A N E W S L E T T E R P U B L I S H E D B Y I N T E R N A T I O N A L C O M M U N I C A T I O N B Y D E S I G N , I N C .

Esprit d'ICD

WINTER 2011V O L . 1 0 N O . 1

The Pros and Cons of Crowdsourcing .................................}Multimedia: Changing how we communicate ............................}

New kiosk dispenses wine ......2Japanese Businessmen Get Back to Their Roots ...........2China to develop its own aircraft ...............................3Translation for right-to-left languages ............................................3Singapore’s Toast Restaurant ..........................................3

Suggested International Films ..........................................................2 Country Profile: United Arab Emirates .................3ICD on the road ...............................4

In This Issue

Features

Although text to text translation is still prevalent, companies are finding new methods of communicating with users in their target languages through graphics, sound, images, and video clips. With shifts in the approaches to delivering content, changes in the way that content is translated are also necessary.

Over the past two years, ICD has observed a three-fold increase in the amount of video and multimedia content for translation. Before moving too quickly into these areas, companies should consider the

challenges these content shifts represent.

Before creating a multimedia product for an international audience, businesses must consider a number of factors including:

• TECHNOLOGY - Plan for the delivery devices, such as Blackberry® and Apple® IPad® and learn to use current multimedia authoring platforms such as Articulate® and Adobe® Captivate®.

• VOICE AND DUBBING - Choose voice talents carefully and decide how you will record voices;

Multimedia: Changing how we communicate

Octopus CardIn Hong Kong, use the “Octopus Card” for the subway, trams, Star Ferry boat, and parking meters. You can purchase the card at the MTR (subway) stations throughout Hong Kong. You can add credit to it at various locations, and purchase items at certain businesses like Starbucks and McDonald’s. It’s a an easy and convenient way of travelling without having to carry cash.

ICD Travel Tip

The idea of crowdsourcing – or using a vast internet audience to contribute to a project – can take many forms from gathering ideas for marketing campaigns to writing content for online encyclopedias. Taking advantage of the knowledge of millions of internet users to further your corporate goals can be a productive and even profitable activity.

But there are also pitfalls to this approach.

One company that recently solicited ideas for a campaign to market their product found that within just two days, they had received hundreds of ideas.

The time their director would have spent to sort through and select the best suggestions far outweighed the costs they would have incurred in hiring a marketing campaign manager. Yet there are benefits to this approach including identifying untapped talent and innovative ideas that would

not have emerged when using just one marketing vendor.

Sites that provide research material, such as Wikipedia, often benefit from the knowledge of multiple experts in a field. In addition, experts can review

content being offered up and make needed corrections where factual errors exist. On the other hand, with no designated oversight, errors and misinformation can propagate when crowdsourcing is used.

The Pros and Cons of Crowdsourcing

Some major drawbacks

and advantages to using crowdsourcing:

PRO+ Many ideas from a large

number of users+ Reduced or no cost

+ Fast turnaround

CON- Lack of quality- Unreliability of contributors in

meeting deadlines- Lack of confidentiality for proprietary projects

Sources: www.marketingvox.com, www.cmswire.com

See Multimedia on page 2

2

EMPLOYEE PROFILE

Mitchell Donaldson Business Development Manager

With his background as an Account Executive for a localization service provider, Mitch brings to ICD solid expertise in understanding the complete localization process, identifying client needs for translation, and ensuring that client requirements are met.

Among Mitch’s activities at ICD are working at trade shows and serving as a consultant to clients requesting translation. Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Mitch is uniquely qualified to advise customers on reaching the Chinese market through translated collateral.

Having earned his BA in East Asian Languages and Literature at Indiana University in Bloomington, Mitch’s interest and proficiency in languages extends to French and Spanish as well.

A frequent traveler, Mitch served as a Database Manager for a sports hospitality company at both the Beijing Olympics and the World Cup in South Africa. In his spare time, Mitch enjoys rollerblading and collecting subway maps from around the world.

Japanese Businessmen Get Back to Their RootsWith urban farming becoming more prevalent as a source of ingredients for upscale restaurants, it’s no surprise that businesses are finding ways to incorporate this trend into their work day. In the Otemachi business district near Tokyo, a 1,000-square-foot indoor rice paddy has been created and is being maintained by office workers and professional gardeners. While creators view the rice paddy as a way for office workers to relax and get back to their horticultural roots, the indoor farm also supplies about 100 pounds of rice to the building’s cafeteria. Source: www.popsci.com

New kiosk dispenses wine through vending technology

Suggested International FilmsBienvenue chez les chtis (Welcome to the Sticks) (France 2008)

In an effort to please his wife, a French postal worker seeks a transfer to the French Riviera, but is instead caught scamming an inspector and is transferred to a town in the far north of France where the unemployed and hard-drinking residents speak a strange dialect called “Ch’ti”.

The White Ribbon (Germany 2009)

Set in rural northern Germany in 1913, the film chronicles a series of violent acts and punishment that seem to foreshadow the impending world war and suggest the origins of Fascism.

I Am Love (Io Sono L’Amore) (Italy 2009)

On the surface, a loving Italian family has its patina of propriety pulled back, revealing jealousies and tension at the family patriarch’s birthday gathering.

for example, decide whether to lip-synch the translated script or to use voiceovers.

• IMAGE SUITABILITY – Understand the cultural preferences of the target audience and ensure that images are appropriate.

• IMAGE ELEMENTS – Analyze lines, shapes and other graphic elements, especially color and how those elements will be perceived by the target audience. For example, some cultures respond well to red, while others may respond negatively.

• ENGLISH ACRONYMS – Avoid using English acronyms to convey learning concepts as such acronyms do not translate well into other languages; for example:

SELF = Selling Experience Like Fireor

FOUR = Finalizing Our User Resources.

At a time when businesses are closely watching their budgets, companies are increasingly finding themselves in a position to make the call between “ideal” versus “good enough” in developing and delivering content to a global customer base. In making those decisions, ensure you are well-informed on the many considerations to take into account when delivering multimedia content to international audiences.

Multimedia from page 1

As more and more consumers appreciate the convenience of self-checkout and vending machines, a French manufacturer has come up with a new idea for vending wine on demand. A greener approach than selling wine in individual bottles, the kiosks require that consumers bring their own reusable containers, reducing not just packaging but also transportation costs. Currently, the machines are available in eight supermarkets in France and if the idea takes off, it may spread to other European countries soon. Source: www.popsci.com

UNIQUE WORDS: EGOTWhile EGOT has not been officially adopted by Webster’s as a new word, Hollywood personalities may be getting accustomed to using this new term coined in a television show to refer to actors who have earned the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards.

Dining aficionados seeking to find yet another restaurant centered around a specific food might consider the Ya Kun restaurant chain in Singapore, which features dishes focused almost entirely on… toast. The restaurant uses a special thin toast to serve up a variety of dishes including cheese toast, French toast, cheesy French toast, and ice cream toast with flavors such as durian. One of the specialties is toast with kaya spread, consisting of eggs, sugar and coconut milk and flavored with pandan, an aromatic leaf that adds a sweet flavor. Source: www.yakun.com

International Culinary Adventures:

A Restaurant Dedicated to Toast in Singapore

Determine whether the desktop publishing tool that you will use to author your English content supports right-to-left target languages. Desktop publishing of the translated content will be easier if you have used one of these DTP tools at the outset of your project. One of the popular desktop publishing tools that provides this support is Adobe® InDesign® Creative Suite for Middle East Languages (CS-ME). Microsoft Office® also supports right-to-left languages.

Create graphics without any text if you are planning on translating into Arabic or Hebrew. Because most popular graphics tools do not currently support right-to-left content, translators cannot place the translated text within the versions of the graphics for the target

languages. Instead, create numbered callouts within the graphics. Then provide a separate table, as text, that provides the corresponding descriptions for each callout.

Pay close attention to web site layout when you are localizing in a language like Arabic or Hebrew. Because these are right-to-left languages, you will likely need to redesign the layout of the translated web pages to suit the reading patterns. This point is especially important when your web site contains navigational elements such as navigation bars or menus on the left of the page. For example, your vertical navigation bar typically belongs on the left side of the web page for English, but on the right side for Arabic or Hebrew.

Source: www.michelinguide.com

3

1. Japan ........... 17.27%2. South Korea ... 10.49%3. India ..............9.96%4. Iran ...............6.82%5. Thailand .........5.11%

1. China ............ 15.03%2. India ............ 14.27%3. U.S. ................8.44%4. Germany .........5.81%5. Japan .............4.52%

Export partners Import partners

COUNTRY PROFILE

(2009) (2009)

China to develop its own aircraftIn a few years, China may be joining the ranks of large aircraft manufacturers like Boeing and Airbus when its new C919 passenger jet goes into full production in 2016. The recently unveiled C919 aircraft, billed as a high-capacity jet, is not expected to be comparable to the huge Airbus A380 and the Boeing 737. If the 156-seat passenger aircraft proves to be successful, it will represent China’s first foray into the manufacturing and design of domestic-haul aircraft to meet the country’s own aviation needs. Source: www.popsci.com

The United Arab Emirates The UAE includes the states of Abu Zaby, ‘Ajman, Al Fujayrah, Ash Shariqah, Dubayy, Umm al Qaywayn, and Ra’s al Khaymah.

LAND AREA: 83,600 sq km (slightly smaller than Maine)

POPULATION: 4,975,593(based on 2005 census)

LANGUAGES: Arabic (official), Persian, English, Hindi, Urdu

MAJOR INDUSTRIES: Petroleum and petrochemicals; fishing, aluminum, cement, fertilizers, commercial ship repair, construction materials, some boat building, handicrafts, textiles Sources: The CIA World Factbook

ICD has MovedICD is in its new, larger, more advanced headquarters in Brookfield.

13040 West Lisbon Rd. Suite 600 – Brookfield, WI 53005Phone (262) 781-1644 Fax (262) 781-1654

This photograph of a creative translation into English was taken in Shanghai, China.

Source: “More Chinglish: Speaking in Tongues” Oliver Lutz Radtke, 2009, Gibbs Smith Publications

Translation tips for right-to-left languagesWhen translating your content into languages — such as Arabic and Hebrew — that are written from right to left, keep in mind these tips:

HUMOR IN TRANSLATION

United Arab Emirates

UAE

AbuDhabi

QATAR

SAUDI ARABIA

SAUDI ARABIA

OMAN

IRAN

IRAN

Persian Gulf

International Communication by Design, Inc.

13040 West Lisbon Rd. Suite 600 – Brookfield, WI 53005 (262) 781-1644 fax (262) 781-1654ICDTRANSLATIONTRANS2EVOLVE.BLOGSPOT.COM WWW.ICDTRANSLATION.COM

Esprit d'ICD is published three times per year by

Volume 10, Number 1

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION BY DESIGN, INC.13040 West Lisbon Rd., Suite 600Brookfield, WI 53005

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ICD on the RoadTranslate to Evolve℠

January 26-28 International Poultry ExpoGeorgia World Congress CenterAtlantawww.ipe11.org/

February 8-10World AG ExpoInternational Agri-CenterTulare, Calif.www.worldagexpo.com/

February 10–12NAFEMOrange County Conv. CenterOrlandowww.thenafemshow.org/

February 23-25Cygnus Aviation ExpoLas Vegas Convention CenterLas Vegaswww.biztradeshows.com/trade-events/cygnus-aviation-expo.html

March 6-8International Home & Housewares ShowMcCormick PlaceChicagohttp://housewares.org/

March 9-11IWCE Las Vegas Convention CenterLas Vegashttp://iwceexpo.com/iwce2011/public/enter.aspx

March 22-26Conexpo-Con/AggLas Vegas Convention CenterLas Vegashttp://www.conexpoconagg.com/