No Spanish Translation Needed for the GOP: Absent Latino Support Loud and Clear

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Posted by Tomedes on November 19, 2012 – 11:01 pm
Filed under Uncategorized

 There has been a lot of controversy over the Immigration Laws within the past several years, resulting in drama from federal law suits to mass media headlines, the election of CA and NM governors to the re-election of President Obama with the help of the majority of the Latino community . Among the political strategies aimed at Latino voters was Spanish translation of campaign commercials and Youtube videos, and Spanish document translation for signs and billboards about Immigration laws. We posted the Spanish translation of President Obama’s campaign video for the Latino and Spanish speaking community back in September - but for those of you who may have missed it, here it is again:

 Recognized primarily in hindsight, the Republican party severely underestimated the strength of the Latino vote, and the GOP policies on immigration certainly affected their loss. In a recent poll conducted by InterMedia-Latino, while immigration laws were not the top deciding factor, over two-thirds of polled Latino voters said the Republican party’s perspectives and policies on immigration was a deterrent for them, and certainly played into voting for Obama. Likewise, polled voters also responded much more to Obama’s campaign than they did to Romney’s. More than 70% of polled Latino voters said they believe Obama truly cares about them, and close to the same number of polled voters said they feel that the Romney campaign was hostile toward Latino communities and immigrants – whether legal or illegal.

 For those that aren’t familiar, the S.B. 1070 Immigration Law in Arizona state and proposed in many other Mexican-bordering states in the U.S. – allows for law enforcement to stop, question, and demand proof of legal status from anyone who looks suspicious. To many legal Latino residents in Arizona, that meant “anyone Mexican and/or Latino is a suspect of being an illegal immigrant, and can be questioned at length, any time for any reason.” Talk about state legalized racial harrassment – no wonder Obama filed a lawsuit against the state of Arizona. Yet the Romney campaign had to “examine” – why in the world would the Latino community so heavily support Obama, and give him only a scant 15% of their votes (and 14% probably lived or grew up in Idaho).

 While the Obama administration opposed Arizona’s self-legislation on a constitutionally federal issue by filing a federal suit, the Spanish-speaking Latino community did not need a Spanish translation Youtube video to see and feel the Republican opposition - opposition to proposed legalization of illegal immigrants who want opportunity – not hand-outs; and the general GOP attitude that flatly communicates ”just deport them.”   It will be interesting to see how the GOP plans to coax the Latino community into forgiving and forgetting…. and forking over their votes.

Sounds of an Electronic Harp: A Short Story About Business Translation

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Posted by Tomedes on October 29, 2012 – 4:54 pm
Filed under Online Translation, Translation Services, Translation Tea Break

 professional Greek translationMila was gathering up her human resources documents and new employee training software into their respective files, in order to prepare them for sending to various translation companies. She reminded herself – for the 13th time in the last half hour – that she had only half a day to gather translation quotes from whatever half-decent services she could find online, and then compare differences in price and turn-over rate, and get back to her supervisor with details. Mila had only had this job for about four months, so impressing Mr. Sansa by getting this done with super human speed and geek-like efficiency – would be a very good thing. business translation

This situation worried her a little, since the results were not entirely within her control. What if none of the translation services had rates that were under budget? What if they all needed a week or more to translate all of the files? Her mind filled with these kinds of doubts as she went to work typing in the keywords to bring up the top translation services online.professional translation

Professional Greek translation – Mila typed into her web browser, followed by similar search terms such as professional business translation, professional Italian translation, and myriad of others. She quickly jotted down the first five or six online translation companies that appeared the most in top results for her searches.

professional Italian translation

She went to the web page listed for professional Greek translation, which took her to an inside article on a translation site called Tomedes. The article described what, how and who translates English to Greek and Greek to English.

 ”Well, at least they seem to be a decent service. But anyone can write stuff on a page about how good they are. Let’s hope it’s not all smoke and mirrors,” she thought to herself.

There was a menu on the left column of every web page on the Tomedes Translation site, which allowed anyone to select translation languages, upload documents, input word counts or copy and paste documents for an instant quote. 

“I have .ppt files. Will they even be recognized by such a basic looking menu? And I highly doubt my .swf files will be uploaded. How am I going to know if these people even see my quote request?” Mila worried to herself, but had no choice but to go ahead. She first tried her .ppt files.

No sooner had she selected the “Show translation price and time” button, than a little chat window popped up, asking if she needed any help.

translation service“Hi, I’m Jane,” the icon girl in the chat window introduced herself. “What do you need help with?”

“Oh thank God,” Mila breathed a sigh of relief. “I am going crazy trying to figure out how to get these files uploaded, get a decent quote and get them into the translation process. I have several different types of software files, and I don’t have a lot of time,” Mila explained, furrowing her brow at the screen, and holding her breath a little, waiting for the response she hoped would not be the wrong one.

“No problem, ma’am,” Jane-the-virtual-chat-girl responded with a pleasant matter-of-fact tone (Or at least we suspect that’s how Jane talks, although there is no way to be totally sure, since Jane doesn’t actually have any audio element to her speech). “Tomedes has a large number of both specialized and standard translation project managers. Can you tell me the language pairs and subject matter of the translations you need, as well as what kind of turnover time you are seeking?”

“Well, there’s the PPT files – er, 8 pages of Powerpoint Presentation, that is, which need English to Greek and Italian translation. I also have SWF files – Adobe Flash, I mean, which needs the text components to be translated from English to Greek, too, which total about 10 pages. These are HR presentation and tutorials for new employees at our Italy and Greece IT company branches, called ‘TechieLand,’ ” Mila mentally check-marked each task, wondering if she had covered everything.

 human resources document translation

“Oh wait a minute,” Mila suddenly remembered, ” I also need Russian translations for the PPT files. Is that possible?”

“Of course!” Jane replied reassuringly. “We have many great translators for those languages and plenty of others, in case you decide you need further language translations. Now, Mila, here’s what we’ll do. Jason McFall is one of our fabulous project managers, and he will be contacting you promptly, and tell you what needs to be done. Just fill out a contact form with a brief explanation of your presentation translation and the kind of professional translation services you need. You can also specify what kind of time frame you’re working with, and other special requirements. He’ll respond to you right away. Any questions?”

“No I think I got it from here. Thanks Jane,” Mila smiled gratefully.

Mila filled out the contact form as directed. She wondered just how long it would be until this Jason guy got back to her. The day was getting shorter and shorter, and she wanted to have this taken care of before the work day was over at 5pm. 

She no sooner had she sent the contact form and started to browse another translation service for a 2nd option, when her email alert sounded. It was an unmistakable alert, because she had set it to a few notes of computer generated harp music. She needed her email alerts to have a relaxing sound, because often they piled into her inbox at the rate of several dozen per hour. Several dozen email alerts per hour – when the alert is some kind of beep, buzz, tweet, twitter, ring, chang, chime, chirp or peep -  causes a migraine very quickly.

She clicked on the email from Tomedes Translation Project Manager, Jason McFall. She read, just barely aloud,

“Dear Mila,

 Thank you for choosing Tomedes Translation Service as your professional translation experts. Please forward copies of all documents, files, and presentation materials that you need translated. Once I receive your files, I’ll send a quote for all materials, as well as an itemized quote for each language.

Sincerely,

Jason McFall

Tomedes Project Manager

 

Mila forwarded the materials as requested, relieved that the account manager had responded quickly. Despite what Mr. McFall had said in the email, she put an extra emphasis on the fact that she needed a quote. She was biting her nails at the thought of getting a quote that was way over budget. Mr. Sansa would not be happy about that.

When she heard the electronic glide of harp strings, she opened the response from Mr. McFall.

“Hi Mila. Please find below the various quotes for each language for all documents. We can have the translations completed and back to you by the end of the day on Friday.

Greek translation – $125

Italian translation – $130

Russian translation – $115

Please let me know if there are any questions about our translation services.

Sincerely,

Jason McFall

Tomedes Project Manager

Mila stared at the quotes. She started massaging her temples with her fingers. There had to be a mistake. He obviously sent the quotes for the wrong files, or got me mixed up with someone else.

Great, these people are already disorganized and they haven’t even translated anything yet, she thought inwardly. Mr. Sansa is going to eat me for lunch.document translation

 

She wrote back,

“Jason,

 I think you got something confused or mixed up. I needed translation quotes for 8 pages of Powerpoint Presentation, and about 10 pages of Adobe Flash file texts, for Greek, Italian and Russian. These figures are obviously not right.”  ~ Mila W.

Jason quickly responded back.

 ”Mila,

No mistake. Those are the quotes for the requested documents and text sections. Let me know if there’s anything else you need help with.”

Jason McFall

Tomedes Project Manager

Mila’s mouth dropped open when she read Jason’s email. She had expected some kind of graveling apology and maybe an offer for discounted services. But this was way better than some lame discount – she was way, way under the allowed budget for the translation.

affordable translation

Mr. Sansa just might give her Friday off! Okay, probably not. But, he certainly wouldn’t be disappointed.

Mila proceeded to type up an email with the information Mr. Sansa had requested, with a smile on her face, and whistling to the tune of her electronic harp email alert.professional Russian translation

 

 

Disclaimer:

While this is an informative and creative exercise with a primary purpose of providing transparent business operations to our clients, as well as to provide illustration of the start-to-finish Tomedes translation process, and the following details are based upon actual translation services provided by Tomedes as well as some reactions we have received by our clients – all persons, companies and names specified below, apart from “Tomedes,” are purely fictional and do not represent any singular client or Tomedes account manager. Any similarities are purely coincidental.

Obama vs. Romney – Does Foreign Language Fluency Matter?

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Posted by Tomedes on October 9, 2012 – 3:57 pm
Filed under Uncategorized

In reviewing the presidential candidates for the upcoming U.S. Presidential election in November, a question came to mind. What languages – if any, do the candidates know fluently, or even on a conversational level? What about past presidents? Does it make a difference?

Surprisingly, on a site called presidential-candidates.org, there is an informational tab to the left listed as “Foreign Languages,” which pretty much covered the answers to some of those questions. I quickly discovered that Mitt Romney is fluent in French. While Obama speaks both Spanish and even some Indonesian, he is fluent in neither. So – does this affect the public’s perception of either candidate? Should the President speak a foreign language fluently?

Commentors who responded to a few others who have posed this question were mixed. On one hand, the viewpoint is that as a world leader, and a very prominent one at that, the President of the U.S. should be fluent in another language, if not a few. It communicates cultural understanding in a tangible way, with a much more personal approach in face-to-face conversation. While those on this side of the coin are not deluded about foreign language knowledge having the power to change a whole community’s mind about policies and advocated legislature, it certainly goes a long way for a U.S. President’s image and foreign relations. Because so much of the world views American society as one that does not see a need to learn the languages or cultures of those outside their own, an American President who did have fluency in Russian and German, or Italian and Dutch, or French and Chinese – would not only create a positive reaction from a global view, but it may even reflect positively upon the rest of the U.S. as far as the rest of the world is concerned.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the opinion is that foreign language fluency is not at all a crucial issue, or one that will ultimately affect how either Romney or Obama is elected to office. Very few, if anyone at all, will change their vote simply based upon the fact that Romney can speak French fluently, and Obama knows only a little Spanish and even less Indonesian. One commentor to a similar blog post went as far as to say, “that’s what translators are for,” going on to point out that it is the overall message, policies, actions and results of any leader – not just the U.S. President – that ultimately matter, and not whether or not he or she can hold a lengthy conversation in Bahasa with the Indonesian Ambassador, or whether Romney could get around in Paris without a tour guide, and Obama could not. As Joshua Keating put it in an article from “Foreign Policy”, if the President of the U.S. could speak perfect Mandarin, “..would Xi Jinping would be so impressed that he’d forgive America’s debts and let the yuan float on the spot?”

Still, it after looking at the list of foreign languages for each American President, starting with George Washington, it is immediately clear that the first ten presidents, with the exception of George Washington, knew more than just French, or a little Spanish. Every President from John Adams to James Polk spoke at least three or four languages. Many spoke up to seven or eight. John Adams had an impressive arsenal of foreign language fluency: Hebrew, Latin, Greek, French and Spanish, in addition to English. Interestingly, there is one President who spoke another language other than English as his native language, while speaking English to a lesser extent: Martin van Buren, whose native language was Dutch. A few presidents spoke Choctaw, a few spoke Mandarin. The last U.S. President to have fluency and/or a good grasp on multiple languages was FDR. Not since the 1930s has any President spoken multiple languages, except for a few scattered former-Mr.-Presidents with a so-so grasp of Spanish or German.
So the obvious question after seeing this shift over the past 250 years or so, is why was it obviously so much more important for American Presidents to know multiple languages in the 18th and early 19th centuries, especially when world travel was so much more infrequent and difficult?

That’s a question for another blog.

You Don’t Have to Be Jewish to Say “L’Shanah Tovah!”

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Posted by Tomedes on September 13, 2012 – 4:46 pm
Filed under Online Translation, Translation Events, Translation Services, Uncategorized

Why You Should Send a Rosh Hashanah Greeting eCard This Year

Rosh Hashanah greeting card

Photo credit: Center for Jewish History, NYC

Well, it’s free, for one thing.

Free is good, but the better reason is so you can be a part of this very old Jewish holiday, whether or not you are Jewish yourself - by sending your well-wishes to those observing one of  the most important days on their calendar.  So why not send your Jewish friends or co-workers an e-card for Rosh Hashanah - not only is the ecard free, but it includes professional Hebrew translation, to boot.  

What is Rosh Hashanah, Anyway?

The American New Year’s holiday is an all-night drinking party, and then lazy, carefree football-watching all day.

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, could not be more contrary or opposite to that.

Rosh Hashanah, which means “Head of the Year” in Hebrew, occurs ten days before Yom Kippur in the month of Tishrei, which is the 7th and last month on the Jewish calendar. Together, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are referred to as Yamim Nora’im, which means “Days of Awe” in Hebrew.  In most American synagogues, this time period is the first of what are called High Holy Days, and it is common to permit only actual synagogue members to attend services during this time, in contrast services open to the public during the rest of the year. 

Just like there are several different types of  years, like ”fiscal year” and “school year,” and so forth, so does the Jewish calendar have various year ends and beginnings.  Rosh Hashanah celebrates, among other things, the beginning of another numerical year, and is believed to be the month in which God created the world, and also is traditionally believed to be when God decides who will live and die in the coming year.  As such, there are solemn religious  customs that are observed, one of the most prominent being Teshuvah, or the process of repentance.  The Jewish religion encourages the evaluation and examination of one’s life and actions in the past year, to make amends and repent for any wrongdoings, and to focus upon improving one’s self in the coming year.  Other customs include wading into a river or other body of water and emptying one’s pockets, to symbolize the casting off of sins. 

You Send Out Christmas Cards, Don’t You?

So, as you can see, Rosh Hashanah is a pretty serious deal, and a very important, holy day within Jewish culture – so it’s only courtesy to reach out and send something as convenient as an e-card to those who are Jewish, within your professional and social circles.  You don’t ignore the annual tradition of sending Christmas Cards, right? .

Rosh Hashanah Greeting
Rosh Hashanah Greeting (Photo credit: Center for Jewish History, NYC)

Fortunately, we have made it easy for you to be a cultured, thoughtful soul by extending a “L’Shanah Tovah!” to your Jewish friends.  We are offering free e-card services and professional Hebrew translation for this year’s Rosh Hashanah, which can be obtained using one of two options: 

  1.  Write up your own personal “Happy Rosh Hashanah” message on our web page 2012 Rosh Hashanah e-template.  We’ll translate your greeting into Hebrew, and then send it to you in a snazzy, tricked-out Rosh Hashanah e-card. 
  2. The second option is to simply fill in the name and info of your friends and/or co-workers, and then have us write up a traditional Rosh Hashanah greeting in Hebrew, which we will then email to you in e-card format.

 In order to get this nifty free service we’re offering for Rosh Hashanah 2012, simply click on this 2012 Rosh Hashanah link, where you’ll be taken to the template on our site to fill out your own greeting to be translated to Hebrew, or to select a traditional greeting by us. 

Rosh Hashanah Evening
Rosh Hashanah Evening (Photo credit: Center for Jewish History, NYC)

And for those that ARE Jewish, I re-state my former question: Why shouldn’t you send a Rosh Hashanah greeting this year? (Especially if you didn’t last year.)

 
 
 
 
 
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2012 International ProZ Virtual Conference

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Posted by Tomedes on August 21, 2012 – 5:00 pm
Filed under Uncategorized

Language and Translation Service Professionals

Free Attendance to the Largest Gathering of Freelance Translators

The 4th annual ProZ Translators Web Conference will air worldwide, open to all freelance translators, professional translator services and language professionals. It is the largest gathering of translators to occur each year, and many who have previously attended have found it to be quite useful and eye-opening. Attendance is free to all, and the number of registered attending translators and professionals withinlanguage translation servicehas numbered over 5,000 in previous years. This year’s theme for the virtual event is “The Freelance Translator as a Professional CEO.”

The purpose of setting the virtual conference in September each year is to celebrate International Translation Day, by encouraging the exchange of insight, feedback, advice, and new ideas between translation professionals and freelancers. Part of the virtual conference will include live webcasts, virtual discussion panels, presentations by industry authorities and live chat sessions.

Some events are open to all registered attendees, some only to ProZ paid members, and some only to ProZ members with a standing Pro status. But, in order to participate at all, it’s required to register prior to the event: http://www.proz.com/translators3

Each year of the virtual conference presents a different theme; this year’s being “the freelance translator as a professional CEO.” A virtual conference is held completely online, attended by worldwide participants, and features webcasts and audio presentations with synchronized slides, Q&A sessions, and discussion panels. Aside from expanding industry knowledge and acquiring attending the ProZ virtual conference presents opportunities to collect white papers and research, network with other industry professionals, view product and software demos, interact with company sales reps and vendor managers, and reach customers and potential clients all over the world. Because the conference is a week long, largely free, and convenient to attend, it is highly recommended that translation service professionals – whether freelancers or agencies – take advantage of the 2012 ProZ Virtural Conference.

In addition to registering in advance, translators and translation company’s also have the opportunity to create and webcast a presentation, whether via a presentation made solely on their own and uploaded to the site, using slides and formats offered by ProZ, or by simply holding a panel, for which no prepared presentation is required. Those who want to present at this year’s virtual conference can register to do so at the link above. A worldwide virtual conference on a site like ProZ presents an enormous opportunity for increased translation company visibility, recognition and even new client acquisition.

Stingy Clients – or Localized Translation Rates?

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Posted by Tomedes on August 13, 2012 – 2:01 pm
Filed under Uncategorized
English: Exchange rates for Malawi Kwacha post...

English: Exchange rates for Malawi Kwacha posted by a currency trader in Lilongwe on October 7, 2008. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Localized Translation Rates? What!?

The economy has affected most working individuals, small businesses, and the terms that come with each, such as salary and pay rates and top and bottom line revenues. As translators or those who work in the professional translation industry, there may be those who have noticed that pay rate for translations and proofreadings have become a bit more of an issue. Some clients have gotten a bit more frugal or even, dare I say, “stingy” – due to the pressures of burdened economies.

 Some of this may be due to the difference between currency values and cost of living from country to country and region to region. While Filipino or Hindi or Arabic translators hired by U.S. or G.B. clients probably never have to worry about getting under-paid, when a translator is from an economy better off than that of his client, sometimes the translation rates reflect this to the disadvantage of the translator.

Determining Translation Rates in an Economical Recession

 While some say the translation industry is recession-proof, those who pay the translation rates - are not.  However, it’s not my advice to adjust translation rates entirely, in order to accommodate  foreign currency values or economic balance.  If you live in the UK, and a U.S. business contracts you as a translator, this doesn’t mean you should always decrease your rates to fit within U.S. salary ranges. But, it’s probably not a bad idea to at least take this into account.

Salary Proposal

Salary Proposal (Photo credit: rossbreadmore)

Working in a globalized, worldwide industry has plenty of upsides. But, there are also some downsides; one of them being the translation payment rates, which can proportionately be much lower than your cost of living and daily expenses – not because your translation company is trying to sell your translation skills for pennies. Likewise, the value of your currency – whether it be in dollars, Euros, yens, rubles, rupees or anything else – can also be to your advantage, depending upon the location of those employing your translation services. Regardless of your particular situation, regional locations should be considered when determining your rates.

 There is a neutral service that allows translators to look up their salary range according to location – zip code, state, country, etc etc. You can then determine which percentile you fall under for your typical rates, and decide if they should be raised or decreased. If you are asking too much from international clients, you may see more business if you decrease your rates a bit. On the other hand, perhaps you do not realize your own worth. You may discover you are not asking as much as you could be.

 To determine various salary translator ranges and a few other factors, go here:  http://www1.salary.com/Translator-salary.html

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U.S. DOD Lack of Fluent Foreign Language Speakers

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Posted by Tomedes on June 22, 2012 – 2:46 pm
Filed under Uncategorized

 

Pashto translators

Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Michael G. Vickers, right, speaks with Afghan officials during a trip to Afghanistan. Courtesy photo: American Forces Press

 Two years ago US troops began to withdraw from Afghanistan, on the orders of the US military Commander-in-Chief, aka the President.  At this time, a major lack of available Dari and Pashto translation resources and translators was a substantial and detrimental obstacle to the effective communication between the troops and the Afghan people, as they both withdrew military operations, and strategically delivered the President’s message.  The message from President Obama encouraged the Afghanis to take responsibility for their country, economy and their political system.  Why this message was not translated prior to strategic countrywide delivery, and spelled out phonetically for military authorities and troops – I can’t begin to say.

Reliable, professional translation services and resources, as well as available translators and interpreters, continues to be a problem in the Middle East for US military units, intelligence operations and those in the field.  A lack of professional Persian translation, Pashto translation, Dari translation, and other Middle Eastern languages is often problematic, especially when communication is key to a military strategy, such as the example above.

Not only that, but according to the current Undersecretary of Defense Intelligence, Michael G. Vickers, foreign language fluency or proficiency is a problem across the board for all military departments.  There are simply not enough members of the US military who speak two or more languages on a proficient level – and, even more startling, not even enough military authorities and department heads who speak more than their native language on a fluent level. 

Vickers went as far as to say that foreign language fluency is critical to our national security.  Upon discussing the capture of Osama bin Laden, he noted that it was an operation of extreme patience that relied upon cooperation between intelligence outfits in human, geo-spatial and signals intelligence units.  In regards to this operational approach, he commented further:

“I can’t go into more detail — but, in each of those disciplines, the ability to have officers or translators who were fluent or very professionally competent in a language made all the difference… [Foreign language knowledge] is critical to our national security.”

That’s quite a supportive vote for foreign language fluency.

Everytime I read about the shortage of Middle Eastern translation services, translators and interpreters, I can’t help but wonder who is doing the research.  After all, Tomedes specializes in Middle Eastern langauge translation services.  While I don’t necessarily expect that the US military should come knocking on our door, we cannot be the only professional translation service to specialize in these languages.  Or maybe I’m just uninformed, and there really aren’t very many professional translation services or resources that offer enough Middle Eastern languages for translation and interpretation – to make it worthwhile for the military to utilize. 

Whatever the case – it is not simply military intelligence and the CIA in need of Middle Eastern language translators.  The FBI holds job fairs and posts help wanted ads frequently, with a specific eye out for candidates fluent in Arabic, Dari, Chinese, Mandarin, and plenty of others.  Vickers is correct to encourage foreign language fluency, especially within military operations.  There may quite possibly come a moment in time when an accurate Turkmen, Dari or Pashto translation is crucial to an intelligence strategy or strike, or when English to Persian translation could mean the difference between fire and cease fire, peace and war, or life and death.

military Dari translation

  photo credit: US Army

 
 
 
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6 Things That Should Always Be Professionally Translated

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Posted by Tomedes on June 12, 2012 – 3:47 pm
Filed under Language Translation Advice, Marketing Translation, Online Translation, Translation Services, Web site Translation
Translation for Global Markets? What?
So you think you have the next biggest, baddest, soon-to-be-viral-and-globally-trending mobile app.  You prepare your press release, media kit, and have all your ducks in a row for the big release.  It finally hits consumer markets and -  …. sales suck. Big time.  Your ROI is little more than enough to buy a new toaster. 

Where did you go wrong?

 When such online tools, products and activities are limited to one language, and therefore one tiny fraction of the global market – well, it makes sense that the ROI will also be pretty fraction-al.  Professional mobile app localization  is essential in order to sell to global markets.   Whether its new software or a nifty mobile app, a plug-in or API – all of these things need professional translation and localization.  In order to really maximize profits on an online tool or product, they can’t be limited merely to one’s own language market.

In order to maximize ROI and sales, distribution, traffic, social media response, attention of the press, or any other online  goal – professional translation service is a must.  This does not mean whip out the Google Translator Toolkit for last-minute automated machine gobbledy-gook.  Not if you expect your target audience to take your efforts seriously. 

  Top 6 Online Products and Activities to Have Professionally Translated/Localized

With that in mind, here are the top 6 things that should always have professional localization and/or translation as a part of preparatory stages:

1. Video Games, Online Single-player and MMPORPG       video game localization

 
    • Professional video game localization is a huge deal.  The big names in the video game industry dedicate massive resources to adapting, translating, localizing, audio-visual recording and integrating, and testing video games for various language markets.  Video game localization is essential, and critical that it be done right and done well. Why? Because an authentic gaming experience for players is 50% of the appeal. 
    • When a video game is poorly localized in another language, it greatly diminishes the gaming experience.  Awkward language and phrasing, improperly timed text-to-speech, poor acting and voice-overs – these have all been aspects of bad video game localizations that have cost companies millions or even billions.
  •    Video game localization types and methods 
    • Full localization is rendered either sim-ship, or as an integrated part of the development process, and all language versions are released together or close together.  Post-gold localization is still a full service, but it is done after the release of the original, and not during the actual game development.  The latter is less expensive, but can be complicated for localization experts, and results are less perfect.

    • Cover art of "Okami," for Playstation

      cover art of Okami for Playstation

    • Subtitled localization is a cost effective localization method, when audio translation and transcription are not integral to the video game experience, such as with the popular video game Okami. Localized components include only user-interface, in-game text, and user manual and documents.
    •  
    • Document localization is done only for very few  types of games, such as maybe some types of arcade games, where neither text nor audio is used, and only user manuals must be translated.�  

2.  Corporate  Websites & E-commerce

  • Whether the primary purpose of your business website is to inform, engage, or sell services or products, all of these are more effective when the audience is broadened to a multilingual one.

  • Below are a few websites that are excellent examples of multilingual globalization via website translation and regional localization:

    • Coca-Cola.com – The North American regional website is also offered in Spanish and Canadian French, in addition to English, and for all other regions, the website is available in just about every major and minor language in the world. One only has to select from the dropdown menu.

    • Nike.com - offered in at least 14 languages right there on the homepage. The on-site global branding is fantastic, as an aside. The website has plenty of sleek aesthetics, to boot.

      Russian translation
      Russian translation of Nike website
       

    • Volkswagen.com- The U.S. English homepage version can be toggled between English and Deutsch. However, from there on, website localization and translation according to country/language can again be found in a dropdown menu, and doesn’t stop simply at content, but also includes translation and localization of local/regional dealership maps and listings, guides, dealer searches, and all other on-site tools.

    • Nintendo.com- Obviously a video game system as widely used as Nintendo is going to have some  multilingual options.  Some of this includes separate landing pages for each region/continent - such as a European landing page, with its own list of languages, one for North American users with a list of languages, and so on.
Chinese video game localization -cover art
Nintendo game cover art – Hong Kong localization

 

3.  Software

  • This should go without saying – but there are still software developers out there who sustain a myopic view when it comes to consumer markets, who develope and distribute software only in English, or only in Italian or Lithuanian.  This is no way to capitalize and maximize exposure or sales for a new software release.  Software and other kinds of IT translation can involve simple or complex localization processes, but all need professional translation and localization services for global market optimization.
  • Software documentation – while user interface and in-text translations are obviously a huge part of localized software translation.  However software documentation like user manuals and instructions – must also undergo document translation as well.

4.  Plug-ins, Add-ons, APIs, Browser Extensions and Other Online Tools 

  • Free tools are an exceptional way to draw more traffic to your site, and even more so when those tools are available to a global market. If you have created some kind of web or mobile app, plug-in, API or other free tool for your website visitors, applying IT translation and localization will introduce, enhance and contribute to your brand in a very positive way.

5.  Mobile Apps and Websites

  • With the smartphone user market growing exponentially, side by side with the mobile web market and those who shop and purchase almost solely from the mobile web – it is increasingly essential to translate and localize mobile apps, mobile websites (which are more streamlined and more cost-effective to have professionally translated and localized) and other mobile activities, such as SMS ads and QR codes.

6.  Email Marketing and Landing Pages

  • It is widely known that email marketing is one of the most inexpensive marketing methods. Likewise when multilingual email translation is used to exponentially expand the email list.  Each additional foreign target audience or email list requires only one email translation per language, but can be copied and distributed many times over. Globalized email marketing using email translation and localization is vastly more effective than simply targeting English speaking email recipients – who are much more likely to never read the email at all.
  • Typically, email marketing inserts hyperlinks to a landing page.  When a landing page is the first conversion goal, obviously the landing page needs equal professional translation for all foreign language markets and email recipients.

While localization and professional translation service is always strongly recommended for reaching any kind of foreign language audience, it’s just common sense that it is imperative when online and target market goals are best reached on a global scale. 

 

 

 

Buzzwords and Publicity Stunts in the Language Services Industry: Google’s Translator Toolkit

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Posted by M.E.Simpson on June 10, 2012 – 1:32 pm
Filed under Machine Translation, Online Translation, Translation Services, Translation Tools

 Google’s New Translator Toolkit

Google recently released an update to the Google Translator Toolkit, with claims to make developers lives much easier when localizing mobile apps.   The new and improved Google Translator Toolkit now allows several new formats to be uploaded to the editor for an instant “localization” of a mobile or software app.  The translations are cleaner and more accurate than Google Translate, and the Toolkit includes several bells and whistles like crowd-sourcing and translation memory resources. 

Localization Services – or PR Tactics?

 

When these types of tools become popular, or another business trend headlines again and again, I am bound to be annoyed by the all-too-common marketing tactics used by online translation companies that latch onto current news or industry buzzwords (like “Google Translator Toolkit) and slap it into a generic headline for the sake of a flimsy press release or hits from user searches.  And true to my prediction, no sooner had Google released their Toolkit update, than several online translation companies were already clustering around the spotlight, with press releases like, “Google Translator Toolkit Now Integrated Into [insert LSP company here] – or – “[Some blah-zay translation service] Now Compatible with Google Translator Toolkit.“ 

You can also observe this exact tactic when the same companies proclaim  “increased demands for their services” as a direct result of whatever business trend is on the rise.  The medical device industry is experiencing a huge rise in sales?  Guess what,  The XYZ Group also had a rise in medical devices translations!  IT engineers are being heavily recruited from Lithuania and Switzerland?  Well, XYZ  shockingly also had a huge rise in demands for IT translations and for Dutch and Lithuanian translation.  Gag me with a transparent spoon. 

It is certainly true that the Google Translator Toolkit is a big improvement upon the regular Google Translate API, which, at best, is mostly useful for translating very (very, very) short and/or simple pieces of text, or hopefully, getting the gist of a few paragraphs written in a foreign language.  The new toolkit editor shows the source and the target language texts side by side, and offers tools for correcting the rough edges, grammatical inaccuracies, and improper sentence structures.  Ok, awesome.  This could very well be a useful tool for individual or freelance translators, if they don’t already use something more sophisticated and advanced, like Trados or SDL Trados, or TM (translation memory) software filled with years and years worth of translated phrases, vocabulary and texts.  But for a “professional” translation service to announce the addition of Google Translator Toolkit to its entourage of resources?  Whether it is true or not – shame on them for using cheap publicity stunts by riding on the curtails of a temporary buzzword.  A translation service that accepts or uses translations from the Google Translator Toolkit – is no more news than it is for a translation service to announce they now use CAT software – which is much more efficient, as far as translation service tools are concerned.

So What’s the Big Deal?

The point here is not to say that the Google Translator Toolkit sucks.  In all honesty, it doesn’t suck at all – it’s pretty impressive how much more accurate it is than the basic Google Translate, which, I have said many, many, many times – should never ever be used as a stand-alone tool for web page translation, or even anything more than a couple of sentences.  The result is a bunch of gobbledy-gook, and e-commerce merchants who rely on Google Translate to sell to international markets - are clueless.

The same idea applies to a professional translation company that relies upon Google Translator Toolkit.  It is ok as a starting point for a developer, who then takes the translation output to a professional translator and says, “Can you polish this up for me?”  The translator may or may not charge less for such a service.  But a professional translation company localizing a software app or mobile app for a business, on a professional business or corporate level – better not hope to win anyone over by using the Translator Toolkit to get the job done.  Localization goes far beyond uploading a text and proofreading for grammatical errors.  Localization requires cultural and contextual translations, imagery and user interface changes, creative content translation (aka “transcreation”) humor translations, and many other things that even this new and improved Toolkit cannot do.  While technology may continue to improve upon automated translation technology, voice-activated translation tools and mobile voice translators – none of these can truly localize a mobile or software app.  Professional localization requires an in-depth process that requires several different, equally in-depth specialized skills, and depending upon the size of the software, video game, etc – can take months to complete.

Don’t just take my word for it, though.  These are some comments and replies by readers and writers of articles concerning the Google Translator Toolkit.

“Machine Translation Is Never Enough – Each time that I have written about translation, I have been emphatic about my belief that professional translation requires a professional translator.  I think it is acceptable to use machine translation for short phrases, like navigation labels, but for product descriptions, legal text, policies, and checkout, you should use a translation service.”  ~ Armando Roggio, The PeC Review.  http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/1588-The-PeC-Review-Google-s-Translator-Toolkit

April 1, 2012 at 9:10  - ”Why do you say that Google Translator is excellent? It’s translations of English to Thai are mostly garbage unless it’s the simplest of phrases or terms.” ~ Tom Aikins, blog commentor to:   http://www.webpronews.com/google-translator-toolkit-makes-app-localization-easier-2012-03 

“Now, we know Google Translate often provides some hilarious responses, and the limitation to translate your stored list of resource strings means a more limited implementation..” ~ Rhaveesh Bhalla. ”Google Releases Translator Toolkit App for Developers Looking to Localize Apps,” Phandroid.com.   http://phandroid.com/2012/03/31/google-releases-translator-toolkit-for-developers-looking-to-localize-apps/

 

So – What’s the Final Judgment, Then? 

  The Google Translator Toolkit is a great tool for a lot of developers to give them an idea or starting point for translating application text, or in some cases, trimming off some of the cost of professional app localization.  However, it is not something a professional online translation company should be touting as a newsworthy resource or utility.  That should be reserved for true translation company innovators who work hard at developing their own translation software, and who often make breakthroughs insofar as translation project management software, crowd-sourcing and translation memory software, and localization tools.  Companies who invest time and money into creating their own translation software and tools deserve to be acknowledged with a published article about their accomplishments.  But online LSPs that latch onto every translation industry buzzword for a bit of free advertising in a “news” article, or proclaim a free Google tool - that anyone can use whenever they want - is now part of their entourage of “resources,” -  only create implications about resorting to publicity tactics rather than focusing upon the caliber of their services.

Related articles

 

 

Global Accessibility: How Does Your Website Score?

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Posted by M.E.Simpson on June 8, 2012 – 6:40 pm
Filed under Corporate Translation, Online Translation, Translation Advice, Translation Facts, Translation Services

  

Language Translation ServicesHow Globalized is Your Ecommerce? 

 

At this point, there should really be no need to “convince” any business or company with online sales and/or enterprising that globalization is a smart move. It’s become necessary, in order for any company to truly grow and expand. Those that refuse to acknowledge the rest of the world in regards to business, trade, purchase and sales will simply be over-run by those who have long since taken up measures to internationalize their business outreach. For those businesses who choose to ignore professional translation, localization and overall internationalization of not only their websites, but also product lines, B2B services, and any other pertinent e-commerce materials – well, industry competitors will gladly take your share of eGDP. And the hefty profits that come with it.

 For those of you putting off globalization and international expansion of your online business, consider this: revenue from global sources for e-commerce this year will surpass U.S. consumer revenue by about 70-75%, with U.S. e-commerce revenue projected at around $212 billion, and global revenue projected at $820 billion for 2012. Those numbers will continue to get farther apart by 2013, while global economies flood internationalized markets.

 If your website and online business excludes every culture, economy and language other than English speaking ones, you might as well be marketing only to red-haired people. And that’s a generous analogy.

 So, what exactly is a global website score? What does it take for a website or a brand to have a good global presence, access and availability? There are components that are fairly involved and somewhat jargon-y, so below are the criterion taken into account when measuring the global success of a website or e-commerce site.

  1. Global Availability Factor        global web presence

There are a couple ways to use this metric as information about who and how many users your site is available to. Typically, it measures the percentage of the total global online user population that your site is available to. If your site is only available in English, your overall Availability Quotient (score) is pretty rotten. The more languages and overall online populations available for each stage of website user experience on your website, the higher your global availability, or “Availability Quotient” will be.

However, according to Common Sense Advisory, a website should be translated and localized into at least 16 languages for it to be established as having an online global presence, and a decent global website score to match. It is easy to think, there’s no way I need to translate and localize my e-commerce into 16 languages. But consider that there are 23 languages in the European Union alone, which doesn’t cover all European languages, nor does it include the world’s largest populations.

 2.  Global Web Presence  Global Availability Factor

While this term is often used generically, in this context it refers to a company, business or e-commerce presence across one single domain or several. For example, very large corporate giants like Coca-Cola and Nike, have websites that spread across many, many international domains. There is Coca-Cola.ru and Nike.au. Some companies may choose to translate and localize all languages on one singular company site – but this creates much, much less global web presence, which affects the overall global web score.

3. WOW (World Online Wallet) Potential      World Online Wallet Potential

This measures the total buying potential of a given online audience, or how much of the total global buying potential is represented by a particular country, audience or website. This can be calculated according to country by multiplying the total number of people with online access by the GDP (gross domestic product). Obviously, websites strive to be available to audiences with high WOW factor. For global website scoring, obviously the more WOW potential a site has, the higher its score. 

 

4. International Customer Experience

There are basic components common to all websites that satisfy user or visitor website experience, while also meeting the goals of the website business, owner or blogger. These customer experience components are:

  • Website entrance

The better a website visitor can meet his or her user needs upon entering the site – and the less navigation it requires before that is possible – the higher the score of the site.

  • Browsing

Browsing may be the most critical point of user experience, especially in regards to the global user experience. Are all products and descriptions translated and localized? Is browsing easily navigable to your foreign language audiences? Is language translation and appropriate localization applied to designated landing pages of each individual target audience? Will a Russian user find the Russian translation of all browsing content with relative ease, and with localized navigation experience?

  • Shopping

E-commerce sites and those with defined conversion goals must have this step in user experience appropriated for each target audience. Shopping carts must be localized, if necessary, monetary conversions available, prices clearly marked with appropriate language translation or localization when applicable, and check-out processes clearly defined and logically set-up in accordance the localized needs of the user.

  • Registering

Again, registering must have appropriate website translation and localization. All required information from targeted users should feel authentic, and email correspondences should all be appropriately translated and localized, both in their actual content, and insofar as email carriers and domains. In other words, email correspondence that is automated via registration should be available for more than Yahoo, Gmail, Aol, etc.

  • Purchasing

If all other user components are sufficiently met up to the purchasing point, then targeted users are well on their way to conversion goals, and have already decided upon their purchases. As long as there are no abrupt changes, mistakes or sudden lapses in language translation or localized purchase processes, then this step should be completed easily.

  • Customer Support

This may be the most complex of all website translation and localization needs, because for the most part, customer service and support cannot be automated with previously translated and localized texts, emails, landing pages, etc. If a business is not equipped with staff to handle foreign language users, then prepare in the best way possible. Set up FAQ sheet translations for targeted languages, and have customer support forms with equal translation and localization available, so that if nothing else, the user can send in his or her concern, question, complaint, etc, and it can be professionally translated from then on.

  • Customer Participation

Customer participation can be acquired easily enough through the aid of social media. With global social networks, this is even more true. However, it still takes some effort to reach out to your foreign language markets in their native language, via Twitter translation and other similar sites.

Mobile website optimization can also play a part in obtaining a larger global audience and market. Since many users primarily access the web from their smartphones, companies who do not have mobile optimized websites may be missing some prime opportunities to convert visitors. If your website is hard to navigate and loses a lot of functionality on a mobile web screen, visitors will not stick around, no matter what language they speak.

Below is a diagram by Common Sense Advisory that helps to illustrate the Customer Experience Interaction with a globalized website.

 

 Stages of Ecommerce Visitor Engagement