Language is only one barrier to reaching the ever-growing and increasingly affluent Latin American market, both here and abroad. The vast geographical and ethnic diversity among Spanish speakers worldwide has led to countless variations in grammar and speech. In addition, a myriad of cultural considerations arise such as the translation of brand names. For example, should McRib become McCostilla?

From localizing marketing Web sites to dubbing films, translation and interpretation companies make culturally-based language decisions and specialize in transforming existing products for use in foreign language markets. They go beyond the standard English-Spanish dictionary to consider the variety of cultures that speak a common language. Latin America, with its assortment of countries, accents and subcultures, can be particularly vexing for international marketing and entertainment.

Regional and Neutral Spanish

In the U.S., translations for the Latin American audience aim to be inclusive of all cultures. For instance, a Puerto Rican audience accustomed to Caribbean Spanish, might react poorly to a program voiced in Mexican Spanish. So neutral Spanish is used, a form of the language that is understood by all and exclusive of no one.

“We make it more generic because we don’t want to offend anyone,” says Gabrielle Hayes of OneWorld Language Solutions. She and her husband Mark have experience heading translation and localization projects like the McRib campaign. Although the campaign was produced in Texas, they were told to avoid the “Tex Mex” dialect to reach a broader market in the U.S.

Neutral Spanish has long been a solution for global communications among Latin American media. It is a dialect of Spanish that is not specific to any geographical region, but rather results from a linguistic practice of avoiding severe accents and regionalisms, while selecting words and phrases that are the most likely to be universally understood. It is a standard often used by the media in cases where the broadest appeal is desired.        

Choosing Between Regional or Non-Specific Spanish           

For OneWorld Language Solutions, each translation project begins with a client consultation wherein a specific variety of Spanish is chosen, depending on the target market or country. When the target audience is Spain, formal or Castilian Spanish is the first choice. Attitudes regarding what is the “proper” Spanish are often stronger in the mother country, so any divergence from traditional form is more likely to be frowned upon. If the target audience is in a specific region of Latin America, then the best choice may be the regional dialect. This is especially appropriate for areas with a distinct vernacular flavor, as in Argentina or Cuba. In some cases, several versions of a project may be produced for different regions.

Subbing vs. Dubbing

Other factors discussed during an initial consultation, according to the Hayes, include whether subtitling or dubbing would be the best choice. A translator from the target region is then chosen to begin the process, and then the project goes through the process of editing and revision.

The use of subtitles involves certain technical challenges like legibility and brevity, which becomes aggravated by the nature of Latin languages. Because of what Mark Hayes refers to as the “word swell,” dialogue that’s that has been translated from English to Spanish increases in word count by about 25%. The resulting text must be pared down significantly. Mark recommends a loose edit of the project to accommodate the extra dialogue.

“You know to make the edit not so tight because you’re going to need a handle on different sizes of type so you can expand that,” says Mark.

With dubbing, or voice-overs, brevity is also an issue. With the increase in dialogue, actors must speak quickly and clearly in an accent-free voice. This makes finding the right voice-over talent important. “The people that we work with, especially in Latin America speak quickly and clearly,” says Mark.

Besides technical and monetary considerations (subtitles are considerably cheaper than voiceovers), choosing between subtitling and dubbing necessitates considering the target audience. Again, the subject of how broad or how narrow your target is comes into play. Also, the socioeconomic backgrounds, metropolitan or rural, should be well thought-out. Subtitles are often preferred by art house moviegoers and fans of foreign films. In Phyllis Zatlin’s “Theatrical translation and Film Adaptation,” the author notes that in Buenos Aires, for instance, foreign films are usually subtitled, citing children’s movies as exceptions. In Barcelona, “Lord of the Rings” was available in both original and dubbed versions.

But dubbing makes sense when targeting the widest possible audience, not just cinefiles. Foreign audiences seeking escapism prefer to relax and focus visually on the actors, not words at the bottom of the screen.