Translate into Mandarin or Simplified Chinese?
Yesterday we received a translation request from a client: “I need these product information sheets translated into Mandarin; I may need them into Cantonese soon too.”
Punctuation by Languages
Being born in Eastern Europe, about two countries North of Greece, I thought that Greek language and alphabet can’t surprise me too much. I knew that the Greek alphabet was a special one, but I didn’t expect the punctuation to be so different (compared to what European and American countries are currently using).
A few things to think about when asking for a typesetting quote
You want to translate and typeset your company’s brochure into let’s say French, Chinese, and Arabic. You’ve called a translation company and they’ve started to ask you lots of questions. Some of them are about translation and you’ve been prepared to answer these inquiries, but others are about typesetting.
Designing for a non-English audience
Having worked as a digital publishing specialist at a large corporation at my previous job, I did not think being in charge of foreign language typesetting would be too difficult. After all, the layout and the images are already prepared and I only need to flow in the text - how hard could that be? I was sure that a simple Copy and Paste, or text importation, would do everything. This was my point of view when I initially began managing DTP projects in different languages.
Basics About Chinese Names
Thinking of going to China for business and having your business cards translated? You may want to consider this: What will your name sound like to potential Chinese business partners?