Tomedes Blog

Monthly Archives: June 2009

iPhone - Translation Apps

Posted by Faisal Kalim on June 30, 2009 – 10:00 am

The phone everybody has been talking about since much before it was first released doesn’t stop to amaze. Yours truly is one of those addicts who just cannot get over their iPhone. With the latest version, iPhone 3G S released just a few days back, I thought it was a good time to talk about iPhone and language translation.

There are at present, somewhere around 50,000 apps available at the iTunes store for the iPhone. Not all are remarkable, but there is a decent number of simply amazing apps which include a few for translation as well. Some of the good ones are –

BdTranslator
This app enables its user to translate around 250 commonly used phrases between 16 languages. You need a 3G or WiFi connection to use it, but with options for 16 languages provided, it is a must buy for people who frequently travel to a variety of countries or have a large circle of foreign language speaking friends, business partners and acquaintances.

Talking Phrasebook
This app features dictionaries and commonly used phrases in 6 languages. The languages included are French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. The application also packs in audio which allows you to hear phrases as you are translating them. So when you are in a foreign country you can listen to the translation and repeat to whoever it is you want to communicate with, or let your iPhone do the talking. Best part – This app is free.

Linguo
Linguo is one of the most user-friendly translation apps around. It features 400 preset phrases accompanied by audio clips in Spanish, German, French and Italian. One also gets custom translations for 20 languages and they can be saved as well. Linguo features a simple UI and users can translate with a simple click.

There are a few more iphone translation apps; I mentioned the above as I found them more interesting. You too dear reader can chip in with your opinions.

LinkedIn under fire from Translators

Posted by Faisal Kalim on June 29, 2009 – 10:00 am

Filed under Translation News

LinkedIn, the popular professional networking website has somewhere around half of its members based outside the US. It already has English, French, German and Spanish versions online and plans to expand its international user base further with translations in other languages. Consequently it carried out a survey recently asking professional translators on its network whether they would like to volunteer for translating the web site into other languages.

Incentives included were an upgraded account, but no financial compensation. This galled many professional translators and they were quick to say no. Many translators were of the opinion that LinkedIn had shown disrespect to them by asking them to work for free. However LinkedIn representatives say that the company’s intentions were misinterpreted. They were simply trying to find out how professional translators in its network would take to the idea of “crowd sourcing” which has been successfully used by Wikipedia. Furthermore, translators who would volunteer to translate LinkedIn would also be including it in their professional experience at LinkedIn, which might lead them to get paid work.

There were professional translation providers who went along with LinkedIn’s view. Some believed that volunteering for LinkedIn would be a great way of marketing oneself. It seems that LinkedIn made a mistake in the way it had put its proposal across. Maybe if it would have been diplomatic more translators would have warmed up to the idea.

The Necessity of Specialization in Translation III – Financial Translation

Posted by Faisal Kalim on June 28, 2009 – 10:00 am

Filed under Financial Translation

Financial translation services are required by various business houses and financial organizations like banks and insurance companies among others. Financial documents are highly specialized, and require reasonably good knowledge of various financial concepts and terminology for accurate translation.

Typically, financial translation includes the following types of documents –

Annual report translation
Audit document translation
Balance sheet translation
Bank statement translation
Business report translation
Cash flow statement translation
Claims translation
Financial statement translation

This just a small sample from a large list of documents that come under the scope of financial translation. Now these documents need to be translated by professionals with sound working knowledge of all matters related to finance. Any errors might lead to financial losses which can be small or trivial, as well as considerable depending upon individual situations. Errors in financial documents can also lead to court cases and other legal problems.

Taking all this into account translation buyers should only get their financial translation from experienced and qualified financial translators. Providers on the other hand should make sure that they do not take up jobs for which they are not qualified. It is unethical, and any errors could create a lot of trouble for such providers in future.

TweetTranslate - An amazing new tool for Twitter Translation

Posted by Faisal Kalim on June 27, 2009 – 10:00 am

Filed under Translation News, Translation Tools

In an increasingly Twitter-happy world it might happen that you would like to follow someone who does not tweet in your language. You might also have Twitter friends who are native speakers of languages you don’t understand and frequently tweet in them. You might also want your own tweets to reach out to people who do not understand your language.

Fellow tweeter users, those of you who have been in any of the aforementioned positions earlier, now have an excellent solution in the form of a new tool called TweetTranslate that automatically translates your Tweets into over 40 languages.

TweetTranslate is a valuable tool, not only for informal communication, but also for businesses that have plans of entering foreign markets. It is completely free, and follows a very simple process, all you have to do is specify your original and target language(s), provide your tweeter account details, type in your tweet, and hit the button “Tweet this translation!” and presto! You have successfully tweeted in Albanian, Arabian, Czech or any of the 40 languages that TweetTranslate supports.

Check out http://tweettranslate.com and keep tweeting

Managing Travel Translation - II

Posted by Faisal Kalim on June 26, 2009 – 10:00 am

Filed under Travel Translation

Travel translation includes translation of web sites and marketing materials. Web content that is selling travel products must be customized according to the desires and requirements of the targeted users. It is a tough challenge because travel companies are essentially selling an intangible experience, and they need to put an exciting and pleasant description to attract the attention of a prospective buyer and lead him/her to buy the product.

It is an even bigger challenge to reach out to buyers who come from different countries and cultures. If you have a travel company that is selling vacations in the UK, to customers in China and France you would have to customize your content according to what people from each of these countries would specifically look for. For example, the Chinese may be interested in knowing about the country’s history, but they are more focused on shopping because they can buy products which are considered luxurious in their own country and hence expensive, for a significantly lower price in the UK. Furthermore promoting cultural events to the Chinese would not work because they would not understand the cultural references and in many cases the language, hence would end up disappointed.

So when you are getting travel translation make sure that it is done by an experienced native translator and your content is not translated but also localized.

Managing Travel Translation - I

Posted by Faisal Kalim on June 25, 2009 – 10:00 am

Filed under Travel Translation

The global travel industry is growing at a great rate, but there is always space for improvement. One area where the travel industry should pay attention to is the localization and translation of their products for the benefit of their targeted customers. This is because by its very nature, the industry is international, the rapidly growing overseas market has created considerable challenges in the area of communication which, if not dealt with properly can create damaging setbacks.

The companies working within the global travel industry can increase their revenues by a substantial margin if they localize their products in a more professional manner and employ effective Internet marketing strategies.

Travel companies should ensure that they speak their targeted clients’ language. Though English is the most widely used language in international business, a number of important studies and researches have shown that non-native fluent English speakers rely on, and prefer to transact with websites that are presented in their native language.

Moreover, the growth of Internet in emerging markets, a large number of which comprise of non-English speaking users has also played a role in the reduction of the market share of online English content from more than 50% in 2002 to below 30% at present. This has led to an increase in travel related translation which includes production of multi-lingual content by the travel industry which largely consists of publicity materials and also web site translation.

The Necessity of Specialization in Translation II – Legal Translation

Posted by Faisal Kalim on June 22, 2009 – 10:00 am

Filed under Legal Translation

Legal documents are by their nature very complicated because they are filled with legal terminology, and are structured in a unique manner so that they are meticulous about the case. This can make them detailed to the point of being repetitive and tedious. At the same time, legal documents can have a lot at stake, so any errors in the documents can have disastrous fallouts.

Due to such issues, legal documents require to be translated by specialized translators who understand the field of law, and associated terminology and concepts clearly. Law firms, as well as individuals depend on accurate legal translations while working with clients who do not speak their language. For example a law firm based in New York and handling the legal affairs of a client in the Middle East.

Legal translations cover a large area including translation of summons, patents, trademarks, mergers, acquisitions, immigration paperwork, trial records, witness statements, wills and many more. In the case of legal translations for business houses, it is important for professional translation providers to have knowledge of corporate terminology as well, the same goes for other areas like medico-legal translation.

All this makes it singularly important for legal translation providers to have satisfactory level of expertise and experience in the area of legal translation.

The Necessity of Specialization in Translation I - Medical Translation

Posted by Faisal Kalim on June 21, 2009 – 10:00 am

Filed under Medical Translation

The present day market demands highly competent professional translators who specialize in specific areas of knowledge. It is the core requirement for assuring accurate translations of documents with highly specialized subject matter. You cannot get a technical translator to do a legal translation and expect good results.

There are numerous fields in which one can get specialized translators; we will tackle some of them in the coming days beginning with Medical Translation.

Medical translators provide translation services to the health care industry. They are required by hospitals, public health organizations, doctor’s offices, and nurses’ stations among others to facilitate communication between speakers of foreign languages. For example, in the case of a Spanish patient in America who does not understand English and requires treatment. Among many other things, medical translation serves in easing the check-in process, getting accurate patient information for records, translation of existing medical records, medical histories, consent forms and insurance claims.

Medical translation services are also required by research labs that need translations of clinical research and trials, and for patents and licensing. Furthermore, manufacturers of medical equipment might require translation of catalogs, manuals, instructions for a multitude of foreign markets where different languages might dominate and the customers would need accurate translations so that they can understand the instructions.

The field of medicine deals with matters of life and death and any errors might lead to grave consequences. So it is imperative to get all medical translations done from a professional and specialized medical translator.

Persian Translation of Facebook

Posted by Faisal Kalim on June 20, 2009 – 10:00 am

Filed under Translation News

The disputed Iranian elections have triggered events that would be remembered in future for the remarkable developments it heralded in the world of social media. Apart from the widespread protests on streets, Iranian citizens have taken to social media as an outlet for their opinions with a vengeance. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and the rest have played a central role in facilitating communications to and from Iran.

Twitter went to great lengths to keep the services running smoothly through peak hours. We now have Facebook which has already released a Persian version. It’s a test version, and according to reliable sources Facebook has gone ahead with the release to facilitate communication in the present election crisis in Iran.

According to Facebook, people all over the world have been increasingly sharing information, news and opinions related to the Iranian election with a major portion of the content being in Persian. However, users could navigate the site only in English and languages other than Persian.

Though Facebook has more than 400 translators who have volunteered for the Persian translation, the Persian version is still in an early stage and the company has not been able to take all measures to ensure high quality. This means that translations might be awkward at places or incorrect. However it is heartening to see a company sticking its neck out to do something that needs to be done.

To specialize or not to specialize

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

Filed under Language Translation Advice, Language Translators

Most professional translators at the beginning of their careers take whatever work comes their way. This means a newbie might do a medical translation today and maybe a marketing translation tomorrow and so on. He or she might not be comfortable in any one, or both the areas but cannot do anything about it because refusing a translation job is not an option when you don’t have a reliable and established client base.

The above is obviously not an ideal situation because no one is an expert in a variety of areas and the lack of expertise while producing a translation can return to haunt the translator in future. The documents would contain errors like incorrect usage of technical terminology and misunderstanding of concepts.

All of the above create a demand for specializing in translation areas. Pick up a field which you are comfortable with and ready to do translation work, study about it to gain a substantial understanding which would help you smoothly translate related documents. Keep a track of the developments in that particular field so that your knowledge does not become obsolete.

Along with specializing in one or more fields, it is also important to have a reasonaby good idea about other fields. You cannot survive by being an expert in medical translation and knowing absolutely nothing about chemistry, electronics and other areas which might overlap with medicine.

So along with specializing in your given areas make it a point to develop solid general knowledge of other areas as well, especially the new developments. The whole thing sounds tough but once you get into the groove the drive would be smooth, and what’s more you will make an ace translator.