Our administrative staff, linguists and consultants come from a variety of ethnic, cultural, religious and national background. They have vast collective knowledge and experience of culturally sensitive issues including offensive stereotyping and all aspects of race equality legislation and best practice. We can offer an advice service which not only feeds into our basic work of translation and interpretation but also into the wider aspects of the delivery of specific services and communications.

For translations & interpretations

To secure a full understanding of the core values of your message, document or statement, it not only requires an accurate translation, but it is also vital to customise the translation (interpretation or translation) according to the target audience.

As a language agency dealing with languages from all over the world, we are vigilant about cross-cultural differences when translating.

As languages are dynamic we are constantly on the lookout for equivalent words and expressions in different languages and cultures. We believe that this approach will convey the full meaning, vision and true essence of your communication.

Our linguists are fully aware that their translations are not only required to be correct but are also presented in a manner that is most appropriate and culturally sensitive to the targeted audience.

Literal translations or mistranslations can lead to a great confusion, following are some examples:

The James Bond film, Dr No was translated in Japan as We don't need a doctor!

A Civil Service, Permanent Secretary was described as an eternal typist by a foreign delegation.

A grant giving organisation wanting to express inclusion to ethnic minorities used the expression 'speaking your language'. They later had a room full of people seeking grants for mother tongue language classes, which they could not support.

General Advice and Consultancy

Alpha can also assist you in targeting a particular country, language speaker or community for marketing, sales, general research or for any other purposes.

Our experience has led us to understand the needs and access barriers of each community. We can also undertake research based on your intended projects, to devise the best possible strategy in order to acquire maximum attention.