Although English has become something of a lingua franca within international business and politics, it is still necessary for businesses to translate into other languages when trying to expand their market into other countries. Good professional translation services are absolutely essential to international business, because the act of translation is never as straightfoward as it seems. For an English company selling office furniture (Büromöbel) products is its native country and wanting to expand their market into Europe, German translation of promotional brochures, advertisements and product information should be the first step on their way towards international domination.
Translating one language into another is not an easy process. While amateur translators and even basic machine translation programs can perform rudimentary translation of text, any business who is serious about expanding their market will require a professional service. Translation is defined as the interpretation of the meaning of a text in a source language in order to produce the same meaning in the target language. This process is never just the simple word-for-word procedure that many people think it is, as all languages are unique in terms of vocabulary and grammar.
Context creates another problem for an act of translation, meaning that every text must be translated separately for each individual situation in order to get an accurate end product. Translation is never an exact science as direct correlations normally do not exist between words and phrases. It can be very easy to make an incorrect translation, some of which may cause offense and most of which will create distrust. For a foreign business attempting to sell furniture in another country, correct and relevant translation is critical in order to achieve acceptance by the market.
For a business selling desk (Schreibtisch) and chair products, there is obviously a huge market of potential buyers out there. Most people in the western world use these products either at home or in an office environment, meaning that the market is absolutely huge if it can be captured. An ambitious furniture business who wanted to take on Europe and expand its possibilities would need to pick a country to target first, and Germany provides one of the best possibilities. Translation into the German language can expand a market more than any other language, due to the population of Germany and that of the surrounding countries who also speak German. There are 105 million native German speakers, and another 80 million non-native speakers of the German tongue, mainly within Austria, Switzerland and of course in Germany.
Communication is the key in business as well as in personal life, and translation is a big part of this communication for any international business. Translation is more than the simple following of instructions, and it requires experience and ability to be a professional translator. For an office furniture retailer wanting to expand into the European market, translation into the German language is one of the first and most important steps to undertake.