Today, Social Media is an integral part of our daily lives, thus entailing an exponential growth in the use of English phrases and terms, which often, however, written by "Social" professionals end up being macaronic copy rather than elaborate British English.
How, then, to live with having to write in English, perhaps because it is required by one's employers, without getting caught up in performance anxiety and not contacting the friend who works outside and the famous uncles in America?
What tools can a Social Media Manager rely on to translate and write in English?
There has always been Google Translator, faithful (more or less) companion of translations with sometimes somewhat original results, but ignoring the foreign language into which one translates can give rise to monsters that live only in linguists' worst nightmares. Thus, on a bar menu a "mint cocktail" in English can become "cocktail lies," or the present subjunctive of the verb lie.
Today, however, technology gives us a wide choice of platforms and tools to use in order to have a correct English translation, among them is Ludwig: a language search engine designed to enable anyone to write in perfect English. Ludwig is a writing support system based on imitating texts from reliable sources such as newspapers, scientific publications, etc.
The Sicilian startup was born in 2014 from an idea of Antonio Rotolo, namely, to break down all language barriers and offer millions of students, researchers and professionals around the world the ability to write easily in English, bridging the gap with their native-speaking colleagues.
We had a chat with the Ludwig team, composed entirely of Sicilians under 35, who explain how their project is based on a database with millions of correct sentences in English, a totally homemade algorithm and a functional and immediate interface. In short, a simple recipe, this is the innovative mix of Ludwig: the service that aspires to reinvent the process of writing in English
Can we consider Ludwig as an indispensable tool for Copywriters and Social media managers? If yes, how?
Absolutely. Copywriters and social media managers, more than others, need to write in compelling English. Like all communication professionals they need the language they use to be not only grammatically correct, but also brilliant, immediate and above all appropriate to the context of use. A language, in short, not very scholastic but very credible and direct. Ludwig, thanks to the comparison with sentences actually used by competent users, is able to offer a unique service that is different from all the main competitors on the market.
Ludwig 's uniqueness lies precisely in the "human" factor, if you will. Indeed, the user obtains as a result of his search quality texts written by human beings with which he can compare the sentence he wishes to translate, and contextually learn new English terms and idioms.
Do you foresee Ludwig developing for new markets as well?
English is currently spoken by more than a billion people in any country in the world. Consequently, Ludwig was conceived and developed from the beginning with the global market in mind, new markets and emerging countries included.
Our most important markets at the moment are Italy, Vietnam, and the United Kingdom, but our users come, on a daily basis, from about 200 different countries, and in recent months we have observed strong growth in the United States, which to date is our fourth largest market.
The challenge in the coming months will be to strengthen our presence particularly in Latin America (Brazil and Argentina above all), but also in Southeast Asia (Singapore, South Korea) and in Northern Europe, (Germany and Holland in particular)
An interesting aspect of your platform is the comparison of sentences. How do you select reliable sources for translations?
That of source selection is one of the key ingredients for the success of Ludwig's "recipe." The selection goes through some basic parameters, which we weigh from time to time. First of all, a first selection is made based on the reliability and credibility of the source to verify the correctness of the world in which the English grammar is used, since it is of paramount importance that the written English is reliable and the source authoritative.
Secondly, the subject area the source deals with is checked: we try to cover as many subject areas as possible, so as to meet the needs of all kinds of users. Finally, technical aspects, such as findability and ease of entering sources into the database, are included in the choice.
We tested Ludwig's platform and were really pleased with the interface and the simple and intuitive mechanism. Ludwig allows you to write in English easily, with the assurance that the sentences produced are not a trivial literal translation from Italian, as is often the case, but a consistent English language elaboration produced by comparison with sentences actually used in written English and of certified and controlled provenance. We are sure that a service like Ludwig's will succeed in making a difference in the daily work of Social Media managers and Copywriters, and certainly also in that of any professional for whom the need for correct English translation is an indispensable working tool and an important guarantee of professionalism.
So, after writing so many things about this powerful and amazing platform, there is nothing else to do but trying it by yourselves! Let's check it out: https://ludwig.guru/
Sara Parisi