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人才辨识三大原则

2010-01-27T09:50:00.002+08:00

Corporate Blog of

Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

Keyword: translation talent, humility, hunger, honesty, translation team

2009年对译力来说是个转变很大的一年，从两人公司到五人团队，并在短短六个月内大换血，到现在的十人企业，让我们一路走来不无担心。所幸的是，一批新人都不负所望，展现出非常优秀的素质，肯做肯拼，让我们深受鼓舞。但是当初招聘选人时，年轻的管理层都没有十足的把握。现在回想起来，我们总结自己选人时所秉持的大原则，还是有很大的效用，那就是：谦虚（接受批评／humility）、诚实（不隐瞒，不打鬼主意/honesty）、饥饿（渴望学习而不故步自封/hunger）。而这三个H，就是译力最重视的态度。态度胜于一切，没有正确的态度，即使才高八斗，能力超强，都不会是译力所欣赏的人才。这种正确的态度和价值观，也让我们即使身处竞争激烈反应要超快的翻译界里，仍能占有一席之地的重要原因。

巴菲特曾经说过，有才无德的人对企业来说是一大灾难。而这个＂德＂，正是能够和公司一起成长，也让公司能够不断发展壮大的员工所必备的条件。

By

Hong Yin Yin
方莺吟
Managing Director OR Head Honcho (Managing Director in Elite Interpreter & Managing Partner in Elite Linguistic)
Email: yinyin@elitetranslations.asia
Direct: +65 6262 4687
Mobile: +65 9781 7865

沉淀

2010-01-18T10:36:00.006+08:00

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY | PROFESSIONAL TRANSLATIONS SERVICES | ELITEBILINGUAL

来Elite一段时间了，其实再多过4个月，就是满满一年。就在此刻，突然感觉自己一个人站在2010年的开场，顾不上周围人群的潮起潮落、世事变迁，所有的画面在我脑海中就如30年代老电影里的黑白胶片般迅速地倒带，把我的记忆无限拉扯。

每天公司的早会都让大家及时地总结、思考，而最近海地传来的地震噩耗也让我更多地开始思考一个我们常常忽略的问题，那就是社会责任感。过去，我也总是习惯性地把自己约束在一个特定的小圈子里，也许一次考试的名次、来自老师家长的认可就是我为之追逐奋斗的目标，当然这也无可厚非地跟当时作为学生的心态是分不开的。我们这一代的孩子常常被父母、老师告知这个社会竞争的残酷，被告知公务员、老师、医生才是最稳定的职业。当然我不得不承认这些事实。只是，在我们的心里却执意地抵触种种这些……
十几岁时候的我很热爱读书，当时看余华用一种平静地、缓慢地叙述手法写《活着》，看到主人公的悲惨处会潸然泪下，我以为当时的眼泪让我读懂了活着的意义，最近偶然翻看到一处书评，才突然恍然大悟。

“《活着》是繁花落尽一片萧瑟中对生命意义的终极关怀；富贵的命运昭示着人类苦苦追寻一切不过虚妄而已，结尾那个与富贵同行的老牛暗示一个另高贵的人难以接受的事实：其实人真的只是一种存在，它和万物一样并无意义。追寻，探究的本质不过是一个大笑话而已。”其实作者只是想告诉我们，“生命中其实没有幸福或者不幸，生命只是活着，静静的活着”。

当然这样的现实主义总是带着那么一丝悲观色彩。所以我也在思考着，我们除了自我价值的实现，其实真正应该面对的是那一份沉甸甸的社会责任感。毕竟我只是小我，而社会是一个大我。也只有社会的不断文明化，规范化，那这个小我才会更加健康阳光地成长。不必把自己升华得很伟大，我也只不过是芸芸众生中那最普通不过的一枚，只是突然感叹着有时候社会的残酷竞争会逐渐地把一些人心底里那最善良最真诚的本性虐夺得消失不见。最近几年的时间，看到很多，也学到很多东西。曾经有那么一秒钟的时间疑虑着成功是不是真如某些人一样需要不择手段、尔虞我诈？结果当然是迅速地打消自己这个罪恶的疑虑。每个人都在向往着成功，只是很少有人思考所谓的“成功”过后，接下来是什么？信心满满、旁若无人地继续活在自己狭隘的世界吗？也许百年之后，你只不过是一阵风般的轻薄。或者是现代社会网络科技的发达、信息咨询的快捷，最近总是看到越来越多与社会格格不入的事情发生。有明星吸毒，有官员腐败，有暴力惨案……而我想知道的是，当他们决定抛弃社会责任感的那一刻，这些人还会被我们这些再普通不过的普通人认定是成功的吗？剩下的应该只是摇头。也许他们曾经很富有，也许他们曾经很有社会地位，但对这个社会而言，在他们面具被撕下来的那一刻总是被排斥的。

在2010年的这个崭新开端，我还是如此倔强地坚持着这一份小小的善良，正如众多善良的人们一样好好地活着，勇敢地担负起一份小小的社会责任感。

By

夏子涵
Project Executive
Elite Bilingual Services Pte. Ltd (作者来自一家翻译公司)

信、达、雅过时了吗？

2010-01-06T19:01:00.001+08:00

中国清末的思想家、翻译家和教育家严复在其所译的赫胥黎《天演论》的序言中写道，“译事三难：信、达、雅。”自此，“信达雅”三字原则正式浮出水面，对中国的翻译界产生了无可比拟的影响。在相当长的一段时间里，“信达雅”作为翻译的最高境界，始终是翻译者追求的目标。有人将其称为翻译的“三字真经”，就好似一座丰碑，让后来人很难再超越。

那么，何谓“信、达、雅”呢？英文是：faithfulness, expressiveness, elegance。用中文简单解释之就是：信：忠于原作；达：意思能讲透；雅：语言要优美。“信”，从狭义上讲，就是忠实于原作的思想，把原文所要传达的意思准确地用另一种语言重新诠释出来。达，是这三个字中最难“表达”清楚的一个。中文是一种逻辑性的，而不是词汇性的，形式的东西很少：词与词之间无分隔，人名地名无大写，动词代词无变形。这就要求译文的行文通俗易懂、表达清晰。“信、达”都是对翻译的“硬件要求”，具有科学的精神。对就是对，错就是错。而“雅”是一种“软件要求”，只有感觉或程度上的差别。如果把“信、达”喻为“雪中送炭”，那“雅”就是“锦上添花”了吧。如果我们把译文当做是一件即将出售的商品，那“信、达”就好像是产品本身的质量和实用性，“雅”则为精美的包装、恰如其分的宣传及优良的服务。

其实，自这三个字诞生之始，争议就从没有平息过。评价有贬有褒，但至今仍未有一家之说能够超越“信、达、雅”的范畴。当然，就算是反对者，大多数论者也不赞成简单地否认或抛弃。曾经有一位语言学家从语言学的角度来重新解读这个三个字：：“信”是语义对等，“达”是行文对等，而“雅”则是功能对待。还有翻译学家提出但凡涉及“翻译”二字，除翻译标准外，还涉及翻译态度、译者素质、术语确定、出版等等环节。另有一些译者谈到：“雅”在有些时候和“信、达”是矛盾的。很多翻译“雅”了就不能够“信和达”。莎士比亚全集里有一个词“a pissing while”，梁实秋将它翻译成“撒泡尿的功夫”，这样的翻译非常形象，也已是被广为接受的一种表达，但是真不能算是“雅“，甚至可以说是“俗”，普通人生活中喜闻乐见的“俗”。同时，西方译学界的结构主义思潮也不断冲击着这个“金科玉律”。法国解构主义理论的代表人物Roland Barthes 曾在其文章The Death of the Author中写道，“The essential meaning of a work depends on the impressions of the reader, rather than the "passions" or "tastes" of the writer.”

谈到这里，我们是否考虑应该换个说法，不再讨论“信、达、雅”是否过时，而是重新调整这三个字的排序？将“信、达、雅”转换成“达、雅、信”。灵感往往是在第一次阅读时闪现。“达、雅”在前，便于捕捉转瞬即逝的思想火花。“信”在最后，因为译者已对原著有了全面的理解，能更好地保证“忠实于原文”这个翻译的第一要素。至于法律条文，商务合同、证书等等，可以归为单独的一类，还是必须以 “信”为先，否则将造成不良的后果，“雅”在其中显然要排在最后一位了。所以，我认为“信、达、雅”是否过时并不重要，译者需具体情况具体对待。遵循一定的原则，但却不拘泥于此，才能最终使翻译作品跨越“必然王国“，达到“自由王国”的境界。在此借用散文的形神论“形散神不散”来类比不知是否恰当？

By
Jean Zhang
Chief Translator
Elite Bilingual Service Pte Ltd

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY | PROFESSIONAL TRANSLATIONS SERVICES | ELITEBILINGUAL

2009-12-09T12:32:00.000+08:00

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

In a world of profit driven organizations, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a difficult dream to achieve. CSR generally means integrating social values and mission statements of organizations within business decision-making in order to achieve positive and sustainable outcomes towards business, environment and the community at large. Easier said than done as we all know that money makes the world go round, especially during these trying global recession periods. So it is remarkable whenever certain organizations go the extra mile and make the extra effort to make this dream a reality.

Elitebilingual Pte Ltd's Managing Director, Ms Hong Yinyin has such a compassionate heart that is evident in some of the little known acts of charity which were carried out. Of most notable mention of all the translations that were carried out were for the organizations as follows; the Singapore Children's Society, United Nations World Food Programme, Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) and Fei Yue Community Services (FCYS).

The Singapore Children's Society is a non-profit organisation that helps protect and nurture children as well as youths of all races and religion, especially those who were abused, neglected and/or from dysfunctional families. So when Elite was approached by them to translate an article about *Maria (*Maria is a pseudonym used to protect the identity of the child) we felt dearly for the children and that we should give back to society and decided to do this project for free.

An example of the translation is as follows below.

This is Maria.

这是玛丽亚的故事

She is struggling with her studies, while nursing her paralysed mother.

Her elder sister, aged 17, works part-time to provide for the family.

Her father has abandoned the family.

You can help Maria…

她除了要应付繁重的功课，还得照顾瘫痪的母亲。

她的姐姐今年17岁，需要在外兼职才能养家糊口。

她的父亲抛弃了家庭，从此不见踪影。

玛丽亚需要您的帮助 …

Thus began a series of more translations that we felt that were for a viable cause and would be able to contribute to society.

The Miele Guide Restaurant Month was a charity initiative, carried out by Ate Media, that would specifically benefit the United Nations World Food Programme. Elite carried out the Japanese, Korean and Chinese translations continuously for a whole month pro bono. A link with both our organisations' websites was also placed free of charge to provide additional awareness on the programme. As the United Nations World Food Programme focuses on fighting hunger, reaching over 102 million people worldwide alone in 2008 with beneficiaries in 78 countries, we felt that it's definitely more than just; a cause worth fighting for.

Next is the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports Singapore (MCYS). Their mission is to build a cohesive and resilient society by fostering socially responsible individuals, inspired and committed youths, strong and stable families, a caring, active community and a sporting people. We carried out a 4,000 word English to Mandarin translation service for them, focusing on stopping family violence, again free of charge. As Elite firmly believes in a balanced lifestyle and strong family values, these goals are aligned with our business goals and vision. Sometimes, it not just about profit, but about living as socially responsible individuals.

Last but not least, the latest project was for Fei Yue Community Services Singapore (FCYS), whose agenda was in effecting life transformation in people to lead them to a truly fulfilling life within an integrated community network. Over 16,000 words were edited by Elite for this project on "52 Steps to a Happy Marriage".

‘….To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health, to love and to cherish 'till death do us part. And hereto I pledge you my faithfulness.’

Hopefully all these translations would be put to good use for the public and ultimately contribute to society in one way or another. The effects may be minimal and may not be immediately felt. However, the seeds of these had been sown and the way paved for future corporate social responsible actions to be tied in with organizational goals for Elite.

By Vincent Guee
Operations Manager, Elite

"We cannot tell what may happen to us in life. But we can decide what happens within us— how we can take it, what we do with it— and that is what really counts in the end. ~Joseph Fort Newton"

在路上，学着活

2009-11-22T13:23:00.000+08:00

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

“在路上，谁都会碰见爱情、谎言和幸福，贾平凹碰见了，夏菲碰见了，坐下来聊聊，学着活！”

很久不看书，今天也难得翻下手边的青年文摘，购于上个星期放工回家的路上。偶然发现其实新加坡也有卖读者，知音，青年文摘的报刊摊。惊喜的同时也有种久违的感觉。当然对于我，不读书的借口也很多，最主要的原因是已经过了那个需要读书找灵感、写八股文的高中时代。原来当时语文老师说的话是对的，过了那个纯真的时代，我们开始需要的是在生活里找哲理，而不再局限于书本，然而却也极端化地从此抛弃了它。

每周一的早上，公司都会有例会。其实就是大家聊聊各自的想法，而主题大多都是对自己的将来有什么规划和安排，就像小学生都会写到的命题作文“我的梦想”。

让我想起了小的时候，不懂为什么要去幼儿园，跟其他小朋友一起学识字，学数数。现在还记得刚去幼儿园的有天晚上，一个人跑到走廊，然后看着天上的星星，计划着怎么逃跑。当然计划没有成功，我很快地被老师发现了，然后拎回去睡觉。只是很多年后的今天，我依然记得当时的那片星空，带着那么一点反叛的味道。然后接下来理所当然地读小学，中学，大学。只是到了大学，我也没真正明白为什么我如所有人一样忙碌。

2年前的出国，当时很认定地它能让自己视野开阔，现在才敢承认有那么一点跟风意味。现在的我就像所有飘在海外的游子一样，努力地找寻自己的坐标。我们一直在路上，从过去读书到现在工作，恍然大悟中才发现原来一切的一切都是学着活。而这一路上父母、老师教予我们的正是如何应对生活的技巧。

当我们这一代开始慢慢懂得生活的真正含义，眼角里开始出现了一丝淡淡忧伤。而我们的忧伤只是因为在别人的故事里，找到了自己的影子。

Xia Zihan
Project Executive
Elite Bilingual Services Pte. Ltd

译者—戴着镣铐的舞者

2009-11-16T15:55:00.000+08:00

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

翻译真的是一门独特的艺术，是的，这里我把翻译称为一种艺术。艺术就需要创作，但是翻译这种创作又不是不受限制、信马由缰。所谓的镣铐就是原文，如果挣脱了这幅枷锁去自由发挥，那就不能称其为翻译了。所以，把翻译比喻成戴着镣铐跳舞是再合适不过了。这种情况下，翻译者自然就是戴着镣铐的舞者。戴着镣铐就是指在翻译过程中要受到原文的种种束缚。

还是把翻译比为舞蹈。舞蹈是通过音乐、形体、运动、表情及姿态来表达感情的一门艺术。优秀的舞者，一定具备两个层面的素质：一是舞蹈功底。没有技巧，内心再丰富的情感也会因缺少表达途径而无人理解。因此，这个难度和技巧就要靠平时的勤学苦练和点滴积累。技巧是展现的手段和工具。第二个层次，就是两个字：“精神”。有了过硬的基本功和高难度的技巧。该如何把这些和舞蹈的内在精神结合在一起。音乐响起时，肢体语言要感动的不只是自己，还有观众。感染力不是技巧的堆砌，是发自内心的对生活对生命的感悟，就像有人说过，高手是跳情而不是跳舞。

那翻译究竟是什么？美国著名的翻译理论家 Eugene A.Nida 给翻译下的定义是：Translating consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source language message, first in terms of meaning, and second in terms of style. 首先是 meaning （意思），第二就是 style（风格）。这两个方面正是我要用来类比舞蹈的两个层次：翻译既是语言活动，又是思维活动。语言活动是指使用完全不同于原文形式的译文来传达原文信息，所以“准确无误”是最基本的要求，这要求翻译者有深厚的语言功底，对源语言和目标语言都有正确的理解和纯熟的运用能力。同时，翻译也是再创作，原文和译文的等值，也只能是相对的等值，是信息等值或语境等值，而不是字词等值。中国贯通中西的著名文学家钱钟书说过一句话，“译者驱使本国文字，其功夫或非作者驱使原文所能及．故译笔正无妨出原著头地”。这句话可以理解成：翻译是两种文字的一种竞赛。从创作的角度去理解，译者和原作者都属于作者，两个作者表达的是相同的或者是相近的思想，同处在创作这个层面上，译者除了“求真（准确翻译）”还要“求美（用符合目标语言的审美观及价值观表现出译者和译文的风格及特点”。因此，从某种意义上说，翻译就是解释，是带有主观色彩的剖析和理解。翻译中求真和求美的矛盾随着创作和翻译之间界限的消失也得到了调和。

诚然，对于翻译究竟是一门科学还是一门艺术，长期以来诸子百家各执一词。也许是因为我无法改变自己内心对浪漫主义的向往，所以仍坚守：翻译就是艺术。就像英文有artist和artisian一样，华文里也有艺术家和工匠这两个貌似相近，实则内涵迥异的词。即使戴着镣铐跳舞，译者也应该跳得精彩、跳得漂亮！希望我可以做一个富于创作的艺术家，而不仅仅是一个工匠。不妨用文学翻译大家郭沫若的一句话做为本文的结语吧，“翻译家不是鹦鹉，应该在翻译过程中涌起创作的冲动”。

By

Jean Zhang | 张小锦
Chinese Translator / Editor | 中文翻译与编辑

Elite Bilingual Services Pte. Ltd.

口译项目的管理秘诀 - （二）口译员

2009-11-15T17:27:00.005+08:00

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

一位经常合作的口译器材租借商说：“口译员很难搞的，好像大牌明星一样。”她所说的‘难搞’，是指价钱高，规矩多，不容易伺候。其实，我也认同他们有很多与明星相似的地方。比如说，明星要靠天生本钱，口译员也得靠本身卓越的语言条件，不但语言功力要深厚，双语精通程度得达到炉火纯青的境界，而且天生反应要灵敏，在‘卖相’上也必须让人有信心。

我所说的‘卖相’，倒不是指‘俊男美女’，而是打扮体面，谈吐大方，而且能于人亲切的印象。这是因为口译员是不同国籍人士之间的桥梁。他们必须在商业会议中的短短数小时内，帮助客户良好地表达看法，最终达到‘成交’或让对方‘满意’的终极目标，确实是像明星的现场直播节目。

有些客户听到口译员每小时收费从$100到S$200，无不吓得魂飞魄散。但就像我在前一篇文章所说的，真正了解行情的客户，都愿意付这个钱，只要质量好。因为相较于数十万甚至数百万的交易来说，几千块钱的口译费绝对值得。尤其像是新加坡这种国际大都会，各大跨国公司总部云集，经常举办大型的国际会议（最近的APEC峰会就让我们忙得团团转），高层次的商务会议、名人专访，跨国公司的董事会议等。这些汇集各国人士的交流场面，都需要口译员扮演沟通桥梁的角色。

但是根据我的体会，演员或歌星要成为炙手可热的超级巨星，除了‘演技’或‘歌喉’要好之外（唯一不同的是，口译行业只有实力派而没有偶像派），更重要的关键在于EQ （就像红遍中港台的志玲姐姐）。口译员也一样。翻译公司和口译员的关系，就像经纪人和明星。唯一较不同的是，翻译公司并不局限于非得要找某个口译员完成口译项目，口译员也可自由地和任何一家翻译公司合作，两者之间的关系较为松散无约束。正因如此，那些EQ超好、没有架子又好商量的口译员（尤其是价钱或者配合客户的要求），相信都会受到翻译公司的垂青。

作为‘经纪人’，让我最有成就感的，并非和那些‘红牌’或‘资深’口译员合作，而是能挖掘到具有潜质的口译人才，并将他们一手捧成能够胜任同步传译的优秀口译员（译力旗下就有这样一位从交替口译提升到同步口译的大将）。只要手中握有这些王牌，不但能够为公司赚到钱，也能承接多一些案子（因为红牌口译员的档期都很满，所以即使有生意上门，也不一定能配合到他们的时间）。我觉得这样不但能为市场注入更多新血，让新加坡的口译市场不被少数几位垄断，而且人才的辈出，也能更好地满足新加坡作为奖励旅游、商务会议以及博览会(MICE)举办首选地的需求，并让口译市场价格逐步调整至更多客户能够承受的水平。价钱趋于合理，也将让更多商家愿意付这笔钱任用口译员，最终达到大家开心的良性循环效果。

By
Hong Yin Yin | 方莺吟
Managing Director | 董事
Elite Bilingual Services Pte. Ltd

口译项目的管理秘诀 - （一）客户篇

Personal Thoughts on Leadership

2009-11-05T16:21:00.003+08:00

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

I remember during my university years when in one particular day right before school started, my organization head called me and advised me that since I was one of the youngest head of our organization’s department, I had to work a little harder than others in order to prove to people that I can be a leader. Then, I asked him, ‘’How does a leader act?” he responded with a list of physical ways on how he believes a leader should act. To put it simply, think of Hitler and the stereotypical description of what comes into mind when you think of his name, is exactly what he described as what he thinks is a good leader. Of course, I didn’t dare say that out loud then, being new and young at the time, but inside, I knew that I wouldn’t live up to what he thinks is a great leader. There is a reason why the name ‘Hitler’ connotes a very negative vibe.

Fast forward a few years, I have no idea what happened to my organization leader now, but I can tell you one thing, his reign of terror did not last long, in fact he pretty much shared the same bad ending as Hitler did. (Without the suicide part of course)

Lesson number 1: Leadership does not equate to being intimidating.

I had this one classmate who was well-liked by everyone, he was friendly, down to earth, he made jokes, drank beer with the boys, watched movies with the girls, and when you got introduced to him, he remembers your name and acts like your friend. Here’s the thing, he doesn’t just act like a friend because when you’re in trouble, you don’t have to ask him, as soon as he knows, he will go out of his way to help you. No surprise, he ended up president of our organization in a landslide vote, and I can tell you, he was well liked by everyone (even by his opponent) and he made the organization very rich during his period in office.

Lesson number 2: Leadership is about being liked, having people do things for you willingly, sometimes without you even needing to ask them to, simply because they like you enough to help you out.

When I interned at a big accounting firm, I got to work with one of the smartest people on the planet. I didn’t know this at first, since they don’t go out announcing to people how good they are. But here’s the thing, when you’re really good, you don’t have to go around broadcasting it to people, somehow they just know. Maybe it’s because of the way you act or make decisions that tell people how smart you are or maybe it’s whenever you talk, the words coming out of you actually make sense. I really admired the people I worked with there, they never once told me their accomplishments (and they were many) but when I walk down the halls of the office or open the newspapers, I see their faces smiling at me with bold letters declaring their greatness. This makes me respect them a thousand more than if they had been the one to tell me how smart and great they were.

Lesson number 3: Leadership is people talking about how great you are. Not the other way around.

I still have so many people to get to know and to admire, but for now let’s leave with just these three people first, until next time.

By JT

Finance Executive

Elite Bilingual Services Pte. Ltd

口译项目的管理秘诀 - （一）客户篇

2009-11-03T18:05:00.003+08:00

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

在我处理过的多种语言服务当中（笔译、口译、转录、撰稿），要数口译项目的挑战性最高，因为它和现场直播节目一样，不能有任何缺失或疏漏，更不能有任何“NG”。如此一来，后勤的准备功夫尤显得格外重要。口译项目也是最考功夫的，没有经验的项目协调员，若不严格遵照公司的服务原则行事，很容易就会答应客户一些做不到的事情，而往往得亏钱收场。译力两年前刚起步的时候，就曾接了一家大公司的案子，结果因为经验不足，无法坚持原则，而成了一次惨痛的教训。

做好口译项目的诀窍，在于‘知己知彼，百战不殆’。虽然译力在口译界里还只是个生力军，但是数十场的口译服务经验，也开始让我们总结出不同的客户类型，并能更准确地判断市场的需求和习性。今天我们就来谈一谈口译客户的基本类型：

1. 行家型：这一类懂行的客户通常都来自大公司或是活动策划机构，有接触过口译员的安排事宜，也了解专业口译员的一般价位。他们特别看重口译员的质量和经验，所以也通常会要求对口译员进行面试。

2. 智慧型：虽然这类客户没有接触过需要口译员的会议或活动，但是对质量要求仍然非常高，因为需要口译服务的会议对他们来说实在是太重要了，所以绝对不能有任何纰漏。为了确保一切顺利，他们在各种细节上都会尽量配合。

3. 一无所知型：对什么是交替口译(Consecutive Interpreting)和同步口译(Simultaneous Interpreting)都分不清楚。幸好，一些较有诚意的客户，都会谦虚地请教你该怎么做。在这个时候，我们都会好好把握机会向他们说明各种需要注意的细节。

4. 逛街型：这类客户通常爱货比三家，搜集各家翻译机构的价格。每次我们向口译员查问他们的时间时，他们都会说：“这个case 另一家翻译公司也有问过我咧！”

5. 火烧屁股型：明天需要口译员，今天才打电话来。接这种案子无疑是惹火上身，尤其是口译员比较少的语种，如西班牙语。好处是我们可以多收加急费。只要有十足的把握能安排到最优秀的口译员，还是可以做的。最近我们就为一家知名的服装品牌公司安排口译员，采访韩国著名影星元斌。下午两点钟的采访，早上九点钟才打来的电话！幸好我们的首席口译员高度配合，才能在短短一个早上轻松安排好一切，顺利完成任务。

接出不同类型的客户之后，我给自己总结了一个心得。所谓‘真金不怕红炉火’，只要我们所精挑细选的口译员的质量够硬，在安排后勤事宜上规划周详，在坚守一些行规和原则时毫不妥协，尽量保护我们最宝贵的资产 – 口译员，而且知道什么类型的客户会耍什么招数，成功的个案也会越来越多。

换句话说，成功安排口译项目的重点不在客户，而是我们背后的一张张王牌 – 口译员。这也将是我下一周的分享重点。

Hong Yin Yin | 方莺吟

Managing Director | 董事

Elite Bilingual Services Pte. Ltd

口译项目的管理秘诀 - （二）口译员

Perception

2009-11-03T16:33:00.001+08:00

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

..something to think about...

Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later:

The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk..

6 minutes:

A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes:

A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.

45 minutes:

The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour:

He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the Metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities . The questions raised: in a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made.... How many other things are we missing?

(this is a YouTube video showing him playing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnOPu0_YWhw )

Copied from a chain email I received from a friend. So don't really not the actual source but thought it would be good to share it. : P

Michael Kuan = )

We Are Really Sorry.

2009-10-29T12:39:00.007+08:00

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

Dear Readers.

Elite is currently reviewing all posts in this blog. We will be contacting the authors of articles and will remove any posts without credits upon requests by the original author. We will also insert credits due to the author when they explicitly permit us to reproduce their articles herein.

We sincerely ask for your kind understanding as it will take time for us to review all post herein. If you are the original author of any posts herein and would like to have the post immediately removed or would like to have due credit immediately inserted, kindly drop us an email to marketing@elitebilingual.com together with a link of your original post, proof of ownership and we shall do so promptly.

We sincerely apologize and regret any duress caused as the webmaster in charge did not act in accordance to the prescribed protocols. He has since been removed from this responsibility. Any inconvenience or displeasure caused was unintended and was without malice. It is our procedure to receive a written permission from the original author before posting it herein and was my oversight to not verify his claims of permission.

Thank you once again for your kind understanding and attention.

With sincere apologies,
Michael Kuan
Director

Five Useful Sites for Language Tools and Translation

2009-10-17T22:14:00.000+08:00

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

Easy, fast and helpful websites to translate a text, a phrase or even a whole web page from one language to another. All for free.

Google Translate

Google has produced and developed its own system of providing us an automatic translation tool from English to 13 other major languages in the world and vice versa including its own text conversion. A total of 25 language pairs available for translation. It has become one of the most go-to sites for free translation services. It provides full-website translation, word/phrases conversion and even translating dictionaries all for free. Plus, you can download the Google toolbar to translate words instantly with no clicks needed.

World Lingo

World Lingo has become one of the most reliable translation services on the web. It has 15 major languages available for translation. They have text translator, document translator, website translator and even e-mail translator. Their free translation services limit users to just about 150 words. If you’re in a business having to communicate to more than 200 languages, you can opt in to subscribe to their more accurate, unlimited words and faster translation for about $5/month.

Babel Fish

Babel Fish web translation service was originally developed by AltaVista but was bought by Overture Services 2003, which was then acquired by Yahoo 2004. Now, the Babel Fish translation service is used by both AltaVista and its parent, Yahoo. It translates pages or text to 12 languages. Both Babel Fish at AltaVista and Yahoo has similar generated translations. The only difference between the 2 is that Yahoo provides users their toolbar to translate easily and automatically which is similar to Google’s toolbar.

Windows Live

Windows Live translator was just recently released last September 2007. It is developed by Microsoft as an addition to their never ending competition with Google and Yahoo. Their translator allows up to 500 words max for translation. One unique feature of Windows Translator Beta is its Bilingual Viewer. When users select a particular page to translate, automatically the Bilingual Viewer allows users to browse the page in parallel supported by highlights and even 4 layouts to choose from. All for free.

Dictionary.com Translator

One of the best translation services on the web. It offers not only 20 language pairs but even the language localization and part of speech. Examples are that of English to Japanese and Korean. You have the option to choose your text/phrase from English to informal or polite/formal Japanese and Korean translations. The Japanese and Korean have many parts of speech which show respect which they call “honorifics”. They use informal style among friends and formal in addressing someone superior than them. For localization, one example is that of French to English. You can choose either American English or British English for translation. The translation service at dictionary.com is really by far one of the most unique and helpful among other services. No need to pay for anything because it’s all for free.

Conferences for Introverts: 15 Top Tips

2009-10-16T13:06:00.001+08:00

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

The post Conferences for Introverts: 15 Top Tips has been removed on request by the original author Ms. Sarah Dilon.

We sincerely apologise for not giving due credit as necessary and will endeavor to request for permission before posting any third party materials in the future. The staff in charge of posting in this blog is removed from this responsibility.

A review of all blog posts will be conducted immediately and will promptly remove any posts that any original authors request it to be removed and also give due credit where there is none.

With sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused.

The Management of Elite's Corporate Blog.

Directory of Transcription Software

2009-10-12T21:15:00.000+08:00

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

I've compiled a list of transcription software available on the market. Hope this helps ! :)

Orator Digital Dictation System by Bytescribe Development
The Orator Digital Dictation System is a multi-line telephone dictation and transcription system. Dictation is recorded over telephone lines and stored on a computer hard drive as compact voice files. The voice files are then accessible for transcription. The system is a reliable alternative to expensive dictation systems. Anyone who has used voice mail or other dictation systems will feel familiar with this system.

Scribe by Scribe Healthcare Technologies
Scribe is a unique set of tools for the creation, production, storage, workflow management, communication, sharing, and analysis of clinical information. It is built on our anywhere, anytime accessible clinical information repository. Scribe's digital dictation management system includes support for telephone dictation and digital handheld management. Scribe is ideal to populate your EMR/EHR while reducing change for your clinical personnel.

MxTranscribe EHR by MxSecure
MxSecure is the fastest growing medical transcription company in America for physician practices, multi-specialty, multi-state clinics and community health centers. Our transcription services are internet-based, providing secure, accurate and affordable 24-hour or better turnaround of files. No long term contracts. Unmatched US-based customer support. Incomparable implementation time. Hassle-free EMR integrations and world-class quality.

3M Health Information Systems - ChartScript.Com
Hosted dictation, transcription, and speech recognition solution that allows you to securely route work to home or another office.

Altos - All Digital Transcription Service
Medical transcription service that utilizes high speed networks, digital voice recorders and secure phone and servers.

BayScribe - BayScribe
A complete fault-tolerant, patient reporting solution featuring voice capture, ADT capture, routing and transcription.

Bytescribe Development - Orator Digital Dictation System
Multi-line telephone dictation and transcription system. Stores on a computer hard drive as compact voice files.

Clinical Software Solutions - Clin1 Transcription
A fully integrated Transcription System tied direclty to your Patient Clinical Database.

Core Software - Transcription Manager
A complete operations and production process automation software for transcription companies.

Cybernation Infotech - Online Medical Transcription Service
Medical Transcription Services for health care providers like Hospitals, Clinics, Physicians and HMOs.

Dictaphone - Enterprise Express
Digital dictation and transcription management software with digital portability, PC access, and Network distribution.

Doc-tor - Doc-tor Practice Manager
Web based Practice Management and electronic medical record (emr software) solution that optimizes the flow of clinical information.

Everon - Medical Records Transcription
HIPAA compliant 98%+ accuracy reports.

Handy Software Solutions - TranscriptSum
Software Designed To Help Transcriptionists Count Their Lines And Invoice Their Clients.

Healthcare Technologies - MediScribe
Includes mobile voice-to-computer dictation, an enriched medical transcription processor and expanded communications.

Infrahealth - WinMT
Contract medical transcription service that acts as an alternative to in-house medical transcription production.

Integrated Document Solutions - AbbaDox
Medical transcription, workflow management and document scanning/management service for healthcare providers.

LCD Solutions - Clicktate
Clicktate is a system to easily and inexpensively generate medical office progress notes.

M-Scribe Technologies - M-Remote
Web-based, easy-to-use medical transcription and EMR Lite solution that cuts your transcription costs by 40% or more.

MD Synergy - MD Synergy
Easy-to-use EMR and document Management system to increase practice efficiency, improve operational control and increase revenue.

Med Experts - AltaPoint
Complete services for medical software, billing, clearinghouse, medical claims, collections, & offsite backup

Medical Professional Systems - MPS Remedy
Practice management solution to enable you to manage your practice and revenue effectively and seamlessly.

Medical Transcription Billing - Medical Billing
Billing, transcription, and practice management solution all in one cohesive package.

Metasolutions - Meta PM
EMR & Practice Management, Appointment Scheduling, ePrescription, Medical Billing, Charge Capture, Electronic Charting, Transcription.

MxSecure - MxTranscribe EHR
Manage documents and workflow, streamline medical transcriptions and run specialized reports.

Nuance - Dragon NaturallySpeaking
Turn speech into text by dictating into Windows-based applications at speeds up to 160 words per minute.

NuScribe - NuScribe SMR
Simplified Medical Record eliminates transcription costs with voice recognition.

OmniMD - OmniMD EMR
Automates and simplifies the patient record documentation, storage and retrieval process.

Oracle Transcription - Medical Dictation System
Digital dictation system that allows 24-hour access from anywhere, providing convenience & accuracy for clinicians.

Scribe Healthcare Technologies - Scribe
Web-based tool set for the creation, delivery, management, communication, coding, billing & analysis of clinical information.

ScribeCare - Enterprise Platform
Meets your needs related to dictation capture, routing, workflow management, transcription, document delivery, and reimbursement.

Spantel - TSP
ASP web-based dictation and transcription workflow solution for hospitals, MTSOs, clinics, physicians, of any size.

StratIS - teD
The Electronic Doctor manages electronic patient medical records and handles text, voice, scanned documents and SOAP notes.

VoiceFactor - VoiceFactor
We are a small software organization offering voice-recognition technology, support and training to the healthcare industry.

Webahn - OvernightScribe
Digitally records your dictations, routes files for transcription and delivers the completed transcripts electronically.

WebChartMD - WebChartMD
Unique routing and QA features let you route work to team members, monitor their progress, and QA completed documents.

ZyDoc - TrackDoc
A web-based solution for access to audio and transcribed documents.

企业标语的诞生

2009-06-26T10:19:00.002+08:00

方莺吟
董事
译力双语服务私人有限公司

记得2000年开始在新加坡当翻译员的时候，我的老板兼师父说了一则香港国泰航空企业标语的故事。当时，国泰的英文标语是‘Arrive in Better Shape’。顾名思义，当你乘坐国泰航空，下机时准不会让灰头土脸。可是这样一句很‘英文’的标语，如何以几个中文字将整个形象表达出来，而又不失文采呢？

这当然不是件容易的事，不然国泰航空也不会重金征集佳句了。后来一位老先生以一句‘航行万里，神采飞扬’捧走丰厚奖金。相信他在领取奖金的时候，肯定也神采飞扬，笑不拢嘴。

成功的企业标语不但深入人心，而且寥寥数字所展现的神韵，确实能为企业形象起着画龙点睛的加分效用。

跨国公司，尤其是以消费群众为诉求对象的企业，不但在选用企业标语时要慎重其事，费尽心思（甚至是大洒金子），而且还要找一个能跟英文版匹配的中文标语，才能旗鼓相当，互映生辉。比如汇丰银行的‘The World’s Local Bank’，中文版为‘环球金融，地方智慧’，堪称是这几年较为知名的精彩译文标语经典。

有些人会说，哇，才想几个字就能赚这么多钱，很好赚哦！其实好标语都得惜字如金，既要简单明了，又要耐看耐读，而且要做到‘说得更少，寓意更深’，如同大师挥毫一样，寥寥数笔就能把一个人物的形和神跃然纸上，真的很考功夫呀！如果一个不小心翻得不好，对企业来说可谓得不偿失。企业的品牌价值，何止千金。想一想，如果我们把花旗银行的‘Citi Never Sleep’翻成‘花旗不睡觉’，肯定会让人笑到喷饭。当然，这种事也不太可能发生（正确答案是：花旗从不歇息）。

以前当个看热闹的门外汉，读到一些经典的企业标语，总觉得：嘿，这么简单，我也可以翻得出来嘛。所以在3年前创立译力双语服务公司的时候，就拿自己的公司来开刀，想了一个自认为不错的标语：‘译出飞扬神采，展现企业魅力’，刚好把‘译力’两字镶在头尾，将创立语言服务的使命放在中间。

自从听闻那一则国泰航空的标语故事后，整整过了7年，才终于让我有机会为一家本地银行的企业标语抄刀。这家在新加坡拥有超过百年历史的银行，要展现一种‘始终在您身边’的亲切老邻居形象。当时他们的英文标语是‘Your Bank and More’。但是自己的功夫还是不到家，墨水也不够，所以绞尽脑汁也没法交出佳句。后来，还是客户自己想出一个相当不错的标语‘伴您成长，与您相随’。

看到最后出炉的标语时，坦白说，我真的心服口服。虽然中英两句并排放在一起，只有‘您’字对得上号，而More字则大有文章。它包含着‘陪伴’和‘相随’，既亲切又诚恳，完全是一种柔性而没有傲气的诉求。搭配这个标语的，是一个身穿金色制服且笑容可掬的年轻女职员，完全契合该银行的‘邻里银行’定位。

丢失了第一个机会，第二个机会来得比我想象中还快。半年之后，这家银行又换了第二个标语：Neighbour First, Banker Second。直译起来，就变成‘邻里第一，银行第二。’当然，这种口号式而老套的标语，根本不会被看上眼。有了前车之鉴，我基本上也大致摸清客户的诉求和风格。
在当时呈上的文案中，有一些是自己不甚满意，但也只能拿来凑数的几个标语。

邻里优先，银行为次。----- 意思最接近，但没有很强的Feel。
心系邻里，服务优先。----- 缺少感动人的元素。
邻里优先，贴近您心。----- 这些词都有点老了。

一个月后，偶然间到该银行办事，随手拿起最新的宣传册，打开一看，当初的其中一个标语就静静地列在左下角 – 深耕邻里，伴您同行。那一种成就感，我到现在还记得。

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

Which Bible Translation?

2009-06-19T21:47:00.001+08:00

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

Many issues divide the Body of Christ today. Baptism, communion, pre-tribulation rapture verses post-tribulation and more all cause division in the Church as satan loves to divide and conquer; it’s sad we fight among ourselves instead of the real enemy.
One of satan’s strategies from early in Genesis becomes casting doubt on God’s word. Recall in the garden satan’s words “Has God really said?” confusing Eve and causing her to sin. Satan realizes casting doubt on what God actually says can be a winning strategy for him — what could cause more confusion than casting doubt the Bible in your lap isn’t the exact Word of God?
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This strategy continues today with the Bible translation debate. Is the King James really the best translation? What about the old language? Shouldn’t newer translations be used? As usual many views exist, and unfortunately some people involved become rather militant. We’ve been told if you’re witnessing to someone and they become saved, but you didn’t use King James Version it didn’t count. That’s absurd.
However, in view of satan’s strategy of creating doubt in God’s word the translation and preservation of the Bible becomes critically important; you can’t dismiss the concept and use whatever translation you pick off the shelf. Balance is required; getting that balance requires effort on your part — you need to do some homework. Fortunately acquiring a basic familiarity with the issues can be done briefly, paying dividends in your Bible Study.
Anyone translating between languages quickly understands one thing, it’s impossible to completely and accurately translate between languages. The translator must always choose different wording to convey the original idea; sometimes it’s impossible to express the idea of one language in another. As such, the original always surpasses the copy for accuracy; translation forces a compromise of sorts, subject to the personal ideas of the translator (which explains why we must understand the personal ideas of the translator).
The idea a perfect translation exists quickly disappears — they all have problems; understanding which translations have which problems is important. In the following discussion, we’ll take a brief and summary look at issues affecting translation, and how those issues impact the various translations. You must understand these issues to understand the advantages and disadvantages of the translation in your lap.
Issues Affecting Translation
When considering Bible translation, many issues arise but for simplicity we’ll stick to two; these main issues concern you as a Christian trying to understand the Bible translation debate.
What you’re translating from. Two main lines of Greek texts exist with differences between them (section 2.1). You also must consider if what we have today was handed down to us faithfully accurate to the originals (section 2.1.1).
How you translate what you’ve got. In other words, do you attempt to translate literally, or use more paraphrasing? We’ll cover this in section 2.2.
Textual Issues
Preservation of the Bible
Written 2,000 years ago, do we have correct and accurate copies of the original New Testament? A quick glance of the following chart[1] illustrates the accuracy of the New Testament passed down to us, compared to other ancient writings.
Document
Date
Copies
% Purity
Homer’s Iliad
800 BC
643
95
Herodotus
480 BC
8
?
Plato’s Tetralogies
427 BC
7
?
Caesar’s Gallic Wars
44 BC
10
?
New Testament
50–95 AD
25,366
>99.5
If we don’t accept the validity and accuracy of the Bible, we must throw out much more than the Bible. Do we doubt writings with considerably less sources? The existence of George Washington? With considerable manuscript evidence, the Bible stands apart from other ancient writings.
Norman Geisler, a world renowned Bible scholar echoed this when he states: “Only 400 words of the NT are in doubt, whereas 764 lines of the Iliad are questioned. This five percent textual corruption (in the Iliad) compares with one-half of one percent of similar emendations in the New Testament”[2]
So the Bible has been preserved through the centuries for us as originally written; we can be confident of the accuracy of our copies as many of the differences exist in spelling or other minor issues.
Textual History
Two main lines of Greek texts exist, diverging in minor but important ways. The text used almost exclusively until the 1800’s was Textus Receptus. However, manuscript discoveries in Alexandria changed some scholars views. But are those manuscripts reliable?
In 1525, Erasmus compiled the first Greek text using texts from Byzantium, which had been in use previously for centuries, forming the basis for what would later be called Textus Receptus,[3] and the main text the KJV translators used. Although they had the other Alexandrian texts available (Codex Siniaticus, etc), they obviously felt the Alexandrian text base (later to become Westcott-Hort) was unsuitable.
Westcott and Hort compiled a Greek New Testament starting in 1853 and finished 28 years later, relying heavily on the Alexandrian Codex Vaticanus and Codex Siniaticus, changing the traditional Greek in over 8,000 places[4]. We’ll treat all these Alexandrian texts similarly and refer to them collectively as Westcott-Hort (not technically correct, but for our purposes it’s close enough). How they edited the text, the reasons why and their background becomes critical to understanding the newer translations derived from Westcott-Hort’s work.
Only two modern translations use the Textus Receptus Greek text (KJV, NKJV); all the others (NASB, NIV, etc) use Westcott-Hort or Alexandrian texts. After studying these a bit (which we’ll get to), it becomes apparent they’ve all been edited for theological reasons; the influence of early Gnostic heresy runs through Westcott-Hort’s text.
For ease of discussion we’re grouping various families of texts, which although not entirely accurate, proves sufficient for our purposes. For our uses, Byzantine, Textus Receptus and the Majority Text will be treated as equivalent, and simply called Textus Receptus, while Westcott-Hort, UBS, and Nestle-Aland will be treated as the Alexandrian line and referred to as Westcott and Hort or Alexandrian.
Gnostic Influence — Westcott and Hort
Early in church history a heretical group sprang up called the Gnostics, accepting the Greek idea of dualism between spirit and matter.[5] All matter in Gnostic teaching was evil; since all matter is evil, Jesus really didn’t have a physical body and no physical resurrection occurred. The Gnostics also believed they had special knowledge, leading to spiritual elitism in the early church.
The Gnostic’s teaching on the evilness of material leads to two errors. On one side was a form of asceticism — the path to heaven comes by denying yourself (the extreme puritanical view). On the other side, your body (since it is evil) doesn’t matter. If you use drugs or party it really doesn’t matter since your body is evil anyway.
The Gnostic heresy Jesus didn’t have a body denies His death, physical resurrection, and thus His atonement for our sins. The apostle John wrote his first letter (1 John) in part to combat Gnostic heresy. John writes he saw and handled Jesus — Jesus had a physical body. Even more, John warned anyone stating Jesus did not come in the flesh is not of God.
Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. (1 John 4:2–3 KJV)
John’s one statement debunks all of Gnostic heresy. Why then is academia so enamored by it? Why would Westcott-Hort follow such heresy when it so obviously contradicts Biblical teaching? Why have we allowed people who obviously rejected Biblical teaching to edit God’s Word?
Westcott and Hort edited the original Greek as they compiled their edition, but as we shall see, Gnostic philosophy heavily influenced both men. The Greek texts they used appear footnoted in your Bible as “the oldest and best manuscripts”. Yes, they’re the oldest, but are they the best? Westcott and Hort held strange theological views — do we trust them with God’s Word? Consider the words of Westcott and Hort themselves.
But the book which has engaged me most is Darwin ... My feeling is strong that the theory is unanswerable.[6]
No one now I suppose holds that the first three chapters of Genesis, for example, give a literal history--I could never understand how anyone reading them with open eyes could think they did.[7]
Christians are themselves in a true sense “Christs”.[8]
I am inclined to think that no such state as Eden (I mean the popular notion) ever existed, and that Adam’s fall in no degree differed from the fall of each of his descendants.[9]
These are their views. They’re entitled to them, of course, but do they agree with your Bible reading? In light of John’s warning about Gnostic heresy, can we trust these men to compile an accurate Greek text? As we’ll see in the examples, they allowed their un-orthodox views to influence their compilation of the Holy Scriptures — in some ways that simply make no sense.
The Bible must be considered an integrated message to be used as whole and complete. As soon as editing begins, contradictions and other problems arise, as we’ll see in the examples section. No way exists for Westcott-Hort (or anyone else) to edit the Biblical text and keep it consistent.
Go back and re-read the previous paragraph and make sure it sinks in. If the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God, any internal inconsistencies in a manuscript cause the rejection of that manuscript. No need to spend hours in the library on archaeological and historical records, if the manuscript contains internal errors it must be rejected.
Translational Issues
Once you decide on the textual base (Textus Receptus or Westcott-Hort), you must decide exactly how to translate — literal or paraphrase? Both have pros and cons, but mostly you want to know where on the scale your translation lies. If you’ve ever picked up a Greek-English interlinear you know it can be difficult to read, as this example shows.
so For loved God the world, so as the Son of Him, the Only-begotten, He gave, that everyone believing into Him not may perish, but have life everlasting. (John 3:16 Interlinear Greek-English NT, 3rd Edition, Jay P. Green)
So the question isn’t quite literal vs. paraphrase, but how much paraphrasing does the translator perform? A translator trying to remain literal will do the minimum required to put the sentence into grammatically correct English and no more, while a paraphrase tries to convey the idea of the original without using the exact wording of the original and may take into account cultural or other differences.
Weights and measures provide one easy example. How many people know what a cubit is? Or that 4 cubits make one fathom? Or 1 firkin is about 9 gallons? In a literal translation, these quantities translate as-is, and it’s up to you to understand what they are. In more of a paraphrase translation, these appear in modern measures.
It’s easiest to show this issue with examples, so we’ll move right to it.
Examples
Literal vs Paraphrase
Consider 2 Timothy 2:15 in two translations and examine how the literal verses paraphrase problem presents itself.
Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (KJV)
“Rightly divide” translates the Greek word orthotomeo (from orthos) — you might recognize as similar to the math term orthogonal meaning a right angle. So the KJV is literal. But do you know what it means? If you have a math background you understand orthogonal as precise, an exact right angle, as the KJV accurately and literally translates the Greek. Now consider the NIV.
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth (NIV)
“Correctly handles” is not literal, but for many people brings the truth of the verse out better. But notice instead of “Study” the NIV uses “Do your best” which completely changes the meaning making it less clear. Study implies dedication or devotion, while just doing your best can mean a lot less. John chapter seven provides another example.
His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judaea, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest. For there is no man that doeth any thing in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, show thyself to the world. (John 7:3–4 KJV)
You might miss Jesus’ brothers picking on Him a little; since they didn’t believe Jesus was God, they’re actually baiting Him to show His stuff. Now compare the New Living Translation.
Jesus’ brothers urged him to go to Judea for the celebration. “Go where your followers can see your miracles!” they scoffed. “You can’t become a public figure if you hide like this! If you can do such wonderful things, prove it to the world!” (John 7:3–4 NLT)
In these two examples you can see both the advantages and disadvantages of literal and paraphrase translation. Most of the time literal translation proves the most beneficial, but sometimes referring to a paraphrase proves advantageous.
Textual
For these, we’re using KJV and NKJV as examples of Textus Receptus, and as a representative of Westcott-Hort, the NIV (and also the NASB or the New American Standard Bible). Westcott-Hort influence most “modern” translations, even if they don’t follow exactly the full changes Westcott-Hort made (NIV more, NASB less). Some translations include the changes in footnotes, others include in the main text.
(Matthew 18:11 NKJV) For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.
(Matthew 18:11 KJV) For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.
(Matthew 18:11 NIV) deleted
NIV deletes entirely, while NASB brackets it as probably not in original text. Why delete this verse? Perhaps if you believe (as Westcott) we’re all true Christs and don’t have need of salvation.
(Matthew 25:13 NKJV) Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.
(Matthew 25:13 KJV) Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.
(Matthew 25:13 NIV) Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.
That’s a bizarre one. Why would I keep watch if I don’t know what time it was? But it’s not the time, it’s the time of Jesus’ return you don’t know. Jesus taught to always be on the lookout for His return — it can come anytime.
(Mark 2:17 NKJV) When Jesus heard it, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
(Mark 2:17 KJV) When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
(Mark 2:17 NIV) On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Another fun one. Jesus didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners. For what? An invitation to dinner? To Saturday’s football game? (NASB contains similar edit to NIV).
(Acts 8:37 NKJV) Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
(Acts 8:37 KJV) And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
(Acts 8:37 NIV) deleted
If you didn’t believe Jesus was God, you certainly wouldn’t want it in your text so you delete it. NASB brackets as not in original text.
(Ephesians 3:9 NKJV) and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ;
(Ephesians 3:9 KJV) And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
(Ephesians 3:9 NIV) and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.
NIV has God creating all things, NOT Jesus — which you wouldn’t want to say if you accept Gnostic heresy. Here Westcott-Hort directly contradict Paul in Colossians 1:16-17 who attributes creation to Jesus. In Colossians 1:17, Paul even states Jesus holds the atoms of the universe together. (NASB contains similar edit to NIV).
(1 Peter 4:1 NKJV) Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,
(1 Peter 4:1 KJV) Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;
(1 Peter 4:1 NIV) Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin.
Jesus didn’t just suffer, he suffered and died for us. NASB with similar edit to NIV.
(Revelation 11:17 NKJV) saying: “We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty, The One who is and who was and who is to come, Because You have taken Your great power and reigned.
(Revelation 11:17 KJV) Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.
(Revelation 11:17 NIV) saying: “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign.
Denying the return of Jesus. (NASB similar to NIV).
In these few examples, you can see how Westcott-Hort personal theology (or lack thereof) influenced their compilation of the Greek text. Some of these changes contradict other areas of the Bible, while others make no sense at all. Since the inerrant Word of God contains no errors, it must be Westcott-Hort making the mistakes.
King James Version
King James Only
Some claim the KJV as the only true Bible, claiming the translators of the KJV were divinely inspired just as Peter, Paul and John were. Unfortunately, no basis for this exists. They claim the KJV as the “perfect” Bible in English and put in on par with the original Greek! But as anyone who ever translated anything soon finds, it’s impossible to accurately translate one language to another. Even worse, Greek is one of the most rich languages, with English one of the worst.
My father tells me a story of someone who was KJV-Only and said when he finished reading another translation, he just tossed it on the coffee table. But when he finished reading the KJV, he reverently and gently placed it back from whence it came. That’s idolatry.
We could continue to debate the KJV-only crowd, but most people don’t hold such a view, and as such it isn’t worth the time to continue the discussion. Just be aware some people hold this view, and from time to time you will encounter them.
The KJV ranks as one of the best translations, although it’s not the only translation that has use.
Olde English
Some would throw away the KJV due to it’s old English. Certainly that can be a valid reason, but shouldn’t preclude your use of it; when studying any technical subject (math or science), certain terminology must be learned. The KJV is no different. Remember you’re reading text 2,000 years old from a different culture — it’s going to be different.
The first problem pops up with archaic words. Dictionaries exist if you need help, but you’ll quickly become accustomed to the vocabulary. But the bigger issue arises from words you think you know, but changed meaning over time; unless you’re aware of them you’ll definitely have problems reading the KJV.
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. (1 Thessalonians 4:15 KJV)
Any new translation translates “prevent” as “precede”; the word prevent changed meaning between 1611 and now and if you didn’t know this verse makes no sense.
For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. (2 Thessalonians 2:7 KJV)
“Let” changed meaning to “hinder”. Again, any recent translation correctly translates this verse (both of these verses change in the NKJV as well). A note for people who do like the KJV over other translations, the New Scofield Bible (1967 edition) gives you these notations so you’ll understand with outdated word changes made right in the text. If you’re a KJV person, get a copy of Scofield’s 1967 edition.
The other problem with old English arises from all the thees and thous in the KJV. However, a reason does exist for these in the text; it’s to differentiate singular and plural. Consider the following chart:[10]
NOM
OBJ
POSS
1st Singular
I
Me
My
1st Plural
We
Us
Our
2nd Singular
Thou
Thee
Thy
2nd Plural
Ye
You
Your
3rd Singular
He
Him
His
3rd Plural
They
Them
Their
NOM = nominative, case of the subjectOBJ = objective, case of the object of the verbPOSS = possessive, case of possessing.
Why is this important? Consider Luke 22:31–32.
And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. (Luke 22:31–32 KJV)
Here you can easily see Satan asked for much more than Peter — perhaps the entire group! However, Jesus prays for Peter himself. The distinction easily missed in other translations (including NKJV) the KJV makes abundantly clear (a similar situation also occurs in Exodus 4:15).
Comparison of Translations
So how do we rate the various translations? The following chart provides a guide for modern translations, showing which textual base they follow and a rough guide of how literally they translate the original Greek.
Translation
Text Base
Literal Scale
KJV
TR
1
NKJV
TR
1
NASB
WH
1-2
NIV
WH
4
NLT
WH
6
The Message
?
9
TR = Textus ReceptusWH = Westcott-HortLiteral scale runs from 0 (a perfect literal much like a Greek-English interlinear) to 10 (a complete paraphrase — the translator reads a paragraph and the translates it without trying to be literal).
It’s important to know just because the newer translations are marked as Westcott-Hort does not necessarily imply they follow all of Westcott-Hort; each translation has different ways of handling it. Some footnote, some delete, some ignore Westcott-Hort changes in some areas.
Recommendations
The preferred translation is the NKJV, useful for both teaching and personal study. The KJV appears in the majority of writings for a simple reason: no copyright issues (look at the first few pages of any other translation to see a list of rules of how you can quote it).
Use the New King James for primary use, study, and reading as it comes from the preferred Textus Receptus Greek Text. However, referring to a New Living Paraphrase in some cases will help you with meaning. These two translations provide a solid foundation for Bible Study.
Most importantly, understand all translations have problems. It’s important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the Bible translation you use. In the event you’re using another translation, it does not mean to throw it out or stop using it.
Conclusion
You must have balance — no translation is 100% perfect, they all have problems. This does not mean errors or inconsistencies exist in the Bible, only translation can never be perfect. It’s important to understand how your translation came to be, and what methods were used in its creation. Most importantly, you are encouraged to study on your own.
Bibliography and Notes
This article available as Adobe PDF download. Visit our download area for this and more!
Missler, Chuck "How we got Our Bible" (2 Tapes with notes) http://khouse.org
"Nelsons New Illustrated Bible Dictionary"
Smith, Chuck "The Foundation of the Word" (2 Tapes) http://www.thewordfortoday.org/kjv/html/sermons.cfm
Zodiahates "The Complete Word Study New Testament"
Passages marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.
Passages marked NKJV taken from the New King James Version of the Bible copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Passages marked NIV taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan publishing House. All rights reserved.The "NIV" and "New International Version" trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by International Bible Society. Use of either trademark requires the permission of International Bible Society.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Which Bible Translation?

2009-06-19T21:47:00.000+08:00

ISO 9002, do you know about it ?

2009-06-18T20:34:00.000+08:00

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

Translators may be aware of the ISO 9002 standard often used in the quality assurance of translation work. However, several questions need to be asked in the analysis of this standard within the field of translation:

1.Is this standard necessary?
2.Does this standard cover all the intricacies of translation?
3.Can quality in any way be assured (and measured)?
To (very) briefly summarise, the standard (also ISO 9001 2008) sets out the requirements for quality management in a variety of systems, not only translation therefore it is, by its very nature, a general set of requirements. The ISO revolves around the need to create a Quality Management System which enables people in an organisation to control, monitor and improve quality in the entire process. In order to achieve this, every organisation must see to it that the relevant documentation is in place which controls the quality management system. The process begins with the establishment of customer requirements and the general quality policy of the organisation through the establishment of quality objectives.

Although the above summary is (necessarily) brief it shows the very general nature of the ISO. To answer the first question, yes, quality standards are necessary for the translation process and product as they are for every field. The second question: does this standard cover all the intricacies of translation? Due to the fact that the ISO is so general it could in theory cover all the delicacies of the translation process, although it must be clear that the ISO suits better the work of translation agencies and companies rather than the individual freelancer working from home. The final question: can quality in any way be assured (and measured)? A previous post also dealt with this subject. The answer most certainly lies in the affirmative, although this is both a difficult and burdensome process as any quality assurance manager in any field may tell you.

It might be interesting for the translator and translation quality manager to consider two other methods of quality assurance/improvement that could be useful in the process of self-betterment:

Kaizen, a Japanese methodology/philosphy which is in essence the striving for continual improvement through the elimination of wasteful working practices and an openness to experimentation and change.

PDCA, essentially the Scientific Method as developed by Francis Bacon but revolving around quality improvement through the following stages: plan, do, check, act.

Although all of these are valuable tools for the translator, translator trainer and transltion quality manager, one cannot fail to take into consideration Katharina Reiss’ 1971 opus: Translation Criticism – The Potentials and Limitations. In it, Reiss formulates what is essential for Translation Quality Assessment. Even though this is not a ‘prefect’ solution it does go a long way in defining the problem. Perhaps, one possible solution for translation quality assessment would be to harness all the above methods in order to form one approach.

Arnold Lost in Translation

2009-06-17T21:14:00.002+08:00

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

I hope you enjoy this complete collection of 30 Arnold commercials for Japan. It only gets better so watch the whole thing. Never knew Arnold did these commercials. The whole video is about 10 minutes but it's worth it.

P.S. Click on the title "Arnold Lost in Translation" to view

Translation Prices: Cost of Translation and Localization Services

2009-06-16T08:21:00.000+08:00

by: Argos Multilingual

No, it doesn’t start with an "S” or an "F” and there is no "Q” in it. This word in our industry is ‘cena’ and it is the Polish word for"price”. Translation prices is exactly what we’ll be examining here. Price is usually, as anyone and everyone knows, the defining factor for customers on whether to purchase, and the defining factor for producers on how to target their products to the client base.

What horrible secrets about Eastern European translation pricing will be revealed in this article? Probably nothing too revolutionary. Hopefully this article will expose some common sense responses to issues with pricing, and probably address several universal problems shared by all translation companies and localization service providers in the rest of the world.

1. ROI – ‘Don’t bother localizing if you can’t make a profit’

There is plenty of talk about localization ROI and how it affects pricing. The decision of whether it pays to localize something before you decide to enter a market sounds obvious. Why then do we see companies complaining about localization costs in the context of their ROI?

The underlying issue here is that companies are complaining about their products’ lack of competitiveness. It happens, there’s no shame in that. No matter how you slice it, it comes down to money. And if there is not enough demand backed by money for a product, then localization, in the eyes of management, doesn’t seem to pay off. If an application is designed for Eastern European end users, then it either has to be relatively inexpensive or should be tailored to a specific niche market where lower sales volumes give an acceptable return. The Eastern European software market will not usually generate huge sales based on its size alone anyway.

As such, localization decisions are often put on a back burner, and investment decisions are based on poor information about the market. The result - a company finds itself in Eastern Europe before it has properly estimated sales potential. Then, normal business processes come into play; managers are pressed to make a profit, and we see the localization problem handed over to the local distributor.

All of a sudden, a company that specializes in software distribution is responsible for the software publisher’s image and quality in the local market. Local distributors are often very small, with little infrastructure, inadequate resources and small translation budgets (coming out of their own small pockets). Nonetheless, localization responsibility for the product is suddenly literally dumped upon them. This imposes additional problems on the distributors not only associated with added incurred translation costs, but also the problem with answering questions such as: ‘how to localize’, ‘what agency to hire’, ‘how to go about adapting the product to this region’…

It all boils down to one simple fact, distributors usually lack the experience in localization, and that lack of experience will further result in declining sales numbers and added costs.

Software publishers fool themselves into thinking that it is so much in the distributor’s interest to do a great job localizing the product (ergo, the distributor will have an easier time selling the product) that they, themselves, don’t need to worry about it. However, distributors usually don’t understand the complex issues connected with localization. Even if a distributor does recognize what’s involved, the "simple, low-value added service” attitude toward localization services prevails. The real world consequences are poor-quality localization and serious harm to the software publisher’s image and brand.

2. What’s going on among the bigger buyers of translation/localization services?

What are the organizational structures of larger buyers of localization services, and how do they affect the price of translation? It seems as if Microsoft is getting its act together by limiting the number of vendors and giving the remaining more work. IBM and Oracle also seem to be well-organized in this respect. Unfortunately, there are other large buyers of translation and localization services that have not addressed the issue of centralizing or streamlining costs.

It is quite remarkable how some large buyers deal with this problem. Our translation company, Argos Translations, works with one particular client directly through two different offices and indirectly through three other localization companies. Of course, we are paid different rates, negotiated completely independently with each of these channels. And now the punch line: the rates we receive working through one localization company are 50% higher than what we receive working directly for the client. So where are the client savings? Where is the streamlining? What about consistent terminology? The value of working through a limited number of MLVs is understandable, but what is the point of doing it a little this way and a little that way?

How the biggest clients deal with their translation and localization is only one issue. Another question is how far these companies are willing to go to lower localization costs. Last year, our company was in negotiations with a very large global company to take over a large portion of their Slovak localization work. I am not going to name any names here, but suffice it to say that this is one of the elite, with over $50 billion in annual global sales. Since this was a large, long-term client, and there were significant volumes involved (mostly documentation), we decided to quote this client the extraordinary attractive localization / translation price (at that time) of Euro 0.12 per source word.

The company got back in touch with us to tell us that they really liked our experience and wanted to choose us, but they had an issue: price. We asked whether it was a question of 1 or 2 Euro cents, and they made it clear that the price would have to be "significantly” lower. It was obvious that we weren’t even close to their price expectations. They were looking for Euro 0.07-0.08! How is it possible that the rates being paid by this particular global giant were so low? How does this reflect upon our industry? The only answer I can offer is that such clients receive low translation prices at the expense of similarly low level of quality that they obtain.

3. Quality: does anybody really care?

I was recently dozing through a translation conference as one of the speakers, a professor of linguistics, was discussing the ethical importance of a high-quality translation. I was suddenly jolted awake by a statement he made along the lines of "it is the translation vendor’s ethical responsibility to ensure the highest-quality translation.” When question time arrived, I duly asked what we should do if our client does not give us enough time to do the job in an "ethically responsible” manner. The gentleman told me that it was our moral responsibility to ask for more time.

As good and applicable as his reasoning is, unfortunately it almost never applies in the real world. I tried to imagine the response that I’d receive if I were to call my client and suggest, "Listen, I know this is a 1.2 million-word project, but you really should have met your development schedule. And I know that your priority was to ship FIGS first, but this was delayed. And now, on top of all that, you want us to use this outdated TM software because this is what your previous version was in, yet the TM database we have received is full of inconsistencies that need to be removed before we start translating the new version. What it really comes down to is that we are only going to have time to do the translation and have it reviewed independently TWICE. This won’t be enough to maintain our ethical language standards.”

Unfortunately, the truth is (maybe I shouldn’t be saying this too loudly) that our business is full of concessions. It is a humorous concept, really, when you take into consideration that we are supposed to offer incredibly high-quality, incredibly fast turnaround times at incredibly low rates. Obviously, something has to give here, and I believe that the way localization services providers handle this contradiction is by diminishing the definition of excellence in our industry.

The best companies in our industry are the ones that have the best systems in place to provide the highest quality possible while trying to maintain costs at a level that does not hinder such quality, according to "real world” business conditions. Otherwise, we’re all familiar with the concept of ‘garbage in, garbage out’. It is that simple, really.

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

To Be a Good Translator

2009-06-15T09:23:00.000+08:00

By Leila Razmjou
BA in English Translation
MA in Applied Linguistics (TEFL )
Iran
leilarazmjou@yahoo.com

Source: Translation Directory

Paper presented at the Second International Conference on "Critical Discourse Analysis: the Message of the Medium" in Yemen, Hodeidah University, October, 2003

In addition to being a member of our country, we are members of the world community, and this gives us a global identity. Therefore, it is quite natural for us to think about world affairs and cooperate in solving the world's problems. To do so, the first and most important tool is "language," which is socially determined. Our beliefs and ideologies are always reflected in our way of talking, although the connections are hidden and only "critical language study" reveals these hidden connections in discourse.

Furthermore, we know that a nation's culture flourishes by interacting with other cultures. Cultural variety opens our eyes to human rights, but cultural variety can only be recognized through discussions, which leads us back to the major tool for discussion: "language."

The role of language in the developing world is materialized through "translating," and since critical language study is concerned with the processes of producing and interpreting texts and with the way these cognitive processes are socially shaped, it can be considered as an alternative approach to translation studies.

The world is becoming smaller and smaller as the systems of communication and information are developing and becoming more and more sophisticated. In the process of such a rapid exchange of information and for the purpose of improving cultural contacts, one thing is inevitable, and that is "translating." This is why there is a need for competent translators and interpreters.

As mentioned earlier, the whole world is undergoing complex changes in different areas such as technology and education. These changes necessarily have an important bearing on systems of higher education, including translator training programs.

According to Shahvali (1997), theoretical knowledge and practical skills alone are not adequate to prepare students to face the developments in the field. There is a need for ability to adapt; therefore, it is necessary to focus on students' self-updating and to develop their relevant mental, communicative, and planning skills.

Training translators is an important task which should be given a high priority. The service that translators render to enhance cultures and nurture languages has been significant throughout history. Translators are the agents for transferring messages from one language to another, while preserving the underlying cultural and discoursal ideas and values (Azabdaftary, 1996).

The translator's task is to create conditions under which the source language author and the target language reader can interact with one another (Lotfipour, 1997). The translator uses the core meaning present in the source text to create a new whole, namely, the target text (Farahzad, 1998).

Bearing these facts in mind, the question is: what skills are needed to promote translating ability? And how can one become a good translator?

The first step is extensive reading of different translations of different kinds of texts, since translating requires active knowledge, while analyzing and evaluating different translations requires passive knowledge. Therefore, receptive skills should be developed before the productive ones; i.e. by reinforcing their passive knowledge, students will eventually improve their active knowledge. Receptive skills improve the students' language intuition and make them ready for actual translating.

A good translator is someone who has a comprehensive knowledge of both source and target languages. Students should read different genres in both source and target languages including modern literature, contemporary prose, newspapers, magazines, advertisements, announcements, instructions, etc. Being familiar with all these genres is important, since they implicitly transfer culture-specific aspects of a language. Specialized readings are also suggested: reading recently published articles and journals on theoretical and practical aspects of translation. The articles will not only improve the students' reading skill in general, but also give them insights which will subconsciously be applied when actually translating.

"Writing" skills, i.e. the ability to write smoothly and correctly in both source and target languages, are also important. Writing is in fact the main job of a translator. Students should become familiar with different styles of writing and techniques and principles of editing and punctuation in both source and target languages. Editing and punctuation improve the quality and readability of the translation (Razmjou, 2002).

Moreover, translation trainees should have a good ear for both source and target languages; i.e. they should be alert to pick up various expressions, idioms, and specific vocabulary and their uses, and store them in their minds to be used later. This is in fact what we call improving one's "intuition." Intuition is not something to be developed in a vacuum; rather, it needs practice and a solid background. It needs both the support of theory and the experience of practice. Language intuition is a must for a competent translator.

One of the most important points to consider in the act of translating is understanding the value of the source text within the framework of the source-language discourse. To develop this understanding, the translator must be aware of the cultural differences and the various discoursal strategies in the source and target languages. Therefore, the hidden structure of the source text should be discovered through the use of various discoursal strategies by the translator.

A good translator should be familiar with the culture, customs, and social settings of the source and target language speakers. She should also be familiar with different registers, styles of speaking, and social stratification of both languages. This socio-cultural awareness, can improve the quality of the students' translations to a great extent. According to Hatim and Mason (1990), the social context in translating a text is probably a more important variable than its genre. The act of translating takes place in the socio-cultural context. Consequently, it is important to judge translating activity only within a social context.

After developing a good competence in both source and target languages, actual translating may begin. But there is a middle stage between the competence-developing stage and actual translating: becoming aware of various information-providing sources and learning how to use them. These sources include: different monolingual and bilingual dictionaries, encyclopedias, and the Internet.

Using dictionaries is a technical skill in itself. Not all students know how to use dictionaries appropriately. Words have different meanings in different contexts, and usually monolingual dictionaries are of utmost value in this regard. Students need a great deal of practice to find the intended meaning of words in a particular context, using monolingual dictionaries.

Translation trainees also need to be familiar with the syntax of indirect speech and various figures of speech in the source language such as hyperbole, irony, meiosis, and implicatures. Awareness of these figures of speech will reinforce students' creativity and change their passive knowledge into active skill.

While there is a strong emphasis on developing source and target language competencies, the ways in which students can develop them should not be neglected. Group work and cooperation with peers can always lead the translating process to better results. Students who practice translation with their peers will be able to solve problems more easily and will also more rapidly develop self-confidence and decision-making techniques (Razmjou, 2002). Although there is a possibility of making mistakes during group work, the experience of making, detecting, and correcting mistakes will make the students' minds open and alert.

Another important point is that successful translators usually choose one specific kind of texts for translating and continue to work only in that area; for example a translator might translate only literary works, scientific books, or journalistic texts. Even while translating literary works, some translators might choose only to translate poetry, short stories, or novels. Even more specific than that, some translators choose a particular author and translate only her or his works. The reason is that the more they translate the works of a particular author, the more they will become familiar with her or his mind, way of thinking, and style of writing. And the more familiar is the translator with the style of a writer, the better the translation will be.

Translation needs to be practiced in an academic environment in which trainees work on both practical tasks under the supervision of their teachers and theoretical aspects to enhance their knowledge. In an academic environment, recently published articles, journals and books on translation are available to the trainees, who thus become familiar with good translators and their work by reading them and then comparing them with the original texts. In this way, trainees will develop their power of observation, insight, and decision-making, which in turn will lead them to enhance their motivation and improve their translating skills.

Therefore, translation studies has now been recognized as an important discipline and has become an independent major, separate from foreign-language studies, in universities. This reflects the recognition of the fact that not everybody who knows a foreign language can be a translator, as it is commonly and mistakenly believed. Translation is the key to international understanding. So in this vast world of communication and information overload, we need competent translators who have both the theoretical knowledge and practical skills to do their jobs well. The importance of theoretical knowledge lies in the fact that it helps translators acquire an understanding of how linguistic choices in texts reflect other relationships between senders and receivers, such as power relationships, and how texts are sometimes used to maintain or create social inequalities (Fairclough, 1989).

Finally, it is important to know that it takes much more than a dictionary to be a good translator, and translators are not made overnight. To be a good translator requires a sizeable investment in both source and target languages. It is one of the most challenging tasks to switch safely and faithfully between two universes of discourse. Only a sophisticated and systematic treatment of translation education can lead to the development of successful translators. And the most arduous part of the journey starts when translation trainees leave their universities.

Works cited

Azabdaftari, B. 1997. Psychological Analysis of Translation Process. Motarjem Journal, Mashhad, Iran. 21 & 22: 7-12 (Translation).

Fariclough,N. 1989. Language and Power. London, Longman.

Farahzad, F. 1998. A Gestalt Approach to Manipulation in Translation. Perspectives: Studies in Translatology, 6 (2): 153-233.

Hatim, B. & I. Mason. 1990. Discourse and the Translator. London: Longman.

Lotfipour, S.K. 1985. Lexical Cohesion and Translation Equivalence. Meta, XLII, 1, 185-92.

Razmjou, L. 2002. Developing Guidelines for a New Curriculum for the English Translation BA Program in Iranian Universities. Online Translation Journal, V. 6, No.2 http://accurapid.com/journal/20edu1.htm

Shahvali, M. 1997. Adaptation Knowledge, the Passage of Success and Creativity (Translation).

This article was originally published at Translation Journal (http://accurapid.com/journal).

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

How many words per day?

2009-06-14T09:28:00.001+08:00

© By Anita Karlson Henssler
A freelance translator (English, German and Danish into Norwegian).
Join PolarZone - her Free Newsletter for the Freelancer.
CH-4313 Moehlin, Switzerland
akarlson@polartext.com
www.polartext.com

One topic most freelance translators just starting up their business devote some thought and calculations to, is this: How many words am I supposed to translate per day?

Well, it is a tricky question - and it doesn't really have an answer! We all have different working approaches, different speciality fields, different software etc. This makes it very difficult to generalize. You will soon notice yourself; two texts of equal length will take you different long to translate.

The main factors involved in deciding how many words you can translate per hour or per day are:

Text format - When you are working from hardcopies it takes longer than when you are working on electronic texts. It will also go quicker if you are working in a program you are very familiar with as opposed to a program you have just bought and are unfamiliar with.

Available dictionaries - Looking up words you don't know will go quick if your dictionaries are good. If you have to search for words - be it on the Internet or at the library - you will loose a lot of time.

Use of CAT-tools - If you are using a CAT-tool, the translation process will go quicker, especially if you are working on a repetitive text.

Speciality topic - The more familiar you are with the topic, the quicker the translating will go.

Style of the source text - Another factor is the style the author of the source text has used. If you compare two texts within the same topic you might find that one text will consist of floating and poetic sentences whilst the other will have short and hard sentences.

Typing speed - How quick can you type? This is also one factor determining how many words per day you get through.

Motivation - When you are having a bad day and not feeling too good, it will also be very difficult to get your work done. The more motivated and focused you are, the quicker you can translate.

Then you also have to calculate the time it will take you to edit and proofread your work. The translating job does not consist of just translating - you also have to check and double check your work!

The average translator will tell you that he or she can translate 100 words per hour working on a complicated text where he or she is not familiar with the topic and needs to do a lot of research. On the other hand the same translator will tell you he or she can do 500 words per hour working on an easy text in his or her speciality field.

When working on a project requiring extra effort an average translator will do up to 4000 - 6000 words per day. But this workload cannot be maintained over longer periods of time. An average translator will do between 2000 and 3000 words per day, working at a comfortable speed and also having time to revise and proofread his or her work properly.

Consider the following two translations: Translation 1 is a PowerPoint presentation consisting of 1200 words and the text is an environmental report. Translation 2 is a software manual of 3000 words written in Word. If you asked several translators to perform these two translations and then asked how long each translation took them, you would not get the same answer from any of them.

I would use about six hours for the first job and about seven hours for the second job, that is including editing and proofreading, not counting breaks. Even if translation 2 has over double the amount of words, I do not need much more time on that than the first translation. I am not very familiar with the topic environment. I would have to spend relatively much time researching the terminology and looking up words. In addition, I am not very familiar with PowerPoint either. Even though this is a relatively easy program, I am bound to run into a problem or two. A software manual, on the other hand, is right up my street. This is a subject I don't need to do a lot of research on, as I am quite familiar with the terminology used. In addition Word would not cause me any problems.

So basically you have to set your own standards. To do this you can time yourself. See how much you can translate of different types of texts in one hour. This way you get an idea of how much you can expect to do in a day of a certain type of text. You learn as you go - and soon you will be able to predict very accurately how long it will take you to translate any given text.

Copyright © 2003 Anita Karlson Henssler

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

Major mistakes when responding to job offers

2009-06-13T08:13:00.000+08:00

By Natasha Cloutier
Chez Natasha
www.cheznatasha.nl

Wondering why you never got an answer to your e-mail? Sometimes potential clients do not have the time or simply do not need your services. Other times, it could very well be that your message is the real reason. Have a look at the following mistakes to see if any of them sound familiar and find out how to avoid these mistakes in the future.

Always check your spelling

Mistakes are unacceptable when selling language services.

Solution: Use a spellchecker and proofread your message.

Reason: It looks unprofessional and does not instil confidence.

Actually… It makes selecting potential candidates much easier.

Answer the client’s questions

Potential clients should never have to search for answers.

Solution: Make sure you actually answer their questions.

Reason: It looks like you haven’t read their job offer.

Actually… Who wants to work with someone who can’t communicate?

Resist applying for a freelance job following an in-house job offer

A potential client knows what they need better than you do.

Solution: Read the posting carefully.

Reason: It looks like you don’t care what your client needs.

Actually… It can look desperate.

Avoid using ‘Dear Sirs’

Reason: Using ‘Dear Sirs’ means you are making assumptions that could offend.

Solution: Use ‘Dear Sir or Madam’.

Actually… Women throw these ones out and men find them impersonal.

When answering per e-mail:

Do not send your résumé as an attachment unless asked

Solution: Paste your résumé into the body of your e-mail.

Reason: People will regard your e-mail as a virus and throw it out.

Actually… It’s quite irritating.

Do not automatically hit the reply button of your e-mail programme

Solution: Put the right e-mail address in your reply before writing.

Reason: You may need to send it to a different person.

Actually… You come off inexperienced and sloppy.

Sending e-mail to several people with their addresses showing

Reason: People respond better to anything addressed to them personally.

Solution: Test your e-mail by sending a message to yourself.

Actually… It shows a lack of confidentiality.

Other things to avoid

Writing in capital letters.
Actually… It looks and feels like screaming.

Sending an e-mail message with nothing but “see attachment”.
Actually… It looks like spam, it’s impersonal, and will be thrown out.

Applying for a job offer that does not match your qualifications.
Actually… It can look desperate and it is a waste of time.

Using a tone that is either too humble or too overbearing.
Actually… It sets a bad tone for any future dealings.

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

FIST - First International Strike of Translators

2009-06-12T08:51:00.001+08:00

Only A Fantasy?

By Alex Gross
http://language.home.sprynet.com/
alexilen@sprynet.com

This article is at least partly a fantasy. I know all the reasons why the events I am about to describe are unlikely to take place in the near future. I will even examine these reasons in some detail towards the end. But for now let us simply entertain the idea embodied in my title and see where it leads us. Let us imagine that all the professional translators in the world, working in their separate countries in business, science, diplomacy, or even espionage and the military, have in fact come together as a single group and have launched a strike under a single banner, First International Strike of Translators or "FIST," bearing a device something like the one shown here. Let's just assume this has happened or is about to happen. I then have three questions. Who precisely are we, the ones about to go out on strike? Assuming we can answer this and have decided we have something in common, what is it that we would want, what would be our actual demands? A strike—or the threat of one—is of course the classic weapon to resolve grievances, but we must first define what these grievances are and how they might be resolved. And finally, what effects could such a strike possibly have, both for ourselves and for the world beyond us?

Let us begin by talking about who we are, even though we may suppose we know this well enough. First of all, we are people who through birth, study and/or accident have come to be familiar with two or more languages. In all but a few countries this already marks us as unusual. And even in those countries where bilingualism is more accepted, we still stand out because we habitually deal in the detailed process of crossing between our languages and in helping others to do so. In some countries this ability is held in awe, in others it is dismissed as a rote skill and/or a plentiful commodity, and in yet others it is the object of considerable suspicion. In none of these lands, even where translation is more commonplace, is the ability to translate regarded as altogether normal. After all, we translators can actually handle two or more languages, are able to live to some degree in two or more cultures, and may in fact have two or more loyalties. And in a world of single loyalties, single nationalities and single cultural choices, this marks us as different and also as potentially dangerous. We all know this of course, and we do the best we can to prove our loyalty to the countries and companies which employ us.

But if we are looking for something to unite us in our undertaking, this is certainly a factor worth considering. Whatever our nations, origins or loyalties, it is likely to be something we have in common. We are able to look at two or more different cultural contexts and explain the first in terms of the second and often the second in terms of the first as well. In a world of single loyalties this is a useful skill but also an odd accomplishment, something that marks us both as dull, devoted drones and as potentially divided outsiders.

Such an accomplishment is all the more remarkable in a world where at least some ideological and national distinctions are slowly beginning to blur, blend, perhaps relax a bit. Let's just suppose that some of the internationalist rhetoric we are beginning to hear is actually true, let's imagine that we really are moving into a broader, more multi-cultural world environment. What do we then become? Do we not first and foremost among all human beings bear the banner of such a change? Could it just possibly turn out that we are pioneers and heroes? If the world's definition of freedom were expanded to embrace being free to know more than one culture, might we not rank rather highly in such a hierarchy of freedom? Is all this also a fantasy, or is it something worth considering? Such is my partial answer to the question "Who are we?"

And now the second question: what is it that we want? Assuming we could get every translator in the world to go out on strike with us, what would we ask as conditions for returning to work? Would we merely insist on the time-honored demand of improvements in pay and working conditions? Would we perhaps add a few clerical caveats on the maximum numbers of words to be translated per hour? Would we express Luddite dismay at the appearance of computers in our midst? Or would we launch some truly powerful salvos on the philosophical and educational level at a world that still fails to understand the true interactive relationship between language and reality? I am appending a tentative list of such demands—as I see them right now—and invite dialogue with readers to expand and refine them.

PROVISIONAL DEMANDS OF THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL
STRIKE OF TRANSLATORS

1. Specific demands concerning pay, working hours, and work conditions, to be formulated cooperatively by an international committee, with possible differences according to specific conditions in various countries and societies.

2. Explicit recognition by all the world's governments of the primacy of the translation process in international communication and a commitment from these governments to ensure, in cooperation with our standing committees, the highest possible standards of translation in all such communication media.

3. A further commitment from the world's governments and universities that they regard language/translation as the major fountainhead of culture and human understanding, and that they realize that knowledge and science are more likely to be seen in the future as a branch of language than language as a branch of knowledge or science.

4. The granting by all countries (or by an international organization) of special passports for translators, similar to those issued to diplomats, facilitating travel for them in all foreign countries they may wish to visit.

5. Granting translators the option to refuse to translate texts they find morally unacceptable, for example declarations of war, terrorist demands, death threats, statements that one nation or people is intrinsically superior to another, assertions about religious or political systems that are injurious to those holding different views. In such cases, translators would at least have the option of returning these statements to their authors for further thought and redrafting. While this demand may appear radical at first, it in fact reflects a process already at work in some international organizations, where the fine print and fine tuning of international agreements sometimes reaches its final shaping in the hands of translators or results from a cooperative process involving them.

6. Gaining widespread recognition and publicity through national and international bodies for what is at present a barely perceived reality, namely that the quality of a translation is to a great extent dependent on the quality and clarity of the original text. Just as it is rarely possible to make a clear xerox from a fuzzy original unless it is first enhanced, so a poorly conceived and indifferently written original text can be just barely rendered into a foreign language with considerable help from the translator. In practical terms, Adjudicative Committees comprised of translators should be formed to deal with problems arising in this area. In major cases where complaints of an "unfaithful translation" may be lodged, the role of such a committee would be to determine if such complaints are justified or if any truly faithful translation would have been possible in the first place. Where complaints are found to be unjustified, the committee shall be empowered to fine those lodging them for willful abuse of the translator and to require them to bear the expense of such proceedings. Decisions of such a committee shall be binding.

7. The right of translators to function as final advisors on the feasibility and usefulness of all computer-based translation aids and to determine standards on how these will be used in their work. This by no means indicates hostility to such devices among translators, many of whom are actually curious or even excited to learn how such devices can help them in their work. This demand merely confirms two recognized circumstances, that the use of computers in translation is still a relatively new and untried process, and that there is a great deal of misleading information in this field. A computer system may work brilliantly in the hands of its inventors and yet create intractable problems when integrated into normal work routines. Some systems which work well in one setting are less successful in others. Other systems, touted only recently as useful translation aids, have disappeared along with their manufacturers. Furthermore, as with interpreters, whose work is often so demanding that they can only work for brief one- or two-hour shifts, there may also be special human needs connected with using computers in the demanding field of translation. This could prove especially true in those cases where advocates of complex and expensive systems promise vastly increased outputs without considering the work or health needs of human translators.(1)

And now our most crucial question: would we actually be able to realize these demands by launching—or threatening to launch—such a strike? This question strikes at the heart of our fantasy and also forces us to consider the reasons why, according to many, such a strike could never in fact occur. Or, if it did, could never succeed. I will consider these arguments in a candid manner and without totally denying that such criticisms have some merit. But it also is worth considering that what seems totally impossible today may not be at all impossible a few years or a few decades from now.

The first thing we should clearly realize is that we are under no obligation to begin such a strike right away. In fact all practical experience in this field dictates that we should not begin it until we are truly ready. The key to all successful strikes is capable, prolonged, and thorough organization, and this would clearly involve endless work. In the meantime the mere announcement that translators might be planning such a strike or are even discussing its possibility can, in a media-driven world, begin to give us some of the publicity we need to start mobilizing our own resources. It is just possible that we already possess some of the necessary power—we simply need to make this power manifest and begin to shape it in the public awareness and in our own. No doubt some early reports would ridicule our efforts and suggest that they are doomed to failure, as the world at large does not tend to view translators as very important in the scheme of things and supposes that we are all easily replaceable, whether by other translators or by machines.

But it is precisely here where our organization and research efforts should concentrate, in order to prepare a credible response to such charges. Thus, I visualize the initial effort to realize these demands as being one of prolonged discussion, organization, international coordination and "consciousness raising" among ourselves, along with a parallel publicity campaign to keep the press and general public apprised of our intentions and progress. One major goal of these discussions and organizing activities will be to provide others and ourselves with accurate answers to our last question: what would happen if the strike actually took place? And to prepare practical answers to this question beforehand.

At this point I am prepared to claim on the theoretical plane—leaving some of the hardest questions for last—that if we were successful during the discussion and organization phase, and if we really were able to persuade all translators and interpreters in all fields in all nations to go on strike with us, the results could be nothing less than astounding. Business, communications, international relations, science, the military, espionage, patent registry, and applications for international jobs and divorces would all come to a grinding halt. The entire world—ourselves not least of all—would be astonished by the truly enormous power that flows through our hands.

But how would the world react to such a strike, you must by now be asking, would not all governments everywhere simply rush out and hire others to take our places, leaving us all out on our ears without a job? The answer to this question would depend on how effective we had been during the earlier phase of publicizing our demands. If we did a good enough job here, we might never actually have to go on strike. It might be possible to convince the world's governments and businesses of our enhanced value without ever having to fire a shot.

Here we would need to stress the specialist nature of our work and persuade the public that it would be far harder to find replacements for us than they think. We do more than move words and phrases around, we regularly fashion and transfer entire realities between nations. But even if we failed in this effort—and even if we failed in our strike—we would still have the satisfaction of knowing, as we stood on the unemployment lines, that it was only a question of time before our replacements came to feel the same way about their work as we do and began to voice the same desires and grievances. We are after all a very special group of people, and any others who try to play our role must necessarily be or become much the same people as ourselves.

It's time to consider the really hard questions, which I have postponed until now. I am of course well aware that as of now not all translators will share my views or even grant the need for such a strike. I also know that many translators have worked so long as intermediaries and are so accustomed to professional self-abnegation that for them any such appeal to activism must seem profoundly inappropriate. Other translators work directly for the government or the military and are certain their employers would never countenance anything like what I have described . Yet other translators work in countries where the legitimacy of any strike by the citizenry, much less by government workers, has never been granted. Thus, as innocent and well-meaning as we may see ourselves and our cause, some of us could actually end up being jailed—perhaps even executed (this is after all a fantasy)—for our efforts. Yet I believe that solutions might become possible in all these cases, provided we are not in too great a hurry.

On the positive side, translators and interpreters are already international by the very nature of their work. We share an international network of contacts, professional groups, and publications. It is by no means impossible that we can spread the word of our plans far and wide. We are after all also a relatively small group of people, and this has advantages as well as disadvantages. Some may also argue that business and government would simply ransack the schools and universities for linguists to take our places. We can provide against this by expanding our group in the first place to embrace all language professionals, including teachers, perhaps restyling ourselves as FISTITALP or "First International Strike of Translators, Interpreters, Terminologists, and Allied Language Professionals." Or we can just let the government go ahead and draft language professors—it might be amusing to see if they are really able to translate.

At this point, my fantasy—to the extent that it is a fantasy— is running low. It really does seem to me that there ought to be some means by which translators can come to enjoy more recognition than they now receive. They are in a very real sense life's true aristocrats, connoisseurs, and Kenner, its enjoyers of multi-realities, as anyone knows who has ever heard them converse or joined them at table. In an increasingly sophisticated and multicultural world they—unlike wealthy idlers, businessmen or scientists—are the true distinguishers of the world's many realities and the touchstone of the differences between them. It is hard to believe, strike or no, that they will not soon be recognized for their unique pioneering qualities.

But of course some will simply smile my fantasy away. Such a scenario surely belongs only to the future. Or perhaps someone will come along, do everything I have described and more, and describe me as an old fuddy-duddy for even calling it a fantasy.

(1) For further information about these aspects, see Jean Datta's excellent treatment Machine Translation in Large Organizations: Revolution in the Workplace, pp. 167-173, Technology as Translation Strategy, American Translators Association Scholars Monograph Series, Vol. II, 1988, edited by Muriel Vasconcellos, University of New York at Binghampton (SUNY).

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

"Waiter! There’s an insect of the order Diptera in my soup!"

2009-06-11T09:06:00.000+08:00

By Karen Elwis
21st October, 2004

Translation Company in London: Lingo24

The following genuine examples are an amusing reminder of what can happen when you don't use a professional translation company...

On menu of Swiss restaurant: "Our wines leave you nothing to hope for."

On the door of a Moscow hotel room - "If this is your first visit to the USSR, you are welcome to it!"

Useful advice on how to drive Tokyo style: "When passenger of foot heave in sight, tootle the horn. Trumpet him melodiously at first, but if he still obstacles your passage then tootle him with vigour."

Bucharest hotel lobby: "The lift is being fixed for the next day. During that time we regret that you will be unbearable."

In Austrian ski resort: "Not to perambulate the corridors in the hours of repose in the boots of ascension."

Shop entrance in Majorca: "English well talking. Here speeching American."

In a Paris hotel elevator: "Please leave your values at the front desk."

In a Bangkok dry cleaner's: "Drop your trousers here for best results."

On menu of Polish restaurant: "Salad a firm's own make: limpid red beet soup with cheesy dumplings in the form of a finger; roasted duck let loose; beef rashers beaten up in the country people's fashion." [Wonder if they ever caught the duck?!]

All goes to show - when it comes to translation, you need the professionals!

© Lingo24 Ltd

Translation services - Lingo24 is a leading provider of translation services between all major world languages. Based in the UK, the company also has full-time operations in China, Romania and New Zealand.

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

The language of business – how fluent are you?

2009-06-10T09:43:00.000+08:00

By Karen Elwis
14th November, 2004

Translation Company in London: Lingo24

In an increasingly global marketplace, it's high time that UK exporters realised the importance of translating or localising their sales websites into foreign languages. Karen Elwis has found a quick test to ascertain readers' current level of expertise in European "commercial-speak".

Foreign languages and business culture can be major headaches for British exporters, yet surprisingly few companies employ in-house linguists and many have no system in place to deal with commercial enquiries in a foreign language. Of course, many British export managers claim that most business is conducted in English anyway. However, in the current global market such a myopic approach to international trade could cost them more than they think. For today the power of the Internet can allow exporters to reach previously unattainable customers in far-flung parts of the globe, and businesses who have had the foresight to have their website translated into the languages spoken in their target marketplaces or ' better still ' "localized" (translated AND culturally adapted), are reaping the benefits big-time.

To see how you measure up when it comes to foreign languages, why not have a go at the following quick multi-lingual quiz, first published in an edition of Director magazine.

FRENCH

Donnez-moi vos coordonnés et je vous l'envoie tout de suite.
1. Tell me your address and I will send you a whole set.
2. Give me your details and I will get it to you at once.
3. Give me your tailor's address: I envy you your suit.
4. Let's co-ordinate this and I'll send you the whole suite.

Nous respectons toujours les délais de livraison.
1. We always respect delivery delays.
2. We carry out our deliveries by relay.
3. We always meet our delivery dates.
4. We have late deliveries every day.

GERMAN

Wir liefern frei Haus innerhalb Englands.
1. We deliver free houses in England.
2. We run free houses in England.
3. We ran free around England.
4. We do free delivery within England.

Bei dieser Menge kann ich Ihnen einen guten Rabatt anbieten.
1. I can offer a good discount on that quantity.
2. In a place like that you can always find your way.
3. Would you like some good rabbit in that mixture?
4. I can get you a good rebate.

SPANISH

Les presento un equipo muy competente.
1. Let me present you with a very competitive piece of equipment.
2. I'd like to give you a very competent piece of equipment.
3. I'd like to introduce a very fine piece of equipment.
4. Let me introduce you to a very competent team.

Vamos a aprobar el acta de la reunión anterior.
1. We approve of the actions of the previous board.
2. Let us approve the minutes of the last meeting.
3. We are going to test the actions of the last meeting.
4. Let's go and act out the previous reunion.

ANSWERS: French 2,3 German 4,1 Spanish 4,2

© Lingo24 Ltd

Translation services - Lingo24 is a leading provider of translation services between all major world languages. Based in the UK, the company also has full-time operations in China, Romania and New Zealand.

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

Hints for Translators

2009-06-09T09:18:00.000+08:00

By Korina Hansel,
an experienced Germany-based freelance translator & author
and member of the Babelport SiteTeam
Leipzig, GERMANY
www.babelport.com/members/23

The translation market profited enormously from the globalisation, which took place over the past decades. How can you profit from this development?

The business of translation has become highly competitive. Prices are constantly decreasing due to the vast availability of service providers worldwide, which does of course depend on the language combination you are offering.

Clients who need the services of a language professional often do not value the work that is done and regard spending money on translation as a necessary evil, not taking into consideration that the text that needs to be translated (be it a manual, a presentation or business correspondence) also serves as an advertisement for their business, a sector which has had rising profits over the past decades.

Why not take some of this budget and put it into high quality translation that reflects the professionalism of the enterprise concerned? This, in turn, would put the translator in a much better position since his/her work would at last be valuated appropriately. It is, however, in the hands of the translators to stop complaining and start taking action. First, translators need to develop more self-esteem and pride in their profession. Second, translators need to develop and stick to strict business ethics. Last, get in contact with each other and share your experiences with your fellow translators.

Anyone who knows two languages to a certain extent can "translate", meaning that he can put words from one language (the source language) into another one (the target language). Yet there is much more to translation than just that and many people " those offering as well as those requesting translations " unfortunately, do not recognise this. Words are more than just meaning: words convey emotions and cultural concepts, which may exist in one language but not in another.

Thus it is the job of a translator to create target texts, which are truthful copies of the original but read as if they were originals in the target language. Translation is a demanding process that not everybody who knows two or more languages can master. A good translator loves languages and is totally dedicated to his/her job.

This includes the desire to constantly improve one's linguistic knowledge and to deepen the knowledge of his specialized field(s). Since the majority of required translations are "technical" ones, meaning translations in fields, which have their own specialized terminology, as opposed to literary translation, each translator is required to specialize in one or more fields (such as legal, financial, medical, IT-related, texts).

This means that one will have to stay in touch with the developments in these areas, even if one does not have translation jobs in one or more of his specialized fields for a while. Therefore, read as many newspapers, magazines and other publications concerning your specialization as you can. Try to organize your working day, which is especially important if you work from home. Let your clients know when they can reach you, and be available at those times, but do not forget that nobody can work 24/7. Leisure time is just as important as strict office hours are.

You should always be prepared that potential clients will ask for your rates, which you will have to know by heart. If you read the manual How to calculate your per word rate you will get an idea about what your minimum rate would have to be. Add a certain amount to this basic price since of course you are working in order to make a certain profit on top of only covering your basic needs. Let your clients know that.

Networking is the key to successful self-employment. This means that you should not only send your résumé to those agencies/clients that might benefit from your experience but also get in contact with your colleagues. You will probably profit from their experiences and be able to help them out when they need your advice.

Thus you are able to market yourself and gather useful information at the same time. Moreover, try to get in contact with freelancers working in other fields, such as marketing, web design etc. Who knows when they might need a language expert to translate their texts or websites into another language? And if you feel that you are not suitable for one job or another you will probably know someone you can refer to your client. Remember that it is most important to satisfy your clients. If you feel that you might not be able to satisfactorily fulfil your client's demand at one point or another let him/her know so and, if possible, refer the services of a colleague.

When it comes to dealing with agencies and direct clients be sure you settle all terms of payment, i.e. rate per source or target word/line etc., when and how payment will be received and so on, before even accepting a job. Make sure you have all necessary contact information at hand. An email address is not sufficient; if it has not been provided ask your contact person for his/her full name, postal address and telephone number.

The correctness of this information can easily be checked via the Internet, by calling that person and any other means available. Although the Internet provides a convenient, fast and easy means to get in contact with business partners anywhere in the world, it also comes in handy for those black sheep in the business who take advantage of the seeming anonymity of this technology.

Translation resources like babelport.com aim to minimize the risk involved in doing business via the Internet by establishing platforms where your customers can be rated according to your professional experience with them. So please make sure that you rate any agency or direct client you have worked for in order to help your colleagues.

Republished with permission by author and babelport.com - The translation industry information and project portal Visit http://www.babelport.com

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

The state of the language within the state of the industry

2009-06-08T08:26:00.000+08:00

By Bernie Bierman,
the author of "A Translator-Warrior Speaks: A Personal History of the American Translators Association",
Pawling, NY and Marco Island, FL

supremo [at] bbtranslations . com

To commemorate and celebrate its 50th birthday this year, the American Translators Association (ATA) has commissioned a history of the organization, and by extension – if you will – a contemporary history of translation in the United States.

Now then, without having seen a single word of the draft of that history, and indeed not having been privy to any of the behind-the-scenes workings, I can say with all of the definitiveness that I can muster, that not a single word will be written about or a single reference made to the language, linguistic, communications and writing abilities of those who labored in the translation industry some 30 or 40 or 50 or even 75 years ago. And clearly, there will not be a single word written about or a single reference made to the language, linguistic, communications and writing abilities of the early or even middle-period leaders of the ATA and the American translation industry.

If the name Alexander Gode (the co-founder of the ATA) is mentioned, it will not be in conjunction with the man’s awesome knowledge of language and linguistics, his unparalleled eloquence, his remarkable ability to paint landscapes with words.

If the name Lewis Bertrand (one of the leading translator-merchants of his day, if not the leading one) is mentioned, there will be no references to his writing abilities or to his credo that translation is communication and translation is all about communication, language and writing.

If the name Henry Fischbach (the other co-founder of the ATA) is mentioned, not a single word will appear about this man’s writing skills and talent, about his painstaking and meticulous attention to every single word, every single sentence, every single phrase in a translated text that passed before his eyes.

Indeed, there will be no mention of the volumes of carefully-constructed, word-sensitive and eloquent letters, memoranda, reports, essays and other assorted writings of all of those translators who passed before us, all those who made the term “wordsmith” synonymous with translator.

To paraphrase the words of the American writer, Ben Hecht, “Look for these men and women only in the history books, for they are a civilization gone with the wind”. And clearly they are gone with the wind, or better yet, “They are translators of another time”, as was said by one Jost Zoetsche, one of the industry’s new breed of technological translators and the writer of a monthly column on the various technologies (sexy and otherwise) that today’s translator must master. Indeed, when Mr. Zoetsche said those words to me, there was not a hint, not a note, not an overtone of nostalgia. He said the words as if he was talking about … dinosaurs.

* * * * *

The American translation industry, not unlike other industries has seen and undergone some very discernible, if not radical changes in the past 50 years. It almost goes without saying that technological advances have wrought some of those discernible and radical changes.

But this piece is not about technology or the technological advances that have changed the American translation industry. Rather, it is about the changes that have come to its very core elements: language and communication. It is about the subordination – perhaps the word “belittlement” would be more appropriate – of those core elements to the exigencies of commerce and marketing and all that is commonly associated with those endeavors.

The piece of writing that is transcribed in full below is in my most considered opinion a highly representative piece of evidence that clearly demonstrates how language and communication have been shamelessly subordinated – even trivialized - in an industry whose raison d’être is language and communication.

100 years ago, 75 years ago, 50 years ago and even to a limited extent 25 years ago, when Mr. Zoetsche’s “dinosaurs” ruled the American translation countryside, the business side of translation (namely the translation bureaus or translation service companies) was in the hands of so-called “merchant-translators”, namely men and women who combined language skills with a modicum of business acumen. Most of these merchant-translators had academic backgrounds in language or the humanities or the natural sciences; a few combined language skills with backgrounds in diverse fields of engineering.

Not a single one of these merchant-translators, these “dinosaurs”, could claim an academic background in business. Yet, despite being bereft of a business model, a business plan or some other piece of commercial architecture of like purport and tenor, many of these merchant-translators went on to have highly successful business careers and were able to garner many of the attendant pecuniary benefits for themselves and their families.

And if during their careers these translator-merchants sharpened their business wits, never ever did they permit their language wits to become dulled. These merchant-translators, the dinosauric relatives and ancestors of today’s high priests and priestesses of business and technology, never lost sight of the core elements of their business: language and communication.

* * * * *

The early 1990’s saw the beginnings of change in the U.S. translation industry, at least so far as concerned the business side of translation. Naturally, at first these changes were barely discernible. The dinosaurs, i.e., the merchant-translators still appeared to be the dominant species in the commercial countryside. But these dinosaurs failed to lay eggs, and if they did lay eggs, those eggs were sterile.

Rather, the eggs were being laid and hatched at the graduate business schools of American universities. And that quaint, bucolic, somewhat backward translation industry, with its vast international potential, was viewed as virgin territory by America’s new darlings of commerce: the holder of the MBA.

It was obvious, particularly in short retrospect, that the new businessman or businesswoman of the translation industry didn’t care a whit about the industry’s core elements of language and communication. Those were aspects to be left to others…others whose tastes leaned towards the esoteric and ethereal. The tenets, the dogma, the doctrine learned in graduate business school would be applied to an industry whose dinosaurs were too dumb and/or shortsighted to exploit its vast richness. The translation industry would become the testing ground for the lessons learned in business school: business models, business plans, marketing, advertising with heavy doses of buzz words, trendy terms and technological gobbledygook.

And it worked. And it worked beautifully. The dinosaurs soon died off and became extinct, as they had in Walt Disney’s animated depiction of Stravinsky’s “Le Sacre du Printemps”.

* * * * *

“Now you never have to translate the same phrase again”, pitches one of the numerous purveyors of the latest technological darling (and/or god or goddess) of the translation industry: the CAT tool. And the technological gurus and gurettes of the industry never cease to remind us that never having to translate the same phrase again is not only the key to survival, but also the key to entering the great castle of prosperity. After all, as Noam Chomsky, the greatest of language technology gurus said way back in 1962, all language can be automated and mechanized.

Indeed, why bother to write when chips can write for you? And that doctrine has certainly not been lost on the 21st century’s translation merchant. In fact, it is not just doctrine, but equally dogma and catechism.

Let us now for the sake of the exercise look at a communication recently published in various translation media by TransPerfect Translations. I make one caveat and one caveat only: Do not focus on the content. The content is not at issue and it is not the issue. Rather focus solely on the language, the thought process (or absence thereof), the logic of the language (or the absence thereof). Look carefully at the grammar, the syntax, the communicative fiber. When you finish reading the communication, you might want to ask yourself the question, “What does this writing say of the product that the company – the industry - purports to offer?”.

In-house position French

Quality Manager - Canadian French

TransPerfect Translations was founded in 1992 with the following mission: to provide the highest quality language services to leading businesses worldwide. With no external financing, the TransPerfect family of companies grew from its humble beginnings as a two-person company operating in an NYU business school dorm room into the world's third largest translation and software localization firm and one of the fastest growing, privately-held companies in the United States. With a network of over 5,000 language specialists and over 800 full-time employees in over 52 locations throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, we're continuously ready to meet our clients' needs, around the clock and around the world. We attribute our growth to the skill, aptitude, and commitment of our high caliber employees. Put simply, we hire the most talented candidates and give them the guidance, resources, and opportunities they need to grow their career in an expanding environment.

Department: Production

Description:

Ensure translated documents mirror the original source document
Efficiently maintains formal disciplined operations procedures across a variety of client projects
Track project-specific non-conformances and resolutions
Personally perform project QA steps
Assist with making new department processes while improving on existing ones (improve productivity, profitability)
Build and maintain strong relationships with contract translators, editors, and proofreaders
Juggle overlapping projects and priorities in a fast-paced environment

Required Skills:

Minimum Bachelor's degree or its equivalent
Must have excellent communication (written and verbal) skills in Canadian French (native level) and English
Ability to support multiple projects by keeping accurate and up-to-date project specs
Excellent problem solving skills
Ensure customer sign-off of end product
Experience coordinating assignment of resources
Ability to maintain professionalism in all situations, especially under tight deadlines
Prior translation and proofreading experience preferred in Life Sciences, Marketing, and Finance.
Experience with Trados or SDLX preferred

TransPerfect is an equal opportunity employer.
TransPerfect offers a comprehensive benefits package for our Canadian employees.
If you think you have what it takes to succeed in a dynamic, fast-paced environment, apply at https://home.eease.com/recruit/?id=31740.
Your World. Your Future. Go Global!

For the benefit of those who are fairly new to our august industry and who share the belief that language and communication are not core elements of translation, but mere sundry, I will endeavor to address some of the more delectable morsels of the TransPerfect employment piece.

" We attribute our growth to the skill, aptitude, and commitment of our high caliber employees. Put simply, we hire the most talented candidates and give them the guidance, resources, and opportunities they need to grow their career in an expanding environment.."

I suppose that the issues of prepositional use and that little annoying thing called person, number and gender are in the paraphrased words of the late Captain Butler of Charleston, SC, "minor points, my dears".

Shortly after we are provided with the first example of the language skills and acumen [sic] of a translation services entity, we come upon a listing of the duties that will be performed by the manager in whose hands shall be placed the responsibility of upholding the great tradition of quality in writing, language and communication that has been the hallmark of what is clearly this correspondent’s most favorite translation agency since those halcyon days when its principal owner and grand gurette (Lizzie) was scurrying around the dormitories of NYU's august business school. And here are some of them there duties of the TransPerfect Quality Manager::

"Ensure translated documents mirror the original source document".

OK, good way to start off, even if a little, minor "that" is missing. After all, "that" is such an insignificant word. Really, it is just a botheration, an annoyance, a linguistic mosquito. Swat it away.

"Efficiently maintains formal disciplined operations procedures across a variety of client projects"

Ooooooo, a slight change in voice to the indicative, "Minor points, my dears, minor points". "Indicative", "Schmindicative". That's nothing but intellectual drivel. Has absolutely nothing to do with quality in writing, language and communication. Nothing.

"Track project-specific non-conformances and resolutions"

At this point I shall ask a real stoopid question: How does one track a resolution? I know how one could track incidences of non-conformance. But how does one track a resolution? Maybe we should ask dear Lizzie. After all, wasn't Tracking Resolutions 101 a prerequisite course at NYU Graduate Business School (along with attendant dormitory seminars)?

"Efficiently maintains formal disciplined operations procedures across a variety of client projects"

Ah, a return to the indicative. And of course the phrase “formal disciplined operations procedures” should be crystal-clear to everyone and anyone, except stoopid dinosaurs.

“Assist with making new department processes while improving on existing ones (improve productivity, profitability)”

I suppose “making” processes is sound English idiom. Of course, what would I, a stoopid dinosaur know. Using the word “formulating” would apply only to “translators of another time”.

And now we come to what is arguably the best part of this employment advertisement: the list of required skills. Here we have and see a living example of skills learned in graduate business school on how to organize one’s thoughts in a coherent, cohesive and communicative manner. Here are a few of my favorites as enunciated by TransPerfect, the provider of quality language services:

“Minimum Bachelor's degree or its equivalent “

Now I have heard of a Bachelor of Arts degree, a Bachelor of Sciences degree and a Bachelor in Business Administration degree, but I ain’t never heard of a Minimum Bachelor’s degree. Is that like a college equivalency diploma? Well, I guess that too is a “minor point”. But since I am fixated on minor points, maybe someone out there could clarify to me how a Bacehlor’s degree is a skill.

‘Ensure customer sign-off of end product”

Pray tell, is “ensuring customer sign-off of end product” a skill or is it one of the duties that would be performed by the person hired by TransPerfect? Ah, poor Lizzie must have fallen asleep in Thought Organizing 101.

“Ability to support multiple projects by keeping accurate and up-to-date project specs”

I have singled out this one solely because the word “specs”, which is really trendy, sexy and technologically alluring, is far better than that musty, dusty, old-maid-like, dinosauric word “records”. You see, it really doesn’t make a difference what word one uses – specs, records, papers, parchments, scrolls, etc., because in translation it really doesn’t make a difference. If the source language clearly stated, “…by keeping accurate and up-to-date project records”, and the translator wrote, “…by keeping accurate and up-to-date project specs”, who would know the difference? Who would really care? Truly, is there any difference between records and specifications? The most important thing is that you make it clear to the client that he, she or it is receiving a quality product or service and that he, she or it really and actually believes it.

* * * * *

I can tell you this: If in 1992, when Lizzie of TransPerfect was absorbing the fundamentals of marketing in graduate business school, I had read the above-transcribed piece aloud to an audience gathered at an ATA conference (née convention), there would have been roars of laughter and/or gasps of horror. After all, in 1992, translators and translation managers were still relatively cognizant of the core elements of their profession.

If I read the same piece today to an audience gathered at any translator function, I would probably be looking out at a sea of faces with the clear expression of “What are you talking about?”

And that is the way the cookie crumbles.

Published - April 2009

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

Multilingual Publishing

2009-06-07T09:56:00.001+08:00

The world of publishing is shaped by the needs of its readers. The publications industry grows year after year as it recognises the necessity to represent the needs of new communities as they appear.

It is essential that people have, at the very least, a basic point of reference to obtain relevant information that is of key importance to them. The chief aim of a publication is to render details of significance to their target audience in a manner that satisfies the demand.

The variety of services the publications industry provides is highly varied. Anything produced for the information of people would denote a published item. From signage to pamphlets, digital information to hard copy material such as books and magazines; the broad scope of publishing is an extremely wide-ranging arena.

As varied as the services offered by the publications industry are, so too are the groups that require that information. In the UK, there are many individuals who have travelled to the country to live and work. In certain parts of the UK there are communities with high populations of individuals of different nationalities. In these areas, it is important that the needs of all individuals comprising these communities are catered for.

Therefore it is vital that, in terms of information, no section of society is at a disadvantage when it comes to having access to information that is of importance to themselves as well as the rest of the community.

Multilingual publishing is a service that provides information outlets with the facility to translate their material, regardless of format, into a language that meets the demands of a particular community or target audience. For example, if a local council had a requirement to translate their online content to help individuals of a particular language group, they would be able to engage the assistance of a translation services provider. Many such providers have access to an enormous number of qualified linguists who, in turn, specialise in hundreds of languages spoken all over the world.

Ideally, information would be available to communities with different language needs at the outset. With this in mind, the Home Office went ahead with production of a document entitled, Living and Working in Britain. The booklets main objective was to provide individuals with access to basic information relating to their new lives in the UK. It offered assistance, and provided semi-formal advice on issues ranging from buying a home to driving in the UK.

Living and Working in Britain needed to be translated into 17 languages from Arabic to Urdu. Companies that specialise in translation not only able to translate the document, but can also to make sure that the tone of the original message is maintained.

By producing this document and subsequently engaging a translation service provider, The Home Office was able to communicate to its audience effectively. By ensuring that the tone of its original message was upheld, they could be confident that the information in the pamphlet was conveyed in exactly the right way.

For the recipients of this literature, the fact that they were able to receive pointed information in their own language was of massive benefit. Individuals seeking to live and work in another country face numerous obstacles when settling down. By providing information designed to make that transition as smooth as possible, a positive step towards effective integration is taken.

Beyond specific sectors empowering individuals with the knowledge to begin a process of inclusion, other sectors of society need their information to be made accessible too. If knowledge can be shared with people in a language they understand, the journey towards integration can be made without any uncertainties or ambiguities.

Language service providers play a pivotal role in making sure that information is accessible to all. By enabling government sectors to speak to foreign nationals, we move closer towards an effectively integrated future.

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

Getting The Client Localization Brief Right

2009-06-06T09:23:00.001+08:00

By Claire Ingram,
Wordbank’s Assistant Director,
33 CHARLOTTE STREET, LONDON W1T 1RR, U.K.
TEL: +44 (0) 20 7903 8800, FAX: +44 (0) 20 7903 8888,

claire_ingram@wordbank.com
www.wordbank.com

How to avoid the GIGO syndrome, achieve deadlines and keep costs down.

The ‘garbage in/garbage out’ (GIGO) syndrome, where the quality of the output is in direct correlation to the quality of the input information, applies to many life scenarios but is particularly relevant to the localization process.

The successful management of localization projects to achieve most clients’ objectives – speed, value for money and effective communication in local markets - is dependent on three factors: well-written source text that can be adapted for local markets; an internationalized file format to enable the easy extraction and reinsertion of text to be translated; and efficient systems to manage the process throughout.

In most cases, the responsibility for the first factor lies largely with the global company or client; the second with its design agency; and the third with the localization specialist. If the first two fall into the GI category, then the chances for GO will be considerably increased regardless of the best efforts of the localization specialist to produce a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.

Not surprisingly, there is also a correlation between the quality of the brief from our clients and our ability to meet their speed and cost-effectiveness objectives. However, not all clients fully appreciate this connection. Whilst some are very good at sticking to the briefing template that we agree, all of our project teams can cite hair-raising examples of client briefs that have relied heavily on our extra-sensory and mindreading powers.

Recent examples include the ‘no brief at all’ which didn’t even specify the languages to be localized; a recycled brief which had a new project title but instructions and timelines relating to a previous project; and a file that just arrived out of the blue from a client’s agency without any clue as to the client ‘owner’. It took several emails and phone calls to track down the client to extract a brief and purchase order. In this article, I outline four main problem areas that we regularly encounter and our solutions for pre-empting or resolving them together with some of the golden rules that we use to help our clients save their time and money.

The Ideal Client Brief

Absolute Must Have Information

1. Source text – final approved version if possible
2. File format or proposed file format eg PowerPoint
3. Target languages by country eg French (Switzerland)
4. Mode of address preferences eg Polite or Informal
5. Language style eg Business Formal
6. Wordbank services required eg Marcom Translation
7. Delivery date eg All languages by ….
8. Delivery format eg PowerPoint
9. Client approval process
10. Purchase order or written confirmation to proceed

Helpful But Not Essential Information

1. Background to campaign or project and/or creative brief
2. Word count
3. Target market and audiences
4. Marketing communications objectives and desired response from target audience
5. Contact details for local approval contacts and their scope for making changes
6. Reference materials – existing collateral/web site that we can use as a point of reference to gauge tone of voice, imagery, style etc
7. Previous or similar recent projects

The best case scenario for any localization brief is that we receive it in good time, along with any sample files, to enable us to assess the suitability of the file for localization from a linguistic, technical and process perspective and to select the most appropriately experienced translators and editors to work on the text.

Our Copy Review and Technical Evaluation (CREATE) service not only ensures that the English text is well-written, clear, unambiguous and conforms with any specific corporate guidelines for terminology and style but also that it will be acceptable to the local markets from a cultural, idiomatic and visual perspective.

Clients and agencies who may have little experience of other cultures and religions are often unaware of the sensitivities attached to language and imagery and we frequently have to advise clients of their inappropriateness.

A common example is the use of visuals of dogs or women in Muslim countries. We recently had to advise a client who wanted to describe the resilience of their print cartridges by saying that they are subjected to ‘torture tests’ and they also used the phrase ‘torture supplies’. This basically means that the cartridges are heated up to extreme temperatures and dropped from 15 metres to ensure that they will still work. However, in many languages, an alternative word had to be found for ‘torture’.

The technical evaluation will provide recommendations on how best to construct the source file to enable easy extraction of the text for localization by in-country translators and to ensure that fonts, graphics, and layouts are localization-friendly and will work in different languages.

Needless to say, whilst this is how we advise clients to approach a localization project to achieve the best results, we are all too often presented with a ‘fait accompli’ where there is little opportunity to affect the prerequisites for success.

The four main areas of difficulty that we come up against whilst managing projects are: mismatched expectations; lack of understanding of the implications of making late changes; poor communication between the client and their creative agencies; and the inherent tension between the corporate centre and the local offices.

Mismatched Expectations

A common area of difficulty is the mismatch in expectations of who is going to do what. One client, for whom we were localizing their web site into several languages, assumed that we would take responsibility for tracking down the original source files needed for the web sites from various agencies, web development companies and IT departments and couldn’t understand why we kept asking for them.

We had never specified that it was the client’s responsibility to provide the source files, but rather assumed this had been understood. However, as many clients are not as familiar with the process for web site localization as they are for brochure or other marcoms collateral production, it was a salutary lesson for us to be expected to undertake something that we had always taken for granted as being the client’s responsibility.

The solution to overcome these types of misunderstanding is to put everything in writing at the outset and to get the client to do so as well. It’s amazing how the ten XML files quoted for in the Purchase Order can turn into 50 files once the project is underway. Make sure that you spell out clearly in the quote that additional files will be charged for pro rata and that the client can’t just slip in a few dozen more and hope that they will be covered in the initial price.

We have started to run training days for our new clients at which we ask them to complete a sample brief to raise their awareness of the importance of providing all the necessary information. This is proving to be a very successful tactic and has cut down considerably on the follow-up emails and telephone conversations that are usually required to ensure that both sides are clear about the exact details of the project.

The Implications Of Making Changes

Another major issue is the lack of understanding of the time and cost implications of making amendments once the project has started. It is easy to see the client’s perspective – “We only want to change a couple of words. Why should it take another day to do this?” However, without an understanding of the process – rebriefing each of the translators, rechecking the copy in each language, changing the layout if the new words take up more or less space, proofreading again etc – it is difficult to convince the client that ‘just a couple of changes’ can take significant time and money to make. Even a change of just one word in English might imply a change of the whole sentence in translated versions to ensure gender, number or case agreement.

Again, the solution to this problem lies with better client education about the localization process so that they understand the implications. We always emphasise that clients should only send us approved, final copy files with the Purchase Order. We strongly advise them not to send unapproved drafts in the hope that the translators can start working on the text. It is a false economy and will not save time or money to do this. The final format should be just that – the final format.

Clients clearly have a vested interest in getting it right so we spend a lot of time educating them about the process so that they understand the implications of making changes at different stages of production. Unfortunately, the design and advertising agencies through which many of our clients work are less concerned to understand the process and would prefer to let the localization specialist sort it out. Also, if the agency is the lead contractor and billing point for the project, more work on our part just means more mark-up for them.

Caught In The Communications Cross-Fire

Localization specialists are often caught between the client and their design agencies who each have different objectives. The client is often not technical and is driven by commercial objectives – “I need it quickly and cheaply” while a key consideration for the agency is for the end product to enhance their creative reputation and look good in the corporate portfolio. Neither party has a complete understanding of the linguistic, cultural, technical, file engineering, process and project management challenges involved in localization.

Consequently, the localization specialist is often faced with headlines, copy, imagery, embedded graphics, fonts and encoding that won’t work beyond the borders of the domestic market and has to act as a go-between between the two.

An area that frequently causes problems is that design agencies do not allow enough space for language expansion because they are not familiar with languages other than their own. To pre-empt the timeconsuming and, often, costly outcome of attempting to localize content that has been conceived without due consideration for its potential for internationalization, we try to encourage our clients to involve us at an early stage. Whilst advertising and design agencies are often reluctant to take advice from us on creative and technical issues, this ‘prevention is better than cure’ strategy can save a huge amount of time and money further down the line.

Who Has Ultimate Control?

Another area where we can get caught between a rock and a hard place is the inherent conflict between the regional marketing centre and the local contacts. There is often a lack of clarity about the role of a company’s local approval contacts. If the approval process hasn’t been clearly defined by the client at the outset of the project, a great deal of time and money can be lost at this stage. Ideally, the organisation will have taken a strategic decision on whether it is the centre or the local operations that have the final say in the production of marketing communications materials.

If this has been agreed, then the localization specialist still needs to be briefed on a range of issues such as the level of commitment from local offices, the scope of their authority to make changes, and the agreed timings for final signoff. Is the client willing to accept all the local approval changes? What happens if the local offices don’t like the source text let alone the translation? Who pays for the amendments made by local offices?

We are always happy to work with local contacts to explain the process and the technical constraints of formats that they may not be familiar with.

The client must ensure that they have local country buy-in before starting the project. Roles, responsibilities, timelines and processes need to be agreed between the client and the local offices before getting the localization specialist involved. If required, we can manage the process but only if the parameters and deliverables have been agreed at the outset. It is very difficult for us to argue with a local contact who refuses to sign off a file because they had no idea any localized documents were being produced and their input would be required, or if they are unclear about what they can or can’t do. In summary, our experience of managing marcoms localization projects has taught us how to deal with most eventualities but our recommended approach is firmly founded on ‘prevention is better than cure’. Time and money can only ever be saved by getting projects right from the outset. The more that a client has considered the internationalization of a project or service, the easier it will be to localize. The more the client understands the linguistic, cultural, technical and process issues involved in localization, the better equipped he or she will be to achieve their commercial objectives.

10 Golden Rules For Client Briefing

1. Don’t start any project without a Purchase Order or written confirmation.

2. Encourage clients to use a standard brief template so that they get used to providing all the necessary information every time.

3. Always try to think laterally – are there any obvious questions that you haven’t asked. Eg On which operating system are the CDs going to be used?

4. Consider the format almost as much as the text itself. Eg It’s very difficult to expand language in a Flash animation so add as much space as possible for language expansion.

5. Make sure that the client’s agencies understand the need to deliver the source files in formats that enable efficient localization. Microsoft Word or Excel are not always the best but don’t make assumptions that the agency understands the reasons behind this.

6. Try to encourage clients to get you involved early on in the project.

7. Avoid Excel files as translation memories can’t work with them. Put tables in Word.

8. Always keep the client informed on the progress of their project and give them early warning of any potential delays.

9. Don’t assume that either the client or the agency understands the jargon that is used in the localization industry. Make sure you explain everything clearly.

10. Develop your mind-reading powers – they will always be needed!

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

Website translation as a way to promote your business abroad

2009-06-05T09:08:00.001+08:00

By Elena Mokeeva,
SEM Consultant

e.mokeeva@e3internet.com

Today every self-respecting company understands the advantages and power of the internet and runs one or several web sites advertising its products or services online. We all want to be recognised worldwide and invest a lion's share of our budget in offline international marketing.

At the same time we often forget about the advantages of international internet marketing. All that we can think of is creating another .com website in English, adding the word "international" to its title. Why do we forget that one third of all internet users do not speak English, and thus our "international" site is passing by all this mass of potential clients (business partners)? With constantly growing quantity and quality of non-English material on the Net they are more likely to surf in their own language.

Today a multilingual website is becoming a necessity for international business due to a number of convincing reasons:

SEO Marketing. Multilingual web sites allow you to enter new markets. Local language search engines will index your site and give you new links from within this market area. In most non-English speaking countries, regional search engines in their native language play much greater role than English-speaking Google, Yahoo and MSN. Hence, you gain better positions, more new visitors to your site (i.e. more potential customers) and more sales.

Company Image.

Multilingual sites create an image of a serious and respectable international business, and will win over visitors from companies who have not made this effort.

Customer-centric approach.

It allows your visitors to surf quickly and efficiently in their own language. This gives your company and products an advantage over your less prepared competitors.

Now you clearly understand that website translation can be a great help in attracting foreign public to your business. However it has to be done in such a way that people will end up buying your product.

To have a website translated means much more than get mere text translation. There are numerous factors that have to be taken into consideration. Actually, it is more correctly to speak about website localisation, when you want the site successfully working in the market of your target countries.

Localisation is defined as modifying a product to make it usable and suitable to a target market.

First of all, it implies culture-centric translation. Perfect culture-centric translation makes the reader feel as if the content was not translated, but originally written in the target language. It takes into consideration the culture, style and language of the target audience.

Using electronic translations for this purpose is not a good idea. The decision to have your site translated by a human being, preferably a native speaker, familiar with the culture, terminology and sayings of the target language, is an ideal one.

Then, website localisation takes into account the appearance of your web pages. Are there pictures, colours or images that would cause offence? A good website translation company will analyse your site and offer you a cultural applicability consultation.

Further more, decent website translators will offer an after-care service that assists in helping you with the small changes in future.

Some translation companies will even provide you with internet marketing services to help your site achieve high visibility in the target country.

If you are serious about promoting your business among foreign internet users it is best to trust your website translation to proven professionals. The leading UK translation company, Lingo24 (http://www.lingo24.com) can supply your company with these services.

Professional website localisation and culture-centric translation can become a very promising perspective for your business.

http://www.lingo24.com/multilingual_website_design.html

http://www.lingo24.com/professional_translation.html

See the author's biography here: http://www.e3internet.com/company-information/biographies/elena/

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

Website Translations

2009-06-04T08:53:00.000+08:00

In the modern communications age, accessibility to information is perhaps more crucial than ever before. The ability to communicate your message to as many individuals as you need to is fundamentally important.

To find yourself with or without access to knowledge can mean the difference between education and empowerment and disadvantage and misunderstanding. Presenting a translation of your web content in a manner that is comprehensible to a wide audience allows for greater accessibility, allowing that audience to gain the greatest benefit from that information as possible.

The internet expands on a daily basis, and with that expansion comes a greater need for a common understanding within our multilingual society. In the case where there is a need to engage with different language groups, it’s doubly important for a translation of the information to be readily available to that audience.

By taking advantage of a translation service that enables your target audience to access information in their native language, you simultaneously open up the web to the wider world. And with over 80% of all web content currently only available in English, there is a real and pressing requirement to make this content available in a suitable languages translation for each group of visitors.

Without this service, such language groups would be unable to take advantage of the benefits and knowledge that is available on the web. And, as more and more people are joining the internet community, the need for the web to adapt to this demand is becoming greater than ever.

Language specialists are asked to ensure that relevant web content is translated correctly and appropriately. They decide whether certain content is deemed inappropriate for translation into languages where the original information could be misinterpreted; or, where a certain cultural viewpoint exists, they apply cultural sensitivity when selecting the right content for a site.

Services such as WebTran exist to allow web users to view content in a number of languages at the click of a mouse. These services make easy to use, multilingual websites possible; playing a critical role in the future of multilingual web usage.

With the convenience of viewing any part of a website in any number of languages at a time, Web Tran provides an opportunity for information to become available for the communities that need it most.

By combining Translation, Cultural Consultation and Web Optimisation, this service provides a comprehensive, end-to-end service. Creating the possibility to offer clear, sensitive and informative web content to cater for a wide variety of cultural and linguistic requirements.

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

The Wild Wild Web: How Web 2.0 Changes the Way We Work

2009-06-03T09:19:00.000+08:00

By Evan Norman,
Web Specialist, McElroy Translation,
Austin, Texas 78701 USA

quotes[at]mcelroytranslation.com
http://www.mcelroytranslation.com/

Web 2.0 vs. your business model

McElroy has modified its translation/review/client review process considerably as the type of material being translated continues to evolve from traditional documentation that is routed through a linear channel, to ongoing updates of data that require instant communication between many parties to achieve translation of content.

Along with the type of material being translated changing, client expectations have also changed. Increasingly, clients who author and review their content want to be integrated into the process, which has “webified” the way we collaborate on projects.

For these translators, project managers and clients who are migrating away from strictly email and phone interaction, the McElroy team is evolving and adapting to collaborating within online workspaces, like Wikis for instance.

Wiki as a project management tool for translation and localization

A Wiki is an invaluable tool for any localization endeavor, since you can easily and in many cases securely communicate with users all over the world using a browser interface. Generally a Wiki can be set up to use the least bandwidth necessary, particularly for internal communication, which makes it an excellent tool when traveling or for users in locales that don’t support broadband.

Along with McElroy’s project tracking system and other tools, we use a Wiki for project management, planning and collaborative documentation. Using a Wiki is a quick way for users in different locales and of varying levels of technical expertise to effectively communicate, ascertain project status and get the latest updates to living documents.

A CMS/workflow system for Web 2.0

Isn’t machine translation good enough?

The perfect translation, would, of course, be 100% accurate, instant and free. Though instant and free or relatively cheap, machine translation tools demonstrate at best 50% accuracy.

McElroy recently reviewed several software companies that offer automatic translation of your blog or website into a dozen different languages. Developers of the software take advantage of Google’s Translator API, which automatically translates websites. The machine-translated site is then indexed in a language-coded directory to assist the website owner with increasing “multilingual search engine traffic.”

Communicating with your international customers this way would be like flipping a coin every time you spoke to them. Heads, they understand your product/marketing information the way it was intended to be understood, tails, they read gibberish, or worse, take offense and use a competitor. For instance, “A Couple Of Killer Internet Marketing Techniques” gets translated as “A pair of the techniques of the commercialization of the Internet of the assassin” when taken into Spanish. Unless your target audience is interested in how Spanish-speaking assassins are commercializing the Internet, any search engine traffic generated from such nonsense will be irrelevant to your business.

(For giggles:

Korean - 2 murderer Internet selling and buying techniques

Italian - One brace of the techniques of sale of the Internet of the assassin

German - A pair of the murderer Internet marketing techniques)

Content Management Systems (CMS)/human translation workflow models of the past involved a lengthy, linear “round trip” process of entire blocks of content into the desired languages each time updates were made, in order to ensure accuracy across all languages. Over time, the cost and labor-intensity of this process causes many of the desired languages to fall completely out-of-sync with the most recent updates to content, rendering product information that is inaccurate or downright false, sometimes resulting in expensive legal action taken against the corporate creator of the content. As content authoring becomes more fragmented and prolific, especially in the world of Web 2.0, new tools and models are required to ensure that these problems do not occur.

Since many corporate departments do not have the luxury of completely scrapping legacy, high-dollar CMS solutions (that are not optimal for Web 2.0 content authoring/localization) in favor of new ones, Leepfrog’s and McElroy Translation’s CMS/Translation workflow solutions, combine to readily offer a lightweight and nimble alternative that can even reside as a layer between the legacy CMS and what your visitor sees in the web browser.

Pagewizard

Pagewizard is a CMS our partner Leepfrog built recently with McElroy’s input to reflect the evolving needs of clients on the web. Web visitors who arrive at sites served up by the Pagewizard CMS will see a truly localized version of the site based upon their language preferences, rather than an English website with a few multilingual page add-ons.

McElroy’s client Emerson Processes wanted its content authors, (English) content reviewers, translation team, and in-country reviewers to all play well together under a unified content management/translation structure. Emerson’s content authoring/translation process requirements are scattered, both in the sense of the physical location of the authors/translators/users of content, as well as the particular amount of content that the corporate office needed authored/translated for a particular location at a particular time. If all players were not operating under one unified structure, the end result would be a website full of stale content, and endless confusion throughout the ongoing process of content authoring/translation would reign.

Emerson Processes sources translation to McElroy and web architecture/CMS to Leepfrog. Emerson Processes, McElroy and Leepfrog are working together to accomplish a goal that satisfies all of the above criteria.

As a result, McElroy and Leepfrog were able to create a CMS/TM system that was lightweight and versatile for use by mid-sized companies. The PageWizard CMS is versatile enough to sit on top of legacy “heavy” CMS’s that some companies have invested too much in to part with. Its nimbleness also makes it a perfect CMS solution for Web 2.0-type business models, where user-authored content is generated constantly and updated frequently.

The PageWizard CMS can help manage content translation, either through a language service provider or leveraging in-house translators. As content is changed in the primary language, the PageWizard groups together sets of changes and dispatches them to the translators.

PageWizard coordinates directly with ELJOTS®, McElroy’s project tracking system, allowing for much lower per-word translation costs than providing translations manually. PageWizard tracks changes while the primary content is being translated, and can control the size of the batches to minimize the per-word cost of translation.

PageWizard can handle urgent changes – such as updating incorrect published information – in a different way than standard changes. Different pages may be flagged for different sets of target languages, providing flexibility within a budget. PageWizard will automatically re-use shared content, such as site navigation.

The net effect of the PageWizard and translation services team is to present an accurate, up-to-date version of a site’s content in the most preferred language of the website visitor, with little additional effort on the part of the content authors or the site’s editors.

Some of the features of PageWizard include:

* scattered translation workflow— multilingual content is efficiently maintained and updated after initial push
* re-use of shared translated content
* flexible presentation, based on availability of translated content
* language-specific templates, or parts of templates
* potential to instantly remove inaccurate content to avoid legal issues
* automatic handling of non-translated changes
* leveraging of translation memory
* word count driving workflow
* language batching
* minimization of per-word translation costs
* limiting content sent to only what is to be translated
* avoidance of difficult scripts that “break” translation tools
* ability to self-publish each web page at end of translation process

Conclusion

Clients’ evolving needs have changed the landscape for integrating how language service provider teams and their clients collaborate with each other. These changing needs have influenced how our team and workflow system have adapted to meet the challenge—as well as how McElroy continues to explore and develop new ways for translation project teams to collaborate online.

Leepfrog's CEO Lee Brintle and McElroy's Project Manager Rainy Day contributed to the contents of this article

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

Translation memory 2.0

2009-06-02T10:01:00.000+08:00

By Jonathan Kirk,
CEO and founder, Elanex

I could have sworn I translated that just last week …’ is the all too familiar mantra of any translator, especially an in-house corporate translator, where repeated and similar translations are very common due to corporate standards and job similarities. Thankfully, this mantra is now close to extinct with the advent of powerful desktop translation memory solutions from a number of vendors over the last decade. For any individual translator, it is easy to find material you have already translated; for a group of translators working closely together, it is relatively easy to find material created by anyone in the group, provided certain work practices are observed, and the software is carefully configured.

But two key problems remain: for any company, translation remains an extremely expensive proposition – it can often double the cost of a website or of creation of marketing materials. On a larger scale, the whole translation ecosystem today is inefficient: vast quantities of the world’s written material have yet to be translated, while the small quantity of material that actually has been translated contains large quantities of similar material, all paid for independently by individual private firms.

In other words, the same sort of problem exists in the translation industry that existed in the early days of the internet: lots of valuable, useful information exists, but where is it? Interestingly enough, the solution may also be the same: a centralized, easily searchable, easy to use repository – in this case, of the world’s translations.

Elanex TSE (Translation Search Engine)

The biggest benefit of translation memory is not the tool itself, but the actual content: in other words, the memory. For most translators purchasing a translation memory system is equivalent to purchasing a word processor – it’s very convenient when you want to write an article, but it doesn’t actually write the article for you.

Part of the reason is technology – creating, managing, and quickly searching a gigantic database containing tens, hundreds or even thousands of millions of sentences was an impractical proposition ten years ago.

A bigger reason was the ‘paradigm’ that existed when translation memory first arrived – most software was still installed on local computers, and the software itself did not typically communicate with software installed on other computers.

Perhaps the biggest reason of all, though, is that in an industry where translators create and sell ‘words for a living’, re-using the words they create is seen as the right to earn a return on the investment made by the creator. If a translator can re-use an existing translation for a new client, the translator has saved some time, and therefore made more money. For a company, this rationale is different; the company can save dramatically by not having to translate the same words and phrases again when they appear in new documents.

However, the world has changed – in many ways – and a better solution is now available: the TSE (for Translation Search Engine).

A new paradigm emerges

The watchwords in today’s emerging society are ‘networked’, ‘open source’, ‘software as a service’, ‘usergenerated content’ and so on. The key transition is that in a networked economy, it makes the most sense for people to have access to and build on the work of others, whereas in a closed economy, it made the most sense for people to act as ‘gatekeepers’ to their own private repositories of information. Hence, intellectual property of many kinds is moving to an ‘open source’ kind of model – where companies can still ‘sell’ the software (by providing value-added services on top of it – think RedHat, MySQL or SugarCRM), but where the intellectual property itself is free– (as in freedom of speech) –ly available for all to improve and extend.

In the case of the TSE, this principle enables a whole new alternative for companies and translators: access to a gigantic repository of existing high quality translations, which through the power of pattern matching (or ‘fuzzy’ matching as it’s typically known in a translation memory context), can be re-used to reduce or eliminate new translation.

For companies, the benefit is obvious – the TSE provides a brand new way of getting high quality translation done, which provides the ‘best of both worlds’ when compared to the two main existing solutions today (fully human translation, and fully automated translation): the translation quality is high, since it was created by humans; the cost is greatly reduced, since much of the heavy lifting has already been done.

For individual translators, the benefit is also clear – if translation memory systems which contain no prior translations off-the-shelf are useful, then the same system pre-loaded with millions of top quality translations for a freelancer to leverage would be infinitely more useful. In our own tests, the TSE currently saves around 5% of a translator’s time – which may not sound like much, but it ‘translates’ (if you’ll pardon the pun) to around a day a month, which is a pretty significant productivity gain for anyone.

What is less obvious is that the ecosystem as a whole benefits. The TSE does not ‘eliminate translator jobs’ – far from it. Only a tiny, tiny fraction of the world’s content is available today in multiple languages – most websites are still in the language of their creator only; most of the world’s intellectual property (in the form of patents, academic theses and papers and so on) is still in a handful of languages at best; even most of the world’s news remains untranslated. As long as content remains untranslated, there are commercial opportunities not yet being exploited; by making it cheaper for companies to exploit those opportunities, the ‘rising tide floats all boats’.

And who pays for it?

As with open source software, the first question is ‘if it’s free, who pays for it?’, and the answer is also the same: the basic rules of economics still apply, but a level of indirection has been introduced which makes a new system work.

In the case of the TSE, when translators search within the TSE for matches to existing translations, the TSE will only return matches if they’re actually found (unlike an automated translation solution, which would come up with its ‘best guess’ for every sentence). Instead of paying for these matches, users contribute their own translations, translations of items presented by the TSE to the translator, or other types of work such as editing other contributions.

In other words, a translator’s benefit is clear – an extra productive day per month. In return for this benefit, the translator is contributing more content – in turn making the system more useful for other translators. A company benefits from free or low cost translation – and all that is required in turn is to allow the human translators who do the rest of the work to put that material into the TSE.

With no extra cost to anyone, and with savings for both translators and companies, a system has emerged which makes the whole translation process more efficient.

Where will it all end?

Today’s fully automated ‘machine translation’ solutions rely on statistical techniques for analyzing large bodies of text. This is an improvement over first generation ‘rulebased’ systems, which could not develop sophisticated enough ‘rules’ for how humans actually construct sentences – one of the reasons it’s an improvement is that since the source material for statistical systems is real translation, the material generated by the systems sounds more natural, even if it’s wrong (somehow the mistakes are more ‘human’, in the same way that typing errors made by humans are more natural than the type of errors made by OCR software).

However, statistical analysis is not how humans talk – humans use language as a representation of how they think, and the language they create has all the flexibility of thought itself. Computers are still some distance from replicating thought.

Translation memory therefore provides an alternative rather similar to the approach Big Blue takes to chess – a form of brute force. If you can’t create a translation, then look it up!

Translation is a barrier to international trade, to global communication, and lack of it is one reason why some cultures have a hard time understanding each other. Anything that can be done through technologies such as the TSE to reduce translation costs – especially if they do not destroy a thriving human industry as an accidental byproduct – can ultimately help to make the world a better place.

Jonathan Kirk
Elanex CEO and founder

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Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

Avoid getting lost in translation

2009-06-01T08:55:00.000+08:00

By Michael Hamilton,
Vice President of Product Management,
MadCap Software

Where did my table of contents go? What happened to my glossary? These questions, and many others about document structure and formatting, still arise all too often as these components get lost in translation.

We have seen important technology advances to facilitate the translation of content. Most notable are the growing use of Unicode to support both single- and double-byte languages and adoption of the Extensible Markup Language (XML), which facilitates the sharing of structured data across different systems. As a result, translating a set of words from one language into one or more others is a fairly predictable experience.

Bringing that predictability to the overall document remains a challenge. At the heart of the matter is the fact that document files need to be transferred into a translation memory system (TMS). A TMS can be programmed to recognize the document formatting. However, when localization experts transfer files into these pre-programmed systems, portions of those files-for example variables and indices-often get corrupted.

Even when the actual file transfer is smooth, the fact that there is a transfer leaves room for error and inefficiency. The challenge can be particularly daunting with topic-based authoring. Consider that some projects may have 12,000 files. The project manager needs to ensure that all 12,000 files get sent over for translation and localization. It is not uncommon to get the translation back, and realize that, for example, an index has not been translated. Now the localization project is delayed as the additional file is translated.

Then, too, if there are changes to an existing document, perhaps to reflect a policy change or product upgrade, it may be that only 112 of the 12,000 files need to be updated and translated. It can take hours for the project manager to identify that small subset of files, and hopefully he or she will catch them all.

Translation Without File Transfers

So many of these challenges would disappear if there was no need to actually transfer the data. This is the approach taken with MadCap Lingo, a fully integrated translation memory system and authoring tool that eliminates the need for file transfers in order to complete translation. As a result, documentation and localization professionals no longer have to risk losing valuable content and formatting. Instead, document components-such as tables of contents, topics, index keywords, concepts, glossaries, and variables-all remain intact throughout the translation and localization process, so there is never a need to recreate them. The XML-based MadCap Lingo is also fully Unicode enabled to support any European or Asian language.

MadCap Lingo is tightly integrated with MadCap Flare, a native-XML authoring product, and MadCap Blaze, a native- XML alternative to Adobe FrameMaker for publishing long print documents, which will be generally available in early 2008. A user simply creates a MadCap Lingo project to access the source content in a Flare or Blaze project via a shared file structure. Working through Lingo's interface, the user accesses and translates the content. Because the content never actually leaves the structure of the original Flare or Blaze project, all the content and formatting are preserved in the translated version. Once a project is translated, it is opened in either Flare or Blaze, which generates the output and facilitates publishing.

Taking the file transfer out of translation simplifies and speeds the localization process in many ways. Because there is no transfer, all files are automatically translated; none are left behind. There also is a clear view of all the files that need to be translated. When a MadCap Lingo project is initiated, it automatically lists all of the files in the documentation project. Because the software automatically tracks what files have and haven't been translated, it will recognize if the project is an update to an earlier one, highlighting the files that have been changed and therefore require translation.

With this in mind, let's revisit the example of a project containing 12,000 content files. By allowing the translation to occur within the original project, all 12,000 files are automatically flagged for localization-as well as any support files, such as a table of contents or a list of variables-providing a complete picture of the project. Moreover, when there is an update that affects only 112 files, it is easy for a documentation or localization expert to immediately identify and then translate just those files rather than having to sift through the entire list. Project managers can ensure that their projects are complete while eliminating hours of unnecessary work.

Similarly, project managers often receive an eleventh- hour change that requires only one or two sentence adjustments. With the integrated translation memory system, a documentation or translation expert can quickly make the updates. If the updates affect variables in the project, those variables will be updated automatically as well, making it possible to meet publishing deadlines even with last-minute edits.

The ability to complete translation within the content project means that document and localization professionals can view content as it will be published with the table of contents, images, screen captures, and more. They also can review the original language version and the translated version side by side for comparison. This facilitates the ability to address formatting issues that arise from the translation.

For example, German text strings tend to be longer than English ones, so translating a "helpful hint" box from English to German may result in the text length doubling, and therefore no longer able to fit into the box. A translator or author can see this immediately and revise the style sheet to accommodate the text length.

Support for Existing TMS and Authoring Tools

The functionality enabled by integrating authoring with the TMS is powerful. At the same time, documentation professionals and localization experts require the ability to take advantage of the authoring tools and TMSs used to produce their existing localized content. MadCap addresses this at both the authoring and translation levels.

On the authoring side, the Flare and Blaze authoring tools that work with MadCap Lingo can import a range of document types to create the source content. Both can bring in documents from products such as Microsoft Word and Adobe FrameMaker. Following translation, these products provide single-source delivery to multiple formats online and off, including the Internet, intranets, CDs, and print. Print formats supported include the Microsoft XML Paper Specification (XPS) format, Adobe PDF, Adobe FrameMaker, and Microsoft Word. Additionally, Flare supports a number of online content input and output formats.

On the localization front, MadCap Lingo is designed to work with other TMSs. Consequently, localization consultants or in-house translation departments can use their existing TMS with MadCap Lingo to translate new or updated projects without having to complete a file transfer. At the same time, documentation teams that outsource their localization can simply send over a ZIP folder containing the entire project, which remains a cohesive whole maintaining all file relationships.

Document managers also can use MadCap Lingo for quick in-house translation of the last-minute changes that plague almost every project, without having to send files back to the outside firm. If the translation contractor provides a copy of the translation memory database used when delivering the localized content, the very same database can be used with MadCap Lingo to make those last-minute adjustments.

By integrating authoring with the TMS, the sagas of content lost in translation are becoming tales of the past. Replacing them is the promise of documentation that addresses today's global Internet economy by providing a consistent experience online, in print, and in any language.

MadCap Lingo Snapshot:

- Authoring tool with Lingo Server built-in translation memory system, plus ability to connect with third- party TMSs and translate text using the integrated Google service.

- Ability to create "difference" projects, highlighting changed areas that need translation.

- Shortcut keys for quickly performing translation functions and moving around the interface.

- Side-by-side translation editors to simplify the process of localizing topics, tables of contents, index keywords, concepts, glossaries, variables, and more.

- Fully Unicode enabled with full functionality for translating Eastern European, Western European, and Asian languages.

- File list window to display which files require translation.

- Ability to view and edit multiple documents simultaneously.

- Customizable interface to support users' preferred ways of working.

- Works natively in XML with full support for XML-based content.

- Available for $2,199 per license or on a subscription basis of $649 per year. Support options start at $449 per year.

Michael Hamilton, vice president of product management at MadCap Software, has more than ten years of experience in training, technical communication, multimedia development, and software development. Prior to joining MadCap, he served as a product manager for the award-winning RoboHelp product line, first at eHelp and then Macromedia, working closely with the customer community and guiding ongoing development. He also has held positions at Cymer, National Steel & Shipbuilding, and the US Navy. Hamilton is a featured speaker at industry events, Society for Technical Communication annual conference and WinWriters Online Help conferences, as well as shows throughout Europe and Australia.

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Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

Stopping the Word Count Insanity

2009-05-31T09:20:00.001+08:00

By Andrzej Zydron,
xml-Intl Ltd.

In the localization industry, there is a total lack of consistency among word or character counts, not only between rival products, but even among different versions of the same product. The same can be said for word processing software: word and character counts differ among vendors and versions. An additional problem is that none of this software provides any proper verifiable specification as to how the actual metrics are determined. You have to accept them as they are.

This is effectively the same situation that existed for weights and measures before the French Revolution established a sane and uniform system that everyone could agree upon, one that we still use today (with minor exceptions).

Trying to establish a measure for the size of a given localization task poses a real problem for the professional who is trying to calculate a price. The differences in word and character counts among different translation or word processing tools can be as much as 20 percent. And such a gap can mean the difference between profitability and loss.

Realizing that this problem needed to be addressed by an independent industry body, LISA OSCAR undertook the task, in 2004, of establishing a standard that everyone can agree on and that can be independently verified.

Nearly three years later, we finally have a far-reaching and considerably reviewed approach to this problem. The core of the new standard comes under the umbrella concept of Global Information Management Metrics Exchange or GMX for short.

We all know that word and character counts are not the only measure of a given localization task. Thus, GMX comprises three standards:

# GMX-V (for volume)
# GMX-Q (for quality
# GMX-C (for complexity)

GMX-V is the first of the three standards to be completed. Work will commence in 2007 on GMX-Q and GMXC. Quality (GMX-Q) will deal with the level of quality required for a task. For example, the quality required for the translation of a legal document is much higher than that for technical documentation that will have a relatively small audience. Complexity (GMX-Q) will take into consideration the source and format of the original document and its subject matter. For example, a highly complex document dealing with a specific tight domain is far more complex to translate than user instructions for a simple consumer device.

All of the GMX family of standards relies on an XML vocabulary for the exchange of metric data. Using the three standards together, it will be possible to have a uniform measure for defining the specific aspects of a localization task, to a point where one can completely automate all the pricing aspects of the task and exchange this data electronically.

GMX-V

GMX-V is designed to fulfill two primary roles:

* Establish a verifiable way of calculating the primary word and character counts for a given electronic document.
* Establish a specific XML vocabulary that enables the automatic exchange of metric data

As with all good standards, GMX-V is itself based on other well established standards:

* Unicode 5.0 normalized form
* Unicode Technical Report 29 – Text Boundaries
* OASIS XML Localization Interchange File Format (XLIFF) 1.2
* LISA OSCAR Segmentation Rules Exchange (SRX) 2.0

WORDS AND CHARACTERS

GMX-V mandates both word and character counts. Character counts convey the most precise definition of a localization task, whereas word counts are the most commonly used metric in the industry.

OTHER METRICS

The XML exchange notation of GMX-V allows for the exchange of all metrics relating to a given localization task, such as page counts, file counts, screen shot counts, etc.

CANONICAL FORM

One of the main problems with calculating word and character counts is the sheer range of differing proprietary file formats. Trying to establish a standard that addresses all formats is impossible. GMX-V required a canonical form that effectively levels the playing field. Such a common format is available through the OASIS XLIFF standard, which is now supported by all of the localization tool providers.

Within XLIFF, inline codes are interpreted as inline XML elements. The inline elements are not included in the word and character counts, but form a separate inline element count of their own. The frequency of inline elements can have an impact on the translation workload, so a separate count is useful when sizing a job. Punctuation and white space characters are also featured as additional categories.

GMX-V addresses all issues related to counting words and characters in the XLIFF canonical format. Since the sentence is the commonly accepted atomic unit for translation, it proposes sentence-level granularity for counting purposes within XLIFF.

GMX-V does not preclude producing metrics directly from non-XLIFF files, as long as the format for counting is based on the XLIFF canonical form for each text unit being counted. This can be done dynamically on the fly, and it requires an audit file for verification purposes.

WORDS

GMX-V uses “Unicode Technical Report 29 (TR29-9) – Text Boundaries” to define words and characters. This provides a clear and unambiguous definition of word or “grapheme” boundaries.
LOGOGRAPHIC SCRIPTS

Word counts have little relevance for Chinese, Japanese, Korean (CJK) and Thai source text. For these languages, GMX-V recommends using only character counts.

There is a proposal before ISO TC 37, submitted by Professor Sun Maosong, relating to the automatic identification of word boundaries for CJK languages. Should this recommendation become a standard, GMX-V should reference it for the provision of CJK word counts.

QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE MEASUREMENTS

GMX-V counts fall into two categories: how many and what type. The primary count is unqualified. For example, how many characters and words are in the file? This is the minimal conformance level proposed for GMX-V.

A typical translatable document will contain a variety of text elements. Some of these elements will contain non-translatable text, some will have been matched from translation memory, and some will have been fuzzy matched by the customer. Therefore, it is important to be able to categorize the word and character counts according to type, in order to provide a figure in words and characters for a given localization task. GMX-V also provides an extension mechanism that enables user defined categories.

COUNT CATEGORIES

Apart from the total-word-count and total-charactercount values, GMX-V also includes these count categories:

* In-context exact matches – An accumulation of the word and character count for text units that have been matched unambiguously with a prior translation and that require no translator input.

* Leveraged matches – An accumulation of the word and character count for text units that have been matched against a leveraged translation memory database.

* Repetition matches – An accumulation of the word count for repeating text units that have not been matched in any other form. Repetition matching is deemed to take precedence over fuzzy matching.

* Fuzzy matches – An accumulation of the word and character count for text units that have been fuzzy matched against a leveraged translation memory database.

* Alphanumeric-only text units – An accumulation of the word and character counts for text units that have been identified as containing only alphanumeric words.

* Numeric-only text units – An accumulation of the word and character counts for text units that have been identified as containing only numeric words.

* Punctuation characters – An accumulation of the punctuation characters.

* White Spaces – An accumulation of white space characters.

* Measurement-only – An accumulation of the word and character count from measurement-only text units.

* Other Non-translatable words – An accumulation of other non-translatable word and character counts.

* Automatically treatable text – A count of automatically treatable inline elements, such as date, time, measurements, or simple and complex numeric values.

VERIFIABILITY

Any measurement standard must have a reference implementation, as well as an authoritative body that tests and validates the measuring instruments. In the US, this is provided by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. In order to be successful, GMX-V must provide for a certification authority that will (1) maintain reference documents with known metrics and (2) provide an online facility to test given XLIFF documents. In this way, both customers and suppliers can be confident that GMX-V provides an unambiguous and reliable way of quantifying a localization or global-information-management task.

NON-VERIFIABLE METRICS AND EXCHANGE NOTATION

There are many instances where it is not possible to verify electronically the metrics data, such as screen shots, number of pages, etc. GMX-V allows for the annotation and exchange of all relevant metrics for a given localization task.

SUMMARY

GMX-V has been widely peer reviewed and published for open public comment for eighteen months. Much valuable feedback has been submitted and incorporated into the standard. All major localization tool providers have been consulted, to insure no obstacles to implementing it. GMX-V also provides a specification that can be used by word processing tool vendors and localization tool suppliers. It provides a consistent and unambiguous common standard for word and character counts.

Further details of GMX-V are available at the following URL: www.lisa.org/standards/gmx

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Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

GMS Spotlight. Staying ahead of the curve

2009-05-30T10:15:00.000+08:00

By Eric Richard,

VP, Engineering,
Idiom Technologies, Inc.,
Waltham, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

www.idiominc.com

Working in the translation and localization industry is like constantly working in a pressure cooker. Customers want to get more content translated into more languages with higher quality on faster schedules. And, while the volume of content is scaling up, the costs of translating that content cannot scale up at the same rates.

What makes this problem even more challenging is that this isn’t a short term issue; the amount of content that is going to be translated is going to increase again next year and the year after that and the year after that, for the foreseeable future.

Because of this, translation providers are constantly under pressure to find ways of eking that next round of efficiency out of their processes and cost out of their suppliers to meet the never-ending demands for more, more, more.

The first year a customer asks for a rate cut, it might be possible to squeeze your suppliers to get a better rate from them. But, you can only go back to that well so often before there is nothing left to squeeze.

The next year, you might be able to squeeze some efficiency out of your internal operations. Maybe you can cut a corner here or there to stay ahead of the curve. But, again, there are only so many corners to cut before you are really hurting your ability to deliver quality results.

So, what happens when you run out of corners to cut and low-hanging fruit to pick? How do you deal with the never-ending demands to do more for less? How can you get a non-linear improvement in your efficiencies to help get ahead of the curve?

THE ANSWER IS TECHNOLOGY.

In the 80’s, the technology solution of choice was translation memory (TM). By deploying TM solutions, translators could reuse their previous work and could suddenly process a higher volume of work than before.

Over the past years, translation memory has spread throughout the entire localization supply chain. Translators and LSP’s now use client-side TM in their translation workbenches to improve their efficiencies. And more and more enterprises are realizing that if they own their own TM, they can cut down on their costs and increase the quality and consistency in their translations.

The great news in all of this is that efficiency across the board has increased.

The tough part is that most of the low-hanging fruit in terms of gaining efficiencies may already be behind some early adopter companies. The reason? TM-based solutions are becoming more and more ubiquitous throughout the translation and localization supply chain. That said, however, there are still many companies out there who are ready to drive even more efficiency from the supply chain and, in some cases, start looking for ways to increase top line revenue opportunities.

Once early leaders recognized the value of TM, the search was on for the next big technology solution that could help them stay ahead of the curve. And the solution came in the form of applying workflow to the localization process; by automating previously manual steps, companies could achieve major increases in productivity and quality. Steps previously performed by a human could be performed by machines, reducing the likelihood of errors and freeing up those people to work on the hard problems that computers can’t solve.

Companies who have deployed workflow solutions into their localization processes regularly see immediate improvements. This rarely means reducing staff. Instead, it often means pushing through more content into more languages faster than before with the same staff.

For many organizations that have not yet deployed workflow solutions, this is a great opportunity to improve their efficiencies. Like TM, however, workflow has already crossed the chasm and is moving into the mainstream. Large localization organizations have already deployed workflow solutions and many have even gone through second round refinements to their systems to get most of the big wins already.

For those customers who have already deployed a workflow solution, the real question is "What’s next?" What is the next generation solution that is going to help them deal with the increases in content and keep their advantage in the market?

It is my belief that the next big wave is going to come by combining together the previous two solutions – translation memory and workflow – with another emerging technology: machine translation (MT).

Creating an integrated solution that provides the benefits of both translation memory and machine translation in the context of a workflow solution will provide companies with the ability to make headway into the content stack and start translating more and more content that was previously not even considered for translation.

There are many models in which these technologies can be mixed together.

The simplest, and least disruptive, model is to flow machine translation results into the exact same process that is used today. The result is a process that has been dubbed "machine assisted human translation". The process starts just as it would today with the content being leveraged against a translation memory and resulting in a variety of different types of matches (exact, fuzzy, etc.). But, before providing these results to the translator, this new process takes the most expensive segments – those that do not have a suitable fuzzy match from TM – and runs those segments through machine translation. The end result is that there is never a segment that needs to be translated from scratch; the translator will always have content to start from.

Obviously the devil is in the details here, and the real success of this model will be tied directly to the quality of the results from machine translation. If the machine translation engine results can provide a good starting point for translation, this approach has the ability to increase the productivity of translators.

On the flip side, the most radical model would be to combine machine translation and translation memory together but without any human translator or reviewer involved. The key to this approach is to take a serious look at an issue that is traditionally treated as sacrosanct: translation quality.

"It is my belief that the next big wave is going to come by combining together the previous two solutions-translation memory and workflow-with another emerging technology: machine translation"

In traditional translation processes, quality is non-negotiable. It is simply a non-starter to talk about translating your website, product documentation, software UI, or marketing collateral in anything other than a high quality process.

However, does this same requirement hold true of all of the content that you want to translate? Are there specific types of content for which the quality level is slightly less critical?

Specifically, are there types of content you would not normally translate, but for which the value of having a usable translation is more valuable than having no translation? For example, there may be types of content for which time-to-market of a reasonable translation is more important than taking the time to produce a high quality translation.

For content that fits into these categories, you might consider an approach like the one described above to produce what Jaap van der Meer of TAUS calls "fully automatic useful translation (FAUT)."

It is absolutely critical to understand that this is not proposing that we replace humans with machines for translation. Instead, this is looking at how we can use technology to solve a problem that is too expensive to have humans even try to solve today; this is digging into the enormous mass of content that isn’t even considered for translation today because it would be cost prohibitive to do using traditional means.

The best part of combining machine translation and translation memory with workflow is that the workflow can be used to determine which content should use which processes. The traditional content for which high quality is imperative can go down one path while content that has other requirements can go down another path.

"Translation memory and workflow are by no means mainstream at this point"

You might think that this is science fiction or years from reality, but the visionary companies in the localization industry are already deploying solutions just like this to help them deal with their translation problems today. They see this approach as a fundamental part of how they will address the issue of the volume of content that needs to be translated.

This solution is in the midst of crossing the chasm from the early adopters to the mainstream market. While translation memory and workflow are by no means mainstream at this point, some of the early adopters of content globalization and localization technologies are already looking for the next advantage, a way to keep up with steadily increasing demands. Clearly, these companies should strongly consider integrating machine translation into the mix.

ABOUT IDIOM® TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

Idiom® Technologies is the leading independent supplier of SaaS and on-premise software solutions that enable our customers and partners to accelerate the translation and localization process so content rapidly reaches markets worldwide. Unlike other companies serving this market, Idiom offers freedom of choice by embracing relevant industry standards, supporting popular content lifecycle solutions and partnering with the industry’s leading language service providers.

As a result, WorldServer™ GMS solutions are fast becoming an industry standard, allowing customers to expand their international market reach while reducing costs and improving quality. WorldServer is used every day by organizations possessing many of the most recognizable global brands to more efficiently create and manage multilingual websites (e.g., AOL, eBay and Continental), localize software applications (e.g., Adobe, Beckman Coulter and Motorola) and streamline translation and localization of corporate and product documentation (e.g., Autodesk, Cisco and Business Objects).

Idiom is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, with offices throughout North America and in Europe. WorldServer solutions are also available through the company’s Global Partner Network™. For more information, please visit www.idiominc.com.

ABOUT ERIC RICHARD - VP, ENGINEERING, IDIOM TECHNOLOGIES

Eric Richard joined Idiom from Chicago-based SPSS, where he served as Chief Architect. Previously, he wore several hats as co-founder, Vice President of Engineering, and Chief Technology Officer at NetGenesis (acquired by SPSS), where he directed the company's technology development.

In 2001, Eric was a finalist in the Ernst & Young New England Entrepreneur of the Year Awards. He is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

The Need for Translation Services In a Global Economy

2009-05-29T08:50:00.000+08:00

By Shohreh Fleming

The pace of economic migration in the global economy is quickening and the voice of the world is becoming more cosmopolitan. As businesses, corporations and government bodies expand, the requirement for them to communicate with their evolving populous in a meaningful way becomes all the more pertinent, not to mention challenging and exciting.

If a country is to prosper it needs to engage with its population. Where a system for dialogue exists to serve a multi-cultural society, there will also exist a harmony of expression and application.

The birth of the internet has made a seemingly endless stream of information available to anyone who has access to a computer with a web connection. The internet is also vital for business. It creates a new arena where companies are able to showcase their particular products and services in fresh and innovative ways to new and diverse audiences.

From launching an ad campaign in Polish to translating an e-mail from a client in Moscow; the challenge of utilising the internet to widen the appeal of your company must be met, if growth and success are to form any part of an organisations agenda.

The presence of translation service providers on the net is yet another boon to the global economy; giving voice to ideas, plans and proposals the world over providing a much needed platform for far-reaching and meaningful communications with the rest of the planet. Aiming to create a bridge upon which ideas and communications can cross without obstruction, to pave the way for free, open and creative communications without boundaries or obstacles.

The advantages of language services on the broader global economy are perhaps not immediately apparent. But if a company, whether large or small, is to get involved with it's public in a meaningful way it needs to approach them in a manner that is conducive to them, not to marginalise them and therein reduce their presence in the world economy.

Companies express their cultural sensitivity by providing their diversifying customer base with materials tailored to suit their own languages. Indeed, for a company not to offer this kind of information would be short-sighted and not make good business sense.

The aim of any company or corporation is to offer the same high quality product or service to its expanding customer base. If that base consists largely of individuals from many different countries, then a solution needs to be found.

For example, a company sees a gap in a potential market for a new or existing product; the problem presented to them is simple; extending the message that their company wishes to express in a culturally sensitive and appropriate manner.

It would not simply be enough to translate an ad campaign into Albanian, Bambara or Chechen without an understanding of the kind of world your message is going to be heard in. Enter the translation services provider.

With the advent of the global economy the role of the translator is an almost indispensable one. The need for businesses to communicate with their client base means that there will always be a requirement for a translator.

This means a lot of work for professional language services: a company setting up a South-East Asian headquarters would need to overhaul the bulk of its commercial as well as training materials without losing any of its corporate timbre. Such an undertaking is costly and important to execute correctly from beginning to end.

Simply translating material would not be sufficient; a translator would need to know what kind of message the company is anxious to convey to their new client base and set the tone for the promotion or corporate identity. Certain symbols or ideas that are seen as the norm to one country may be highly offensive to another. In this manner, cultural sensitivity is extremely important.

So, the role of a translation services provider is not simply to transpose a set of texts or materials from one language to the next, but also to engage with the culture who speaks that language. In partnership with the business or government body, this creates an invaluable link to its population in order that it may speak openly and clearly to all.

About the author:

Shohreh Fleming is CEO and co-founder of Prestige Network Ltd., and Translation Services-UK.com.

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

At Arm’s Length or Close to the Vest? The Optimal Relationship between Clients and Vendors

2009-05-28T09:02:00.001+08:00

By Anil Singh-Molares,
EchoMundi, LLC,
Bellevue, WA, U.S.A.

Anil[at]Echomundi.com
http://www.echomundi.com/

The relationships between vendors and clients go through their ebbs and flows (more insourcing, followed by more outsourcing, followed by…). As predictable as the swings of a pendulum, all of us - clients and vendors - go through our normal gyrations back and forth. And it is all in an attempt to find that elusive, but allegedly perfect, middle ground - but where is it? And beyond the question of where to place work (inside or outside), the question is more about the right tenor of vendor-client relationships--at arm’s length or close to the vest? The answer, I will argue, is both, in the right proportion.

While running vendor relations at Microsoft in the mid-1990s I developed that company’s "strategic localization partner" program. Through this program, many of the constituent companies of what would later become BGS, the Mendez group, and Lionbridge were developed with significant input from Microsoft: Opera, Translingua, Meta, Gecap etc… With only one notable exception, all of these companies were very successful in the nineties. The hallmarks of the "strategic partner" program that we established were designed to lower the barriers between vendor and clients by emphasizing common teams and objectives, and an approach of "if they succeed, we win" rather than "if we make the vendors fail, we win (as our jobs will be more secure)." We emphasized very tight communication links, virtual teams, frequent trips and training to each other’s sites, as well as bonuses and other incentives, such as guaranteed profitability in some cases. The proverbial "us and them" did not exist - rather we all belonged to the same team.

Did it work? Yes and No. Some Microsoft divisions embraced the concept, some rejected it. But the concept of vendors as extensions of client teams (rather than simple providers to them) did begin to take hold. And this approach yielded many notable achievements, particularly in the consumer space, for instance with the creation of Microsoft’s encyclopedia, where we had dedicated vendor teams worldwide for a period of 7 years. In this context, it is noteworthy that in those instances where we pushed the "close to the vest" concept, both clients and vendors achieved their common objectives: good quality at reasonable cost for the client, and increased profitability for the vendors. Similarly, instances where the "at arm’s length" concept was used invariably resulted in higher costs and lower quality for the client and significantly reduced profitability for the vendors. In addition, the "arm’s length" approach also produced considerable churn in the vendor base of those groups using this approach, as vendors left in frustration or were ousted in favour of the "next best thing."

Where are we today?

Before joining Microsoft in 1991 I ran a translation company in the Boston area. Now at the helm of Echomundi LLC, an International Services company, I find the contrast between my experience as both a vendor and a client instructive and informative in answering the question of how close vendors and clients have or should become:

What has changed:

* The industry is far more mature and professional. Localization as a discipline, rising wages and respect for language specialists, growing sophistication in tools and approach are all readily apparent. The process has been streamlined and codified to a large extent. Various CMS, TM and Project Management tools have also helped reduce costs and increased consistency.

* As a rule, there also appears to be more frequent contact between clients and vendors, more training sessions, conferences, meetings, trips etc.

* However, many types of interactions between clients and vendors now seem principally driven more by increasing efforts to "measure and quantify" quality, productivity etc. In this context, the notion of "Service" is now largely defined as success in meeting the client’s metrics on a job to job basis (as indeed we are all measured one job at a time), and not as much on creative problem solving, flexibility, adaptability, transparency and innovation.

What remains the same:

There are certain limitations inherent in the client-vendor relationship that cannot be overcome. That is, when one party pays the bills it has the right to set expectations of service as it deems fit. Conversely, once they have accepted the terms and conditions of a particular client, service companies have an obligation to respond to their client’s requirements to the best of their ability. This fundamental axiom is unchangeable.

And now to return to our basic question: At Arm’s Length or Close to the Vest?

The "Arm’s Length" approach in its ideal application has obvious benefits: each party treats the other as a professional entity, there are clear expectations and deliverables, an optimized use of technology, and tightly controlled costs and profit margins. The downside, however, is glaring: if you as the client don’t develop strong and lasting relationships with your vendors, they won’t be your vendors for long (either because you will tire of them or they will tire of you). By maintaining too much distance from your vendors, they are never motivated to really integrate with your approach. In short, they can become clinical and dispassionate (if not unmotivated and indifferent). One additional drawback of this approach is that it also easily lends itself to bureaucracy run amok, where it can become more important to "follow the rules" than to "get the job done" - surely self-defeating.

The "Close to the Vest" approach in its ideal form seeks to eliminate the barriers between clients and vendors. Through frequent interaction, joint training, and team building the vendor becomes an extension of the client’s team. Both parties share the pains and rewards of individual projects. Both put themselves on the line to a greater degree in innovative problem solving and troubleshooting. And by building relationships for the long haul, the investments that each party makes in the other are more resilient. The downside to this approach, however, can be possible "subjectivity" in measuring work and an unwillingness of one party to honestly hold the other party accountable when mistakes occur.

The Ideal

Really what we all (clients and vendors) want is a combination of both the "Arm’s Length" and "Close to the Vest" approaches - that is, deliverables and costs that can easily, objectively and professionally be measured on the one hand, combined with cordial personal relationships, which are essential for effective problem-solving, on the other. This "middle ground" will vary according to the individual requirements of clients and the capacity of the vendors that they select to meet those requirements, but it is clearly a combination of the benefits of both approaches.

Clients and Vendors that hew to this joint approach will find increasing satisfaction in their relationships on all levels: quality, cost, profitability and service. In this context all of us should strive to be "understanding professionals" rather than exclusively one thing or the other.

Born in Holland and raised in Europe and the United States, Anil Singh-Molares is a global citizen, a global entrepreneur and businessperson. From 1991-2003, Anil worked as a Senior Director at Microsoft Corporation, where he implemented Microsoft’s "strategic localization partner" program. Since leaving the software giant, he founded and serves as CEO of EchoMundi LLC, a rapidly growing international services firm that helps corporations do business abroad. He can be reached at Anil@echomundi.com.

Copyright © 2006 Anil Singh-Molares. All rights reserved.

This article was originally published in GALAxy newsletter:
www.gala-global.org/GALAxy-newsletter.html

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

Translations.com – Alchemy Merger Story

2009-05-27T09:18:00.000+08:00

By Tony O’Dowd,
CEO and President - Alchemy Software Development

By Phil Shawe,
Co-founder of TransPerfect,
President and CEO of Translations.com

By Keith Becoski, ClientSide News

www.translations.com

CSN: Tony, I saw it mentioned that the purchase process for Alchemy was a competitive situation and that Translations.com was the high bidder. Was there anything else driving the Board’s decision besides maximizing their investment?

TONY: There were a number of factors that drove this decision from our side. For starters, Translations.com is one of a few localization service providers that invest heavily in technology solutions. It was also important to us that we brought something complementary to the table. While Alchemy is a market leader in delivering next-generation TM technology to over 80% of the world’s leading technology companies, Translations.com boasts one of the most widely-adopted workfow platforms in GlobalLink. Since there’s little cross-over in functionality, integrating these two technologies will be rapid from a development perspective, yet powerful for our combined clients. Lastly, Translations.com’s track record of executing successful industry mergers, retaining virtually 100% of staff and clients, and supporting incoming entrepreneurs as they continue to operate their divisions autonomously, also helped us to solidify our decision to merge.

CSN: Phil, what was it about Alchemy that made Translations.com stretch a bit fnancial-ly to make this merger a reality?

PHIL: First and foremost, our mergers are about the people. With Tony, co-founder Enda McDonnell, and the rest of the Alchemy team, we saw a talented group of localization technology veterans who shared our focus on innovation, growth, and client satisfaction. Beyond the wealth of technology talent, Alchemy’s proven and proftable business model is unique among the localization industry’s technology providers. While Alchemy’s leadership in the Visual Localization Tool market is well-established, it gave us extra comfort that we’ve relied on Alchemy technology internally for over five years and have first-hand experience with how effectively CATALYST streamlines the localization process. Lastly, it’s not only Alchemy’s past achievements that impressed us, but also its prospects for the future. We’re very excited to be building on Alchemy’s success and investing in future Alchemy software product offerings.

CSN: Tony, you’ve stated that you intend to stay on with the business post-close. As a shareholder of Alchemy, who has now seen a return from that investment, why stay aboard?

TONY: I’m way too young to think about simply hanging up my hat. What would I do? So the motivation for me in doing this merger was more about opportunity than it was about exiting and doing something else. While I may not have always enjoyed all of the administrative tasks associated with running a company, I have been in the localization industry for 22 years and I’ve always enjoyed it immensely. So for me, the decision to stay on and to be part of driving the growth and development of one of the world’s premier players in this industry is an easy one. And as Phil said, it’s all about the people. My due diligence about the people I’d be working with, as well as the spirit of the merger discussions themselves, led me to believe that this is an interesting and talented group of people for me to join up with.

CSN: And why do you feel this move is right for Alchemy clients?

TONY: Again, Translations.com and Alchemy can combine our R&D spend and deliver more innovative technologies for our clients. Translations.com is a proftable, private company with a very healthy Balance Sheet. In other words, our clients can be confdent that when they are making an investment in technology, they are doing so with a partner who has consistently been fnancially stable. Not motivated by meeting quarterly numbers for the public markets, Translations.com has the advantage of being long-term focused and, as part of our transaction, has pledged long-term investment in Alchemy R&D. Additionally, the combination of our technology with the GlobalLink GMS product suite will enable our clients to achieve greater levels of effciency and scalability in their localization processes. I also believe Translations. com’s post-merger history of retaining employees, management, and clients also makes this the right move for our clients.

CSN: OK, but you’ve failed to touch on the issue on everyone’s mind, what about the loss of independence?

TONY: Our clients value innovation more than independence. Alchemy will operate as an independent division within Translations.com and will continue to develop, distribute, and support our own products. Additionally, the senior management team, such as me and Enda McDonnell, will remain in our existing roles, continuing to exercise our leadership and vision over Alchemy CATALYST and Alchemy Language Exchange. Unlike recent localization industry acquisitions which resulted in large-scale layoffs, we shall be investing in and expanding the development efforts at Alchemy and launching new and exciting technologies later in the year.

CSN: Generally, though, the technology in this industry does seem to be getting gobbled up by the service providers. Who benefts from this?

TONY: Speaking about the Translations.com/Achemy deal, our clients are the ultimate benefciaries of this merger. Technology is playing an increasingly important role in the optimization and effciency of our clients’ localization processes. Even small and medium sized companies see growth opportunities in overseas markets. To take advantage of these growth opportunities they need to localize quickly, cost-effectively, and with high quality. Technology will drive these effciencies making localization more accessible to a wider range of companies and enterprises.

Combining these technology advantages with a full service offering will suit some of our clients. However, we are mindful of the fact that choice is important to many of our clients and that is why Alchemy will remain a fully independent division within Translations.com and our tools will continue to be service provider agnostic.

Because we don’t have overlapping technology, our clients do not need to be concerned about which product lines will be supported in the future, and which will be killed off. Stability, security and a defned roadmap for future development for our combined software offerings will also work to the beneft of our clients.

CSN: What do the language service providers need to know about this and what do the end clients need to know?

TONY: Probably both groups need to know the same things. Alchemy has developed CATALYST into the optimization tool of choice for the localization process, and this development has served all who manage localization, whether they are an LSP or an end client. So what all localization stakeholders need to know is that Alchemy and Translations.com intend to work together collectively to continue investing in and driving the evolution of CATALYST and Alchemy Language Exchange, which are not captive and are used in conjunction with other LSPs’ services.

PHIL: We also feel that increased competition in the localization technology sector will drive more innovation, and this transaction is likely to result in increased competition.

CSN: Phil, how will this merger differ from the SDL/ Idiom merger which is leaving a perceived lack of independence and choice?

PHIL: Translations.com has a reputation of merging with companies and retaining virtually 100% of the entrepreneurial skills and enthusiasm of the existing teams and management. This has proven to be a very successful strategy. While I don’t know that it’s accurate to say that this approach to M&A is unique, it certainly does differ from the approach of SDL, the obvious comparison here given their recent and past technology acquisitions. In fairness, they are a public company with a requirement to operate and to consolidate acquired businesses in a way that makes sense to investors. As a private company, Translations.com is free to take a more long-term approach, and we see the value in supporting entrepreneurs and their businesses.

Furthermore, the Alchemy/Translations.com merger differs from – again the natural, but not entirely analogous, comparison – SDL/Idiom, in that this merger has not manifested a direct contradiction of a promise. Many clients and partners asked Idiom directly if they intended to sell the company to a service provider. Idiom sold their solutions on a promise to remain independent. Alchemy made no such promise because, without the same access to confdential partner information that is inherent in the way WorldServer functions, there was never any reason for CATALYST to be sold with a pledge of independence.

CSN: How has the recent SDL/Idiom merger affected Translations.com?

PHIL: As far as companies performing services through an Idiom platform, Translations.com is probably among the largest in the world. However, you never saw a public partnership announced. One reason is that Idiom competes directly with our GlobalLink suite of products. However, another reason was that we felt we couldn’t predict the future actions of venture capitalists that controlled Idiom, and envisioned the potential of them selling out to a competing LSP.

Now, of course we’re concerned that SDL has, in effect, purchased our pricing information and other knowledge we once considered confdential, because it is stored on Idiom servers. As there is nothing legally preventing SDL from making use of this information to compete for service revenues, we expect them to cross-sell aggressively into those accounts.

When you step back and think about it, Idiom was losing over $5 million a year and SDL has competing and overlapping technology, so why buy the company for over $20 million? It may be that the real value in the deal for SDL shareholders is simply the future ability to cross-sell more services through 1) the built-in dependency and high-switching costs associated with being a technology vendor and 2) the access to once-confdential proprietary competitor information.

Note that there is nothing “wrong” with what SDL is doing by pursuing this strategy. Quite the contrary, having spent $20+ million of their shareholders’ money, they now have a fduciary obligation to maximize that value, and make the most of their new-found client relationships and competitor information.

After the Idiom deal, we feel how we’ve always felt about SDL: their technology is primarily about three things; a Trojan Horse with which to establish diffcult-to-break relationships to better sell services, an image necessary to fetch them a higher valuation in the public markets (i.e. a software vs. services valuation), and a vehicle that they’ve quite cleverly used to get competitors to help fnance their R&D and operations.

In summary, we respected SDL as a tough competitor before they bought Idiom, and we expect them to continue to be a tough competitor. As always, we look forward to the challenge of going head-to-head with them in the marketplace, on both services and technology.

CSN: So Tony, what’s the “real story” in terms of value to the market place? How and why will this be a positive alliance for the industry?

TONY: The ‘real story’ is about offering choice. Our clients want to manage their localization content more effciently across multiple localization service providers. A solution that is vendor agnostic, using web based architecture and built on open standards that offers enterprise level scalability is key to their continued growth. This is where Translations.com and Alchemy have invested heavily over the past few years.

CSN: Phil, what does this merger mean in terms of your competitive position?

PHIL: Over the past several years, Translations.com has been fortunate enough to be one of the fastest growing players in the localization industry. Enterprise localization clients are increasingly aware of the value we bring to the table. With the addition of a market leader such as Alchemy, we expect to see this trend continue.

ClientSide News Magazine - www.clientsidenews.com

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

The evolution of localization tools

2009-05-26T08:32:00.000+08:00

By Michael Trent,
Lingobit Technologies

Some time ago, only few people knew about software localization tools, but now such tools have become an essential part of software development process. This article tells about transformation of localization software from simple tools developed in-house to powerful software suites that support multiple platforms and languages, provide advanced functionality and make software localization affordable to any company.

First steps

Localization revolves around combining language and technology to produce a product that can cross language and cultural barriers. Initially, software companies considered localization as an afterthought. When the original application was released in English and developers went on vacation, translators were put to work to produce a German, French, Chinese, etc. version. Initially, translators just changed text strings directly in source code, which was time-consuming and an error-prone process. It required translators to understand programming language and review huge amount of source code to translate few lines of text.

Locating translatable text embedded in software source code was very difficult and source code localization made code updates and version management a nightmare. As a result, localization at that time used to be very expensive in both time and money. It often produced unsatisfactory results and introduced new bugs in software.

First localization tools that appeared on the market were no more than simple utilities to simplify some parts of this process by locating text strings and managing code updates. They were limited in functionality and were mostly developed for in-house use and, in most cases, for some particular product. However, for all these difficulties, even those first localization tools allowed developers to reduce localization costs significantly.

The shift of computer software use away from centralized corporate and academic environments to usersT desks called for a shift in products features and functionality. Desktop computer users needed software that would enable them to do their work more efficiently and software also had to be in their local language. Releasing software in multiple languages became necessary not only for big software developers such as Microsoft or IBM, but also for smaller software companies. This triggered development of the first commercial localization tools.

First commercial localization tools used binary localization of executable files, rather than localization of the source code because this approach separated localization from software development. Translators were no longer required to know programming languages and many technical complexities were hidden from translators. Binary localization led to a considerable reduction in number of errors caused by localization and it made possible to easily sync translations when the software updates were released.

Localization vs. CAT tools

Companies that developed Computer Aided Translation (CAT) tools also tried to enter software localization market but most of them failed because they are designed for a different purpose. In CAT systems, output is a translated text, whereas in case of localization tools it is only an intermediary stage. The objective of localization is to adapt the product for local markets. This means not only translation of text, but also resizing dialogs, changing images and multiple other things. To do so, localization engineers get a copy of the software, extract translatable text from multiple files, do the translation, merge the translated files with the software build and produce localized copies of the application.

One of the major strengths of CAT systems is a translation memory but it is only partially useful in software localization for several reasons. Translation Memory database from one product cannot be reused in other products and, what is more, even in the same application same text in is often translated differently.

Riding the dot-com wave, localization tools evolved and by the end of the 1990s took over and implemented CAT tool functionality. Currently, traditional CAT tools no longer play a significant role in the localization industry.

Product-centric localization

Products developed today utilize multiple technologies and combine managed and unmanaged code, web components and even code targeting different operating systems. In large projects, there are hundreds of files that require localization and old tools that use by-file localization and target specific platforms are no longer up to a job. New crop of software localization products add support for folder-based localization, multiple development platforms and unify all localization efforts by supporting translation of help files and online documentation.

Folder-based localization tool

When a project has hundreds of localizable files in different directories, it becomes very difficult to manage without using folder-based localization. Tools that support folder-based localization automatically track new, removed and changed files, synchronize translation between files and keep project structure intact.

When multiple people work on the development of a large application, itTs difficult for localization engineers to track what files with localizable text are added and removed from the project. It used to be time-consuming and error-prone work but tools with support for folder-based localization automate this process by detecting new files, determining whether they contain text for translation and then adding them to the project.

Support for multiple formats

One of the specialties that characterize the localization industry today is support for multiple development platforms. In the past, most applications were developed using only one platform, but over time, products became more complex. Many products today contain both legacy code and new code in different programming languages. WhatTs more, as more products move into the Web, with its multitude of languages support for different platforms, this becomes even more important.

Localization on mobile devices

There are more mobile devices than computers in the world and many products have mobile version. While most people who work on computer have at least basic knowledge of English, majority of mobile phone users do not speak English at all. Support for .NET Compact Edition, Windows CE and Java Mobile Edition is standard in modern localization tools.

Help and documentation

Some software localization products added support for localization of documentation, websites and help. While CAT tools are better suited for translation of large amount of text, localization tools are better at translating text in structured form. WhatTs more, using localization tools for help and documentation allows companies to standardize on one product and lower support cost.

Conclusion

Over a short period, localization tools have gone a long way from simple utilities for in-house localization teams to complex product-centric systems, providing tools for the entire localization process. Technologies such as binary localization and translation memory dramatically increased localization efficiency. WhatTs more, modern localization tools compete in documentation and web content translation space with CAT systems, offering the developer a unified environment for entire software product localization.

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Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

Translation Buyers' Views on Technology Independence

2009-05-25T09:19:00.000+08:00

By Ben Sargent,
Senior Analyst,
Common Sense Advisory

In late mid-2008, Common Sense Advisory asked buyers of translation services for their views on technology independence among their software and language vendors. Over half the 30-plus respondents hailed from North America; 35 percent were from Europe; the balance were scattered across that amorphous continent known as "Rest of World."

Our first question asked, "How important is it for your technology vendor to be a different company than the firm that provides translation services?" About 60 percent said technology independence was "somewhat important" or "very important."

Source: Common Sense Advisory, Inc.

Stated more bluntly, we were asking buyers what they felt about using technology tied to a specific language services provider (LSP), such as Lionbridge, Sajan, SDL, or Translations.com. Given the high proportion of "very important" responses coupled with zero buyers stating "very unimportant," the balance of opinion among buyers tilts radically toward concern on this topic, even though 39 percent said it was "not important."

Next, we asked buyers if a guarantee of independence from the vendor would influence their purchasing decision. Over 80 percent indicated that it would.

Source: Common Sense Advisory, Inc.

Expect non-service vendors to take advantage of this buying criterion, in both marketing platitudes and in the more hand-to-hand combat of direct selling. However, not all buyers will take such promises at face value. Last year, two notable independent software companies, Alchemy and Idiom, were swallowed by large LSPs (Translations.com and SDL, respectively). When we asked how recent mergers and acquisitions (M&A) had affected their views regarding vendor independence, 60 percent of buyers told us industry consolidation had raised their skepticism about any vendor's ability to remain independent over time.

Other reactions included 25 percent who said they were pushed to explore internal development options; 35 percent who set off to look for new independent vendors; and 45 percent for whom it triggered an exploration of open source solutions. Only 16 percent say the consolidation did not alter their views on vendor independence.

Source: Common Sense Advisory, Inc.

But apparently many companies did not need M&A activities to trigger their interest in open source. When we asked if it was likely their company would use open-source software for translation automation projects, nearly three out of four said they are "somewhat likely" or "very likely" to do so. This receptiveness could bode well for an open-source Global Sight — if Welocalize succeeds in mobilizing a community and eliciting a sense of ownership beyond itself.

Source: Common Sense Advisory, Inc.

Fewer companies are developing their own solutions for translation automation. Half said they were not, 30 percent said they were, and 20 percent claimed to be thinking about it.

Translation Buyers' Views on Technology Independence

Source: Common Sense Advisory, Inc.

So, our survey comes down to two conflicting datapoints:

* Our research on translation management systems (TMS) shows that most high-scoring systems are offered by language service providers, not by independent software vendors (ISVs). Suppliers such as Lionbridge, Sajan, SDL, and Translations.com are not only LSPs, but leading proponents of TMS in the openly available enterprise or captive "house" categories (house systems are available only through service agreements with those LSPs).

* However, buyers unequivocally tell us they worry about vendor independence and that it affects buying decisions.

This cognitive dissonance explains the difficult selling environment that LSPs find themselves in when pushing their proprietary technology approaches. And why unaffiliated software vendors have clay feet when it comes to the question of independence. Across, Beetext, and Kilgray have no financial ties to LSPs — yet. Maybe these new players will be the ones who finally turn the corner and prove that ISVs can survive in this service-oriented marketplace. But over the last decade, LSPs have harvested pretty much every leading software vendor in the space — more than 10 companies in all. Common Sense Advisory anticipates that acquisition by an LSP is still the most likely "exit strategy" for any globalization software vendor (GSV) operating today.

Published - April 2009

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Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

The translator’s point of view: goodbye quality, hello Quality!

2009-05-24T07:55:00.000+08:00

By Estelle Renard

estelle [at] traducteurs-av . org

Languages & the Media 2008 - 7th International Conference on Language Transfer in Audiovisual Media

As presented by Estelle Renard on behalf of the ATAA

Last year, the sensation at the French box office was not a Hollywood blockbuster, but a small comedy about language differences and the prejudices and bonds they produce. Bienvenue chez les Chtis was a huge success and over half the French population went to see it. This film, relying as it does on language and linguistic jokes, should have been lost in translation. It was not. Thanks to the competence of the English translator and the director’s attention to it, the subtitles were so good that a Guardian journalist suggested that this tour de force deserved the creation of a whole new Oscar’s category for subtitlers. It is because it was so well translated that this film has had the chance of an international career.

If this story proves something, it is not the refinement of the French people's tastes, but the value of the work of audiovisual translators.

And indeed,

- it it is not only that without translation, an audiovisual product will not cross the borders of the country where it was created,

- nor that without a good translation, the program will be aired, but not appreciated as it should be and sometimes, not even understood.

- Translation is even more than that, it gives an added value to what we call a “product”, if we want to use the language of business.

This story is also interesting, because the comedy of cultural differences and especially those embodied in language is the ultimate challenge for an audiovisual translator. It demonstrates that what we do is something that is, essentially, not quantifiable. This 'something' that cannot be quantified is also at the heart, the very core of the industry in which we work. Creativity and efficiency cannot be measured or quantified in industrial and business language.

So how can we evaluate something that is not quantifiable? This question seems relevant, but in our industry, it leads us down the wrong path. In this sector, all companies, whatever their size, boast about the high quality translations they provide. At the same time, they boast that they can achieve that quality for a price defying all the odds, shrinking year after year. My question is : what is behind that boast? I would like to demonstrate how quality, as defined by the industry, always results in a cut in the rate paid to the translator. Why is this the case?

The key words of global translation companies are:

- Standardization / globalization

- Productivity

- Technology

Let us see how each of them works in regard to audiovisual translation and if they are a means to achieve efficiency. Can they achieve quality?

Standardization

The issue here is not technical standardization such as in file or video formats, which obviously aid the circulation of audiovisual programs. I am talking about the standardization of intellectual work.

The use of templates provides an eloquent example of the confusion between quality and cost cutting. The main (and only) advantage of a template is that spotting has to be done only once, no matter how many languages the program is translated into. When using a template, translators have to fit their subtitles into spotting that was designed for another language.

- English template : Bad Girl (8 characters)

- Translation in polish : Niegrzeczna dziewczynka (22 char)

In the example above, the Polish words need a lot more time to read than the English. Using a template, this extra time is not available. The template cannot be changed. It is obviously a bad idea to provide the same template for languages that are so different. Quality spotting is adapted to each language, not the contrary. Templates are the exact opposite of what would ensure a smooth and enjoyable experience for the viewer.

Therefore, standardization is a way to save money but not to produce a good translation. The only thing it can deliver is productivity.

What does productivity mean for a translator?

The translator is an individual, not a company. For him, there is no economy of scale. Higher volume does not mean higher profits. Program for program, he will not make more profit if he translates 10 films than if he translates just one. He will earn the same for each film and his profits will not increase the more films he translates.

Productivity has a meaning from an industrial point of view but not for the translator.

Perhaps technology can help the translator. What can it do for him?

Well, not much. Technology is a means, a tool. Subtitling software for instance is an excellent tool, but it is like a car: you can have the most technologically advanced car in the world but if you don't know where you're going, you will just go nowhere more quickly. It is true that software allows translators to work in more comfortable conditions, but it cannot help them to produce better translations.

Let us assume that technology allows us to work faster. It could then be argued that it helps the translator to do a better job: they are paid the same and work faster. This means they can reinvest the time gained in reviewing their translation many times. But the point is, for audiovisual translators, technology has always meant a dramatic drop in rates and in the time allocated for each job. In France, the rates are a third of what they were 10 years ago. Has any employee in any other sector seen their salary cut by 70% in ten years? If we don't react, the same will happen in dubbing, with the rapid growth of virtual dubbing software.

In this conference, we have seen many amazing machines and softwares but I know of something even more amazing: the human brain. A machine transcodes, the brain of a translator takes a sentence in its context and transfers it to another language. Languages are not just words strung together, they are inextricably linked with a culture and are constantly evolving. They are the flesh of a civilization, and at the core of the very essence of humanity.

In a nutshell, standardisation, globalization, productivity and blind trust in the wonders of technology are the criteria of the industry, but they cannot be applied to the work of the mind, and therefore not to translation.

If we are here today questioning whether or not quality can still be achieved, it is because of global companies such as SDI, Softitler and others and the blindness of networks regarding what are ultimately their own interests. The question of “quality” (with a small q) is the elegant screen behind which these global companies make big profits. Here, the issue is not that translation costs too much, it is how to make the most money out of it, providing the biggest possible profit for their shareholders. This may seem obvious but I strongly believe that we should not see this situation from their point of view. These companies are the cancer that is eating this industry alive. Why use such a shocking term? Because the way they run their business puts the whole industry in danger.

Quality cannot be achieved without a system of values. What is valued here? Not the viewers and certainly not the translators. Recently, SDI Media Group placed an advert inviting young translators to move to the Philippines for a year. There, the company would provide them with a computer, an internet connection and lots of paid-per-minute programs. Scuba diving lessons and weekend trips were also on the agenda, but not at the company's expense. They considered the opportunity so exciting that they did not think that stating the rates paid was necessary. It is an insight into the way these companies envision the trade of the audiovisual translator. Do they think it is a hobby?

These companies create an environment where companies can only compete to pay the lowest rates, where the smaller companies eventually disappear. As a result, the subtitles are for the most part, appalling. How is it possible to blame the translators? They simply deliver a quality reflecting the rate they are paid. “If you want to pay peanuts, hire monkeys” says the proverb. This policy is hastening the end of the very business model they helped to create because consumers also want to reduce their costs, or even not pay at all. And why should they? Why buy a DVD with a translation no better than a fansubbed version? It is so much easier to download it from home, for free.

What is to be done?

It seems obvious that we have to escape this business model, this vicious circle. The role of the translator has to be re-evaluated and recognized. He is the one who conveys and gives meaning to the whole process of language transfer in the media. It is imperative that he should have the right tools to work with. To do a good job, a competent and dedicated translator simply needs two things:

- time

- money

Time. It is the only thing that can allow a translator to go through all the steps that guarantee a good translation. One of them is proofreading, for instance by a fellow translator: through this crucial step, subtitles or dubbing can be considerably enhanced.

Money. Translators should always be paid by the subtitle or word. They do not make socks. They should not be paid by the kilogram or, in this case, the minute. It is not a mechanical process repeated again and again as if on a production line. Each sentence, each subtitle is different, is a new adventure. Being paid per subtitle or word is a way to have their work properly recognized and appreciated.

This is all wishful thinking of course. It will not happen like this.

Translators must take action to gain the self respect that the industry does not give them.

The first step is to say no.

Case study: SDI office in France in 2003.

There were 30 translators working full time. Not only for that office, but in that office: we knew each other. When we learned that SDI was going to cut our rates for the third time, all the translators working there agreed to leave the company. Overnight 28 out of the 30 translators were gone.

SDI was, at the time, my only client. I did not work for 4 months afterwards, but what I gained was priceless. I gained self respect, respect for my trade and respect for the viewers/consumers. Those who have done something like this just once in their lives know how good it feels. You can look at yourself in the mirror with a big smile on your face.

Of course, if one person says no, it does not mean much to a company. But if a lot of people say no, then it starts to be a problem.

So the second step is: unite!

ATAA (French Audiovisual Translators Association) was founded two years ago, in June 2006. We were able to create an initially small network that continues to grow today. The so-called individualism of the translator has been proved to be fiction.

We now have 160 members and a mailing list of more than 500 translators.

The first achievement of the Ataa was to share information: a tremendous amount of information is exchanged through our forum and during our meetings. This simple service has made a huge difference. Now we all know what is going on in other companies, how much the other translators are paid and we can organize ourselves and act accordingly.

We also meet a lot: we take every opportunity to organise meetings, and simply get to know each other. Because what we discovered was: it is a small step from meeting in the flesh, to having the guts to say no.

Beyond this national association, we are trying to organize ourselves internationally. Thanks to the great initiative taken by our Scandinavian colleagues, we started an International League of Subtitlers that continues to grow. This international network has allowed us to meet and to compare working conditions. In the not too distant future, we hope to take positive action together.

estelle [at] traducteurs-av . org

Published - April 2009

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

Where Do Translators Fit into Machine Translation?

2009-05-23T09:19:00.000+08:00

By Alex Gross

http://language.home.sprynet.com/
alexilen@sprynet.com

Original and Supplementary Questions
Submitted to the MT Summit III Conference,

Washington, 1991

Here are the original questions for this panel as submitted to the speakers:

1. At the last MT Summit, Martin Kay stated that there should be "greater attention to empirical studies of translation so that computational linguists will have a better idea of what really goes on in translation and develop tools that will be more useful for the end user." Does this mean that there has been insufficient input into MT processes by translators interested in MT? Does it mean that MT developers have failed to study what translating actually entails and how translators go about their task? If either of these is true, then to what extent and why? New answers and insights for the MT profession could arise from hearing what human translators with an interest in the development of MT have to say about these matters. It may well turn out that translators are the very people best qualified to determine what form their tools should take, since they are the end users.

2. Is there a specifically "human" component in the translation process which MT experts have overlooked? Is it reasonable for theoreticians to envision setting up predictable and generic vocabularies of clearly defined terms, or could they be overlooking a deep-seated human tendency towards some degree of ambiguity—indeed, in those many cases where not all the facts are known, an inescapably human reliance on it? Are there any viable MT approaches to duplicate what human translators can provide in such cases, namely the ability to bridge this ambiguity gap and improvise personalized, customized case-specific subtleties of vocabulary, depending on client or purpose? Could this in fact be a major element of the entire translation process? Alternately, are there some more boring "machine-like" aspects of translation where the computer can help the translator, such as style and consistency checking?

3. How can the knowledge of practicing translators best be integrated into current MT research and working systems? Is it to be assumed that they are best employed as prospective end-users working out the bugs in the system, or is there also a place for them during the initial planning phases of such systems? Can they perhaps as users be the primary developers of the system?

4. Many human translators, when told of the quest to have machines take over all aspects of translation, immediately reply that this is impossible and start providing specific instances which they claim a machine system could never handle. Are such reactions merely the final nerve spasms of a doomed class of technicians awaiting superannuation, or are these translators in fact enunciating specific instances of a general law as yet not fully articulated?

Since we now hear claims suggesting that FAHQT is creeping in again through the back door, it seems important to ask whether there has in fact ever been sufficient basic mathematical research, much less algorithmic underpinnings, by the MT Community to determine whether FAHQT, or anything close to it, can be achieved by any combination of electronic stratagems (transfer, AI, neural nets, Markov models, etc.).

Must translators forever stand exposed on the firing line and present their minds and bodies to a broadside of claims that the next round of computer advances will annihilate them as a profession? Is this problem truly solvable in logical terms, or is it in fact an intractable, undecidable, or provably unsolvable question in terms of "Computable Numbers" as set out by Turing, based on the work of Hilbert and Goedel? A reasonable answer to this question could save boards of directors and/or government agencies a great deal of time and money.

SUPPLEMENTAL QUESTIONS:

It was also envisioned that a list of Supplemental Questions would be prepared and distributed not only to the speakers but everyone attending our panel, even though not all of these questions could be raised during the session, so as to deepen our discussion and provide a lasting record of these issues.

FAHQT: Pro and Con

Consider the following observation on FAHQT: "The ideal notion of fully automatic high quality translation (FAHQT) is still lurking behind the machine translation paradigm: it is something that MT projects want to reach." (1) Is this a true or a false observation?

Is FAHQT merely a matter of time and continued research, a direct and inevitable result of a perfectly asymptotic process?

Will FAHQT ever be available on a held-held calculator-sized computer? If not, then why not?

To what extent is the belief in the feasibility of FAHQT a form of religion or perhaps akin to a belief that a perpetual motion device can be invented?

Technical Linguistic Questions

Let us suppose a writer has chosen to use Word C in a source text because s/he did not wish to use Word A or Word B, even though all three are shown as "synonyms." It turns out that all three of these words overlap and semantically interrelate quite differently in the target language. How can MT handle such an instance, fairly frequently found in legal and diplomatic usage?

Virtually all research in both conventional and computational linguistics has proceeded from the premise that language can be represented and mapped as a linear entity and is therefore eminently computable. What if it turns out that language in fact occupies a virtual space as a multi-dimensional construct, including several fractal dimensions, involving all manner of non-linear turbulence, chaos, and Butterfly Effects?

Post-Editors and Puppeteers

Let's assume you saw an ad for an Automatic Electronic Puppeteer that guaranteed to create and produce endless puppet plays in your own living room. There would be no need for a puppeteer to run the puppets and no need for you even to script the plays, though you would have the freedom to intervene in the action and change the plot as you wished. Since the price was acceptable, you ordered this system, but when it arrived, you found that it required endless installation work and calls to the manufacturers to get it working. But even then, you discovered that the number of plays provided was in fact quite limited, your plot change options even more so, and that the movements of the puppets were jerky and unnatural. When you complained, you were referred to fine print in the docs telling you that to make the program work better, you would have to do one of two things: 1) master an extremely complex programming language or 2) hire a specially trained puppeteer to help you out with your special needs and to be on hand during your productions to make the puppets move more naturally. Does this description bear any resemblance to the way MT has functioned and been promoted in recent years?

A Practical Example

Despite many presentations on linguistic, electronic and philosophical aspects of MT at this conference, one side of translation has nonetheless gone unexplored. It has to do with how larger translation projects actually arise and are handled by the profession. The following story shows the world of human translation at close to its worst, and it might be imagined at first glance that MT could easily do a much better job and simply take over in such situations, which are far from atypical in the world of translation. But, as we shall see, such appearances may be deceptive. To our story:

A French electrical firm was recently involved in a hostile take-over bid and law suit with its American counterpart. Large numbers of boxes and drawers full of documents all had to be translated into English by an almost impossible deadline. Supervision of this work was entrusted to a paralegal assistant in the French company's New York law firm. This person had no previous knowledge of translation. The documents ran the gamut from highly technical electrical texts and patents, records of previous law suits, company correspondence, advertisements, product documentation, speeches by the Company's directors, etc.

Almost every French-to-English translator in the NYC area was asked to take part. All translators were required to work at the law firm's offices so as to preserve confidentiality. Mere translation students worked side by side with newly accredited professionals and journeymen with long years of experience. The more able quickly became aware that much of the material was far too difficult for their less experienced colleagues. No consistent attempt was made to create or distribute glossaries. Wildly differing wages were paid to translators, with little connection to their ability. Several translation agencies were caught up in a feverish battle to handle most of the work and desperately competed to find translators.

No one knows the quality of the final product, but it cannot have been routinely high. Some translators and agencies have still not been fully paid. As the deadline drew closer, more and more boxes of documents appeared. And as the final blow, the opposing company's law firm also came onto the scene with boxes of its own documents that needed translation. But these newcomers imposed one nearly impossible condition, also for reasons of confidentiality: no one who had translated for the first law firm would be permitted to translate for them.

Now let us consider this true-life tale, which occurred just three months ago, and see how—or whether—MT could have handled things better, as is sometimes claimed. Let's be generous and remove one enormous obstacle at the start by assuming that all these cases of documents were in fact in machine-readable form (which, of course, they weren't). Even if we accord MT this ample handicap, there are still a number of problems it would have had trouble coping with:

1. How could a sufficient number of competent post-editors be found or trained before the deadline?

2. How could a sufficiently large and accurate MT dictionary be compiled before the deadline? Doesn't creating such a dictionary require finishing the job first and then saving it for the next job, in the hope that it will be similar ?

3. The simpler Mom & Pop store & smaller agency structure of the human translation world was nonetheless able to field at least some response to this challenge because of its large slack capacity. Would an enormously powerful and expensive mainframe computer have the same slack capacity, i.e., could it be kept inactive for long periods of time until such emergencies occurred? If so, how would this be reflected in the prices charged for its services?

4. How would MT companies have dealt with the secrecy requirement, that translation must be done in the law firm's office?

5. How would an MT Company comply with the demand of the second law firm, that the same post-editors not be used, and still land the job?

6. Supposing the job proved so enormous that two MT firms had to be hired—assuming they used different systems, different glossaries, different post-editors, how could they have collaborated without creating even more work and confusion?

Larger Philosophical Questions

Is it in any final sense a reasonable assumption, as many believe, that progress in MT can be gradual and cumulative in scope until it finally comes to a complete mastery of the problem? In other words, is there a numerical process by which one first masters 3% of all knowledge and vocabulary building processes with 85% accuracy, then 5% with 90% accuracy, and so on until one reaches 99% with 99% accuracy? Is this the whole story of the relationship between knowledge and language, or are there possibly other factors involved, making it possible for reality to manifest itself from several unexpected angles at once. In other words, are we dealing with language as a linear entity when it is in fact a multi-dimensional one?

Einstein maintained that he didn't believe God was playing dice with the universe. Is it possible that by using AI rule-firing techniques with their built-in certainty and confidence values, computational linguists are playing dice with the meaning of the that universe?

It would be possible to design a set of "Turing Tests" to gauge the performance of various MT systems as compared with human translation skills. The point of such a process, as with all Turing Tests, would be to determine if human referees could tell the difference between human and machine output. All necessary safeguards, handicaps, alternate referees, and double blind procedures could be devised, provided the will to take part in such tests actually existed. True definitions for cost, speed, accuracy, and post-editing needs might all have at least a chance of being estimated as a result of such tests. What are the chances of their taking place some time in the near future?

"Computerization is the first stage of the industrial revolution that hasn't made work simpler." Does this statement, paraphrased from a book by a Harvard Business School professor, (2) have any relevance for MT? Is it correct to state that several current MT systems actually add one or more levels of difficulty to the translation process before making it any easier?

While translators may not be able to articulate precisely what kind of interface for translation they most desire, they can certainly state with great certainty what they do NOT want. What they do not want is an interface that is any of the following:

harder to learn and use than conventional translation;
more likely to make mistakes than the above;
lending less prestige than the above;
less well paid than the above.

Are these also concerns for MT developers?

What real work has been done in the AI field in terms of treating translation as a Knowledge Domain and translators as Domain Experts and pairing them off with Knowledge Engineers? What qualifications were sought in either the DE's or the KE's?

Are MT developers using the words "asymptote" and "asymptotic" in their correct mathematical sense, or are they rather using them as buzzwords to impart a false air of mathematical precision to their work? Is the curve their would-be asymptote steadily approaching a representation of FAHQT or something reasonably similar, or could it just turn out to be the edge of a semanto-linguistic Butterfly Effect drawing them inexorably into what Shannon and Weaver recognized as entropy, perhaps even into true Chaos?

Must not all translation, including MT, be recognized as a subset of two far larger sets, namely writing and human mediation? In the first case, does it not therefore become pointless to maintain that there are no accepted standards for what constitutes a "good translation," when of course there are also no accepted standards for what constitutes "good writing?" Or for that matter, no accepted standards for what constitutes "correct writing practices," since all major publications and publishing houses have their own in-house style manuals, with no two in total agreement, either here or in England. And is not translation also a specialized subset of a more generalized form of "mediation," merely employing two natural languages instead of one? In which case, may it belong to the same superset which includes "explaining company rules to new employees," public relations and advertising, or choosing exactly the right time to tell Uncle Louis you're marrying someone he disapproves of?

Are not the only real differences between foreign language translation and such upscale mediation that two languages are involved and the context is usually more limited? In either case (or in both together), what happens if all the complexities that can arise from superset activities descend into the subset and also become "translation problems?" at any time? How does MT deal with either of these cases?

Does the following reflection by Wittgenstein apply to MT: "A sentence is given me in code together with the key. Then of course in one way everything required for understanding the sentence has been given me. And yet I should answer the question `Do you understand this sentence?': No, not yet; I must first decode it. And only when e.g. I had translated it into English would I say `Now I understand it.'

"If now we raise the question `At what moment of translating do I understand the sentence? we shall get a glimpse into the nature of what is called `understanding.'" To take Wittgenstein's example one step further, if MT is used, at what moment of translation does what person or entity understand the sentence? When does the system understand it? How about the hasty post-editor? And what about the translation's target audience, the client? Can we be sure that understanding has taken place at any of these moments? And if understanding has not taken place, has translation?

Practical Suggestions for the Future

1. The process of consultation and cooperation between working translators and MT specialists which has begun here today should be extended into the future through the appointment of Translators in Residence in university and corporate settings, continued lectures and workshops dealing with these themes on a national and international basis, and greater consultation between them in all matters of mutual concern.

2. In the past, many legislative titles for training and coordinating workers have gone unused during each Congressional session in the Department of Labor, HEW, and Commerce. If there truly is a need for retraining translators to use MT and CAT products, it behooves system developers—and might even benefit them financially—to find out if such funding titles can be used to help train translators in the use of truly viable MT systems.

3. It should be the role of an organization such as MT Summit III to launch a campaign aimed at helping people everywhere to understand what human translation and machine translation can and cannot do so as to counter a growing trend towards fast-word language consumption and use.

4. Concomitantly, those present at this Conference should make their will known on an international scale that there is no place in the MT Community for those who falsify the facts about the capabilities of either MT or human translators. The fact that foreign language courses, both live and recorded, have been deceitfully marketed for decades should not be used as an excuse to do the same with MT. I have appended a brief Code of Ethics document for discussion of this matter.

5. Since AI and expert systems are on the lips of many as the next direction for MT, a useful first step in this direction might be the creation of a simple expert system which prospective clients might use to determine if their translation needs are best met by MT, human translation, or some combination of both. I would be pleased to take part in the design of such a program.

DRAFT CODE OF ETHICS:

1. No claims about existing or pending MT products should be made which indicate that MT can reduce the number of human translators or the total cost of translation work unless all costs for the MT project have been scrupulously revealed, including the total price for the system, fees or salaries for those running it, training costs for such workers, training costs for additional pre-editors or post-editors including those who fail at this task, and total costs of amortization over the full period of introducing such a system.

2. No claims should be made for any MT system in terms of "percentage of accuracy," unless this figure is also spelled out in terms of number of errors per page. Any unwillingness to recognize errors as errors shall be considered a violation of this condition, except in those cases where totally error-free work is not required or requested.

3. No claim should be made that any MT system produces "better-quality output" than human translators unless such a claim has been thoroughly quantified to the satisfaction of all parties. Any such claim should be regarded as merely anecdotal until proved otherwise.

4. Researchers and developers should devote serious study to the issue of whether their products might generate less sales resistance, public confusion, and resentment from translators if the name of the entire field were to be changed from "machine translation" or "computer translation" to "computer assisted language conversion."

5. The computer translation industry should bear the cost of setting up an equitably balanced committee of MT workers and translators to oversee the functioning of this Code of Ethics.

6. Since translation is an intrinsically international industry, this Code of Ethics must also be international in its scope, and any company violating its tenets on the premise that they are not valid in its country shall be considered in violation of this Code. Measures shall be taken to expose and punish habitual offenders.

Respectfully Submitted by
Alex Gross, Co-Director
Cross-Cultural Research Projects
alexilen@sprynet.com

NOTES:

(1) Kimmo Kettunen, in a letter to Computational Linguistics, vol. 12, No. 1, January-March, 1986

(2) (2) Shoshana Zuboff: In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power, Basic Books, 1991.

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

Machine Translation: Ingredients for Productive and Stable MT deployments - Part 3

2009-05-22T08:54:00.000+08:00

By Mike Dillinger,
PhD & Laurie Gerber,
Translation Optimization Partners

This is the final part of the first in a new series of articles on how to achieve successful deployments of machine translation in various use cases. Different types of source documents and different uses for the translations lead to varying approaches to automation. In the first part of this article, we talked about why it is so important to automate translation of knowledge bases.

Pioneering companies have shown that automating translation is the best way to make product knowledge bases available to global markets. Customers consistently rate machine translated and English technical information as equally useful. A typical installation for automatic translation weaves together stored human translations that you already paid for and machine-translated new sentences to get the best of both approaches.

Steps to Success

Set your expectations. The documents in knowledge bases have distinctive characteristics when compared to other product support documentation, starting with the fact that they are written by engineers. These engineers may be experts in a technical domain, but they haven’t ever been trained in technical writing and are often not native speakers of English.

High-speed, high-volume translation simply cannot be perfect, no matter what mix of humans and machines we use. This is why emphasis in evaluation has shifted to measuring translation "usefulness", rather than absolute linguistic quality. The effective benchmark is no longer whether expert linguists detect the presence or absence of errors. The new, more practical criterion is whether non-expert customers find a translation to be valuable, in spite of its linguistic imperfections. We see time and time again that they most certainly do. You’ll confirm this with your own customers when you do beta testing of your installation.

Set realistic expectations for automatic translation: there will be many errors, but customers will find the translations useful anyway.

Start small. Start with only one language and focus on a single part of your content. Success is easier to achieve when you start with a single "beachhead" language. Starting small has little to do with machine translation and much more to do with simplifying change management: work out the details on a small scale before approaching a bigger project.

In our consulting practice, we’ve seen two main ways of deciding where to start: focusing on customer needs or on internal processes. For the customer-needs approach, your decision is guided by questions like: Which community of customers suffers most from the lack of local- language materials? Which community costs you the most in support calls? In translation expenses? Which has the least web content already translated? The decision is guided by the most important customer support issues.

For the internal-process approach, your decision is guided by questions like: Which languages are we most familiar with? Which do we have most translations for?

What languages are our staff strongest in? Which in-country groups collaborate best? The decision in this case is to build on your strengths.

Start small to build a robust, Scalable process.

Choose an MT vendor. The International Association for Machine Translation sponsors a Compendium of Translation Software that is updated regularly. In it, you can find companies large and small that have developed a range of products for translating many languages. You will see companies such as Language Weaver, Systran, ProMT, AppTek, SDL, and many others. How can you choose between them?

Linguistic quality of the translations is the first thing that many clients want to look at. Remember that you won’t offer to your customers what you see during initial testing. And even a careful linguistic analysis of translation output quality may not tell you much about whether the system can help you achieve your business goals. Evaluation of translation automation options is much more complex than having a translator check some sentences. You may want to hire a consultant to help with evaluation, while bringing your staff up to speed on the complexities of multilingual content.

For knowledge-base translation, scalability and performance are important issues to discuss with each vendor. Most vendors can meet your criteria for response time or throughput, but they may need very different hardware to do so.

You can narrow down or prioritize the list of vendors by using other criteria:

* Choose vendors who can translate the specific languages that you are interested in. If you want to translate into Turkish or Indonesian, you won’t have as many options as into Spanish or Chinese.

* Check that you have what the vendor needs. Some MT systems (from Language Weaver, for example) need a large collection of documents together with their translations. If you aren’t translating your documents by hand already, then you may not have enough data for this kind of system. Other MT systems (from Systran or ProMT, for example) can use this kind of data, but don’t require you to have it.

* Check how many other clients have used the product for knowledge base translation – to judge how much experience the vendor has with your specific use case. The best-known vendors have experience with dozens of different installations, so try to get information about the installations that are most similar to yours. Ask, too, for referrals to existing customers who can share their stories and help prepare you better for the road ahead. MT is changing rapidly, so you shouldn’t reject a product only because it’s new. But the way that these questions are addressed or dismissed will give some insight into how the vendor will respond to your issues.

* Think through how you will approach on-going improvements after your MT system is installed. If you want to actively engage in monitoring and improving translation quality, some MT vendors (Systran of ProMT, for example) offer a range of tools to help. Other MT vendors (Language Weaver, for example) will periodically gather your new human translations and use them to update the MT system for you, with some ability to correct errors on your own.

Of course, price and licensing terms will be important considerations. Be aware that each vendor calculates prices differently: they may take into account how many servers you need, how many language pairs (ex: English>Spanish and Spanish>English is one language pair), how many language directions (ex: English>Spanish and Spanish>English are two language directions), how many people will use the system, how many different use cases, additional tools you may need, the response times or throughput that you need, etc. Experience shows that the best approach is to make a detailed description of what you want to do and then ask for quotes.

Adapt the MT system to your specific needs before you go live. Whatever MT system you choose, you or the vendor (or both) will have to adapt it to your specific vocabulary and writing style. Just as human translators need extra training for new topics and new technical vocabulary, MT systems need to have the vocabulary in your documents to translate them well. Some vendors call this process of adapting the MT system to your specific needs training, others call it customization.

An MT system starts with a generic knowledge of generic English. Your knowledge base, on the other hand, has thousands of special words for your unique products as well as the jargon that your engineers and sales people have developed over many years. The goal is to bridge this linguistic gap between your organization’s writing and generic English.

Different vendors take different approaches to bridging this gap. Some MT systems ("statistical MT" – from Language Weaver, for example) take large amounts of your translated documents and feed them into tools that quickly build statistical models of your words and how they’re usually translated. If you don’t have a sizeable collection of translated documents, though, it’s difficult to build a good statistical MT system. All MT systems can make use of your existing terminology lists and glossaries with your special words and jargon. And many MT systems, from Systran or ProMT, for example can use your translated documents to extract dictionaries directly from translated documents. Hybrid MT systems, which are just emerging in the market, also build statistical models, to combine the best of both techniques. Hybrid MT systems are more practical when you don’t have a sizeable collection of translated documents to start from.

Go live. Do this in stages, starting with an internal test by the main stakeholders. Then move into "beta" testing with a password-protected site for a handful of real product users. Be sure to have a disclaimer that openly announces that the document is an automated translation and may contain errors. (At the same time, you will want to promote the availability of the content in the user’s language as a new benefit.) Actively seek out their feedback to identify specific problems, and address the ones that they cite most frequently. At this stage, your users may mention that there are errors in the translation; try to get them to identify specific words and/or sentences.

In knowledge-base deployments, a small proportion of the content (<10%) is widely read and the vast majority of the content is rarely read. The current best practice is to establish a threshold of popularity or minimum hit rate that will trigger human translation of the few most-popular articles for a better overall customer experience.

This is the time to do a reality check: offer a feedback box on each translated page. It is most helpful if you ask for the same feedback on your source-language pages for comparison. If the translated page is rated much lower than the original page, then the difference may signal a problem in translation.

Keep improving quality. Inevitably, products and jargon will change and you will identify recurring errors. Translation quality management is an on-going activity with two main parts: managing quality of the original documents and managing the parts of the MT system.

We’ll leave discussion of document quality management for a future article. When engineers respond to emergent problems with knowledge-base articles, it is not practical to impose stringent authoring guidelines. But you can encourage them to work from a standard terminology list (terms that the customers know, which may be different from terms that the engineers use). This will make the source-language documents easier to understand, and will improve the translations, as well.

For rule-based or hybrid MT systems, you will want to manage (or outsource management of) key components like the dictionary. As errors or changes arise, updating the dictionary will improve translation quality. For statistical MT systems, you will want to manage carefully any human translated content and "feed" it into the system. The more data you use, the better these systems get.

Repeat for another language. With the first language, you will work out the kinks in your process. Once you see how very appreciative the customers are for content in their own language, you can get to work on the next language. Now you know the drill, you know the tools, and you know what to look for. The next language will take you only 25% of the effort you put into deploying the first one.

Links

Will Burgett & Julie Chang (Intel). AMTA Waikiki, 2008. The Triple-Advantage Factor of MT: Cost, Time-to-Market, and FAUT.

Priscilla Knoble & Francis Tsang (Adobe). Hitting the Ground Running in New Markets: Do Your Global Business Processes Measure Up? LISA San Francisco, 2008.

Chris Wendt (Microsoft). AMTA Waikiki, 2008. Large-scale deployment of statistical machine translation: Example Microsoft.

Authors:

Mike Dillinger, PhD and Laurie Gerber are Translation Optimization Partners We are an independent consultancy specialized in translation processes and technologies. Both Principals are leaders in translation automation and past Presidents of the Association for Machine Translation in the Americas, with 40 years’ experience in creating and managing technical content, developing translation technologies, and deploying translation processes. We develop solutions in government and commercial environments to meet the needs of translation clients and content users. Our offices are in Silicon Valley and San Diego. Contact us for further information:

Mike Dillinger mike [at] mikedillinger . com

Laurie Gerber gerbl [at] pacbell . net

Mike needs more places to grind this axe: Authors and authoring are often treated as an unimportant afterthought, in spite of the central role of high-quality content in brand management, marketing, sales, training, customer satisfaction, customer support, operational communications, and everything else.

Published - April 2009

ClientSide News Magazine - www.clientsidenews.com

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

Machine Translation Vs Human Translation

2009-05-21T09:43:00.001+08:00

By Abdelhak Jebbar,
Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah University,
Faculty of Arts and Letters,
Sais-Fes

jebbarmaster[at]hotmail.com

Much have been said about translation as being one of the most effective, if not the only, means of communication especially among cultures of different languages. Translation as a concept has existed hundred years ago, but it is only during the second half of the twentieth century that it emerged as an independent academic discipline called Translation Studies and taught at universities. A dire need for translation, as an academic discipline, has prompted specialised and theorists in the field to seek for more sophisticated methods and techniques for quick, cheap and effective translation. Thus, a new type of translation has emerged to compete with Human Translation; it is called Machine translation or the automatic translation.

This paper, in its theoritical part, will try to shed ligth on the concept of translation and how translators have gained their importance through history. The focus is to be also on the emergence of Machine Translation and how it evolved. For the sake of distinguishing between Human Translation and Machine Translation, a comparison is drawn between the two concepts. The practical background of the paper will provide an example of a text translated by both Human Translation and Machine Translation, trying to pinpoint some of the major practical features determining the quality of the translation.

The Concept of Translation

Translation is usually defined as the act of transmitting the language of the source text (S.T) into the language of the target text (T.T) taking into consideration cultural and linguistic differences. Translation in the Arab world, for instance, is known as "an act of understanding before explaining"; " عملية فهم قبل الافهام الترجمة هي". In this regard, it is necessary that before starting the translation of any text, the translator should have a clear understanding, linguistically, semantically and culturally speaking, of that source text so that he or she would be able to convey the real intended meaning of the target language.

In his book Introducing Translation Theory: Theories and Applications[1], Jeremy Munday describes translation as a process saying that: "The process of translation between two different languages involves the translator changing an original written text ( the source text or ST) in the original verbal language ( the source language or SL) into a written text ( the target text or TT) in a different verbal language ( the target language or TL)"[2]. In fact, what Jeremy defines in this statement is the type of translation called "interlingual translation" as has been categorised by Jakobson[3] along with the two other types known as "Intralingual translation" and "intersemiotic translation". The type of translation defined by Jeremy is the most common one in that it is concerned with translation of written texts of different languages as opposed, for instance, to intralingual translation which is concerned with translating within the same language ( using, for example, paraphrasing), or as in the case of intersemiotic translation that has to do with translating written texts into non-written works such as: films, pictures or music.

Translators: from darkness to light

Mistakes, misconceptions, or even translating texts that have been already translated were usually some of the causes for punishing and torturing translators in history. A case in point, is one of the examples discussed in Alex Gross's article " Some Major Dates and Events in the History of Translation"[4]. The example is that of the English translator, "William Tyndale, who made the mistake of trying to translate the Bible when King Henry VIII of England had decided there could be only one correct translation"[5]. As a result, the translator was strangled and then burned. The choice behind providing such an example is only to depict the difference between the status of translators in ancient times and that of contemporary translators.

The importance of translation, nowadays, has been acknowledged more than any time in history, and it is not a surprise if one meets a translator who becomes a millionaire only from his job as a translator. However, after having a look at the dramatic history of translation, it becomes obvious that translators were not to reach such a paramount position unless some of them were executed, others were killed in public, and the most luckiest translators were imprisoned.

The good repute that translation, as an Academic discipline, and translators are gaining everyday is, first and foremost, due to the significant role they had led starting from the 1940's especially during the Second World War. At this particular era, translators were highly needed to translate spying documents mainly between the U.S.A. and its first enemy at that time the Soviet Union. Even after this era of conflict, the importance of translation was increasing in that it was needed in the field of Economy; incorporations all over the world made use of translation so that they could enlarge their business making it reach every continent.

The Emergence of Machine Translation and its evolution.

The competition towards establishing more business with different parts of the world incited advanced countries in technology to look for easy and quick ways for communication. Hence, there emerged a type of translation known as Machine Translation for the process of translation was carried out by machines. The specific date when this type of translation did emerge as stated in Olivia Craciunescu's article " Machine Transltion and Computer-Assisted Translation: a New Way of Translating"[6] is believed to be "the beginnings of the Cold War… in the 1950s competition between the United States and the Soviet Union"[7].

Machine Translation as a new emerging discipline in the field of translation studies has come to fill the void existing due to the small number of good and acknowledged translators. It was an advantageous way of translation in that it saves both time and money; a large quantity of articles and documents were easily translated in a short time with a low amount of money.

So far as the defining features of machine translation are concerned, in an article entitled "Computer Translation: the staus today"[8], it was stated that the main task assigned to machine translation is "to analyse the structure of each term or phrase within the text to be translated (source text). It then breaks this structure down into elements that can be easily translated, and recomposes a term of the same structure in the target language."[9]. The process done by machine translation, then, can be summarized in the act of breaking the structural components of the source text and then synthesizing the same components in the language target texts. The whole action of translation is done automatically.

In the same article, a clear distinction has been drawn between Machine Translation and an other type of translation called Cmputer-Assisted Transation. The latter one is, in fact, a new form of automatic translation that came to replace Machine Translation in that it provided more advantageous services. Since its first appearance, machine translation has known a sort of evulotion in terms of the emergence of a number of sophisticated programs established by companies competing in the field of information technology. Thus, Computer-Assisted Translation has witnessed its birth and it was of course on account of Machine Translation that lost much of its importance in favour of the more developed hard and soft materials the new emerging program has brought. Computer-Assited Translation, as the name may reveal, is an automatic translation where the human translator is aided by the machine and vice versa. This type of automatic translation differs from Machine Translation, and it was mainly favoured, for it first provides "a number of tools"[10] including "terminology databases and translation memories"[11], and second for it allows much space for the human translator to intervene in the process of translation "to make changes at any time while the work is in progress"[12].

Therefore, the fact that machine translation is carried out by machines does not mean that humans are totally abscent from the process of translation; nevertheless, there is human intervention, as in the case of Computer-Assisted Translation and in other cases of some translating machine programs that are limited in terms of the vocabulary provided by their programmed dictionaries. In this regard, the role of human translators is manifasted in what is known as the process of pre-editing of the intended source text to be translated, and post-editing of the translated version provided by the machine translation.

The importance of Human Translation

Any attempt to replace Human Translation totally by machine translation would certainly face failure for, due to a simple reason, there is no machine translation that is capable of interpretation. For instance, it is only the human translator who is able of interpreting certain cultural components that may exist in the source text and that can not be translated in terms of equivalent terms, just like what automatic translation does, into the language of the target text. In addition, it is widely agreed upon that one of the most difficult tasks in the act of translation is how to keep the same effect left by the source text in the target text. The automatic translation, in this regard, has proved its weakness, most of the time, when compared with a human translation. The human translator is the only subject in a position to understand the different cultural, linguistic and semantic factors contributing to leaving the same effect, that is left in the source text, in the target text.

It is an undeniable fact that automatic translation is regarded as a tool for producing quick and great number of translated texts; nevertheless, the quality of the translation is still much debatable. The automatic translation, for instance, can not usually provide a definite translation for words that bear different vowelized forms such as the Arabic term /kotob/ which means in English "books". The term in many translation programs, when translating from Arabic into English, is confused with the other Arabic term /kataba/ which means in English the verb "to write".

On the other hand, no human translator would make the same mistake for their ability to read words with different diacritic marks or vowels. In some cases, the automatic translation can not even provide equivalent terms in the target language leaving them as they are in the source text. Actually, this part in the paper has been dedicated mainly to demonstrate some of the general differences between automatic translation and human translation which make the latter much favourable than the former.

Comparing a machine and a human translated text

In an attempt to spot light on the major practical differences between machine translation and human translation, the paper provides the following text to be translated by the two types of translation. The text is an extract written in English, taken from Hanif Kureishi's short fiction "My Son The Fanatic"[13]. The focus is to be on depicting, semantic and pragmatic differences manifested in the translated version. The translation is to be from English into Arabic.

The source text

"Surreptitiously the father began going into his son's bedroom. He would sit there for hours, rousing himself only to seek clues. What bewildered him was that Ali was getting tidier. Instead of the usual tangle of clothes, books, cricket bats, video games, the room was becoming neat and ordered; spaces began appearing where before there had been only mess. Initially Parvez had been pleased: his son was outgrowing his teenage attitudes. But one day, beside the dustbin, Parvez found a torn bag which contained not only old toys, but computer discs, video tapes, new books and fashionable clothes the boy had bought just a few months before. Also without explanation, Ali had parted from the English girlfriend who used to come often to the house. His old friends had stopped ringing."

Human Translation

"بدأ الأب يدخل غرفة نوم ابنه خلسة، ويمضي فيها ساعات طويلة، محاولاً أن يعثر على دليل أو أثر ما. وما أثار حيرته أن غرفة علي أضحت نظيفة ومرتبة. فبدلاً من أكوام الثياب، وأكداس الكتب ومضارب الكريكت وألعاب الفيديو، بدأت الغرفة تبدو أكثر نظافة وتنظيماً؛ وبدأت تبرز الأماكن التي كانت عبارة عن فوضى مستحكمة.في البدء، انتاب بارفيز شعور بالسعادة: إذ بدأ ابنه يتجاوز سن المراهقة. إلا أنه وجد ذات يوم، بجانب سلة القمامة، حقيبة مهترئة لا تضم ألعابه القديمة فقط، بل كذلك أقراص الكمبيوتر، وأشرطة فيديو وكتباً جديدة وملابس عصرية لم يمض على شرائها سوى بضعة أشهر. وبدون تفسير أيضاً، هجر علي صديقته الإنكليزية التي كانت تزوره في معظم الأحيان في البيت. ولم يعد أصدقاؤه القدامى يتصلون به بالهاتف.[14]

Machine Translation

سرًّا الأب بدأ في الدّخول في غرفة نوم ابنه . سيجلس هناك لساعات، يوقظ نفسه فقط للبحث عن الأدلّة. ما حيّره كان أنّ علي كان يصبح منظّمًا. بدلاً من الكتلة المعتادة للملابس، الكتب، مضارب الكريكيت، لعب الفيديو، الحجرة كالكون منظّمًا و منظّم، أماكن بدأت في الظّهور أين قبل أن قد كان هناك فقط فوضى. في البداية بارفيز قد سُرَّ : كان ابنه يكبر على مواقفه المراهقة. لكنّ يوم واحد، بجانب صندوق القمامة، بارفيز وجد حقيبةً ممزّقة احتوت على ليس فقط اللّعب القديمة، لكنّ أقراص الكمبيوتر، شرائط الفيديو، الكتب الجديدة و الملابس الأنيقة الولد قد اشترى قبل أشهر قليلة مباشرة. أيضًا بدون التّفسير، قد تفرّق علي عن الصّديقة الإنجليزيّة الّتي اعتادت المجيء في كثير من الأحيان إلى البيت . قد توقّف أصدقاءه القدماء عن الرّنين.

It is quite obvious, from the first reading of each translation, that machine translation is not that perfect rendering of the source text into the target text. The point is that the translated text, still, bears much of the traits characterizing the language of the source text; therefore, much should be said about how the use of language is violated as well as the meaning. Simultaneously, some focus is to be on to what extent the human translation has succeeded in transforming the source text into the target text depicting whether the translated text has the same effect as the source text.

-1- The use of language

Violating the use of language is one of the main deficiencies that Machine Translation suffers from.

The source text: spaces began appearing where before there had been only mess

Human translation: وبدأت تبرز الأماكن التي كانت عبارة عن فوضى مستحكمة

Machine translation: أماكن بدأت في الظّهور أين قبل أن قد كان هناك فقط فوضى

The misuse of language, which is much manifested in machine translation, is mainly due to the literal nature of the translation. In the above example, the machine translation is a literal translation or instead a word-for-word translation; the reader can easily notice that there is no flexibility in the machine translation in that each word in the source text has been substituted orderly by an other in the machine translation (spaces / أماكن, where / أين, only / فقط, mess / فوضى). Thus, it becomes clear that machine translation, is a translation, the focus of which is the source text rather than the target text. The word order is respected only in the source text; however, as far as the target text is concerned, no importance is given to the word order and the way words are linked resembles the way how words are linked in the source text.

Although the meaning can be comprehensible; nevertheless, the structure of languages are different and, hence, they should be respected for the sake of producing a well-formed translation in the target language. The inability of the machine translation to produce a well-structured text is due to its focus, as stated by Olivia Craciunescu, on the "comprehension" and not "the production of a perfect target text".

So far as the human translation is concerned, the above example can reveal, clearly how the human translator is capable of avoiding what have been criticised in the machine translation. The human version is a structure respecting and its focus has been in both the source text, in an act of comprehension, and the target text, in an act of producing a perfect translation. The human translator's flexibility allows them to move from language into an other bearing in their minds the difference of structures between languages.

-2- Violation of meaning

No one can deny that the main rationale behind any translation is to transfer as much as possible the meaning intended by the source text's writer into the target text. Yet, in machine translation, this is not always the case in that sometimes the achieved meaning is ambiguous, distorted, and it becomes difficult to grasp it just like in the following example:

The source text: His old friends had stopped ringing

Machine translation: قد توقّف أصدقاءه القدماء عن الرّنين

ولم يعد أصدقاؤه القدامى يتصلون به بالهاتفHuman translation:

In this example, the machine translated sentence produces certain associations with no sense. The word "أصدقاؤه", meaning "his friends", is associated with the word "الرّنين", meaning "ringing"; this association is quite unfit for it is known that the act of ringing in Arabic language should be related to the phone and not to human being though it is done by human. This is mainly, as stated before, due to the fact that machine translation focuses on the source text's language which is in this case English, as being different from Arabic.

As for the human translation in the same example, the ability of the translator to substitute the word "ringing" for the phrase "يتصلون به بالهاتف" renders the translation easy to be understood. Because the word "phone" was not mentioned in the source text, the machine translation could not add it, it is only through human translation that the translator can add or delete certain words or even phrases, sometimes, for the sake of clarity.

-3- Human translation's effect

Actually, before any translation, there should be a full understanding of the source text from the part of the human translator. In the human translation of the text above, the translator seems to be familiar with the whole short story and the writer Hanif Kurieshi in that he is describing the father of Ali in the same way he was described by the writer himself. The translator is aware of the fact that the father is worried about the changes in his son's attitudes; therefore, readers who can have access to the short story will notice that the effect created in the two languages is almost the same.

The human translator, as in the translated example, makes use of different tools so as to create that same effect as in the source text. In the target text, for instance, the translator adds the word "طويلة " in order to demonstrate the long period the father sits in his son's room. The long period in the source text is described as "hours" and it is understood that it is long; however, it is only through the addition of the word "طويلة " that the meaning in the target text has been loaded with the same effect of the source text. The addition of such a word can, simultineously, be criticised in that it might be considered as an act of treason for the writer might not intend to mean long hours. When the father entered his son's room, in the abscent of the latter, he can not stay there for long hours for his son might come suddenly, and the word "Surreptitiously" is an evidence of the father's inability to enter the room when his son is there. Thus, the relevance of the adjective "long" is so debatable. From this last example, it becomes obvious that the act of leaving the same effect is not as easy as it can be thought of; the very act of adding or deleteing a word or phrase may affect the intensity of the effect that the source text has and which the target text can not.

Generally speaking, since it was first acknowledged as an academic discipline, translation studies have known the emergence of new methods of translation including the so-called Machine Translation. However, its emergence was not at the expense of Human Translation for the latter proved to be the only subject capable of translating not only by means of substituting words for words, like Machine Translation, but also in terms of respecting linguistic, semantic, and more importantly cultural differences between languages.

This paper has been an attempt to draw a distinction between Machine Translation and Human Translation shedding light on the different characteristics of each one. The focus has been on depicting some the factors that render Human Translation more effective and flexible in comparison with Machine Translation. Thus, for the sake of illustrating, a practical text has been provided and it was translated by both Machine Translation and Human Translation.

REFERENCE

Kureishi, Hanif (1997). Love in a Blue Time, London, Faber and Faber.

Munday, Jeremy (2001). "Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and Applications", New York, Routledge.

http://accurapid.com/journal/31history.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Jakobson

http://www.accurapid.com/journal/29computers.htm

http://www.fxm.ch/En/Langues-Traduction/TraductionOrdinateur.en.htm

http://www.jidar.net/jed/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=552

[1] The book was first published in 2001. It intruduces the phenomenon of translation as a new academic discipline called translation studies.

[2] Ibid.

[3] In The Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia Jakobson is defined as " Roman Osipovich Jakobson (October 11, 1896 - July 18, 1982) was a Russian thinker who became one of the most influential linguists of the 20th century by pioneering the development of structural analysis of language, poetry, and art.

[4] http://accurapid.com/journal/31history.htm

[5] Ibid.

[6] http://www.accurapid.com/journal/29computers.htm

[7] Ibid.

[8] http://www.fxm.ch/En/Langues-Traduction/TraductionOrdinateur.en.htm

[9] Ibid.

[10] http://www.accurapid.com/journal/29computers.htm

[11] Ibid.

[12] Ibid.

[13] "My Son The Fanatic" is a short story from Hanif Kurieshi's colletion Love In A Blue Time.

[14] http://www.jidar.net/jed/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=552

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