Translation agency for Asia
Technical translators for Chinese, Japanese, Korean
- Technical translations to and from Asian languages
- Translation of documentation, websites, contracts
- Interpreting services for online meetings
The Asia Competence Center of D.O.G. GmbH
Asia - a strategic market for the German economy
If we take together the three most important economies in Asia, namely China, Japan and South Korea, Asia is the most important trading partner for Germany. In 2021, foreign trade (imports and exports) between Germany and China ( with Taiwan), Japan and Korea amounted to 340 billion euros. Germany is investing a great deal in this economic region. In China alone, Germany invested 10 billion euros in the first 6 months of 2022, a record figure. Many well-known German industrial companies have established production facilities in the People’s Republic of China, supplying the local market as well as exporting products to Europe. Trade and investment have also developed rapidly with developing countries such as Vietnam. Foreign trade with Vietnam totaled 15 billion euros in 2021, including nearly 11 billion in imports to Germany.
Cooperation with Asia is not always easy. The Corona crisis has interrupted production chains. Dealing with the Corona virus in Asia (not only in China) makes direct exchanges more complicated. The current global political situation adds to this. However, Asia remains the region of the world that is growing very dynamically (example New Silk Road) and offers Germany many interesting opportunities. The biggest challenge for both medium-sized and larger companies remains the communication with partners, customers or authorities and obtaining relevant information. The first hurdle here are of course the various Asian languages, which relatively few people in Germany know. In addition, the cultures of Asia are a closed book for most of us, and yet they are so important for effective communication and the success of your business relationships. How are negotiations conducted, which gifts may be brought and which not, how do you address a person? These are all questions that have a strong impact on your business relationships, because there are many unwritten conventions.
D.O.G. GmbH has set up its Asia Competence Center for German companies that do not have this linguistic and cultural know-how in dealing with Asia. The Asia Competence Center is actually a continuation of our China Competence Center, which we have been successfully operating since 2008. Since we have had more and more projects and inquiries in the last few years that were related to Japan, Korea and Vietnam in addition to China, we have expanded our resources and know-how for these countries accordingly. We have hired native speakers at our headquarters and in Taiwan and have been working very closely with trusted teams in countries in Asia for years.
Translation in all languages
We translate into all languages
Do you need a translation? We will send you a quote within the shortest possible time. Send us your request using this quote form.
Culturally appropriate translations for better communication
Translations into Asian languages
One of the main services of the Asia Competence Center of D.O.G. GmbH are technical translations in various fields. These include translations of technical manuals for devices, machines or plants or translations of contracts, apps and software, marketing texts and websites and much more.
In many respects it is a greater challenge to translate content from German (or English) into the languages of Asia in a factually correct and culturally appropriate manner than it is, for example, to translate into French, Polish or Norwegian. There are cultural and historical aspects to these languages as well that should definitely be taken into account when communicating, but the difference within Europe is by far not as great as that with Asia. After all, despite many conflicts, Europe is a common space with a turbulent history, but also with common traditions and technical and economic achievements. For translators, it is often difficult to translate technical terms into Asian languages. A technical word like macerator is relatively easy to translate in European languages: Mazerator (German), macérateur (French). But in Asian languages, e.g. Chinese, it is not so easy. From the collection of Chinese characters, those that describe a macerator, namely a device for crushing substances such as sewage sludge or animal carcasses, have to be searched for and put together. If the translation of a particular term is not already fixed and known, the search for the appropriate translation is a demanding and time-consuming procedure.
Revision by native speakers
The quality assurance of our Asian translations
Many people have this experience. You write a text, let it rest for a few days, and read it again. Suddenly, you want to change certain words and expressions or you discover errors that you overlooked. For this reason, all our translations are proofread by experienced editors using the four-eyes principle. These reviewers understand both the source and the target language and use as a tool our ErrorSpy quality assurance software, which automatically reports a whole range of errors or possible errors, such as a deviation from the specified terminology or a numerical error, or even inconsistent wording. In the case of texts where the communicative aspect plays a special role, such as marketing texts, our proofreaders pay attention not only to the purely linguistic and technical aspects, but also to the use of the correct style.
Building your terminology in Asian languages
Anyone who regularly communicates with Asian partners and employees needs clear and comprehensible terminology with definitions and established technical terms. This is an area in which the Asia Competence Center of D.O.G. GmbH has gained a lot of experience. As part of translation projects, we record the new technical terms in several languages with additional information such as the origin of the term and, if necessary, the definition, an illustration or a link to other terms or references. We are happy to collaborate with our clients on such terminologies and provide access to our terminology management system Lookup. Terminology can also be viewed offline via apps from the App Store or the Google Play Store. This facilitates communication with local contacts in Asia.
Research service in Asian languages
What does an address look like in Korea? What social media is used in Japan? What app is used for online meetings in China? There are a whole host of important questions for working with Asian partners or developing a strategy for a particular market that are difficult to answer without knowledge of the language and local conditions. Our staff in Asia can help you answer these questions.
Interpreting service for meetings and trainings in Asian languages
Online meetings have become commonplace in the business world since Covid broke out. Business trips have become more difficult to organize and are very expensive. Nevertheless, it is necessary to communicate regularly with customers and business partners. Customers need to be instructed on how to use equipment or machines. Technical support must be able to understand and solve technical problems. Work meetings are necessary for joint projects. And some more. We can support you and provide interpreters for such online meetings or webinars.
Cultural consultancy
You have a concern that is also influenced by the culture of the country in question and you are not sure how to proceed. A group of visitors is coming from China. What meal should you offer them or rather not offer them? What gift should you take to Japan? How do you present your business card in Korea? And much more. We will be happy to advise you on such questions.
Why choose D.O.G. GmbH?
Three key challenges in Asian language translation
You will master these with our support
- Translation quality: Difficult technical or legal topics need to be translated into a completely new and different context.
- Communication: How to communicate something, what to write or not to write, are important cultural aspects that only good translators master.
- Costs: Good professional translations into Asian foreign languages have their price. How can translation costs be reduced on a lasting basis? Technologies and processes can help reduce costs.
FAQ
Questions about translating Asian texts
The amount of text translated and special requirements, such as translating text into graphics or formatting tasks, are important factors in determining the cost, as is the case with other languages.
When determining the translation volume, we take into account any text repetitions or possible translations from previous projects. Of course, this assumes that the translations for each project are stored in a translation memory.
An important influencing factor are the prevailing fees for the respective language. For many Asian languages such as Japanese or Korean, they are higher, not least because of the local cost of living. This is less the case for languages such as Chinese or Vietnamese. Here, however, it is always a great challenge to find the truly professional translators who have a high level of proficiency in both German (or English) and the target language. When calculating the costs, it must also be taken into account that due to the large semantic, syntactic and morphological differences between German and several Asian languages, the output of a translator per working day is somewhat lower and the effort for quality control somewhat higher than, for example, for a language like English or Spanish.
As in any profession, a specialist needs a certain amount of time to produce a good quality translation. Due to the enormous differences between European and Asian languages, Asian translations usually take longer. While we usually expect translations of about 2000 words per day for European languages, we plan for about 1500 words per day for Asian languages. Quality control also takes more time.
However, for urgent projects, it is possible to shorten production time through organizational measures or the use of technology without compromising quality. This can be done, for example, by forming teams of translators. Two or three translators take on a project, use shared translation and terminology databases, and coordinate their work on an ongoing basis. An alternative is machine translation combined with post-editing. We always do this in consultation with our clients. In this way, we can also significantly shorten production times.
It is easy to search for an English word in a dictionary. The words are sorted alphabetically. But Chinese uses characters. So how to proceed? First, you have to identify the radical of the word. The Chinese language has 226 radicals, according to which the dictionary is organized. For example, the radical of 桩 is 木 (mù) (wood). Once the radical is determined, count the number of strokes the character has (not including the strokes of the radical). The words are sorted first by the radical and then by the number of strokes. Following this procedure, one can find a character or a word in a Chinese dictionary.
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The profession of translator is not registered. That is why there are often very large differences in terms of the quality of translations. We go beyond the minimum requirements of the DIN EN ISO 17100 standard. This requires that the translator meets one of these criteria: (1) a recognized degree from a university in the field of translation, or (2) a recognized degree from a university in another field plus two years of full-time professional experience in translation, or (3) five years of full-time professional experience in the field of translation. We only use qualified translators who have at least two years of professional experience (usually more) and also have a proven track record of specializing in specific fields. In addition, we attach particular importance to the fact that our Asian technical translators understand the German technical language very well, because misunderstandings are often the cause of serious translation errors. What is the difference between the German “Schütz” and “Schutz”? What does the German abbreviation SPS mean? These are practical examples of the technical knowledge we expect from our technical translators. D.O.G. GmbH is certified according to the ISO 17100 standard and has been successfully audited several times.
Reliable partner with focus on Asia
Your advantage of a cooperation with D.O.G. GmbH
You can be sure that the translations you receive from us are truly quality-checked, both linguistically and in terms of technical language and cultural communication aspects. In addition, you can access other services and products such as information research, cultural consultancy or the provision of your specialized terminology in Asian languages (and other languages, of course).
Longer-term cooperation generates synergies and further savings: Your translated texts are terminologically consistent, translation costs decrease due to standardized processes and the reuse of existing translations.
Support from Asian language experts
The D.O.G. GmbH service package for your Asian business at a glance
- Business card creation for Asia
- Individual communication and interpreting services
- Translation of technical documents, websites and various publications into Asian languages
- Correction and evaluation of existing translations
- Creation of your corporate terminology in Asian languages
- Localization of your software for the Asian markets
- Testing your software on Asian operating systems
- Intercultural training
- Information research in Asian countries (product and supplier search, market analyses, trade fair information, etc.)
- Individual and needs-oriented advice on Asia
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