Global communication comes into its own.

Twenty years ago recognizing that it was no longer master of the global marketplace, U.S. business determined to compete with foreign corporations head-to-head.

But it has taken those 20 long years for business to come to grips with the tough realities of international trade. The Japanese drive on the left-hand side of the road, so they don't buy American cars; German machine tools are calibrated in millimeters, so they don't buy American parts. But U.S. business always has known how to put steering wheels on the right, and always has known how to build parts to meet any tolerance. The shortcoming was, instead, a kind of shyness mixed with arrogance that kept businesses from dropping the main barrier to international success: the English language.

What? Isn't English the language of international diplomacy? Yes, it is. When businessmen from around the world meet in Brussels, don't they speak English? You bet they do. So isn't English the perfect language to use for communicating with our foreign clients and employees? Absolutely not -- and it's taken 20 years to figure that out.

But we finally have figured it out. Over the past few years, the chairmen of major U.S. corporations, from American Express to Duracell -- from IBM to UPS, have directed their corporate communication, investor relations and international marketing managers to do what the Germans and Japanese have been doing all along -- they are now producing their employee newsletters, annual reports and sales brochures in a multitude of languages.

Many multinationals are still operating in an English-only mode -- or perhaps they produce scattered foreign-language materials in a haphazard, uncoordinated way. The big trend-setters, on the other hand, have established a take-charge attitude by controlling all their international corporate communication projects from the executive suite.

Be aware of cultural differences

It's important not only to take foreign languages and cultures into account, but also to think the whole communication process through. What good is translating a press release into German, for example, if there are no German speakers available to take phone calls from German journalists? And there's probably no point in translating brochures for luxury consumer items into Russian, because very few Russians have much disposable income.

Many ways exist to get it all wrong. But there are also tried-and-true methods for producing professional communication pieces for almost any readership. And it all starts with language.

First, the original text should be written with translation in mind. Metaphors will usually work in other languages, but plays on words are normally impossible to translate. Jokes, jargon, slang and cliches should always be avoided. Aphorisms, on the other hand, can have a good effect, although they don't always remain intact in translation: "killing two birds with one stone" becomes "catching two pigeons with one bean" in Italian, "hitting two flies with one swat" in German, and "catching two fish with one rod" in Korean. A strong dose of sensitivity is also in order; an article on "The Triumph of Capitalism" probably won't strike much of a chord in Moscow or Beijing.

The communication manager must now decide which languages are right for the publication. That choice will, of course, depend on the target readership. The most popular languages in corporate America are French, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese and Chinese. A second tier would include Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish and Korean. But there are problems here. French has two main dialects, Parisian and Quebecois, while German has three (spoken in Germany, Switzerland and Austria), Portuguese has two (Continental and Brazilian) and Dutch has a twin sister called Flemish, which is spoken in Belgium. Spanish is used in scores of countries and territories all over the world. Except for Chinese, the differences among dialects is fairly subtle. The contrast between British and American English is a good example, with spelling (colour vs. color) and a few vocabulary items (lorry vs. truck) accounting for most of the variation. Nevertheless, these subtle differences are extremely apparent to any reader, so the proper choice of dialect is an important consideration.

Communicators must be aware of translation pitfalls

Once the copy is ready and the languages are chosen, translation can begin. The ideal translator is a professional writer who happens to be bilingual -- not a professional linguist who may or may not be a good writer. He or she should write exclusively in his/her native language, no matter how good the knowledge of other languages may be. Like all writers, translators need their editors. In fact, a translation is simply not complete until it has been thoroughly vetted by a professional editor.

Even though translation is essentially "foreign," the communication executive should make an effort to remain a part of the process. Someone within the corporation -- preferably a manager involved with the readership -- should review the translation. Are all the products and services described in the text actually available in the foreign location? Would elements of the copy somehow offend the local corporate culture? A review can catch these kinds of issues before they become problems.

Corporate review and approval leads to the next step: typesetting. Using desktop publishing technology, a brochure, newsletter or annual report can be typeset and then printed simultaneously in any number of languages, including Japanese. The Macintosh environment is perfect for the job. A typesetter, using a page-layout program such as QuarkXPress, makes identical copies of a single electronic layout, or grid, and then imports the different language versions from a word-processing format into the Quark grids. Foreign-language hyphenation and spell-check utilities are available, although the algorithms they employ are typically no more than 80 percent reliable. Therefore, native proofreaders should be brought in to make sure that no language errors have been introduced during the typesetting phase. In addition, proofreaders with knowledge of typography need to keep an eye on kerning, leading and type specs in general.

All these very different functions -- copy writing, translation, editing, typesetting, language proofreading and typographical proofreading -- must be planned and controlled by managers who can discuss the niceties of French grammar one moment, and the technicalities of kerning the next.

In the old days, foreign languages had to be phototypeset in galleys -- or columns of type -- and then cut and pasted up onto expensive camera-ready mechanicals. Now, many language versions of a single communication piece can be typeset in position, and then output directly from disk to film. To produce a multi-language print run, the printer can keep the color plates on the press, and simply swap the black plates -- which contain the type -- for each language version desired. This is by far the most economical way to produce a communication piece in more than one language. However, this method works only if your production piece is designed to accommodate the different lengths of text in various languages.

The trends of the future are with us now. If we want to tap the global marketplace, we must be prepared to address each local market on its own terms, and in its own language. And if we set out to build and manage multinational corporations, we must be willing to communicate with all employees on an equal basis, no matter where they work and no matter what language they speak.

Gerry Dempsey is partner, TransImage, Inc., specialists in multilingual translation and graphic services, New York City.

DESIGNING FOR THE WORLD

When two people look at the same communication piece, each will come away with a different impression. If the two area from different cultures, their impressions may vary enormously. That's why it is vital to understand international audiences, and adapt the visual image to suit their cultural backgrounds.

Even something as basic as color can have an unexpected impact on the success of a brochure. The color yellow is a case in point. It carries religious and mystical overtones in India, while in China, it represents both the Emperor and pornography! In America, it can evoke cowardice (a yellow streak) or faithfulness (a yellow ribbon).

Communicators must be especially careful when choosing photographs; while most Americans would identify with a multiracial photo, and consider a multiracial group to be prototypically American, not all cultures have this image of themselves.

Using a single design for several language versions of a communication piece provides substantial cost savings -- especially in color separation and printing -- while allowing the communicator to maintain a unified concept and "look" for every target market. The designer must be aware of the potential problems with foreign languages, and find creative solutions that will satisfy the requirements of each specific culture.

True expertise in international communication goes beyond translation. From the concept and design to the color, art, type and text, every component must come together seamlessly to form an integrated communication instrument.