Don’t Let this Zoom Interpretation Mistake Ruin Your Meeting
“Fly naked!”
That was what Braniff International unintentionally advertised to its Spanish-speaking audience.
Directly translating its new slogan “Fly in Leather!” into Spanish SHOULD have the same meaning to the unfamiliar native english listener. But when you tell a Spanish speaker to “Fly En Cuero”, you create a double meaning that encourages them to fly more comfortably than originally intended.
What mistake did they make that could RUIN your next business meeting? Hiring an unqualified language interpreter!
Why You Should Care About Language Interpretation
Your business meetings must reach audiences in multiple languages and time zones to compete in today’s global market. The only way to cross these language barriers is by having remote meetings with real-time simultaneous translation.
As Braniff International’s example shows, the fire that trails behind bad interpretation can wreak havoc and be difficult to put out.
- Best case scenario, it will just cause confusion and delay production.
- It will possibly keep you from breaking into the market.
- Worst case scenario, it could seriously mar your reputation.
If you want to avoid these problems and make your video conferences a success you need to have professional interpreters that understand what’s really going on.
This article will discuss how having a high-quality language interpretation can keep you from embarrassing your company and make sure your multilingual Zoom meeting has everyone impressed.
Ready? Let’s “fly!”
Quality Interpreters
Every professional cook knows that a tasty dish starts with quality ingredients. And every virtual production company knows that successfully broadcasting their business meeting across the globe starts with HIGH-QUALITY language interpretation.
What separates professional interpreters from ones that encourage their audience to fly naked?
1. Experience
Virtual business meetings are as varied as the audience they reach. Just because someone has a doctorate doesn’t mean they are an expert in every field of medicine.
It’s the same with live interpreters and Zoom translation services. Being “bilingual” does not necessarily mean they will know the terminology in a variety of industries and subjects.
What you need to look for: Search for a virtual event company that recognizes this fact. They should have multiple professional interpreters and translators who are trained in specific fields of business.
Ask your virtual event producer how they plan to pick a live interpreter that will be best for your virtual meeting via Zoom video or another conferencing platform.
2. Expertise
WebMD is good for some things. But you would never get surgery based on it. Similarly, machine translations and novice interpreters are useful. But you should never leave the fate of your video conference in their hands. For both a diagnosis and interpretation, it is best to trust the reliability of a professionally trained human.
Why? Because language is INCREDIBLY complex!
Words can have different meanings in multiple languages. Only a true professional interpreter can accurately understand the difference between the nuances in meaning.
Case in point:
- In English, a bat is either baseball equipment or an animal. A machine or novice interpreter might translate “he’s batting a thousand” as “he’s using a bunch of furry rodents to play sports” instead of the INTENDED meaning; “he’s doing everything perfectly right”.
The complexity gets multiplied when you:
- Require live simultaneous interpretation where a person doesn’t have time to think.
- Get into niche subjects where words become even more obscure and ambiguous.
What you need to know: You shouldn’t let your business meeting fall into the hands of a machine translation or an interpreter that isn’t professionally trained.
Ask your virtual event company how they plan on using only the best interpreter for your next multilingual Zoom meeting.
Interpretation Services from Any Platform
“Translation is not a matter of words only; it is a matter of making intelligible a whole culture.” – Anthony Burgess
Whether your next virtual event is a business meeting, hybrid event, webinar, or something else, don’t leave the most important part of your event to chance – getting your message across to your audience.
Our team of interpreters at Virtual Velocity is committed to keeping your message as accurate as possible. They are ready to take your remote meeting to the ends of the earth. We offer live language interpretation services in hundreds of languages, in all conferencing platforms including:
It has been said that there is no greater difficulty than that of language translation. We are up to that challenge.
Are you ready to see how much interpretation services will cost? Our customer support team is ready to help. Reach out today for a free quote!