Translation of 55,000+ words from Greek to Turkish for ANEK LINES’ website

BRIEF PRESENTATION

ANEK LINES is a shipping company owned by Greeks, and is one of the leading maritime transport companies in Greece. It’s a company with a broad base of shareholders, founded in Crete in 1967 and has a long history. It operates routes to popular destinations in Greece and Italy and serves both passengers and freight. As a leader in the tourism sector, ANEK invests in attracting customers from abroad. In this context, it commissions professional translations in order to effectively promote its services and its profile to foreign audiences.

MY CONTRIBUTION

In 2017 ANEK renewed its online presence and reorganised its website. The new texts that were added needed to be translated from Greek into English, German, French, Italian and Turkish, thus reflecting foreign markets of major interest to the company. The translations were coordinated by MedPlus Translations, which assigned me the task of translating and editing the sections translated into Turkish.

The project ran from March to October 2017. During that period around 55,000 words were translated from Greek to Turkish.

WORKING METHOD

A website is a company’s “shopfront” on the internet. It promotes its products or services and attracts customers. By analogy with the physical shopfronts of stores which are beautifully decorated, the website should have a well-designed presentation, contain appealing language and be carefully written. Those points apply equally well to the translation. Careful translation will also help with a series of other technical issues such as promoting the website, SEO, search engine rankings, machine-based quality assessment of content, and so on.

In order to achieve that objective, I collaborated with a fellow natural speaker of Turkish who undertook to edit my translations. We, thus, ensured that the quality of translated texts was double-checked since another set of eyes saw them.

The texts we translated related to the following sections of the website:

Travel guides

Translation of travel guides for ANEK’s destinations in Greece and Italy: Crete, the Cyclades, Rhodes, the Ionian Islands, Piraeus, Kythira, Gythio, Kalamata, Igoumenitsa, Patra, Ancona, Bari and Venice

Company profile

Information was included relating to:

  • establishment of the company
  • its historical development
  • its sponsorship and social action
  • its cultural events
  • its awards and prizes

Technical translations

Texts related to:

  • the online booking system
  • instructions on how to make bookings
  • FAQs

Services:

Texts related to:

  • the fleet
  • services at sea
  • price lists
  • discount campaigns
  • conditions for applying ticket discounts

WOULD YOU LIKE
TO TRANSLATE YOUR WEBSITE?

Translation is the means of gaining access to international markets. The benefits of professional translation includeamong others the following:

  • It shows the world you treat your business responsibly and not just superficially. It shows you have developed a comprehensive outward-looking strategy and do not resort to slipshod solutions. This gives your business credibility.
  • Professional translators have studied the societies of their working languages in depth and take into account not only linguistic but also cultural aspects. Consequently, they are able to adapt the translation of your texts so as to better respond to the idiosyncrasies of the public you’re addressing. They are also in a position to warn you if any of your texts could come into conflict with the customs and traditions of the translation’s intended audience. For example, in one case where advertising for hotel reception rooms available for baptisms was translated into Turkish, I warned the customer that due to the difference in religion, that offering might not generate a lot of interest and I proposed alternatives in line with the customs of the translation’s intended audience.
  • Whether it is an analysis of technical characteristics or product advertising, a good quality translation operates to showcase the quality of the product or service you provide.
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