"The first requisite of an English translation is that it be English"
B. Jowett
“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is really a large matter — it’s the difference between lightning and a lightning bug”
Mark Twain
"It's not just what you say that stirs people. It's the way you say it" William Bernbach
"Dieselben Worte zu verwenden, ist keine ausreichende Garantie für das Verstehen; man muss dieselben Worte für dieselbe Art von innerer Erfahrung verwenden; schließlich muss man die eigenen Erfahrungen gemeinsam haben"
Nietzche
The idea for L-Audit came from the realization that although English is the global language of business, its imperfect use loses potential customers.
Most translators used by mid-sized German speaking companies are not native English speakers. Typically these translators are also not business people or industry experts. Most are incapable of forcefully and convincingly communicating a company's value statement in English or recognizing subtle mistakes in technical or industry terminology which would warn a reader to be cautious. Often this results in documents which don't reflect the quality of the original German document and as a result generate less customer interest.
Companies waste enormous amounts of time and money every year
publishing English documents that don't present them as well as
their German originals leaving customers confused or
unimpressed. Some potential customers are lost. They simply move
on without saying a thing. We believe that well placed effort by a competent and
specialized partner can improve the results this existing literature
produces quickly and economically.
Imperfect English translation reduces the impact of your value statement and can undermine customer confidence. Imprecise or unclear translations also produce potential legal liabilities by unintentionally misrepresenting products or services. Translations which either contain gross errors or are simply not clear, correct and colloquial, fail to present companies at their best leaving some potential customers unconvinced. These customers are often lost. For most businesses, holding on to even a small percentage of these lost prospects can make a significant financial impact.
L-Audit provides third party, independent auditing of German to English translations by bilingual native English speakers with senior global management experience. Our bilingual team ensures that your English publications are written in clear, correct and idiomatic English and use generally accepted, accurate technical terminology. These senior managers can also ensure that the translated text makes a clear and forceful marketing argument for your company in English. We do no primary translating but only provide independent senior level auditing services aimed at improving the impact of existing media. As industry experts born to the English language and experienced in global marketing, we easily see the improvements that can be made. L-Audit provides linguistic quality control for your publications and ensures that you put only the clearest ideas, accurate information and a convincing sales argument in front of your customers. Audit results are delivered in an easy to use format which can be economically and quickly incorporated into existing media without disturbing your existing media production system or vendor relationships.
We only do what we know. Technical vocabulary and market awareness are critical to a good translation, so we only offer help where we have first-hand industry knowledge and experience.
All our auditors are retired senior executives with advanced technical degrees and German fluency. All have had long global career experience in the industries we serve. They are all native English speakers and have each managed the development and publishing of both technical literature and websites in their respective industries. All have direct personal overseas work experience in German speaking countries. Each is intimately familiar with the technical vocabulary of their industry as well as it’s “trade talk”. Their experience and perspective tell them what sounds natural and authoritative in translation and what makes a coherent and strong business argument.
L-Audit provides you the advantages of senior level experience, industry knowledge, good intuitive understanding of the original German primary documents combined with native English language skills. Our auditors know what persuades as well as what is both technically and grammatically correct. They know what a solid business argument looks like in English. Each can quickly edit any document to give it the appearance of having been written by a native English-speaking industry expert. L-Audit makes sure that your message resonates in English. Our work inspires confidence in any reader and can quickly and easily be put to work for you.