50,000 Latinos?

Posted by Intern Tim Hemphill, a student at the UW with a double-major in Spanish/Economics.

Fiestas Patrias is taking place at The Puyallup Fair again this year, an event for the Hispanic community filled with excitement and entertainment, from live music and dancing to great Latin American foods. It's a full day of festivities on September 20 at the fairgrounds.

In recent years, over 50,000 people from the community have participated, and this year will be no different.

So for companies in the Northwest: If you are interested in having a booth at this event, just contact us to learn more! Email or call 206.621.2185.

For the rest of you, join us at Fiestas Patrias for a great time to experience Latino culture and have fun.

TRANSLATIONS: ¡muy importante!

I'll take this moment while I'm stuck in a Spokane, WA hotel to tell you why I know that translations are ¡pero, muy importante!

At Conexión Marketing, we do a lot of work with the Spanish language. In fact, nearly all the creative we're involved with is in Spanish, targeting the U.S. Hispanic market. We do our own original copywriting in Spanish, as well as translation management.

Many times, our clients come to us with a translation they've been provided by a third party. Sometimes these translations work just fine; other times they're just not good or (GASP!) clearly Internet-generated translations. (That's a definite NO-NO!) Sometimes the mistake isn't syntactical, but cultural.

So even just in the past couple of weeks, we've seen our share of big mistakes:

• Credit card communications copy in which the legal disclaimer had inaccurate translation that would render the Client liable;
• An interview screener that asked the wrong question in Spanish, based on cultural differences, and caused the "qualified" participants to become "unqualified," creating a last-minute scramble and additional cost to replace them;
• And our favorite (those who know Spanish will see the humor in this one): a client who provided the translation for "fro" (as in "afro") as "vaivén." This term can refer to something that waves do in the ocean, for example. ?? We couldn't figure out this one until we did some research. The dictionary showed one definition of "vaivén" as "to and fro." Even non-Spanish speakers will see how very wrong this is, because the "translator" took the term "fro" completely out of context. It made absolutely no sense!

To top it off, the above examples are from brands you all know!

Of course, we scrutinize all copy, whether we've managed the translation job ourselves, or are provided with a translation the client would like us to work from. It's always included in our service.

We've found that it ends up costing the client less money, and certainly less time and trouble, to get a correct and culturally relevant translation in the first place.

Think about it: If you wanted some copy written for your website, would you just turn to the first person who happens to speak English to write that copy for you? Well, this is what we've seen over years and years in the business! Our clients suggest that they have someone on staff (not a writer, not a creative) who "speaks Spanish." Sometimes that person isn't even a native Speaker! Sometimes they have not formally studied the language, so while their conversational abilities are just fine, they are not qualified to write your copy.

That neighbor who's from south of the border, or that staff person who is a native speaker, may give you a really "good deal," but you must think of your translations as an investment. You don't want a "good deal," you want it done right.

The language you employ--be it in your advertising, on your website, on your voice greetings--reflects your very brand. Make sure it speaks to your audience the right way in every language you take on.