When it comes to doing business overseas, you need to make sure what you are writing, saying, and promoting is culturally adapted and localized. There was a time when companies thought they could skip the all-important step of localizing for the target culture. If global success is your goal, it’s important to know that this is no longer the case.
Accuracy checks are as important as the content itself in corporate translation. The business face of our world has changed. We are a global community and there are considerations that we do today that we never took into account as recently as 10 years ago. One of the ways you can keep your content strategically positioned for your target audience is through the process of in-country review.
In-country review is a step in the translation process where a native speaker and subject matter expert, living in the region or country where the translations will be used, reviews the content to make sure the language and terminology used are appropriate for that region and that industry.
Certain terms may be more common, current, or accurate than others, and the in-country reviewer can verify the translation, while suggesting terms that they think will better describe your product or service to the desired audience.
Why is this step good practice?
In-country review is the client’s opportunity to incorporate preferences in terminology or style, to reflect the industry, products, services, and company culture with the greatest fidelity. By involving a stakeholder in your target county, you are assuring that your content is more likely to be understood and embraced by that country.
Who should perform the review?
It is always best to engage an in-country company employee, representative, affiliate, subsidiary or distributor to carry out this review. Anyone who is native to the target language and familiar with the product or service could be a good candidate perform the review – the reviewer does not need to be a trained linguist, but an expert in the company’s field with excellent language skills.
If you don’t have someone who can do this, then you have two options: You bypass this review—which is not advised—or you can work with a global translation service. Professional translation providers can’t match the subject matter expertise of a resource from your internal talent pool; however, they can help you find and train a team member to perform your review.
Most companies are not large enough to support an internal translation and localization department. Whether it be for technical documents or in-house memos, your best bet is to partner with a language services company (LSC) like TrueLanguage that has extensive experience in business translation services.
They will put this experience to work to appropriately translate your documents for any local language you need. A good LSC will provide you the option to conduct an in-country review in the final stages of the translation process. Always take it! You’ll rest better knowing that your content is clearly understood and accepted.
Consider a Partnership with TrueLanguage
Are you looking for a partnership with a language service provider? If so, you may wish to consider TrueLanguage. We offer ISO-certified state-of-the-art business translation services that are on budget, on time, and to the exact specification. Every time. Or perhaps you’re just looking for a cost-free, no-obligation estimate for your next translation project. Either way, we’d love to hear from you!
