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Subject:RE: Translations and addresses From:Fred Ridder <docudoc -at- hotmail -dot- com> To:<madelynboudreaux -at- ge -dot- com>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Tue, 5 Jan 2010 17:59:59 -0500
You don't really need to make this choice because you are not addressing an envelope or a package. You are simply providing the addresses as reference information, so you can give the complete address in the form that is used in the country where the address is located without agonizing over the decision. Besides, I think the number of cases where a customer in the US or Canada would need to use your company's French address rather than the US address (or conversely, a customer in Europe would nee to use the US address) is quite small.
Another alternative would be to avoid including the country in the address by moving it to a heading-like label (e.g. "In North America:" and "In Europe:").
When faced with a decision like this, it's always useful to think about how the reader will need to use the information (or whether, in fact, they will ever actually use it).
-Fred Ridder
P.S. The spleen is not a digestive organ.
> Subject: Translations and addresses
> Date: Tue, 5 Jan 2010 17:38:24 -0500
> From: MadelynBoudreaux -at- ge -dot- com
> To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>
> I have to include 2 addresses in our documents, one in the US and one in
> France, and I don't know whether to ask the translators to translate
> these country names or leave them in English. I don't know enough about
> how to mail works to know if having, say, Chinese characters on a letter
> might make it faster or slower to reach its destination.
>
> My gut reaction is that it should be in the local language, since the
> local postal worker is going to just read that part and put the letter
> into the box marked "USA" or "France" and the rest of the address will
> be dealt with in English or French, as expected.
>
> My liver, however, is telling me that if the letter somehow ends up in
> the "Europe" bundle and gets to, let's say, Germany, the German postal
> worker will now have no clue where the letter is going, and it may be
> held up. So using a lingua franca like English (!) may make it more
> likely to get where it needs to go.
>
> "Ask Google," said my spleen! "Google knows everything." Alas, Google
> was not forthcoming, although it did suggest to me that spleens are
> often wrong.
>
> My brain whispered, "Let's ask TechWhirl. They will know better than
> your digestive organs."
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