On the Floor

ICD has attended and exhibited at numerous trade shows, and I'm always interested in what the sales team has to say when they return from shows. I know that it can be quite grueling and frustrating when you get rejected, but there are some really interesting conversations that happen on the floor. It's interesting how little people know about the translation and localization industry. I for one never realized how big it was until I started working at ICD. Translations were always on the back burner for most companies. It's on the: "We'll deal with it when we have to" list. No preemptive measures were necessary when exploring a global market because there was no reason to assume that people needed to read and understand the content. Companies didn't care about that, and they figured their distributors, or in-country sales personnel would deal with it.

Well, things have changed, and in our declining economy, translations are not on the back burner. Companies are branching out and trying to increase sales in different markets. They are doing it cautiously though, so prices are an issue, and translation is not cheap. Naturally, they start thinking about translating some marketing material, but they are afraid of spending what little they have on German brochures or a website when they don't know if they can make any in-roads in that market. Is translation and localization a waste of money? That's a question VP's of sales have to ask themselves every time they are approached by a rep from a translation company. It's a risk, but you've got to start somewhere.

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.