Does your business serve people in multiple languages? All too often I see people trying to service a francophone market from an English-first perspective.
Symptoms include:
- Only translating a small percentage of your website content
- Using tools like Google Translate and other free, online, translation tools
- Thinking your Grade 8 French class is enough to “get you by, la”
Look, I get it. Proper translation costs money. And you like to save money. But make no mistake—to a prospect whose mother tongue is French, your attempt to save money translates as you not caring about doing business with them. Furthermore, if your translation isn’t professionally done, there’s a good chance it just doesn’t make sense. Quebec’s recent Charter of Values debate left me wanting to know what percentage of Quebecers support the initiative. Naturally, I searched Google. The Government of Quebec’s adwords ad speaks for itself. If your mother tongue is English, as you read it, what impression does the ad leave you with?
(click to enlarge, etc.)
