Hispanics and Marketing

There is a good article at Ecommerce Times about hispanics and marketing. The author makes a good point that just having a few products or services translated into Spanish is not the end all be all of having a good Hispanic campaign.

 

I think the author makes two very valid points about marketing to the Hispanic population. The first is that, just with everything else in marketing, you have to know your market. If you don't market to the right people, Spanish-speakers or not, you won't stand a chance.

 

The second point is extremely relevant and something that I have seen over and over again. You must have an infrastructure that can support Spanish-speaking customers. If you offer your product in Spanish, but then don't give the Spanish-speaking consumer the ability to call a bilingual help desk or read instructions in Spanish, that customer won't be yours for very long.

 

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Alan Enwiya, translator.

Jill Carroll's story of capture and eventual release and freedom is indeed heart-warming and downright amazing. It's sad, however, to think of her translator/interpreter and his fate in the ordeal.

 

When the kidnappers attacked, he put himself on the line to try and rescue his client, even though he was unarmed and he probably knew that he would die trying. Alan Enwiya is a model to all translators and interpreters everywhere and we must always realize and be grateful for those who do their work in dangerous conditions for the benefit of all of us.

 

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Translation does not equate with vocal fluency

My day job is translating and in the course of the day I often run into a lot of different people that have various ideas about not only translation but also about foreign language and the ability to do both.

 

Oftentimes, people who know about (or pretend they know about) these two things (the ability to translate and the ability to speak a foreign language) usually fall into two camps: 1) Those who know that translation is a different skill than speaking a foreign language and the ability to do one does not preclude the ability to do the other and 2) those who think that they are the same thing and that if you can translate you can speak fluently and if you can speak fluently you can translate.

 

To be honest, this second group of people drive me crazy. Nobody thinks that just because they can speak English they can give a presentation, or that just because they can write they can be a journalist, novelist, or some other type of writer.

 

Why is it then that people who speak a foreign language automatically think they can translate to or from that language?

 

I believe it's a combination of ignorance on those not familiar with the translation field and good translators not speaking out and educating clients and others about translation. Until that happens, we're bound to be stereotyped as someone who can translate because he/she can speak a foreign language.

 

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Mediocre Translators = High Salaries

You may not like it, but it just goes to show you that all are not created equal in the translation industry. An article from the Shanghai Daily says that

"A big problem is that payment and translation quality don't match," said Lu Gusun, dean of Fudan University's college of foreign languages and literature and vice director of the Translator's Association of Shanghai.

So someone in China has realized that translators are not always treated fairly. Well, I think every translator I know could have told you that.

So why is it that some translators are able to make more than others even when they have the same (or even less) ability than another translator? Well, I think the real reason has to do with the fact that freelance translators do more than just translate. The most important thing they can do is market themselves. Two translators with the same skills will not earn the same amount, but rather the one who is better at marketing will earn more (both in terms of the number of jobs, and what they can charge).

 

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Practicing Your Spanish Listening Skills

If you're interested in improving your listening abilities in Spanish, there are a few websites out there that will help you do so. However, some of the best ways to improve your listening skills are to listen to news reports in Spanish.

 

One of the best sites for listening to news not only in Spanish but in a ton of other languages as well (44 languages currently) is VOA - The Voice of America. This website not only has news articles written in various languages, but also provides both audio and video programming for listeners for free. They also broadcast on various channels around the world, but it's just as easy to go online and listen there.

 

Every morning I listen to a 30-minute news segment in Spanish so that I can keep up on my Spanish listening skills, and I know it helps.

 

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