by Caridad Batista | 16 Oct, 2023 | Translation news
Le Point is a French weekly political and news magazine published in Paris, covering a wide range of topics such as economics, technology, health, culture, and trends.
It is also known as one of the top three news magazines in France for its credibility and depth of content, providing readers with fresh and opinionated information through commentary and contributions to issues of public interest.
To celebrate the opening of translation company BeTranslated’s French office, an article was published on Le Point’s website, and we’d like to share it with you.
Following its arrival in Spain and Belgium, BeTranslated Opens its Doors in France
According to Umberto Eco, “translation is Europe’s language”. Michael Bastin and Jean-François Bunouf, who are the founders of the international translational agency, BeTranslated, do not beg to differ.
As a matter of fact, in the context of global exchanges, and the internationalisation of information, translation holds a key position. Furthermore, Europe is undoubtedly a global region where translation is the most practised.
BeTranslated is an expert translation agency aimed at helping diverse companies, whether they are small and medium-sized businesses, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), or international establishments.
With its headquarters in Belgium and a branch in Spain, BeTranslated has now set its sights on France.
Due to a large European clientele being predominantly French-speaking, BeTranslated has an innate awareness of the importance of having a significant impact in France.
As a result, BeTranslated opened its new French branch in October 2023, located in Yutz in the Metz region. It is an area that goes hand in hand with the agency’s expertise in border markets.
It is the first step towards a larger expansion in France, with potential future establishments in Paris or Lyon.
Belgium: a translation specialist
Often considered by French businesses as the first point of call for exporting, Belgium finds itself positioned right in the middle of the French-speaking, German, Dutch and Luxembourgian markets.
These markets are the most sought-after by French businesses to test their international development.
With its three national languages, French, Dutch, and German, alongside a strong practice of the English language, Belgium continues to be a country where excellent translation is embedded in its roots.
With BeTranslated’s set up simultaneously in Liege and Metz, it is perfectly positioned to respond to the needs of French exporting companies.
Of course, the agency is equally active in Southern Europe, available to businesses who wish to expand in Spain and other parts of the Mediterranean, for example.
Furthermore, BeTranslated is also present in various other parts of the world, such as Asia and North America.
Experts in every sector and every language
BeTranslated works primarily with clients whose needs revolve around the seven most commonly used languages in Europe, which are English, French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, German, and Portuguese.
The agency regularly carries out translations into several other languages, most notably, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Arabic, Turkish, and even Cambodian.
To respond as effectively as possible to the needs of their various clients, BeTranslated calls upon freelance translators specializing in the sector in question.
A large variety of projects can be led simultaneously, which are very diverse, and can range from business, finance, and technology to IT-oriented projects. In addition, BeTranslated can also offer audiovisual services, as well as services in marketing, tourism, and culture.
Within these services, the writing style is of the utmost importance, alongside the know-how of working professionals, which remains far superior to its artificial intelligence counterpart. ChatGPT will just have to sit back and watch!
With its expertise, BeTranslated offers translations in all kinds of formats, for example, scans, technical specification sheets, and many more.
BeTranslated is also well renowned within the legal world, given its association with sworn translators.
SEO translation, with a precise adaptation of online content in order to maximise search engine optimisation, is yet another speciality of this diverse language service provider.
With the translation industry being extremely demanding, the agency is made up of a team of 10 people, with all the project managers previously being translators themselves.
They are constantly in touch with industry experts.
Quality service is provided to many renowned clients, such as Vinci Construction, with tens of thousands of pages of documentation being provided with technical translations. Other clients include Scholl, Bouygues Telecom, UNESCO, and many French universities and hospitals.
Furthermore, the agency is regularly called upon to help with the editing or translation of scientific articles.
Alternatively, BeTranslated also works in a much more light-hearted field, collaborating with Winning Moves, who is one of the agency’s most regular clients, known for their world-famous games, including Trivial Pursuit, Monopoly, Cluedo, and Top Trumps, with Harry Potter, Star Wars, Peaky Blinders, and Lord of the Rings versions available, amongst others.
Thanks to its expertise, quick response time, and personal communication with its clients, BeTranslated is a friendly and approachable translation agency that knows how to work with the biggest names.
by Michael Bastin | 18 Apr, 2023 | Culture, Language learning, Languages
How cultural context shapes meaning, tone, and accuracy across languages
When we need to translate something, most of us reach for Google Translate, assuming it will do the job.
But Google often mistranslates sentences and misses crucial cultural and linguistic nuances.
Cultural sensitivity matters in translation. Here’s what you need to know.
How culture changes word meanings
As Europeans travelled west to conquer the New World, they brought their languages with them. That’s why people in the Americas speak English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese.
However, these languages have diverged considerably over time.
Take French as an example. France remains the centre of the French language, whilst people in Quebec, Canada, have spoken it since Jacques Cartier arrived in 1534.
Almost 500 years later, Canadian French differs markedly from European French in usage and accent. Understanding French culture when learning French is therefore essential.
This can lead to serious misunderstandings when a word carries completely different meanings in each region.
Consider the word “gosse,” which means children in France. In Quebec, the same word refers to male genitalia.
Without understanding this cultural distinction, you could either make people laugh or deeply embarrass them.
What is cultural sensitivity, and why does it matter in translation?
Every society has its own cultural sensitivities. Although these are weakening in an increasingly globalised world, they still exist and must be considered when you translate into another language.
Cultural sensitivity encompasses norms, beliefs, values, customs, and behaviours.
Without understanding these, conveying a message in another language becomes difficult—or worse, creates deep misunderstanding.
Communication style matters too. When interpreting live, you may need to maintain eye contact with one person, whilst the same behaviour would be considered impolite in another culture. Your dress may also cause offence depending on religious beliefs.
The two main reasons why cultural sensitivity matters in translation are to avoid misunderstandings and to avoid causing offence.
A single word can change the meaning of an entire sentence, even if technically correct. The message may come across as offensive when it wasn’t intended to be. And whilst you can claim misinterpretation, words are difficult to take back once spoken—or worse, written.
Demonstrating cultural awareness generates respect. In business, such attention to detail can forge strong trading relationships that last for years.
How to ensure cultural sensitivity in your translations
Here are practical ways to improve your translation services.
Learn continuously from professional translators
A translator’s learning never stops. Working with more experienced professionals helps build cultural knowledge for the specific countries where you operate.
Do your research
Research should always be your first step when working in a new country. There are countless ways to learn about cultures today, starting online. Speaking with local people is particularly valuable for understanding what you can and cannot say.
Watch for local dialects
In some countries, dialects play a significant role in communication. Italy is a prime example, where each region—sometimes each city—uses a different dialect. A translator must account for this.
Anyone working in translation needs to understand cultural sensitivities to convey meaning accurately. That’s why it’s better to specialise in a few countries rather than spread yourself too thin.
by Michael Bastin | 13 Feb, 2023 | Human translation, Machine Translation, Translation tools
Translation Industry Trends in 2026
How AI and human expertise are reshaping professional translation
The debate over whether AI will replace human translators has shifted. It’s no longer about replacement—it’s about collaboration. AI has made remarkable advances, yet the need for human expertise has become more refined, not less.
Nimdzi, one of the industry’s leading research firms, estimates the market reached $71.7 billion in 2024 and projects growth to $75.7 billion in 2025. This growth is driven by digital interconnectedness and demand for culturally nuanced communication across markets in Europe, Asia-Pacific, North America, and emerging economies.
Today’s businesses—from multinationals like Siemens, Nestlé, and Samsung to fast-growing startups—operate in a global digital ecosystem where the ability to communicate across languages and cultures is essential for growth.
AI translation: from novelty to necessity
Machine translation has evolved from experimental tool to industry standard. Systems like Google Translate, DeepL, Microsoft Translator, and Amazon Translate have achieved remarkable fluency through several key developments:
- Transformer-based neural machine translation (NMT): Large language models (LLMs) like GPT-4, Claude, and Gemini understand context and nuance far better than earlier statistical models
- Zero-shot translation: Systems that translate between language pairs they were never explicitly trained on—useful for low-resource languages like Welsh, Basque, or Swahili
- Adaptive machine translation: AI that learns from translator corrections and client feedback, improving output over time
- Multimodal AI: Systems processing text, audio, and images simultaneously—think real-time subtitle generation or translating text within photographs
Why human translators still matter
Despite these advances, human expertise remains irreplaceable. AI handles volume and speed, but professional translators provide what machines cannot:
- Cultural intelligence: Understanding idioms, humour, and references that don’t translate literally—a British understatement won’t land the same way in Brazilian Portuguese
- Transcreation: Adapting marketing copy, slogans, and brand messaging so they resonate emotionally in the target market
- Ethical judgment: Navigating sensitive topics—medical information, legal documents, religious texts—with appropriate care
- Strategic alignment: Ensuring translations support broader business goals, tone of voice guidelines, and brand positioning
Key trends shaping the translation industry
Augmented translation workflows
Translation management systems (TMS) like SDL Trados, memoQ, Phrase, and Smartling now integrate AI to predict terminology, suggest translations from translation memory, and automate repetitive formatting tasks. This lets translators focus on the work that actually requires human judgment.
Specialisation over generalisation
As AI handles general content, human translators are focusing on specialist domains: legal translation for international contracts and litigation, medical translation for clinical trials and patient documentation, financial translation for IFRS reporting and regulatory filings, and creative localisation for gaming, film, and advertising.
Real-time localisation
Live events, streaming platforms like Netflix and Disney+, and immersive experiences in VR and AR are driving demand for real-time localisation. Subtitling, dubbing, and voice-over services have become faster and more sophisticated, with AI-assisted workflows cutting turnaround times dramatically.
AI governance and quality standards
Organisations are establishing frameworks to ensure AI translation tools are used responsibly. This includes addressing bias in training data, preserving linguistic diversity for minority languages, and maintaining compliance with ISO 17100 quality standards for professional translation services.
The modern translation workflow
The most effective translation processes now combine AI efficiency with human expertise:
- Machine translation first pass: NMT systems like DeepL Pro or Google Cloud Translation generate initial drafts at speed
- Human post-editing: Translators refine the output for fluency, cultural fit, and emotional resonance
- Subject matter expert review: Specialists in law, medicine, finance, or technology verify terminology and accuracy
- Quality assurance: Final review combining automated QA tools with human proofreading
- Feedback loop: Corrections feed back into translation memory and, where appropriate, improve the AI model
Looking ahead
The translation industry has embraced a collaborative model where AI and human expertise complement each other. AI handles scale, speed, and pattern recognition. Humans provide cultural intelligence, creative adaptation, and ethical judgment.
The organisations getting the best results aren’t those replacing translators with AI—they’re the ones integrating both strategically. The future of translation isn’t human versus machine. It’s human and machine, working together.
by Michael Bastin | 10 Oct, 2022 | Communication, Audio Blog, Good to Know
The biggest improvement in the movie industry has been breaking the language barrier: we were no longer limited by foreign languages in films, meaning that we could watch almost anything we wanted to.
This made people appreciate film-making more than ever because each country and culture added something unique to the table.
French, American and Chinese films took the world by storm, and with that, movie dubbing and subbing became a must for a movie to gain an audience.
Dubbing is the process where the original script sound is replaced with words from a different language. It is a common practice in animated movies, for example, as well as in news and documentaries.
On the other hand, subbing is just the transcribed text placed at the bottom of the screen so that people can read what the characters are saying.
Both techniques seem easy to perform, but they’re more complicated than it looks.
Let’s find out more about how dubbing is done.
Scripting and timing
To get started with movie dubbing, a translator is needed to translate the original text into the new language.
This is the trickiest task because all languages have different sayings and meanings, so the text must be thoroughly checked before voice actors are involved.
The voice of the actors speaking that foreign language will be recorded and then audio-edited to the original film.
Besides being a translated version, it’s also an adaptation of the original, where tone and emotion are crucial factors.
Each language is different and voice actors must replicate those feelings relevant to their native country, which is not an easy task.
One of the biggest challenges of dubbing is timing.
First, a translator needs to be thoughtful about the sentence’s duration and not make it too long because the voice actor needs time to pronounce everything properly.
Plus, the words need to be fitted to the visuals that appear on the screen—work that takes hours to complete.
Casting and recording
The next challenge is finding the perfect person to fit the character and the movie’s vibe.
Voice actors should first mirror the tone and inflection used by the performer from the original film. You might notice these details even in the way voice actors speak in animated movies for children.
The emotion is still there, including the excitement, the singing, and the sadness.
Next is voice recording.
There are two styles: the out-loud reading of the script by actors while they watch the original footage.
This is the standard method, where there will be three beeps, with the performers saying their lines at the fourth beep.
But to get there, performers go through rigorous training.
For example, a British voice actor will study a variety of acting approaches, like Stanislavski’s system, Strasberg’s method, and Meisner’s technique.
Then there’s the alternative recording method, used primarily in France and Canada, where actors read the lines of dialogue at the bottom of the screen while the movie plays.
Editing
Getting to the most tedious work, editing, is converging the new dialogue tracks and recording with the original movie sound.
It all starts by dismantling the original voices from the main soundtrack and creating a “music and effects track” (M&E).
After the foreign dialogue is recorded, the editors will fit it in the right places of the M&E to blend with the sound.
The audio post-production is done in three distinct steps:
- Editing everything from the speech to the music and live action. This is when the audio takes are chosen and combined and the music is cut to fit as close as possible without affecting the sound quality.
- Mixing music, adding extra sound effects, and balancing natural speech. Editors will use audio equalisers, dynamic compressors and noise reduction features.
- Mastering the sound by levelling the video so that everything sounds equally good. Editors must consider the devices people are playing the sound from, and given that they’re mostly smartphones or laptops, they should master the sounds accordingly.
Why movie dubbing matters
Movie dubbing can be easily underestimated by people who watch subbed videos and movies.
That’s because if you are used to a certain type of voice and talking style, it may sound weird to hear other voices perform.
But subbing takes away the essence of the movie. Besides the fact that you need to pay attention to the text and the screen, it may be tiring to follow everything that is happening.
A study by the British Film Council in 2010 concluded that fans of mainstream cinema prefer dubbing, while people interested in foreign languages want to see a subbed film.
In the end, it’s a matter of taste, but watching a subbed video might alter your experience, which lowers the movie’s quality.
However, there’s a downside to dubbed movies too.
If you want to learn a foreign language, it’s more challenging to do so by watching dubbed movies than subtitled ones.
But dubbing can change the film by improving the sound effects and the dialogue, regardless of the conditions in which the audio was recorded.
Moreover, it can increase the reach of a film project since it can be released internationally, and people can view it in their native language.
Let’s take the example of Japanese animations called anime.
The language they’re recorded from the start is quite difficult, but as soon as voice actors started dubbing anime, their popularity rose immediately worldwide, and now everyone knows about Naruto, for example.
Given that the mouth’s movements don’t have to line up with the audio, voice actors are not that limited when it comes to performing.
Wrapping up
Dubbing and subbing movies and video animations are the most remarkable changes in the cinematography industry.
Although they seem easy to do, each process is followed by many challenging steps in order to achieve the perfect audio.
Plus, watching dubbed and subbed movies can help people learn new languages better, as they get to see how voice actors interpret and talk.
by Michael Bastin | 12 Jul, 2022 | Translation services, VPNs
Securing data using a virtual private network (VPN), is important in the translation industry.
Digital technology has made communication services easier to provide and access on a global scale.
For translators, these tools have allowed language and interpretation experts to localise messages, media and content for business people and media audiences in their home language, sometimes in real time.
As beneficial as this can be, one of the drawbacks is that supplying services using the internet can be fraught with security risks.
It can be a major disadvantage for translators, handling private data and even processing online payments for their services.
Fortunately, VPNs were created as a solution to address many of these concerns.
Thus, if you work in translation and interpretation, here’s how VPNs can be an advantage to your service.
Network Security
Privacy and anonymity are key factors in why working professionals choose to use VPNs. They are also crucial for translators involved in exchanging crucial language information during international conflicts and civil unrest with the outside world.
They can interpret, translate, dub, and send written accounts to journalists, news media, criminal courts, and military allies that influence political outcomes.
VPNs are also useful for translators who work for international organisations that need real time translation using earpieces and live-streaming media.
In this case, VPNs for Kodi can be used to access and translate across live media without slowing down internet speeds.
Just as important, VPN’s privacy can prevent them from being traced later as it won’t collect and store browsing information.
Thus, VPN obscurity can keep them safe and allow them to continue providing translations.
Bypass Geo-blocking
As a translator, providing services across different cultures and countries, it’s essential for their income to remain accessible to clients around the world.
However, this isn’t always the case, as many find themselves unable to create profiles on freelance job boards because they’re blocked or restricted within a specific region.
Additionally, many websites with language knowledge and online resources that translators need to access for research purposes might also be blocked.
Many companies do this to comply with legal contracts and copyright laws in their country.
This is where VPNs can be beneficial to translators.
These virtual private networks have the ability to mask an IP address and bypass this geo-blocking, as the real location can’t be identified by the website they’re trying to access.
Thus, with the location changed to a permitted region, they’ll be able to advertise their services and reach clients anywhere in the world.
Prevent Data Breaches
Many freelance translators often work with companies that need sensitive and non-disclosed data and information translated for business purposes.
These could be commercial translations for global financial and trade institutions, pre-patented product information or government and diplomatic intelligence that needs translating from one language to another.
For translators to provide their language services, this sensitive information needs to be transferred digitally through file sharing.
However, this poses a big security risk.
For this reason, translators should ideally use a VPN to secure the network and encrypt data.
This is especially necessary if translators send and receive information from unsecured public network access points.
VPNs are therefore a useful protective measure to safeguard against potential cybercriminals who could attempt to hack the network, plant malware or breach data.
The VPN can then scramble the data so that it can’t be decoded, keeping it discrete.
In any case, you can use a data breach tracker and control the information to stay secure.
Accessibility When Travelling
Translators often have to travel abroad to provide in-person services for multilingual people and events.
As such, they need to take digital devices with them to work on, such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops.
The one issue with this is that when translators access accounts from different regions, it could be picked up and flagged by security monitoring software from banks, internet browsers, company websites, and the digital device itself.
This could be marked as suspicious activity and make it difficult and frustrating to access necessary accounts.
Thus, when using a VPN during travel, translators can avoid being locked out of corporate profiles such as cloud storage data that use authorisations necessary for doing their job overseas and any other remote working areas.
The VPN can set your location connection to your regular home address to prevent any security warnings from popping up.
Conclusion
VPNs offer immense benefits for translators who use the internet to provide their service. These private networks are useful for data privacy and encryption, corporate information and network security, anonymity, and easier accessibility when travelling.
Their use to generate a private network connection has assisted workers in the translation and interpretation industry in conducting their work in a safer online environment.
Additionally, they give freelance translators better opportunities to acquire more international clients and cultural insights for language accuracy and knowledge building that would’ve otherwise been restricted to them.
These are the key reasons why VPNs are essential to the translation service industry.
