English words reinvented by French

French are known for their possessiveness towards their mother-tongue. They don’t pay attention to other languages particularly English. Even though French vocabulary has many words extracted from the English language but when we learn their meanings they don’t seem to be interpreting the same meanings as in English. Here I have listed some words which sound like the Shakespearean language but have very little to do with English. Even though these words have been minted by French, they either have changed meaning or stripped.

·         Un dressing : This word is particularly confusing as in English it means a dressing room or a dressing  gown while in French language it just means a closet.

·         Black: In French language when you say that you are working in black it just implies that your salary is not declared by the government or is off the records. While in English language it would just mean that you are working in pitch darkness.

·        Le pressing: If you have ever walked along the cities of France, you must have noticed this word. So what is it exactly? Le pressing in France means dry cleaner’s place and not pressing something!

·          Le footing: Le footing is a French adopted version of jogging and running.

·         Un lifting: You must be thinking that this word has something to do with lifting something but it is    not so! In French ‘Un lifting’ simply means a minor plastic surgery or just a face-lift.

Likewise there are more than thousands of such words and phrases in English originated French words which when transited give entirely different meanings. 

Blunders in French translation costs millions to French tourism sector

According to a latest study, about 65% of the French travel websites contain translation errors or blunders. These errors cost French economy about 120 million Euros every year. You can find common errors like, “Our top Stay”,“Speedy rental”,“Challenger Destination”, “Well-being expert for you” and “Some useful informations” on the French to English translation pages of the travel sites. 

Online tourism is on high demand in France and is worth 18.5 billion euros.

It is estimated that e-tourism sector suffers from more than 120 million annually with bad French translations. Multilingualism is an important criterion for reaching international tourists. However, sometimes translations become the cause of failure to reach global audience because of the poor quality and inaccuracy. You will notice that many of these travel websites even fail to translate phrases and texts. For example some phrases in French language will be visible in English version and English phrases will be visible on French language travel sites. The study also revealed that 33% of the French travel sites have no English language translations at all.

E-tourism enables travelers to get reliable and correct information related to travel and make reservations with the convenience of cost and time. E-tourism has improved the quality of services in tourism sector and has contributed to greater tourist satisfaction. Along with the growth of e-tourism, tourists are now very demanding in terms of quality of services and value for their money. Hence, tourism websites should identify potential consumer’s needs and give them personalized services with advanced communication media to meet their demands. Sites should use innovative methods to communicate with their prospective customers in order to sustain and increase their effectiveness. 

French publishers fail to tap international market

Not many of us know that there are six thousand languages spoken across the world. But only few languages have a potential market for books. French is one of the largest spoken languages after Chinese, English, Spanish and Hindi. There exist a great potential in international book market owing to the large language pool.

The market for English language books is one of the largest. This huge market is driven by dynamic marketing by the publishers.Spanish market is driven by the rise in the living standards of the Latin American population and the government initiatives to promote literature and reading. Both of these book markets are huge and comprise of big and small companies.These are driven by the eager of the middle class to read books and appreciate literature.In addition to this these markets have expert professionals, subsidiaries and the permit to operate freely with their own policies.

The French language book market on the other hand seems to be largely concentrating in Paris. Forecasts say that French language pool is going to rise further due to its 700 million native French speakers. However, it appears that the supply side of French book market is not able to catch up with the rising numbers.

It seems that publishers in this market have assumed that French speaking population is only limited and is never going to rise and therefore they have not explored the opportunities in international market.They are still sticking to the old practices of marketing unlike other book markets. This picture seems to be worse for writers. A writer whose book is published by a company in Paris cannot publish for anyone else. They face challenges to sell the rights of book published in French language inside French speaking countries.

In nutshell, the market for books in French has huge potential but they need to throw away their old-fashioned attitudes. 

French language crucial for curriculum

In the wake of budget crisis, government has been making proposals for abolishing or reducing French language from the school curriculum in some of the school districts of New York. Lots of intellectuals are dubious about the impact of these proposals as French language has been a part of the New York school curriculum for more than 100 years now. French language has been a relevant subject for study in the communities living in North Country where more than 30% population speaks French as native language. Abolishing French will be huge blow to their cultural lineage which they have been carrying since 200 years. Most of the people were of the view that French programs should be continued in areas where schools are close to cities like Montreal which predominantly French dominated Canadian city.

Studying French is relevant and applicable for many purposes. It is essential for pursuing higher studies in international trade relations, medical tourism, travel, transportation, technology and other business studies. Cities like New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have large number of French speaking people and more than 500 companies are present in these cities, so familiarity with French is very important for making investments in these cities. There are more than 1500 French companies in the US which have nearly half a million US professionals. Many people are not aware about the importance of trade between Quebec (one of the largest French populated cities in Canada) and New York. Quebec is one of the leading trade partners with New York and more than 100 companies from Quebec operate in New York. All these stats demonstrate and emphasize the importance of French study in the state, so the proposals of eliminating French language should be given a second thought!

French translation services: A brief overview

French translation services are in high demand by global businesses owing to the rising number of French clients in the world. French is recognized as an official language in 29 countries and it belongs to the Indo-European family. It is an official language of all the agencies in United Nations, WHO, NATO, UNESCO, WTO, European Union and several other international organizations. According to a report by Bloomberg Business week, French is one of the top widely used businesses languages after English and Chinese, far ahead of Spanish and other languages spoken in Europe. 

As an entrepreneur, if your prospective client is French, you can take help from French translator who can provide translation service for your business. Professional translation services can provide document translations, legal translations, website translations for various business sectors. They can give you accurate and quality translations specific to your business needs. These companies employ native French translators who are well-versed and acquainted in French language. Professional translators are trained in identifying the differences between variants of French language which includes African French, European French and Canadian French and doing translations according to the requirement of the business specific. 

If you are looking for a French translation company for your business, you should choose certified agencies who can offer affordable services for your business needs. You should not make your choices based on the huge cost of the services a particular agency charges, because there is no point in paying huge amount of money when you can find quality services at an affordable price. 

The goodness of translation services

With the entire world coming together on global platform, there has been a consistent demand for translation of information and ideas from one language into another. Translation plays an important role in the success of international companies, businesses and individuals. It is evident from human history where lot of incidences related to misinterpretation and miss-communication resulted in conflicts and war. Today, translation has not only become a process of translating words/texts but also the transformation of intention and meaning.

Here are some benefits of translation:

• Important for international companies: Translation helps multi-national companies who operate in multiple nations. These companies hire language translators to convey the information in the native language of their client/customers across their network in the world. For example, a French multi-national company trying to establish its network in India will require French translators to negotiate with Indian government for collaboration in English language as it is the second official language of Indians. They will look for proper French to English translation of documents and proposals required for the tie-up.
  
• Important for international affairs: Maintaining diplomatic relations with nations is very important in the present scenario. Many times, leaders of the world are required to present their views and ideas to different parts of the world. Those ideas are translated correctly otherwise they can produce many grim issues. In addition to this, international dialogues on various issues depend on good translation services.
  
• Important for cultural exchange: Translation of literature, art, films and music plays a major role in understanding the culture of different regions. The vibrant life in Spain, the historical legends of India could not have been known to the world without the presence of translators. Every year millions of books are translated into various foreign languages to reach more and more readers. Likewise translated movies and music generate huge revenues for the entertainment industry.

Boosts tourism: Translation services deliver tourists with authentic information promoting the tourism of particular regions. In addition to this, they help in generating revenues for country.

These points however don’t cover the entire benefits provided by translation industry. If you want to get some more info on translation services, check out!

The rising demand of French translators in Australia

Australia and France have been sharing dynamic relationship in several sectors - tourism, defense, commercial and cultural. Strongest influence of French culture on Australia can be seen in its wine and cheese making industry. Every year, Australia has wine and foods festivals which showcase regional and international level events drawing world’s best cooks and food-enthusiasts.

Furthermore, the two nations maintain strong diplomatic relations.During the past few years Australia has witnessed significant growth in business relationship with France. Several Australian companies are expanding their businesses in France leading to the demand of French translation service.

Australia and France have a close relationship in democracy, human rights, commerce and culture which has added to the growth in tourism between the two nations. In 2003, both the countries came together and signed a tourism deal for increasing the flow of tourists between the two nations. With this agreement, tourism business in Australia witnessed a huge boom. However, the issue of language translation was a major hurdle. According to the latest estimates, about 5 lakh Australians visit France each year. This figure alone is sufficient to show the requirement of French language translators in Australia. All this contributed to the requirement of French translation agencies that would help businesses, industries and individuals struggling with the grim issue of communication.

Hiring Professional French translation service can bridge communication gap between the prospective businesses and their prospective customers in France. These companies employ translators who have linguistic as well as cultural knowledge of France. Suppose a travel company in Australia wants to expand its business in France, it will look for specialists who are native speakers of French language and adept with French culture and its tourism industry. Having knowledge of the subject adds quality to the translations produced and also reduces the total time required to understand about the expectations of the Australian tourism company trying to communicate with French clients.

In a nutshell, there are multi-faceted reasons of the growing demand of French translators in Australia and according to the experts; this upsurge is going to rise further in future.