Note: This widget gets its data from Systran (click the i button to find out more) and therefore requires an Internet connection to work. Additionally, it can create gibberish (gramatically as well as vocabulary-wise) as it is a computer-based translation.

Use

Select a language pair (translate from / to) and type your text in the top half of the window. The bottom half will show the result in the destination language you selected.

By clicking the arrow button next to the destination (to) language, text from the bottom half of the widget reappears on the top half of the widget.

Hmmm… So if I got this right, they want to create a presence in several foreign countries, and hope to get by with keeping their websites in English. I wonder what their definition of “presence” is.

Apparently someone had taken a decision to create a website for a selection of foreign countries. But they had not thought the business and marketing plan through.

Obviously, their IT departments said yes, they could arrange to have a website set up for each different country.

I wonder how much their marketing department was involved in the decision process. IT and Marketing people need to communicate and understand each other more.

Their assumptions were also probably based on their own international sales experience. This company is big enough to have had foreign clients already. And these foreign clients communicated to them in English.

This is why several company executives thought it would be possible to develop their business effectively in foreign countries without the hassle of getting involved in foreign languages. Their foreign clients are well educated and usually speak English.

Reasons For Foreign Language Content

There is just two other elements to note.

The top competitors are already present in most of these countries and are obviously communicating with some degree of success in the foreign languages, or at least partially so.

Your communication will always bring in more sales when it is more focused and relevant to your specific target markets. Why would international marketing be any different?

Translation Are The Wrong Focus

The problem is that most people approach communication with foreign clients the wrong way. They focus on their own foreign language limitations and see “translations” as the solution to their needs.

This is the wrong approach for company executives to take. When creating your international business development plan you need to look at translations through a different lens.

Translations are a tool that helps you to communicate with others when you do not speak their language.

I only asked this company a few basic marketing questions. They immediately realized they were focusing on the wrong angle with regards to translations and trying to develop foreign business without them.

Remember to plan for future foreign language content on your websites no matter how you start. This will save you time and money when you are ready to make the change.

Foreign Language Content

All of your communication material represents one of your relationship-building tools.

You will need to have good foreign language content if you want to build good relationships with the people you want to sell your wares to.

But good foreign language content is more than simple translations of your existing communication to your current markets.

Culturally Customized Content

In order to develop your business in any country, you will need to adapt your communication to that particular country. Good cross-cultural communication just does not happen without you taking a step towards the other culture.

You will also need to adapt your offer to each country. This is the key to international business success. Your offer may need one slight change. The change in your offer might even be so slight it is only a nuance. Your offer may need a major overhaul.

The only way to find out how to adapt your offer to a specific culture, is to get to know them intimately. And you simply cannot get to know someone well if you always insist on using your own language to communicate with.

Planning Market Change

Instead of focusing on translations and changing your communication into different languages, focus on planning for changes in your market. This will help you to answer all of the translation and foreign content questions you have.

When two people meet for the first time, if they do not speak each others language, what do they do?

In my opinion it is perfectly alright to start off your communication in your own language. But you must also

• Listen attentively to the other person when he tries to speak to you.
• Be ready to start communicating in the foreign language
• Be proactive in communicating in the foreign language
• Move to communication in the foreign language as soon as you can
• Create communication to fully understand what your foreign client wants

Can you see where a “translation mentality” will slow you down?

Can you see where a “relationship opportunity mentality” will lead you into new markets?

Translations are your first rudimentary tools in building your foreign relationships.

Foreign language content is the basic tool you need to create foreign relationships.

Culturally customized content is the precision tool you need to develop your business.

Simply begin your communication where you can. Begin your relationship where you can. This will start the conversation. This will also start your own learning curve.

Delaying communication does not help you.

Outsourcing communication needs can help you in small doses.

But eventually you will need to get into the communication if you want to be part of this relationship and benefit from it.

Plan and expect to communicate in foreign languages as soon as you can. Your international business development and international marketing strategies will take you further.

Read more on Culturally Customized Content in these articles on CindyKing.biz:
- Customize Your Content For Different Cultures
- What Is Your Culture On The Social Web?
- Who Should You Get To Write Your Foreign Language Web Content
- The 2 Main Reasons Why Companies Do Not Have Good Foreign Language Content
- Multicultural Marketing And Colors
- The Phases Of Cultural Communication You Go Through To Increase International Sales
- Info-Products – Writing For International Readers

Of course you can understand the economic value of opening your business up to the Chinese market. But did you know it could be so easy?

Getting your website is literally a few minutes online. Although Baidu does not guarantee inclusion after your submission, it is such an easy process and has worked easily in the past.

First You Need One Chinese Language Web Page

Submitting a website in the Chinese search engine Baidu requires at least one Chinese page.

The best bet is to create a new page or blog post that is a translation of your product descriptions or of the services that you offer.

How do you do this?

Go to the Google English to Chinese translation page. You can find this by replacing the ‘www’ with ‘translate’ in the Google web address. Select English to Chinese, paste in your text and hit enter.

The text is instantly translated and you have a Chinese document to work with. For a more complete submission you may want to translate into both the traditional Chinese and simplified Chinese languages.

Like your English language website you must format the document using all standard SEO practices. Include a page title, keywords and emphasize your keywords in bold or italics, and include keywords in your headings.

Do these translations with the Google translation tool. You should find that making a page in Chinese not much more difficult than an English language page.

Submitting your Website to Baidu

All you need is one single web page in each of the two Chinese languages, if you are doing both the traditional and simplified Chinese translations. The page needs to be live on your website.

Once your Chinese pages are ready and live on your website you can submit those pages to Baidu.

• Go to http://www.baidu.com/search/url_submit.html

After the page loads, enter your URL and the “cpatcha” code to prove you are human.

This page can load slowly on occasion.

Baidu emphasizes that their search engine will automatically include websites submitted if it is in compliance with the relevant Baidu standards – but remember inclusion is not guaranteed.

That is it. The process of submitting your website to the leading Chinese search engine is as simple as that.

Chinese Searches Will Continue To Grow

After looking at just how simple registering your website with the leading Chinese directory was, let’s look at the sheer economic value this small procedure could have on your business:

• China is the world’s most populated country, with nearly 1.4 Billion people.
• Only 10% of the population uses the internet.
• Only 162 million are internet users in China
• This leaves 1.3 billion potential future clients.

• When China gets to the worldwide average for internet penetration of 20% they will have passed the number of Americans. Not American internet users, but the total number of Americans.

• When the Chinese hit the European average for internet penetration they will have more users than Europe and North America combined.

• It is estimated that by 2010 China will pass the United States as the biggest internet community online.

With the Olympics in China during August 2008, what better time to make your website available to the Chinese market.

Give your international readers a tool to read your website while they are still on your pages.

This free translation widget will keep your content on your website. This means your readers will stay on your website while they read your content in their own language and not somewhere else.

Easy Cross-Cultural Communication

This sidebar widget is a great Cross-Cultural Communication tool.

Simply download any of the different widgets here.

All In One Click On A Flag

All your foreign visitor has to do is click on a flag. A new page will open with a complete translation of your page into the language that the flag represents.

This is done using the online translation tool offered by Google.

Your foreign visitors will recognize their own country flag.

24 Languages – Multiple Versions

This tool translated between 24 languages. It detects the language used on your site.

It doesn’t matter if your site is in English, German, or any of the other 22 languages. This tool will figure out

what language to translate from, and gives your foreign visitor the language he wants. A complete list of all 24 languages is at the bottom of this page.

Install And Forget It

If you are running a blog and install this widget in the sidebar, it will translate the post that the visitor is reading.

If they are on your homepage, it will translate the entire homepage.

In WordPress, put the code in the single.php file at the top or bottom of the post, and it will appear on each post. You can see this cross-cultural communication tool on both the sidebar and single post here on GIC.

Install the widget where you want it.

Installation is as easy as any other widget. If you are not happy with the look and feel of the widget, just ask and I will tweak it a bit to match your website color scheme or the space available as soon as I can.

• Select the version of the tool you like.
• Clicking on its image below
• This will take you to a text page where you can copy the script to put on your own website.

All things considered, this is a great tool to reach your international audience.

Here are the languages available on the widgets:

1. Arabic
2. Bulgarian
3. Simplified Chinese
4. Traditional Chinese
5. Croatian
6. Czech
7. Danish
8. Dutch
9. English
10. Finnish
11. French
12. German
13. Greek
14. Hindi
15. Italian
16. Japanese
17. Korean
18. Norwegian
19. Polish
20. Portuguese
21. Romanian
22. Russian
23. Spanish
24. Swedish

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Download This Cross-Cultural Communication Tool Right Now