What Are You Trying to Say?

Translators for your business.

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You speaka da English? Phrases like that don't cut it when your company is doing business abroad. And these days, many small companies have manufacturers in Asia, sales offices in Europe, and programmers in Russia. No wonder the $10 billion market for translation services (or "localization" services, as the industry calls them) is expected to grow 25 percent by 2011. Computer translators have been known to sometimes churn out garbled phrases, and real people do a better job of handling linguistic nuances. But translation software is handy for short passages you need translated quickly. Here are some services, tech-based and human, that will translate just about anything.

From Russian With Love

To put these tools through their paces, we asked Eriksen Translations, a translation firm in Brooklyn, New York, for a complicated phrase it had recently translated from Russian. Then we plugged the Russian phrase into these translation services to see what they would come back with in English.

THE ORIGINAL RUSSIAN	THE HUMAN TRANSLATION
	We ask you to execute your portion of our business plans with attention to every detail -- especially regarding the ethical implications of your own and your group's actions.

Best For: Translations on the go

LingvoSoft Talking Text Translator 2008

What it is: Translation software for cell phones and hand-helds

What's cool: This software turns your phone into a translator so you don't have to lug a separate device. Cut and paste words and short text, and it will automatically translate them, highlighting any terms it doesn't recognize. Then, the software speaks the translation to help you learn the pronunciation. It translates between English and seven languages.

Drawbacks: It works only on phones that use a Windows operating system. The software is designed to translate basic phrases. It's not well suited for use on legal documents -- or, to be fair, our Russian sample.

Price: $119.95 for one language pair (versions that don't pronounce the text are $99.95) or $600 for all seven

Translation: We want that you executed its part our business plan, paying attention to each detail, and especially on ethical side your action and action of your group.

Best For: In-house projects

Systran Business Translator World Pack

What it is: Software that translates e-mails, presentations, and websites

What's cool: With one click, this program translates documents and e-mails into one of 12 languages, including Chinese and Russian. You can go into the translation database and modify how certain words get translated, a helpful feature for companies that translate a lot of documents. For instance, employees could tweak the settings so that the word Bill (as in Gates) isn't converted to, say, the French term for invoice.

Drawback: Systran acknowledges that machine translation isn't 100 percent accurate and suggests that clients hire human translators to help convert industry-specific terms that the software doesn't recognize.

Price: $499

Translation: We want so that you would carry out your part of our business plans, paying attention to each component, and in particular down the ethical side of your actions and actions of your group.

Best For: Finding freelance translators

ProZ

What it is: An online social network of human translators

What's cool: ProZ is a helpful resource for small translation projects. Companies post listings on the job board and receive bids from translators. You can also search its freelancer directory for, say, a certified Chinese translator with a speciality in human resources.

Drawback: Only paid members have access to a list of the going rates. Nonmembers may have trouble figuring out how much to offer.

Price: Posting to the job board is free. A corporate membership, which includes telephone support and access to the ProZ translator discussion boards, costs $320 a year.

Translation: We want you to fulfill your part of our business plans paying attention to each detail and especially to the ethical side of your actions and the actions of your team.

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