Archive for September, 2011

Time to say Goodbye

September 22nd, 2011

After spending two months with The Translation People’s Birmingham team, the time has come to say goodbye and to have a look back at what I’ve learnt.

As a second year student of a Bachelor in Translation Studies (English and French) at the Ruprecht-Karls-University in Heidelberg Germany, I wanted to gain insight into the translation industry outside of university and to use the skills I’ve acquired in a professional context. Consequently, I was delighted to be offered a work placement in The Translation People’s Birmingham office.

During my work placement, I was given the opportunity to complete a huge variety of tasks. These included proofreading translations, preparing texts for freelance translators, formatting and quality-checking of translations, creating and populating Translation Memories, and translating blog articles, parts of the new website, and other internal documents into German.

I also took part in the recruitment of new freelance translators. I viewed CVs, conducted telephone interviews, selected appropriate test translations for each translator, assessed completed German test translations, checked references and finally, concluded contracts. Leading other applicants through The Translation People’s ISO 9001 certified recruitment process has taught me which qualities translation agencies look for in new freelancers – something that will be very important to me if I intend to work as a freelance translator myself.

I also had the chance to work with the latest translation software such as Trados Studio 2009 and so I could consolidate my knowledge in the use of CAT-Tools. These are becoming more and more important to professional translators and so it was very helpful towards my future career, to learn more about TagEditor, Translator’s Workbench and WinAlign.

I thoroughly enjoyed the two months in the Birmingham office as my work was very varied. On top of it, all Account Managers were very friendly and eager to explain all details of their work to me. I felt welcomed as a part of the team from the very first day. During my work placement I saw how a translation agency really works and gained some first experiences in project management, a career option I’ve never considered before but which is a diverse and interesting field.

I would like to thank all The Translation People for the two great months I’ve spent with them at the Birmingham office; I really enjoyed my time and learnt a lot!

Vanessa Wagenblast

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Globalsight

September 2nd, 2011

Globalsight is a Translation Management System (TMS) that is used by The Translation People and its translators to increase productivity and streamline processes for its clients. This on-line tool, which is highly customisable to different workflows, offers the following features:

  • Documents are submitted via the system rather than by email or ftp
  • Translators can either work within the system or offline
  • Reviewers can be set up to check and edit the translations in the system
  • Final delivery of files is completed through the system
  • Maintenance and Management of Translation Memories

The main benefits of this system (and others like it) are that the translation workflow can be regulated and customised, ensuring optimum productivity. Because of this, Globalsight’s benefits are particularly evident if there are pre-defined steps that must always be followed when a translation project is commissioned. For example, if there is a preferred translator in place for a particular client, then automated email notifications can be set up so that the translator is immediately notified once the project has been submitted by the client. This can be extremely useful if the client is in a different time zone to the translation agency and translator: the agency sets up automatic notifications for the preferred translator, ensuring the translator can start work as quickly as possible by logging into the system as soon as the notification has been received. The agency will also set up a process to automatically prepare the files for translation (for example if they are in a non standard format) and analyse them against the Translation Memory, which is also contained within the system.

The system also enables client reviewers, such as employees, to log onto the system and check the translation in Globalsight’s review facility, without the need for specialist tools or software packages. This is especially useful for translations in non-standard formats which would normally require the software to be installed on the reviewer’s machine. In the same way as outlined above, once the translator has finished his or her work, an automatic email notification is generated for the reviewer, ensuring that there are no delays in progressing to this stage. The system can either be set up so that the reviewer can edit the translation directly or make suggestions for the translator which he or she can then accept or reject. The system then updates the corresponding Translation Memory with the final translation and this is stored within Globalsight. This process ensures that there are no duplicate versions of the translation and the Translation Memory, which will remain in the system to be used on future projects.

Globalsight also offers the possibility of tracking the status of projects and monitoring what stages have been completed, so the client contact who has placed the project can see how the translation is progressing and if any translators/reviewers need a gentle nudge to ensure the deadline is met.

Globalsight is the latest in a wide range of CAT tools available to our team to ensure your project is produced and managed efficiently.

Posted in Company news | Comments Off

Excellence in translation at Salford

September 1st, 2011

Alan White SalfordLast July saw Alan White from The Translation People visit Salford University once again to present the award for Best Translation Student from the University’s MA and BA programmes. The yearly award, presented at the Lowry Centre in Salford Quays, is in recognition of the need to promote excellence in language studies in order to maintain a steady flow of specialist translators and suppliers to meet the needs of our expanding and diverse client base.

Alan White commented, ‘It was a pleasure as always to catch up with the staff at Salford and exchange opinions about the state of the translation market and how their courses are developing to meet the changes taking place in the industry. I was also fortunate enough to meet with one of our biggest clients, who had been working very closely with Salford University to implement new educational software in the faculty of languages.’

The Undergraduate award was won by Thomas Fudge, while the Postgraduate award was won by Ian John Winstanley (pictured here with Alan White, Business Development Manager at The Translation People).

Posted in Universities | Comment »

The BRIC economies

September 1st, 2011

As well as comprising 40% of the world population, the BRIC economies (Brazil, Russia, India and China) currently have a collective GDP of $18 trillion. Experts predict that in the future, these economies will grow strongly (especially in the fields of manufacturing, energy, resources, currency relationships and trade flows) and enter the top rank of global economies. With this in mind, UKTI recently organised a conference in Leeds featuring specialist speakers to give companies an overview of how to best exploit these markets. So what are the opportunities and challenges that each region poses for UK companies? Below is a brief overview of the main aspects of the different BRIC economies. To watch the short video of the event, including excerpts of the key speakers, please see video below

YouTube Preview Image 

BRAZIL:

Overview

  • Used to be seen as the weak link in the BRICs – no longer
  • Held up well in the downturn compared with previous crises
  • Benefiting from Asian demand for its food and mineral exports
  • Further boost from large new deep-sea oil fields to come on stream.

Risks

  • Currency appreciation hits manufacturing
  • Recent success breeds policy hubris

Strengths

  • Market Opportunities – huge, diversified economy
  • Political stability
  • Low legal risks – keen to encourage foreign investment

Weaknesses

  • Infrastructure – increasingly inadequate, investment limited by budget constraints
  • Financing – equity market underdeveloped, long-term financing hard to obtain
  • Taxation – complex and costly system

RUSSIA

Overview

  • A worthy BRIC? Only by weight, not growth performance
  • Hard-hit by global downturn, but now recovering robustly
  • Structural constraints mean growth will not return to pre-2008 rates.
  • Modernisation agenda requires FDI

Problems

  • Over-reliant on oil and gas
  • Dire demographics

Strengths

  • Market Opportunities – large, relatively wealthy middle-class
  • Labour force – good skill levels, despite some deterioration

Weaknesses

  • Corruption and poor rule of law
  • Low government effectiveness – weak institutions
  • Lack of competition – concentration of economic power in massive conglomerates

INDIA AND CHINA

Overview

  • India and China will be the two fastest growing major emerging markets over the next decade
  • The continental sized nature of both economies means that they have decoupled from developed markets to some extent
  • China has become an outsourcing story in manufacturing and an increasingly important global source of demand for a range of products
  • India has become an outsourcing story in services and is playing catch up with China as a major global economic player

The opportunities are similar:

  • High income and population growth, along with rapid urbanisation, are creating sales opportunities for consumer groups
  • Economic liberalisation is further opening up potential new revenue sources for both domestic and foreign companies
  • Infrastructure remains inadequate and, along with industrial development, will continue to provide a market for commercial groups
  • The continental sized nature of both economies means they are offering a diversified market
  • A relatively abundant labour force and improving supply chains are making it easier to outsource operations from both countries.

The risks differ:

India

  • Coalition politics will prevent rapid progress on economic reforms
  • Poor public finances will prevent much-needed public infrastructure investment
  • The legal system often works better in theory than in practice

China

  • The government’s desire to maintain control means big bang reforms are unlikely
  • Reversals in economic policy remain possible
  • The legal system remains opaque and favours state or local enterprises

A long term risk factor in both relates to demographics and income disparities, which have socio-economic and political implications.

For further information on the BRIC economies, please do not hesitate to contact Adele Baig at UKTI (Adele@uktiyh.org.uk) who will pass your details on to the relevant country specialist.

Source: Aidan Manktelow, Kilbinder Dosanjh (Economist Intelligence Unit). For more information, visit www.ukti.gov.uk

Posted in News | Comments Off