Workplace Safety is No Accident

Posted on December 18, 2012 by admin

“For safety is not a gadget but a state of mind.” – Eleanor Everet, Safety Expert

Facing the facts

Every year, according to the International Labour Organization, an estimated two million people die due to occupational accidents and work-related diseases. There are about 270 million occupational accidents and 160 million work-related diseases reported annually. We can all easily be a part of these statistics if we are not careful enough.

Case in point: Just 2012 alone has seen many fatalities and casualties taking place during the course of work. There were fire breakouts, scaffolding blunders, fatal falls and the most recent being the Jurong Shipyard rig accident which left 89 workers injured.

Safety: Not a given

Safety at the workplace should not be taken for granted. It may be the company’s duty to ensure a secure environment for all, but it is equally important for employees to be vigilant and be on the constant look out for anything that may jeopardize their well-being.

Here are some tips you should keep in mind for a safer working environment:

1. Get some training and learn how to identify hazards, manage risks and do the job safely before
you start.
 
2. Ask your supervisor to watch and check that you are doing the job the right way.
 
3. Speak up and let supervisors know if you think a task is too dangerous or difficult for you.
 
4. Ask questions and check with supervisors and co-workers when you aren’t sure or can’t remember how to do a job safely.
 
5. Learn what to do and where to get help in an emergency.
 
6. Always follow the safety rules and
procedures.		 7. Always wear any personal protective equipment provided by your employer.
 
8. Report all injuries (minor or major), OHS incidents and near misses.
 
9. Look out for and report hazards.
 
10. Keep an eye on your co-workers,
especially if they are new to the workplace and don’t know all the OHS
issues.
 
11. Try to get a good night’s rest before
heading into work. Feeling tired can lead to dangerous mistakes.
 
12. If you have a safety concern, talk with more experienced workers such as supervisors, co-workers or your family to get some advice.

Credit: Talking Safety

Integrating good, health practices into your everyday life

You can also advocate workplace safety with the small things: by adopting a healthier lifestyle and routine. Give your eyes a break if you have used the computer for quite  while. Take a short walk once every few hours: you don’t have to head out of the building, a brief walk around the office compound will suffice. Make it a point to include more fruits as part of your diet – us Verztec folks have a designated fruit day every month – and exercise regularly.

Many hands make light work

In all, it’s best if everyone makes the effort to look out for themselves as well as for each other.

See a paper shredder unused but not turned off? Flip the switch button. Notice a box lying around a blind spot, along a common walk way? Move it to somewhere safer. Spot a flickering light in the storage? Report it immediately.

Do not leave your safety in the hands of others and do not assume someone else will do the deed for you. You never know when it is your simple act of consideration that can help save a fellow colleague a whole lot of fuss and complications.

After all, it is better to be safe than sorry and prevention is better than cure.

So what are your thoughts on safety at the workplace? Share your list of to-dos when it comes to maintaining the optimum environment for all.

Posted in Current Affairs | Leave a comment

Verztec Connexions – November 2012

Posted on November 21, 2012 by admin

Posted in Communications, Connexions, Global Content Management, Verztec | Leave a comment

Using Social Media to Boost Language Service Business

Posted on November 15, 2012 by admin

Social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are no longer merely “phenomena.” Within the space of just a few years, they’ve become essential components of many firms’ marketing and public relations plans. But social media is notoriously difficult to monetize. How can language service providers (LSPs) leverage these networks for their companies’ benefit? This brief offers several important guidelines to follow – and some pitfalls to avoid.

Use Social Media Platforms with a Strategic Purpose in Mind

Your company’s social media profiles are a window for the rest of the world to learn more about you. Increasingly, your most recent tweets or status updates might be among the first search results that potential customers find. In other words, their very first impression of your company may come through one of these channels. Most LSPs agree that a social media presence is important, but very few stop to consider what kind of presence they want to create. Consider these questions:

  • “Are our customers actually here?” Many companies assume they need to have a social media presence before they’ve conducted the basic research to find out whom they want to reach online. Are the decision-makers and influencers you really want to reach using these platforms? If so, which ones? What type of content are they looking for, and how can you provide something better than what others have on offer? Random thoughts on a wide range of topics will not make you the go-to source of expertise. First, find out where your customers are – what groups they belong to, what pages they are fans of, and which companies or individuals they follow. Then tailor your content to fit those channels.
  • “What do we really want our brand to convey?” Social media platforms are not necessarily a place to adhere to a strict brand voice guide – in fact, services like Twitter demand you to keep your tweets concise and to use hashtags (#) to flag your topics so that other users can find them more easily. That said, you still need to develop basic rules regarding what type of image you want to convey. Is the person who controls your brand presence on social media familiar with your most salient marketing messages and your brand attributes? Review your company’s last 30 status updates and tweets. Is there a common theme, or is it scattered? Does the company put forth an image consistent with your marketing goals?
  • “What type of information will we provide?” One of the most common mistakes we see LSPs make is that they use social media platforms as soapboxes to brag about themselves. While an occasional “Hooray for us!” update isn’t harmful, a steady stream of self-centered updates will turn people away or simply cause them to ignore you. Instead, focus on what you can deliver that is of value to your customers. What kind of information can you provide to them that will be helpful in their daily work? Can you provide a daily datapoint relevant to their work, or a helpful tip that will make their life easier? Make sure that the resources you link to are worthwhile for your customers and prospects. Don’t link only to your own website – this will be seen as the overt self-promotion that it is. Link to your own web properties only when you really have something valuable to share.
  • “What is our network growth strategy?” Social networking is about building networks of individuals with shared interests. What are those interests? Are they clearly stated in your profile or description so that potential contacts can easily find you? Do you conduct a daily search for new contacts with the same interests? Do you use these terms frequently in your status updates? Do you frequently re-tweet items from the “social media celebrities” – individuals who specialize in these fields and boast the largest number of contacts? We’ve spotted many LSPs who focus extensively on the content but not enough on the contacts – meaning that while their updates are good, their network size fails to grow much. This usually means that they are not focusing on the basics – building their networks.
  • “Are we engaging our employees and partners?” Invite your staff – including your network of freelancers – to become a fan, connect to you, or follow your firm. Set a goal – can you get 50% of your employees connected to your social media platforms in the next six months? Launch an internal campaign to get as many individuals connected to your company as possible, thereby increasing your reach – and making you a more sought-after contact in the process. Encourage them to use your company hashtag – if need be, set up a quick internal webinar to teach them how to use the platforms and to communicate your goals to them. Consider offering a prize for people who build their networks with the company’s interests in mind – for example, offer an incentive to the first person to connect to 20 localization managers in a given industry.
  • “Are we a contact worth keeping?” Don’t forget to give people a reason to connect to you and stay connected – content is not necessarily sufficient. Action and interactivity are more important. Do you have periodic giveaways, raffles, or contests? Are you planning a local get-together? Are you offering a free webinar on a topic that will help the people you most want to reach? Do you provide an interesting brain-teaser or something else that will entertain people and keep them coming back? Make sure whatever information you’re providing is of sufficient quality to keep people returning to you.

Additional Considerations for Social Media-Savvy LSPs

Has your language services business already covered many of the fundamentals? If so, ask yourself the following questions:

  • “Are we using the right tools?” If you find yourself struggling to constantly keep your Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn profiles updated, chances are you’re failing to take advantage of tools that enable you to automatically send out the same messages across multiple platforms. The mechanics of keeping a prominent place in the social media stream are becoming easier all the time with tools such as Brizzly, Buzzom, HootSuite, Seesmic, TweetDeck, and TwitHive. Today, you can easily populate your Facebook and LinkedIn pages using your Twitter feed with such tools. In fact, they are essential for ensuring a consistent brand presence across multiple social media networks.
  • “Is our social media content aligned with SEO?” What search terms and keywords are you using on your web pages and in your press releases? Are you using the same terms in your social media messaging? Many companies fail to recognize that much of the same work they are doing for search engine optimization (SEO) and marketing can yield good results with social media campaigns as well. If you’re not already in close contact with your webmaster about these issues, you need to be. Find out which pages of your website are most popular, and what search terms most frequently bring people to those pages. Make sure you are integrating this information into your social media marketing work.
  • “Are we setting micro-goals?” One of the best features of social media for marketers is the ability to track specific information and tie it back to specific campaigns or objectives. Make sure that you are setting micro-goals – for example, achieving a set number of members of a LinkedIn group, a high number of re-tweets or expanded following on Twitter, a specific number of views or embeds of a YouTube video, or a number of fans or Likes on Facebook. You can also use unique URLs to track which channels are most successful. Micro-goals should tie to other concrete goals – such as an increased number of subscribers to a blog and, eventually, the number of actual sales leads generated.
  • “Are we engaging younger generations?” Don’t overlook the power of Generation Y when building your networks. The individuals you sell to today are likely in their 30s or 40s. But are you reaching the 20-somethings who will be your customers a few years from now? What about the freelancers who might still be in college now, but could be among your most talented and trusted resources in the years to come? Think creatively to find ways to engage younger generations. Conduct outreach to translation and interpreting programs at universities. Join social media groups for students in the areas that commonly produce individuals with localization manager titles. Find ways to reach these important contacts earlier in their career paths, so that they are fully familiar with your brand – and have positive associations with it – later in life.
  • “Is it time for a social media policy?” For better or worse, most organizations have to develop social media policies at some point, or they risk their brand being associated with the random electronic mutterings of employees regarding everything from their favorite soccer team to their spats with family members – none of which will help you accomplish your business objectives. Who will be allowed to represent your brand officially through social media channels? Will anyone review their messages prior to posting? What happens if they leave the company – will you gain control of their public profile, or do they retain it? Are they encouraged to re-tweet, share, or re-purpose your messages? If you do decide to leverage your employees, provide them with detailed examples of what type of behavior is appropriate in these platforms – and what isn’t.
  • “Are we over-doing it?” It’s fine to be excited about new ways to reach your target marketers – in fact, social media is in many ways a marketer’s dream, but it can also turn into the target’s nightmare. Beware of bombarding your contacts with too many messages – a steady stream of useful information is great, but if you are not careful, your constant updates could easily be regarded as spam. Take care – and enlist others to obtain feedback about your social media presence. Ask some of your contacts and followers for their suggestions and advice – not just regarding the content but regarding the frequency of its distribution.

Social media is definitely fun, interactive, and dynamic. But we see too many LSPs take the plunge without developing a strategy or thinking about how social media will help them advance their larger marketing objectives. Too often, they have “joined the conversation” without thinking about what they really want or need to say. To build a social media presence that will help your company grow, remember that social media platforms are just part of a much larger marketing strategy. Make sure to keep your overarching marketing goals front and center to determine how social media can help you achieve them.

Verztec is a leading ISO 9001:2008 Global Content Consulting Services Company. Verztec assists companies around the world to design, develop, localize and publish their global communication messages in over 60 languages across various channels. For more information as to how Verztec may partner and assist in your next localization project, kindly contact us at info@verztec.com or call +65 6577 4646 now.

*Sources: Using Social Media to Boost Language Service Business: 26 July 2010 by Common Sense Advisory, Inc.

Posted in Communications, Emergent Markets, Language, Localization, Marketing Communication, Social Media | 1 Comment

The Logo Mishaps of Giant Brands

Posted on October 4, 2012 by admin

By Tim Gray Content Strategist, Blue Fountain Media

Tim Gray is content strategist with Blue Fountain Media. He has wide ranging background in the online marketing space and writes about his experiences with SEO, Social Media and all aspects of web design for the company’s blog, The ROI Factor. As a writer, journalist and marketer with over a decade of experience reporting for some of the world’s most respected publications, he often writes about the innovative tools small businesses and entrepreneurs can use to be successful.

Everybody makes branding mistakes. Early missteps in retrospect often are as big as the eventual names of some of the companies who made them – Google was originally called Back Rub, Pepsi-Cola was known as Brad’s Drink, and IBM started out as Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation, to name just a few.

And a company’s logo is just as tricky and as important as its name. Your logo is the most powerful and immediately identifiable part of your brand. Properly done, a logo instantly communicates and reflects your company’s personality. It also connects with your consumers. Done poorly, a logo can turn people off to your business and damage your reputation before you’ve had a chance to make your pitch.

But take heart, not everyone hits a homerun the first (or second or even third) time at the plate. Here are five iconic brands that did it their way, and then decided to do it another way.

Apple

Apple 

Old logo, new logo

Apple’s original logo was designed by co-founder Ronald Wayne and has a decidedly dull look and feel. The original logo is pretty much the antithesis of everything the company stands for today. In fact, the drawing of Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree (complete with a William Wordsworth quote!) was not only ill-conceived but ultimately short lived. Within a year of founding the company in 1976, Steve Jobs demanded a redesign because he felt the logo was too intellectual and far too intricate to be stamped on computers.

The Gap

The Gap 

Gap faced so much hostility toward its new logo (on right) that it switched back to its old logo (on left).

In business not everyone travels in the same direction. And that also holds true for logo design. In the 1990′s clothing company, The Gap, hit upon what many to this day believe is one of the iconic logos of American fashion. So why in 2010 did the San Francisco-based clothing giant mess with success? According to reports at the time, company spokesperson Louise Callagy said the new logo was supposed to signify The Gap’s transition from “classic, American design to modern, sexy, cool.”

Of course, a new logo is a gamble. The Gap learned that lesson the hard way and reverted back to the old logo one week later.

Starbucks

Starbucks 

Old logo, new logo

Today’s Starbucks’ logo is as green as the eco-friendly company strives to be. But the coffee maker’s brand wasn’t always the color of money. In the early days the original Starbucks logo sported a brown woodcut illustration of a topless siren from Greek mythology. While that undoubtedly was fine back in the laidback 1970′s Northwestern U.S., a semi-nude icon probably wasn’t going to play well in the rest of America. In recent years the green, black and white logo has been significantly streamlined and the siren covered up. Starbucks’ current version — used since 1992 — is much more conservative and contemporary.

Google

Google 

Old logo, new logo

In a little more than a decade Google has grown from afterthought search engine into a global brand worth more than Disney, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola. It’s hard to fathom now, but at one point in the late1990′s Yahoo was the big player in the space. The now floundering company held such a dominant position it could afford to essentially lease out Google’s algorithm as a backup for instances when the Yahoo search engine couldn’t deliver immediate results to people’s queries.

It might not be a stretch to say that the Google guys wanted to be a bit more Yahoo-like. Just check out an earlier version of their logo complete with exclamation point!

Nokia

Nokia 

Old logo, new logo

Nokia was first founded in 1865 as a wood-pulp mill in southern Finland, and later in 1868 opened a second mill on Nokianvirta River, hence its name. After several years the mill was transformed into a share company, and ultimately evolved into one of the world’s biggest telecommunications companies. Given the company’s aquatic origin, it’s no wonder in 1966 Nokia execs chose the image of a fish for its logo. However, cooler heads ultimately prevailed and the fish head logo was reasonably replaced with a more fitting image for a global company.

Verztec Consulting is a leading ISO 9001:2008 Global Content Consulting Services Company. Verztec assists companies around the world to design, develop, localize and publish their global communication messages including Multilingual Brand Checks and Localization in over 60 languages across various channels.

VerztecPublish™ is the leader in Integrated Global Marketing Communications and Design Solutions. For more information as to how Verztec may partner and assist in your next design and localization project, kindly contact us at info@verztec.com or call +65 6577 4646 now!

Article reference source from Entrepreneur

Posted in Communications, Emergent Markets, Global Content Management, Language, Localization | Leave a comment

Why Smart Companies Invest in Translation?

Posted on October 2, 2012 by admin

Is translation optional? Not if you’re determined to succeed. And if you want your business to actually grow, you have even more reasons to mind your language(s). This brief explains why translation is mission-critical for the success of any company that does business across borders or targets customers within its own domestic multicultural market. If you don’t invest in translation, you can’t reap the benefits, but chances are that your competitors will.

The Bottom Line and How Translation Boosts It

Our research repeatedly shows that translation enables companies to expand their customer base and increase revenue:

  • Translation gives you access to more customers. Many customers simply won’t buy your products unless you market to them in their language. How many are you missing? Our study showed that 72.1% of international consumers spend most or all of their time on sites in their own language. The 11 languages that allow you to reach 85% of the world’s online wallet are English, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese, German, Arabic, French, Russian, Korean, and Italian. And each language you add takes you further into any market where it’s spoken.
  • Translation unlocks global revenue from those customers. Overall economic growth has stalled in North American and Western European markets. As a result, companies headquartered in those regions are finding it a requirement, rather than an option, to offer additional localized versions of their products and services as quickly as possible in order to attract customers with rising incomes in emerging and frontier markets. Are you one of the many firms reporting decreasing domestic profits, while your global revenue is climbing upward? If not, you better find out why.
  • Translation enhances your existing market presence – even at home. Do you own 100% of any market that you’re already in today? Doubtful. But you can get closer to penetrating the markets you’re already in by adding more languages. Even just one language – such as Spanish in the United States, Polish in the United Kingdom, or Turkish in Germany – can help you reach customers in the locations in which you’re already spending marketing dollars, making that money go even further.
  • Translation costs very little. Your investment in languages will be insignificant compared to the international revenue it will enable. After all, the average cost per word to create original content is US$0.65, while the average cost per word for translated content is only US$0.10. Your financial and procurement teams will be on-board once they recognize that millions of dollars of additional income can be generated through a very minimal investment.
  • Translation doesn’t have to be difficult. If you’re concerned about losing control of your content when it moves into other languages, rest assured that there are professionals out there to help you. Recruit the talent you need to build a great translation team from a vast team of professionals in this $26 billion industry. Or outsource the function to professional language service providers (LSPs). The bottom line is that there is no reason to reinvent the wheel – plenty of companies (including competitors) have already learned the most painful lessons on your behalf.
  • Translation makes it easier to win against competitors. You can leverage your investment in global markets based on a defensive or offensive strategy. Either way, the goal is to prevent challengers from dominating markets that could have a negative effect on sales, revenue, or overall brand perception in other markets, including the one at home.
  • Translation provides your brand with a consistent voice. Over the last decade especially, firms have learned that consistent branding with local flavor represents a corporate asset with a hard dollar value. It now requires at least 16 languages if you want to be among the best at remaining competitive online.
  • Translation allows you to protect and enhance your global reputation. If your organization is not set up to implement every product or service launch around the world, then you risk relinquishing control to your customers. With machine translation readily available for many languages, people buy, write reviews, and provide feedback on your offerings whether or not you officially launch in their market.
  • Translation is often required by local markets anyway. You may be barred from selling your product or service unless it has been translated, and perhaps even adapted to meet local business requirements, in countries that have language compliance laws such as Belgium and Canada. Similar rules will apply for regulated industries such as energy, financial services, life sciences, telecommunications, and utilities. And even if you’re not in a regulated field, you may be required to translate in order to support customers who are.
  • Translation is simply what smart executives do. It’s not enough for you to merely mandate that your company be #1 in its top five markets around the world. To be able to earn globally over time, you must invest consistently in local markets and the internal teams to support them (see “The Global Business Leadership Manifesto,” Mar11). The key is to create a global presence through building many strong, local presences, which includes delivering and supporting products in the right languages that are adapted to the right level.

English may be the language of business, but it’s not the language of your local consumers. The demand for language directions such as Zulu<>Chinese and Turkish<>Chinese is increasing as new trading agreements are established. According to the International Monetary Fund, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) alone will account for as much as 61% of global growth over the next three years. Currently, these five countries comprise 42% of the world’s population and 18% of its GDP. And right behind them are Indonesia, Mexico, and Turkey as fast-growing economies with middle classes whose purse strings are loosening and whose wallets are expanding. Now is the time to put your international business strategy in order, supported by an appropriate translation plan, to allow your team to support local prospects and customers according to their expectations.

Verztec is a leading ISO 9001:2008 Global Content Consulting Services Company. Verztec assists companies around the world to design, develop, localize and publish their global communication messages in over 60 languages across various channels. For more information as to how Verztec may partner and assist in your next localization project, kindly contact us at info@verztec.com or call +65 6577 4646 now!

*Sources: Why Smart Companies Invest in Translation: 1 January 2012 by Common Sense Advisory, Inc.

Posted in Communications, Emergent Markets, Global Content Management, Language, Localization, Translation | Leave a comment

Reaching New Markets through Transcreation

Posted on August 30, 2012 by admin

How do you reach customers who buy your products and services for completely different reasons than those in your home market? At some point, you will probably have to recreate or adapt your messaging and content through transcreation, a process whereby new content is developed or adapted for a given target audience, rather than translated directly from the original version.

Images speak louder than words when it comes to defining transcreation. The examples that follow show how a pharmaceutical manufacturer markets its birth control product differently to different groups – U.S. English speakers and U.S. Latinas. The tagline in English relates to convenience, while in Spanish it relates to freedom of choice (see Figure 1 and 2). Content is displayed differently – safety information plays a more important role in the Spanish sub-menu to alleviate fears about infertility that are more prominent in this demographic.

Figure 1: Pharmaceutical Transcreation in Practice: U.S English Website (Source: Pfizer, Inc.)

Figure 2: Pharmaceutical Transcreation in Practice: U.S. Hispanic Website (Source: Pfizer, Inc.)

Confusion surrounds the term and the concept of transcreation across all groups that we interviewed and surveyed. As such, the definitions vary widely. Most people agree that the term “transcreation” is the amalgamation of the words “translation” and “creation,” or perhaps “creative translation.” Here are some other basics related to the definition of transcreation:

  • The history of the term. Some trace the term’s roots to the computer and video game industry, as companies struggled together to take games from one market to several. People discovered that translating only the words was insufficient to convey an enjoyable and comparable user experience. They started changing images and even modifying story lines in an attempt to transform the content in very creative ways. The process was different than the more straightforward localization process being applied to business application software at that time.
  • The current definition. The term “transcreation” is now more commonly applied to marketing and advertising content that must resonate in local markets in order to deliver the same impact as the original. The term may be applied when either a direct translation is adapted, or when content is completely rewritten in the local language to reflect the original message. Most often, transcreation includes a hybrid of new content, adapted content and imagery, and straightforward translation.
  • Synonyms. Other terms often used to convey the same concept include “marketization,” “cultural adaptation,” “multilingual copywriting,” “copy adaptation,” “marketing translation,” “international copy,” “adaptation of marketing materials,” “creative international marketing,” and “transliteration” (incorrectly applied).

Typical projects that require transcreation include web campaigns that don’t attract customers in other markets, ads that are based on wordplay, humor that is directly related to just one language or culture, or products and services that need to be marketed to diverse demographics within the same market.

Transcreation provides the freedom to address the cultural gaps. It allows the intent of the message to be communicated so that it is positively received by the intended audience, without requiring the local version to remain fully faithful to the words or images used in the original version.

Verztec is a leading ISO 9001:2008 Global Content Consulting Services Company. Verztec assists companies around the world to design, develop, localize and publish their global communication messages in over 60 languages across various channels. For more information as to how Verztec may partner and assist in your next localization project, kindly contact us at info@verztec.com or call +65 6577 4646 now!

*Source: Reaching New Markets through Transcreation: March 2010 by Common Sense Advisory, Inc.

Posted in Communications, Current Affairs, Global Content Management, Language, Localization | Tagged | Leave a comment

August Free Movie Voucher Giveaway!

Posted on August 27, 2012 by admin

Verztec is back with good news! Visit our Facebook page and answer to a simple question and win yourself a pair of movie vouchers to the most sought-after blockbuster this year!

What are you still waiting for? NOW! 5 pairs of movie vouchers up for grabs!

Posted in Communications, Social Media, Verztec | Leave a comment

Singapore needs to reinvent itself to progress: PM Lee

Posted on August 27, 2012 by admin

By Olivia Siong dated 26th August 2012

SINGAPORE: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, in his National Day Rally speech in Mandarin on Sunday, said Singapore will need to seize opportunities and reinvent itself to progress in the next 20 years.

Singapore’s situation is similar to other East Asian economies — like Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea — whose era of rapid growth is over.

Singapore, like the others, is in search of new strategies and formulas.

While many of the East Asian economies are anxious about their future, Mr Lee said Singapore is better off than many others.

Mr Lee said people from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan have sent study groups to look at Singapore’s social and economic policies.

But as Singapore evolves, Chinese Singaporeans should not neglect their culture.

The prime minister said he supported recent proposals to set up a Chinese Cultural Centre and a Singaporean Hokkien Huay Kuan Cultural Academy.

Mr Lee said: “Our Chinese community has always been concerned about the preservation and promotion of culture and tradition.

“Chinese culture is an important pillar of Singapore culture. It is an emotional anchor and moral compass for many Singaporeans. We should preserve our cultural roots, lest we lose ourselves in this ever-changing world.”

Mr Lee said traditions and culture help strengthen the sense of identity, and the Chinese language here has local characteristics.

He said: “Recently, a National Day documentary shown on our local TV channel had some translation errors. For example, National Servicemen was translated as “national soldiers”, and HDB flats became “national housing”.

“This drew many criticisms. The mistakes were clearly made by foreign translators. The translators were competent in Chinese, but they did not know our local context or terms.”

Prime Minister Lee said Singaporeans have a unique culture, but this meant that new immigrants must work harder to integrate.

Mr Lee added that Singaporeans understand the local norms for acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. But new immigrants need time to learn and understand the Singapore mindset.

Mr Lee also encouraged everyone to stay positive, lead active lives and be self-reliant.

He said while it will be easier for younger Singaporeans to adapt, it is also possible for older people to keep up, though help must continue to be provided.

Mr Lee cited a few existing examples, including training courses and upgrading programmes offered by the government and NTUC, to allow older workers to acquire new skills and improve their job prospects.

Article reference source from Channel News Asia

Posted in Communications, Current Affairs, Localization, Translation | Leave a comment

Verztec Connexions – August 2012

Posted on August 21, 2012 by admin

Posted in Connexions | Leave a comment

Importance of Website Globalization

Posted on August 17, 2012 by admin

Website globalization may have become a mainstream activity, but best practices are still not recognized or widely deployed. Site owners looking to improve their street cred on the international highways and byways need to look carefully in order to discern good practices from bad. By studying the top-scoring global websites, companies that hope to be world-class practitioners can learn today’s best practices, prepare for tomorrow, and stay ahead of the herd.

As a result, many firms still debate whether it makes business sense to globalize their online marketing, online commerce sites, and call centers. Nonetheless, research dating back to 1998 indicates a high propensity for people to buy in their own language. It’s clear that website globalization has become a mainstream business activity today; in future years what is now a low curve in the below graph will likely become a straight diagonal line from upper left to lower right.

Figure: Number of Languages Found On the Top 1,000 Global Websites

Most people prefer buying in their own language

More than half of the web users who purchased online (52.4%) buy only at websites where the information is presented in their language. More than 60 percent of consumers in France and Japan buy products from localized sites. In terms of language competence, people with no or low English skills were six times more likely not to buy from Anglophone sites than their countrymen who were proficient in English.

Language significantly influenced more important purchases

The vast majority (85.3%) feels that having pre-purchase information in their own language is a critical factor in buying insurance and other financial services. Conversely, just 45.8 percent thinks that it is important to buying clothes on the web. The more valuable an item, the more likely it is that someone will want to read about the product and buy it in their own language.

It takes more than local language to sell something

Over two-thirds (67.4%) of web users visit English-language sites monthly or more frequently, but just a quarter (25.5%) regularly purchase goods or services at those properties. Even with information available in the local language, the inability to use their own credit cards or currency stymies many international buyers. Converting those international browsers to buyers requires translation plus improved site performance and commercial enablers such as credit card and country-specific transaction support.

Global brands trump language and price

Half of the web users (50.8%) would buy a global brand over a local one, even without translated information. Looking at individual countries, just Germany and Japan fell below the 50-percent mark. However, having information in their own language was more important to 56.2 percent of the global web users than a low price.

Verztec is a leading ISO 9001:2008 Global Content Consulting Services Company. Verztec assists companies around the world to design, develop, localize and publish their global communication messages in over 60 languages across various channels. For more information as to how Verztec may partner and assist in your next localization project, kindly contact us at info@verztec.com or call +65 6577 4646 now!

*Sources:
• What LSPs Need to Know about global Website Trends: 14 April 2011 by Common Sense Advisory, Inc.
• The Word’s 100 Best Global Websites in 2011: March 2011 by Common Sense Advisory, Inc.
• Can’t Read, Won’t Buy: Why Language Matters: September 2006 by Common Sense Advisory, Inc.

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