Philip Hall

Just in case anyone happens to look up my profile, here's what I'm about. After 15 years studying and working in France and understanding what they and their business environment are about, it's time to take our cultural differences a bit further than around the pub table, when I always end up justifying why baked beans are good or why William is more popular than Harry and who's this Pippa?

The main problem, in my humble opinion, with Franco-British relations is that we weren't born to get on with each other. Now I know there are plenty of people out there who have dual nationality and can rightfully claim to understand two cultures. My proposition is to go out there and explain these cultural differences myself, giving them the impression that they have someone on the inside who understands them perfectly and will be able to give them the edge.

It's one or two steps beyond pure translation - it's cultural adaptation (trademark, if it hasn't been done already). And judging by the quality of translations I generally see coming out of agencies, do they really take the time to get into the cultural niceties of the job, or are they merely machines paid to churn out the fastest jobs for the best rates? (Debate.)

So that's what it's about and that's what I offer French companies and agencies today through my consultancy Cordial Accord. Actually, not just adapting their prose to the target audience, but also rewriting their English to make it sound more natural and less French. The French are very demanding with the precision and meaning of their French when they produce a document. If they wish to appear professional to an international audience they should be just as demanding with their English.