How to Be an Educated Translation Consumer - Part I
Corinne McKay
“Hello. We need some documents translated, or interpreted maybe. They’re in
Chinese, or maybe Japanese, actually some of both, they’re handwritten, so I can’t
really tell. But we need them in English, and maybe Spanish too, but they’re long
and we don’t have much money. We need them in two days, can your translation
computer do that?”
“We bought software that translated our website into thirteen languages, and now
we’re getting these e-mails from people who read the French version and think that
our company, which is a sheet metal company, sells children’s clothing. What
happened?”
“Translation is too expensive and takes too long. We don’t need it.”
If these scenarios sound familiar, don’t be alarmed. Far too many translation
consumers know far too little about how to ask the questions that ensure a highquality translation delivered on time and on budget. In this article, we’ll focus on
three key elements of procuring an excellent translation: advance preparation,
selecting a translation provider, and helping your provider get it right.
What to Know Before You Start
Rule number one for the savvy translation consumer is to do some advance work in
preparing the specifications for your translation project. Doing so not only saves time
when obtaining quotes, but forces you to define exactly why and how you want this
translation to be done. Furthermore, when you get translation agencies or translators
on the phone, you’ll be better prepared to ask the right questions about the services
you need. Before contacting potential translation providers, try answering the
following questions.
What is the purpose of this translation? A “for in-house informational purposes only”
translation is done in a very different manner than a “for publication” translation, and
your translation vendor needs to know how you’ll be using the end product. In
addition, this helps define what services you’ll need to pay for. A translation that’s
done simply so that your VP of marketing can understand the text of the ad you’re
running in France probably doesn’t require two rounds of post-translation editing,
while the text of the annual report you’ll unveil at a shareholder meeting may require
that and more.
What is the word count of the document to be translated? Most translation projects
are billed by the word, and this will affect the time estimate for completion of your
project as well.
What is the subject matter of the translation? Be a savvy consumer and know that
translators, especially in common language pairs, specialize, and that no matter how
obscure the subject matter, you’re likely to find a translator who knows your
terminology — more about this later.
What language(s) will you need the document translated from and into, and do these
languages have regional variations? Are you talking Spanish for Spain or Spanish for
Mexico? French for France or Canadian French? US English or UK English? In
addition, the number of language pairs may affect your decision to contract with
independent translators yourself or use an agency.
What format are the original documents in? Although it’s true that translation has
not been taken over by computers, computers do have an important role in helping
human translators work better and faster. You’ll gain some cost and speed
advantages by providing your documents in a read-write electronic format, such as
word processing files or spreadsheets, rather than as hard copy or PDFs. Electronic
read-write documents can then be used by translation memory (TM) programs to
help your translators ensure consistent terminology. Also let your translation vendor
know if the documents involve complex formatting such as financial balance sheets,
graphics with captions that will need to be translated, embedded spreadsheets and
so on.
What services other than translation might you need? Many translation agencies and
even some independent translators can provide multilingual desktop publishing and
graphics services, editing, proofreading, multilingual tape transcription and so forth.
What is your deadline? Many poor translations result from deadlines that human
translators simply can’t work fast enough to meet, resulting in the client’s decision to
use machine translation software, unqualified translators or shady agencies who
deliver substandard work. Whenever possible, build in buffer time at every stage of
the process, but let your translation provider know when your due-date is a dropdead one.
What is your budget? Many translation consumers are confused by the enormous
range of rates proposed by translators and agencies, with a variation of tenfold and
more between the lowest rates offered by online marketplaces and the highest rates
charged by highly specialized legal, financial, and technical translators. Here is where
it’s crucial to have defined exactly how and why your documents are to be translated
and what type of linguistic expertise you need.
Now that you’ve assembled the specifications for your translation project, you can
present a concise, coherent and thorough request to translation providers, specifying
exactly what you want them to deliver. This author recently received such a request
from a potential client, reading: “US-based software developer seeking French to
English translation of user manual for database package, intended for US publication.
80,000 words, 150 graphics captions, Microsoft Word format. Need translation and
editing within three months. Please respond with CV, rates for translation and/or
editing, sample of previously translated work in the same subject area, and phone
numbers of two translation-related references. Indicate willingness to work in a team
if needed.”
Why Not Do It Yourself?
Confronted with the cost and time required to produce a high-quality multilingual
project, many companies are hit with an urge to go it alone. Why not use the skills of
in-house employees who are “fluent” in the target language? Or the Italian husband
of a family friend? There are several reasons why these situations cry out “don’t,”
and why industry professionals compare slipshod translation practices to recruiting a
first year medical student to perform major surgery. First, translators absolutely
must be native speakers of the language they translate into, known in the industry
as the target language. Even highly fluent nonnative speakers may make mistakes
that aren’t readily apparent until a native speaker confronts them. For example, this
author witnessed a homemade sign on a hotel in Kathmandu, Nepal, proudly
proclaiming “We will welcome you so warmly, you will feel like going home.” While
my husband and I, both native English speakers, doubled over with laughter, our
friend, a highly fluent but nonnative speaker of English, reread the sign several times
with a quizzical look on his face, then exclaimed, “Oh! I get it.” As for the second
homegrown option, remember that translators aren’t just word-substituting
machines; they’re wordsmiths who are writers as well as linguists. Many satisfied
translation consumers comment that due to translators’ highly attuned skills, some
translations actually sound better than the original documents.
[INSERIR: McKay_FunnyEnglish-1.jpg e McKay_FunnyEnglish-2.jpg; LEGENDA: A
few examples of how a bad translation can hurt your business]
At the recent conference of the American Translators Association (ATA), this value
added became apparent during a presentation on French to English translations for
advertising agencies. Grant Hamilton’s Quebec City-based agency, Anglocom, was
called on to translate a slogan for the grand re-opening of a Canadian supermarket,
at which free cake would be offered to all comers. After considering the
supermarket’s image and customer base, Hamilton’s company transformed the
original French slogan, Venez prendre part du gâteau, literally Come have some
cake, into the arguably more effective Have your cake and meet us too. In the same
vein, Hamilton reports that his agency pays attention to deliberately unusual choices
of terminology, for example, the car manufacturer Saturn’s use of the word retailer
in lieu of the more conventional dealer.
(To be continued in the next edition of the Ccaps Newsletter.)