of Ottumwa’s diversity committee.

It’s no secret that Latinos are changing the face of the American economy. Businesses looking to adapt to this Spanish-speaking workforce often seek document translation services and corporate language training. At Multilingual Connections, we believe when a business provides training like on-site English as a Second Language, it creates a stronger, higher-skilled and more loyal workforce. We also believe in a culture-first approach, which sustains accuracy and a sense of respect toward the end-user audience.

Want to learn more about culture-specific document translation, on-site ESL or live interpreter services? Contact Multilingual Connections!

Filed Under: Business, Demographics, Immigrant workforce, Latino

Translation for Museums

November 6, 2012 By bridget

As the U.S. population becomes more multilingual, and international travel becomes accessible to more people, the need for language translation and interpretation at cultural institutions increases.

Museums in the U.S. desire to be inclusive of all linguistic backgrounds as a way to support a larger audience. Institutions are responding to multilingual needs by translating printed documents, online materials and signs, and by offering pre-recorded audio guides or live interpretation in multiple languages.

Museums share knowledge culture with the public, and translation into multiple languages brings culture to more people, in a meaningful way. We at Multilingual Connections are moved by the Smithsonian’s performance of a Spanish translation of the Star Spangled Banner.

The following are some areas of opportunity for museums to reach a multilingual audience:

Signage translation
Website translation
Art and artifact description translation
Guidebook translation
Menu translation
Press release translation
Cultural consulting
Audio tours in multiple languages
Live guided tour interpretation

Multilingual Connections is any cultural institution’s source for written translation, multilingual voiceover recordings and live interpretation. We offer translation to and from English, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Thai, Turkish, Vietnamese and more. Contact us for your translation or interpretation project!

Filed Under: Business, Cultural competency, Translation

Marketing to a Diverse Audience: The Value of Localization

October 16, 2012 By bridget

Today’s businesses invest a significant amount of time and money toward capturing the attention of targeted demographic groups of Americans, particularly Latinos. According to Deliver Magazine’s Multicultural Marketing Roundtable, the purchasing power of America’s 10.4 million Latino households exceeds $1 trillion. Businesses are aware of the spending power of Latinos, and though their efforts to market to this demographic are rooted in finance, when done right, targeted marketing can have a broader reach. Localized marketing to a diverse audience is also a way to show support and thanks to the communities in which a businesses operates.

According to Forbes, Latinos are more likely to turn away from brands that are only interested in selling to them, rather than empowering their cultural relevancy. Latinos represent a new type of consumer who is less likely to set aside their cultural identity when other subgroups may move toward the mainstream. “Brands need to find new ways to engage with Hispanics,” says Monica Gil, Senior Vice President of Public Affairs and Government Relations at Nielsen media research. “It’s time for companies to understand the behaviors that drive Latinos to connect emotionally with their brands. Until they do, they are leaving revenue and market growth opportunities on the table.”

Chicago-based Cardenas Marketing Network creates brand experiences that resonate with Latino audiences. CMN produces over 700 live events each year nationwide including concerts, grassroots campaigns, soccer matches and mobile marketing tours. They specialize in localized marketing by designing interactive campaigns take a brand’s marketing messaging directly to Latino consumers. Instead of relying on static advertising, CMN encourages the target audience to engage with the brand in a meaningful way, building trust and loyalty.

Marketing to a diverse audience doesn’t just mean showing a photograph of the target audience and using the same marketing message from the “mainstream” campaign. Using targeted language and cultural references is imperative to reaching a diverse audience. Likewise, photography should be authentic. Businesses are wise to avoid obvious stock photography. How can your target audience trust you if it seems like you don’t know them?

The bottom line is that by creating localized, meaningful connections with members of the target audience they are trying to reach, businesses can lead successful multicultural and cross-cultural marketing campaigns. Language is a major part of brand awareness and marketing. Multilingual Connections provides culture-focused and culturally-relevant document translation for marketing needs across a variety of industries. Contact us for a free quote on your marketing translation project.

Filed Under: Business, Cultural competency, Latino Culture, Marketing, sidebar2

Top Tips from the ATA: A Guide to Buying Translation for Business

October 7, 2012 By bridget

The American Translators Association recently published Translation: Getting it Right, a guide for businesses considering document translation. The 28-page guide contains some great facts about translation, and we want to share the top tips with you.

At Multilingual Connections, we know that document translation is no task to pursue lightly, no matter how large or small the project, and we want to help you make the best translation decisions for your business. Here are some FAQs and tips to get you started:

What is Translation?

Written documents are translated into another language. If you are looking for on-the-spot language conversion, you need an interpreter. Multilingual Connections provides both translation and interpretation, but it’s crucial to know the difference, and which service you actually need, when sourcing bids.

What needs Translation?

Decide which portions of your written documents apply to the audience for which you are translating. Multilingual Connections’ unique culture-focused translation approach can help determine which portions of your documents pertain to a foreign audience, and which to leave out.

Be careful of costs.

This advice from the ATA is humorous but true: “If translators are netting little more than a babysitter, they are unlikely to be tracking your market with the attention it deserves.” The translators at Multilingual Connections are seasoned professionals with vast experience in business translation including legal, medical and international commerce. Our team of national and international linguists represent all industries and over 50 languages.

Who can perform translation?

Resist the urge to translate yourself, even if you speak the target language fluently, or to simply hire a fluent speaker. Written fluency differs greatly from oral fluency, and the shortcomings will show in your translated documents. Document translation is a business decision, not just because you want to be understood in another language and culture. Keep your business image and ability to return on this investment in mind.

Avoid machine translation, which will never be precise and will make your business look careless, out of touch, and even offensive.

Translators work into their native language, meaning a native Russian speaker will translate your English piece into Russian. A native English speaker will translate your Russian document into English.

Choosing a Translation Provider

Request a list of past projects, recommendations and testimonials. Visit the Multilingual Connections website to see testimonials on every page, and a sample list of past clients. We are happy to provide samples of past work that is similar to your business translation project.

Take control of the controllable.

Consider producing an in-house glossary. This is an excellent way to make your original documents more consistent. Work with translators and in-house staff to develop a bilingual version.

Finally, the ATA suggests businesses develop a relationship with their translators. Retaining a translation agency of record can ensure that your translated documents are consistent in content, style and accuracy. As a translator becomes specialized to your business, less clarification is needed, leading to quicker turnaround.

Multilingual Connections guarantees satisfaction for every translation project. Get started with a free translation quote. We look forward to collaborating with your business and fulfilling your translation needs.

Filed Under: Business, sidebar1, Translation

Speaking Chinese: Cantonese vs. Mandarin

September 21, 2012 By bridget

A common misconception in the U.S. is that people “speak Chinese.” In reality, Cantonese is the language spoken in southern China, Hong Kong, Southeast Asian islands, and in immigrant communities in the United States. Mandarin literally means “speech of officials” and is the language spoken in northern China. Mandarin, particulary the Beijing dialect of Mandarin, form the basis of what is known as “Standard Chinese,” or the language of Chinese business and education.

Mandarin is the official language of the People’s Republic of China. One reason for that is that China’s capital has historically been located in the north of China. The Mandarin language of the capitol became the official language of the country.

In the US, Cantonese is the more prevalent spoken Chinese language, as a result of immigration. However, Cantonese is usually not taught in language schools. Because Mandarin is the language of business, people learning a language to interact with China on an international business scale study Mandarin.

There is, however, a written Chinese language. Both Cantonese and Mandarin share the same written characters, which are known as Chinese characters. This can seem confusing to Westerners, but just remember that Western European languages aren’t mutually intelligible, even if we use the same Latin alphabet.

Multilingual Connections offers Chinese written translation for your business needs. Click here for a free quote.

Filed Under: Business, Mandarin

Top Tips from the ATA: A Guide to Buying Translation for Business

Marketing to a Diverse Audience: The Value of Localization

Top 10 Languages Spoken in the US (Besides English)