Archives for August 2021

Translations for the good of the Baltic Sea

30.8.2021 by Delingua

As a responsible Finnish company, we want to support operations in accordance with our values in many ways. This is why we have been cooperating with, among others, the Baltic Sea Action Group (BSAG) since last year.

BSAG is a Finnish and independent non-profit foundation that was established in 2008 to save the Baltic Sea. The aim of the foundation is to save the Baltic Sea through action and the strength of working collectively, and BSAG seeks to accelerate this work by bringing together the right actors. In order to save the Baltic Sea, BSAG addresses the root causes of the problems it faces. In its operations, BSAG also takes into account nature loss and the mitigation of global warming.

Why the Baltic Sea?

As a Helsinki-based company, we hold the sea dear to us. However, as a shallow inland sea, the Baltic Sea is particularly sensitive to the effects of climate change. It is also threatened by eutrophication, heavy shipping traffic and overfishing.

In addition to environmentally responsible business, we have also wanted to support organisations that protect the Baltic Sea, such as WWF and BSAG. “Offering translations to organisations that protect the Baltic Sea is one way in which we can take part in caring for the climate,” says Katja Virtanen, Delingua’s CEO. “BSAG believes that problems are solved when information and knowledge is shared. We believe that sharing information requires a common language.”

Smooth cooperation

BSAG’s translation needs are particularly relevant to the Carbon Action project, which promotes agricultural Baltic Sea and climate action and involves, among others, researchers, companies, farmers and public officials. For example, material for farmers is produced also in Swedish. Carbon Action has attracted international interest so, in the future, there will be a need for translations into other languages. In addition, translations are needed for responsible seafaring, as the information package directed at ships sailing in the Baltic Sea is also being extended to other Baltic Sea countries.

BSAG is satisfied with its cooperation with Delingua. “There is also a lot of professional vocabulary in the materials to be translated, so fluency has been especially important when we have had translations checked by experts in the field and provided feedback for subsequent work. To our delight, the feedback has always been well received,” says Pieta Jarva, BSAG’s Director of Communications.

At Delingua, we want to continue to support work for the good of the Baltic Sea. You can also take part in saving the Baltic Sea through BSAG’s special day campaign. Make a wish for a cleaner Baltic Sea as a gift on your special day and direct greetings to BSAG’s work.

Photo: Janne Gröning

Translation price

24.8.2021 by Katja Virtanen

If you’ve ended up reading this article, you probably need a translation and you’re interested in what the price of one translation is for us. You may request a quote from several translation agencies and compare prices. Possibly, you’ll choose the cheapest because you think you are comparing apples with apples.

Unfortunately, expert services can rarely be compared so straightforwardly. The translation price shown in the offer may not tell you what is included in the service or how the translation service is delivered. One may offer an edited and proofread translation for the same price, another a machine translation only. For some, the ordering process is automated until the very end, while for others the price includes tailored solutions.

As it is so difficult to compare offers in the translation industry, in the following we will open up a bit on the pricing of a translation service.

Pricing units

Although translators do not actually sell individual words, the most well-established pricing unit in the industry is still the source language word. In addition, some in the industry use the page price (1,560 characters with spaces).

If you know the word count for your source text, you should mention it already when requesting a quote. If the source material is, for example, on a website or in a large number of Excel files and you are unable to determine the word count, the translation agency can analyse the amount of material to be translated using its own software.

The translation price depends a lot on the source text word count. As a general rule, the higher the word count, the higher the total price, but probably, however, the lower the unit price.

As the translation service becomes even more technical, service solutions are also sold using new pricing models. These broader service solutions are often applied to large translation volumes, and pricing may include, among other things, licence fees.

Minimum charge

Translation agencies usually have a minimum charge for small translations, typically jobs of 300 words or less. Then it’s exactly the same whether you order a translation of 30 or 300 words, the charge is the same.

In addition to the translation work, the minimum charge covers the project management work involved in booking the job and customer relationship and invoicing. The translator may also be right in the middle of a larger translation job, and needs to adjust their schedule to make room for the small minimum charge job.

If the customer relationship is ongoing and there are frequent orders for small translations, it is possible to agree on or waive the minimum charge separately. A professional translation agency will then usually also proactively propose the most cost-effective pricing model for all parties.

Of course, there are also translation agencies on the market that do not apply a minimum charge for any type of translation. However, we find it somewhat unethical to sell an expert service for just a couple of euros.

Which factors (most) affect the price?

In addition to the source text word count, pricing is usually affected in particular by the language pair, timetable and file type of the translation.

The law of supply and demand applies to language pairs. The price of a translation is usually more competitive when there are enough good translators available for the language combination. Less common language pairs, such as translations from Finnish to Chinese, are more expensive than translations from English to Finnish.

Urgent translations, typically same day deliveries, are often subject to an express delivery surcharge, the size of which varies. Exceptional pricing is also generally applied to translation assignments outside normal working hours.

In addition, the price of the translation may be affected by the form in which the translatable material arrives. If the customer is unable to submit the material in an editable form, the translation agency will often charge separately for the pre- and post-processing of the material. A typical example of this kind of additional hourly billing service is the conversion and translation of PDF files.

Instead, in our view, the price of a translation is not so much related to the subject matter of the translation. A text with general everyday language may have as many tricky parts as a text that is overflowing with professional terminology. For the customer, it may be difficult to assess the difficulty of the translation for a translator in a specialist field, and even the translation agency’s service manager may not have time to check the difficulty of very extensive material when preparing the offer. The translation may later prove to be more challenging than expected, regardless of the topic.

How much does quality cost?

And how does the price of the translation service affect the translation’s quality?

It would be easiest to say that good is never cheap. Unfortunately, however, that is not the whole truth, as good quality actually depends a lot on what the customer expects from the translation service. What’s good for one customer could be completely lousy for another.

In addition, a translation agency is a company just like any other: the purchase price of a good translation may be the same in two offices, but the final price of the other is still considerably cheaper for the client because of its different cost structure and margin target.

In addition, the client often has the option of choosing between different levels of translation service. Although, in principle, it must be possible to demand excellent linguistic quality from a professional agency, the customer can also buy a machine-translated raw translation or a copy-edited translation that has been honed to the last detail.

How does technology affect the price?

The best way to save on translation costs is to centralise translation procurement in a professional agency that makes optimal use of modern translation technology. Perhaps a translation agency offers just the right solution for your needs, such as integration with your own content management system (CMS), saving you a lot of your own time as well.

Translation is expert work that makes use of a variety of technical tools. The most important of these is a translation memory. Its benefit is based on the fact that the program proposes translations for parts of the text whenever it recognises similarities with a previously translated text. Cost savings arise when the same texts and parts of text are not translated again.

The cost of translation can also be reduced by taking advantage of machine translation. Machine translation and post-editing is often suitable for factual texts with short sentences and simple terminology, the volume of which can be millions of words. Machine translation and post-editing increase productivity and save costs.

How do you choose a good translation agency?

Many factors affect the price of translation. Apples and oranges cannot be compared. As a customer, how do you choose a translation agency that best meets your needs with the right price and quality ratio?

The most important thing is to stop for a moment before making a purchase decision and think about what you are buying and what you expect from a translation service. Then, with the help of background research, find out which translation agencies can best meet your needs. Find out about office security, technology and references. Find out what is included in the price of the translation and what you pay for separately.

In the end, it’s never just a question of translation, it’s always about the translation service.

The language of flowers – only love or other emotions, too?

17.8.2021 by Delingua

Flowers can talk, and they tell thousands of stories. Or at least that’s what the French and the Japanese, the inventors of the language of flowers, think. Flowers allow you to convey emotions and meanings. A red rose is a sign of love, and a bouquet of five flowers says ’I love you’, but what else can you say with flowers? Flowers can be used to express love but also joy, distrust and selfishness. In addition to the species, the colour and number of flowers matter.

We studied the language of flowers and found out what different types of flowers, colours and numbers signify. However, the meanings vary quite a lot from one source to another, so you should be a little cautious about the language of flowers. The next time you pick a bouquet, you can think about what you want to say with flowers. Just remember that the most important meaning of flowers is the warm thoughts that the giver wants to convey. Not everything has to be interpreted. The recipient will most likely be pleased with the flowers in any case.

The meanings of flower species

Sunflower: joy, pride and love

Begonia: protection

Dahlia: instability

Eucalyptus: cheering up

Sweet pea: departure

Lily of the valley: hope

Lavender: distrust

Lily, white: purity

Lily, yellow: cheerfulness and joy

Ivy: loyalty

Narcissus: selfishness

Pansy: contemplativeness

Cornflower: sensitivity

Rose, red: love

Rose, white: purity and innocence

Rose, yellow: fierce love

Tulip: fame and love

Red is the color of love, whereas a pink bouquet can be used to say ‘I have a crush on you’. Yellow flowers, on the other hand, often speak of joy and happiness, and white flowers evoke confidence.

The meanings of the number of flowers

1: You mean the world to me! I love you!

2: I want to see you again.

3: I want to be alone with you.

4: I respect you, but I don’t love you yet.

5: I love you!

6: Get well soon/I don’t believe your promises.

7: Proposal.

8: I’m yours until death do us part.

9: I respect you and I’ll always be your friend.

10: I will do everything for you.

11: I’ll always be your friend, but my love hasn’t awoken yet.

12: We’re struggling, but I think we’re going to be okay.

13: I hate you and despise you.

14 or more: You mean the world to me.

If you need a translation and interpretation service for spoken languages, feel free to contact us!

Corporate language strategy

10.8.2021 by Delingua

When planning your company’s internal and external communications, it’s worth considering the language or languages in which you want to communicate with customers, stakeholders and your own personnel. The choice of language or languages should also be considered from the perspective of customer service and social media, among other things. For companies, it’s worth thinking over the following questions: Which languages do our customers speak? Do we only want to reach the Finnish market or are we aiming to go global now or in the future? Do we communicate in just one language or do we use many languages in parallel? If we use several languages, do we divide them into their own channels or do we combine them? Do we also provide customer service in all languages? Which languages work in different channels? Who writes or translates our foreign-language content?

There isn’t one right way of choosing a suitable language for your company, but at least one thing should be borne in mind: consistency. You should settle on one language strategy and execute it in all communications.

What is a language strategy?

A corporate language strategy means you decide on which languages will be used, in which channels and how. This raises a few important questions: is all content available in only one or several languages; which language is used on social media; is your website available in Finnish, English or both; and, in addition to Finnish and English, do you need other languages? In addition, the question of who writes, translates and maintains the foreign-language content is also an integral part of the language strategy. Corporate communications should be linguistically consistent, that is, logical. Choose a language strategy and stick to it.

Delingua renewed its brand in late 2020. In connection with the brand renewal, we decided that Delingua’s social media channels would communicate in Finnish and that our monthly newsletters would be sent in both Finnish and English. In addition, our website has been translated into English and customer service is also available in English. This means we have made a strategic decision to be genuinely Finnish but also an international translation agency by using primarily Finnish and also English. And we have stuck to this language strategy since the beginning of the year.

English, Finnish or both?

Brands with a global character that target international markets often communicate in different channels in English. Communicating in English is certainly an asset on the international market, especially if you don’t yet have a specific region as your target market; however, this may not work in every country. According to one survey, people want service in their native language, so find out where your company’s products and services are in demand and which language is spoken there. This means you can choose the languages that suit your company and direct your message to your target audience. However, if the target group is very broad, it is advisable to start with English and add other languages where necessary.

Many Finnish companies that operate internationally are also present in Finland, and they need to communicate with Finnish customers and stakeholders in Finnish, which can lead to difficulties. Would it be a good idea to communicate in Finnish, English or both languages at the same time? In this situation, you should choose one solution and stick to it so that your communications are as logical as possible. For example, the solution may be that all content is published in both Finnish and English simultaneously, or that separate channels are established for Finnish- and English-language communications.

Do you need other languages?

As mentioned above, studies show that people prefer products and services in their own language. Also, online stores that are localised in different languages attract more local buyers. Therefore, a company’s language choices for communication should depend on who you want to communicate with. If your primary target group is French speakers, you won’t win their hearts using English, but French! Of course, English will take you further in the world than just Finnish, but you shouldn’t trust it to do all the work.

Sometimes, a company may occasionally find a few customers from around the world, but it’s not worth translating a website, online store or communications into less common languages for individual customers. Customer service should also be available in the selected languages. When making language choices, it’s worth considering whether you are ready to invest in all languages when it comes to customer service, marketing, communications as well as the maintenance of language versions. If you decide to include, for example, Swedish or German as part of your company’s language offering, we can help you with translations as well as language training for your staff.

Languages in social media

You will need a slightly different language strategy for social media. For example, if you want to communicate via Twitter in more than one language, you should set up separate accounts for content in different languages. As Twitter limits the number of characters in messages, thus reducing the capacity for multilingual content in a single tweet, you will have to tweet separately in different languages in any case. Whereas on Instagram, images and visuality are central, so you should make sure that the same language is used in your pictures and captions. Of course, the caption can contain the same content in several languages, but only the first few lines are visible to the user at first glance, so the content of those lines needs to be carefully considered.

It’s also possible to post a long text in several languages on Facebook, so you can think about your strategy on Facebook yourself. LinkedIn is an English-language platform where all functions are in English only. However, Finnish-language posts work well in a Finnish network. However, don’t forget that if your network is international, you should also post in English. In some social media channels, you can also use a machine translation tool to translate text, which means your audience in different languages will get at least some idea of what you are saying on social media. However, the quality of machine translations on social media platforms is not the best possible. Also check which social media channels are used in different countries to reach the desired audience.

In social media, you should also remember accessibility, i.e. adding subtitles to videos, for example. It’s often a good idea to subtitle videos in the language spoken in the video, but English subtitles may also be useful from an international perspective.

In multilingual communications, remember consistency and keep a clear focus on your target audience. In international communications, it’s worth considering other language options in addition to English.