Yearly Archives: 2019

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When Onsite Interpreting is Out, Try Over the Phone

Picture this: you’re a business owner and you must have a quick call with your client in Brazil who speaks limited English and would feel much more comfortable having a fluent conversation in Portuguese. Or you’re an immigration attorney who’s having trouble finding a Punjabi interpreter on short notice for your client’s immigration interview. Or…

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Translation vs. Equivalency: Which Do You Need?

If you’re new to the United States and you’re applying to college or applying for a job, chances are you’ll be asked to present your credentials. If you’re in the process of obtaining a temporary work visa (such as the H1B), chances are you’ll have to present your diploma and/or college transcripts to ensure that…

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Don’t Just Try to Upsell. Try to Downsell, Too.

It makes perfect business sense to upsell. Not necessarily because you’re on a quest to squeeze as many nickels out of your client as possible (although there’s nothing wrong with trying to sell more), but because your client may genuinely need or want a product or service that she may not know you offer, or…

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The Real Cost of A Bad Translation

Recently we got a desperate call from one of our law firm clients. The attorney was requesting a Spanish-English interpreter immediately, because the client had brought her teenage niece as an interpreter to a bankruptcy deposition. Another attorney client told me of a case he was handling where the Chinese witness had brought his mother…

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Spanish Is Spanish … Or Is It?

We get a large amount of requests on a daily basis for translation from English into Spanish, most of them for “dry” content: tax forms, contracts, financial reports, and so on. And occasionally the client will say something like, “this is for Colombia. Can you make sure this is translated into Colombian Spanish?” There is…

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Being Bilingual Does Not Equal Being a Translator

I was recently talking to a young woman who speaks English and some Spanish and who works in childcare services. She was distraught because her boss, who only speaks English, had asked her to translate a PowerPoint presentation into Spanish. She was trying, but she found it incredibly difficult and she was afraid to tell…