The Beauty of French

French is a beautiful sounding language with connotations to romance, love and fine culture. It can also remind us of times in the classroom, learning and reciting phrases in front of our classmates and teachers by rote, repeating numbers, questions and verb conjugations. Can this be the reason why Franglais is quite popular in English culture? From the early days of Shakespeare and Chaucer, French is one of those languages that we love to speak in half translation – as I’ve heard many people say before “that was très funny!” instead of “très amusant!” So where did this Interlingua of Franglais (portmanteau of French and Anglais) come about and why is it so popularly used?

Court interpreting in The Hague

The importance of court interpreting can never be underestimated. Poor interpretation could threaten the freedom of an innocent man, but court interpreting done properly might prove the difference between a life of imprisonment and freedom. It is the only way that the accused can fully comprehend what is happening in the trial.

The vital role of court interpreting was demonstrated in a much talked about trial that took place in The Hague’s International Criminal Court – a case involving six Kenyans accused of crimes against humanity in their country’s post-presidential election violence of 2007. Being Swahili speakers, the defendants obviously required the aid of interpreters. This enabled them to keep fully abreast of proceedings, and any problems that arose as a result of a language barrier were quashed.

Certified Translation-Careers

There is a massive demand for certified translators in the age of advanced internet technologies and global business expansion.  A qualified translator will want to receive full certification in order to fulfill their career ambitions.

With the economy being as unpredictable as it is, organisations are trying to invest in translation services carefully – using their budget wisely to achieve the best results. The one question that always arises is “Are your translators certified to do the job?”

All New Quick Lingo Google+ Page

It gives us immense pleasure to be a part of the Google + network. Launched by a young entrepreneur, Godwill Bindeeba, Quick Lingo aims to provide fast and reliable translation services whilst maintaining high quality at the same time. If you’re a language lover or simply want a document or a website translated, Quick Lingo is the answer to your needs. By adding us to your circles, you will get instant updates about our translation services, be informed about our exclusive discounted rates and offers, view our unique and informative videos and photos about languages, cultures and translations, share content with us as well as ask any questions you have in mind on our Quick Lingo Google+ page.

International Mother Language Day - 21st February

The International Mother Language Day is held annually on the 21st of February. This observance, founded by UNESCO in 1999 promotes awareness of language, multilingualism and cultural diversity. The realization of marking this day goes back to the 50’s, when the people of East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, who spoke Bangla, protested against the Governor General of Pakistan who claimed that Urdu would be the national language for both East and West Pakistan. On 21st February, 1952 students in Dhaka called for a strike which resulted in a number of students being killed by the Pakistani police.
A country that has given importance to its regional languages is China, which consists of more than 120 languages. The Chinese government has invested a lot of time and effort in protecting the rights of minority languages in their country. A primary reason for this is to cherish the culture that is attached to each language.

By the Power of Twitter

Gone are the days when everything had to be in English. The powerful micro-blogging site, Twitter announced on Wednesday that it had added right-to-left languages namely, Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew and Urdu to its Translation Center. These languages will be available on Twitter.com in Spring this year. With volunteers exceeding 400,000 around the world, Twitter’s translation center aids in making Twitter comprehensible to the masses.

With the addition of these 4 languages, the total number of available languages on Twitter equals 22.  Other foreign languages added by Twitter are Japanese, Spanish, French, Russian, Turkish, Dutch, Indonesian, Chinese, Hindi, Filipino and Malay amongst others.

New Year: New Opportunities - Website Translations

A recent survey revealed that only 18 percent of non-English speaking European customers are willing to avail services or buy products from a website which is not written in their mother tongue while 82 percent of the consumers do not want to visit a website containing information in English. This result signifies the importance of website translation in increasing your revenues and sales.

European countries are potential markets where there is demand for numerous products. The number of consumers is huge and their requirement of products is versatile. If you can reach the customers of this market, you can double the size of your current business. But there is still one barrier left that you need to deal with. It’s the difference of language which should be considered and resolved first to enter the European market. At present, the easiest way to reach the end-users is developing a website containing information about who you are and what your products are. The work is not finished here; you need to translate your website in different languages depending on your targeted area. With the help of a professional translation agency you can easily accomplish this task.

Cross-cultural Marketing Blunders

If you’re thinking of expanding your business and tapping into International markets, it is important that you hire the services of a translation agency. There have been numerous instances of renowned brands investing huge sums of money globally, without realizing that the message being conveyed could be interpreted incorrectly or may be perceived wrongly in another country. Let’s take a look at the top 5 biggest cross-cultural marketing blunders by world famous brands:

Pepsi: The literal translation of Pepsi’s slogan “Come Alive with the Pepsi Generation” got interpreted as “Pepsi will bring your ancestors from the dead” in Taiwan.

Chevrolet: When the Chevy Nova car was launched in Latin America, Chevrolet experienced a massive drop in sales in that market. The word “no va” means “it doesn’t go” in Spanish, when clearly Chevrolet wanted Chevy Nova to “go” always.

The continuing globalization of businesses is putting pressure on companies to release their documents, websites, and marketing texts in several languages. As a result, the demand for translation service providers is increasing, to translate business documents within a local setting and also to assess the message that companies want to convey to their target customers in international markets.

When you hire a translation agency to translate your business documents, you expect quality from them. In order to enable them to properly meet your preferences and to translate your material effectively and clearly, you need to provide them with a well-prepared document.

Recession and Its Impact on the Translation Services Sector

The world at present is going through an economic and financial turmoil, not experienced ever since the Great Depression of the 1930s. While nearly all the sectors are experiencing the consequences, some suffer more seriously when compared to others, depending on a range of factors such as capital and consumers. The translation sector is certainly not an exception in this case. It is suffering from a decline in business like other sectors but on a positive front its fundamentals remain to be in a better position. There are a couple of good reasons for this.

Reaching New Markets through Languages and Translation

In today’s world of open economy, researching on new markets and competitors whilst adapting to different business practices is the key to success of any business. If you confine your business in a particular area, there is a likelihood of losing your potentiality in your business sector. To communicate with the people in different regions of the world, it is important that you understand and use their language effectively. This is where professional translation services come in, assisting you with your translation needs for effective communication within your business fraternity. But many businesses take translation as a quick, easy and straightforward procedure. They don’t put much emphasis on it and hire an inexpensive translation agency to reduce the cost, without realizing that this could lead to poor results and an even greater investment in future. As a result, translation projects end up in prodigious failure and their invested money doesn’t bring any fruit to them.

Global Village and Translation Services

The world is certainly becoming a global village. It does not really matter where you are in this world. If you would like expand the horizons of your business, you have to spread it around the world diminishing all the boundaries. Difference of language should not stop you from sharing your ideas and service with people of other regions. In order to help you in this undesirable situation translation services are there. They offer services like converting audio, video, manuscript and other documents from one language to another.Today, every company has websites. It is extremely important part of an effective business strategy.

Chinese Wunder Kids

In the UK, Chinese children significantly outperform their peers. Following statistics, they make up only 0.4 per cent of the secondary school, but more than 25 per cent of them are on the gifted and talented register. This can compare with 15 per cent of white children and 15.9 per cent of mixed-race children.

Many teachers say that their parents expect nothing less and their children thrive under the pressure. Chinese parents are extremely driven and most of all, they want their children to succeed.

Although Chinese parents are typically very interested in their children’s education, their approach seems to be significantly different from that of the British pushy parent familiar to many teachers. British parents who want their children to succeed are more likely to blame the school or teacher rather than their child.

Talking Kitchen

A Newcastle University has created a device that delivers cooking instructions in French to help language learning. The talking kitchen follows a user's actions with motion sensor and communicates in a similar way to satellite navigation systems. It’s designed for schools, universities and homes; it should be available by the end of 2012.

By international standards, the UK is low down on the league table when it comes to learning languages - a problem that inevitably has an economic impact. Following the creators, an overriding objective is to reverse the trend by making language learning more enjoyable.

Lingua Franca

Lingua franca (or working language, bridge language, vehicular language) is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.

Linguas franca have been seen all over the world throughout history – vulgar Latin around the Mediterranean in the Ancient World, Swahili in East Africa, Hausa in West Africa and Plains Sign Language (not to be confused with American Sign Language) used by the aboriginal peoples of North America.

The Mystery of Euskara

The Basque language (Euskara) is spoken by an estimated 1,000,000 people living in the Basque Country of north-central Spain and southwestern France. About 200,000 Basques live in other parts of the world. Little is known of its origins but it is likely that Euskara is the only remnant of the languages spoken in Western Europe before the arrival of the Indo-European languages to the area. Basque is a language genetically isolated as it has no known linguistic relatives. Its grammar is markedly distinct from that of all other western European languages.

Before the Roman times there is not a single written word which can be safely regarded as being of Basque origin. Throughout history, the Basque language has taken up words not only from Latin, Castilian and French, but also from Celtic and Arabic. On the other hand some words in Castilian, French and English come from the Basque language. The Basque alphabet is identical to the English and the language has no standard phonology.

The first serious linguistic work on the Basque language was carried out by the German linguist and philosopher Wilhelm von Humboldt. He held the view that Basque was a continuation of the ancient Iberian language. His linguistic approach, however, is considered somewhat backwards by modern researchers.

Great Britain and Foreign Languages

Languages are increasingly important at a time when the job market is becoming more international, and are needed to ensure the UK can trade and compete with other nations.

Following the British Academy, UK businesses will be "severely hampered" because language skills are falling behind those in other countries. The fall was particularly marked in French and German – traditionally the two most popular languages in UK schools – with both being named among the fastest declining subjects at GCSE level.

Businesses bringing investment to Britain, particularly those from     Germany, France, Spain and the Netherlands, have complained to the  Foreign Office about having to recruit engineers from their home countries or elsewhere.

Dead Languages of the World

A language is called a dead language when it is no longer spoken by people as their main language. In contrast to extinct languages that cease to have any speakers, dead languages may continue to be used in legal, scientific and religious fields. Besides Latin, Sanskrit, Biblical Hebrew, Coptic, Avestan and Old Church Slavonic among others are dead languages which are largely used for religious functions.

An extinct language is a language that no longer has any speakers or that is no longer in current use. Extinct languages are sometimes contrasted with dead languages, which are still known and used in special contexts in written form, but not as ordinary spoken languages for everyday communication. However, language extinction and language death are often equated.