Hot deal welcomes 2010 - 10% Discount on any translation order.
Use the coupon code "Tomedes10" !
It is not another Oscar prediction. It is pure science. As I work for the leading translation service, I just love foreign languages and watch new foreign language movies regularly.
However, in order to know which foreign language film will win the Oscar in 2010 or in any other given year; you don’t have to actually watch the films.
Well, this year the nominees are “Ajami” from Israel, “El Secreto de Sus Ojos” from Argentina , “The Milk of Sorrow” from Peru, “Un Prophète” from France and “The White Ribbon” from Germany.
Without knowing anything about the films, I can say that the winner will be “Un Prophète” from France.
Here are the reasons:
1. 83% (46 out of 55) of the winners in this category in the history of the Academy awards were films from the European continent. Since last year a Japanese film won, it is not likely that there will be again a non European winner this year.
2. French films took 9 awards while Germany ones took only 3 since the first 1947 award.
3. French films have a higher winning /nomination rate - 26% compared to 20% of Germany ones
4. Germany had won the Oscar in 2006 while France had not won it since 1992.
Will my science work? We will see soon. Meanwhile, back to working on http://www.tomedes.com .
P.S. My personal favorite is “Ajami” – An outstanding film.
Hot deal welcomes 2010 - 10% Discount on any translation order.
Use the coupon code "Tomedes10" !
The rapidly increasing Hispanic population in the US and many other parts of the world has led to an increase in demand for Spanish translation services. Many global businesses are trying hard to expand into the Hispanic market and are taking assistance of professional language translation services to communicate with potential customers in their language. But many of these companies make the mistake of relying upon automatic or free translation services or hiring inferior human translators. This quite often results in embarrassing errors which deal a deadly blow to the interests of the company that is trying to make inroads into the Spanish market. Following are some examples of Spanish translation errors that some companies have had to deal with.
A reputed American milk distribution company with a famous campaign “Got Milk?” tried to market its products in Mexico. It tried to repeat the success of its existing campaign, but the Spanish translation of the campaign that it ended up promoting read “Are you lactating?”
A T-shirt manufacturer based in Miami wanted to target the Spanish population. It produced T-Shirts that were intended to have the phrase “I saw the Pope” which should have been “el Papa” but unfortunately the translated version in Spanish read “la Papa” which meant “saw the potato”.
A beer company in the US with the successful slogan “Turn it Loose” tried to translate the same into Spanish but the translated version came out as “Get Diarrhea”.
A US airline tried to market its new leather seats with the slogan “Fly in leather”, but the translated version in Spanish read “Fly Naked”.
Going over the above instances you can imagine the immense embarrassment that the companies in question had to suffer along with business losses. However such situations can be easily avoided by availing Spanish translation services from professional providers. They would not only provide you high quality translation services but also give you with best suggestions/alternative for complicated translation problems.
Hot deal welcomes 2010 - 10% Discount on any translation order.
Use the coupon code "Tomedes10" !
The World Wide Web has created many new channels of communication which are available to all types of businesses. Any business can now connect to its target customers in highly innovative and effective ways. However communication relies on language and those businesses that operate on a global level need to communicate in the varied languages of their customers. Common Sense Advisory has found out through extensive research that over 50% of Internet users who made online purchases preferred to buy from web sites that presented information in the language they understood. Global businesses have largely realized this fact and have started translating their content for the benefit of their customers as well as employees. However in order to use language translation services optimally one needs to take the following steps.
The nature of content that is being translated
An organization has many different types of documents. They can include product documentation, knowledge bases, training material, company policies, blogs, emails and user forums among many others. Each of these type of content needs specific treatment. For example creative content like advertising material needs to be translated with a lot of care by professional human translator that are specialized in the field. Matters like product name and tag line need to discussed and altered suitably when required to suit the target market. On the other hand there are certain types of content which are not very critical and can be translated using high quality language translation software. But one should have a language expert review such a translation before sending it out.
Making you translated content searchable on the Internet
Information present on the Internet is found by users with help of search engines. You will need to ensure that your translated content has been optimized with suitable keywords. You cannot depend upon free translation services for translating such content as that might not provide the right keywords and your content wouldn’t appear high enough in relevant searches.
Protecting your content from automatic translation
Nowadays free translation plugins are available with most web browsers and users can get content translated from almost any language to any other language instantaneously. However this can be detrimental for certain types of content that do not translate well through automatic translation. In such cases you can make use of a “NOTRANSLATE” tag which will instruct Google’s crawler that the page is not supposed to be translated automatically. This ensures that Google does not provide its automatic translation option for such pages.
Hot deal welcomes 2010 - 10% Discount on any translation order.
Use the coupon code "Tomedes10" !
Yet another year has gone by, welcome to 2010 dear reader, my best wishes to you for a happy and prosperous New Year. Overall 2009 was good for the language translation industry as in spite of the recession we managed to notch up better results than many other major industries which went reeling from the shock of recession and are still recovering.
The New Year comes with fresh challenges; moreover as the economy recovers there will be more opportunities for the language translation industry. 2009 saw a buildup in awareness about the importance of language translation among people from different industries. They started taking interest in the business opportunities that would open up for them if they used language translation services and expanded their business into prospective overseas markets. This awareness will now likely lead to positive action as various business organizations roll-out their expansion plans in which language translation services would play an integral role.
Niche translation is also likely to see more development in 2010. Over the past year more people came to know about the importance of specialization in translation. Now niche translators or translation professionals working within a specified knowledge area or with less popular languages are coming into their own. We can now frequently find specialized translation services like game translation, medical documents translation and legal translation along with translation to and from languages like Tagalog, Catalan and Pashto which are spoken by small groups of people and mostly restricted within small geographical boundaries. It’s just the beginning of the year and at Tomedes we have already bounced back from the holiday mood and geared up to take our language translation services to new heights. Keep watching this space for more.
Hot deal welcomes 2010 - 10% Discount on any translation order.
Use the coupon code "Tomedes10" !
Spanish translation services have grown from strength to strength especially in the US where the Hispanics make for the largest group whose native language is not English. Moreover, according to the Conference Board Hispanic families are poised to increase at a much faster rate than other groups in the United States. Consider some figures - in 2008 there were 44 million Spanish speaking families whose combined purchasing power was $870 billion. This is projected to grow to $1.3 trillion by the year 2015.
Professional translators and those aspiring to make a career in language translation cannot afford to ignore these figures. Specializing in providing Spanish translation services could just turn out to be the key to your success in 2010. If you are already working as a Spanish translator you should look into ways in which you could improve or enhance your services. For example, you could specialize in specific domains and dialects – although majority of the Spanish speakers living in the US come from Mexico, taking into account the fact that Spanish speakers are found in many different parts of the world would help you appreciate the importance of different dialects in which Spanish is spoken around the world.
Fortunately, learning Spanish is relatively easy, the language is fairly easy to understand and learn, and there are many learning options available, you could learn it in a class, through private tuition, and even online. You could also learn Spanish in Spain where some well designed programs are available that will help you gain mastery over the language and at least a few of its important dialects.
Hot deal welcomes 2010 - 10% Discount on any translation order.
Use the coupon code "Tomedes10" !
The language translation industry has a fair share of freelance translation professionals as well as document translation companies. There do exist many talented freelance translators who guarantee outstanding results at desirable rates, but we generally recommend translation customers to opt for translation services companies because most freelancers work on their own and that can create a variety of limitations. Translation companies on the other hand work with varying numbers of professional translators which enables them to provide language translation for range of language pairs and in specific knowledge areas. They are also better equipped to handle high volume translation projects and urgent deadlines.
Translation clients can by all means hire the services of freelance translation providers if they know them well and are sure of getting satisfactory results, but those who would like to go for document translation companies can use the following tips to get the best results –
- Get online; you will get more options and better rates.
- There are probably hundreds of good quality language translation companies online which offer their services globally. The first step to narrowing them down involves zeroing in on those that provide for your specific requirements for example specific language pairs, dialect and translation subject areas among others.
- After the initial shortlist you can go ahead and check the rates that various translation companies would charge for your project, the time estimate of delivery and quality assurance. This is easily available as most reputed translation companies would be able to provide you with instant translation quote.
- Contact the customer support of the companies you find promising, once again, most translation companies serious about their work would have a proper customer support team in place. Here you can discuss the nitty-gritties of your project in detail and then make a decision on which translation company would be best for your purpose.
Hot deal welcomes 2010 - 10% Discount on any translation order.
Use the coupon code "Tomedes10" !
Nature of the job
Although both language translators and interpreters work with languages, the work requirements in both cases are different. While translators work on translating written content, interpreters work on spoken language, readily translating speeches/conversations between two parties. Being bilingual in both cases is not enough; every language is guided by a distinct set of grammatical rules, vocabulary, alphabet, style and culture. This necessitates that translators and interpreters have a deep and intimate understanding of their language pairs.
Qualifications
A relevant college degree can be helpful but is not a necessity. Trade organizations like the American Translators Association offer a variety of certifications which are considered by language translation firms and clients, thus adding credibility to the resume especially in the case of freshers.
Pros & Cons
Those who work as freelancers enjoy the benefit of choosing the amount and kind of work they want to take. Unreasonable deadlines are not unheard off especially in the present day 24×7 work culture. While translators working as fulltime employees of language translation organizations maintain regular business hours in most cases. Full-time employees get additional benefits including retirement-savings plans and health-care benefits depending upon the policies of the companies where they work. Freelancers have to take personal responsibility to plan out the same.
Earning
Translators and interpreters frequently work as freelancers. While translators are generally paid according to the number of words they translate; interpreters get paid according to the number of hours they work. Then there are also those who are employed with language translation companies or language translation departments of specific organizations. Earnings can vary according to the expertise, experience and area of specialization in terms of language as well as field or subject. Wise selection of language pair and niche area can provide substantial returns. Talented freelance language experts with a keen business sense have been known to earn in 6 figures. On the other hand translators/interpreters working as full-time employees in various types of organizations earn from $40,000 to $60,000.
Outlook
Translators and interpreters can expect better pay and more jobs as their demand is continuously increasing. According to the US Labor Department the demand for interpreters and translators would increase by 24% through 2016.
Hot deal welcomes 2010 - 10% Discount on any translation order.
Use the coupon code "Tomedes10" !
The world has shrunk so much more with the increasing proliferation of the Internet. We are living in fortunate times where information about progress in any part of the world can readily be made available everywhere for the benefit of the masses. Since our age is characterized by rapid progress in technology, a considerable amount of new information revolves around technological stuff. Now such information cannot be translated by a translator who is only an expert in the required language pair. Technical translation is a highly specialized job and its requirements change according to the needs of the project.
Technical translators should be evaluated on the basis of the given translation project. They should have thorough knowledge of the subject area of the translation and should also be good at research. Technical content can easily become unreadable and boring, while an expert in the subject and the language can easily turn out translations of technical matter, he/she cannot ensure that it is easy to read and interesting. This is important if the targeted readership of the translated document is going to be large and comprised of laymen, like in the case of manuals for various gadgets and software. It is not only important that the technical translator understand the terminology, he or she should also be adept at selecting terms that not only convey the meaning of the original but are also simple. This is why while working on technical translations it is always recommended that one work with experienced translation providers with a track record of turning high quality technical translations in their language pair/subject area.
Hot deal welcomes 2010 - 10% Discount on any translation order.
Use the coupon code "Tomedes10" !
The demand for language translation services is increasing with every passing day is old knowledge; recent developments in the field of language translation shows that translation buyers are increasingly looking for professional translators who can provide translation services for highly specialized areas. Niche translation, as it is commonly known is the way to go for professional translators who are feeling the heat of increasing competition.
The president of American Translators Association, Nicholas Hartmann reinforced this during the 50th convention of the association, when he said that language skills were not the sole requirement from translators today; they needed to have expertise in subject matter as well. The convention itself saw an attendance of 2,300, which was a thousand more compared to last year.
According to Hartmann, the demand for translation and interpretation services providers was expected to grow by 15% next year, spurred by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the global green movement and of course, globalization. All of these developments are taking place in various parts of the world and hence a lot of original information is getting generated in languages that are spoken by relatively smaller groups of people. Moreover, language translations in these areas frequently demand a great deal of specialized knowledge and awareness of the background. It does not only require understanding the context of words and phrases, but also the applicable legal and technical issues. Any error can not only cause great embarrassment but also create serious trouble for the people involved.
Hot deal welcomes 2010 - 10% Discount on any translation order.
Use the coupon code "Tomedes10" !
Literary translations have always been a thorny topic and will probably remain so because language translation is a combination of art and science and it does not come with any tools that can exactly evaluate a translation. Literary works are generally heavily grounded in the culture and language they represent and they project a lot of thoughts and ideas implicitly which makes them very difficult to translate satisfactorily.
An enduring issue in language translation concerns the author’s role. How does a translator figure out what the author was really trying to convey through a sentence/paragraph or the entire book. As mentioned earlier, literary works – in parts, as well as whole, can be subject to multiple interpretations. What’s the author’s place in this scheme of things? The translator cannot assume the author’s intentions, even if he or she does so, there’s no guarantee that the assumption would be correct. So is it then all right to judge the text on its own merits? The situation might be resolved to a certain extent if the author and translator work closely on the project. But this is not always possible, many authors either don’t have the time to allocate to a translation project, else they are not inclined to do so.
There might never be a perfect solution to literary translation dilemmas, the safest way to go is probably to live with the book for a sufficient period of time, read and re-read it and then if possible discuss it with the author, before getting into the actual translation process.
