How Not to Lose Your Mind Over Translations

7 January 2022

Blog

There’s a rather embarrassing story of Hillary Clinton giving the Russian Foreign Minister a gift that represented a “resetting” of the relationship between the US and Russia. However, the translation of “reset” in Russian became “overcharge” leaving Clinton in an embarrassing situation.

While not all translation errors have as extensive consequences as Clinton’s faux pas, the internet is rife with stories and memes of mistranslation. From the smallest of brand names right to the US Government, translation is no easy feat.

In today’s global economy, multilingual communication is critical for building revenue profiles and driving brand recognition. In a 2020 survey spanning 20 countries and more than 8 thousand consumers, 76% of the respondents preferred purchasing products and services online that offered information in their native language.

This is no different for forex brokers and their international client base. Your traders may trade across multiple sessions, particularly those in Asia. These clients want accessible and easy-to-understand content to help inform their trading decisions. Navigating a website or trading app in a foreign language can lead to apprehension, confusion, and miscommunication. Also, regulatory frameworks require brokers to ensure ample client education and transparent communication of trading risks.

Furthermore, since the onset of the pandemic, there has been an over 50% increase in Millennial and Gen Z investors, compared with a 30% increase in other age groups. These new investors are digital natives, accustomed to quick online gratification and a propensity to search for information across a variety of online platforms in any language they choose. To satisfy and attract this profitable demographic, it is crucial that you offer these traders content they can easily understand.

For brokers, offering real-time and valuable multi-channel content is essential for client engagement. Offering this content in multiple languages makes your brokerage more attractive to traders and also helps in building long-lasting relationships with your international traders.

The problem with Translation

While multilingual content may be the best tool for engaging traders, gaining access to correctly translated copy is both difficult and expensive. This is an even more pressing issue when working with technical language.

Finding the Right Translator for the Job

Brokers need special translators who understand the semantic nuances of technical language translation while being aware of industry jargon in different languages. For example, if you search for the word “resistance” on Google Translate, the translated word might not be in the context of a resistance line, a vital technical analysis indicator. Without this insider knowledge, your copy might actually be less valuable than foreign-language content.

Making Texts Easy to Understand

The primary challenge is to make the text as easy to understand in the target language as in the original text. If a trader is using a manual to learn to trade on MT4, it should be user-friendly. For this, the vocabulary needs to be precise and effective, and this requires translators to have deep knowledge of the subject matter as well as the language. Certain linguistic tools like the use of the passive also need to be accounted for. These linguistic devices make a lot more sense in some languages than they do in others. This means you need a translator you can trust to tell you when something isn’t working.

Accounting for Cultural Differences

Words carry cultural connotations. Again, this means you need to find a translator you can trust to use the most appropriate language, not just translate directly. For example, the use of humour in technical content may reduce brand credibility and is very specific to different cultures and even sub-cultures. Research has shown that while those in the West appreciate humour, in Eastern cultures, particularly in China, this is not embraced.

Resource Intensive

So far you need to find a translator who understands financial terms, cultural subtleties, will go the extra mile and is proficient in multiple languages. As you can imagine, this kind of unicorn, when you can find them, does not come cheap. Anecdotally, in the US, translation fees can range from $0.02/word to $0.15/word, which means paying approximately $5,000 for a 200-page novel. In the UK, the common rate starts at around £95 per 1,000 words. While this may not seem like much, it is surprising how quickly short paragraphs can add up, especially when you are translating into several languages.

Further, without some form of NLG (Natural Language Generation), translating a huge volume of content is time-consuming. In a time-sensitive sector like the financial markets, this means losing out on valuable trading opportunities.

The Autochartist Solution

Autochartist understands that in today’s world, brokers need instant access to actionable multi-language content for client acquisition and retention. This is why we offer innovative and affordable automated content for brokers to address clients at every stage of their trading lifecycle. Our sophisticated technology ensures that content delivery is always accurate and on time. This includes:

Content for different channels, such as social media, email communication platforms, SMS, real-time push notifications
Unique tools to provide our content and analytics to traders
RSS feeds for CMS Integration
Content and tools for sales teams, trader activation, and retention
API-enabled financial market content

The use of NLG makes technical content translation easier, more accurate, and very cost-effective. It can combine analytic output with contextualised narratives to produce unique content that is relevant to your traders. The content can be personalised, and large datasets can be processed in a fraction of the time than it would take human analysts and translators to complete the job.

We also have a team of highly trained industry expert language professionals checking all translations. Our suite of products is available in 29 languages. As a result, brokers gain access to the most affordable automated translation option that can be tailored to fit their specific needs.

Working with language is never simple, especially when it comes to technical jargon. Autochartist makes it possible for brokers to reach a global audience and get genuine trader engagement, regardless of their size.