July 2009 - The Translation People

Archive for July, 2009

Professional Website Translation Ensures Accuracy

July 31st, 2009

When paying to have your website translated into another language, you should always make use of professional translation services to ensure that the job is completed accurately.

A low quality or unintelligible translation reflects poorly on your business; your website is not only a means for selling your products and services, but also an advertisement for your company.

Quite often, problems arise when those commissioning the translation don’t know how good the end product actually is. If you yourself are not a native speaker of the language into which the website is being translated, you will most likely be blissfully unaware of the shortcomings. However, customers who encounter clunky wording and incomprehensible sentences will leave your site in favour of your rivals, defeating the point of having your website translated in the first place.

Translations must be carried out by qualified professionals. If you cut corners and rely on machine translations the results could be extremely detrimental to your business. A good professional translator’s work will not stand out as being a translation at all; it will appear as if it had been written in that language in the first place.

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The UK Government Spend £150 Million on Translation Services

July 30th, 2009

It was estimated in 2006 that the UK Government spend approximately £150 million on translation services. This huge figure demonstrates the importance of multilingual communication and translation services.

With the number of people migrating to the UK on the rise, the demand for translators and interpreters is high. However some are arguing that this figure is inaccurate and the Government could be investing as much as £500 million, with the Home Office alone spending £50 million on their translation and interpreting needs.

The various Government agencies using translation services include the Citizens Advice Bureau, 650 councils across the country and the NHS. Ruth Kelly, the former Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, had previously asked for a review of language services across all Government departments.

Any review of Government spending would further highlight the need for increased investment in language services. The Race Relations Act supports this view detailing that all parts of the community should have access to all services regardless of the language they speak. However, The Human Rights Act only insists on provision of translation and interpreting services if someone is arrested or charged with a criminal offence. We live in a multicultural society and benefit from cultural diversity, the Government is clearly aware of this benefit and as a consequence invests significant funds into providing language services to all.

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Fiona McGhee helps raise over £3200 for Motor Neurone Disease

July 30th, 2009

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Fiona pictured, on the front row second from the left, at the start of the walk

Linking Milngavie and Fort William, Scotland’s first official long distance route totals 95 miles of hills, moors and woodlands. Last week Fiona McGhee, Account Manager in the Glasgow office, tackled this hike along with 13 friends. The walk was in aid of Motor Neurone Disease, a cause close to their heart as a friend’s dad has recently been diagnosed with the disease. The Route follows the shores of Loch Lomond, passing Ben Lomond, crossing Rannoch Moor to the head of Glencoe, climbing the Devil’s Staircase and crossing the River Leven at the head of Loch Leven before entering Lairigmor and Glen Nevis. Sounds easy! Well according to Fiona it wasn’t!

“I’d known that we were going to do this for about 5 months but no amount of training could have prepared me for the mental and physical challenge of walking an average of 14 miles a day for 7 days. If it hadn’t been for all the money we raised I’m sure some of us would have given up at some point.”

The group’s hike began in their home town of Milngavie where even the local paper turned up for a few photos which made the front page of the local newspaper. The first day was fairly easy, everyone was fresh and raring to go, and only a short 12 mile fairly flat hike took them to Drymen for their first stop. After a night of rest and relaxation the team headed for their next port of call – Rowardennan. For Fiona, this was her toughest day!

“I had been to Rowardennan before but had always driven, it’s funny how 14 miles can feel so quick in a car! Walking through the woods alongside Loch Lomond was really difficult as we had no idea how much further we had to go and how much longer we needed to keep walking. Finding out from some fellow walkers that the hostel we were headed to had no water slowed our pace a little I think.”

After Rowardennan it was onto Inverarnan which was the most difficult part of the whole hike. A small crumbling path along the side of Loch Lomond was slippy and dangerous thanks to all the Scottish rain, it was so dangerous in fact that Fiona slipped and rolled down a hill landing on the banks of Loch Lomond, thankfully with just a couple of bruises Fiona bounced back up even more determined to get to their next destination. The next couple of days the group rested their weary heads at Tyndrum, Kingshouse and Kinlochleven before making the arduous climb out of the valley towards the end point of Fort William.

All 14 members of the team arrived together at the end of The West Highland Way at 4pm on Friday 24th July after approximately 60 hours of walking. With numerous blisters, sore knees and tired bodies the group huddled together for a final photo in front of the sign marking the West Highland Way. So was it worth it?

“Absolutely” Fiona says of her trip “to think of the amount of money we raised and also the awareness we have raised of the disease makes it totally worthwhile.” However, she also adds “I’m glad I did it, the scenery really was amazing and the walk showed Scotland at its best but I will never ever do it again!”

So far the group has raised over £3200 for the charity and more cheques are still being counted.

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FrameMaker S-Tagger/Story Collection

July 29th, 2009

If you are considering creating a document which will be distributed to a number of markets in multiple languages, it is worth thinking carefully about the software you use, as this choice may be able to reduce your translation and typesetting costs at a later stage. Here Dave Williams, Production Specialist for The Translation People, examines which software can significantly reduce the cost of your document translation.

FrameMaker and Interleaf were two of the first pieces of DTP software to have a story collection feature for SDL Trados.

In brief, the story collection feature is an extraction/export software tool which collates all the formatting information in the document and provides a tagged text file which can be used for translation in Trados. The major benefit of this method of translation is that the translated document requires significantly less DTP work upon re-importing into the source software.

When translating in Interleaf or FrameMaker, S-Tagger is an important part of the translation process. It retains all document formatting and styles throughout the translation process so that when the S-Tagger file is imported back into the document, all of the document’s layout and style is retained.

Story collection software is also available in other industry standard software suites, including InDesign and Quark. The import/export process differs slightly but the result is the same.

If a document is to be translated in the old fashioned way, an additional document is created by the translator, who translates into a new file usually a Word document. This text would then be manually copied and pasted from Word into the source artwork. Due to format considerations such as typeface, bold, italic, colour and text size, this can only be done in segments. As you can imagine, this can take some time.

In contrast, the story collector will automatically consider the text’s formatting individuality during the import process by reading the information stored in the tags. This is where the time/cost saving occurs as the typesetter does not need to reformat the translation once it has been imported back into the software.

Often translated versions of a text are longer or shorter than the original; accommodating this in the translated document is where the post translation import process requires the expertise of a production specialist. The amount of time taken to complete this process is document dependant, as text and or graphic heavy documents have less white space for the extra text to flow into. This requires DTP manipulation for it to fit and to consider the aesthetics of the document.

Whilst story collection software doesn’t eliminate the need for DTP, it does considerably reduce the time taken to produce a quality localised document. This time/cost saving can then be passed on to the client.

As different languages have a vast array of type faces, certain considerations and requirements need to be addressed for the story collection process to be successful. The Translation People have an experienced multi-language DTP studio that will be able to offer advice on the best way to tackle your individual project. Contact us now for further information.

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Translation Award for Hindi to English Translator

July 29th, 2009

Indian translator, Ira Pande, has won an award for her Hindi to English translation of T’TA Professor, a novel by Manohar Shyam Joshi which talks about a teacher working in a small town.

Despite this recognition, Pande believes that Indian readers do not regard translated literary works with enough respect, she blames the publishers for this: “It is because publishers do not take the trouble to source good translators or invest sufficiently in translated works.”

Pande says that she has a passion for translating good Hindi literary works into English and describes the significance of her task.

“To me, it is the regional languages that create India’s finest writing, as native speakers have a strong sense of location and experience of life outside the cities and away from English speakers.”

Pande believes there is a general feeling that Indian writing must always be in English, but says that there are texts in other languages which deserve a wider audience. She believes that these translated works warrant greater promotion and respect.

“It seems to me that each time we present a book as a translated work, we offer an apology for writing in a language that is not the globalised mainstream. This shows a terrible lack of faith in our literary worth and self-image.”

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The Translation People attend London 2012 Business Event

July 28th, 2009

On 21 July, The Translation People attended the London 2012 Business Event, held for local companies based in the London borough of Hillingdon and organised by the London Business Network.

The London Business Network is a joint initiative by three key London-based business organisations: London First, the London Chamber of Commerce and CBI London; and supported by the London Development Agency. Its main initiative is to help the London business community to access commercial opportunities arising from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The event was held at Uxbridge College and was attended by more than 150 delegates from companies located in the Hillingdon borough. A large number of business sectors were represented with IT, Healthcare, Construction, Electronics and Recruitment providing the bulk of the delegates. The Translation People, represented by Eric Van Looy, was the sole representative of the Translation and Interpreting Industry.

The delegates were treated to a short round of drinks, and companies were invited to introduce themselves by providing company literature about their business. The main event consisted of three presentations, outlining the many opportunities that lie ahead for London-based companies in the run-up towards and during the London Olympics and Paralympics. Alongside a presentation by the London Business Network, also Business Link in London – a business consultancy firm – and Business to Business Ltd – which coordinates the Heathrow area Supply Chain Project – provided more information on how local companies could grab a share of the 2012 Olympic cake.

The Translation People hope to be involved in providing quality translation and interpreting services for public sector and private organisations who want to maximise the economic benefits from an international event such as the London 2012 Olympics.

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Aston University Translation Prize

July 27th, 2009

The Translation People are proud to sponsor the Achievement in Translation Award for graduates of Aston University, Birmingham. On Friday 17th July Steve Wilde, Managing Director, presented the 2009 award to Stacey Downton at a reception following the graduation ceremony at Birmingham Town Hall.

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Stacey Downton pictured with Christina Schäffner and Steve Wilde

Aston University is amongst a relatively small number of universities who offer a specific translation studies course and The Translation People are continuing a long association with the University. Steve Wilde commented: “In a period when we are seeing languages declining as a subject choice it is up to us in the commercial environment to join with academic institutions in promoting languages as a vocation. We need to do all we can to encourage good graduates into our industry in order to safeguard its future.”

Stacey was pleasantly surprised to have won the award which Professor Christina Schäffner said was very well deserved. Stacey has already gained some valuable experience working in France through the summer and is now looking to establish her career in languages back in the UK.

On the day the Aston graduates’ spirit was not damped by the weather; the hat throwing ceremony outside Birmingham Town Hall took place in spite of a heavy shower!

The Right Honourable Douglas Hurd, Lord Hurd of Westwell, CH, CBE, PC, former Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, and also Secretary of State for the Home Office also received an honorary degree from Aston University at the ceremony.

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Free Online Translation

July 24th, 2009

Free online translation services are readily available and may seem like a fast and cheap way of meeting your company’s translation requirements; however they should be used with caution.

The first attempts to mechanise the act of translation occurred in the 1930s, yet it wasn’t until the 1970s when research intensified and technological capabilities had evolved that fully automated translation began to develop to an extent where it was of any real value. The evolution of the World Wide Web means that free automated translation is now easily accessible for the general public and although it has its uses in very specific circumstances, its capabilities are still very limited and therefore in the wrong hands the results can be disastrous.

We are frequently approached by clients who have used, or are thinking of using free online translation tools. Some are looking for a proofreading service prior to publishing their material, others are in the unfortunate position of having had their automatically translated document published and have received negative feedback. From experience in both of these situations it often takes longer and costs more to edit the automatically translated document than to translate the source document again from scratch. What’s more, translators are often reluctant to edit translations completed by free online translation tools as this turns out to be a notoriously time consuming process.

Really there are only a few circumstances where fully automated translation can be used successfully in isolation without the intervention of a human translator. If you are trying to gain a very general understanding of a foreign language document in your native language, or in circumstances where a rough translation containing errors and lacking style is acceptable then free online translation tools can be quite effective. Similarly if the content of the input text is sufficiently restricted in its range of vocabulary and structure then automated translation can be useful for translating into various languages quickly, however even then the resulting translations may lack style and accuracy.

Unlike the human translator the computer considers each lexical unit in isolation without taking the context into account. The meaning or value of a word can differ dramatically depending upon the surrounding lexical units and the machine is often unable to select the most appropriate translation. There may also be information that is not expressed in the language of the source text such as gender or level of formality but which is required in the target language. At present, machine translation cannot ask questions in the way a human translator can. This is why using free online translation to translate out of your native language is extremely risky as you have little or no idea as to whether the tool has correctly interpreted the content. From experience, even with the shortest of phrases you may encounter problems with fully automated translation as the computer is effectively guessing the context in which the word occurs and offering a suggested meaning based on an assumption. Recently we were asked to review translations of the two words ‘fitting room’ in the sense of a ‘changing room’ in a clothes shop into various languages. Unfortunately the online translation tool used had misinterpreted the meaning in almost all the languages and translated it as “a suitable room”!

So although free online translation tools are rapidly evolving and improving, at the moment they have limited capabilities and should really be avoided for the production of official or publishable documents. If machine translation is used then the skills of a human translator will almost certainly be called upon at some stage if a high quality translation is to be produced.

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Bilingualism is Killing The Welsh Language

July 23rd, 2009

According to recent research undertaken by Dr Richard Glyn Roberts, bilingualism is killing the Welsh language.

Dr Roberts, a lecturer at University College Dublin in the School of Gaelic and Celtic Studies has published a book in which he argues that Welsh is being dominated by English within Wales. The Welsh language although taught in the majority of Welsh schools is not being used outside of the classroom especially if there are non-speaking Welsh people present.

When it comes to public meetings and conferences Welsh people feel obliged to speak English rather than ask for the use of a Welsh to English interpreter. This is more often than not because Welsh speakers are also fluent in English and feel obligated to use the more commonly understood language.

Dr Roberts, in his book which is published by the University of West Brittany, claims that “it is becoming more and more difficult to conduct official business and to organise cultural activities in the Welsh language”. He feels there is a clear need for Welsh language interpretation services to make the language more predominant in Welsh society.

Meirion Prys Jones chief executive of the Welsh Language Board said in response that they urge all Welsh speakers “not to turn to English if there is an interpreter present” and to encourage the use of the Welsh language.

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Taiwan Railways Administrations Criticised for Poor Quality Translation

July 22nd, 2009

Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) have been strongly criticised for producing error-strewn translations in a travel guide provided at one of their stations.

It is thought that TRA made use of computer software for translation from Chinese into English. Unfortunately, the limitations of such an approach have been highlighted only too clearly.

It is thought that a reliance on software has led to literal Chinese translations, something that a skilled translator would never produce.

Among many other errors, ‘Providence University’ became ‘quiet proper university’ while ‘Taichung Metro Harbour Hospital’ became ‘kid general hospital’.

The mistakes had not been spotted as the majority of station staff are unable to read English. They were only picked up by an English traveller passing through who commented:

“Foreigners coming to Taiwan should make sure they learn Chinese, as they will struggle to understand these translations.”

This incident is a clear example of why it is unwise to rely on machine translation tools. To ensure you have a good, reliable translation it is always advisable to use professional translation services, as only then can you be sure that your translated document will be of the highest quality.