Recently I helped to judge an awards program for local nonprofits who were competing for the best annual report, best e-newsletter, and so forth. I asked to be assigned to the website category.  Having done this a year or two in the past, it was fun to see how much (or how little) nonprofit websites had improved.

Overall, I'd say they improved.  One thing that was interesting to see was content in a second language (in three cases it was Spanish).  Several sections of the site could be translated into Spanish and I gave extra points for the effort.

Then I thought of the photographer who we loved at a family reunion ("Boy, isn't he a great photographer?" we all exclaimed.  Until the photos came back, out of alignment and oddly framed.  Proof was in the photos).

So I called a friend fluent in Spanish and asked him to read the Spanish translations. Not a one was up to snuff.  A foundation was the culprit in one case.  He said their grant guidelines were so poorly written in English, that the Spanish translation was unreadable.  The two other sites, that had translated program information for consumer groups, had poor translations, too.

If you're adding foreign language translations to your site, be sure they're good ones, or you're liable to offend the very people you're hoping to assist.

Oh, and the auto-translations I've seen in French (the language I'm most familiar with) are more humorous than helpful.  Get a real person involved.

 

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