government translation

The Difference Between Speaking a Language and Translating It

The Difference Between Speaking a Language and Translating It (A language graduate’s perspective) The differences between speaking a language and translating it are countless. My job, passion and intimate relationship with the language industry have led me to realise that the differences between speaking a language and translating it are countless. Naturally, depending on the […]

The Difference Between Speaking a Language and Translating It Read More »

When Mist Becomes Manure – Professional translation could save your brand

Clairol, the hair products company, introduced the Mist Stick curling iron a few years back. While the product sold well around the world, sales came to a grinding halt in Germany – ‘Mist’ of course being German for ‘manure’. Cue toothpaste was introduced to the French market by Colgate, sharing its name with that of

When Mist Becomes Manure – Professional translation could save your brand Read More »

The Future of Language and Translation Services in South Africa

A vast majority of South African language and translation services expenditure over the past few years was concentrated around the implementation of the new school curriculum, the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS). The curriculum changes meant that publishers had to create new textbooks, which increased the demand for freelance editing, translation, proofreading as well as

The Future of Language and Translation Services in South Africa Read More »

translation-services-greetings-across-languages-min

How do you know your document has been properly translated?

In our diverse, multicultural business society we are faced with unique challenges. Doing business in 11 official languages requires documents to be professionally translated across language barriers. Mistranslations are easy, African inflections can be challenging to the untrained translator and literal translation errors are all too common in the industry. This creates a quality control

How do you know your document has been properly translated? Read More »