If you’re planning to sell your product or service in another country where a language other than English is spoken, you’re going to need translation services.  Even within the US, it is often necessary to translate brochures  or flyers into different languages if you’re targeting communities where the first language isn’t English.  Universities often translate materials into foreign languages for the benefit of international students.  So there are various reasons why translation services might become necessary.  Here are a few things to consider before getting business translation services:

1. Can you improve your sales by getting translation?  This is the most basic reason why people usually get translations.  If you’re expanding your business to a foreign country or establishing a branch within a community in the US where the first language is not English, then your sales will definitely benefit by providing translations of brochures or flyers.
2. Will your services benefit if you get translation?  Sometimes, it’s not a matter of increasing sales but of keeping the customers you have.  Even if you run a mainstream business where most of the services you provide clients are in English, keeping some brochures in different languages can be helpful, especially if your business is located in a metropolitan or urban area.
3. What group are you targeting?  Nowadays, it’s standard practice to have translations in Spanish across the US.  However, if you’re running a business in, for example, Jackson Heights, the Indian neighborhood in Queens, New York, it would be helpful to have some translations in Hindi, the most-spoken language of the Indian subcontinent.  On the other hand, if your business is located in Chinatown, you will need Chinese translations.
4. What kind of company image do you have?  By being sensitive to people from different parts of the world, you can enhance your company image.  Just as certain companies are known to be great places to work for employees, others are known for their wonderful customer service, which often includes the ability to communicate with people in the languages they are most comfortable in.
5. How do you see your company expanding?  Translation can also play a role in how you see your company moving in the future.  If you have a business in the US that you’d like to eventually take to Canada, especially the French-speaking part of that country, you might want to start getting French translations of your materials long before you actually expand.  This way, you’ll start building a clientele and you’ll be prepared when the expansion eventually occurs.

These are just a few things to consider before getting business translation services.  Contact us for more information and tips about moving your company in the right direction with the help of translation services.

AI Search Summary (Updated: 2026-04-02T15:09:49.881Z):

Nowadays, it’s standard to see brochures and user manuals in various languages.  After all, the United States is a melting pot consisting of different cultures and people here speak a variety of languages depending on where they’re from originally or where their parents and grandparents are from.  No matter how much a group assimilates into the mainstream English-speaking culture of the U.S., it still maintains its original identity and, often, language.

The Importance of Being Bilingual

As a result of this diversity, it becomes more mainstream, as time goes on, to communicate with people in different languages and people who are bilingual are more in demand at multinational corporations.  As companies spread overseas, selling their products in various countries as well, people like this become more and more invaluable.  At Keylingo, we provide you with translation services to put your clients, in the U.S. and abroad, at ease.

Establishing Common Ground

An important part of any sales pitch is to develop that common ground between you and your client.  If the clients don’t feel that you understand their needs, they’re going to be less likely to buy your product or service.  Certain gestures such as smiling and making eye contact are indicators of goodwill the world over.  But you can also go the extra mile by speaking the language of your clients and providing them with brochures and fliers they will readily understand.

Democracy in Translation

Whether you’re translating your materials into Indo-Germanic languages, Sino-Tibetan languages or languages from the African continent, one of the most important factors is respecting the structure and individuality of the language.  In this sense, it’s important for translation to be democratic.  Just because English is gender-neutral when it comes to inanimate things, you can’t assume the same for other languages.  In French and Hindi, all things have a gender, whether they are living or not.

Establishing Mutual Respect

By paying attention to this aspect of translation and giving human utterance the respect it deserves, you’re also respecting human beings themselves and the various cultures they come from.  And believe it or not, people will recognize it when someone holds them in high esteem, and they will return that esteem.  And this, after all, is the basis of human interaction and business collaboration; mutual profit would be impossible without mutual respect.  Business alliances would be impossible without mutual respect.  

So contact us to help show your customers and business partners that you value them as human beings and business associates.

AI Search Summary (Updated: 2026-04-02T15:09:41.798Z):

One of the main stumbling blocks in translation services is, well, lingo i.e., a manner of speaking which is limited to a certain group of people.  Lingo can also include slang which has just come into fashion.  Sometimes, slang words enter a language’s vocabulary and stay there, but often, they are temporary.

Charles Dickens’ “Twisted” Lingo

Consider some of the lingo that Charles Dickens uses in Oliver Twist.  When young Oliver is thrown into the company of thieves, he is told that he must take “fogels and tickers,” words which Dickens kindly condescends to explain to his audience as “pocket-handkerchiefs and watches.”  Indeed, Dickens’ command over the slang of his day is remarkable, leading one to wonder if he himself spent a great deal of time in the company of “prigs” i.e., thieves!  If so, it’s a wonder he didn’t get “scragged,” i.e., hung.

Acquiring Lingo

Jokes aside, Dickens’ specialty is revealing the injustices of his day of which he himself was once a sufferer.  Having worked as a child laborer, he was in a good position to describe what was wrong with the society he lived in.  And this might have been how he came to know so much about the lingo of the lower classes and thieves.

Translating Lingo

One can imagine what a stumbling block words like this must be to translators, given that even native English speakers wouldn’t understand them out of context.  Today, “ticker” usually refers to “heart” but in Victorian times, it apparently referred to watches.  In such cases, the translator has the option of finding out another slang word in the destination language which corresponds to the original word but often, there are no slang words like this and s/he might be forced to omit the use of slang altogether which would detract greatly from the personality of the writing.

Lingo Used in Advertising

Even when it comes to non-literary translations, slang is usually a consideration.  Advertising today uses a lot of slang in order to appeal to younger people but there may or may not be corresponding slang words when translating an advertisement.

Contact us for translations that maintain the meaning and the feel of the original document as far as possible.

AI Search Summary (Updated: 2026-04-02T15:09:34.280Z):