For the fourth year, Alexika Ltd has been reaccredited to the international Quality standard ISO9001 with zero non-conformities.

The assessment meeting was demanding as usual, but a positive challenge to check that our quality systems are robust. Our systems are well established but in any business there is room for continual improvement.

Well done to all the Alexika team. We are pleased to recommend the British Assessment Bureau for a thorough and positive ISO9001 experience.

We noted on a recent e-newsletter that our travel to the office is very green. Not that this was part of a deliberate policy particularly but it turns out that Becky cycles to the office, Gemma comes on the bus, Mark often walks or cycles, Helen often walks…..well done team!

We have also been largely paperless for several years now – all project management tasks are carried out through our bespoke electronic project system, client and supplier records are securely back-up in digital format, translator tools and resources are largely electronic and online…After keeping lots of paper history going back many years, we recently used the services of Shred-It to shred many archive boxes worth of paper in only a few minutes. I would recommend this process to any document-based business – we now have a functioning store room, and more space around the place for potted plants!

So hopefully the office is a healthier place all round!

I received a great question from our client Alistair recently – we translate engineering manuals for Alistair into various languages for his exports around the world. Alistair’s question was: why is it more expensive to translate into some languages?

My answer is that there are really 3 key factors at play here:

1. Supply – relative to demand. Some countries produce many qualified professional translators and many of these people do go on to join the profession. In larger developed countries such as UK, Germany and France there are many qualified translators competing for the work, and rates are under competitive pressure.  In smaller countries such as Finland, there are fewer translators from a smaller population, and less incentive for these fewer translators to specialise in one particular area e.g. engineering.

2. Demand – relative to the supply. Of course high demand for the translators leads to higher rates and vice versa, fairly straightforward for German, French, English – although it’s a more relative thing in translation e.g. the relatively few specialist professional translators in Finland can be in relatively high demand.  Complex because it is also driven by the demand for subject specialism e.g. engineering translation, legal translation.

3. Wage demands in different economies – When translating out of English, we always need to work with native speakers of the target language, usually based on their own country. In high wage economies such as Finland, they demand high rates of pay (otherwise they would do other work), in lower wage economies such as Turkey they demand lower wages. In some cases this affect outweighs supply/demand factors altogether – e.g. in India where very professional translators can work for lower wages.

So it’s basically down to the meeting of the classic demand and supply curves so loved by students of economics – P being price, Q being quantity:

But I’d welcome thoughts on this – do you see the balance differently? Which key forces should I also mention? In economics terms, a translation company is working with several related markets – but actually the forces working on the market for each language combination are different. Therefore rates for different language combinations – and subject specialism – do vary.

We’ve reported before on research from Common Sense Advisory which found that 72% of consumers globally are more likely to buy a product if they have information in their own language. Now research from the European Commission found that 82% of consumers were less likely to buy goods online if the site was not in their native language.

We sometimes hear the argument that “they all speak English anyway” i.e. we don’t need to translate our web site because overseas clients don’t need it. Well – an article about this research from the BBC explains how even in Sweden – where many people do speak English – over 80% of consumers have a preference for buying in their own language.

Even consumers who are fluent in English – or more commonly have a working knowledge of English – will only make a serious purchasing decision with confidence if they are reading their own language.

P.S. Please see previous post “No – they don’t all speak English” from November 2009 – we feel strongly that more UK companies in particular need to recognise this issue!

The Alexika office was beautifully decorated for the Addingham Gala (annual summer festival) at the weekend – in accordance with theme of ‘Through the Ages.’ Sabine used her creative skills to great effect and the office was admired as the procession came down the Main Street past the office front door.

Our subject was the development of the English language throught the ages. A wide range of historical characters made an appearance – including a monk. He was explaining that Roman missionaries brought Christianity to Britain – bringing new words to the language from Latin.

Visitors were able to see influences on English through the ages:
- little was left from the Roman occupation apart from some place names (a local town Ilkley was Olicana.)
- Anglo Saxons were busy with everyday life and their influence on the language reflects this: ‘Loaf’, ‘Woman’, House’
- Roman missionaries left Latin-influenced words such as ‘Bishop’ and ‘Martyr.’
- The ferocious Vikings left behind suitably ferocious words: ‘Ransack’, ‘Die’
- The Renaissance and the development of science and arts brought new demands to the language: ‘Gravity’
- The Industrial Revolution was another major linguistic upheaval
….and we came up to date with the electronic revolution and current influences on the English language. Textspeak anyone?

Thanks again to Sabine for a lot of work for the Gala - and for all her work in the local community.

The first FAPS (Friends of Addingham Primary School) Beer festivaltakes place on September 9th and 10th 2011. FAPS Chair Richard Hunter-Rowe explains:

“The beer festival has the potential to be a hugely successful event and something the whole community can enjoy. Its aim is to raise funds for Addingham Primary School and our children. At a time when funding for schools is being greatly reduced and schools are trying hard to make improvements to their facilities and the opportunities they can offer our children, the fund raising efforts of parents and school communities are becoming increasingly important and in our case will enable our school to continue to follow its school improvement plan and provide our children with up to date equipment and learning tools they need and deserve.”

Alexika is proud to sponsor the event.

Alexika Cricket Club is at the heart of our local community, with 120 junior cricket – aged 6-17 - and 2 senior cricket teams. It is a wonderful sight to see the cricket field full of children or older cricketers enjoying the traditional game.

Alexika Ltd is proud to be a sponsor.

Reading German news site Tageschau today, Denmark is to bring back formal passport controls on its borders with Germany and Sweden – this despite being a signatory to the Schengen agreement. The reason given is concern over cross-border crime. The beginning of the end for Schengen and free movement around Europe?

Reading the UK’s BBC web site, there is a lucid presentation asking “Is the Euro crumbling?” This is an explanation of how budget deficits within a currency zone lead to increased sovereign debt, which leads to lower confidence which leads to higher interest rates..so governments ask for emergency loans….If one country leaves the Euro (Greece?), will others be forced to follows? The beginning of the end of European monetary integration?

These are difficult times for Europe, for Europhiles, for everyone. European politicians need to show courage and leadership now. European history tells us how important it is that we all work together.

When I explain to non-linguists that I work in a translation company, the first question is often something like: So how many languages do you speak then?

Now, I am impressed with people who speak many languages. When I heard that Denis Healey, former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer who hails from a village near the Alexika office, speaks 7 languages, he certainly rose in my estimation. But for professional translators, one ‘source’ language and one mother tongue is often quite sufficient.

What I want to know about potential translators for Alexika is that they have mastery of their mother tongue, an extremely high level of professional proficiency in the language that they translate from and also, critically, current knowledge of their chosen field so that they keep up to date with terminology. Then there are other factors such a professionalism, knowledge of translation tools etc etc…but the number of languages spoken is not part of that conversation. We have other colleagues who cover other language combinations.

But we are based in the UK. Is it just that British people are often impressed with any foreign language ability? Which brings me back to my regular theme of how important it is that children learn a second language in school up to and ideally beyond the age 16…

As part of its reporting on the 2011 Yorkshire Business Market, Alexika is featured in an article in the Yorkshire Post newspaper today.

We were exhibiting at the very well attended exhibition for the third time, looking to promote our translation and interpreting service to local exporters. Yorkshire is home to many exporting companies, and the economy of Yorkshire is larger than that of Scotland.

Many thanks to the Harrogate Chamber of Commerce for the excellent organisation of the event.