Holmpage Productions - web design, development and translation

Language Services

Here's what AltaVista's Babel Fish translation service did to a passage from our trilingual site, Captain Rene's House (no longer online).

(Note that when we first built the site, German was the original language. The English and French versions were not translated word for word, but written with colloquial flair, as a really good translation of this type of material should be.)

Here's the English version:

They [our cottages] are the ideal ski chalets for winter sports enthusiasts, with excellent snow conditions from December through April. In summer, the hiking and biking are wonderful, and in autumn, the fall foliage must be seen to be believed. These cozy, well-serviced rental houses are super for families and groups. The price is right too!

Here's Babel Fish's translation from our French version into English:

They are used as country cottages of ski the winter for the followers of the winter sports, the area being particularly known for the quality of the snow from December to April. The summer, the possibilities of pedestrian excursion or cyclist are also enticing, while to the autumn the superb colours of the foliage offer another pretext of stay. These cordial residences of hiring are thoroughly maintained and are appropriate perfectly to the families and to the groups. And all that, at accessible price!

From our German version into English, by Babel Fish, with our comments in square brackets:

Whether to winter sports with optimal snow conditions from December to April, to the summer vacation or to the colourful autumn, more?Indiansummer ", - the park Mont Sainte Anne and the beautiful city Québec expect IT [should be "await YOU"]. In the best way suitably for families, groups or associations at the Top price [should be "best price"]!!

At this time, our translation resources are tied up by other projects. However, I can work with your text, or text provided by your translator, to build your website in French, Spanish or German.

We also offer editing services in English or French. Perhaps writing is not one of your strong points, or the language you are writing in (English or French) is not your first language. I know you have other strong points, so don't worry. We can polish your text for you, improving its style, ensuring correctness and making it read well on the internet.

When we edit a website, we'll optimize each new page for your keywords and register the site with the major search engines in the new language.

About translating websites

Q. Why should I pay for my website to be translated when there are free online translation services out there?

A. Computerized translation services are great, within limits. Thanks to tools such as AltaVista's Babel Fish, a majority of the world's Internet users can make some sense out of almost any page they find.

The results can be humerous. For example, Babel Fish translates "house plant" into French as "usine de maison" - "usine" means "factory", and "maison" is house. The correct term would be "plante d'intérieur". I actually have a bottle of plant food at home that uses this erroneous translation.

You don't want this kind of mistake on your promotional materials.

See the sidebar for further illustration of the problem, this time into English. You'll see that computer translations require some deciphering to grasp the meaning. Foreigners reading your website in their language through Babel Fish will have the same experience!

Computerized translation is not an adequate substitute for professional translation of a website if you want to be taken seriously.

There are other limitations to relying on your readers to use computer translation.

People searching in another language (using search terms in the other language) will not be able to find your website.
Foreign search engines and directories will not usually list a site that is not in their language.
It will be harder to get other sites in the foreign language to link to yours.

If you plan to be found by and do business with people who usually speak a different language, you need your website to be properly translated, even if you let them know that any direct communication with them would have to be in English.

Translating your website is not simply a matter of translating the text you see on the screen.

Meta tags, alt tags (the text associated with images), page titles and other invisibiles all should be translated.
The new text should be written in such a way that it attracts search engines and in a style that works well on the Internet.
Also, graphic navigation buttons may need to be redone in the new language.

Web site translation should be done by people who understand web sites as well as translation. It's a specialty.

We do not work with adult sites.