Friday, December 2, 2016

Language facts: Vietnamese

Vietnamese belongs to the Austroasiatic language family (that also includes Khmer, which is spoken in Cambodia). It was heavily influenced by the Chinese due to centuries of Chinese rule and as a result around half of the Vietnamese vocabulary consists of naturalized Chinese expressions. Later, as a result of the French occupation and strong cultural influence from the West, a lot of new words were added (such as "tivi" for TV).
Terraced rice fields in the sunset – Mu chang chai, Yen bai, Vietnam.
Source: AdobeStock.com


An emigrated language

Vietnamese is the national language of Vietnam, spoken by approximately 70 million people in Vietnam and about another 3 million mostly in East and Southeast Asia, as well as the United States and Australia as a result of vast Vietnamese emigration. Vietnamese-speaking communities and their cultural influence that surprisingly integrates Vietnamese minorities has caused the language to be recognized in very surprising parts of the world. In the Czech Republic, for example, Vietnamese even has an official status. It is recognized as one of the minority languages that entitles Czech citizens from the Vietnamese community to use Vietnamese language in communication with the public authorities as well as courts. In those municipalities where Vietnamese exceed 10% of population, the language is used also in public information channels (including election information), and the minority is entitled to require assistance in its language.

Alphabet

Vietnamese uses the Latin alphabet (quốc ngữ), but with frequent use of diacritics, and has borrowed a large part of its vocabulary from Chinese. Formerly until the 20th century, the language was written using the modified Chinese writing system set (chữ nôm)

A Ă Â B C D Đ E Ê G H I K L M N O Ô Ơ P Q R S T U Ư V X Y

a ă â b c d đ e ê g h i k l m n o ô ơ p q r s t u ư v x y



Friday, November 25, 2016

How to update your multilingual product catalog

The year comes to an end once more (as the years pass, it seems it is disturbingly faster, right?), and the time has come to update the yearly product catalog again. In all those languages it comes in, and hopefully, some more – since everyone wants to expand internationally. Your best choice is to entrust a professional language service provider, but even then there are things to watch to make sure the process will run smoothly.

How to update your multilingual product catalog for 2017 and keep your sanity?
Source: AdobeStock.com

If you keep just 3 things in mind this year, those multilingual updates won't turn into a nightmare. Read on and enjoy:


1. Have your translation resources revised before you reuse them. If you don't have any, you should get them created (see how to create translation memory here).

Translation resources consist mainly of translation memories and glossaries (translation memory explained in detail here). These are databases of already translated text, which significantly reduce translation cost and delivery times when applied in translation, mainly in case of repetitive content – which surely applies to product catalogs. 
The translation resources, however, degenerate over time if not maintained and properly updated. They need to be checked from time to time because any errors detected in the resources will propagate into all future translations. Or in plain words: You don't want to have the same typos in a catalog 3 years in a row... 

2. Ask for a price estimate including a pre-translation analysis. Don't pay for repetitive, or already translated content.

As explained above, having a good part of content already translated before and processed in form of translation resources logically reduces both translation time and translation cost. Your supplier shouldn't charge the same for repetitive or exact match content, and the price tag on your translation project needs to reflect this. Therefore always ask your translation supplier to provide you with a translation estimate that contains a detailed analysis of reused content and check how this affects the final price. 


3. Always insist on having the translated content reviewed and proofread.

Humans make mistakes, and machines programmed by humans make mistakes too. Until the day comes when AI takes over translation, it's always a healthy idea to review translated documents before they are published. Especially with technical content, it can be critical not to overlook mistakes (e.g. a translator confusing "always push this button" with "never push this button") or else such mistakes can end up as very unpleasant lawsuits. For this reason, demand that your texts not only be translated, but also fully reviewed and edited by a second native translator, and then as a final step proofread by humans with computer-assisted checkers. By the way, it's also good to make sure your translation supplier holds indemnity insurance - just in case...


That's it. The issues are clear, the process is given, but if it sounds as too much to handle, just leave the job to us. We specialize in technical translation and we're experts on catalogs, manuals, and guidelines. 

Order your translation now, or contact our project coordinators for further information and enjoy the Happy Holidays – this time stress-free.









Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Language facts: Slovenian

Slovenian (or Slovene) is a Slavic language from the South Slavic group, most closely related to Croatian and a distant relative of languages such as Russian. Slovenian should NOT be confused with the Slovak language, which does not have much in common with Slovenian, apart from both being Slavic languages. Interestingly, both languages call their own language by the same expression – slovensky/i, sloven(s)cina – which literally means Slavic in the old Slavonian. Slovenian is spoken by about 2 million people in Slovenia – a small country, but with both high mountains (Alps) and a sea (the Adriatic sea), as well as Slovenian communities in neighboring countries and immigrants around the world. Slovenian is also an official EU language.

Church in the middle of Lake Bled, Slovenia.
Source: AdobeStock.com

The least homogeneous Slavic language

Slovenian is a heavily inflected language with some ancient grammatical peculiarities, such as the dual grammatical number. Despite the small number of speakers, the dialects are heavily diversified and strong dialects from opposite sides of the country, influenced by neighboring languages, are practically mutually unintelligible. This was due to the fact that compulsory schooling was in other languages than Slovenian (mainly German and Italian). Standardized Slovenian as a national language was formed in the 18th century based on the Upper and Lower Carnolian dialects. 


Alphabet

Slovenian uses the Latin alphabet, without the letters Q, X, Y, W and with the addition of a few extra letters. The letters Q, X, Y, W, however, are used as independent letters in encyclopedias and dictionary listings (and as such are included in the alphabet here). 



A B C Č Ć D Đ E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S Š T U V W X Y Z Ž
a b c č ć d đ e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s š t u v w x y z ž

Friday, October 28, 2016

Translation tips: How to localize dates?

There were times, and it is not so long ago, when not even Europe had a unified calendar – not to mention the world. And although the IT revolution made us unify most of the information to 0 and 1, including all everyday thing, calendar dates can still turn into a real pain when it comes to localization. 
Calendar date formatting.
Souce: AdobeStock.com

Calendar dates formatting

There are various formats that different languages and cultures use for writing dates. The reason for such usage of the specific formats are usually historic and cultural, but some are also driven by technical development. The calendar dates can vary as follows:
  • Order of date components (e.g. day-month-year = little-endian; month-day-year = middle-endian; year-month-day = big-endian) - the most popular in the majority of countries around the world is the day-month-year format, mainly due to the Western religious and legal customs of writing dates (e.g. the 1st day of November, Anno Domini 2016)
  • Usage of leading zeros in days and months (e.g. 01-01-2016 vs. 1-1-2016) – German-speaking and German-influenced regions, for instance, tend to use 
  • Separators like hyphens, dots, etc. (e.g. 01-01-2016, 01.01.2016, 1 January 2016, 1. January 2016 or 01/01/2016)
  • Year format (e.g. 01-01-2016 vs. 01-01-16)
  • Numeral type usage – Arabic vs. Roman (e.g. 1. XII. 2016 vs. 1.12.2016)
  • Months name usage (months can be written down using both names and numbers, e.g. 1.1.2016 vs. 1.January 2016)
  • Other language or cultural specifics (e.g. 1st January 2016 in English, or adding AD (Anno Domini), or CE (common era) to the date)
  • Reversed day and month this is a popular format used only in the United States and often a default settings in many computers, e.g. 01-31-2016 for January 31, 2016.
There is also an ISO 8601 standard for data elements and interchange formats, that works with YYYY-MM-DD format.


Time zones matter in dates localization 

Not only the formatting, but also timezones need to be taken into consideration, based on the observer's view. This can be rather tricky with important historical dates, where e.g. the attack on Pearl Harbor, generally known to be December 7th, 1941, actually took place on December 8th in Japanese time.

Friday, October 14, 2016

Language facts: Estonian

Estonian belongs to the Finno-Ugric group of languages, which has its roots somewhere behind the Ural Mountains (together with Hungarian, Finnish, etc.). Today, there are several dozens small Finno-Ugric populations settled in North Europe, in the Volga and Ural region, and in Siberia and the Russian Far North. 

Tallin, Estonia
Source: AdobeStock.com

Closest to Estonian are the Finnish languages, first of all Finnish itself. Estonian is, in fact, currently spoken by less than a million people in Estonia where it is the official language, and smaller communities scattered throughout the world. Estonian is also one of the official EU languages.

Two languages in one

Historically, there were actually two Estonian languages used in Estonia: the Northern and the Southern Estonian. The reason for this differentiation is quite interesting, as it results from the two main separate migration waves of the old ancestors of today's Estonians. The migration waves were not apart from each other just in terms of time, but also the separate groups used considerably different vernaculars. The modern version of Estonian is derived from the Northern Estonian dialects. Due to historical reasons (e.g. Northern Crusades, World War Two and the Soviet expansion), Estonian was quite neglected in the area, mainly in terms of literature. The first written form of Estonian is not older than the 13th century. Estonian is also heavily influenced by the languages of nations who took over the rule over the Estonian lands at various points in time, namely Sweden, Germany and Russia.


Alphabet

In addition to the standard English alphabet, Estonian includes Š Ž Õ Ä Ö Ü. Loanwords can include F, Š, Z and Ž, while C, Q, W, X and Y are used in writing foreign proper names. These letters are not considered part of the Estonian alphabet, though. It is also worth mentioning that Estonian uses up to three degrees of phonetic length (not just short and long, but also "overlong"), thus one word can have three different meanings based on how much effort (length) is put into pronouncing it.

A B D E G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V Õ Ä Ö Ü a b d e g h i j k l m n o p r s t u v õ ä ö ü

Friday, October 7, 2016

idioma sponsoring Translators without borders

Tokyo/Prague, (October 7th, 2016) – idioma, an international language services provider based in Tokyo since 1980, is pleased to announce that we have pledged our support to help humanitarian translations reach more people around the world by becoming a bronze sponsor of Translators without Borders.


Translators without Borders (TWB) strives to provide people access to vital, often life-saving, information in their own language by, connecting non-profit organizations with a community of professional translators; building local language translation capacity; and raising awareness of language barriers. Since 2011, TWB has translated over 30 million words in over 150 languages in the areas of crisis relief, health and education. The organization has responded to urgent crises by using its Words of Relief model, working with partners, to provide vital information in the appropriate languages to those affected by the European refugee crisis, the Ebola crisis and the Nepal earthquake. Words of Relief ensures better communications with communities when crisis response aid workers and affected populations do not speak the same language.


The financial support provided by sponsors is critical to sustaining and growing the organization. “In the course of our work, we've become aware of a huge need, which is for people in poor countries to be able to access global knowledge in their own language,” explains Aimee Ansari, Executive Director of Translators without Borders.

“According to UNICEF more people die from lack of knowledge than from diseases. People in poor countries are simply unable to access global knowledge in a language they understand. Mobile technology may be bringing more people information, but we still need to bridge the ‘language last mile’. Translators without Borders is delivering this much needed help through a myriad of tools and programs so that more people will be able to access the knowledge they need in a language they understand."

Commenting on idioma’s decision to become a sponsor, Steen Carlsson, the managing director of idioma’s Production center, said:
“Having worked with languages all my life, in my job and privately, I know what the difference of even the most rudimentary translation can mean to a person unable to communicate. When those you communicate with do not understand what you say, or what you need, or why you behave the way you do, there is only despair. Translators without Borders is a concept we are happy to support and it is my sincere hope more people in need will benefit from their help.”

Aimee Ansari adds: “We are incredibly grateful to idioma for this assistance, which is critical to enable us, in turn, to support more humanitarian work around the globe.” 


idioma is proud to be supporting Translators without Borders in this work.

About Translators without Borders
Translators without Borders envisions a world where knowledge knows no language barriers.  The US-based non-profit provides people access to vital knowledge in their language by partnering with humanitarian organizations. Originally founded in 1993 in France as Traducteurs sans Frontières (now its sister organization), Translators without Borders translates more than five million words per year.  In 2012, the organization established a Healthcare Translator Training Center in Nairobi, Kenya.  For more information and to volunteer or donate, please visit the TWB website or follow us on Twitter or Facebook.


Friday, September 30, 2016

Language facts: Tagalog

Tagalog (also known as Filipino or the native Pilipino) is one of the two official languages of the Philippines, the other being English. Tagalog is an Austronesian language and as such related to Malay, Javanese and Hawaiian. Tagalog is the first language of one third of the Philippines with about 21.5 million speakers, and the second language of the remaining two thirds (approximately 70 million speakers) who use other regional languages such as Ilocano, Cebuano, Waray, Bikolano, Bisaya, etc. The language is also spoken by many ethnic minorities (including 1.5 million diaspora in the United States).
El Nindo, Palawan, Philipines
Source: AdobeStock.com

Mysterious language ruled by the Spanish

Very little is known about Tagalog that most likely has its origins in Mindanao (the second largest island in the Philipines). Literally Tagalog means “river dweller”. It was declared the official language by the Philippines’ first constitution in 1897. Today, Tagalog is concentrated to the central and southern parts of Luzon, but is also spoken on many other islands. 
Tagalog's first written record dates back to 900 AD, while the first book known to be written in Tagalog – the Doctrina Christiana – came to light by the end of 16th century (1593) and used also Spanish alongside Tagalog.
The Spanish colonists and the strong Christian culture they brought upon the islands heavily influenced evolution of (not just) the languages of the Phillipines. It was, after all, Spanish monk Pedro de San Buenaverture, who wrote the first dictionary of Tagalog. Interestingly, another and much more substantial dictionary (Vocabulario de la lengua tagala) was written by Czech Jesuit, Paul Klein, who published several other books in Tagalog.

Alphabet

Until 1987, Tagalog was based on a writing system consisting of 20 Latin letters, the so called ABAKADA alphabet. Today it adopts 28 letters under the official name Filipino.


A B C D E F G H I J K L M N Ñ NG O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n ñ ng o p q r s t u v w x y z

Friday, September 16, 2016

Endangered languages: Will your mother tongue survive?

Welcome to the extinction era! You may not be aware of it since it seems the human race is thriving, but Earth is experiencing yet another mass extinction. Scientists have lately suggested defining a new epoch, Anthropocene, as it may be us, humans, who have contributed our bit to the current unfolding of events. Human impact is endangering the animals and plants, but in truth they are not the only ones endangered. 

It's not just dinosarus. Languages become extinct too.

Migration killing unique cultures?

96% of the world's languages are spoken by only 4% of the global population according to the Sorosoro foundation. Globalization and mass migration in the 21st century have caused adoption of a dominant language in many areas to the detriment of original, local languages (what a paradox in terms of multiculturalism). It is now estimated that a substantial part of the world's presently known languages and dialects will cease to exist in written or spoken form and even become extinct in the not-so-distant future. According to UNESCO, unless this trend is reversed, half of today's 7,000+ languages will disappear by the end of this century. Columbia University linguist John McWhorter's predictions are even more gloomy with the outlook that 90% of today's existing languages will be displaced on a global scale by simplified versions of culturally dominant languages. Given that one of the important defining factors of a culture – if not the most important one – is its language, such development would irreversibly deprive us of our world's most important cultural heritage. New languages simply don't come into existence in amounts that would compensate this trend. And by definition, they cannot compensate the loss of languages that have developed through the course of human history.

These languages should begin to worry us

Despite many arguments and disagreement on the definition of a language vs. a dialect, in terms of extinction, both a language and a dialect are equal. Hundreds of languages literally waiting to cease to exist as their last living speakers pass away. In Europe, we see dialects such as Bavarian (Germany, Austria), Gordiol (Italy), Istriot (Croatia) and Cornish (UK) that are likely heading toward their terminal days. Also Walloon, spoken in a good part of Belgium, Yiddish, and Romani – the tongue of Romani (Gypsy) people across Europe – are on the endangered list. 

Panda bear - an example of successful endangered species rescue.

How to preserve a language

Systematic efforts are being made to document as many languages as possible and preserve them at least in artificial form. It is in fact feasible to revive a language suppressed or existing in "lab conditions" only, and history has shown us many an example. One is modern Hebrew, which was revived to a living official language from ancient religious texts. Also Irish and Greenlandic languages were resurrected from near-death thanks to social and political development, and they are now slowly beginning to spread. And in terms of language documentation, preservation and popularization, the translation industry can in fact help a lot :)






Friday, September 9, 2016

Language facts: Croatian

Croatian is a South Slavic language used primarily in Croatia (where it is an official language) by Croats living in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in neighboring countries where Croats make up autochthonous communities (e.g. the Serbian province of Vojvodina, Molise in Italy, or Burgenland in Austria), and generally the global Croatian diaspora. 

Old Istrian town of Rovnij.
Source: AdobeStock.com

It is sometimes classified as belonging to the Central South Slavic diasystem (also referred to as "Serbo-Croatian"). Croatian is spoken by 4,800,000 native speakers and approx. 6.5 million people around the world and uses a three-letter code: HRV (= hrvatska/i) for international recognition. It is also one of the official EU languages since Croatia became an EU member in 2013.

Croatian: a language with mixed origin

The modern Croatian standard language is a continuous outgrowth of more than nine hundred years of literature written in a mixture of Croatian Church Slavonic, or worded differently the Serbo-Croatian variant of Church Slavonic (i.e. Old Slavonic that was, for a brief period, also an official recognized language of the liturgy) and the vernacular language. Croatian Church Slavonic was abandoned by the mid-15th century, and Croatian as embodied in a purely vernacular literature (Shtokavian dialect literature) has now existed for more than five centuries.
  
Nowadays the Croatian language is an important symbol of national identity, but suggesting that Croatian language equals or is fully intelligible with Serbo-Croatian is still a sensitive subject to bring up. In fact, the differences between Serbian, Bosnian and Croatian language are (sometimes much too intensively) highlighted due to political reasons. The fact is that Croatians, Bosnians and Serbians generally understand each other, similarly to or even better than Czechs and Slovaks.

Alphabet


The Croatian alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet with special characters ć, č, đ, š, ž, dž; it does not have q, w, x, y.

A B C Č D Dž Đ E F G H I J K L Lj M N Nj O P R S Š T U V Z Ž a b c č d dž đ e f g h i j k l lj m n nj o p r s š t u v z ž

Friday, August 26, 2016

Language flavors: Dialects vs. languages

In terms of localization and also marketing customization of written content (e.g. in catalogs, websites, or promotional material), professional translation providers should be able to adjust the language and its style to match specifics of a region, ethnicity, or even a social group. But what is a dialect to begin with? And how does it relate to a language?
Where is the border between dialects and languages?
Source: AdobeStock.com

Localizing to dialects vs. localizing to languages

A dialect can be explained in two ways. It can be a subordinate language variant of a regional or national standard / official language, where the variant is, interestingly, not derived from, but related to the dominant language. However, the term dialect is also used to define a variant of a language that is characteristic to a certain group of language speakers. In this point of view, it is actually a matter of a scientific linguistic debate where to draw the border between a dialect and a language. There is also an opinion, that it's not possible to exactly determine where a dialect ends and a language begins. And here we come to the essence of professional and high-quality localization: knowing what language variant and form to use to grasp the essence of the locale. As languages and dialects evolve similar to living organisms, influenced by a number of factors from geographical and social, to historical and political, it is sometimes highly delicate to determine how to translate content to maximize impact.

When dialect is a language and language is a dialect

Yes, dialect and language can mean different things around the world. Let's take Chinese language, for example. All its variants share the same writing system, but in terms of mutual interchangeability e.g. the Cantonese and Mandarin dialects relate similarly as Spanish does with Italian, or Czech with Polish. The same goes for Arabic language and its dialects. 
The understanding of a language as dominant over the dialect can also be reversed so that even though the language is considered "standard" or "official", the dialect of the target area or social / ethnic group is emphasized and "wins" over the language. Recognizing that this is an ongoing process, these days often accelerated by political forces, the translation industry needs to react in a flexible way and target evolving dialects, especially those that one day will turn into independent languages.

Monday, August 22, 2016

Language facts: Greenlandic

Greenlandic is a language spoken by the Inuit people in Greenland. The main dialect, Kalaallisut, of Western Greenland belongs to the Eskimo-Aleut family (closely related to other Inuit languages, e.g. in Canada and basically accross the Arctic area). 
It became the only official language of Greenland when it gained autonomy from Denmark in 2009, after abandoning the Danish language. Greenlandic has around 58,000 native speakers.
Aurora borealis over Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, and one of the tiniest capitals in the world by its population
Source: AdobeStock.com

Parents don't understand their kids – literally

It is not exactly known what language was spoken in Greenland by it's original inhabitants, however, the roots of today's Greenlandic was brought to the island around 13th century (by the ancestors of Inuits, the Thule people). There was no mention of the language in written form until the 17th century and the process of Greenlandic grammar constitution and the introduction of dictionaries accelerated with the Danish colonization of Greenland. The very first Danish-Greenlandic dictionary was introduced in 1750, and the first grammar followed in 1760.

Interestingly, similar to colonialism also the independence tendencies boosted development of the language. Since a home rule agreement in 1979, Greenlandic is the only language used in primary schooling and also by a lot of media, causing many young people to be bilingual in both Greenlandic and Danish, while their parents are monolingual in Danish. Modern Greenlandic has loaned many words from both English and Danish, but when adopting new technologies, attempts are made to construct words based on Greenlandic roots. Today, the language is regulated by the Greenland Language Committee and is still considered as "vulnerable" by UNESCO in terms of its endangerment. 


Alphabet

Greenlandic is written in Latin script since it became a Danish colony in the 1700s. The alphabet is very short, consisting of just 18 characters, but it uses the letters b, c, d, h, x, y, z, w, æ, ø and å to enable spelling of loan words from Danish and English.


A E F G I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V
a e f g i j k l m n o p q r s t u v

Friday, August 12, 2016

Manage your very first translation project like a pro: Is know-how important?

If you are the lucky one assigned to manage, say, translation of an annual product catalog, and you have never managed any translation project before, don't panic. 

1. Search for translation resources. You could save a lot of effort.
2. Map the suppliers thoroughly. The difference is night and day.
3. Document your company's language management.
4. Establish a translation management workflow in your company.

Now that you know the who and the where, it is important to define how. 

Define your company language with style sheets.
Source: AdobeStock.com

3. Define your company language.

Every company has its own terminology and specific company jargon. Special terms and their meaning are defined in a glossary. If you have not built a glossary yet, this is an undertaking that can be part of the translation process. You can then request your translation supplier to use specific terms and expressions to achieve correct meaning (e.g. “battery” in certain languages needs to be translated differently depending on the subject matter and intended use) – this is a standard process that should be included in a company's translation resources. Also, you should be aware of many language and cultural specifics that must be taken into consideration when translating, such as text formatting rules, use of diacritics and numbers. Many companies often have specific rules for publishing text, which are not always the same, and they of course differ for different languages. They are collected in so-called style sheets or style guides.

Write down the translation management workflow you established. And defend it for future colleagues.
Source: AdobeStock.com

4. Fortify and defend your translation management workflow and preserve it for your successors.
Once you have managed to get a translation project delivered, don't let this be the end. To relieve others in your company and possible successors from having to repeat your hardships (remember, next time it could still be you who has to do it again!), you need to establish a written protocol for managing translation projects in your company. Don't forget to:

  • Get your translation supplier on the company map – include them in the list of vendors, store contact information for the project manager you communicated with and visibly record these. A good idea is to share the contacts, e.g. with your purchasing department.
  • Write down why you chose your current supplier (price, services, feedback on handled translations, etc.).
  • Leave instructions about using created translation resources and where to find them.

There! Now you are set to professionally handle translation projects, and impress your managers and potential clients with translated text that will promote your company and save your day.

Friday, August 5, 2016

Manage your very first translation project like a pro: Who should be your supplier?

If you are the lucky one assigned to manage, say, translation of an annual product catalog, and you have never managed any translation project before, don't panic. 

1. Search for translation resources. You could save a lot of effort.
2. Map the suppliers thoroughly. The difference is night and day.
3. Document your company's language management. 
4. Establish a translation management workflow in your company.

In this mini-series, we already explained the first steps of the process and the issue of translation resources search. Now, let's focus on the second point  mapping and choosing your translation supplier. 

Find a suitable translation supplier.
Source: AdobeStock.com

Map your potential suppliers. It matters more than you think.

There are numerous suppliers out in the market and they are available virtually by a few clicks on the Internet. The general issues, however, are quality, rates, as well as workflow and featured services, and then of course for what purpose the translation will be used. For anything you want to publish and which will be used in the public domain, make sure you make the right choice. 

There are basically 4 types of translation suppliers companies tend to choose from (although sometimes the final choice might seem – and often is – illogical), including these general pros and cons:


A. Friend, or friend of a friend, who speaks the target language 

+ usually friendly price
+ no need of thorough market research
- not a professional translator
- no translation software or CAT (Computer Assisted Translation) tools
- no complementary services, aftercare or indemnity insurance
- usually no non-disclosure agreement


B. In-house employee who speaks the target language

+ no extra cost
+ no need of thorough market research
+ familiarity with subject field
- not a professional translator
- often no translation software or CAT (Computer Assisted Translation) tools, or lacking experience if a license is bought
- no complementary services, aftercare or indemnity insurance


C. Freelance translator

+ professional translator
+ potentially uses some CAT tools (although usually to limited extent)
- the rates depend on the language and sometimes also the project scope
- no complementary services, aftercare or indemnity insurance
- limited availability (think sickness, holidays, family issues)


D. Tanslation agency/LSP

+ has access to qualified professional translators
+ often apply a quality assurance process (the top standard is when every project is translated by one native professional translator, reviewed by another native professional translator, and then proofread and checked using CAT tools and internal LSP employees)
+ usually includes complementary services including translation resources, such as creation and storage of memories, DTP and layout services, or aftercare services (post-editing, back translation, professional project management, etc.) as well as other attractive services like indemnity insurance and other assurances.
+ usually attractive pricing for volume projects and regular work.

How to pick a suitable translation supplier?
Source: AdobeStock.com

How to pick a suitable translation supplier?


It is pretty obvious which type of supplier we would recommend.
If you have cooperated with an LSP before and you find their current services and rates attractive, this is the cleanest option for optimized handling and probably the easiest way to manage the translation process. If you handle translation differently, do your homework and carry out a market research, while focusing on: 
  • rates and prices in general
  • LSP's references, certifications and terms & conditions
  • services included in the price (mainly translation memory and access to glossaries and special terminology)
  • ordering process

A lot of LSPs offer to supply you with a free quote and an estimate of delivery terms. Requesting a quote is a natural way to engage with potential suppliers, find out the necessary facts and get supportive reason for making a decision.

To know more about establishing an efficient work-flow for your company's translation management, read our next blog --->


Friday, July 29, 2016

Manage your very first translation project like a pro: Where to begin?

If you are new in a company and are suddenly assigned with also handling translations in your role as product manager, office manager, marketing manager, documentation manager, etc., or you are simply the type whom everyone turn to for help when they are stuck, this blog is a must-read.

Manage translation like a pro.
Source: AdobeStock.com

The material to be translated is not so important. You could end up having to find someone to translate a data sheet, a press release of a new product, brochure or even a web site. Based on our experience, it's not that uncommon that companies have no workflow or protocol in place when it comes to the occasional need for translation, especially for new languages or exotic ones. Imagine having to find someone to translate your company’s English company intro into Maltese or Hebrew…
It is a fact that all translated content published by a company speaks to potential customers in new international markets and therefore should be considered as “weapons” to gain new ground. And because of this it's quite surprising how often companies lack a conceptual approach to their documentation and translation management. Often this area involves unwritten know-how that leaves the company with the person who has been used to handle these tasks. 

If you are the lucky one assigned to manage, say, translation of an annual product catalog, and you have never managed any translation project before, here are some important tips how to deal with it like a pro:

1. Search for translation resources. You could save a lot of effort.
2. Map the suppliers thoroughly. The difference is night and day.
3. Document your company's language management.
4. Establish a translation management workflow in your company.

Let's break it down a bit more, point by point.

Search for translation resources.
Source: AdobeStock.com

1. Make a search for translation resources. If none are available, create them for the future.

'Translation resources' doesn't refer to the actual document you need to translate. But what’s important is that when translating content that is similar or basically an update of something already translated (e.g. a catalog in this case), there is a good chance some or even a lot of the volume has already been translated and saved in the form of a translation memory, preferably together with a glossary – most likely at your previous translation supplier. So you don't need to translate that again.
Translation resources and the knowledge of them are important and make up a valuable resource:

  • If you have no translation resources at all, you will pay the full price for translation. This is a cost issue. And here's the deal: Having access to already pre-translated content reduces both the translation cost and delivery time.
    Creating and preparing translation resources for future savings on translation expenses is a common service included in the price of translation by professional agencies that work with special translation tools and software.
  • If you have translation resources in your hand, your company has most likely already cooperated with a language service provider (LSP) at some point in the past. Try to find out the details of this cooperation, and if you gain positive feedback, you have a hot candidate for translation supplier.
    More importantly, if you do not have the resources, but know an agency has built them, your company is the legal owner of the resources, and you can request if from your agency any time.

And here we get to the next point  mapping and choosing a translation supplier  explained in our next blog --->