The world is shrinking my friends. Globalization is upon us. And, the internet is the gateway.

International sales, formerly the playground of giant corporations, is now at everyone's fingertips. Worldwide sales access is as simple today as starting a retail website, or listing items on Ebay. And, with the U.S. dollar declining in value against other currencies, more people from around the world are looking to American websites for good deals.

The American economy is in a slump, with consumer spending at an all-time low--but there is unlimited earning potential if you are willing to put the low value of the dollar to work for you. Have you considered opening your business to international sales--or if you are currently out of work, selling American items on the internet with a global market in mind?

Worried about the language barrier? Here is your answer: Free on-line translation services.


1) Write simply.   Forget the colorful prose. Forget the big words. Forget implications. All of this can lead to inaccurate translations, and misunderstandings. Be precise with your meanings, and say it in the simplest language possible. Do not use contractions. Avoid words with multiple or ambiguous meanings.

2) Use short sentences.
Each language has it's own sentence structure: 

In French the adjective comes after the noun: "The red car is big," becomes "La voiture rouge est grande."
In German, a question must always be started with a verb. "Do you come from Germany?" literally translates into the following sentence structure: "Come you from Germany?" (Kommen Sie aus Deutschland?)

Spanish drops the pronoun when it is understood in a sentence. "I want to sleep" translates "Quiero dormir," with the pronoun "I" being dropped from the sentence altogether.

Each language has it's own set of rules, but a good on-line translation program will know them. However, the quality of your translation can only match the simplicity of your writing. If you use long, compound sentences with added phases and many ideas separated by commas....the computer will jumble your meaning as it tries to force your words to the other language's proper sentence structure. The result will be a jumble of incoherent words that lose your meaning.

3) Do not use slang.  "Bucks" will not translate as well as the word "dollars."

4) Avoid cliches.  "I'm keeping my fingers crossed," communicates your thought to an American, but in Germany they "press their thumbs" instead. Each country has it's own set of sayings, most don't translate.

"Keeping up with the Jones" means nothing to an Italian reader.

It is arrogant, and generally wrong to assume that American colloquisms will translate to other languages.

I recently had a Norwegian write that they "have an angel sitting on their shoulder" in reference to our business deal, assuming I would know what they meant. I had no idea. And, your audience won't understand your well-known American sayings either.



1) Yahoo Babel Fish - my favorite! From my experience, this one is by far the most accurate. Translates English text to 12 languages with super-fast speed.

2) Stars21.com/translator Offers translations between English and 45 other languages, including many hard to find translations such as Esperanto, Latin, and Finnish. Although it is a reliable translation site, I have not found it to be as accurate in German as Yahoo Babel Fish.

3) Free-Translator.com Awesome offerings. Boasts an extensive list of links to foreign language resources such as newspapers, radio, and on-line television. Offers translations for websites and emails, foreign language dictionaries, and free on-line language courses. Free-translator.com has an enormous amount of content and links, the only down side is the speed; just a little slower than the others.

Don't worry about being perfect; people in other countries won't expect perfection. Americans have a reputation of arrogance throughout the world. People of other countries often complain that Americans expect everyone to speak English. For most cultures, the attempt to speak their language is a sign of great respect, and in my experience your attempt will be met with generous goodwill.

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This article was originally featured on RioDancesOnTheSand.com, a blog for the thinking person... Written by Rio Denali, a 30-something with peculiar curiosities, who makes the observations that many of us avoid. Full of useful links and entertaining articles, it is a fun favorite for the intelligent reader. For more great articles like this, please visit RioDancesOnTheSand.com.