SPANISH – LANGUAGE OF THE WORLD
Millions of New Spanish Speaking Customers Are Waiting To Hear From You

If you’ve made the wise decision to add Spanish language content to your website or to export your products to a Spanish speaking country, you need more than an employee who speaks Spanish to make your program a success.

The very first thing you need to do is engage the services of a professional translation firm that can help you determine what type of Spanish you need according to your Spanish speaking customer. For instance, you don’t want to use the Tex-Mex Spanish dialect if your main customer target is Puerto Rico, the Cuban population of Miami, or the nation of Spain.

On the other hand, you may want to take the broader path and translate using a neutral broadcast Spanish. This type of translation is a version that can be understood by most Spanish speaking individuals. It is really more akin to Castilian Spanish than to any version of Spanish that is spoken in the US, but it is the version of choice used by the news media.

However, if your goal is to emotionally brand a product or service with the US Hispanic population that is from Mexico, using Castilian Spanish may not be the route to take. A brochure that goes directly to this or any other niche Hispanic sector, may well attract more interest if you have adapted your translation to have the nuances specific to that dialect.

You may want your translated materials to resonate with potential customers who speak a Puerto Rican dialect of Spanish or a Cuban dialect in addition to those who speak a Tex-Mex version of the language.
It may be a wise decision to have your materials actually speak to your market the way customers in that market speak to each other.

Sometimes it helps to step back and place yourself in the shoes of your prospective customer. Consider the English language for a moment. You can, no doubt, with a little effort understand spoken dialects of people from Australia or the United Kingdom. However, it is different and that difference creates distance and places a small barrier to understanding. Although they are both English, some words have different meanings, the humor is not the same, and the spelling of some words is similar but different.

Now, if anyone from those countries is trying to market to you, you may feel justified in preferring their materials in the form of English that you have learned and are accustomed to reading. If the communication is a business letter would it be completely understood by the recipient without the benefit of graphics or photos? If the copy is for a brochure, would seeming to be more familiar with the culture, help you to make a sale? Is the content I am placing on my website understood by a broad audience of Spanish speakers? These are questions that you should also raise when considering the particular form of Spanish to use.

When you work with a professional translation firm, they have the depth of personnel and resources to help you make the right decisions regarding the type of Spanish to use in your materials. They also have processes that ensure that your materials are translated and proofread correctly to create the desired impression for your recipients.