EPIC Translations Blog

November 7, 2010

The need for translation service

The global economy is made up of connections that connect suppliers with buyers. While this is a very high level view of the global economy, this explanation holds lot of truth to it. Virtually every industry exists because there are suppliers who want to buy the products and services of that industry.

Translation services industry is no different. The need for a translation service is as old as history itself. In fact, much of the history as we know it comes to us via interpretations and translations. For example, “the translator’s role as a bridge for “carrying across” values between cultures has been discussed at least since Terence, the second-century-BCE Roman adapter of Greek comedies. The translator’s role is, however, by no means a passive, mechanical one, and so has also been compared to that of an artist.”

In our current time frame, the need for document translation services came about not only due to the industrial revolution, but also because of rapid rise of the Internet that has created a global market for translation services and localization. Can you imagine an American company wanting to expand to France without being able to communicate to French consumers in their native language? Furthermore, can you imagine an organization wanting to sell products and services to French speaking Canadian citizens without using the Canadian French dialect? Fact of the matter is that the need for a translation company exists because the global economy demands it.

The purpose of a translation is to convey the concepts and meaning of the source text. Therefore, it is important to understand that word-for-word translation is not always the perfect translation. Rather, the ideal translation will use the target language to convey the meaning of the source text while keeping in mind the cultural phenomenon of the target audience. When speaking about the need for translation for multinational corporations, the type of information that often needs to be translated relates to:
product manuals, financial documents, service offerings, company policies, clinical studies / medical reports, technical specs, annual reports, and intellectual property.

For those companies that are expanding or are looking to expand to other countries, the need for translation services can not be under estimated. Therefore it becomes essential that the translation company you select has prior experience with text related to your industry. Another important factor to consider is that the translation company must have the expertise to translate large volumes of text in a short period of time.

June 21, 2010

Multi-lingual Glossary of Idioms

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , — admin @ 5:39 pm

I would like to introduce to the translators community WikIdioms (www.wikidioms.com), the new project aimed at creating multi-lingual glossaries of different kinds. We have started with idiomatic expressions, thus the name.

One of the major challenges of translation is proper translation of collocations of different breeds: idiomatic expressions, phrasal verbs, fixed expressions, multi-word terms etc. WikIdioms is envisioned as an aid in this challenge. The following principles have guided the creation of the project:
* Translation by humans. With all the progress of MT, such delicate task as finding equivalents to multi-word expressions across the languages can be currently carried out only by humans translators. Our content is created solely by professional translators.
* Openness. The usage potential is endless. We are open to support new languages, new types of expressions, new professional domains etc.
* Focus. There are zillions of online references and translations aids, which provide tons of information, not all of which is really needed by the visitor. WikIdioms is not trying to flood the user with deluge of weakly related information. We give the equivalent of the sought term in the relevant language, c’est tous.

The project is young and this is the time to cooperate and contribute. First, you feedbacks are really welcome and important. Second, if you find the idea promising, you are welcome to partner with us, please answer privately. And third, welcome to WikIdioms and spread the word.

Shared from a Group discussion on LinkedIn

June 10, 2010

Four types of quality assurance for translators

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , — admin @ 2:20 pm

Authored By:  The Swedish Association for Professional Translators

One way to make the concept of quality easier to deal with for linguists, is to divide it up into four parts: administrative quality, linguistic quality, business quality and cultural quality. International quality standards focus mostly on administrative quality, since it is the easiest to measure. Linguistic quality is the most important for language professionals. Business quality is defined as the relation to the customer, and cultural quality is when a translation speaks to the end customer/reader. All four are important for linguists and warrant further investigation.

Administrative quality:
Routines for handling translation projects, inquiry, offer, order confirmation, translation, control/check, delivery, invoicing, follow up, archiving.


Linguistic quality can only be achieved if you:
- Only accept projects that are within your expertise
- Have access to suitable, current reference material
- Use relevant tools that increase quality, for example translation memory and spell checking
- Proofread the end result carefully

Business quality can only be achieved if you:
- In advance check with the customer what they want/what is needed
- Deliver a product that fulfill the terms agreed upon

Cultural quality can only be achieved if you:
- Are thoroughly familiar with the cultural context of the source text
- Translate the text based on the cultural environment of the target language so that the text will have the same meaning.

I found these definitions very useful. It is easier to work on quality assurance if you can break it up into these aspects and follow them. What do you think? Do you have a system for quality assurance?


May 3, 2010

ADVANTAGES AND RISKS OF PARTIAL TRANSLATIONS

Filed under: Translation and Localization, Uncategorized — admin @ 11:36 pm

By José Lázaro da Silva

I have worked as a professional translator for over twenty years in São Paulo, Brazil, and sometimes I feel that the translation work is not what it used to be.

In the good old days, a translator would receive a full text of a report, article or communication and would try to produce an exact version of the piece in the other language. By having the entire original, the translator would be able to understand the matter very deeply.

In the case of a contract, he would know whether the translation requestor would be the seller or the buyer, and would know whether the contract was to be used in a single transaction or would be a template for all customers. The translator would be able not only to produce the most convenient translation considering those differences, but also to send useful suggestions to the requestor about changes to make the contract more advantageous, or at least less prone to misinterpretation.

This situation of having a full text to translate, fortunately, has not completely disappeared from our reality. I sometimes get a full text and have that satisfaction of being able to do a good, or even excellent, job.

But this ideal situation is becoming rare. What is happening now is that each translator usually gets only a fraction of the original.

Why is that happening?

Sometimes it is a matter of urgency, and the final customer cannot wait the time it takes a translator to produce 100 pages, and then 10 translators are called to do 10 pages each.

The result will come ten times sooner, but I hope the customer has been duly forewarned that the quality will be somewhat lower. Each translator may have translated in a different way that highly important document name, process name, or project name.  The reader (if nobody has made nomenclature adjustments for the entire translation) will wonder whether chapter one and chapter two are talking about different matters or the same thing.

Splitting an original to various translators, in my opinion, is not the worst source of problems, however.

In this age of high-speed computers and cheap memories, agencies are storing huge numbers of words and expressions and their translations into several languages.

The result is that agencies feel that they no longer have to pay translators to translate full texts. They command computers to translate everything they can, and send to human translators only what their systems cannot handle.

I have noticed this development occur with an agency for which I had worked for many years.  They started sending me isolated paragraphs, sometimes loose sentences, instead of full documents.

Translating partial texts was more troublesome, due to the lack of sufficient context, but most importantly because the small pieces had a high rate of rare words and difficulties in general.  The only thing I could do was to tell them that, to translate uncontextualized sentences and phrases, I would have to charge more. They offered to triple my per-word rate. With computers doing the bulk at virtually no cost, no wonder they could make me that offer.

Of course I accepted the triple-pay offer, but sometimes I wonder whether all the small translated pieces really match the texts they will be inserted into. I do my best to guess the contexts but, without reading the entire original, I can never be sure. Language is something unpredictably varied, and grammar, as well as meaning, are aspects that play important factors in correctly matching loose bones to create a skeleton. If the matching of the little pieces is done by a clerk, not a skilled linguist, mismatches will occasionally be visible to the readers, and that can be sufficient reason for the final client to start looking for another translation agency.

April 18, 2010

CAN MACHINES BEAT HUMAN TRANSLATORS?

Filed under: Machine Translation — admin @ 3:26 pm

CAN MACHINES BEAT HUMAN TRANSLATORS?

By José Lázaro da Silva

Many translators, maybe most, are concerned that their profession will not last many years. They have been following the progress of machine translation and believe that sooner or later computers will translate with a quality comparable to that of a professional translator, and at lower costs, thus bringing unemployment to all human translators. Are they excessively pessimistic? Is there a limit to the quality that computers will be able to achieve?

Most translation programs are already able to translate texts where what is required are simple word replacements plus adherence to grammar rules for word positioning and verb endings.

Are those translations good enough?  If you do not require a high quality text and will be happy if you can understand the basic ideas of the text, the translation will be accepted, especially if you consider that you can get it at no cost through the internet.

If the original text is not so simple, and has some less common expressions, or uses words with their secondary meanings, then the translation may, at some points, provoke some laughs. (Maybe that is not a disadvantage at all but an advantage, since most Hollywood comedies nowadays make us think about social problems rather than laugh about them!)

Machine translation designers have been expanding data bases in the hope that the translations will near perfection if computers are fed with millions of expressions. However, that is only partly true.

A good translation does not depend only on recognizing expressions and translating them. The translator (whether man or computer) must understand the ideas behind the words.  The reason for this necessity is that many words have more than one meaning, and, therefore, more than one translation in a foreign language. Thus, the only way to translate such words correctly is by understanding the context. (For example, the Brazilian word manga is either a sleeve or a mango, depending on whether we are talking about clothes or about fruits).

So far no one has tried to make computers really “understand” anything. When a computer reads “I have killed my mother” it has no idea whether that was a bad action or a praiseworthy action.  There are ways to teach computers to understand and judge what they read, but as far as I know, nobody has started research on this. It would be a mighty task, since the computer’s vocabulary would have to be complete with definitions usable by the machine, including word ratings in terms of goodness, advantage, etc.

As a translator, I would be pleased to take part in that sort of project, even if its success can someday doom my profession!

Humans, please comment before machines start sending in their ideas!

February 18, 2010

Cevirmenlik bir meslektir

Filed under: Translation and Localization — IlkerIngiz @ 5:44 pm

GENC ARKADASLARIMIN COGUNDA GORDUGUM BiR EGiLiM DiKKATiMi CEKTi. BELKi ESKiDEN AYNI DURUMDA BEN OLDUGUM iCiNDiR. BU iSE GiRENLERiN ONEMLi BiR BOLUMU YAPTIKLARI iSi BiR MESLEK OLARAK GORMUYOR. iSLERiNDEN EMEKLi OLANLAR, “DUZGUN” BiR iS BULANA KADAR iDARETEN CEViRi YAPAN UNVERSiTE MEZUNLARI, YURTDISINDAN GELiP YABANCI DiL BiLDiKLERi iÇiN CEViRi YAPABiLECEKLERiNi DUSUNENLER, UNiVERSiTE BiTENE KADAR HARCLIGINI ÇIKARMAK iSTEYEN OGRENCiLER PiYASADA COGUNLUK DURUMUNDA. BU YUZDEN DE NE iSVERENLER (BUROLAR VE SiRKETLER), NE TOPLUM, NE DE BU iSi YAPAN INSANLAR CEViRMENLiGi GERCEK BiR MESLEK OLARAK BAKMIYOR.

BENiM VE CEVREMDEKi BiRKAC ARKADASIM GiBi BU iSLE GECiNEN, BUNU MESLEK OLARAK GOREN AZ SAYIDAKI KiSi DE MAALESEF BUNLARIN ARASINDA KAYBOLUP GiDiYOR. MESLEKi BiR ORGUTLENME OLMADIGI SURECE BU DURUM DEGiSMEYECEK, HATTA DAHA KOTUYE GiDECEK. TURKiYE’DE HAMAMCILARIN, TESiSATCILARIN, PAZARCILARIN, MiNiBSCULERiN BiLE DEVLET TARAFINDAN MUHATAP ALINAN DERNEKLERi, MESLEK BiRLiKLERi VAR. AMA CEViRMENLERiN, HATTA CEViRi iSLETMELERiNiN BiLE HiCBiR KRiTERi, STANDARDI, YAPILANMASI YOK. BUNLARI DA GECELiM. EN BASiT BIR MESLEGE BASLAMAK iÇiN DiPLOMA, SERTiFiKA YA DA CIRAKLIK EGiTiMi GEREKiRKEN, BELLi DURUMLARDA BiRCOK iNSANIN HAYATINI ETKiLEYEBiLECEK YA DA TEHLiKEYE SOKABiLECEK METiNLER ÜZERiNDE CALISMAK ÜZERE BU MESLEGE GiRMEK iSTEYEN GENCLERE USTA BIR CEViRMENiN YANINDA EGiTiM OLANAGI VEREN BIR YAPI BiLE YOK. EVET, MUTERCIM TERCUMANLIK BÖLUMLERI VAR, FAKAT BU ANA KADAR ORALARDAN MEZUN OLUP DA TATMiN EDiCi KALiTEDE CEViRi YAPABiLEN HiC KiMSEYE RASTLAMADIM. BURALARDAN MEZUN ARKADASLARIMIN HOCALARI HAKKINDA ANLATTIKLARI SEYLER GERCEKTEN iNSANI HAYAL KIRIKLIGINA UGRATIYOR. CEViRMENLER iS KAPMAK iCiN SUREKLi FiYAT KIRIP BiRBiRiNi BOGAZLAMAYA, CEViRi BUROLARI SAYFA BASINA 6-7L?RA GiBi KOMiK FIYATLARLA CEViRi YAPTIRMAK iCiN SOKAKTAN CEViRDiGi iLK ADAMA iS VERMEYE DEVAM ETTiGi SURECE, BUGUNLERi BiLE ARAYACAGIMIZDAN HERKES EMIN OLSUN. AVRUPA’DAKi CEViRMENLERiN KAZANCLARINA BAKIP LANET EDEN ARKADASLAR DA ONCE ORADAKi CEViRMENLERiN CALISMA SEKiLLERiNi, MESLEK ORGUTLERiNi, HARCADIKLARI EMEKLERi iNCELEYIP OYLE YORUM YAPSINLAR. AVRUPALI DUZGUN BiR CEViRMENiN BiR SAYFANIN CEViRiSi iCiN BAZEN 1 SAAT HARCADIGINI BiLSiNLER. EV GECiNDiREN BiR CEViRMENiN GECiNMEK iCiN iHTiYAC DUYDUGU PARA EN AZ 3.000 TL OLSA, SAYFA BASINA 6 TL ALDIGINDA AYDA 500 SAYFA CEViRi YAPMASI GEREKiR. BU DA HAFTADA 125 SAYFA EDER. HAFTA SONLARINDA CALISMADIGINI VARSAYARSAK SAATTE YAKLASIK 3 SAYFA CEViRi YAPACAK DEMEKTiR. BU DA HiCBiR ARASTIRMA, KONTROL, DUZELTME YAPMADAN CALISMAK DEMEKTiR. BASiT BIR HESAPLA DURUMU GORUYORUZ. TABii BUNA iSLERiN HER ZAMAN DUZENLi BiR SEKiLDE GELMEDiGiNi VE BAZEN YIGILMA OLDUGUNDA SAATTE 6-10 SAYFA CEViRi YAPILDIGINI EKLEYELiM. KALITEYI GECTIM, AZ BUCUK ANLASILIR BiR CEViRiYE ULASMAK BiLE MUCiZE OLACAKTIR. NiTEKiM DE OYLE OLUYOR.

21 YILLIK MESLEK HAYATIMDA iLK KEZ SON 2 SENEDE GENEL FiYAT ORTALAMASININ TUM TURKiYE’DE GERiLEDiGiNi GÖRÜYORUM. VE SANIYORUM YAKINDA CEViRMENLiK DE TAKSiCiLiK GiBi BASKA HiCBiR iS YAPAMAYAN, NiTELiKiIZ iNSANLARIN GiRDiGi BiR ALAN HALiNE GELECEK (BU ARADA TAKSiCiLER ODASI DA VAR, HATIRLATIRIM). ELBETTE BU DURUMDA BiLE TAKSiCiLiGiN YUZUNU AGARTAN PROFESYONEL, YARDIMSEVER, SASIRTICI DERECEDE KiBAR TAKSiCiLERi TENZiH EDERiM).

KENDiNi GELiSTiREN, DÜNYA STANDARTLARINDA CEViRi YAPAN VE BU iSi HAYATINI KAZANACAGI GERCEK BiR MESLEK OLARAK GÖREN VE UZUN SURE YAPMAYA KARARLI MESLEKTASLARIM DA ARTAN BIR HIZDA YURTDISINA ACILARAK TURK CEViRi PiYASASININ KOPUYOR, DURUMUN HER GUN DAHA da KOTULESMEiNi UZULEREK IZLIYOR. SONUCTA iSiNi iYi YAPAN iNSANLAR HER YERDE TAKDiR EDiLiYOR VE iS BULUYOR. DiGERLERi iSE KUCUK HESAPLARI iCiNDE BOGULUP YOK OLMAYA MAHKUM.

February 15, 2010

Translation challenge

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — peterf @ 8:56 pm

Software-developments as windows 7.0 places translators for an exciting challenge

January 28, 2010

Listen to the World Economic Forum here

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 3:20 pm

http://www.livestream.com/worldeconomicforum

January 22, 2010

About software localization…

Filed under: Translation and Localization — Tags: , , , — caterinag @ 4:42 pm

WITNESS OF A PRACTICE:

While working in the software localization field for a big IT company, I figured out how sometimes translators can’t avoid bad translation renderings. I  found out that software strings are translated out of context, mainly visual context in this case. Once the translation was passed onto engineers, ‘words’ were assembled to the software itself and just a quality review used to follow this stage of the process. At this stage translators were not allowed to correct so many things  (as the main work was already done), while, instead, a lot of errors were spotted when words were finally associated to menus, windows, etc.

Someone said that the translator is a rational agent aware of and controlling his actions and that he/she surrenders to external coercions only if his/her reason decides that it is the wisest thing to do.

I don’t agree with such an out-of-date and utopical thinking.

Spirit-channeling

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , — caterinag @ 4:10 pm

I was reading an article drawn from a translation magazine where the translators’ job was compared to a spirit-channeling action. I found it very interesting from an ideological point of view. Both translators and mediums step aside and let the author of the source text speak through them; they speak in her/his own voice!

I just wanted to share with you this wonderful image that, apart from being very theoretical and philosophical, it fills us translators with optimism and valuable reasons to dedicate ourselves to this job- we do something important, uncommon and unique. People really need us!

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