With the gloomy weather of the winter now firmly in our rearview mirror, T for Translation celebrates the long-awaited Beijing sun by featuring another of our shining stars: Marisa Bowers, Senior Director of Global Account Management. Here, she discusses how she maintains her laser-sharp focus on results, as well as the challenges of being a roaming client-interaction doyen!

This week at T for Translation, we zoom halfway around the world – much like a bird a plane a copyright-protected superhero from our fondly remembered childhoods – to hear from Jesse He in the latest episode of CSOFT Stories. Read on to find out more about Jesse’s super abilities.

Beginning next Monday, CSOFT will be attending the Content Management Strategies/DITA North America conference in Providence, Rhode Island. We’re excited to be attending this event and you should be too. Here’s why:

CMS/DITA is a gathering of some of the biggest names in content management, including Adobe and CIDM. For those unfamiliar with the term ‘content management,’ according to TermWiki, it is the “process of managing, organizing, storing, tracking ownership of, and distributing information.” Given today’s technological advances, when people refer to content management they generally mean online and digital content. CSOFT will be there to promote our multilingual content and terminology management services, as well as our localization and globalization capabilities.

With all the hustle and bustle going on here at T for Translation, we’d like to take a second to share another CSOFT Story. This week we hear from CSOFT’s Senior Director of Global Delivery, Sherry Wu, who, as it turns out, happens to be an expert in the field of multi-hat wearing. Check out her interview below!

A few weeks ago, we documented several examples of localization mishaps. To follow up, this week at T for Translation we’re providing a few success stories of companies that properly employed localization strategies and benefited immensely as a result.

KFC

Having gained mention in the previous post for the near-catastrophic mistranslation of its slogan, KFC has in point of fact done a rather impressive job of infiltrating the Chinese market. KFC’s most famous product is, of course, its fried chicken. Coming to China, the famous blend of 11 different herbs and spices remained largely unchanged; however, KFC introduced a range of China-specific food options to accompany the standard western fare. Pots of Chinese porridge, traditional Chinese breakfast breads, and a variety of rice-paired dishes all helped establish KFC’s image and popularity in China. The more adventurous young folks came to try out the American food they’d seen advertised, while those more set in their culinary ways enjoyed traditional dishes served with American fast-food flair. Chinese consumers were quickly won over by KFC’s speedy service and range of meal options.

This week’s blog entry on T for Translation makes a general case for how some of the standard service offerings of a localization provider can be beneficial to globalizing company brands. Whether you’re familiar with the localization industry or not, this piece should provide some food for thought, especially when considering current global trends.

We live in an increasingly interconnected and globalized world. With so many different avenues for advertising and so many diverse audiences to capture, maintaining a strong and consistent brand image and message has become progressively more difficult. As the game has changed, businesses looking to achieve international marketing success should consider adapting their strategies to meet these new challenges.

It all begins with understanding international markets, or trusting a company that does, such as a localization provider. A company that specializes in localization can help you make your brand internationally viable, because that is namely what they do: adapt products to be culturally and linguistically appropriate to specific target locales. Beyond that, however, localization companies can offer you a lot more to make your brand message stick. Here’s how:

Last week we introduced the first part of a two-part series on automatic terminology extraction, where translation tools expert and terminologist, Uwe Muegge, broke down terminology extraction and its role in the careful management of terminology. In this post, you’ll find suggestions regarding methods and tools for automating terminology extraction. Read on to see what tips Uwe has to give.

Welcome to Part One of a two-part series on automatic terminology extraction! Written by Uwe Muegge, CSOFT’s very own terminology management wizard, the five points in this post will supply readers with practical observations about and aspects of automatic terminology extraction. Don’t forget to stay tuned for next week’s Part Two, which will suggest different tools and methods to better manage terminology extraction.

It is probably safe to say that many, if not most, commercial translation and localization projects today are carried out without a comprehensive, project-specific, up-to-date glossary in place. I suspect that one of the primary reasons for this inefficient state of affairs is the fact that many participants involved in these projects are not familiar with the tools and processes that enable linguists to create monolingual and multilingual glossaries quickly and efficiently. Below are five valuable insights for linguists who wish to give automatic terminology extraction a/nother try.

In early June CSOFT International released a new tool designed to help both website hosts and viewers to accurately and efficiently express and understand terms online. Providing instantaneous access to TermWiki’s massive and ever-growing database, TermWiki Widget has answered the prayers of one avid terminologist and TermWiki user in particular. Below, Maria Pia Montoro shares with us her views on online terminology management and collaboration, and just how TermWiki Widget has made it all easier.

Last month, CSOFT International launched TermWiki Widget, an innovative new tool that allows anyone who runs a blog or website to give their readers access to domain-specific terms and definitions by displaying relevant entries from TermWiki’s vast, multilingual database. Best of all: To implement this powerful and completely free glossary solution only takes six easy steps.