Posted on Tembua's blog on June 16, 2011.

Bad English often isn't the product of a poor education. Today many manufacturers, particularly overseas, use low-grade machine translation to translate instructions and product information. The results are fodder for many humorous websites. Usually, we readers decipher the poor English and move on with our lives. (Tembua sometimes converts the publishers of bad English to clients with our English polishing service.) But sometimes, bad translations can affect their readers' lives in sudden, unexpected ways.

Last weekend, I was at the sewing machine working on a bridesmaid dress for one of my daughters. While no expert, I am an experienced seamstress and understand garment construction well. I had laid pieces of a complicated lining together in the intuitively correct fashion, but I checked the pattern instructions just to be sure. I was surprised to see that according to the instructions, I had one of the pieces upside down. After pinning and repinning the slippery silk together twice, I read the German of the multilingual pattern and learned that what had been translated into English as "right sides up" should have been "right sides together"--an entirely different meaning. I only lost ten minutes figuring that out, but somewhere I'm sure there are less experienced sewers ripping out seams because of that bad translation.
 
When I told a friend about that error, she chuckled and said, "Yup, just like my candle." It turned out she had bought an herbal medicine candle for headache relief. The directions told her to light the candle and inhale the aroma deeply. It went on to say that her headache would "gradually increase and then disappear." She reads enough French to know from the instructions in the column beside the English that the headache was not, in fact, supposed to increase but decrease.

We laughed together, but mistranslation to an antonym is no joke. Medicine has been recalled at great expense when its directions for use have contained errors in the translation. International court cases have been thrown out because of translation or interpreting mistakes.

There is an appropriate use for the wonderfully convenient and free machine translation services, and Tembua gladly helps friends and clients determine when that is. We also tell them point-blank when free MT may be a serious liability, and then Tembua's human translation teams go to work--to decrease, not increase, the headaches in our clients' business!

Posted on Tembua's blog on June 2, 2011.

Living in Germany years ago, I learned that the translation of crossing your fingers was literally pressing your thumbs. The gesture an English speaker uses--index and middle finger held up, middle crossed over index--conveyed nothing to Germans. The people around me placed their thumbs across their palms and closed their hands with a squeezing gesture. That was their way of indicating they were pulling for me at my next interview.

A news piece on last summer's World Cup in South Africa said that the locals were squeezing their thumbs for luck. I thought about the close linguistic relationship between German and Dutch and the strong Dutch influence in South Africa, and I suddenly understood where the expression originated.

I was amused to find online stock photos of young women pressing thumbs.

As the most recent wave of immigrants to the United States learns English, listen for expressions that sound odd to you. Ask for the literal translation of the English in their language, and perhaps explain how English translates that thought. You might pick up the translated version and begin using it yourself. We encountered the expression klicks for kilometers in Asia years ago and continue to use it. As cultures and languages rub against each other, we're all enriched.

The popular TV series NCIS features an Israeli character who sometimes struggles with English idioms. When her boss says to call if something gets "hinky," Ziva asks what the word means. Her colleague says, "You know, like, when your gut is telling you something." Ziva nods: "Oh, I see. In my country we refer to that as gas."

As cultures and languages rub against each other, we're all enriched.

Posted on Tembua's blog on May 28, 2011.

What do termites and skyscrapers have in common?

That's the way the keynote speaker at last week's Diversity Alliance for Science conference started his address. Frans Johansson of the Medici Group soon had everyone laughing--and listening.

Diversity has become a corporate buzzword, and supplier diversity officers range from committed champions of minority businesses to people who simply hold the title. All of them will say that supporting diverse businesses is both the right thing to do and a good business decision.

As a small-business owner, I know that doing the right thing must always also benefit the bottom line, but until last week, it always seemed to me that supplier diversity felt a bit like charity. Mr. Johansson put that feeling to rest.

His 2004 book, The Medici Effect, discusses the creative diversity that lies at the crossroads of cultures, economic groups, races, languages, educational levels, genders--all the groups we find in society. He posited that ideas grow out of diversity. The more diverse the group, the more ideas are generated. And that's what benefits businesses' bottom line: new ideas generate revenue.

The audience was riveted as we saw formulas calculating the increase in ideas generated when people with different backgrounds and experiences work together without restraint.

Then the speaker displayed pairs of objects with nothing in common, showing how threads from each could be twisted together into new ideas: spiderwebs and goat's milk, seashells and military equipment, monkeys and mind readers. And we learned how an architect used the cooling mechanism found in termite mounds to design a South African skyscraper built without air conditioning!

Mr. Johansson called exposing ourselves to new influences "stepping into the intersection." Whether diversity arises from heritage, social grouping, biological differences, languages, or career fields, whether the person comes from the Pacific Islands or collects buttons (or both), there are ideas waiting for us in those intersections. The Medici Effect is available online here. I highly recommend it.

Posted on Tembua's blog on April 11, 2011.

That's an ugly phrase, isn't it? No one wants to be a deadbeat, and businesses certainly don't want deadbeat clients. Still, almost all companies today that are not point-of-sale enterprises have a higher percentage of overdue accounts than 5 years ago.

As the recession deepened, receivables went out longer and longer. Now, as the economy begins to recover, businesses report that rather than paying those overdue bills, their clients with large balances are using that money to invest in expansion or new equipment. Staff members making collection calls are told, "If I pay your bill, we'll be out of business--just let us get ahead a bit and you'll get your money."

At Tembua, we have the same problems. We are aware that our translated pieces are absolutely necessary for companies to move ahead with their marketing and staff development, and we are, perhaps, a bit too understanding about financial trouble. As CEO I have learned to always make a collection call an opportunity to keep the customer relationship going and generate more business. That has been our policy for many years: Keep the customer if at all possible.

A few months ago I was lamenting to another businesswoman that our receivables were at an all-time high and that I was so grateful we had built reserves for just such a case. I expected agreement, a nod of understanding, commiseration. Instead, she looked at me and sternly said, "Do you realize how unfair it is to your staff to let that continue?" Before I could answer, she went on to lecture me about how the cash flow difficulties that surely follow growing receivables threaten the life of our business. That's Finance 101, of course, but she extended the principle to the people who work for us. She talked about the mortgages and college tuition and car payments that our paychecks cover every month. "How can you think so little of those families by not demanding the client payments you need to pay salaries?"

I stood silent in front of her for a few moments. Obviously, I understand how important the jobs are to each family, but I had never considered that I actually put those families at risk with our relaxed collections philosophy.

That afternoon, my attitude changed. I had been concerned about driving a business into bankruptcy by demanding payment. I now understand more clearly that my primary responsibility is to my staff. Not only do I need to provide them with adequate training, up-to-date equipment, a comfortable workplace, and incentives to succeed, but I also need to guard more carefully the cash flow from which their salaries come.

Posted on Tembua's blog on March 22, 2011.

Many small to midrange companies struggle with out-of-the-box software solutions that fit our business models about as well as one size fits all in the garment industry. Even industry-specific software needs to be tweaked. Custom software applications are expensive, but when you realize you're spending more time making the software play nice with your processes than actually getting your work done, it's time to consider hiring a software consultant to write software that specifically addresses your needs.

Tembua is fortunate to have a CTO who is particularly gifted at custom applications. Working with him on our suite of 7 custom apps has taught me shortcuts that help us communicate more efficiently.

1. Know your desired outcomes
The software consultant should require your specifications in writing as a starting point. Be prepared to spend some time thinking through the big picture before you give those specifications to him or her.

Take the time to determine exactly what you want to see on the screen and how you want your various pieces of software to interact. Your specifications don't need to be a finely crafted piece of literature. Sometimes doodled diagrams communicate better than words.

2. Ask yourself questions
Exactly what do you want a particular application to do? Move data from one program to another? Assemble, reformat and display information while performing calculations?

Dream big. The consultant you hire will definitely tell you if something is out of range.

What order should items appear in the user interface?

Are you particular about fonts/colors/spacing?

Do you want check boxes or radio buttons? What seems like a minor cosmetic tweak may take some major rewriting if you mention it midway through the process.

Will this particular application be asked to expand in the future? Should extra fields be included to accommodate this?

Do you foresee a time when the user interface will be translated? Tell the consultant so he/she can consider additional fonts and allow extra space and arrange fields to accommodate text expansion. (Contact Tembua for tips on writing software that can be localized easily.)

Would error messages be helpful, or do you just want the app to work?

How involved will you and your staff be if something goes wrong? Do you want the consultant to spend enough time with you so you can solve small problems on your own? How detailed do you want the documentation to be?

3. Know your own software
Prepare a list of existing software that must interact with the custom applications. How do you use each package? What information do you need from the existing programs that will be used in the custom app? If the software is industry-specific, be prepared to clearly explain to the consultant what it does, how you use it, and how you'd like it to interact.

4. Plan for the future
Look at your long-term strategic plan and try to visualize what the custom applications might need to do in the future. Not everything can be anticipated, but good executives should be able to make an educated guess about the direction of their company.

5. Use the word "flexible" in your specifications
Throughout the process, emphasize that if it's possible, you'd like the software to be flexible. Perhaps interchangeable or replaceable modules can be written. Does the consultant have any suggestions?

6. Listen to the consultant
And be prepared not to understand everything the first time. Ask questions. Don't back down until you clearly understand.

7. Be prepared for the consultant not to understand everything the first time
After all, he or she does not work in your industry full time and may not immediately understand how your office functions. Feel free to ask the consultant to repeat your expectations orally even after the written specs are complete. Oral language communicates differently than written language, and this is the time to find those differences.

8. Expect hitches in the process
You will have undoubtedly forgotten to tell the consultant something that is very important to the design of the software. Apologize and move on. Don't accept something that has been written around a misunderstanding. Be prepared to back up and take another run at it.

9. Know your differences
Be aware that your consultant is more focused on the underbelly of the software, while you're more interested in the user interface. There is a middle ground, but it takes clear communication to find it!

10. There will be bugs
Repeat after me: Custom software will not work perfectly the first time. There will be bugs. Period. Know in advance what level of testing is the consultant's responsibility and what post-installation support will cost. Everything should run perfectly several times before the consultant turns the software over to you. Don't sign off on any problematic piece!

11. Nail down what happens next
Ask if training for your staff is included or if that suddenly becomes your responsibility. Either way, documentation should be included with the software.

It's easier to download an off-the-shelf piece of software, and in many cases, that's sufficient. But for those tasks where industry- and office-specific software will save staff hours, protect client information, move orders more smoothly, or simplify project management, both the time and the expense involved in custom software are certainly justified.

Posted on Tembua's blog on January 30, 2011.

"What up, cuz? Let's get blacked out because I'm finna hit a lick for an elbow during vulture hour, so get your strap. We'll wait in the cut and roll up on him."

Learning a foreign language is hard enough. It is simply not fair that just when you begin to feel competent, words from the vocabulary list you learned in college morph into strangers, or an entire grammatical construction disappears.

The construction that disappeared on me was the fault of the ancient grammar book used by my high school. People laughed at my speech: apparently I sounded just like their grandfather.

Vocabulary change is a fact of life. New words are coined and others drop out of use, as readers of Shakespeare know. English has changed so much over the centuries that the modern reader needs foreign language instruction before meeting Beowulf's Grendel. Today's language will sound quaint in 100 years, and with the Internet facilitating the creation and widespread adoption of new terms, one of us might have a difficult time understanding the English of the next century.

Sports (vuvuzela), politics (refudiate), television (Jersey Shore-speak) and technology (thumbo) provide a stream of new words. (See this post for a dictionary of terms from Jersey Shore.) Teenagers are upset when they hear adults use their own special slang, and yet as we move out of the teen years, we take some of that slang with us and it becomes part of the general vocabulary. Cool made it. Hep did not.

Today's translators and interpreters maintain current vocabulary with Internet interactions that were impossible 20 years ago. Slang comes and goes quickly, and translators, dealing with the written language, have the resources and the opportunity to research the odd phrase that their language instructors never saw.

Pity the interpreters, those who handle the spoken language. Interpreting has an immediacy that few other occupations possess. Courtroom interpreters in particular hear and repeat vulgar language that is not part of their home lives. They must also grasp and immediately rephrase in another language the slang of the drug culture and street gangs, the meanderings of mental competency hearings, the emotionally charged pleadings of a child during an international custody case.

Writing in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, reporter Rochelle Olson captured some gangsta slang from Hennepin County District Court:

"A lick doesn't involve a tongue; it's a robbery. An elbow is a pound of marijuana. A strap is a gun.... A .22-caliber gun is a 'deuce-deuce.'"

In the cut? That's a place to hide between buildings, and vulture hour is a prime drug-dealing time. Imagine the mental machinations required to move those phrases from English to Somali, for example.

When living in Germany years ago, we found that even the best-trained English speakers could not follow us when we dropped into the accent of the Deep South. It was a useful trick. Various online translation programs are doing a wonderful job helping us understand each other today, but I foresee using that same trick except with Shakespearean vocabulary or outdated grammar when I might not want my words translated!

Posted on Tembua's blog on December 15, 2010.

The project managers who handle interpreting equipment and staff for large events are a special breed.

Last month Tembua provided full interpreting services in six languages for an international conference. This meant backpack transmitters for the interpreters as they stepped onto buses for city tours, hundreds of headsets and receiver combinations for the participants, soundproof two-person tabletop booths with mikes, consoles for the conference sessions, transmitters, miles and miles of cables, and our 19-member team.

What we seem to re-learn at every conference:

1. 1. No matter how many extra batteries are in the kit, we will need one more.
2. 2. The one-person-easy-setup booths always take two people to set up.
3. 3. Following repeated sound checks to perfectly set the audio transmitted from the interpreting booths, the house crew will bring in something that creates static on one mike.
4. 4. At least one person will storm to the interpreting table and demand a language which the conference organizers did not order. (In some cases we can arrange a last-minute solution if the organizers sign an addendum to the contract.)
5. 5. Someone will ask why in the world they have to pay people to simply talk. (We politely tell them that beginning interpreters start with radio broadcasts in their own language. When they can rephrase the broadcast after a slight delay and not lose any information, they are allowed to move on to listening in one language and speaking in the second language. We resist the urge to emphasize how difficult this is. )
6. 6. Several people will be certain their equipment is malfunctioning because they have it turned to the wrong channel.
7. 7. At least one person will tell us about the nephew who is studying Chinese in high school and who could work for us at the next conference if we are ever stuck for interpreters.
8. 8. One interpreter will get the flu, have car trouble, or get stuck in traffic and be almost late. (We are prepared for these eventualities.)
9. 9. A good sound tech is worth his/her weight in gold!
10. 10. It takes a great deal of diplomacy to explain that the reason a participant is not hearing the Japanese speaker is that Japanese was only ordered for the main session and the participant is in one of the breakout rooms.

Through all of this, our onsite project manager smiled and calmly answered questions; smiled and handed out bags with headsets and instructions for use; smiled and corrected the spelling error on an interpreter's name badge; smiled and handed bottles of water to the interpreters. In a quiet moment, she stood at the back of the large room and was amazed yet again to watch participants nodding, engrossed in the audio stream from their headsets. From their point of view, the interpreting services were smooth and invisible. As they should be.