Resources to Make NH French-Friendly
It is so rare for a French-speaking visitor to New Hampshire to be greeted with a friendly “Bonjour” or “Bienvenue” that you can be assured of putting a smile on their face. How little effort for such a rewarding reaction!
Training Sessions for your Staff
Our expert trainers would be happy to do an interactive presentation to your staff or members to help them gain comfort with a few key phrases that fit the most common situations at your business or venue. We enjoy doing these sessions because we learn from your experience as well as teach from what we know. Please email us if you are interested. Often we can combine staff from business and Chambers in the same session and share everyone’s experiences.
Menu Translation Services
If you’ve ever visited Montréal as an English-speaker with limited knowledge of the French-language, you probably noticed how it’s typical of the city’s restaurants to offer a menu both in French and English. Not only is this a considerate gesture on the restaurants’ part, as it shows that management wants to accommodate the needs of their clientele, but it also is an efficient practice from a business standpoint.
The English-language menu eliminates the language barrier, making the ordering process easier for both parties. There is no time wasted in trying to understand what one is saying, or figuring out the specific ingredients of a dish by manually typing in certain phrases into a translation app on one’s phone. The chances that orders are placed wrong decreases and everyone will leave having a significantly more positive experience than if an English menu was not provided.
This is what Bienvenue au New Hampshire wants to achieve with their menu translation project: to lessen the language barrier–and the stress that comes with it–by providing French-language versions of restaurant menus (in Grafton, Sullivan, and Coos counties) of New Hampshire. Not only will your French-Canadian guests be grateful for the convenience with which they can order their food, but it will also help your business stand out amongst others who only have English menus.
A French menu will ensure that your French-Canadian guests will come back again to enjoy your food, perhaps bringing friends or family members along with them. You’ll have gained a loyal customer (or customers), sure, but you’ll also have gained respect from a part of the French-Canadian community, which will add your business to a global network of multilingual and multicultural businesses.
Based on my experience speaking with restaurant owners and managers in Plymouth, Holderness, Lincoln and North Woodstock, I have learned a lot about the typical restaurant menu cycle and the ebbs and flows of the French-Canadian tourist season. After updating your menu this winter, Bienvenue au New Hampshire strongly encourages you to reach out to us to have your menu translated in time for the busy spring and summer seasons.
The process is simple:
Email Abby Snarski with an electronic copy of the menu. She will send you back a document in two weeks’ time* with the translated text. Keep in mind: menu translation is completely free, but we are only equipped to translate the text, not duplicate any graphics on your menu.
Several restaurants, including Gypsy Café and White Mountain Bagel Co. in Lincoln, New Hampshire have happily benefited from our menu translation services. We hope you’ll be the next business to do the same.
*Time could vary based on the urgency of the request and the length of the menu.
