Today we’d like to introduce you to Ralph Srouji.
Ralph, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
After more than a decade as a professional translator, I started Babel Translation in 2006 to serve a constantly growing number of clients from various fields who entrusted me with their translation needs. I gathered a great team of handpicked linguists in virtually every language, professionals with whom I share the same values, ethics and love of languages. Together, we have been offering our clients excellent quality translations based on the simple principle of fully understanding the clients’ message and rewriting it in the languages of their audiences. Their trust and their returning business is our cherished reward. Every project is a challenge we face head on with the objective of delivering the best work possible. Babel Translation prides itself of breaking the language barrier for businesses and individuals looking to reach other businesses and individuals all over the world. Thanks to our sincere dedication doubled with a true passion for communicating clearly we have grown exponentially over the years and today Babel’s family of linguists surpassed the one thousand linguists threshold. I can safely say that we are fully capable of handling any project, in any field and in any language combination and deliver beautifully written content that any reader in the world can understand and enjoy.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
No business doesn’t hit at least some bumps along the road, and while growth never slowed down we have faced many challenges. Chief among them is the nature of our work. Language is not a science. There are no fixed formulas that we can always apply and that lead to the exact same result. But there are fixed elements that, if properly and sincerely combined, will lead to the best quality possible.
Communication is at the center of our work. The better we all (clients – management – linguists) communicate the better the result.
Very few clients fully understand translation. Many believe that our work can be or is automated. This can’t be further from the truth. While machine/automated translation is progressing thanks to more and more advanced technologies, the human element remains totally essential to the equation. Explaining this to new clients surprised by the cost of our professional services is our first challenge. Many repeats what they inaccurately know about translation, that it’s a simple transposition of words from one language to another, that giants like Google and others mastered. Thankfully it takes only a few minutes and a couple of tries using Google Translate to show them that machine translation results are for the most part nonsensical. Our first main challenge with clients is therefore to convince them and educate them of the fact that translation requires human professionals with college degrees and years of experience, and therefore that it’s a legitimate job requiring legitimate pay.
On the other hand, not every bilingual professional linguist can handle any project in any field. No woman or man can be knowledgeable in every field, and therefore it is a challenge to find the proper linguist with the right experience and educational background for a given project. For each and every job there is a number of persons in the world that can handle the task and in some cases these persons can be tough to find, and sometime impossible to find especially when it comes to highly technical content and/or rare dialects or dead/extinct languages (Latin, Ottoman… to name but a few).
Experienced and fully knowledgeable Project Management is key to breathe through obstacles. The main tool: clear and transparent communication. As a Senior Project Manager with now 11 years of experience I never give empty promises to the clients or to the linguists. It is very important that a PM knows precisely all the characteristics of any given job and to not hesitate to simply say “We can’t complete this task while meeting our quality standards, or for less than this specific price.” It is better to refuse business rather than making a sloppy job that will taint our reputation as a translation agency, and taint the reputation of the clients with their audiences.
A PM’s role is to understand and clarify every aspect of the project, to make the client comfortable entrusting us with their work thanks to our knowledge and experience in the translation field but to also to find the proper linguist for each specific project and help and support the linguist with the tools and knowledge he/she needs to accomplish the work with accuracy.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Babel Translation, as its name indicate, is a translation agency that specializes in transmitting your messages clearly in different languages. Our strengths are our full understanding of the business and our true passion for languages and international communication. We believe to be the main engine of globalization. Without our efforts, ideas and products cannot cross borders. We are first and foremost an ethical company that takes its mission very seriously. If you wish to be heard and clearly understood by other cultures we will sincerely and efficiently help you reach that goal. We are NOT the #1 translation agency on the market. There are several larger or smaller, much more or much less profitable translation agencies on the market who are performing as good a job as we are. But we are among the agencies that are most passionate about their work, truly loyal to their clients and linguists, and most importantly we are not led by constantly higher profit and revenues. Our prices are tailored for a win-win-win outcome. Our clients’ messages are transmitted clearly to their audiences. Our linguists are properly compensated for their hard and professional work. And the agency continues in its role and objective of bringing people from around the world together.
We fundamentally believe that clear communication helps the human civilization advance at a faster pace, erasing borders and helping ideas moving faster bringing innovation and progress to all of mankind.
What were you like growing up?
I have personally been mesmerized by mythology and legends growing up. One myth or legend (depending on your personal view) that marked me when I was very young is the tale of the Babel Tower. I found it extremely cruel that humanity was damned with a plethora of languages, and that the event of the destruction of that mythological tower has spread division among us, a schism that we have not been able to mend yet.
Born in Beirut, Lebanon, a region where three continents meet, and only a few hundred miles away from the believed site of ancient Babel, I learned and became fluent in three languages at an early age. Thanks to these languages I was able to access and understand many cultures that widened my horizons beyond imagination. Very young I felt a strong connection with every human being that I saw or met. I strongly believe that we are all the same; only if we can express ourselves clearly all the misunderstandings and fears would vanish, and all these wars and the subsequent suffering would have never taken place or won’t happen anymore. I traveled the world helping cultures understand each other better. It was no coincidence that my voyages led me to the USA, this new land where all these cultures harmoniously coexist. It is here, and specifically in beautiful and diverse Houston that I decided to reside to continue my call of helping people come together through clear communication.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1254 Sienna Hill Dr.,
Houston, TX 77077 - Website: www.rebuildbabel.com
- Phone: +1 832 228 4260
- Email: project@rebuildbabel.com
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