December 2010
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Happy Holidays and Looking to 2011

With 2010 coming to a close, we here at Technovate Translations want to wish you a joyful holiday season and a prosperous New Year! This has been a year like few others, and as we reflect on the joy of the season and the wonderful things that we've accomplished, we are constantly reminded that we owe all of it to you, our valued clients. Your talent, your drive, and your dynamism inspire us each and every day to give our best effort and deliver high quality results when you need them most.

As we prepare to enter the New Year, we've already begun developing plans to make 2011 our best year ever. We want to make sure that 2011 is a year that you will remember as well. We sincerely hope that this year we've demonstrated to you the power of translation services and the many benefits translation services can offer your business. In the coming year, we would be honored if you continued to make Technovate Translations your choice for translation services whenever you launch a new project or adapt existing material for new markets.

However, December is no time for businesses to sit idle, and Technovate Translations is no exception. With the holiday season fast approaching, it means that sooner than you can believe, your customers and clients will be getting back to work and ready to hunker down again. With the oncoming January rush coming at full speed, you need to get a leg up on the competition and be ready to roll out your projects and initiatives when your clients will be looking for them. Now is the time to get started with fresh, new content that can be ready to go live come January.

Technovate Translations is standing by to help you turn your great ideas into successful launches. Our translation services are available throughout the month of December so you can have your translated materials ready to launch come the New Year. Technovate Translations understands businesses' needs, which is why we are open on all statutory December holidays to better serve you around the clock. No matter when you need your translations, or on what schedule, you'll always find us ready to serve you. Our December holiday hours are our gift to you—full service translation services even when most other businesses are closed.

In the upcoming year, we hope to continue to grow the tremendous relationships we've built with our amazing clients. We wish all of our clients a prosperous New Year, and we look forward to working with you in 2011!

2010: The Year in Translation

The year began with tragedy, as an earthquake hit Haiti, claiming almost a quarter of a million lives and ravaging the city of Port-au-Prince. The nation, whose official language is French, but whose people speak the French-based Haitian Creole, was in desperate need of translators to aid emergency services in the recovery. Microsoft teamed up with researchers from across the world to create internet-based Creole translation tools to meet the need.

Chile was another country to suffer a major disaster, with an 8.8 magnitude earthquake in February killing almost 500. But Spanish translators had a more pleasant job later on in the year, covering around-the-clock footage of the Chilean miners, whose rescue saw a potentially fatal situation transformed into a modern-day-miracle before the eyes of over a billion TV and internet viewers worldwide.

In February, speakers of every major world language gathered in Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. APTN became the first network to broadcast the Olympics in aboriginal languages, delivering over 250 hours of coverage in First Nation, Inuit and Métis tongues. Canada's francophones, however, complained that not enough French was spoken during the event.

Later on in 2010's sporting calendar, translators found the World Cup good for business. Not only was the soccer event broadcast globally—the Eurosport network alone covered the event in 20 languages—but hosting country South Africa had 11 different national languages waiting to be translated for the influx of international visitors. FIFA reported that among the 15,000 volunteer staff working at the event, 45 languages were spoken, including Hindi, Korean and Japanese. Referees, duty-bound to punish outbursts of bad language on the pitch, were trained to recognize foreign curse words.

The French rallied to protect their beleaguered language in 2010. France's ambassador to the UN, on a mission from President Sarkozy to promote the language, stubbornly refused to speak English to his audience in New York. A UK politician provoked fury when he described the French language as "useless"—and the decline of French-language teaching in the nation's schools seemed to confirm others felt the same way.

The Royal Spanish Academy, gatekeeper of the Spanish language, also fought to maintain its language's status this year, publishing a new international grammar and announcing new standard spellings. Some Spanish speakers found the declarations patronizing, while President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela laughed off changes he said would rename him "Avez." But Spanish speakers need not have fretted for the survival of their language. The results of the 2010 US Census are expected to reveal the Spanish language is flourishing in the US at unprecedented levels.

Translators shouldered the blame for a few controversies in 2010. In April, the Roman Catholic Church said that allegations of a cover-up by Pope Benedict XVI were down to "poorly translated" documents. In May, an FBI translator was jailed for leaking top-secret US documents. When Iran's President Ahmedinejad was silenced at the United Nations, supporters blamed a conspiracy by anti-Iranian UN translators, while the UN said it was just a technical glitch.

For a moment it seemed translation technology was reaching new, undreamed-of heights when Google announced its latest cell phone application would translate animal language for the benefit of pet owners. Would the world of Doctor Dolittle, the fictional physician who talked to cats, dogs, chimps and cheetahs, at last become a reality? Alas, the date the news broke was the giveaway clue to the joke—April 1.

Client Spotlight MedeFile

There are few things as important as public health. Naturally a company like MedeFile, that makes the healthcare system work faster and more effectively, needs to reach as many people as possible, no matter what language they speak.

MedeFile's mission is to provide easy, secure, electronic access to patients' medical history and records. Digitally stored with MedeFile, a patient's information can be accessed in seconds by emergency personnel, ER physicians or specialists, without needing to transfer a paper file or even scan or fax the pages.

In order to reach out to the maximum number of people, MedeFile approached Technovate Translations in October 2010, asking us to translate their website into Russian. MedeFile chose us to partner with because of our commitment to quality and accuracy – an absolute must for medical translation. Since then, we have been enjoying an ongoing relationship with MedeFile, as they have expanded the languages their website supports to French and Spanish, and we look forward to continuing with more languages in the new year.

Technovate Translations is thrilled to be involved in a project that will ultimately save lives by improving the standard of healthcare.

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