The Seven Deadly Sins of Translation        Improving your company's processes is vital to its success. Make sure you are improving the way you manage your translation process and how you work with your translation service provider. Don't commit the "The Seven Deadly Sins of Translation."

Taming the Client Review Process        Having someone in your organization approve translated content is key to maintaining a consistent message in your company's communications. This process, however, is fraught with frustration and delays. Find out how you can improve the process and STOP THE CLIENT REVIEW INSANITY!

Using the net to help you go global Looking for an excellent one-stop site to aid your foreign market expansion?

English now a minority on the web! Maximizing your Internet exposure by providing multiple versions of your web site in different languages is no longer a thing of the future.

Presentations on the Internet & International Business From the seminar, "The Internet & International Business" sponsored by the International Resource Group. Two must see presentations.

ALT has a new brochure. Get yours. We have just released a new brochure, packed with tons of information.

Get 10% off your next translation project For a limited time, we are offering a 10% discount on your next translation project, exclusive to Newsletter subscribers.

The Seven Deadly Sins of Translation

In any process that is new to you, it's easy to make mistakes. Here are seven of the most common ones to avoid in order to make your translation project go smoothly.

“Just a Vendor”    Not regarding the translation process as a team effort.
As with so many working relationships, the one you have with your translation company must be a team effort in order to be successful. The team effort starts with a plan and timeline that you and your translation company create together so that there are no surprises. Your translation firm should adhere to the established timeline. Provide your translation suppliers with the necessary materials. They'll ask you some questions and get on with the job at hand. A good translation company will foresee what is needed, acquire the materials from you and deliver the job on schedule.

Inexperience     Working with translators who are unqualified in your subject area.
Speaking a foreign language is one thing and translating is another. Not everyone who speaks a foreign language has learned the craft of translation. There are thousands of people who call themselves translators--only a small percentage of them are skilled enough to take on a technical translation project and do it right.

Filtering through all the people who seem to be qualified to take on your project is a daunting task. How can you know if they'll know the language well enough to render your English-language literature into the target language without making it sound like a translation? How do you know if they have the technical expertise to translate your message into a foreign language and use the correct technical terms?

Unless you are interested in building your own in-house translation/localization department, it's practical to partner with a language services firm. A language service provider will already have the qualified resources that your projects require. Look for one with lots of experience in your field and the know-how to do a good job.

Your translation provider's technical capability must also be considered. Experience and skill in desktop publishing, graphics software, web site creation, publishing, and software development are essential.

Also, does your translation service provider utilize the latest computer-aided translation tools? Don't confuse this with Machine Translation (a.k.a. Computer Translation or Translation Software). This is not a viable alternative to the human translator. Computers simply cannot recognize nuances that humans can. This is why "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak" has been translated by a computer to say, "The whiskey is agreeable, but the meat has gone bad." We think this is funny because we can differentiate the nuances of the original and thereby understand its meaning. A computer cannot yet do that. On the other hand, computer-aided translation, when used in combination with the human element, can vastly improve a translator's effectiveness and consistency. The pitfall is to expect too much of technology and forget that translation is a human process.

Unrealistic Schedules    Not allowing enough time for the translation process.
Of course you have a deadline. You need brochures for that trade show and technical manuals to accompany the machine you're shipping. Your new web site's launch date is just days away and your software product's next release date is looming…all in multiple languages! One way to get the best translation results is to plan ahead with your translation company so you know how much time it takes to complete your project. Your technical brochure and company web site probably weren't written, designed and published in a week. It shouldn't be translated in a week, either.

When you have Asian languages to consider, the timeframe will probably be longer than for European languages. For example, perhaps you were planning on outputting all the languages you need in-house. Unless you have the specific hardware and software necessary for Asian languages, it simply can't be done.

Uneducated Assessment    Client review by associates whose qualifications do not match those of the original translation team.
Translators perfect their craft through experience, constant study, review by colleagues, and criticism by editors. A translator is not simply a person who speaks two languages, although that's the most basic requirement, of course. When your translation is created by an experienced translation team and delivered by your translation company, that final product is the sum of the experience, review, editing and criticism that the translation team brought to your project.

As part of the translation process, your translation company will edit and review the text before delivering it to you. For your final approval of the translated text, your translation company should encourage you to have a person of your own choosing to review the translation one more time. This assures you that industry-specific (and company-specific) terms have been accurately translated. This client review serves another purpose--to ensure that the people in the field who will be using your translated material agree with the translation.

Caution: Be sure that the person you choose to review your translation is qualified to do so. The best person to review a marketing brochure, for example, is your in-country representative. He or she is familiar with the terminology your company uses, terminology that may not be readily available to the translation team. Ask your reviewer to look for and alter those terms as needed, and make sure that your reviewer provides that feedback to your translation team.

Penny-pinching    Choosing your translation supplier on the basis of cost alone.
While cost is definitely a factor in choosing a translation company, it certainly is not the only factor you need to consider. Choosing on the basis of cost alone can be disastrous. Just as in your industry, the lowest cost probably does not equal the best quality or the best value; the same is true in translation.

Consider other factors when choosing your translation supplier. What do their references say? Will you feel comfortable working with them? Do they have the translators and the desktop publishing and engineering capabilities to meet your requirements? Is their quote reasonable? What kind of warranty do they offer on their work?

Micromanagement    Getting too involved in your translation project.
Yes, you can be too involved in your translation project. When you hand over your taxes to your accountant, you probably don't get very involved in the process of preparing your returns. Presumably, this is because you see your accountant as the expert in the matter. The same holds true for a successful translation project.

You have decided to use a translation company to accomplish something you cannot: reproduce your technical or marketing literature in one or more foreign languages without having it sound like a translation. You've chosen a translation company that you believe can handle the project; so provide the materials they need, answer their questions, and trust that they are indeed the experts in the field.

Holding Out    Not giving your translation company the materials they need to meet your requirements.
Your translation company should ask you for the materials they'll need to complete your project. Reference materials might include English-language or previously translated literature that will expand the translators' knowledge of your product. Hard copy of the electronic copy of your project serves as a reference and, in desktop publishing, as a checkpoint to match the layout to your original.

For web site, multimedia, and software localization projects the amount of information that you will need to share with your localization provider will be extensive. Your best bet is to request a pre-project checklist even before you request a quote. Also, allow lots of time for the quoting process, since your service provider will need to do an extensive analysis of the project before a firm cost can be quoted.

At Advanced Language Translation Inc, we pride ourselves on seeing every project as a team effort --from our quote, throughout our 180-day warranty, and well past the delivery of your final translated project. When you choose Advanced Language Translation, you've made the right choice: 
 Just-in-time, seamless delivery of services. 
 Greater flexibility of language combinations and possible languages. 
 Highly qualified, experienced professional translators.
 Translations delivered to you via E-mail, FTP, fax, overnight services to anywhere in the world
Faster turnaround. 
 Lower costs. 
 Firm quotes before we start your project. 
 180-day written warranty. 

Taming the Client Review Process - TMX Master

The practice of having clients review translations provided by a language service provider (LSP) is a critical part of a translation project. Often customers new to translation ask why it is even necessary. Their thinking is, “Why do we need to go to the trouble of doing this when we have hired a vendor to translate for us? Don’t they trust their own work?” This is a valid question, but client review (also called in-country review, since it’s often handled by the customer’s in-country representatives or staff) is not meant to be a quality assurance check. Rather, it is necessary to guarantee that the translated text is consistent with the standards of your in-country personnel. Also, since LSP’s aren’t working day-to-day in your company, they may not know your firm’s unique terminology and turns of phrase. Your reviewer plays a critical role in ensuring that the translated content fits in seamlessly with the rest of the written communication flowing into the target market.

The translation that you receive from your service provider should be a high-quality text ready for publication, and the review process should be as streamlined and efficient as possible. After all, it’s not your in-country colleagues’ primary task to review translations coming from the home office! Presumably they have more critical functions to perform. Therefore, it’s important that the review process be as concise and convenient as possible.

The old way…the hard way…
Typically, a project coordinator or manager within your company will send translated content to in-country reviewers via E-mail in Microsoft Word format. This requires lots of administrative time, especially if there are many files and multiple languages involved. Since the reviewers may not have uninterrupted time to dedicate to the review project, they may return the files to the project coordinator on a rolling basis. This quickly becomes a logistical nightmare for the coordinator. Even with Excel spreadsheets or databases to track the documents, before long, something is lost or missed in the process. Then, following review, all the files must be delivered back to the LSP so that they can confirm the changes and update their translation memory files. This exponentially increases the likelihood of error.

Another problem is that every reviewer has a different way of doing things. The lack of standard review methods often forces the LSP to “interpret” the reviewer’s changes. This can cast doubt on the validity of changes and does not guarantee that all the changes are being made, since the LSP may not be able to apply the changes accurately.

The new way…the smart way…
Instead of disseminating files to reviewers like so much seed to the wind, doesn’t it make more sense to centralize the process? Isn’t it better to have all your reviewers working in the same environment, applying changes in the same way? In addition, isn’t it better for your LSP to have access to the changes faster (in near real-time) without having to manually update the translation memory files?

ALT has developed an online tool that does exactly that. This solution is called TMX Master™. TMX stands for Translation Memory eXchange, a standard developed by the localization industry that allows for sharing of TM’s (translation memories) between different toolsets. ALT chose to build TMX Master™ based on a standard so that its clients would not be tied to a proprietary system--something for which the translation/localization industry is notorious. TMX itself is simply a standardized XML document. Since XML is such a flexible technology, it allows for manipulation of TMX files through an online environment.

Here are some of TMX Master’s features: 
  Online administration, automatic E-mail notification and assigning of reviewers
  Editing of target (translated) text through the browser 
  Automatic logging of all changes
  Reviewers can “bookmark” their point of progress to return later
  Robust Find & Replace capability
  A “commit all changes” function that automatically submits all changes and outputs an
     updated TMX for use with offline translation tools
  TMX Globalview™ -- special access to a complete corporate translation memory, enabling
      reviewers to search for related terms
  TermMaster™ -- an online terminology database for building comprehensive
      specialized glossaries for development and sharing via the web
  Support for over 50 languages

To find out more about TMX Master™, please contact Scott Bass at ALT to arrange a demo.

Using the Net to Help You Go Global

Looking for an excellent one-stop web site to aid your foreign market expansion? Visit the newly released global B2B e-marketplace, BuyUSA.com, a collaboration by the U.S. Commercial Service and IBM, and backed by the global resources of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Find international trade partners and trade shows and access worldwide market research and trade counseling. Free information is available on the site. Cost-effective BuyUSA memberships offer additional services. Visit BuyUSA.com for full details.

Multilingual Web Sites Experiencing Enormous Growth

Maximizing your Internet exposure by providing multiple versions of your web site in different languages is no longer a thing of the future.

With the Explosion of E-commerce, Everything is Expanding!

The Internet has absolutely revolutionized the flow of information in the world today. E-business is booming, and with it, its exposure worldwide. With this expansion, English is no longer the majority language utilized on line. For example:

  In March of 2001 the amount of English language content on the web was at 58%.
  Within six months it dropped to 51% and, a year later,
  In March of 2002, the English language presence on the web was reduced to only 40%!

Along with these statistics, the majority of U.S. companies have not yet begun to address this global presence, making non-English web sites one of the fastest growing expansion areas on the web. This trend will continue, helping to make multilingual web sites a format standard.

Presentations on the Internet & International Business

Advanced Language President, Scott Bass, recently joined James Dawson, President of AIMM, Inc. (an International Business Development Company) to present a half-day seminar, "The Internet & International Business" for the International Resource Group, Inc. For a limited time, a copy of their PowerPoint presentations are included on our web site, addressing how the Internet can be used as a resource to promote your company, and to provide you with resources to better prepare for an active presence in multiple foreign markets. See the presentations.

ALT Has a New Brochure. Get Yours.

Advanced Language Translation Inc. is very proud of the services we offer, and customer loyalties reflect the quality of these services. To update our message, we have just released a new brochure. If you haven't already received one, click here to request a copy. While there...take a look around. Both our Advanced Language Translation Inc. and Multilingual Microsite™ sites have exciting new updates.

Get 10% Off Your Next Translation Project

Have an upcoming translation project? ALT is offering a 10% Discount as a 'thank you' for being a newsletter subscriber, by simply visiting our site and requesting a quote online by November 8, 2002; and 5% to anyone visiting our site and requesting a quote on line by November 22, 2002. Completion of projects with these discounts are requested to be within 30 days.* Be sure to type the Coupon Code: descuento10 in the Additional Comments field when you request your quote. Submit a quote request here.

 *These discounts are not applicable to Multilingual Microsite pricing & cannot be combined with other offers. Additional limitations may apply.

The 7 Deadly Sins of Translation

1. Not regarding the translation process as a team effort. 2. Working with translators who are unqualified in your subject area. 3. Not allowing enough time for the translation process. 4. Client review by associates whose qualifications do not match those of the original translation team. 5. Choosing your translation supplier on the basis of cost alone. 6. Getting too involved in your translation project. 7. Not giving your translation company the materials they need to meet your requirements.

TMX MASTER - the future of client review

To find out more about TMX Master, please contact Scott Bass at ALT to arrange a demo.

ALL HUMAN TRANSLATION, ALL THE TIME

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