Language Translation Software - How to Use it Properly

When conducting research for a school project or an article, certain information that might be crucial to your overall topic may prove a pain to research. Even with the wealth of information already available at your disposal, certain subjects that may be native to a certain part of the world, may not be available from sources that you can understand.

I encountered this exact same problem while conducting research for a magazine article I was writing on a certain type of gadget. Since it has received little adoption in the US and the UK, much of the information available for it were written on websites that served non-English speaking audiences. In fact, the bulk of the reviews and press releases I found were either in Korean or Japanese.

Instead of giving up on it, though, I downloaded the available research pieces and put them through a language translation software, which I purchased online over a year ago. Within minutes, I had all of my references translated in English, allowing me to conduct the necessary study to write my piece. However, don't forget to ad the translation sources as references to your document.

Translation software has helped me tremendously in my job as a writer, allowing me to derive cutting-edge information from sources that aren't easily available to English speakers. As a result, my reports are often more expansive in coverage than those from others who haven't yet discovered the benefits of sifting through foreign language documents as a vital source of research.

When you write for a mixed audience, occasionally peppering your work with foreign phrases can lend it a character that makes it more endearing to certain segments of it. If you write a blog, for instance, and has seen a growing number of French readers, throwing in a couple of French phrases during a piece (even if you haven't learned to speak the tongue) can really make it all the more special for those who pick up on the reference.

Common Expressions

Throwing in a common expression from the foreign language is employed by many writers. However, much of the luster in this case tends to fade away, especially if it's such a frequently employed phrase, such as greetings or clichés.

Section Headers

I love using the technique on section headers, especially if the article is related to the foreign language. When I wrote a piece about Italian aperitifs for a food website, for instance, I wrote short two to three word section headers, ran them through a language translation software and used the Italian equivalents on the actual piece.

While English-speaking readers probably didn't understand what the headers meant, they would have picked up on it eventually based on the context of the section. On the other hand, Italian readers loved it, almost like it paid a genuine homage to them.

Full Foreign Language Sentences

Occasionally, I've seen writers use full sentences in the foreign language as part of the piece. Even without explaining what they meant, the pieces flowed smoothly, while lending it a special character. As with headers, let the context fill in the blanks.