Never walk alone – 3 ways of expanding with idioma

Cooperation. The fundamental pillar of our civilization and a vital factor of evolution at any level. Through  cooperation and partnership, we share and improve and build synergistic effects that are beneficial to everyone. Even competition and cooperation do not exclude each other in a developed business environment. idioma's core processes are based on international cooperation and mutual respect, and we feel it as our mission to bridge the differences in culture and business via languages by applying a cooperative approach. Our Partner program is a case in point.

Friends from the translation industry

Even in today's competitive environment, its important to find efficient ways of mutual thriving and progressive development. That is why we offer our partners something that can't be supplemented by any investment – 35 years of professional experience in the translation industry. With our in-house developed CAT tools, vast TM resources, a world-wide network of translators and coverage of 70+ languages, we are able to offer our partners from other translation agencies attractive rates, and often for uncommon language pairs. With our 24/7 online cloud solutions for both clients and translators, we are capable of deliveries within 4 hours and help our colleagues from other translation agencies and language service providers to always meet tight deadlines. Sounds too good? Find out more here :)

Effective agents with sales drive

Language service providers are just one of many who can benefit from a partnership with idioma. Having good sources of business is just as vital as the core professional capability. If you have contacts and a network, sales talent and drive, you're just the one we want to be friends with. Efficient mediators can develop  interesting business concepts that build on our services and solutions, whether in passive or active mode. Dear 007s, look here to learn more.

Innovative web entrepreneurs – unite with us!

Not a translator, not a star salesperson? Doesn't matter, we'd like to be friends anyway, because we simply love web developers! You build websites full of content that's just begging to get translated... With our API solution, you can profit from the upsell and earn commissions with very little effort whenever your clients need translation. We encourage web developers to take our API and build up on it, then offer customized and state-of-the art integration of a localization module in different CMS and server systems. So team up with us – you code, we translate, your customers sell more, and together we earn! More about our translation API and developers' partnership here!

Business trip to Tokyo - part 3: New vs. old in Japan

Tokyo is the biggest and probably one of the most overcrowded cities in the world with a rich history and numerous peculiarities of its own. It's full of rules, restrictions and signs ensuring that the mass of people is capable to coexist in such dense living and implements various means and tech gadgets to ease the chaos resulting from "unnecessary" human contact. No wonder about that. Tokyo (or Edo, as it was originally named until less than 150 years ago when it became the imperial city and official capital of Japan) was inhabited by over million of people already by the end of the 18th century. Although the emperor still remained in Kyoto, Edo was a de facto capital and trade center since the line of Tokugawa shoguns declared the city as their headquarters. 

Heavily destroyed twice during the 20th century, after a strong earthquake in 1923 and later the 2nd world war, the city of Tokyo was fully rebuilt, more or less delicately combining the aspects of old and new, traditional and modern. The city has preserved its genius loci, and it keeps its antique appearance despite being crisscrossed by railways and expressways and dotted with skyscrapers all over. The narrow streets with typical architecture surrounded by the pulsing, modern city around them maybe what makes Tokyo so popular among tourists.

Typical rice wine barrels  in front of a typical building and details that blend old and new.

Crime rates are extremely low given the number of inhabitants in this metropolis. You don't need to be afraid not to lock everything up; your stuff is usually right where you last left it.

Even the grocery stores feel, well, traditional, with goods often displayed outside, right on the street. No security around. The Japanese culture relying on rules and manners simply doesn't expect you to do something as incomprehensible and low as shoplifting :)

Religion has a huge say in terms of traditions. Displays with wooden plates at local temples or little papers where people write their wishes and prayers are a common sight around the city...

 ...and sometimes you dont even know how, you suddenly get from here...

...to here. The city skyline also features green parks with pagodas, lakes, trees and most importantly peace... 

...Buddha statues...

 ...and an occasional geisha :)

Tokyo is indeed one striking city with its specific nature, business opportunities and experience it provides, mainly to "Western" people. Knowing different cultures and how people think are key issues to mutual understanding, in both human and business relations. Here at idioma, we are fully dedicated to help you with understanding different cultures and markets and expand your business thanks to a localized message. Learn more at www.idioma.com! 

Business trip to Tokyo - part 1: Japanese signs

Business trip to Tokyo - part 2: Reign of Machines in Japan

Language facts: Italian

Italian is a member of the Romance group of languages. It is the official language of Italy, San Marino and Vatican City, and one of the official languages of Switzerland. Italian is spoken by about 58 million people in Italy, 30,000 in San Marino, and 840,000 in Switzerland. Italian is regarded as the 4th or 5th most studied language in the world and is also an official EU language. It is also one of the most visited countries in the world – close to 40 million people go there every year – which could explain the interest in studying Italian.

Rome.
Source: DollarPhotoClub.com

Medieval lingua franca

Italian is descendant of Latin, or better said Vulgar (common) Latin, and shares or resembles Latin in terms of vocabulary more than other Romance languages. From late medieval to Renaissance (mainly due to the cultural and trade impact and dominance of Italy) Italian had a function of so called lingua franca – universal language in trade and international relations in Europe, similar to today's English. Italian is profound with its number of mutually incompatible dialects and it is said (with a little overstatement) that two neighboring villages don't understand each other when speaking in their own regional dialect. 

Well-known Italian words

Italian pizza.
Source: DollarPhotoClub.com

While it is common for many languages to have borrowed words from English and French, Italian is also a language from which many tongues have picked up a few terms. The most well-known are perhaps 'Pizza' (a word understood almost all over the word), 'Bank', 'Alarm' and 'Ghetto'. Other borrowed words that spring to mind come from the world of music and performance, e.g. 'Piano', 'Violin' and 'Opera'. In the world of science, look no further than 'Volt', which is an electric unit named after Alessandro Volta, the inventor of the world's first battery in 1779. 

Alphabet

Italian uses the same letters as in the English alphabet, with acute, grave and circumflex accents on vowels. Some letters (j, k, w, x, y) are excluded from the standard Italian though, used only in loan words.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Welcome to your new idioma experience!

FRESH - INTERACTIVE - EFFECTIVE. 

On June 1st, we released our new website and brand new idioma WORLD™ platform to enhance your possibilities in the translation universe. 

Apart from new services such as Translation Memory creation, Glossary Creation and our unique Stream Translation API, all current services, including Stream (for instant online estimates of translation price and delivery term) and Ask (systematized language queries) have been completely redesigned including a full overhaul of the functionality to make everything more user-friendly. 

The new idioma WORLD™ replaces our former TC platform and stuns users with a fresh, intuitive design. Moreover, it was designed to meet the new Web 3.0 standards and fully complies with mobile device requirements.

idioma WORLD™ controls all aspects of every project we handle. The system is closely interlinked with iQube, our web-based translation platform, which all translators and verifiers work against online. idioma WORLD™ has been developed in-house to manage localization projects the way we want. The system keeps track of all project details, including individual project steps. 

As a client, you can track on-going projects, who is the translator and reviewer, and easily see the progress on translation projects as percent ready. This can be highly useful for your planning and to assure you that delivery will be on time, especially when deadlines are tight. Obviously, as an intranet solution, idioma WORLD™ has built in https encryption/decryption with SSL certificates to ensure your data is safe and cannot be sniffed or hacked.

However, it's not just our clients, who will benefit from new idioma WORLD™ platform. The redesign included, inter alia, also supplier pages, adding motivational statistics and analysis of translator performance (including translation and verification speed and quality indicators). Thanks to this, as well as a comprehensive booking and availability tracking system, we take translation quality and speedy turnaround  to even higher levels. 

Don't have your idioma WORLD™ account yet? Register now at www.idioma.com and enjoy a whole new experience in ordering and managing translation projects! 

Business trip to Tokyo - part 2: Reign of machines in Japan

Tokyo is a dynamic city employing various means  to manage and transport the millions of people existing within. An elaborate system relying on manners, politeness, discipline and perfectionism prevents the most overcrowded capital in the world from bursting into mayhem. Apart from the rules, demonstrated virtually on every corner by enormous concentration of signs with orders and warnings (see Part 1 of this story), Tokyo – just like the rest of Japan – implements technology and machines to accelerate, minimize and automate almost every imaginable (and unimaginable) activity.

A stand-alone category are Japanese trains and train networks, considered the most elaborate and fastest on the globe. It is not uncommon for Japanese employees to commute very large distances thanks to high-speed rails and trains (and that's also maybe why so many time-killing tech gadgets originate from Japan). After all, if Japanese would prefer car transport to trains, the islands would probably turn into a gigantic, constant traffic jam. 

If you have an affinity for cars with no desire to experience the delights of the intense train transport and people pushers, you're bound to come across several peculiarities. How about horizontal traffic lights or "car traps" in parking lots that just won't let you out unless you pay to be released? Pretty smart.

If you need to refuel, don't get upset about the missing stands, just look up. There's another machine to assist you :)

...but if you look up in open streets, you will immediately notice the omnipresent electric cables in thick, yellow bundles. Technical progress takes its toll.

No car? No problem. Two kids to carry around? Still not a problem! By the way, the bike is electric – machines take over everywhere. Also, there's arguably not a lot of mothers who would have the steam to pedal up a hill with two kids aboard.

Another chapter in Tokyo are vending machines of all kinds. From the very common machines selling drinks or packed snacks, you can also buy hot burgers, living crabs, umbrellas, toys, even gold. Yes, the metal. On the street. From a vending machine. The idea is to automate the selling process and remove the "unnecessary" piece in the delivery chain – personal contact. There are fast food joints and restaurants in Tokyo that have removed the front-desk and service entirely, just to oblige their customers through an impersonal interface of a machine. Machines are our new friends!

...and in case you wanted to store your luggage, it requires a higher technical education :)

In contrast to highly elaborate technology luring around every corner, it's fascinating to observe how state-of-the-art machines blend in with culture and traditions thousands of years old, but no less visible for that matter. More about the fusion of old and new in Japan is coming soon in our blog :)

Translation tips: Language flavors

At idioma we translate into many different languages, over seventy at the last count, and in many different combinations (last we counted the permutations, it was over five thousand). Some of these languages are different variants of the same basic language. Sometimes they are very similar, at other times quite different.

Flavored by authorities

Source: DollarPhotoClub.com

For example, for Norwegian, two flavors exist: Bokmål and Nynorsk. Bokmål is by far the most common variant in Norway and is used in the private and commercial sector, while Nynorsk is used mostly in some western regions and in public administration. The two dialects differ considerably from each other.

Then for Portuguese, there are also dif­ferent tongues, and the language used in Portugal differs from the one used in Brazil, for example. In spite of the fact that a language reform has been signed into law (in Portugal in 2008), in reality there are quite many differences. Schools in Portugal now teach the new, standardized Portuguese language, which means that in a global perspective spelling and grammar should become standardized. Most newspapers and magazines in Portugal have also adopted the reform, which officially must have been applied by latest July 2014. The biggest obstacle, however, seems to be the choice of words. Especially in technical writing, there are numerous cases where Brazilians prefer different terms than those used in Portugal, which is one reason why Portuguese for Portugal and Portuguese for Brazil will most likely continue to coexist for quite some time. 

Spanish is another case in point where differences exist. Spanish in Spain tends to be quite modern with development in a different direction from other Spanish tongues. Most of the Spanish dialects in South America are quite conservative, while the dialects used in Mexico and the Caribbean are influenced by their proximity to the United States.

Does it matter in localization?

Many times, it is more important to know the target market than the language itself or whether a document will be used in many different markets. In Belgium, for example, people in the north speak Flemish, a variant of Dutch. This dialect can’t really be called a different language as spelling and grammar are the same as for standard Dutch. Here the difference is rather in the frequency in the words used, although all words exist in standard Dutch as well. However, it can make a surprising  difference when it comes to, say, localization of websites.

Similar to Flemish, the German vocabulary used in Austria and Switzerland is also common, however, the preferences, especially in Switzerland, are many times for different words than those that are commonly used in Germany. Additionally, in Switzerland the German character “ß” is not used, and instead people write “ss”.

In our work, we come across the issue of language flavor daily. We of course translate into the various dialects mentioned above, and many more, and we will be happy to help with issues regarding which language or dialect to translate into. 

Language facts: Chinese

First of all, it's important to mention that there's not only one universal written Chinese language. There are two dominating written systems of Chinese – Simplified used in mainland China and also an official writing system in Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau and other overseas Chinese diasporas. Then is traditional Chinese used largely in Taiwan and still in Hong Kong and Macau. Interestingly, spoken Chinese is not recognized as simple vs. traditional, but as Mandarin (mainland) and Cantonese (Hong Kong) dialects.

The Great Chinese Wall.
Source: DollarPhotoClub.com

Simplified Chinese

Chinese is the most important language among Sino-Tibetan tongues. Simplified Chinese is the official language spoken by the world's largest population, namely in the People's Republic of China, and the basic communication tool of today's most buoyant economy. This language system, consisting of several thousands of characters with each having unique meanings, is dramatically different from the western languages in terms of its wording, syntax and methods of expression. Simplified Chinese characters were promoted  mainly in the 1950s and 1960s by the governments of the People's Republic of China in attempt to increase literacy. If you are seeking business opportunities or planning to explore markets in China or Singapore, it's definitely a winning strategy to send over your messages in Simplified Chinese!

Traditional Chinese

Standard Chinese has developed gradually from the Mandarin dialect in the north of China over several hundred years, with the Peking tone as its standard tone. Traditional Chinese is the official language of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. The writing system is also referred to as ‘standard', ‘orthodox’ and ‘complex characters’. Chinese is currently the language used by most people in the world as nearly one fifth of the world's population, or about 1.3 billion people, speak Chinese as their native  language.

One of the most ancient languages in the world, with a history of 6,000 years today is also one of the working languages of the U.N. both in traditional and simplified forms.

Alphabet

Using special hieroglyphs, Chinese has a character as its minimum unit. Characters are meaning-representative  syllabic characters, with the special characteristics of integration of vision, voice and meaning. Syllables can be divided into three parts, namely initial consonant, compound vowel and tune. 

Alphabet samples:

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