Preparing for the Hispanic Market

More and more companies are translating their web content and commercial collateral into Spanish. Is this a coincidence?
Of course not, the importance of the Hispanic and Spanish markets should not be underestimated partly due to the fact that the vast majority of this active and expanding market is Spanish speaking only. Below we will discuss some of the more detailed facts of the Spanish market.
Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, in fact, after English it is the second most widely spoken language in the world with regard to commercial communication and the third most used on the Internet.
It is estimated that in three generations 10% of the world population will be Spanish speaking and that by the year 2040 the largest Spanish speaking population in the world will be in the united States of America with Mexico next.
Spanish is the second most studied language in the world with 20 million students mainly due to its growing importance in the commercial sector.
All the above points give us some idea as to why so many companies are translating all their commercial collateral into Spanish to take advantage of this huge growing market.
Here are some astonishing facts about the US Hispanic market alone.
• The Hispanic population is expected to account for 44% of the total US population growth before the year 2020 and 62% from 2020 to 2050. By 2050 the current Hispanic population of 44 million is expected to double.
• The average age of the Spanish population is 29 years old.
• Hispanic owned businesses increased 78% between 1985 and 2000.
• The Hispanic market accounted for over 600 billion USD in consumer spending last year.
In these uncertain times where the developed markets are saturated its important to open doors to other opportunities such as the Spanish speaking market. Moreover, translating into Spanish not only opens the door to the Hispanic US market but to another 21 countries in the world that have Spanish as their official language.

Its also important to note that the translation of websites and commercial material is not a straight cut deal where one simply asks the first Translation services company they find to translate everything into Spanish because they are cheap. While the Hispanic market may not be as developed as more established markets, corporate image is still a huge factor in breaking into these markets. Intertwined with Corporate image is the need for quality translation as in most cases a poor quality translation is worse than no translation at all and can destroy the public image of the entity in question. This is why it is so important to hire a translation services company that has experience in providing high quality work in the particular area of expertise in question while also fitting into the companies budget criteria. When requesting a translation quote there is usually a wide range of translation price differences one has to ask why some translation services are so much cheaper than others.
Most of the larger multinationals are already taking this expansion into the Spanish speaking market very seriously but for a lot of the medium and smaller sized companies it is a shame to lose such an opportunity especially in such challenging times?

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Mark Kieran, CEO, One Stop Shop Translations

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Spanish translation Differences

Like popular European languages such as Italian and French, Spanish is derived from Latin. However, we must also bear in mind that other languages such as French and Arabic have had a strong influence on the Spanish language. When Spanish explorers "discovered" Latin America, the Spanish language used by the early settlers evolved into a distinctive dialect of Spanish with its own flavour and style. This new dialect of Spanish married the European and South American cultures to become what is generally called South American Spanish. Latin American Spanish is now spoken all over South America in places such as Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Chile and Ecuador with each country again having it's own specific nuances and dialects.

The differences between Latin American Spanish and European Spanish are in many respects similar to the differences between American and English meaning that Latin American Spanish speakers and European Spanish speakers have no difficulties understanding each other. The major differences between the two spoken dialects are as follows:

Spaniards tend to pronounce the z and the c before i or e like the "th" in "thick," while many Latin Americans pronounce it as the s. Also, some South Americans and in Argentina in particular, often pronounce the ll and y like the "s" in "measure." They also tend to drop s sounds, so está sounds like etá. In parts of South America, the j sounds like the "ch" in "loch" while in others it sounds like the English "h." Finally, the l and the r at the end of a word can sometimes sound alike. All of these pronunciation differences coupled with a slower pace and softer tone when speaking Latin American Spanish enable is to tell very easily where someone is from.

When it comes to South American Spanish translation and Spanish translation the differences are again very subtle and a Spaniard will generally have no problems understanding a South American text but there are some differences on grammar and vocabulary making it more logical to employ a native South American Spanish translator to translate texts specific to a particular South American market.
On grammar, two of the major differences that the Spanish translator will take into consideration are the leísmo of Spain and the use of the pronoun vos in some areas instead of tú. Secondly, vosotros is often used as the plural of tú (the singular familiar "you") in Spain, while in Latin American ustedes is used.
Vocabulary is where the major differences lie and can differ vastly even within South America emphasising again the importance of hiring a translator native to a particular locale or market. As they say there is no substitute for local knowledge.

Here are some of the misunderstandings that can arise from not hiring a native speaking translator to a specific market.

A Spanish translator may translate "to step on" as "pisar" while this maybe understood as "to have sex" in Latin American Spanish. A Spanish translator may translate "car" as "coche" while this maybe understood as "baby stroller" in Latin American Spanish. A "lápiz" is a pencil or crayon everywhere, but a "lapicero" is a pencil holder in some areas, a mechanical pencil in others, and a ball-point pen in others. There are also a number of blatant differences, such as a computer being an "ordenador" in Spain but a "computadora" in Latin America. Even within Latin Spanish we have the example where a Chinese restaurant is called a "chifa" in Peru and Chile but this word is very uncommon in other dialects of South American Spanish.

All in all, when sub-contracting your translation services for Latin Spanish do your research and ensure that your translator is not only a native South American Spanish translator but also native to the particular area/locale for which your text is being translated.