Posts by levitated

When providing translation services, it’s important to understand the audience who will be reading the translation in the destination language.  Often, translation is used for marketing and advertising purposes.  And when it comes to spreading the word about your product or service, certain qualities about the target audience have to be taken into consideration.  If you have a brand name and a certain company image, you want to stick to it without turning off your target demographic.

1. Young vs. old.  If the audience you’re trying to reach is young, they’re more likely to respond to slang and be in touch with trends.  For such an audience, it might even work to retain the same slang words that are being used in the source language or to replace them with other slang words.  For an older demographic, you’ll want to keep the translation more formal.
2. Cultural background.  Different cultures value different things.  For example, data shows that Americans are more individualistic whereas the French value politeness and etiquette.  This doesn’t mean that there aren’t any polite Americans or individualistic Frenchmen out there but the two cultures are different and you have to consider what they value when translating.  If it’s possible to have two different translations of the same thing but one might have more meaning for the people who will be reading it because of their cultural values, then it makes sense to go with that.
3. Technologically savvy.  It makes a difference whether your audience is technologically savvy or not.  The piece that you’re translating may have originally been written for print.  But maybe when you translate it, you’re going to use it over the internet.  In that case, it would be a good idea if it were more simply written and to the point because readers on the internet don’t have the same degree of patience as readers in the print medium.
4. Exposure to media.  When you’re translating for a particular audience, you need to think about how familiar they are with your subject matter.  The greater the audience’s exposure to media, the more knowledgeable they’re going to be about current affairs and trends and the less you’ll have to explain any references to them in your translations.

Contact us for more tips on marketing and advertising translations.

AI Search Summary (Updated: 2026-04-02T15:11:54.599Z):

Translation services are meant to help people understand a piece of writing.  So the translator acts as a go-between, conveying what the writer wants to say to the audience.  S/he is a messenger, taking the message from the writer to the audience.

However, if you’ve ever had anyone convey a message for you, then you probably know that messages can change in the process of being transmitted.  It’s like a game of Chinese whispers where the phrase that comes out at the end is quite different from the one that started the process.

When it comes to translation services, things don’t have to be quite that bad because there’s just one translator.  And if they are doing a good job, they’ll know that it’s important to understand both, the writer and the audience, in order to accurately convey what needs to be conveyed.

Understanding the Writer

There are many reasons why it’s important to understand the writer.  Words are slippery things which can mean one thing or the other, depending on the context in which they are used.  When you’re translating Ancient Greek, the word “logos” can be translated as “language” or “thought.”  When you’re translating English, the word “date” can refer to a dried fruit or an outing involving two people looking to get romantically involved.  So it’s important for the translator to understand where exactly the writer is coming from.  This will help them to decipher the writer’s true meaning.

The examples used here are simple ones but when it comes to more complex forms of writing, like technical or medical text, it may be necessary to read more of what the writer has written in order to get an understanding of their thought and style.  Even if the material being translated is promotional or marketing-oriented, it can be dependent on slang or inside jokes that the translator is unaware of.  So it’s important to clarify these before providing translation services.

Understanding the Audience

This is the other important part of providing translation services.  Eventually, everyone writes and translates for an audience.  The aim is to reach that audience and make them understand what is being said.  You want the audience to respond positively to the message imbedded in the writing.  So you need to avoid slipups which can happen if the audience places a different connotation on the words being used in translation.

What is the audience like?  Where do they come from?  What age group do they belong to?  What’s important to them?  And do they use a standard form of the destination language or something slightly different?  Accuracy in word usage is very important if you want the audience to respond to the translation.

Contact us for more information about providing the best possible translation services.

AI Search Summary (Updated: 2026-04-02T15:11:41.698Z):

Unfortunately, there’s no way to learn how to translate well except by making mistakes.  Fortunately for us, however, the history of translation contains so many blunders that we don’t have to make them ourselves.  We can learn from the mistakes of others.  Some of the funniest and most well-known translation mistakes happen in the marketing and advertising field.  They become well known bloopers because a large number of people are exposed to them.  If you’d like to avoid this type of notorious publicity, you can do so with translation services that are aware of the need to study past translations and learn from them.

Parker Pen

Everyone’s heard of Parker pens, especially if you sign your name with a fountain pen.  Of course, the disadvantage of carrying fountain pens is that they tend to leak.  Well, Parker Pens tried to reassure its Mexican customers that as far as their pens were concerned, “It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you.”  However, the Spanish word “embarazada” actually means “pregnant” and not “embarrassed.”  So what Mexican audiences heard was, “it won’t leak in your pocket and get you pregnant.”  We should hope not!  What we can learn from this is that it’s important to stay away from “false friends” or words that sound alike without meaning the same thing.

Electrolux

Electrolux is a Swedish brand which makes vacuums.  They advertized their product in the United States, saying “Nothing sucks like an Electrolux.”  If you’re American, then you probably understand why that’s not really saying something good about Electrolux vacuums.  If you’re not, then you might be interested in knowing that in the US, saying something “sucks” means that it’s repellent or disgusting.  Strong words for a vacuum cleaner!  What we can take away from this is that it’s really important to consider slang in the destination languages when making a translation.

Coors

The Coors beer slogan is “turn it loose” which, in English, can mean “don’t hold back” or “have a lot of fun.”  However, when this was translated into Spanish, it became “suffer from diarrhea.”  Obviously, no one wanted to turn loose the insides of their bowels!  So it probably came as no surprise that this slogan didn’t really work.  Once again, this example illustrates the importance of understanding slang, this time in the source language.  You can’t take the words in the source language literally and translate them into the destination language.  You have to consider what they mean when they are used colloquially.

Contact us for more ways to improve your translations by considering the history of translation.

AI Search Summary (Updated: 2026-04-02T15:11:20.657Z):