Diageo boosts results with sales in emerging markets
Diageo announced a 5% growth in annual profits today, an increase that Chief Executive Paul Walsh largely attributes to its activities in emerging markets.
While sales fell in Greece, Spanish and Ireland (all economies that have struggled in the last few years), Diageo’s acquisition of the leading Turkish spirits company Mey Icki, and its performance in North America and Asia-Pacific have offset the downturn in European trade.
This makes them the latest in a line of successful global companies who are spreading the risk of underperformance in developed markets such as Western Europe by expanding into countries further afield, or the path less trodden by competitors. (more…)
Neutral Spanish
One of the most important questions a project manager can ask when preparing to organise a translation is about the intended audience. Is the Chinese translation for mainland China, Hong Kong or Taiwan? Is the Portuguese translation for Portugal or Brazil? Is this Spanish translation aimed at Spaniards or Spanish speakers in South and Central American countries?
These variations on one language are more in-depth and important than some people may realise, and as such, it is important that any translation is specifically carried out with the audience country in mind. This often means translating a text into one language twice, one for one country, and one for another. However, if a client only wishes to invest in translating text once, yet wants to appeal to both South American and European markets, for example, what can be done? Should they choose between the two, use the same translation for both markets, or is there another way? This is where “Neutral Spanish” comes into play.
The idea behind this concept is that vocabulary and terminology be defined early in the process, so that only terms that will be understood in both target audiences are used in the translation, thus ensuring that the final translation is suitable for use in both Spain and South American countries that use Spanish, such as Mexico, Uruguay and Argentina. The large number of Spanish speakers who reside in Central America may be included in the client’s target market as well, so their variation of the language must also be taken into consideration. (more…)
Meet the team: Malcolm South
Hi, I’m Malcolm! I’m 23 and I’ve just started work at Web-Translations as a Project Coordinator. I was born in Leeds and grew up here before going to the University of Nottingham for a degree in Hispanic Studies.
On my year abroad as part of my degree I studied in Santa Maria, Brazil and Granada, Spain. I really enjoyed it and found the time to discover Argentina, Uruguay and Chile as well. I speak Spanish and Portuguese and I’m learning French in an evening class at Leeds Met.
Before working here I worked as a waiter – you’d be surprised how much you can learn about communication that way! I also worked as a personal Spanish tutor.
I enjoy learning about other languages and cultures, listening to music (especially live!) and caving.
I love the challenge of working at Web-Translations and it feel great to know that I’m playing my part in helping people communicate across the world.
I look forward to working with you if I haven’t already!
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You can read Malcolm’s first Web-Translations blog post here: http://blog.web-translations.com/2011/01/what-makes-wordreferencecom-so-good/
Anyone for a glass of kalimotxo and a pintxo?
The Basque language, known to natives as Euskera, is the only language isolate in Western Europe, meaning that it is the only existing language that has no known living ‘relatives’: it is unique! Linguists and historians alike have attempted to discover a link between Basque and other languages, but, despite trying to connect it to languages such as Egyptian, as well as languages of Asia and North America, no connection has been found.
The ancestral form of Basque was introduced into Western Europe several thousand years ago, whereas the majority of the languages spoken today arrived much later. The first written records of the Basque language can be traced back to the first century BC.
Basque has been a co-official language in the three Basque regions of Vizcaya, Alava and Guipuzcoa since 1979. However, it has no official status in France. In 2006, it was recorded that Basque was spoken by just over 1 million people from the south-western French town of Bayonne to the Spanish city Bilbao, stretching from the coast and reaching 30 miles inland.