While the Internet has opened up the opportunity to access information from all over the globe, translation of this information is still a big obstacle. With the vast majority of online content being produced in the English language, speakers of other languages often have to have the source material translated into their native tongue. Problems also arise for English businesses that have to promote their organisation and its content in a non-English speaking nation. For a business producing and selling English recipes and diet (Diät) plans within Europe, translation into German would be an essential element to success.
The German language is spoken by 105 million people as a native language, and by another 80 million as a non-native language. It is spoken not just in Germany, but also in Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg. Standard German is also taught all around the world in many schools and universities. Some other nations within Europe also have rather sizeable German speaking populations, including Italy, Belgium, France and Denmark. Romania, Russia, Poland, Hungary and Kazakhstan also have German speaking communities. For any business serious about succeeding with the large European market, translation into German would be one of the first things on their to-do list.
For a number of years now, a lot of the world has been experiencing a globalisation of taste. International migration, global communication and international media organisations are the main reason for this, and because of it, we are learning about and eating recipes from other cultures more than we ever have before. When cooking recipes (Kochrezepte) from other nations, translation has often been a stumbling block. While there are a number of fantastic cook books that specialise in the food of a particular nation and translate recipes into many languages, the difficulty of professional translation has stopped many publishers from going ahead with international distribution. While machine translation with computer software is getting better, it is not nearly of a good enough quality for a professional publication.
While the English speaking market is huge, for a business wanting to expand their market into Europe, it is with the German language that they should start their translation endeavors. The German tongue would allows a business to make their recipes and diet plans accessible to the largest number of people in Europe, giving them the best possible return on their investment and the best chance of international success