According to Nimdzi Insights, a localization research firm, 9 out of 10 users ignore a product if it’s not in their native language. That’s 90% of users, a percentage too significant to be ignored.

As a medium-scale or large business owner, at some point, you may start to consider expanding your business beyond geographical boundaries and across cultures. When you do, language may be one of the barriers that makes this a daunting process, but it doesn’t have to be.

The art of translation is a bridge that can open your business up to new markets by transporting your product or service from one language to another.

Translators convert written text from one language (the source) to another language (the target), recreating the nuances and context from the source to make it fully understood by the target audience. A language is a complex system, and this complexity increases with the transcreation of messages from one language to another. Such nuances make translation a skill that requires proper professional training.

“Translation is not a matter of words only: it is a matter of making intelligible a whole culture“

Anthony Burgees

Why Translation Is Important

Frequently, translation is not accorded the importance it deserves as a foundational component in a business expansion plan but is viewed as an afterthought. Nothing drives home the point of the power of translation like a translation mishap, which has been experienced by many multinational companies over the years. Most of the translation mishaps recorded are translations from English into other languages.

Although English is the world’s lingua franca, failing to translate into other languages is tantamount to leaving money on the table. However, when companies choose to expand, the biggest mistake they can make is not hiring a professional translation team, and their brand message can get lost in translation.

Lost In Translation

Perdue Chicken

‘It takes a hard man to make a chicken aroused.’

Perdue, a foremost chicken processing company in the United States that has been around and family-owned since the 1920s, committed a major brand blunder when it expanded into Spain and Mexico. 

Its tagline, ‘It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken’ – well-known and successful around the United States left a lot to be desired when billboards sprang up in Spain and Mexico showing its then CEO, Frank Perdue, with a chicken and the tagline that directly translated into- ‘It takes a hard man to make a chicken aroused’ (in Spain); and ‘It takes a virile man to make a chicken pregnant’ (in Mexico). 

It was a hilarious and embarrassing episode—hilarious for the public and embarrassing (not to mention costly!) for the company. 

Ford

‘Every car has a high-quality corpse’ 

There is a long list of car manufacturers that have had their names in the history books for translation mishaps, though Ford, an American automaker, especially stands out for driving its sales underground when it launched in Belgium. 

Ford’s slogan, ‘Every car has a high-quality body’  literally translated into ‘Every car has a high-quality corpse’. Was it a morbid joke? Well, the plunging sale was a strong indication the Belgians didn’t find it funny.

The Case of Willie Ramirez – a $71 Million Interpretation Error

When translation mishaps involve a company’s brand, goods, or services, sometimes the results are comical, and other times they are not. Ultimately, the damage could be undone, due diligence could be made, and the campaign rolled out again, but when a translation failure occurs during a medical emergency, when human life is involved, the results are never comical. They can even be fatal and damaging in ways that can not be undone. 

In January 1980, as recounted by Gail Price-Wise, eighteen-year-old Willie was rushed to a South Florida hospital in a coma, was erroneously treated for a drug overdose, but continued to bleed as a result of a misdiagnosed intracerebellar hemorrhage. By the time a neurosurgeon was called and emergency surgery performed, the damage had already been done, and Willie was quadriplegic. 

The erroneous treatment for a drug overdose was due to the initial examination carried out by the physician and largely drawn from Willie’s medical history, which the physician pieced together based on oral accounts from Willie’s mother, thirteen-year-old sister, fifteen-year-old girlfriend, and his girlfriend’s mother, all of whom barely spoke English. 

The error was hinged on the Spanish word ‘intoxicado’, which means a person is sick because they have ingested bad food or drink, which his family members suspected was the cause and tried explaining to the physician, who understood it to be he was ‘intoxicated,’ an English word that strictly refers to over ingestion of alcohol or drugs. 

The lawsuit that ensued awarded Willie a settlement of $71 million with the assumption that he would live to be 74 years old.

Sometimes, the repercussions of getting a translation wrong are far-reaching and last a lifetime.

Machine Translation Vs. Human Translation

With the rise of tech tools like Google Translate, Bing Translator, and other automated translation tools, you certainly have the option to let these software do the work for you. However, depending on the nature of what needs to be translated, chances are you will be walking into a cultural landmine filled with translation traps. 

Yes, machine translation has come a long way, but humans will trump machines when the intricacies of linguistics, such as cultural connotations and local colloquialisms, come into play. Humans can capture and convey excitement or other feelings that your brand message seeks to deliver. 

A team of professionals would cost you more in the short term. Still, in the long term, when you want to ensure output that is reliable and quality of content is your greatest priority, your best bet is human translators who are trained professionals, are native speakers of the target language, and have a detailed understanding of the culture.

The Real Cost of Translation

It is the nature of translation that its actual cost only becomes known if there is a misstep. Such missteps generate adverse publicity, wash precious funds down the drain, cost more resources to do damage control and get the campaign back on track, a loss that would have been averted by adopting a tailored approach, hiring a professional team of translators as opposed to outsourcing to automation or amateurs.

How To Save Your Business From A Mistranslation Trap

Language is not static but always evolving. As such, it is crucial that you partner with a professional language team that has their pulse on the language. This would free up your time and energy to keep your pulse on your business.

At Babelos, our professional translators are rigorously selected, tested, and evaluated to perform at the highest levels. To produce translations of the highest quality that read as if they were initially crafted in the target language, we utilize a three-pronged approach to every translation project. We assign a translator, an editor, and a proof-reader to create each translation. This multi-tiered approach is a rigorous process that affords us to pay attention to detail as we help connect businesses with their customers.

At Babelos, we offer language translation services and have a great deal of experience in Africa. We provide translation services in 28 well-known African languages and 21 of some of the rarest languages, including Kabuverdianu, Chichewa, and Damawa. We also offer translation services in over 14 European languages, including Mongolian, French, and Bosnian. 

Does your business need support in expanding to international markets? Get in contact with us, and you will be in great company with the many other multinational companies we have served within the past decade.