Vol. 80 August, 2007
|
|
Celebrating Ralph
This month we pay tribute to our founder Ralph McElroy. Ralph passed away July 26, 2007. McElroy Translation Company closed Monday July 30, 2007 to pay tribute to this man who has touched so many of our lives. Ralph was a visionary when he saw opportunity in the translation field almost 40 years ago. His vision never stagnated.
Throughout the years he embraced change and supported executive management decisions to invest in technology and people. McElroy Translation continually thrived in an evolving business climate over four decades. His ownership style nurtured a corporate culture which we will continue to enjoy.
On behalf of Ralph’s family we thank the hundreds of translators, clients, friends and colleagues who have shared their condolences and fond memories. In reflecting on Ralph’s vibrancy as an inspiration for how to LIVE LIFE, a co-worker stated a profound truth. Ralph’s defining trait was his curiosity. It was an insatiable curiosity which led him to learn languages, explore cultures, make friends everywhere, relish conversation, and open his mind to possibility.
This month we will publish a slightly edited profile that originally appeared in E-Buzz January 2005 and our monthly philanthropy project is chosen with him in mind. To Ralph and to living life fully!
|
Ralph Lee McElroy, Founder
Aug. 28, 1942 - July 26, 2007
* Edited slightly, this article originally appeared in E-Buzz January 2005.
Is There Really A “Ralph?”
Ralph McElroy Translation Company was founded in 1968 and for nearly four decades it has been a translation industry leader. “Is there really a Ralph?” is a question that I have heard repeatedly over the years. The answer – ABSOLUTELY.
The seed for a translation company was planted in 1967 when Ralph’s mother Eleanor McElroy suggested to coworkers at Celanese that her son could handle the translation of four Russian technical documents. Ralph struggled through four highly technical documents relying on the best technical glossaries that he could find and the collaborative editing assistance of a chemistry expert from the University of Texas. (As we like to say quality assurance procedures were implemented on job #1!)
Ralph charged $2 per 100 words and believes he may have made about $.35 per hour, but ultimately the translations were well received. Ralph’s entrepreneurial spirit is a defining characteristic – soon thereafter he opened up shop, adding resources and language capabilities. Eleanor eventually left her job at Celanese to move to Austin and run the growing company for several years. Eleanor remains an honored guest at company functions where she is visibly proud and attached to the company that Ralph created and that she helped run in the 1970s.
Ralph was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1942. He only had to wait until age 10 to become a Texan when his parents moved to Corpus Christi. It was not until high school that Ralph was exposed to other languages and other cultures. He attended the Boy Scout’s Jubilee Jamboree in England commemorating the 50 year anniversary of the Boy Scouts and the 100 year anniversary of the birth of its founder Lord Baden Powell. There he met new friends from many different countries and he toured with the Boy Scouts for two weeks afterward to France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, and Switzerland.
Ralph was intrigued. He was also a faithful correspondent with his roster of new international friends. He was invited by a German friend to spend his senior year in high school in Germany. Away he went, visiting friends in Paris, Holland, England, Ireland, and Norway, Finland, and Sweden en route. He started in Paris where he bought a red Volkswagen for his “Grand Tour.”
Fifteen adventurous months later he reached his destination in Munich to begin a year of school. He spent some of that school year in Munich, some at another school with a friend in a small town in Bavaria, and finally the last three months in Paris attending L’Alliance Francaise. Ralph was immersed in other cultures and he learned multiple languages along the way.
When Ralph returned home he attended a year of junior college, but once again he yearned for travel and adventure. His parents agreed to another voyage abroad, but this time he crossed the Atlantic working in the mess hall of a Norwegian tanker. Eleanor McElroy somehow arranged for the berth on a freighter that her employer Celanese used. Ralph spent most of the next year broadening his horizons primarily in Sweden and Denmark.
Ralph’s degree from the University of Texas in 1964 was in German and in History and he went on to graduate school. In 1966 he won a scholarship to attend school again in Germany, but the summer before that he went to the Soviet Union with an organization called The Experiment in International Living. The group’s mantra is “students changing the world one friendship at a time.” Ralph thrived on learning about other cultures, even those that were not universally appreciated by all Americans at the time. Ralph liked people!
This time when Ralph returned to the Unites States he took a few classes to complete his Master’s program at the University of Texas. The business world made its way into his life, if not in a conventional format. Ralph was affiliated with the Vulcan Gas Company as a promoter of rock and roll shows. (For some spicy reading on 1960s hippie culture Google it!) They broke even on the first show that they produced with Steppenwolf. The second promotion of Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company turned a nice profit. Until Janis cancelled the show with two days notice and they lost everything. Ralph got out of the rock and roll business. It was about time to do a Russian translation for Celanese!
Ralph focused attention on translations, registering the company in Texas in 1968 and moving the office out of his home later that year. With successful promotions and astute hiring he quickly added clients and translators. With steady translation operations underway Ralph became a local restaurateur in the early 1970s and his touch was golden.
He has owned many Austin restaurants over the years and two are prominent in local history. From 1972 to 1998 he co-owned Les Amis. The documentary “Viva Les Amis” has garnered critical acclaim. The premise of the film directed by Nancy Higgins is that Austin isn’t what it used to be. Les Amis, the best Parisian cafe never in Paris, is now a Starbucks. “Viva Les Amis” is a eulogy for vanished hipster hangouts. Ralph described the training of a new dishwasher as “pretty loose” i.e. “Here is the machine, here is how it works, do you want a beer?” The other well known restaurant that Ralph helped found is the Old Pecan Street Café, an upscale Austin landmark listed on the National Historic Register.
With diverse business interests and success on all fronts Ralph needed more support. In 1972 his parents moved to Austin and his mother Eleanor ran the translation company. For a while his parents lived above the company and he recalled that every day Eleanor would serve a big noon meal to everyone working there.
Ralph met Bruce Farmer in 1980 and hired him to handle company promotions. Bruce was a genius at client development and his impact on revenues was dramatic. Bruce became General Manager soon thereafter and Ralph enjoyed stepping back and watching his success. He was an entrepreneur unlike most others. Ralph’s strength was picking the right people to run and build the businesses he created, then stepping aside from daily operations and empowering his managers.
While Ralph owned or was involved with many business interests including real estate, restaurants, clinical research organizations, and translations, it is the translation company that bears his name and that was closest to his heart. His family shares his vision: continued industry leadership through organic growth. The company has evolved with coverage of new vertical markets but it has never lost focus on its core business of customized translation and localization for clients with high quality expectations. Although the marketing department made a strategic decision to brand under the name “McElroy Translation,” “Ralph” remains in the collective conscious of many clients, translators, and industry colleagues.
The company today maintains elements of each era of its rich history. With its bohemian 1960s roots there remains an element of eccentricity where individuality is appreciated. Although management no longer cooks the noon meal the feel of family is part of the foundation. The strong leadership of Bruce Farmer in the 1980s and 1990s is still evidenced by the way that clients are treated and business is conducted.
Bruce espoused “Solution Selling” and “Customer Centric” sales technique before the concepts had fancy names and high dollar training classes. Today McElroy Translation is a product of Austin’s high tech culture. Staff at every level is tech savvy, the IT department is growing, and workflow is enhanced with a combination of proprietary programming and state of the art industry automation.
Ralph leaves behind his wife Diane of twenty years and two wonderful sons from his first marriage. Wade and Ryan own two successful Austin coffee shops - the next generation! Ralph and Diane spent 11 months traveling in 2000 and adopted two precious Russian daughters who are now 10 and 7.
I marvel at how much Ralph experienced and learned by virtue of his flexibility and willingness to let the plan and the path reveal itself along the way. Is this a youthful aptitude that we lose as life becomes more serious and structured? For most of us, yes, unfortunately. But the unique spirit and defining curiosity of Ralph McElroy never faded with age. As the documentary title states, “Viva Les Amis!”
|
“
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.
~Mark Twain
”
|
Translation Kits – Roadmaps for Your Language Services Provider
Jessica Rathke
Translation kits range from the very simple to the very complex. In either case, translation kits provide your vendor with vital information about every project you award them. The purpose of a translation kit is to provide us with your expectations: the subject matter and target audience, files and format to be translated, delivery expectations, special considerations and any other relevant information all in one place. The benefits of a translation kit are many-fold: fewer calls from us requesting clarification, fewer issues that arise during translation, less rework and fewer surprises at the end of the project (i.e. unmet expectations).
The time to provide a translation kit is at the quoting stage. This enables us to provide you with an accurate view of cost and turnaround time and resolve any problems BEFORE the project starts.
Basic Translation Kit
A good basic translation kit will include
- A list of target languages and locales (assuming the original is in English)
- English source application files such as Word, Quark, InDesign, FrameMaker, PageMaker. This enables us to provide accurate costs, schedule and plan.
- Source application graphics such as Illustrator, Visio, etc., which enables us to extract/replace text from/into the graphic rather than recreating the graphic from scratch
- If source graphics are not available, then specify whether graphics are to be recreated to match the original or if creating a key is sufficient.
- Specify any special font requirements
- Provide existing translation memories or language glossaries you may have
- Indicate the desired deliverable (translated text only or language versions that match the formatting of the original language version)
- Any terminology preferences (an example is a product name that should remain in English)
Special Requests – depending on your industry you may have additional requirements that are important for your vendor to know, since they can add a significant amount of time and cost. They may include:
- In-country review by your in-country staff or partners
- Back-translation into English to meet regulatory requirements
- DTP (formatting or layout) of the translated versions
Conclusion
Providing us with a translation kit with more details about your project ensures we have a complete understanding of your expectations and helps ensure the project goes smoothly. Translation kits have the added benefit of helping you identify potential issues with the project that might not be obvious. We have a vested interest in your success and this is one small way you can help us make it happen!
McElroy gives back
In Memory of Ralph McElroy
Ralph McElroy made his first trip overseas at the age of fifteen (see his profile) and came home with an appetite for travel and quite a few pen pals who became lifelong friends. A couple of years later, Ralph was able to arrange fifteen months of travel and study in Europe, prior to beginning college back in the U.S. The die was cast, and his enthusiasm for culture and language inspired college degrees in German and History, and some fluency in other languages including Dutch, French, Italian, Norwegian, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish.
To celebrate his early yearning for study and travel abroad, McElroy Translation is donating $1000 to AFS-USA Intercultural Programs this month. As their website states, living and studying abroad will prepare young people for life in ways that no other experience can–they’ll learn more, gain more, and grow more than they thought possible. AFS-USA works toward a more just and peaceful world by providing international and intercultural learning experiences to individuals, families, schools, and communities through a global volunteer partnership.
Contact Lisa Siciliani to learn more about McElroy Gives Back or to make a suggestion for a future charity to be featured in this section.
|
-->
|
Portuguese
For the next few months, McElroy will be running a series of articles that highlight some of the characteristics of top languages used in doing business globally. This month, we look at Portuguese, in an interview conducted with McElroy translator Clarissa Surek-Clark.
What are some pitfalls to avoid, specific to this language, a client should be aware of when translating into this language?
Portuguese is a Romance language which ranks as the 7th language in the world in number of native speakers (with more than 200 million speakers the world over). Its regional varieties (or dialects) can be broadly classified as Continental, spoken in Portugal and bordering European countries; Brazilian, spoken by more than 180 million speakers in the largest country in South America; and African, spoken - often non-natively - in Cape Verde, Mozambique, Angola and, Guiné-Bissau, which more closely resembles Continental Portuguese in its grammar and pronunciation. Macau in China also has Portuguese as one of its official languages.
A client should be aware of regional differences among Portuguese speakers and hire translators who specialize in the particular market the product/document is going to reach. Between the larger division among Continental/African Portuguese on one side, and Brazilian Portuguese on the other, there are numerous grammatical and lexical differences, often more pronounced than the differences found between American and British English.
As a Romance language, Portuguese is closely related to Spanish. In the United States, Spanish-speaking translators sometimes claim to translate or interpret into Portuguese. When hiring a Portuguese translator, a client should request specific information about the Portuguese-language education or life experience of the translator being hired.
Another important pitfall to consider is the style/register used by translators when working on written documents. Although not in a diglossic situation, Portuguese shows vast differences between its written form and spoken variety, so a document that is meant to be in a written format should not closely resemble a spoken script.
What are characteristics of this language that are unique or different from English and/or other languages?
As a Romance language, Portuguese identifies its nouns with gender (a for feminine, o for masculine), and adjectives that refer to such nouns agree with their gender.
Another characteristic that is typical to Portuguese is verb conjugation. Each pronoun has its corresponding verb conjugation which changes depending on the time and mood of what is being said.
Continental/African Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese vary in the way that personal pronouns are used. In the former regional varieties, personal pronouns are more often hidden behind their respective verb conjugation. In Brazilian Portuguese, however, pronouns are plentiful and permeate even the written form of the language.
Portuguese speakers like to be animated when communicating, often speaking loudly, joking around and appearing to English speakers to be friendly and easy-going.
How do these characteristics make it important to use properly qualified, professional translators?
The societies in which Portuguese is spoken are predominantly modern with well-established political, economical and market systems. There is a high level of literacy in these countries and translation plays an important role in their publishing markets. Middle class Portuguese speakers are consumer-savvy, often well-traveled and keenly tuned into the international media through the Internet and cable TV.
Clients who are trying to market their products or services in Portuguese-speaking countries must use qualified, professional translators when creating their materials for use in such countries. Mistakes committed when communicating about their products or services may contribute to whether or not a company sinks or swims in such markets.
Do you know examples where translation or localization mistakes have occurred with this language, such as problems with text expansion, date/time formats, counting errors, character encoding, etc., or mistakes with the translation itself?
In my professional life as a translator, I have seen too many translation mistakes to fit in one page.
In more general terms, these are some of the issues to be considered. The expansion factor in Portuguese (vis-a-vis English) is between 15-20%. Dates are represented in day/month/year format; in Continental/African Portuguese, months of the year and days of the week are capitalized, whereas they are not in Brazilian Portuguese. Time is represented using a military 24-hour format and not with am/pm. Often badly drafted Portuguese translations follow an English capitalization rule which requires that the first letter of every item in a heading be capitalized; whereas in Portuguese, only the first letter of the first word should be capitalized.
Earlier on in my career I translated airline menus for flights going into Brazil, and sometimes it was difficult to find lexical equivalency for gourmet and international menus received by first class and executive class passengers. Once a stewardess decided she was going to localize my menu by simplifying it greatly – to match the register of an average Brazilian. It completely defeated the purpose of the original document and its well thought-out and researched translation.
Another instance was an editing job I received for a well-known airline whose slogan stated “Airline X will take you to far away places.” In Portuguese it said “A companhia aérea X o levará para o além,” which backtranslates as “Airline X will take you to the land of the dead.”
Relate an example or two where you found a website page or form difficult to use because it was poorly localized into your language/locale. How might a business lose money, prestige or incur legal risk due to this bad translation?
It is often difficult to translate for Portuguese-speaking communities living in the United States due to the mixed character of the language people speak (a mix of English and Portuguese). For instance, when interpreting in court, one can speak about “parole” as “ liberdade condicional,” but the Portuguese speaker often does not know this terminology in Portuguese and may often be aware of the English word in the American legal system.
In Brazil, a campaign by McDonald’s gave rise to a modification in the preposition used in a common Portuguese verb. “Ask for number 1” in English (when ordering one of the pre-set meals) became “ Peça pelo número 1” which grammatically does not require the preposition “pelo.”
Years ago an American car manufacturer decided to market the sedan “Pinto” in Brazil, which unfortunately did not work because “Pinto” is a slang word to refer to the male genitalia. More recently, Kia Motors launched a van named “Besta,” a word used to insult someone as an idiot.
In general terms, however, the main problem found when faced with badly translated websites and forms is the fact that the users of such documents are unable to make sense of the information presented to them. One of the biggest problems is that the translation is too literal and the user is only able to understand what is being conveyed with prior knowledge of English.
In specialized fields such as computers, engineering, law and technology, the two broad regional varieties of Portuguese (Continental/Africa vs. Brazilian) use very different terminology. Portugal bases its computer terminology on French while Brazil likes to use English terms for new computer technology. Native speakers from either country literally cannot understand what the other variety means when reading a computer manual or interacting with software or a webpage.
A business may be the laughing stock of an entire nation if there are serious mistakes in the translation of documents related to its products or services. Money may be lost in wrongly translated boxes and/or advertising materials.
Read more...
Anniversaries
McElroy Translation appreciates the business of the following clients and announces the anniversaries of these client relationships:
10 years
- Chiron Corporation - Regulatory Affairs
- Law Offices of William Ryan
5 years
- Cato Research, Ltd.
- Kremblas, Foster Phillips & Pollick
- Locke, Liddell & Sapp, LLP
- Pepsi-Cola Company
- Procter & Gamble - Chemicals R&D
- Southwest Research Institute - Export & International Affairs
|
|
|
McElroy’s Vision Statement
Setting the industry standard in customer satisfaction
McElroy’s Mission Statement
McElroy Translation provides translation and localization services in all languages to business and government clientele enhancing their ability to compete in global markets.
|
August promo
Celebrating Remarkable People
Ralph McElroy had energy and a can-do attitude towards accomplishing goals. To celebrate his life and recognize all those kindred spirits out there, we invite you to nominate someone you know who shares this same indomitable spirit and joie de vivre. Nominate a person you think exemplifies an enthusiasm for life and tell us a little about them. We will select some of the stories to publish in next month’s E-Buzz and one nominee’s name will be drawn to receive $200 to use any way they like.
Not everyone knows a superhero, but most of us know a person whose life philosophy we admire. Nominating someone is easy. Click here to tell us about the special person you know!
McElroy Case Study Contests
We invite you to enter two case study related contests.
#1: Best Published Case Study by an E-Buzz Reader
Submit your organization’s published case study. McElroy’s Marketing Manager and PR agency will select the “best story” award winner. The winner will be announced in next month’s E-Buzz publication garnering acclaim for their marketing savvy and $500 toward their next translation. Submit entries to casestudy@mcelroytranslation.com.
#2 Best Potential Story for a McElroy Case Study
Click here to enter information. All participants will receive a $10 Amazon gift card and the winner will receive $500 toward their next translation.
Case studies explore relationships and describe how organizations mutually solve problems. These narratives help brands connect empathically with buyers. Ultimately, we like them and we rely on them because appreciation for a good story crosses all cultural, geographic and demographic boundaries.
...or just go ahead and enter for your chance to win!
ATA-TCD Conference in San Antonio, Texas
McElroy Operations Manager Kim Vitray was pleased to organize and host the 8th Annual Conference of the Translation Company Division of the American Translators Association in San Antonio, TX, on July 26-29, in her role as Administrator of the Division. The event drew 89 attendees from around the world, including visitors from Guatemala, Canada, Argentina, Singapore, Mexico, Peru, Germany, Netherlands Antilles, and New Zealand. We were especially pleased to have ATA President Marian Greenfield with us for the conference.
Our Thursday evening banquet was a thoroughly Texas affair, with barbecue and all the trimmings. Guests were invited to wear their boots and 10-gallon hats for the occasion, and you can see from the accompanying photo that our friends from Gold Sponsor Beetext entered fully into the spirit of things!
Conference sessions this year focused on workflow tools and project management. Presenters and topics included:
- Ann Macfarlane, former president of ATA, “Leadership in Translation and in Life”
- Ben Sargent, Common Sense Advisory, “The TMS Explosion: 15 Translation Management System Scorecards”
- Lauren Peters, PetersGroup Public Relations, “Communicating about Your Business”
- Michael Airaudi, PM Mentors, “Project Management—The Basics”
- Charles Campbell, spanishbackoffice SA, “Using PMI to Advance PM Training and Enhance Company Profits”
- André Hudon, MultiCorpora, “The Next Step in Translation Project Management Automation”
- Tomasz Mróz and Andrzej Nedoma, XTRF Management System, “XTRF—Global Management System for Translation Agencies”
- Ellen Miller, TEAM Performance, “Going the Extra Mile—Customer Service That Delights”
Read more...
|
What can Homer Simpson, Disney Fairies and Harry Potter teach us?
If we are trying to make a business, product and/or brand successful globally, they can teach us quite a bit. The export of each of these franchises from an English-speaking market has seen unparalleled levels of success with global audiences in those audiences’ native languages. One could argue that while each cultural icon retains many of the traits that are specific to where it originated, it also began with very universally-appealing traits, and carries with it some degree of adaptability to the new cultures that appreciate it.
In the case of Homer Simpson, an icon that is as every bit American as the Wal-mart and McDonald’s brands, his character traits of being both stupid and lovable carry universal appeal.
"Homer resembles so many men," Mexican columnist Guadalupe Loaeza said. “I see my husband, who, by the way does not miss an episode, and how he resembles Homer Simpson in his insecurities, self criticism, his clumsiness -- but all in a loving way."
Unlike those American brands, which are finding it difficult to reach global audiences in new markets, people can relate and project their own husbands and fathers onto him, making Homer and The Simpsons seem unobtrusive.
What could be more American than Disney? Disney, of course, has had its share of mixed success when opening theme parks in new regions outside of the U.S. However, it appears to have a solid global hit on its hands with the introduction of the Disney Fairies franchise. Disney appears to have learned some lessons about taking a product or brand global, and the Disney Fairies books are currently published in 51 countries and 33 languages, while the magazines reach 24 countries. The franchise website, boasting 2.5 million new custom fairies created in three months, gives us an idea of why the Fairies are such a hit. Not only has Disney thoroughly gone global with this franchise, it has also made it possible for users worldwide to highly personalize their fairies and share them with friends, making this Disney product something more than a generic, one-size-fits-all brand for its global consumers.
It wouldn’t be proper to talk about a current global success without mentioning Harry Potter, though we expect that most E-Buzz readers are certainly aware that the Harry Potter franchise is not limited in its popularity to simply the U.S. and the U.K. As with Homer Simpson, certain universal themes allow readers to see themselves in Harry Potter, even though he is very much a British chap.
“…with such universal themes - the struggle of the apparently bumbling Potter against the dark forces of Voldemort and his Death Eaters, cross-cut with magic rituals and the inadequacies of the Ministry of Magic - every culture can relate to the plot. From Thailand to Russia kids are copying the spells.”
Some might even argue that Harry Potter is more of an American export, as the icon had to find success in the U.S. first, before obtaining global popularity. Why do brands like Wal-Mart and McDonald’s have such difficulty gaining acceptance around the globe? One might even ask why the general global opinion of the U.S. itself can be so negative in light of these very successful phenomena? Is it because these are merely pop culture icons, and therefore easier to export than say, a Starbuck’s or a war on terror? Perhaps. It could also be that avid fans of these characters do not feel that their own heritage and cultures are being violated, and what’s more, they feel empowered and integral to the experience of a Homer Simpson, Disney Fairy or Harry Potter.
|
|
|
|
Read case studies to learn more about McElroy’s DTP and localization solutions.