Translation and Language Industry Observations

10 Yiddish Words that Infiltrated the English Language

Yiddish is mainly spoken today by several hundred thousand Hasidic Jews in the USA and in Israel. It is a Germanic dialect which is written using the Hebrew alphabet. Yiddish, which means Jewish, was spoken by several million people before World War II. Yiddish is commonly referred to by Ashkenazi Jews as “Mama Loshon,” which …

Getting your e-Commerce Website Ready for the German Market

Increasing online sales in the German market. How do you do it? Germany is a country with a population of 80 million people, the largest GDP in the Eurozone, full of multi-nationals, SMEs and tech companies and one of the most attractive markets in the EU. Streamlining your website for the German market can pay …

The Best Online Marketplaces for Translation Services

Psst. Looking for translation services? One option is to work with a Language Service Provider (LSP), commonly known as a translation agency. Another option is to work directly with a professional translator whom you have established a relationship with. But there is a third option, which is to post your translation job to a translation …

Facebook’s Machine Translation. What’s in it for you?

It seems that nowadays, every big tech company has its own machine translation (MT) system which it uses for both internal and external purposes. Here is a partial list of these deployments: Google. Anybody who spends time on the Internet knows about Google Translate. Google is one of the pioneers of MT and is by …

10 Hebrew Words that have no English translation

One of the problems that face translators is that some words have no equivalent in other languages. This can also pose a challenge to people who are non-native speakers of a language, since second language speakers tend to process spoken language through internalized translation. Hebrew is one of the most ancient languages in existence. But …

Should you translate your corporate blog?

If you manage corporate communications for an international company, you understand the benefit of maintaining a corporate blog: increased e-reputation, more traffic to your website, promoting your expertise to new customers are just come of the benefits. But have you ever considered translating your corporate blog to promote your company internationally? What are the real …

How German Became the Money Language

Europe, being the epitome of the diverse ancient background, has twenty-four official languages, with German being the first, French second and Italian third. Europe also has more than 60 regional and minority languages. This undeniably powerful language, German, is challenging to learn but offers many benefits that other languages don’t. Some recent reports claim that …

Challenges in Multi-Language Translation Projects

At GTS we often get projects that require fast translation of texts into multiple languages. These projects can range from translation of Information for Use (IFU) for medical devices, instructions and labels for pharmaceutical products, press releases and technical bulletins. These projects are particularly challenging. There is time pressure on the one hand, and on …

Translator Queries? Good or Bad?

Having turned in thousands of translation jobs, we are experienced with all kinds of source texts. Sometimes the text is clearly understood and simple to translate. Sometimes we get text-from-hell which is riddled with mistakes and/or ambiguities. How should these occurrences be handled? It should be mentioned that as an online translation company, it is …