Tomedes Blog

Monthly Archives: April 2009

How to deal with test translation requests/demands?

Posted by Faisal Kalim on April 19, 2009 – 10:00 am

Whether you are a beginner in the field of language translation or a veteran, you must have surely been asked for test translations. The issue of test transaltion is viewed a little differently by beginner s and veterans. Where beginners are eager to please so that they can build a good client base, veterans might not want to let go off prospective clients who demand free test translations before they award a paid assignment.

The American Translators Association’s Code of Professional Conduct and Business Practices states that buyers of language translations should not ask for free work, but at the same time it does not say that language translation professionals cannot provide them on their own.

Quite obviously this is a classic Catch-22 situation with no full-proof situation. The best responses, depending upon specific individual situations would be either you refuse to do test translations completely, or maybe make your mind about it after understanding the prospects of the actual assignment . I think it is allright to provide a free test translation if a lucrative project is at stake.

If you are a beginner or doing test translations fairly regularly, then I would recommend the following strategies –

Limit your translations to a fixed number of words.
Provide test transations, but include it later in your charges for the actual assignment.

The dilemma of translation rates

Posted by Faisal Kalim on April 18, 2009 – 10:00 am

Filed under Freelance Translators, Language Translation Advice

A common dilemma with new professional language translation experts, as well as those who are experienced but facing new clients is how they should price their services. This situation becomes significantly tough in front of clients who are bent on getting their job done for the lowest possible rates. So what do you do in such a situation?

I would begin by recommending that you should first think through the effort that goes into your translations. This would include considering all the hours of practice and study undertaken by you to improve your skills. After taking all these into account you should decide upon a rate which you feel entitled to. This process would give you the confidence to stick to your rates.

Now we come to the situation where you are faced with a client who wants to go for the lowest rates. I will tell you first what not to do -

Don’t lower your rate.

Don’t get annoyed and tell the client to get the translation done from someone else.

Don’t argue or over-explain

Now we come to what you should do.

You should simply state your belief in the worthiness of your translation rates, backed up by your qualification and experience.

Never lose your cool.

Just state your price and the fact that they are justified.

Smile.

Let the client decide whether he/she wants to take your professional translation services or not. If the client agrees, superb, if not then tell them that they can always come to you later, be gracious, it always works.

Creating perfect Spanish translations for Latin America

Posted by Faisal Kalim on April 17, 2009 – 10:00 am

Filed under Spanish Translation, Translation Facts

Spanish is a complicated language, it is tough to learn as well as translate. But even if one does not take that into account, there are complexities arising out of the wide reach of the language. Spanish serves as the official language in over 20 countries and has more than 350 million native speakers all over the world. So it is natural for the language to have variations across the different regions where it is spoken.

If you only consider Latin America, you will find about five distinct dialects of Spanish. Now these dialects are not very different from each other and people speaking different dialects can certainly understand each other. But then there are chances of misinterpretation due to the presence of differences, especially in the case of translations.

Broadly speaking there are three categories of differences that one can come across in Spanish as spoken in Spain, and as spoken in Latin America. They involve grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. The following are a few samples –

Grammatical differences - The use of pronoun for second person singular is different in Spain (‘Tu’) and in Latin America (‘Vos’). The plural form of the same in Spain is ‘vosotro’ while in Latin American countries it is ‘ustedes’.

Vocabulary differences – Consider the Spanish word for computer- in Spain it is called ‘ordenador’ while in Latin America it is referred to as ‘computadora’. In the case of glasses used for reading, the Spanish word is ‘gafas’. Latin America uses two words for the same- in Argentina it is called ‘anteojos’ while in Venezula people use the word ‘lentes’ for it.

Pronunciation differences - There are remarkable differences in the way native Spanish speakers from Spain and those from Latin America pronounce various letters. For example, those coming from Spain usually pronounce ‘z’ as “th” while Latin American pronounce it as ‘s’, the result of this is the Spaniards have a stronger accent when compared to Spanish speakers in Latin America.

The above makes for a tiny part of the differences that exist across the different dialects of Spanish. Keeping that in mind, whether you are a buyer of Spanish translation or a Spanish translation professional, you should keep in mind that you have to first make sure which dialect of Spanish language your target readers use, and then tailor your translation project accordingly.

Language Translations – A few true horror stories

Posted by Faisal Kalim on April 16, 2009 – 10:00 am

Filed under Language Translation Advice, Online Translation, Translation Facts

Most of us practicing and experienced professional translators are well aware of the complexity and delicacy of the language translation process. We know how inexperience or machine translations can change the meaning of a piece of content making it ineffective or worse detrimental to the intended purpose. This is something that translation buyers should always beware of, for they are the ones who would be hurt from botched up translations. The following translation howlers would make my point clearer –

When Pepsi was marketed in Taiwan with the slogan “”Come alive with the Pepsi Generation” a translation error in Taiwanese led it to be read as “Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead”
“You are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid” - this was found written in English in a Japanese hotel room. Obviously the work of a word to word translator.
Electrolux, the Scandinavian manufacturer of vacuum cleaners, marketed its products in America with the slogan “Nothing sucks like an Electrolux”.
Our wines leave you nothing to hope for – found on a Swiss menu.
“Schweppes Tonic Water” translated for its Italian marketing campaign to “Schweppes Toilet Water”

There are hundreds of such examples and recounting all of them would probably fill up an entire book and what’s more, countless more translations gaffes are taking shape right now all over the world. In order to avoid such embarrassments translation services buyers need to realize that translation is a complex job and cannot be done by a machine, or by inexperienced translators who are just familiar with a language pair.

Language translations, especially those which are important, like business or academic documents, should be translated by professional translation experts who are satisfactorily experienced and specialized in the required language pairs. If you go for the cheapest rates or get your work done for free then you can expect results which can be categorized along with the above examples. You can however use free services or machine translations for documents which are not very important.

2009 Best Translation Blogs

Posted by Faisal Kalim on April 15, 2009 – 10:00 am

Filed under Language Translation Advice

When our life and times are studied in history classes say a hundred years from now, then probably the history of the Internet and Information Revolution would be considered as major areas of study. The Internet has changed our world in revolutionary ways. There are so many uses of the Internet, some of which have become indispensable. Take email for instance. There are many other such aspects of the internet which have taken over our lives for better or worse and one of them is blogging.
Blogging is new compared to email, but it has spread out literally like wild fire. Though it started out more like a hobby in which people used to maintain their virtual diaries. But this is one hobby which has extraordinarily outgrown its humble origins. Now people and organizations across various fields and industries use blogging as a highly effective marketing and information disbursement tool.
The language translation industry has taken to blogging very well and both you and I know what a wonderful tool this is. I write this blog to share my thoughts with my fellow translators, translation buyers and anyone who would like to know about the language translation industry. I love to have people visiting my site, reading through my posts and commenting on them and it would be wonderful to have you all coming back again and again, and referring more people to my blog. At the same time I would like to refer you to ten of my favorite language translation blogs which I never miss out on, do check them out-

Recession and the Translation industry (with a nod to foreclosure listings)

Posted by Faisal Kalim on April 14, 2009 – 10:00 am

Filed under Freelance Translators, Language Translation Advice, Language Translators, Translation Facts

I don’t know how to react to this bit of knowledge which has been gnawing at my mind for the last few days. Finding no way out I have decided to share it with you dear reader. Well the thing is that though the effects of recession has been bad everywhere, thankfully our translation industry has not been hit that badly. It’s quite surprising, but a sizeable number of translation jobs have been generated due to the recession!

Yes its true, with the recession continuing to take its toll, increasing numbers of non-English speaking immigrants are losing their homes to foreclosure listings. Now a lot of these homeowners are not fluent in the English language, which has spurred mortgage banks to hire the services of translation agencies in order to keep the channels of communication clear. Even people facing foreclosure have hired the services of professional translators who would help them translate their grievances, appeals and complaints for the official authorities. This has led to a substantial rise in profits for quite a few translation companies even during the recession. If you find that surprising, think about this – about one in every 5 citizens of the country speaks in a language other than English.

However, since professional translators are human beings first, there has been a growing problem of emotional stress among those who are working in foreclosure listings translations. This is because of the continuous exposure to the misfortunes of fellow citizens, many of who are from their native countries.

Let’s hope that this unfortunate situation ends quickly, and the language translation industry continues to rise and grow along with every other industry.

Ensuring high quality translations

Posted by Faisal Kalim on April 13, 2009 – 10:00 am

Filed under Language Translation Advice, Translation Reference

Every professional translator who is reasonably qualified can ensure high quality output in every language translation project assuming that he/she is well-versed in the involved language pair(s). Those who have not undertaken language translation projects themselves, or have entered the language translation field recently may not understand this because their logic would tell them that if one is learned in the required languages, then all they need to do is work attentively to ensure accurate and high quality translations. But seasoned professional translators know that it is just theoretically true. And ensuring high quality and accuracy often involves making painstaking revisions.

But there certainly are more efficient ways to ensure consistently accurate and high quality translations, of course I am assuming that you are well-versed with your source and target languages, and continue to work on taking your mastery to higher levels –

Aids to mastering languages for translation- I know, I know, even though I mentioned above that I assume you are already an expert in your language pair and work regularly on improving it, I can’t help from passing tips in this area. You should develop your knowledge and familiarity with culture of the people where the languages you work with are spoken. You can actually visit those places or watch films, videos, television series in those languages.

Create an efficient system for managing your projects- This would include maintaining a well organized database of your projects with various details like source/target languages, related translations, client details etc.

Use CAT tools- I must mention beforehand that efficiently using CAT tools, and overdependence on the same are divided by a thin line. You are not likely to realize when you will tumble on to the other side, so just be a little cautious. CAT tools are best used for ensuring consistency by reusing already translated content which might be in the form of phrases, sentences, words and paragraphs. This reduces the need of translating similar content repetitively and maintains the quality of translations.

Check source text for errors - Before you begin translating a project, go through the whole source text to check for any errors, ambiguities and inconsistencies. You can then consult your translator friends or the author of the original to sort them out. This would go a long way in ensuring the quality and accuracy of your language translations.

Translators’ Food for Thought

Posted by Faisal Kalim on April 12, 2009 – 4:00 pm

Filed under Translation Quotes

Translation Quote of the Day -

Many critics, no defenders,
translators have but two regrets:
when we hit, no one remembers,
when we miss, no one forgets.

Anonymous

Translation Breakthrough?

Posted by Faisal Kalim on April 12, 2009 – 11:00 am

Filed under Translation Musings, Translation News

I was lazing around for a while today when I started thinking about some interesting developments in the language translation industry last year. You might be aware about what I am going to discuss now, and you might not as well. So I guess there’s no loss in reminiscing about last year’s translation breakthrough for Community Patents.

The intention behind Community Patents was to grant European patents without having applicants get patent translations done in all the official languages (23! If you forgot or didn’t know ) The solution for people who wanted to read through the patent, but did not know the language, was to use machine translation. However, such translations would not have any legal ground, and in case of any litigation only good old human translation would be relied upon.

This was one development that had me amused for days. I imagined what would happen if I was an inventor in Europe who relied upon machine translations. I might come across something interesting, and start reading its machine translation, and discover that it was not protected. Inspired, I would start draining my hard earned money and limited time into developing it, only to end up being sued for infringement because the machine translation was not exactly accurate about the protection bit. Would be fun…eh?

Can’t remember that word…it’s on the tip of my tongue

Posted by Faisal Kalim on April 11, 2009 – 4:00 pm

Filed under Greek translation, Translation Tea Break

Experienced this state? Quite a number of times? Like most of us folks here? It’s called ”lethologica” - the inability to remember a word you already know and would like to use, quipped one of our Greek translation experts smugly.