Beware of… a Falling Image!…

It is early Wednesday morning and… it is still snowing on the National Capital! Should I remind you that it is not officially winter yet?… Top that with the OC Transpo strike and you have the perfect icing on the cake!… What I love about my job is that I can modify my schedule… therefore, at 7:00 am, I called James to let him know I would see him this afternoon instead. By then, snow should have ended and there will be no traffic left on the roads. Brilliant!!!

Since I cannot just stay home doing nothing, I thought it would be a good idea to use this spare time to write a post… When Joseph, my long time student, finally decided to go ahead with his web site and blog; I was thrilled! He had been sitting on this project for almost a year… Bilingual, although not perfect in French writing, he offers his services in both English and French. For that reason, he wanted his blog/site to be in both languages… quite a risky business indeed! Why? Because it means your site has to be flawless… Some people would argue that, given the poor quality of French that we see around here, there is no need for overdoing it since most readers would probably not even notice grammar, structure or spelling mistakes… Well, I do! And I am convinced I am not the only one!

I am very demanding when I am looking for a service… and I will automatically discard a company based on its flyers or ads that suck either in English or French! And it goes for snowblowing contractors as well… In my mind, anyone who cannot check what they wrote are not worth my attention! When companies (and even the governement) deliver badly written messages, I just can imagine the poor quality of either their products or their services… I might be wrong though… I might miss out on an excellent service provider just because of a lousy web site or a flyer riddled with mistakes! Yet… for me, it is a red flag!… And, to some extent, an insult!

Unless you are a language expert, you do not master it, consequently you cannot just write something and think it is perfect… most people make mistakes writing in their mother tongue… and it is okay because they are no experts!… It becomes even trickier when they do translate their texts themselves using some questionable tools such as Google translators! Of course, it is free and very appealing to small companies (and probably a few big ones too!)… Hiring a translator and/or an editor might be costly, yet it is an investment that is worth every penny spent! You may have the most visually stunning site or flyer but, if the content stinks, chances are that visitors will leave right away and never come back… and your flyers will go directly from mail boxes to recycle bins!

Flawless texts are one of the crucial keys to success… it links to your image as professionals… would you go to a first meeting with a client in your pj’s? I do not think so! What you write is the door potential clients go through before they get to meet you in person… and I am convinced you do not want to blow it, right?

Joseph is an expert in communications and a very professional man… He wanted a blog/site that would reflect both, his professionalism and his personality. Therefore he would not take any chances regarding his texts in French… Fortunately, I am around and I was more than delighted to help him by reviewing and editing his texts to make sure everything would be perfect once his site would be launched on line. Actually, what he had written on his own was almost perfect except for the misuse of prepositions (la bête noire de tout francophone!)… I only had to correct those small mistakes (yet annoying!) and replace a few expressions with some that would ring a bell for French-speaking people…

Last week, his blog/site was officially launched and he has a top notch product!… Simply because he paid attention to the quality of his writing, knowing that it was very important to show a professional image that would grab readers and potential clients’ attention! And… useless to mention that I am very proud of him and, whenever he will need my help, I will be there to give him a hand!…

My point is… if you are contemplating the idea of having a bilingual site, make sure that all your texts (in both languages) go through thorough reviewing and screening before it goes on line… Yes, it will cost you money! But… it will eventually pay off!… And if you do not… well…

Do you really want your site to look like this?

Une gracieuseté de «GOOGLE TRANSLATOR»!...

Then… think twice…

“On ne guérit pas les plaies en les léchant avec une langue de bois.”

Valéry Giscard d’Estaing