Many of our clients are sensitive about using our services
and we respect our clients’ confidentiality. We won’t reveal the names of our
current clients.
Over the past year we have rewritten the websites of one of China’s leading telecom operators, a major energy company and a grand new performing arts center.
We have also worked with several Chinese film directors interpreting dialogue for English subtitles.
We really want to distinguish ourselves from the so-called translation companies that work for so many fen (pennies) per word. We believe you get fen when you pay fen (fen is also the Chinese word for what horses leave behind).
Sure, some
of our competitors communicate well in their mother tongue -- Chinese, but few
of these companies employ skilled, native-English writers as we do.
This is why so many translation companies have terrible English on their own websites. Ironic isn’t it – a translation company that can’t write well?
So beware of companies that offer ridiculously low prices and claim to be English experts after having studied abroad for a couple of years.
Our main focus is on improving China’s English websites but that is not the only thing we do.
We polish, translate and edit documents,
company brochures, public signs and multimedia scripts and subtitles.
We also improve the English in company manuals, instruction booklets, labeling on packaging, brochures, catalogs, recorded
phone messages, even company names, slogans and logos.
As well, we provide staff training, to help your in-house writers better understand the concept of writing for Westerners.
We will even track Western media reports about our clients and provide the latest news and market intelligence in their related industry.
We often tell clients that they may have
to make a cultural sacrifice to communicate effectively in English.
Sometimes – make that oftentimes – a nice turn of phrase and poignant
point in one language simply doesn’t work in the other language.
Our original name is a case in point.
It was inspired by a ‘Chinglish moment’ 20 years ago in Beijing. On the front cover of a box that was wrapped in plastic that contained a child’s toy was this English declaration: Warning! Not a Real Dog!
Who would ever worry that a real, living dog would be sold in a plastic-wrapped cardboard box? Now, 20 years, later we used the story as inspiration, thinking it was humorous and catchy to call our company Real Dog Communications.
Unfortunately, the name just doesn’t work in China. In Chinese the word ‘dog’ lead to many untoward innuendos. A lot of nasty insults in Chinese contain the word dog. We thought we could make it work, but we don’t want to confuse the more important issue of cleaning up English pollution with a culturally awkward company name.
We’re not giving in completely though. R.D. is short for Real Dog, and we are still keeping our website address as www.realdogcomm.cn.
Who we are and how we work
RD Global Communications bases its work on one sound and unwavering principle: Our writers are trained professionals who write only in their mother tongue. Most have had years of experience working for China’s state media and in public relations in the West.
RD is lead by its founder and Chief Editor, Bill Siggins, who’s Chinese name is 毕西根. A Canadian, Siggins has lived in China for six years, which have been evenly split between this decade and the 1980’s.
With a 20-year history of direct connections to China, Siggins knows the country. He knows where its gaps lie and one of them is, of course, China’s very awkward presentation of written English.
Since returning to China in 2006, Siggins has held a number of interesting positions. He returned for a second stint at the Xin Hua News Agency, where he worked as an editor in the Domestic News department. He has also worked at the Canadian Embassy as a Cultural Affairs Officer and during the Olympics he worked in the Main Press Center as an editor for the Olympic News Service.
Siggins founded RD Global Communications at the beginning of 2008.
RD uses the news editing model to achieve perfection. Every writer’s work must be edited and confirmed by another writer. All written material is approved by Chief Editor Siggins.
