Translation Center, originally uploaded by Illuminant Partners.

As we all know, language is, in most cases, far more than just a number of symbols and expressions. Instead, language is a reflection of a nation’s civilization, its unique thinking and behavior patterns and its geographic location as well.

我们都知道，在大多数情况下，语言不仅仅是一系列象征和表现形式。相反，语言能够反映一个国家的文明程度、独特的思维与行为模式以及地理位置。

As a result, translators must do more than merely translating from one language to the other. Translators are also playing the roles of editors and copywriters, as they need to polish their translated work and make it sound as natural and elegant as possible in the target language. Here arises an inevitable dilemma for translators, as they are expected to be faithful to the original language and are usually not encouraged to change the content and sentence orders in the original language and are thus influenced by the original language. That’s why many knowledgeable Chinese call translators “dancers with shackles”. Most of the time, translated texts are slightly, if not too much, different from those directly written by a native copywriter due to different ways of thinking and structure development. At Illuminant, to maintain the high quality of our translation work, our language team always tries its best to offset the abovementioned influences by polishing the text afterwards and by always having a designated internal third party to contribute as a polisher to proofread our finished translation work in an objective manner.

因此，译员要做的不仅仅是将一种语言翻译到另一种语言。他们同时还发挥着编辑和撰稿人的作用，因为他们需要润色自己的翻译成果，从而尽可能地使翻译的目标语言变得自然而优雅。而译员在这里就难免陷入一种困境，因为他们仍然需要忠实于原文，不轻易变更原文的内容或是语句的排列顺序，所以他们将或多或少受到原始语言的影响。这就是为什么人们将译员称为 “带着枷锁的舞者” 。在大多数情况下，翻译出来的文本与直接撰写的文案，二者有一定的区别，这是因为不同的语言总是有不同的思维方式和文章构架。为了尽量减少上述影响，在朔光，我们翻译团队总是尽力保证在翻译完成之后对译文进行润色与审译，并在交稿之前让其他同事以客观的角度再次审查译文，从而保持翻译工作的质量。

So our translation procedure is usually consisted of three parts: translatio； internal proofreading and polishing； external polishing, before we hand our work over to our clients, and from time to time, post-translation communication with clients is carried out to best understand and satisfy our clients’ specific needs and requirements.

因此，我们的翻译工作程序通常包括三个部分：翻译；翻译团队内部的校对与润色；其他同事的审译（有时是我们亲爱的媒体部门的同事）。另外，我们会不时地与客户展开积极的沟通，从而更好地了解并满足他们的特殊要求与需要。

Also, the Illuminant language team takes pride in a number of house glossaries we have compiled for each of our major clients based on their specific fields, such as architecture, mining, high-tech, tourism, and other sectors which our agency is expert in. Glossaries are very important for all of our language-related work at Iluminant, because most of our clients are long-term retainer-based and thus keeping our copywriting and choice of words professional, accurate and consistent is a key priority for our language work. That’s when our glossaries come into play: ensuring accuracy and consistency.

此外，令翻译团队倍感骄傲的是我们针对主要客户以及他们所处的领域而汇编的词汇表，这些领域涉及建筑、矿业、高科技等等。这些词汇表对朔光而言，是一种非常重要的语言工具。这是因为我们的大多数客户都是长期客户，所以保持语言服务的准确性、一致性与专业性是语言工作的重中之重。而通过使用我们所编撰的词汇表，我们就可以简易地找到过去使用的所有专业词汇以及它们的特殊用途。

Graceful language and elegant wording is always appreciated and enjoyed like a refined art. But there are occasional cases where clients don’t want their copywriting – words that powerfully represent themselves and their products – to be “high-brow”. In other words, they want “plain” language to represent them (in the Western sense, this might be thought of as “tabloid” language). When this happens, we will actively communicate with them to know about their specific needs and “play down” our choice of words accordingly, in order to cater to their special requirements. After all, clients’ needs and satisfaction form the priority. But the good news is: most clients LOVE beautiful language the way they appreciate refined arts.

优美的语言、典雅的措辞，如同精致的艺术一般，是一种愉悦的欣赏与享受。但是，有时有些客户却不希望我们为他们撰写的文案太过“风雅” 。换句话说，他们希望用“平实”的语言来表达自己。在这种情况下，我们将积极地与他们展开沟通，从而了解他们的具体需求，并在措辞方面为他们量体裁衣，以满足他们的特殊要求。毕竟，客户的需求与满意是市场经济的重点所在。而好消息就是：我们的大多数客户，正如喜爱精致的艺术一般，也喜爱美丽的言辞。

Article by Illuminant’s head of language services, Monica Lin （林敏）

Beijing, 1st June 2009 – The Green Office Alliance has appointed Beijing-based Illuminant Partners as its PR and strategic communications agency. The Green Office Alliance is the world’s first multi-company green building and furnishing products alliance.

Following a competitive pitch, Illuminant Partners’ appointment – for PR, corporate identity development, digital marketing and experiential marketing – was made in order to support the GOA’s market introduction, strategically position its brand and publicize the initiative to key opinion leaders and decision makers in China’s architecture, building construction, interior design and real estate industries.

The GOA consists of four global leaders in sustainable commercial interiors: Haworth, InterfaceFLOR, Owens-Corning and Philips. It is has been formed as a collective of like-minded companies promoting sustainability and green practices in the workplace. The GOA’s primary objective is to elevate the levels of sustainability in commercial offices and buildings.

The official launch of the GOA will be made at Beijing’s Eco Expo on June 17th, 2009.

The GOA offers designers, owners and users of commercial interiors a continuum of a high-quality, cost efficient and environmentally sustainable furniture, fittings and building products. Used together, a commercial interior which utilizes products from the GOA helps to reduce negative impacts on the environment as well as achieving excellent occupant satisfaction.

Illuminant’s Amy Meng, an expert in innovative and environmental-friendly construction sector marketing services in China will head the account from Illuminant’s Beijing office.

About the Green Office Alliance’s member companies

Haworth, Inc.

Haworth partners with local suppliers, environmental experts, customers and the community across Asia Pacific, The Middle East and Latin America to innovate world-class practices in product design and sustainability.

As a leader in office furniture and architectural interiors with a worldwide presence, Haworth products are informed by a lifetime of global learning. We have nurtured a corporate culture committed to superior customer service, environmental responsibility, and engineering innovation.

Haworth has been a pioneer in the China market as the first multinational office furniture company to establish its own manufacturing facility eleven years ago in Shanghai. Haworth made another first when we moved our Regional Headquarters from the Puxi zone of Shanghai to the fast growing Pudong zone. The Haworth Organic Workspace is now in the tallest building in Asia, The Shanghai World Financial Centre. Haworth Ideation Group is Haworth’s research unit that aligns organizations with their goals and visions.

www.haworth-asia.com

InterfaceFLOR

InterfaceFLOR is the largest modular carpet manufacturer in the world. With over 30 years of global experience, our goal is to provide you with innovation, beauty, performance, service, value and environmentally responsible products and processes in every 50cm*50cm tile.

At InterfaceFLOR, we’ve made it our mission to go way beyond green product
attributes. Every creative, manufacturing and building decision we make is intended to help us achieve zero environmental footprint by 2020 and give you the most fashionable, high performing and environmentally well-rounded products in the industry. And we call it Mission Zero.

www.interfaceflor.com

Owens Corning

Owens Corning, the inventor of fiberglass, is a world leader in building materials systems and composite solutions, delivering a broad range of high-quality products and services.

We define sustainability as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the world that we leave to the future. This approach to business energizes our people, creates growth opportunities for our customers and drives value for our shareholders.

To accomplish that, we focus on three strategic initiatives:

1 Greening our operations- achieving specific environmental footprint reductions
2 Greening our products – continuously improving the life-cycle impact of our products
3 Accelerating energy efficiency improvements in the built environment

Sustainability at Owens Coring is a journey of continuous improvement. We believe that the world is a better place thanks to our many products and services that help conserve energy and other precious resources. Owens Corning makes the world more energy efficient.

www.owenscorning.com
www.owenscorning.com.cn

Philips

Philips is no. 1 in the global lighting market, and part of Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI). As a world leader in healthcare, lifestyle and lighting, Philips integrates technologies and design into people-centric solutions, based on fundamental customer insights and the brand promise of “sense and simplicity”.

Sustainability is one of the focal points of our strategy, and we use our expertise to help combat global challenges – i.e. climate change – by offering business solutions in all markets that reduce our ecological footprint and enhance social equity.

Philips was the first to introduce the energy-saving light bulb back in 1980. Our latest EcoVision program, which is our fifth multi-year plan, seeks to make our product portfolio ever more efficient, and sets targets to expand our investments in Green Innovations, increase revenues from green products, and improve the energy efficiency of our facilities.

www.lighting.philips.com

Ends.

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Illuminant Partners briefing on the restructuring of Ministry of Construction of the People’s Republic of China and the new Ministry of Environmental Protection:

March 11, 2008, Beijing—State Councilor Hua Jianmin and the Secretary General of the cabinet announced during the National People’s Congress that the Ministry of Construction will be replaced by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Construction.

The main functions of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Construction are to create housing and urban and rural development policies, guide housing development reforms, supervise the architectural and real estate markets, and ensure architectural safety. The ministry’s long-term vision is to manage haphazard urbanization through thorough planning and strengthening of the urban-rural relationship ensuring affordable and safe housing in alliance with the private sector. Additionally, the ministry will work to mobilize requisite technologies to make public and private buildings safe and cost-effective.

The new Ministry of Environmental Protection aims to boost environmental and ecological protection efforts and accelerate the building of a resource-saving and environment-friendly society.

This ministry will be responsible for drafting and implementing programs, policies and standards concerning environmental protection; working out environmental functions in different regions; supervising pollution prevention and treatment efforts; and tackling major environmental issues.