Gone are the days of heavy, printed product manuals that seem to go out of date almost as soon as they are printed. Today’s products are far more dynamic – like the digital product manual that Tomedes translated recently for a client’s website.
The client needed us to translate his product manual from English to Korean so that he could showcase his stock to companies in South Korea. He spoke the language passably, but wanted his printed materials to be word-perfect, so knew that it was time to consult with professional language experts in order to produce the Korean version.
The client was looking online for translation services when he came across Tomedes. He was impressed by our customer care-focused approach and so talked with our live chat team about the kinds of translation services that we provide. The team were friendly and knowledgeable and quickly answered his queries, so the client decided to give Tomedes a try. And we decided to make him glad he did!
Korean is one of the oldest living languages in the world, though its origins have been lost to the sands of time. It is generally considered a language isolate, meaning that it does not relate to any other language in any significant way.
That said, the historical connections between China and Korea mean that the modern Korean language can trace around 60% of its words back to Chinese origins. A further 5% are words that have been borrowed from other languages, with the remaining 35% of words being of original Korean origin.
Korean is a fascinating language, with plenty to keep translators on their toes. The language has seven levels of honorifics built in, as well as two different number systems (one for numbers up to 99 and the other for numbers up to 99 and beyond). Those translating documents from English to Korean need a firm grasp of such linguistic quirks, in order to ensure that their translations are both accurate and perfectly localised.
Understanding the different honorifics, each of which affects verb endings, is particularly important for those in business settings, where a mistake that causes offence could have significant financial implications. That’s why Tomedes’ Korean translators are all highly experienced linguists whose Korean language skills are simply superb.
For this job, our native Korean translator got straight to work on the client’s product manual, working methodically through each item in order to translate it from English into flawless Korean.
The client’s goal was to include the translated product manual on his website, so that he could quickly and easily share it with business contacts (both existing and new) in South Korea. The Tomedes team was delighted to help.
Website translation projects come in a variety of shapes and sizes, from entire sites to single pages and documents. When undertaking website translation, we’ve found that it’s just as important that the translator have excellent knowledge of the subject matter as it is for them to be able to deal with the more technical elements of the translation. Relevant subject matter expertise is essential if the outcome of the job is to be the highest possible quality translation.
In this case, our talented Korean translator had a detailed understanding of the subject matter of the digital product manual that was to be published on the client’s website. Over the last ten years, Tomedes has built up a global network of translators, so that we can quickly and easily match clients’ jobs with our translators’ expertise in this way.
We’ve also built up a structure that allows us to offer a 24/7 service to our clients. This means that our translation services can comfortably span multiple time zones. For clients who travel regularly, such as this one, this setup means that there’s always someone at the end of the phone, regardless of where in the world the caller may be. South Korea is nine hours ahead of UK, but whichever country this client was in, he was always able to get a quick response from the Tomedes team.
This is part of our commitment to providing a superb customer experience at every stage of the Tomedes journey. It’s a commitment that has enabled us to maintain a long-term client satisfaction rating of over 95%, despite the huge variation in our clients’ translation requirements, cultural backgrounds and more. It’s a rating that we’re rightly proud of!
If you would like to experience a translation service that puts your needs front and centre, it’s time to speak to Tomedes. We’re ready and waiting to assist you, no matter which language pairing you need nor how complex the task at hand may be. Why not get in touch today to let us know what you need?
Why choose us
24/7 Human Support
1 Year Guarantee
95,000 Business Customers