When he took over the Cabinet last spring, Prime Minister Jiří Paroubek promised to make it a priority to increase the foreign-language proficiency of the Czech people. Recently the Cabinet designated in its 2006 budget about 2 billion Kč ($83.9 million) for the National Plan to Support Language Studies. In an interview with The Prague Post, Channel Crossings language agency manager Josef Venc describes how an increasing number of Czech corporations are outsourcing language services for employees. He also talks about why corporate presentations should be conducted in foreign languages.

1. When drafting the 2006 state budget, the government increased expenditures for language education in this country. How are Czech firms handling corporate communications with foreign firms?

More and more people in Czech firms speak foreign languages and are able to communicate on an everyday basis — I mean e-mails, telephone calls or operational meetings. However, the need for advanced language skills is rising and most Czech employees must constantly develop their skills. As far as managers are concerned, they do their best to be fluent in more than one foreign language.

2. Don't you think that many local firms underestimate the need for communicating and conducting presentations in a foreign language? How much can a good-quality presentation in a foreign language increase a company's chances in a foreign market?

On the corporate communications level, firms have usually little capacity to prepare official documents and materials in foreign languages themselves. The way they produce them says a lot about their attitudes to marketing communications and public relations. Those who rely just on the skills of employees trained mostly in sales, administration or other technical disciplines but untouched by linguistics and language conventions run a high-risk gamble. In marketing communication, there is always a wide room for professional linguists to assist companies when expanding into foreign markets.

3. What is the advantage of outsourcing language services to Czech firms?

Outsourcing is advantageous for firms that have regular needs for a specific service that is a part of their main activities. This depends more on process management than on sectors they work in. Language services, particularly translations, can be successfully outsourced by law firms, banks, architects and IT providers, as well as by pharmaceutical companies.

4. Which are the most typical reasons for a Czech firm to outsource language services?

First and foremost, firms realize they don't have sufficient internal capacity to handle translations in all the required language combinations and fields of specialization to meet desirable deadlines. Secondly, they see they should have a system to produce translations, in terms of terminology, style or conventions. And thirdly, they can well-calculate that outsourcing is, for them, cheaper than translating all that stuff in-house.

5. How would you explain to corporate managers that it is more advantageous to outsource language services than to hire employees to carry out foreign corporate communications?

Outsourcing leaves your hands free to concentrate on your core business. Providers are real specialists in their fields and offer maximum value for the money. Thus, firms can organize all their important processes on the so-called best-of-breed principle. As outsourcing is always a long-term project, the partners share the client's goals and values, which minimizes possible risks.

6. Do Czech companies outsource language services on a regular basis or just occasionally?

Although most firms view translations as a secretarial service and often purchase translations on the market according to price, there is a perceptible trend in establishing long-term co-operations. Moreover, firms are very conservative in this way — unless they have a strong reason to change the way they have received translations so far, they do not reconsider it.

7. When carrying out corporate presentations in a foreign language, do language agencies differentiate between printed presentations and Web presentations?

Web presentations are a specific category and must be treated differently from, e.g., printed presentations. But this is not only a task for translation agencies. Also, people in firms must have in mind that Web texts will be read on screen, not on paper, and should be formulated not only for people but also for search robots. Webs also have different sections for different target groups, e.g. investors, professionals or clients. So different types of information have to be conveyed in different ways. On top of that, Web content in one language doesn't fully correspond to that of another language. Thus, when we translate Web presentations, we rather talk about localization.

8. What is the level of communication between companies and outsourced translators?

There is never enough communication when doing professional translations. Clients should provide as much information on the translation project as possible including organizational aspects, features of target text or other support materials. On the other hand, nobody reads texts as carefully as translators. Consequently, they have various questions and comments that should be answered. I say translators who don't ask questions are suspicious.

In fact, only a few companies are now prepared to brief translators appropriately, and not all translators insist on getting the information. So it remains a key job for agencies to mediate this communication. In Western countries, for instance, there are norms for translation work procedures that are actually based on communication between client and translator. Channel Crossing has been active in completing translation standards for the Czech Republic. The standards will be presented at our conference in November.

9. There's presumably tough competition among language agencies. Aren't you afraid that as employees gain language skills your business will decline?

I believe there will always be a sufficient market for translation services. Of course, firms won't translate their everyday correspondence or internal documents, because their employees will be better trained in languages and won't need official translations. However, employees will always have other responsibilities and won't have the capacity to do extra translations. Technical texts and corporate communication materials will need to be translated by professionals.

10. What effective marketing methods do language agencies have when it is virtually impossible to quantify the quality of a translation service? What are the key criteria for selecting a language agency? Can the level of quality be derived from the price of the service?

Translation is a service, and as such it can be difficult to define its hard quality. Price, of course, doesn't guarantee quality but can indicate a lot. How can cheap translations be executed? Who does them? Trained and experienced professionals? Students?