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Peschel Blog

Peschel Blog

29. January 2024

Four paths to the perfect translation

So you have a text and need it in one or multiple different languages? That’s a clear-cut case for translation. Right?

18. December 2023

AI Interpreting

People often ask me whether my work as an interpreter will soon be taken over by Artificial Intelligence (AI). After all, translators and interpreters are often found at the top of the list of jobs most affected by AI. I find this a little worrying, but at the same time I am fascinated by the progress we have seen in the past few years. So it’s time to find out what AI is actually capable of.

31. August 2023

How to keep your eyes healthy at work

Every industry and every business has its own terminology. Here‘s how a company-specific database of terminology for your company helps you attain consistent quality and brand recognition, saving you time and money.

7. April 2023

Terminology Management – what is it good for?

Every industry and every business has its own terminology. Here‘s how a company-specific database of terminology for your company helps you attain consistent quality and brand recognition, saving you time and money.

8. February 2023

Save money on translations without compromising on the outcome

In the era of machine translation, why would you invest in an expensive, professional translation? Because what may look like a bargain could end up costing much more down the line! Here’s how you can still save without compromising on the outcome.

9. November 2022

Quality management with ISO 9001 – added value for translation services

Peschel Communications first obtained its ISO 9001:2015 certification in 2021. Preparing for the international certification for quality management systems was no easy feat, but it helped us further improve our tried-and-tested internal processes. So we are proud of the result, particularly because not many language service providers of our size are able to boast a certified quality management system. ISO 9001

26. July 2022

An American in Freiburg

As an American exchange student who had never been abroad before, I joined Peschel Communications for a summer internship. I was in for a few surprises.

30. June 2022

Opportunities and Limitations of Multilingual SEO

Why a dictionary won’t get you very far when it comes to true localisation For translators, search engine optimisation, better known as SEO, is becoming more and more pertinent to their work. With a growing number of businesses aiming to ensure that customers the world over can find them through search engines, requirements have shifted. But how can translators best

30. November 2021

Multilingual content marketing

Where translation and content creation meet Nowadays, multilingual content marketing is an absolute must for every company that is active in various countries and markets. But is it possible to simply translate content? Here we will show you what you need to pay attention to and how translation and content creation go hand in hand. Why do you need multilingual

4. October 2021

Online meetings with interpreters

Follow our tips to ensure that your online meeting with interpreters runs smoothly! In addition to the following requirements, we recommend initiating a test call and holding a briefing with all active participants

15. June 2021

Are you ready for the new medical device regulation?

The transitional period for compliance with the European Union Medical Device Regulation expired on 26 May 2021. One of its requirements is that information must be available in the local language.

7. May 2021

8 Questions for Andrea Unkelbach

Senior Project Manager Andrea Unkelbach is celebrating 15 years at Peschel Communications this year – the perfect occasion to ask her a few questions.

2. March 2021

The WIN-Charta: Our commitment to economic, ecological and social accountability

By signing the WIN-Charta, we pledge to increase our sustainability and fulfil our exemplary role as a sustainable company. Read this article to find out what steps we are taking toward improvement.

25. January 2021

The language of the pandemic

The pandemic has changed our lives and our language. These changes aren’t just reflected by a language itself, but also the associated culture.

22. December 2020

Looking back on 2020

Summarising the events of a year has never been this difficult.

26. October 2020

“Fahrvergnügen” sounds echt German! … more German words that found their way into the English language

Two weeks ago, we addressed the topic of German words used in everyday English. In this blog article, we turn our attention to more specialized borrowings. We explore terminology used in scientific contexts, but also words used in advertising – a field in which inventing new, creative words is virtually part of the job description.

12. October 2020

Playing foosball in the hinterland – Why German is not as foreign to English speakers as you might think

Sure, English words are sneaking into German dictionaries at breakneck pace these days, but German has made its ‘deutsche mark’ on the English language, too. For translators and interpreters who work between these two linguistic worlds, this commingling is important to be aware of. Read on to find out which words to look out for.

23. September 2020

Synchronous interpretation, simultaneous translation or live interpretation – which is it?

Do you find the concepts of consecutive and simultaneous interpreting confusing? If so, then this is just the article for you. Read on to learn about the difference between the two and why there is no such thing as synchronous interpretation.

24. August 2020

Food, language and work-life balance – what it’s really like to work in Germany

Cultural differences are an important aspect for translators to consider. In this article, our translators Mari and Eliot talk about what it is like for them to work in Germany.

13. July 2020

Accelerated approval: How urgently needed medications can be authorised for marketing more quickly

Since March of this year, if not earlier, the whole world has been watching the spread and further development of the coronavirus with bated breath. Many people are eagerly awaiting potential vaccines, for which some medicinal substances have already entered the pivotal trial phase. Remdesivir, an active substance which could potentially be used to treat COVID-19, has recently received conditional approval to be marketed in the EU. Read on to find out more about this.

15. June 2020

Freiburg – a multilingual city

Beyond the universities and tourism, what role does multilingualism play in Freiburg? Read on to learn about our city’s polyglot side and what that means for us as a language service provider.

25. May 2020

Free online translation tools – too good to be true?

Times have changed, and so have machine translation tools. Just a few years ago, machine translations were something of a laughing stock — but now even language professionals are astonished by the quality they provide. Professional translators increasingly find themselves having to answer the question of whether there’s really a need for human translations any more. Here, we’ll take a look at the major challenges involved.

4. May 2020

Remote Interpreting – Live Translation for Online Events

In times of crisis, creativity is of the essence: Social distancing rules mean that more and more events are being held in the virtual space. Read on to find out what you can do if the delegates at your online conference or the participants of your virtual business meeting don’t all speak the same language.

22. April 2020

An interview with Ellen Göppl

Ellen Göppl reveals how her work at Peschel Communications has changed over the last 20 years and what she enjoys most about being a translator. Read our interview to find out why, without Peschel Communications, she might have ended up as a Romansh-speaking computer hacker.

27. March 2020

20 tips to make your online meeting a success

Are you wondering how to make all those online meetings more engaging? Here are a few tips.

21. January 2020

Peschel Communications provides interpreters for the VEGA Trend Event

In November we organised a team of 16 interpreters for a major event held by VEGA Grieshaber KG at Europa-Park. With eight target languages and around 700 participants, it was certainly a memorable job. Interpreting into so many languages was a first – not just for the client, but also for us. Read on to find out how we and the client approached this challenge.

11. December 2019

Looking back on 2019

A look back at Peschel Communications’ achievements in 2019, from earning ISO certification and successfully completing a translation project into 24 languages to engaging in a march for political action to combat climate change.

14. November 2019

9 tips for saving money on your translations

Good translations cost money. But they don’t have to break the bank. Read on for 9 tips to reduce your translation costs without compromising on quality.

23. September 2019

DIN EN 15038 is dead – long live ISO 17100

Even though translating is a creative activity and translation quality may seem difficult to measure, attempts have been made to assess what makes a translation service good. After the old EN 15038 was recently replaced by ISO 17100, Peschel Communications decided to apply for an audit.

27. June 2019

5 Reasons to Translate your Website

English seems to dominate the world. So isn’t it enough to publish your website in English? A high-quality translation may actually be worth the effort – your audience will thank you.

20. May 2019

The terminology side of translation — what my internship taught me

Thrown into the deep end: Former intern Pia Klenk addresses the concerns she faced and the wealth of knowledge she acquired in transitioning from university courses to a real-life translation office.

28. February 2019

The secret to a good translation

Not all translations are created equal. As the customer, it will help you greatly to know what you’re looking for. Who is your audience? What is the text being used for? Keep reading for more simple considerations to keep in mind when looking for the right translator.

20. December 2018

Looking back on 2018

Anja Peschel looks back on Peschel Communications’ highlights from 2018 and its first 20 years in business.

14. November 2018

“All’s well that ends well” (In the original Hungarian: Minden jó, ha a vége jó.)

All’s well that ends well, but getting to that end is not always easy. Project Manager Helena Triesch attended the Meet Central Europe conference in Budapest to learn more about how project managers and vendor managers can better communicate with partners and pool resources to ensure a job is completed successfully.

18. October 2018

An evening of reunions and fond memories

Peschel Communications teams of past and present celebrated the company’s 20-year journey to where it is today.

2. October 2018

The project manager’s superpowers

Many people think “text in, text out” – but what really goes into a translation project? Actually working with the text is only half the battle. Project Manager Andrea Unkelbach breaks down her experience at ND Focus – Elia’s focus on Project Management.

16. August 2018

German expressions in other languages

If this article is all Greek to you… we wouldn’t be that surprised. Idioms and turns of phrase certainly bring a distinct flavour to the languages we speak, but they can be particularly hard to understand for native speakers, let alone to translate!

18. July 2018

Translating personal documents

At Peschel Communications, we translate what’s on the page, but we also tailor the finished product to fit the specific purpose of the translation.

18. June 2018

Jogging bottoms or business casual? From in-house to freelance and back again

In the digital age, a job in translation could look like any other office job, but it could also look a lot different. Freelancers can earn a living and still go on holiday at the drop of a hat if they so choose. The flipside of the coin, of course, is that this flexibility means the concept of “after work” starts to lose its meaning. Whether flexibility or routine produces better results varies from person to person and even from year to year.

22. May 2018

Former programmer goes in a new direction

What do computer programming, translation and cycling across the United States have in common? Well… a lot, as it turns out!

19. April 2018

“Bad Simple English” or 15 reasons why you should consider hiring interpreters

Not everyone speaks English, and not everyone speaks English at the same level. And that’s okay! Read more about why the benefit of hiring qualified conference interpreters well outweighs the cost.

12. March 2018

New input at Elia together 2018

It’s not all Greek to us! The leadership team at Peschel Communications attended Elia together in Athens to beef up their knowledge of the international hot topics in translation and translation software – and they even ran into some familiar faces!

20. February 2018

Making the switch to a career in translation

How many translators does it take to change a lightbulb? Everyone in our industry knows that this joke is as old as, well, lightbulbs. But switching careers can entail a very high learning curve. Translator Marnie Christensen talks about her path to becoming a professional translator.

20. December 2017

Looking back on 2017

Last Christmas I announced that we would be welcoming some new faces in 2017, and the changes to our team are at the top of my agenda for this year’s round-up. In February we were joined by Sarah Zeller, freshly graduated from her Master’s studies (French and English) and starting out as a trainee translator. Sarah settled in and became

8. December 2017

Christmas in the skate shop – or: What sets a professional apart

When we began brainstorming for our Christmas party this year, it quickly became clear that we wanted to do something a little out of the ordinary. As big fans not just of foreign languages but also of exotic food, we finally hit on the idea of asking the Brazilian owner of our favourite food truck whether he would give us

16. November 2017

Translation is a craft – an internship report

“If I want to learn to swim, I have to go into the water, otherwise I’ll learn nothing.” (August Bebel) With a Bachelor’s degree in translation under my belt and the start of my Master’s approaching, I wanted to see what it’s like to work in a translation company and put the knowledge I’d acquired at university into practice. After a

15. November 2017

Translating marketing texts

Marketing texts are about more than facts – they are about emotions. These are conveyed through a rich mixture of language, content and images, often using wordplay, rhyme or other stylistic devices. So what does this mean for translating marketing texts into other languages? Can marketing texts even be translated? There is no definitive answer to this question. Unlike very

30. June 2017

The life of a translation project manager

You have been working as a project manager at Peschel Communications for more than 12 years now. How did you come to work in this role? Basically, it was a question of supply and demand. I applied for an internship after graduating because I was in the position that (almost?!) all recent graduates find themselves in: I knew nothing about

2. June 2017

United Nations reinforce the meaning of International Translation Day

Time for the language industry to celebrate: at the General Assembly on 24th May, the United Nations officially declared 30th September as International Translation Day. For translators and interpreters, who mainly work behind the scenes, this is a well-deserved recognition of their highly-skilled services which have never been more valuable than in the current age of machine translation and Google

10. May 2017

What is it that you actually do? Or: What’s challenging about translating?

Let’s face it, basically everyone can speak English. More and more students are spending at least one semester abroad and even toddlers are now learning foreign languages. So what on earth do we need professional translators for? The answer is simple: to separate the sense from the nonsense. Both customers and friends usually only have a vague idea of how

24. January 2017

Project Managers: The Superheros of the Translation Industry

Since I started Peschel Communications almost 20 years ago, translation projects have become ever more complex: more languages, varying file formats, increasingly demanding specialist subjects and more and more complex requests from clients. As a result, project management work is making up a much larger share of our overall workload than it used to. In the early days, our translators

20. December 2016

Looking back on 2016

2016 has been a good year for Peschel Communications. We completed more projects in a year than ever before, breaking our record with project number 1,000. We have our long-standing customers to thank for this, who have supplied us with a steady stream of translation projects. At the same time, we attracted some new customers from fields as diverse as

25. August 2016

CAT Tools

When talking to a translator about his or her work, you will sooner or later hear them talk about CAT tools. Computer-Aided Translation Tools are software applications intended to make a translator’s job easier while improving quality. Now widespread across the industry, these tools are not to be confused with machine translation (e.g. Google Translate). Just like any tool, CAT

12. July 2016

Lights! Camera! Subtitles!

“I can’t read while I’m also trying to see things!” This line from Channel 4’s The IT Crowd sums up the view which was a staple punchline for many 90s stand-up comedians: namely, that men hate subtitles. I’ve tried to trace the origins of this particular male stereotype; I thought perhaps it had something to do with the cliché that

12. July 2016

Freelance translators and translation companies – the perfect symbiosis

Subcontracting translations still seem to have a dubious reputation amongst freelance translators. Negative comments about “cutthroat agencies” are commonplace, and usually seem refer to all translation service providers not working as freelancers. There has been a slight shift in recent years, however, and freelance translators and translation companies have started to work together. When speaking about my own company, which

15. February 2016

International tourism – just English won’t do

Who hasn’t seen the wonderfully funny signs that are intended to inform foreign visitors, but in fact just end up confusing them. On menus, the worst that can happen is that foreign tourists are forced to leave their comfort zone and try a new culinary delicacy (on the Canary Islands, we were once offered the unconventional combo of jam and

16. January 2016

Looking back on 2015

Looking back on the past year has become almost a tradition. This year, we were so busy in the run-up to Christmas that there was no time to stop and think. But now that the last of the year’s projects have been managed and Christmas has given me some time to clear my head, it is time to look back

25. October 2015

10 Tips for planning multilingual conferences

English is often used as a lingua franca at conferences, even when it isn’t the native language of most of the speakers and attendees. At high-profile events – or if not all of the speakers and attendees speak English – simultaneous interpreters help to overcome the language barrier. German MP Gernot Erler, then Minister of State at the Foreign Office,

31. August 2015

Lost in translation across the pond

We Brits may be speaking the same language as our American cousins, but we are far from on the same page. Confusion can be caused by the simplest of words, which, when misplaced, may ensue in hilarity, awkward situations or, worse, mistakes. And Bob’s your uncle (or “ta-da” to our American counterparts), we have miscommunication lift-off. The birds and the

31. August 2015

Can tour guide systems replace interpreting equipment?

Customers sometimes ask me whether or not tour guide systems can be used in place of interpreting booths. What is a tour guide system? Tour guide systems (TGSs) were originally developed for factory and museum tours, and consist of a microphone and headset receivers. The museum guide speaks into the microphone and listeners hear everything via their headsets, meaning that

29. April 2015

A dog’s life at the office

Take a break! Particularly when times are busy, it is worth remembering the benefits of a good work-life balance. Whenever the flood of emails in my inbox threatens to drown me, and the volume of text waiting to be translated seems endless, so that I don’t even feel I have the time for a cup of tea, there is someone

6. March 2015

14 tips for speakers at international conferences

How to ensure that both the original and translated versions of your presentation are a complete success. The conference season is once again in full swing. At technical events in particular, conference interpreters often have to contend with speakers who have little, or no, experience in working with interpreters. The good news is that we don’t bite! And there’s more

3. June 2014

Peschel interpreters at Intersolar Europe

Interpreters Anja Peschel and Katherina Polig are all set to translate the opening of Intersolar Europe 2014 and the Intersolar AWARD ceremony on 4th June. Intersolar Europe is the world’s largest exhibition for the solar industry and its partners, taking place annually at Messe München, Germany. It’s that time of year again – Intersolar Europe opens its doors on 4th

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