E-LEARNING TRANSLATION... NOW WHAT?

E-LEARNING TRANSLATION... NOW WHAT?

Your company has opened an affiliate in Germany to expand your business.

Now, you need your new German co-workers to learn how to use the company’s ERP management software. You are responsible for promptly providing training and accurate information so that management can closely monitor the success of this new affiliate.

One option would be to send your regular instructor to Germany for one week to teach these new co-workers; however, the instructor only speaks English in addition to travel and accommodation expenses. Although your German co-workers understand the language, questions may arise, and some information may be lost.

Another possibility would be to use the company’s existing e-learning online training modules.

This would allow your German co-workers to learn at their own pace, and according to their readiness to use ERP. To do so, you must translate the modules into German. The trainees’ successful learning will entail adapting the content to their language and their reality. In this way, all energy will be dedicated to learning, guaranteeing the proper building of new skills.

The processes of localizing and culturally adapting the online training will require some care:

1. You will need video subtitling coupled with adapting images to the local culture; 
2. You will have to consider specific expressions from each work environment, avoiding acronyms to facilitate the new co-workers’ understanding, since they are still unfamiliar with the company’s broader context;
3. Pay special attention to dates, units and currencies, which vary from country to country.

Ideally, you will work with professional translators who, in addition to being specialized linguists, also specialize in the area of online training for professionals.  

In this way, this more personalized means of training, when translated and adapted to each language and cultural reality, breaks down barriers and drives the international growth of your business.