Talepiece - How not to get lost in translation

Dec 11 2006 By Alastair Gilmour, The Journal

The difference between the South of France and the North-East is huge in every respect. Alastair Gilmour meets a young man who admits that relocating represented 'a massive change'.

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He bumped into his future wife while she was travelling through Provence on her pre-university gap year, but Alex Jimenez was to fall in love once more - with life in the North-East.

The couple met nine years ago and Alex willingly swapped a rural backwater (population 200) for a Tyneside which had all but dismantled its heavy industrial past to construct a future without shipbuilding, coalmining and steel-making.

But it was this step into the unknown that was one of the attractions.

Alex, who now operates his own translations company based on Newcastle's Quayside, could see the potential of a region undergoing massive change. Anything was possible, but nothing is easy.

He was twice made redundant from call-centre jobs before he set up Blackfin Translation in 2002.

His starting point was the personal experience of how non-communication in another language can inhibit individuals and hamper corporations.

"The North-East is a great place," he says.

"There's loads happening and it's really beautiful. I took my daughter mountain-biking in Hamsterley Forest last week and I couldn't believe how perfect it was.

"But everybody needs to work a little harder at languages. It makes such a big difference to business. I moved here and I understand that."

He believes businesses in the North-East are losing tens of thousands in missed orders, all for the sake of an unused, unloved email that's easier to delete than to have translated.

He says: "We've got to get companies to understand what they could be missing in business and convince them that they have to be looking wider.

"Since I started Blackfin I've seen more and more local companies trading in Europe, but not being able to speak the language can put others off doing business abroad.

"The first thing is to change people's perceptions in the region about language, how it can help them grow in the international market and how to see different cultures.

"You can't do business in China, for example, the same way you do business in Britain.

"We help with cultural differences as well as language and help people understand the way others work.

"We all know what an A-Z is and how to use one, but to a Frenchman an A-Z is a dictionary. It sounds simple, but he would ask why he needed a dictionary to find his way around Newcastle."

The Blackfin service - using only specialists and mother-tongue translators - also covers a range of issues including dress code, making appointments and the correct way of addressing people.

Alex and his worldwide network can pass on useful tips on how to conduct negotiations with potential foreign partners.

"You need to be patient in this business and you need specialist knowledge and that's where I'm trying to be different," he says.

"We won't use someone with medical expertise to translate an engineering text, for instance, so customers are guaranteed the highest quality work."

"The Olympics are a good example. People may say, `but they're being held in London, there are no opportunities for us', but we'll only get business from them if we're ready for it. If we're not ready, we'll get nothing.

"One of my cousins lives in Togo in Africa and she knows all about the `Harry Potter castle'.

"She was dying to see it when she visited us. The only thing she was disappointed about was that although she can speak French, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese and dialect Togo, she doesn't understand so much English and there was no information at Alnwick Castle in any other languages.

"If people don't know what's going on they won't come back."

Alex Jimenez has a big job on his hands, but he's convinced that the region he loves can - and must - understand his message. Tout de suite.