London Translations, one of the UK’s leading business translation firms, forms a strategic alliance with Beijing Sagive Translation Company Limited

A joint agreement announced today between London Translations Limited and Beijing Sagive Translation Co. Limited will service the growing demand for language support as trade between Europe and China accelerates. The companies have agreed to cooperate by providing localization translation support to each others clients, marketing and promoting joint ventures and by sharing best professional practice.

In signing this agreement, London Translations Limited CEO Peter Bennett has chosen one of China’s most experienced and respected translations agencies to provide high quality English into Chinese translation as well as a localization consultancy for UK and other European companies wishing to trade effectively with China.

“The language services business in China is fledgling, with low barriers to entry and no professional body overseeing standards. I am delighted to have found a partner of Sagive’s calibre who has built up an enviable reputation for accurate and effective work. This agreement will literally make a world of difference to UK firms opening trade talks with potential Chinese clients,” said Mr. Bennett. Read the rest of this entry »

Peter Bennett, founder of London Translations Limited is used to travelling the world and has recently returned from Beijing. Here he offers some advice for anyone looking to trade with the expanding Asian economies.

A colleague once told me that a good indicator of economic confidence was the number of construction cranes on the skyline. If he’s correct, Beijing is feeling good about its prospects - very good.

According to figures recently published by the Associated Press, China’s economy grew at a blistering 9.4 percent in the first three quarters of 2005 alone. Yet a pan-European business poll by parcel firm UPS revealed that almost a third (31 percent) of UK business leaders do not consider Asia to be an important trading or production market. To ignore the headlines predicting the ‘awakening of the Dragon’ would be commercial suicide: the world economy is undergoing a revolution as a China-led Asia returns to its historic role at the centre of affairs, according to the Financial Times’ Martin Wolf.

Few of us receive emails in Chinese, but I saw one recently which translated into: “I’d like to spend a million pounds with you…”. Good thing I knew that, and a good excuse, I thought, to spend January in Beijing talking to business representative organisations and growing companies who want to trade with the UK. Perhaps this could be your firm in 2006 but not before you pay attention to the matter of communication – communication in tune with the local culture.

Guanxi - The first word in Chinese trade.

There were no berths available on the night train from Beijing to Xian but we soon found ourselves settling down to sleep as one suddenly came available. A few days later we dined in a restaurant which

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In previous posts I have mentioned the importance of using professionally qualified translators who have experience of the subject matter they are translating. I have also emphasised that is it is vital the the translator is translating INTO their mother tongue. In this post I demonstrate why.

We receive literally dozens of applications from companies and individuals each week seeking to partner with us as outsourced suppliers. We reject almost off of them for reasons which will be obvious when you read the email copied below which was sent to our recruitment department.

The frightening thing is that although we wouldn’t touch people like this with the proverbial barge pole - someone must be using them. They are undoubtedly much cheaper than us but, as the saying goes, “you get what you pay for”.

Ask yourself how much it will cost you to get the translation wrong - it’s usually much more than the marginal incremental cost of getting it right.

Poor translations can drastically affect any business. Whether it is the lack of communication ability or incorrectly translated documents, any slip can damage sales pitches, relationships and future business, says Peter Bennett CEO of London Translations Limited.

In this article, Peter explains how to purchase translation services so you avoid the embarrassing, all too common mistakes in international communications.

Kadin Hastaliklari Ltd, the Turkish import/export medical device company has suffered in the past as a result of poor translations. A few years ago the company attempted to import from the Czech Republic but had trouble reaching anyone through the details listed on the Czech company’s web site. With no contacts in the Czech Republic and no knowledge of the language, it was impossible to know whether the company even existed.

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