{"id":629,"date":"2012-04-15T13:43:50","date_gmt":"2012-04-15T17:43:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beautyterm.com\/?p=629"},"modified":"2018-05-29T14:37:52","modified_gmt":"2018-05-29T18:37:52","slug":"the-importance-of-native-speaking-translators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beautyterm.com\/fr\/the-importance-of-native-speaking-translators\/","title":{"rendered":"The Importance of Native Speaking Translators"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why is it so important to hire native speakers as translators?\u00a0 And why is it almost a twofold obligation when translating beauty care and cosmetic copy?<\/p>\n

New translation buyers may not be aware of this, but professional translators work into their native language only.\u00a0 According to the American Translators Association a \u201ctranslator who flouts this basic rule is likely to be ignorant of other important quality issues as well\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n

If a document needs to be translated into English, it has to be given to native English speakers, and not a French, Spanish or German translator, however skilled a professional he or she may be.\u00a0 Granted, English has become a global lingua franca or a universal language, but that does not mean that non native speakers, even those who have mastered it orally, will be able to write flawless, print-ready copy.<\/p>\n

\"Smiling-Woman-with-German-Flag\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Eventually their language-specific reflexes will gain the upper hand and the produced English translation will irrefutably end up peppered with pesky little inconsistencies and erratic expressions.\u00a0 The end result will be no less than annoying to the intended reader and also potential customer.<\/p>\n

A good example from French to English translations involves the very basic word \u201cskin\u201d.\u00a0 In French, it is frequently used in its plural form to point to many different types of skin.\u00a0 So the French refer quite naturally to \u201cles peaux matures\u201d et \u201cles peaux s\u00e8ches et normales\u201d, while in English \u201cskin\u201d must at all times remain in singular.<\/p>\n

A non native translator working into English may, however, get carried away and say \u201cWith its unique composition, this spring water is capable of soothing even the most irritated skins<\/em>\u201d or \u201csensitive skins often age at a faster rate than other skins<\/em>\u201d, which, to put it mildly, has a skin-crawling (pardon the pun) effect from all points of view.\u00a0 This is exactly the type of translation faux pas \u2013 be it in a website, brochure, product description, press release or other \u2013 that raises red flags, tipping your readers off that there just may be something amiss with the broader picture.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at the wider ramifications. Cosmetics and beauty care products are designed to bring glamour and luxury to everyday life.\u00a0 As L\u2019Or\u00e9al puts it, they \u201cpamper the soul\u201d, influencing the relationship we have with ourselves, improving our self-acceptance and self-image, and not just the way others perceive us.\u00a0 Because of the importance of physical appearance in our developed societies, cosmetics enjoy an increasingly higher status.\u00a0 They represent our striving for excellence, perfection and beauty.\u00a0 It is therefore essential that they reflect equally high standards of quality.\u00a0 And hence we see the enormous strategic implications of product branding, image and positioning.<\/p>\n

\"frenchman-200x300\"<\/a>As an extension of advertising and marketing communication strategy, translation of cosmetic copy cannot afford to be shabby or substandard.\u00a0 Even smaller companies just barely on the verge of breaking into international markets should think carefully about spending a little extra on professional translation services, especially for documents used for publication and likely to reach a greater public.<\/p>\n

That money will be well spent; it will prove that they care about their products and their customers.\u00a0 It makes perfect sense.\u00a0 Why should a customer trust a company that claims to have in-depth scientific expertise but is not able or not willing to advertise it in a way that is on a par with its capabilities?\u00a0 First impressions are lasting impressions and people make snap judgments on small details.<\/p>\n

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Why is it so important to hire native speakers as translators?\u00a0 And why is it almost a twofold obligation when translating beauty care and cosmetic copy? New translation buyers may not be aware of this, but professional translators work into their native language only.\u00a0 According to the American Translators Association a \u201ctranslator who flouts this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[32,10,161,193,113,158,111,112,192,191,180,134,11,34,33,16],"class_list":["post-629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advice-for-translation-buyers","tag-advice","tag-beauty","tag-beauty-and-cosmetic-copy-translation","tag-beauty-and-cosmetic-copy-translators","tag-beauty-and-cosmetic-copy-writers","tag-beauty-and-cosmetic-translation-solutions","tag-beauty-and-cosmetic-translations","tag-beauty-and-cosmetic-translators","tag-cosmetic-brand-copy-transcreation","tag-cosmetic-brand-copy-translation","tag-cosmetic-copy-translations","tag-cosmetic-product-packaging-localization","tag-cosmetics-4","tag-native-speaking-translators","tag-tips","tag-translation"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"2.8.11","language":"fr","enabled_languages":["en","fr"],"languages":{"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"fr":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beautyterm.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beautyterm.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beautyterm.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beautyterm.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beautyterm.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/beautyterm.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1812,"href":"https:\/\/beautyterm.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629\/revisions\/1812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beautyterm.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beautyterm.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beautyterm.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}