RedShift Writers specializes extensively in the art of written communication. We work hard to craft the perfect content for your business, pinpointing messaging with precision to target your audience, the whole audience and nothing but your audience better than any other company in our industry.
Yet one service we don’t offer directly is to do just that in other languages. We’re masterful at English and even brag about our US credentials, but we certainly don’t craft website content in Spanish. It’s not what we do.
It is however, in the wheelhouse of one of our clients Global Speak Translations (GST). GST is the only company to focus exclusively on translation and interpreter services for the energy industry. Given our strong dedication to using language to positively affect the business of energy companies, we can relate to the tremendous gifts GST brings to the table.
We took some time to talk to them a little earlier this week and interview them about those gifts, as well as the impact translation can make on content and brand marketing efforts in energy and beyond.
Here is our interview with GST Founder Flor Dimassi.
RSW: It’s a pleasure to speak to you linguist to linguist. This is really an honor to have a chance to talk about language with our client.
Tell us a little about your personal experience with language.
Ms. Dimassi: I worked as a project manager in oil and gas 18 years ago and I spoke Spanish and French. I was at an energy firm at the time. Because I was trilingual, they continually gave me translation projects. They were stacked high in this chair, nothing but translation. So eventually I said, “I can help you do this, but I want to do it independently.”
RSW: That’s a great entrepreneurial story. Who have you worked with?
Ms. Dimassi: We have served some pretty well-known companies: Schlumberger, Halliburton, Shell and more.
RSW: Let’s move to language in marketing for a moment. At RedShift Writers, we focus on crafting the perfect message for companies. Tell us about some of the subtleties that come up in crafting that message for your clients.
Ms. Dimassi: As you all know from working with clients, the more precise your language is, the better. You want to hit the exact words so you can capture the tone, culture and purpose of the statements you want to make and express the exact message you seek to execute. It’s a little different from standard marketing because our job is not to be overly creative with your language. We have to be creative enough to solve dialect differences and find words that bridge the gap, especially in the context of culture, but our job is to preserve meaning from original language to final interpretation from the listener.
RSW: Interesting. What direct impact can this have on companies? What happens if they fail to translate effectively?
Ms. Dimassi: The easy answer is that the marketing becomes ineffective. But more specifically, important prospects in other countries just won’t consider you in the first place. If you email a Brazilian company in English, they may very well just delete your email. At tradeshows, keeping an interpreter on hand may be essential to holding a hot conversation on the spot. Otherwise, you are merely letting prospects pass you by in favor of other companies.
Someone- more than one company- at the show will speak the language of the locals. You should be one of those companies or your business is at risk.
RSW: What about marketing materials such as brochures and handouts?
Ms. Dimassi: All of it should be translated and proofed carefully, to the point that the translator carries liability if something happens that is related to the translation. A slogan can make your company sound silly if it is mistranslated. “Houston, we have a problem,” translated directly into Urdu makes you sound like you are uneducated. “Finger-licking good”, the old KFC slogan, in Chinese means “Eat your own fingers off”. The company’s campaign there failed, which is to say that even some of the world’s most well-known companies can have major problems with mistranslation in their marketing.
RSW: I would imagine this same precision can affect negotiations.
Ms. Dimassi: It most certainly can. There is a story we told the Houston Chronicle in our interview with them about translating for a mostly Latin American group. The majority of the room was not from Mexico but some were, so an interpreter used neutral Spanish and the word ‘shaft’ came up. ‘Eje’ is the proper translation, but the largest man in the room – he’s from Mexico – stood up and insisted it’s ‘flecha.’ That means arrow, but in Mexican Spanish, it also means shaft. He’s saying ‘flecha,’ and the Colombians are saying ‘eje.’ We had to remain focused and work through it with everyone. It was important to just keep everyone calm and explain everything carefully so we are all on the same page. That’s why you want a professional translator who can really get the job done in that situation.
RSW: Let’s move to industry trends. In the content writing industry, the move toward the expansion of content to meet the needs of companies pursuing content marketing and SEO campaigns has really changed what we do. What affects energy translation? What trends do you watch for?
Ms. Dimassi: Whenever regulatory frameworks are passed down by governments, we keep a close eye out for what is happening. The wording is so important because it tells you exactly what the legislation means. Right now, Mexican Energy Reform Policy is by far the biggest news in our industry. The regulation has opened the door to private competition in Mexico. Companies looking to get a foothold there are moving now and they all need Spanish materials to get it to work.
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