Straight to the Point

Technical Communicators know the importance of getting to the point. The instructions they write are straight forward and easy to understand. When it comes time to translate, a good translator will not expand or embellish the text. They will translate it using the most concise terminology available. European languages tend to expand when they are translated from English, so a good translator will know how to make it as straight forward and understandable as possible. This maintains the integrity of the English content, and the original intent of the Technical Communicator.

5 Rules You Need to Know

Here are 5 basic rules when you send files for translation and localization:

1) Send the final version you want translated without any comments or markups.This ensures things that don't need translation don't get translated.

2) Include all the fonts and links with you source file in an organized folder structure. This allows us to find what we need easily, and locate any words if they appear in the graphics. (If you can't get those links and fonts, please send a printer optimized PDF of your source file. Thanks!)

3) Avoid sending content typed in emails. I know it's time consuming to write two lines or two words in text editor or MS Word. This eliminates confusion, and it's easier to manage and track the file.

4) Specify your target language and regional flavor, for example: Spanish (Europe), Spanish (Mexico), etc. This will allows us to conduct an accurate analysis for your target audience.

5) If you need a website translated, provide a list of what's in the website that actually needs translation, for example: just the homepage, only webpages and not flash files, etc.

Thank you for reading and following these rules.

Paper Out, Websites In

During lunch today, my colleagues and I had a discussion about the end of printed materials. Will magazine printing and book publications finally come to an end? Will we stop reading printed copies of newspapers? Well, almost every publication has an online subscription, and most major news organizations have reports and videos on the web. It's a natural progression from print media to online reading or viewing. I used to get subscriptions for auto magazines (yes, I'm a big car geek), but now I just read blogs and edmunds.com for the latest news. Occasionally, I would print an article or two if I wanted to read it at the gym, or if I have to wait in line at the DMV (hell on earth). I think it's safe to say that printed publications may come to an end in the near future, but what does that mean for translated content?

Many websites are translated, and most marketing content that appears on the web is translated. As the print media slowly dies off, the shift to web based formats will see steady birth rate. This will change the game for translation companies as they have to adapt to on-demand or live translations as content gets updated frequently, and there is no boundary to the 24 hour news cycle. Some companies have employed machine translations that are linked to an existing term base to generate professionally translated terms and ensure a certain level of consistency. It may work for smaller volumes of non-scientific or non-mechanical content, but the lack of a human translator in those fields will cause major terminology errors. The resulting effect will devastate a clients reputation. The move to CMS and database driven websites eases the translation and localization process, but a 24hour on-call human translator is still a few years away. The hybrid alternative is having a machine translation do most of the work, and a translator or editor review and edit the content. This is a little time consuming, but it will have a better result than purely relying on machine translations.

Only time will tell how far we move away from print media, and how much of the internet will consume us all. In the mean time, translation companies are starting to adopt online management tools to handle content. Server based technology has come along way with XML content and DITA constantly evolving, we might have a shot at a purely online world.

China's Dilemma

While the Olympics are going on, the Chinese are wondering what's going to happen to their economy, and the hype when it's all over. Well, China's translation companies have a bigger problem that keeps them up at night in cold sweats. While these companies are able to offer US and European clients competitive prices on Chinese and Asian language translations, they are finding it hard to offer those prices for European and English language translations to local clients. Part of the problem is the lack of native European and English speaking translators in China. The cost of living in Europe and North America are considerably higher, and it's hard for them to compete with translation companies in Europe, and North and South America. With the increasing number of exports from China, the local manufacturers need their materials localized into English and European languages, and the Chinese translation companies aren't able to meet the demand.

So, is this a blessing for state side translation companies? Yes and No. Most translation companies use the same pool of ATA certified translators for European languages, and some Chinese companies are able to strike partnerships with North American translation companies by offering lower prices for Asian languages in exchange for lower prices on European languages. The problem arises when the Chinese companies make deals directly with the same pool of translators. Now they are able to negotiate lower rates with those translators; overtime eliminating the need for partnerships with North American translation companies. So you're thinking: Why doesn't this work in reverse? Well, the companies in North America don't have access to large pools of qualified domestic Chinese or Asian language translators in the North America, and the Chinese companies have a monopoly on the translators in China. Therefore, the North American companies have to rely on the Chinese companies who offer lower prices in comparison to an independent translator.

The Update Nightmare

Every Technical Communicator knows this tale. The horrors of updating translations of manuals, or updating content on a website. Is there too much content that I might get charged full prices? Maybe there's recycled content in the memory? Should I just send the updated text and not the whole manual? These are the questions facing Technical Communicators as they decide what they want translated for their updated content. The job isn't any simpler for Project Managers at translation companies. We have to see how much content is in the memory, and figure out the best way to get the content translated and placed back into the document, if required without it costing our client an arm and a leg.

You have some options for waking up from this nightmare. You can build a glossary of terms that you frequently use in your manuals. Then get that glossary translated. If your content is constantly updated, those terms will probably remain the same and appear again, and now those terms are already translated. For websites, if you use a CMS or database driven website, you can ask your translation company to provide you with an authoring tool that links the memory or glossary file with your server (you may have to pay for the licensing, and it all depends on the compatibility of your CMS and the translation companies TMS). This authoring tool will enable you to access the memory and translated glossary as you write the updates. Now you can choose translated phrases or terms, and incorporate it instead of writing completely new phrases that you have to get translated. These options allow you to maximize your translations and ensure consistency on your website's updates.

The Funny and Sad Side of Translation

Here are a few poorly translated signs. They are pretty funny, but it does bring up the importance of translating and understanding the context of the text in question. You can't just translate strings of text without considering the structure of the phrase, or the context that goes with it. I don't think I would order "crap eggs".

Translation is Expensive! Really?

Many manufacturers believe that translation costs are a miscellaneous expense. An afterthought when a buyer or distributor actually needs to understand the products functionality. The realities of translation costs finally set it when they receive a quote from a translation company and then they wonder why it cost so much? Why is is so expensive to translate something when it could be figured out by looking at the diagrams. There are exceptions when translation is required, or when it's a matter of choice. For instance Canada requires both French and English content on manuals and packaging that are marketed and sold there. The EU requires that languages spoken in the member countries appear on products and accompanying literature. I know, most of you reading this entry know this little secret about globalization, but my point boils down to a matter of needing or wanting translation.

Yes, you will need to translate materials if you want to sell it in Europe and Canada, you don't want to, but you will need to do it. Therefore, should you dole out thousands of dollars to have it translated correctly? or just use the cheapest possible means as long as it's translated, and what appears to be German or Italian appears on your labels. Who cares if: "Warning: Acid is harmful" reads "Warning: Acid is possibly harmful" in German. On the other hand, if you were not required to translate your materials, but you wanted to make it easier to market and sell your products overseas, then maybe you are more inclined to spend the money getting it done right. If you're a company who is beginning to take a step into the big bad world of international markets, maybe it's not such a bad idea to spend a little extra at the beginning. Have your materials translated correctly, and have your products marketed successfully without anything being "lost in translation" (Jeff from sales loves to use this line). When your profits grow from international sales, and you have tons of material that needs translation, you can consolidate and lock in some better prices with your translation vendor, and of course you are also building a memory that ensures consistency and re-use of content. This will save you tons of money in the long run. Translation is a long term investment like your retirement plan, or that condo in South Beach. It will pay off in the end.

The Measurement Game, Metric or American?

Ever since I started working at ICD, I have been obsessed with reading translated labels on packaging and instruction manuals. Recently, I bought a lock for my bicycle, and I noticed the measurements on the packaging were Metric (American) 12.7 cm (5") on the English section and American (Metric) 5" (12.7 cm) on the Spanish section. I found this odd because most countries outside the US use Metric measurements, and if this packaging was geared towards South America (assuming the Spanish was geared towards South America, and the company also used it for US consumers since it was at Target) then the measurements in the English section should remain the same in Spanish or the American measurements deleted completely.

After thinking about it for a while, I realized that the packaging could have been specifically localized for Spanish reading people in the US, and since we use American measurements instead of Metric it was logical to use the American measurements first, but why was it in Metric first in the English section? The only reason I came up with was that they probably wrote the English section localized-ready for any market, but decided to switch the measurements for packaging in the US. This is a very important consideration and this manufacturer considered it's Spanish reading consumers in the US.

Most manufacturers have a hard time choosing what unit of measurement to use for different markets. Do you want to use bilingual packaging like the example above for the US market only, or do you want to use it for the rest of the world? In most cases ICD has advised their clients to standardize their measurements: American (Metric) for the US market and metric only for the rest of the world. However, discrepancies have occurred when bi, tri, or quad lingual packaging was used. Then, the question of consistency in all languages needs to be addressed. Whatever you decide to choose, just remember what markets you are using it in, and what unit of measurement is most applicable for your consumer. Consistency, accurate conversions, and ease of localization are the key factors in the measurement game.

First Post. Welcome to ICD's blog

Hello all readers,

I welcome all of you to the first post on ICD's blog. Basically, ICD decided to start a blog that will provide some input and insight about the translation industry. With the age of Google, everyone and their subsidiary has a blog, and it's a new way to connect with the world.

I believe that this will make ICD more accessible to our clients and you will be able to understand the industry a little better. On future posts, there will be ideas and thoughts from both the production and sales teams, experiences dealing with localization and translation, and other fun and exciting updates on the industry. Hopefully, this blog will give you a better understanding about the translation industry, and the benefits of translating and localizing you content for the global market. For more info visit: www.icdtranslation.com