Navigating the translation mine field

To improve means to clean out mistakes, ambiguities and errors, essentially correct what is wrong – it could be our mistakes or incorrect proposals from your text memories.

Source: DollarPhotoClub.com

The translation process – at least in technical translation – these days closely interacts with use of custom software and "translation resources" – glossaries, translation memories and style sheets, even lists of prohibited words and more. It is getting to be an ever-more difficult process with demands from the obvious to requests that would seem extreme to the 'poor person' translating, and eventually the 'poor person' having to confirm that the translation is correct. Just like soldiers learn how to navigate through a mine field, in translation we have our own "mine fields" that we must manage.

A golden plate with errors

The map to potential errors after a translation project is finished is a Comprehensive Aftercare report – at idioma, we will be happy to issue such reports for projects we handle. 

These reports will tell you why we have dismissed glossar proposals (usually because of content), why a fuzzy match was ignored or why an exact match was changed.

Language is like a living being. There is no given translation for a given  text. Language is dynamic and for translation content can always change depending on content. With a professional human translator in charge, you can rely on the translation being correct – especially when it has been reviewed by a second human translator, which is compulsory at idioma. We do not deliver machine translations.

Submitting your web pages to machine translation platforms, for instance, will seriously affect your image, and the message to potential customers.

Ask!

If you are not convinced and if you have doubts about proposed translations, you can use our Ask! service – this is a free online language query service where you can submit questions regarding your translation issues straight to our professional translators. It can be used to question and comment content in your translated documents, or to simply request additions and amendments in a completed delivery. 

AfterCare reports on your projects

Our Aftercare with comments and recommendations from our native translators will help you keep your translations and translation resources error-free and in line with your needs and terminology. Not just for a single project, this care is thoroughly provided with every order you place with idioma. 

For more information, please contact our project managers.