With more and more countries adopting a wide range of healthcare services for their citizens, clear communication across languages is essential. Whether translated content is required for an informational website to educate the public on a pandemic or for very detailed patient interactions and reports required for patients and providers, certified translation services are crucial in ensuring that important medical information is accurately conveyed.

A single mistake in translation can have serious consequences, potentially impacting patient safety and regulatory compliance. Let’s dive into why certified translation is so important in the healthcare sector and how it supports effective global communication.

The Importance of Certified Translation Services in Healthcare

Certified translation is about more than just converting words from one language to another. It involves a rigorous process that guarantees accuracy and meets industry standards, which is especially critical in healthcare.

1. Putting Patient Safety First

In the healthcare field, patient safety is the top priority. Medical documents—like prescriptions, patient histories, and treatment plans—need to be understood clearly by both healthcare providers and patients. Certified translation ensures that these documents are accurately translated, reducing the risk of misinterpretation that could lead to improper treatment or medication errors.

Imagine a non-English-speaking patient receiving a prescription with incorrect dosage instructions due to a translation error. Such mistakes can endanger health and well-being, making accurate translations vital.

2. Meeting Regulatory Requirements

The healthcare industry is heavily regulated, and organizations must adhere to various laws regarding patient information and clinical trials. Certified translations are often required to ensure compliance with these regulations.

For example, clinical trial documents must be translated so that all participants understand the purpose of the study, procedures, and potential risks. Regulatory bodies like the FDA require that these documents are not only translated but also certified to confirm their accuracy and authenticity.

Key Elements of Effective Healthcare Translation

1. Accuracy and Quality Control

The main goal of certified translation services is to deliver accurate translations that maintain the intended meaning. Quality assurance processes—like proofreading and editing by qualified linguists—are essential to ensure the highest level of accuracy.

Healthcare organizations should work with translation providers who specialize in medical translations and are familiar with medical terminology, ensuring that complex concepts are conveyed effectively.

2. Cultural Sensitivity Matters

Localization is a key part of healthcare translation. It’s not enough to translate words; the content must resonate with the cultural context of the target audience. This involves adapting materials to account for local customs and healthcare practices.

For instance, certain medical terms may carry different meanings in different cultures. A culturally sensitive approach helps build trust with patients and ensures they feel understood and valued.

3. Embracing Technology

Advancements in technology have significantly changed the translation landscape. Tools like translation memory, neural machine translations, and other forms of AI-powered translation and project management platforms can enhance the efficiency and consistency of the translation process, ensuring that commonly used terms are consistently translated across documents. From user-friendly virtual interpreting applications like Jeenie to neural machine translation tools like DeepL, there are now hundreds of linguistic tools to help translate medical content. In healthcare, where precision is vital, utilizing technology can streamline workflows while maintaining high standards.

The Future of Certified Translation in Healthcare

As global healthcare continues to evolve, the demand for certified translation services will only grow. Emerging markets advance in telehealth and international clinical trials highlight the importance of effective communication across languages.

Healthcare organizations must prioritize partnerships with reliable translation providers who can deliver certified services tailored to their unique needs. Investing in high-quality translation not only enhances patient safety and compliance but also strengthens the organization’s reputation in the global healthcare arena.

Conclusion

Certified translation services are essential for effective communication in the healthcare sector. By ensuring accuracy and compliance, these services protect patient safety and facilitate successful interactions across language barriers. As the demand for global healthcare expands, organizations must recognize the value of certified translation as a crucial investment in quality care and regulatory adherence.

In a world where effective communication can make all the difference, prioritizing certified translation in healthcare is vital for safeguarding lives and enhancing the overall patient experience.

The post Certified Translation Services in Healthcare: Ensuring Accuracy and Compliance in Global Medical Communication appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

What is a CAT tool?

CAT stands for Computer-Assisted Translation, also known as computer-aided translation. Computer-assisted translation software facilitates the job not only of translators, but also of Localization Project Managers, Localization Engineers, and I dare to say all those participating in a localization project. CAT tools enable each user to complete their work more quickly and efficiently.

This tool allows us to submit, edit, manage, and store translations. It’s capable of handling terminology, and suggesting/auto-completing translations based on a Translation Memory (TM).

How Do CAT Tools Work?

CAT tools work by dividing the source content into smaller segments and the Translation Memory (TM) stores the source and translated segments.
Additionally, they have a variety of editing and quality control capabilities, including autosuggest, spellcheck, and others.

Key Components of a CAT Tool

Translation Memory

A translation memory (TM) is a database that stores previous translations, known as translation units. Each translation unit is made of a source string and its corresponding translation. A translation memory is specific to a client and contains one pair of languages.

The TM allows translators to reuse previous translations, with or without revisions, whenever the translation memory identifies identical translation segments (full matches) or similar translation segments (fuzzy matches) in a new translation project. This enables consistency across language teams and speeds up translation productivity.

Term Base (Glossary)

A Term Base, also known as a glossary, is a collection of key terminology (single words or expressions) that’s relevant to a company, organization, or institution.

When a term that’s in the term base appears in a string, the translator will easily identify it and use it accordingly. This feature ensures the accuracy and consistency of common or specialized terminology across translation projects.

Quality Assurance

QA programs automatically look for any typos that might have been introduced during the translation process, such as double words, unnecessary spaces between words, missing tags, and other errors.

Reduce errors with built-in grammar and spell checkers that highlight inconsistent HTML, email addresses with different digits or content, different brackets, and inconsistent URLs.

How to Choose the Most Appropriate One?

The selection of CAT tools on the market is astounding. There is no perfect CAT tool, so it’s sometimes hard for translators to choose the most accurate among them.
Your decision will be influenced by a number of variables. Here are three key things to consider when choosing a CAT tool.

Which CAT Tools Do My Customers Use?

If you, as a translator, are working with a reduced number of agencies, this is the first thing you may want to consider.

I wouldn’t recommend buying a CAT tool to please just one customer, of course, but ideally, you can pick one that is used by most of them. Most agencies offer training and support for the CAT tool they use, and you can benefit from this.

Also, some translation companies offer a discount for selected CAT tools if you purchase the tools through them.

Will This Particular CAT Tool Suit My Needs?

Before making your decision, I recommend you try testing some of them and then decide which one suits you the best. Maybe you could start with a free one.

Find the  CAT tool you feel most comfortable working with and the one that suits your workflow. The right CAT tool should optimize your processes thanks to integrations and built-in modules. There are different levels of integration with most CAT tools available on the market. The key is to find the CAT tool that can work seamlessly within your workflow.

What’s My Budget?

We’re all aware that most of the paid CAT Tools are quite expensive, and sometimes for those just starting translation, it is not possible to make such an investment.

If the agencies you’re working for give you the chance, you can work with free software such as WordFast Everywhere or SmartCAT. They cover the basic features and will allow you to automate your translation workflow up to some level.

It’s true, though, that most agencies will expect you to have a license for one of the most popular paid CAT tools such as SDL Trados or MemoQ.

What I can guarantee is that if you decide to invest money in one of these, it will pay for itself by allowing you to work faster and ensure better quality; among the other benefits already mentioned in this blog. Furthermore, the range of clients that you’ll be able to work with will significantly increase.

Choosing a CAT tool is definitely not easy for translators, but it is imperative to consciously consider all choices before making any investment. If you’ve decided to take your translation business to the next level, then CAT tools are definitely a must.

Hopefully, the items listed above will help you make a good choice.

If you’re willing to collaborate with us as a translator, don’t hesitate to register your profile under GPI’s Vendor Registration page and a GPI PM will contact you to start the onboarding process.

The post CAT Tools: How to Choose the Most Appropriate One? appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

Microsoft Translator has just expanded its support of African languages by adding 13 new languages, which means that the 335 million people that speak these languages have more opportunities to communicate.

Users can now add these languages to Translator, a Microsoft Azure Cognitive Service, which will enable text translation to apps, websites, etc. The document translation feature can support the translation of documents in various formats and maintain the original formatting.

Why is this important? It opens the doors of communication between speakers of different languages. The addition of these 13 African languages will help facilitate communication in the classroom, in the medical field, at home, and at work.

To learn more, please visit Introducing 13 New African Languages

The post Microsoft Translator Adds 13 New African Languages appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

When it comes to expanding your business into international markets, studies show that 72.4% of consumers are more likely to engage with a business when information is presented in their native language. This makes localization a crucial tool and a smart investment. In addition to strengthening your brand, localizing your material will foster your clients’ trust and pique the interest of potential clients.

Each company will have its own specific needs depending on the market it belongs to, its audience, and the type of material they want to localize among other things. For each of these different scenarios, there’s a type of localization project with its own workflow and scope. It’s the responsibility of the project managers (PM) to choose the one that best suits the client’s needs.

This blog aims to describe and define the role of a project manager on website localization projects.

Website Translation Basics

To understand the role of the PM in website localization projects, we should start by defining it. In a nutshell, website localization is the process of adapting a website to the culture and language of users in a target market to provide the most useful and relevant experience for them.

Website Localization at GPI

If you’ve decided to localize your website, we at GPI will help you get started on this and take your firm to another level.

GPI has experienced and specialized professionals, from project managers to developers and localization engineers, that will guarantee that your website is displayed in your desired target languages with culturally relevant, relatable, and accessible content.

GPI offers custom WCMS (web content management system) Connectors to a variety of web content management systems in order to streamline localization workflows and access to translation project information across your enterprise. Enterprise-grade connector plugins are easily installed and uninstalled with a few clicks, and they are tested and supported for FREE as part of our website translation services. The benefit is that your team continues to work with the system they are familiar with, and we establish a best practice to work with your CMS to make creating and maintaining a multilingual website seamless.

To learn more about our Website Localization services, please visit our Plugin and Connectors page.

The Role of the Project Manager

Before the Project Starts

Clear Communication with the Client: Scope

The PM takes ownership of a client’s request from the very beginning, even before it becomes a project. The PM is in constant communication with the client from the very first day. They communicate to learn the client’s expectations and even guide them through the localization process based on their needs. The PM is in charge of ensuring the project scope is clearly defined, and that everything is ready to start when the client decides to give them the green light.

Some of the issues to clarify prior to project start are:

• How will the content be extracted from the website? Is it going to be through one of our connectors, will GPI do a manual crawling of the client website, or will the client provide all the files?
• If we have access to the client’s site, do they want us to publish the translated content on our end or should we deliver them the translated files and they’ll import them?
• In any of the scenarios, will the client want GPI to perform a QA of the site once everything is published?
• If the client is to provide feedback, how will they send it?

Workflow Definition

Once the above and any other necessary points are clear, the project manager needs to ensure that the chosen workflow meets the client’s expectations.

All the phases of the project, together with their corresponding deadlines, should be defined before launching it. Failure to complete this will jeopardize the outcome of the project in terms of quality, timeline, and budget.

Project Kick-off

Addressing Accurate Resources

Once the client’s requirements are clear and the workflow has been defined accordingly, it’s time to assign the specialized linguistic team. This will include a translator, editor, and proofreader; and depending on the size of the project and the deadlines, may include more than one translator.

The Project Manager will consider the field of expertise required for the project and subject matter and assign subject-matter experts (SME) for the translation team. Choosing a resource that has experience doing Online QA, for example, is crucial for website localization projects.

During The Project Lifecycle

Once the green light has been given to start the project, the PM will proceed to launch it.

They’ll provide the designated linguistic teams with all the necessary information to start the project, including reference materials, glossaries, style guides, the translation memory, and credentials for Online QA of website projects.

All necessary information about the subject matter, deadlines, and scope also needs to be clearly stated in this step.

Proactive Communication with Different Stakeholders

One of the PM’s biggest responsibilities is to ensure effective communication among the different stakeholders during the Website Localization Project’s lifetime. This includes:

• Clients: Provide updates to clients, receive updated requests, and to answer any queries or concerns they may have.
• External resources: Manage language teams to solve any problems they may have, and to provide training for new tools/processes.
• Internal resources: Assign tasks to the corresponding person/department for any internal processes to ensure that the project follows the schedule, and to discuss any challenges and how to address them.

File Delivery

Once the files have gone through all the necessary steps as planned in the initial workflow, the PM will review them to ensure that all the Quality Control (QC) processes have been applied, double-check that all the tasks have been completed without issues, and proceed to deliver them to the client.

Quality Evaluation

Project Managers need to ensure any linguistic feedback/comments received from clients are taken into consideration. Receiving feedback from the client from time to time is normal and it helps our linguistic teams learn the client’s preferences. However, it’s the PM’s responsibility to make sure the quality of the final product is not compromised, even if it requires changing teams.

That’s why at GPI we encourage kick-off calls with our clients to learn about their technical and linguistic expectations. We also suggest that our client’s reviewers meet our linguists to discuss any linguistic-related topic to avoid any re-work later on, which will not only affect the schedule but also impact the budget.

Post Project Evaluation

This step will cover both the evaluation of the project itself (the language team, management, communication, and other components), as well as the results of the project. We always strive to improve, and a critical assessment of the project allows us to determine how to better help our clients.

Team Performance Evaluation

During this step, the PM will evaluate the internal processes performed by GPI, from quotation and workflow definition to clear and efficient communication with all team members. The PM will also evaluate the ability the team showed to tackle any challenging scenario it may have occurred during the project’s lifetime. Depending on the dynamic of the team/company, this can be assessed daily or weekly through internal team meetings.

Recognizing potential issues before they come up is a crucial skill a project manager must have. Checkpoints during a project’s lifespan, in addition to post-project reviews, will greatly aid in identifying and averting potential risks.

Conclusion

Being a Project Manager is as challenging as it is rewarding. Every website localization project will have its complexity and it is the PM’s responsibility to ensure that the outcome is the desired one. It’s important to take into consideration that, as mentioned throughout the whole blog, the PM must be present in each and every step of the project lifecycle.

At GPI, we have a team of professional and experienced project managers that ensure high-quality website localization based on the client’s needs. The PM’s define personalized workflows for each client and project and provides clients with dedicated access to GPI’s proprietary Translation Portal for a better experience.

The post Website Localization Project Management appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

Introduction: Origin of the Kiswahili language

With over 100 million speakers, Kiswahili has become the most spoken language in Africa and the 10^th most spoken language in the world. Kiswahili, the Bantu language which falls under the subgroup of the Benue Congo language, was officially recognized by UNESCO on the 7^th  day of July 2022 which marked the world’s Kiswahili Language Day. This day is celebrated to mark the global relevance of the Kiswahili language which is also known as Swahili.

The Kiswahili language is spoken by the Swahili people, a group of Africans located in East Africa. The Swahili people are a perfect blend of ethnocultural diversity with a vast culture spanning from Mozambique in the south to Mogadishu in the north.

The origin of the Kiswahili language can be traced back to the 6^th century A.D. during the slave trade at Zanzibar. The region was ruled by the Arabs, and they helped spread the language due to their settlement at different locations for trade activities with the Persians. As trade increased, so did the trading routes, expanding the regions where Swahili was spoken. This is what made Kiswahili spread so fast hence having more Swahili-speaking countries in Africa.  Kiswahili’s Arabic origin is evident in the term ‘Swahili’ derived from the Arabic word ‘sahilli’ which translates to ‘coastal’ in English.

Where is Kiswahili spoken?

Kiswahili spoken in over 14 African countries, is a lingua franca of the African Continent.  The language is spoken as a second language by millions of people mainly in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and East Zaire. There are also speakers in Mozambique, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, Malawi, and Southern Arabian countries such as Yemen and Oman, as well as other parts of the world.

Kiswahili has over the years, been taught in academic institutions from Japan to Mexico. Learning to speak Kiswahili provides one with interesting perspectives regarding language policies and localization. Whatever the area of research one is in, be it linguistics, localization, translation, anthropology, or even sociology, knowledge of the Kiswahili language and culture is needed if one is working on or thinking of launching a project in East Africa. There are many benefits one stands to gain in learning the Kiswahili language, one of which is the fact that it serves as a useful tool for accessing Swahili’s culture and origin; Kiswahili is known for its long-written tradition and remarkable history about its origin. Finally, knowing Kiswahili enhances the credibility of researchers and industries interested in establishing a business in East Africa. Establishing a business in East Africa is a lot easier when there’s no language barrier attached, this can be made possible through the help of business experts and translation services.

Kiswahili as Africa’s official language

The Kiswahili Language Day came to be through a series of events and activities to recognize the global relevance of the Kiswahili language and its role as a unifying language in Africa. Back in time, on the 7^th of July 1954, the first move was made to celebrate the Kiswahili language by the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) under the leadership of the late Mwalimu Julius who was the first president of the United Republic of Tanzania. The union adopted Kiswahili to be used as a unifying language to mark the African independence struggle. The second move was made on the 7^th of July, 2000 by the East African Community (EAC) which was re-established to rekindle the spirit of cooperation and oneness amongst the people of East Africa. declared Kiswahili as its official language of communication.

These series of events led to the establishment of Kiswahili as Africa’s official language which was declared by the United Nations.  Following the declaration, the Kiswahili language will be celebrated on the 7^th day of July annually by all stakeholders in recognition of the global relevance of Kiswahili as an international language built in the daily life of Africans in a constant enrichment of its multilingualism and cultures.

Some common Kiswahili translations and expressions

Listed below are some common Kiswahili translations and expressions, some of the following words may sound familiar due to their popularity in songs and movies.

• Hakuna Matata- this is a very popular Kiswahili phrase that was featured in Disney’s Lion King movie. The phrase means “No worries”
• Nakupenda – this is the Kiswahili term for “I love you”
• Asante – Thank you
• Hambari gani – how are you?
• Nzuri – Fine (response to ‘how are you?’)
• Basi – the Kiswahili term for bus
• Hujambo/jambo/salama – Hello
• Matalu/dalla dalla – This is a term used to describe minibusses used for public transportation within the city.
• Karibu– welcome
• Lala salama – Goodnight
• Safari Njema – safe journey
• Jina lako nani? – what is your name?
• Jina langu ni – my name is
• Rafiki – friend
• Pole pole – This is a common phrase used by the Swahili people to tell a person who is going through pressure to ‘be calm’ the literal translation of the term means “small small”
• Benki – This is a Swahili phrase for a bank, the term benki was coined from the English word bank.

Conclusion

Given the number of Kiswahili speakers in Africa, localizing content for the Waswahili people should be done with a good knowledge of Kiswahili for a wider reach. Getting a good Kiswahili translation service and some cultural tips could mean localizing content for over 14 different African countries. With translation and localization organizations such as Globalization Partners International, you can create and translate content targeted to Swahili speakers all over the world.

GPI offers translations across different fields such as multilingual desktop publishing and design, mobile app localization, English to Kiswahili translation for websites, mobile learning localization for Kiswahili, and other Kiswahili translation services.

The post The Kiswahili Language Day appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

Translation and localization are fundamental components of global business strategy; and the localization industry is growing each year, with no signs of slowing down.

When it comes to localization, there are different types of projects based on the specific needs of each client. Each of them will have its own workflow and scope, they will require specific tasks and, therefore, the project manager (PM) in charge needs to have the ability to address them properly.

In this blog, we will focus on the role of a project manager of document localization projects.

First, we’ll need to distinguish this kind of project from the others: document localization covers a variety of documents including manuals, white papers, promotional materials, brochures, user guides, etc.

So, the question is: What is the role of a Localization Project Manager for this type of project?

In general terms, they monitor the life cycle of every project. They initiate, execute, and deliver projects – overseeing the end-to-end localization workflow and ensuring a timely, cost-effective, and high-quality execution of it.

But let’s see this in-depth. I’ll explain the role of the PM in the different phases of the project life cycle.

Before the Project Starts

Clear Communication with the Client: Scope

Before starting any project, the first step is to determine project scope. This will require the project manager to have clear communication with the client to discuss the project requirements: type of project, size, language pairs, timeline, required CAT and Quality Control tool, deliverable format, and any additional requirements the client may have.

If it’s the first project that is being done with a client, the project manager should have a kick-off call with them. The PM will use this as an opportunity to introduce themselves and their team, walk them through the whole localization workflow and manage client expectations.

Having a close relationship with the client is crucial.

Ensuring Correct Quotation

The project manager will also be involved in the quote preparation stage.

They will make sure that all the necessary tasks are included and make a realistic projection of the time needed for each task, considering the client’s required delivery date.

Workflow Definition

Once the client’s requirements are clear, the project manager needs to ensure that the chosen workflow meets the client’s expectations. Based on the source file format, for example, the project manager will know if time for the recreation of the file is needed before starting the translation, editing, and proofreading (TEP) process. Based on the required delivery formats, they’ll know if Desktop Publishing is needed or not.

Each phase of the project should be clearly defined in this stage since anything left unclear can affect the project quality, timeline, and budget.

Search for the Most Accurate Resources         

Once the workflow and the client-specific requirements are clear, the project manager will assign the necessary resources. To ensure they select the most accurate linguistic team, the PM needs to know the field of expertise required for the project and assign the best subject-matter expert (SME) who specializes in that subject.

The PM should always consider the teams’ metrics (how much they can translate or edit daily) especially if it’s a rush project – and confirm their rates are suitable for the project budget as well.

During The Project Lifetime

Hand Off to Production

Once the project manager has selected the teams that are going to participate in the project, they’ll proceed to send the project to production.

The PM will provide the linguistic team with all the necessary information for the project, including any reference materials, glossaries, style guides and translation memory (TM). It’s the PM’s responsibility to brief the linguistic team about the client and subject matter, and clearly define the scope, deadlines, and expected deliverable files.

Proactive Communication with Different Stakeholders

The project manager communicates with both internal and external teams to ensure effective cross-team collaboration throughout the project lifetime (follow-up, problem-solving with vendors, tools, and client updates). They, as well, assign the different tasks to the corresponding person to ensure the project follows the initial schedule.

Any localization project requires a high level of collaboration between cross-functional teams. Localization project managers are the link between different stakeholders. They ensure project schedules stay on time, within budget, and guarantee high-quality delivery.

Files Delivery

Once all the steps in the workflow are completed, the PM will review to make sure that all the Quality Control (QC) processes have been followed correctly, that the Translation Memory (TM) has been updated accordingly, and last but not least, that the file format is the required one.

After confirming that everything is correct, the PM sends the final files to the client.

Post Project Evaluation

Quality Evaluation

Project Managers need to ensure any client linguistic feedback/comments are taken into consideration. Receiving feedback from the client from time to time is normal and it helps the linguistic team learn the client’s preferences. However, it’s the PM’s responsibility to make sure the quality of the final product is not compromised. A common way for PM’s to tackle this situation is by setting up a call between the client’s reviewers and linguistics teams to discuss any linguistic-related topic.

Team Performance Evaluation

A common and useful practice for project managers is to qualify the performance of the teams involved in the project. PM’s should discuss and tackle any problem that may have occurred during the project lifetime, which could be during daily team meetings, weekly progress conversations, or monthly reviews.

One of the most important abilities a project manager must have is to recognize potential problems before they occur. In addition to post-project evaluations, having checkpoints during a project lifecycle will greatly help detect and avoid potential risks before project delivery.

Conclusion

Localization projects are sometimes complex, and they require exceptional levels of versatility and agility from a project manager. It’s important that a PM gets involved in all stages, examines all aspects of the project, and deeply understands each of the steps involved.

Localization Project Management is a highly challenging and rewarding career path that is continually expanding as businesses continue to go worldwide.

At GPI, we have dedicated and detail-oriented project managers that ensure great-quality localization based on the clients’ needs. They define tailor-made workflows for each project and provide clients dedicated access to GPI’s proprietary Translation Portal for a better experience.

The post Translation Project Management for Documents appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

With over 530 million speakers, Spanish is the world’s fourth most spoken language and is the official language of 20 nations throughout the world. The need for Spanish translations has risen dramatically in recent years, as has the number of people offering translation services into this language.

If you’re a translation student or you’re just starting your career as a Spanish translator, this blog is for you.

In this blog, I’ll provide some tips for organizing your time, duties, and accomplishing great outcomes in your jobs, with a focus on quality and accuracy of your translations in order to stand out in the localization market.

Before Starting the Translation Process

Your job as a translator starts even before writing your first sentence in the target language.
From the minute you receive your assignment, there are a few things to keep in mind.

Know the Client

Perform a thorough research on the client’s history and background. Check reference materials, prior translations, and familiarize yourself with the vocabulary they commonly use.

Learn as much as you can about the CAT tool you’ll be expected to use. There are many online courses that will teach you how to get the most out of each CAT tool; this will save you a lot of time and effort.

Know the Audience

As mentioned above, there are more than 20 countries that have Spanish as their official language. Each has its own quirks, so make sure you know the Spanish locale you’re translating into. This will give accuracy to your translation. Another tip, if you do not know the dialect of the target region or the subject, do not accept the job. Your reputation is everything and you want to be known as a subject-matter expert.

Once you know the target locale, you’ll need to determine your target audience.

Do you have to use a formal or informal tone? Should the informal “vos” be used if it’s directed to Latin American countries like Argentina or Uruguay? When clients don’t indicate this, it’s up to you to use your best judgment and determine the level of proximity you want your document to have with the addressee.

While Translating

After all this exhaustive research, it’s time to get down to the business of translating. For this step, I’ll list some things to consider so that you produce a high-quality target product.

General Translation Tips

The first thing you want to check when you open your project in the assigned CAT Tool is that you’re using the most recent TM available and, if applicable, the latest Glossary/TermBase as well. This will ensure consistency within your project as well as for any future projects for the same client. You probably have heard this a thousand times, but it is important that when you start your translation you must translate the meaning, not just the words. Try to capture the essence of the source text and reproduce it in Spanish in the most natural and faithful way possible. To achieve a fluent translation, you should avoid appealing to the literal word-for-word translation. Additionally, you should have a reliable reviewer or/and proofreader check your translation. Once they are done reviewing your work, review their changes and make sure you are in agreement with them. Remember, it is your name that will be associated with the translation – not your proofreaders’.

General Spanish Singularities to Take Into Account

If you’re translating from English into Spanish, there are some things that you should bear in mind to make sure you make the right decision when translating:

Differences between English and Spanish

Structures of modification

We all know that in English, in short structures of modifications such as adj+noun phrases, adjectives usually occur in the attributive position, i.e they pre-modify a noun, appearing between the noun head and the determiner: “The huge company.” Although this position is possible in Spanish, it is less common. It is worth noting that in Spanish there is a change of meaning according to the position of the adjective in relation to the noun it modifies, so translators must be aware of this to avoid mistranslating the source text. “elhombre pobre” ? “El pobre hombre”.

Default Male Gender

Spanish is a gendered language. This means that when you talk about an individual, you must assign a gender. For example, “I went to see my doctor” is gender-neutral in English, but in Spanish, it’s necessary to specify if you’re talking about a male or female doctor (doctor or doctora).

Sometimes the English text doesn’t explicitly specify this gender, this is when translators have to fill this gap and either make a choice between male or female, or find a workaround to avoid specifying the gender. i.e. paraphrase the text.

Historically, when the gender of a person is not explicitly stated, the masculine form has been assumed. However, as society’s ideals change, these gendered expressions are becoming less acceptable nowadays.

What does this imply for you as a translator? That unless your target audience is uniquely male or female, the safest choice is to use language that is gender-neutral.

False Friends

False friends are terms that sound extremely similar in both languages but have very different meanings. For example, the word “billion”, if used in the US, should be translated into “mil millones”, and not to “billón” since this is the equivalent of “trillion” in English.

When it comes to professional translation assignments, even a seemingly trivial error caused by a false friend can have serious consequences.

So, knowing a foreign language isn’t enough for translators. We must understand not just the grammatical nuances of a language, but also the common false friends that might trip us up.

Conclusion

We’ve seen that there’s a whole process behind the translation itself. It’ll take you some time to get used to this, but I can guarantee that if all these tips are considered, you’ll achieve excellent results.

If you think you’re ready to face this challenge and want to be part of our linguistic teams, feel free to register under this link, we’d be happy to work with professional and dedicated translators.

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Article originally published on The Guardian

Despite the advancement in today’s scientific translation technology, many non-English research and discoveries never see the light of day. Researchers struggle to translate and publish their work in English due to a lack of budget or time. An important discovery, for example, written in Spanish reveals how Amazonian snakes survive after eating poisonous frogs – one of the many findings that get lost in translation.

Researchers sharing scientific discoveries are meant to connect with other researchers and the global community, without translation, it will only create a gap in knowledge. If this pattern continues, topics and discoveries about conservation and biodiversity that are mainly reported in local languages will struggle to be published.

According to a study published in Plos Biology, focusing on “non-English language research could expand the geographical coverage of biodiversity scientific evidence by 12% to 25% and the number of species covered by 5% to 32%.” There is currently research on close to 300 species that is being overlooked because it is not available in English. Essentially, studies not translated into English are not used as scientific evidence on a global scale.

Looking back into what has been done in the past, “translating science into a more widely used language has been standard practice in history”, science historian, Michael Gordin said. “Arabic was very prominent between 9th and 13th century, therefore, Persian was translated into Arabic, but the majority were Greek and Syriac translated into Arabic, and more.”

Today, there is a huge base of scientific knowledge which requires translation. While machine translation (MT) can be an option, another solution is to have the global science organizations fund the cost of the copy-editing and translation of local research and discoveries. Perhaps shifting to a standard where English, Chinese, and Spanish are the languages of science. Indeed, a problem worth tackling to increase the knowledge transfer of researchers globally.

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When we are young, the first steps that lead us to the world of literature and the world itself, are literary stories. I strongly believe that children’s literature allows us to open up a world of infinite possibilities, and it’s the key to exploring topics that are, otherwise, difficult to address. In this blog, I’m going to share some of the difficulties you may face when translating children’s literature. 

We all remember Pinocchio, Little Red Riding Hood, and The Three Little Pigs; stories with authors from different origins that have marked our childhood and continue to do so for current and future generations.

Making these stories move between languages is a challenging process and we owe this, exclusively, to the wonders of translation.

What are the challenges of translating children’s literature?

There are many situations that will require a decision in one direction or another which will determine the outcome of your translation. I’ll name a few below:

Consider Dual Readership

One of the most particular characteristics of children’s literature is its heterogeneous communication structure: these books are addressed to young readers but they’re written by adults, published by adults, sold by adults, and encouraged by adults. 

That’s why, for a book to be in the hands of a child, we need first the approval of an adult. 

This may sound paradoxical, but it’s something we need to bear in mind since it will determine many decisions while translating. We have two different paths to choose here: either ignore the presence of the adults and focus your work entirely on children, or else try to appeal primarily to adults using the child as “secondary” and not as the actual addressee. 

We will, in this case, focus on the cases where children are the primary addressee.

Defining Style and Tone

When defining the style of your translation, you should know that a child’s imagination is extremely visual and they’ll always prefer this rather than abstractness or vagueness. They want to visualize in their head what they’re reading, so a style rich in descriptions will help capture their attention. 

Regarding the tone of a translation, using a conversational or informal tone, as well as personal or friendly terms, will make children see you at their same level, and feel that you know them and their world.

This sense of connection and being able to relate is what you want young readers to feel.  This sense of connection should be the aim of a translation.

Translating Names

When it comes to translating proper names, there is a long list of possibilities to choose when translating. Some translators decide to avoid localizing them because they are an important part of the identity of the narration. Others are in favor of leaving the name in the original language but adjusting the spelling to the target language for easier readability – especially for children. Some others prefer to translate descriptive names because they are necessary to understand the text and will capture the child’s attention.

This illustrates the challenges in translating names and that there is not one accepted guideline or best practice to use. Translators will have to make their own choices for each particular case, relying on thorough research and creativeness to capture the essence of the source story’s characters, places and plot.

Translating Titles

Translating titles has the same challenges as translating names when it comes to style. But when talking about titles, there are some particular aspects to consider, since an attractive title will encourage people to read the book. This aspect is of paramount importance.

Translators must pay careful attention to two things: The first is ensuring continuity between the title and text, encapsulating the text’s theme, or making it act as an explanation of the theme. The second is focusing on the different meanings, connotations, and associations that both the source and target languages may have. This is of extreme importance since titles have a metonymic aspect by nature, so here’s when translators should make use of their creativity once again.

Useful Tips for Translating Children’s Literature

There’s not a magical formula that will make your translation more successful, each case is different. However, there are some aspects that I believe are important to consider.

Know the author and his/her sociocultural environment

You shouldn’t start your translation if you don’t know the author. Read previous works, know his/her background, sociocultural environment and try to walk in their shoes for a moment. This way, you will capture the essence of their work. Only by “knowing” the author will you be able to reproduce his/her work faithfully in your translated text.

Know the Target Audience

As mentioned before, know who you want your text to be addressed to, and from there, start making your translation decisions. Use appropriate language, tone, and vocabulary to make your translated text understandable, relatable and appropriate for the reader.

Conclusion

Translating children’s literature is challenging. It demands a lot of creativity and, as there are no specific rules to follow, makes you the owner of certain decisions that will have direct impact on the outcome of your piece. 

That’s why knowing these potential difficulties is essential before deciding to accept a job in translating children’s literature. What I can guarantee is that if you do, you’ll surely enjoy the ride!

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Within the language services industry, it is common to hear about terms like translation, localization and transcreation. However, for someone who is not familiar, these terms can be confusing or even redundant. Many people think that these terms are interchangeable, and others prefer to unify these three terms in one: translation. Let’s debunk this myth.

Translation, transcreation and localization

These processes play a key role in the globalization strategy of any companies, products or services. That is why understanding the differences and the inherent characteristics of each term is essential when it comes to identifying the best solution for your specific needs.

In this blog, we will go through the definition of each of these processes and their main characteristics to help you pick your best option.

Translation: the source matters

Kevin McQuire of the Association of Language Companies (ALCUS) says that translation is “Converting the information and meaning from one language to another”. That hint of simplicity and plainness in this definition is precisely what characterizes this process. Translation is a purely linguistic process and it is closely related to literality. It aims to express the idea of a text in a different language, trying to make it as faithful as possible to its original version – linguistically and semantically speaking.

So, if you want to have the manual for the mobile phone you’re commercializing in Spanish, this process is your best bet. Translators will stick to the source material and will express the same thing your original content does. It is very common to speak of translation when working with technical or legal documents.

Localization: The meaning behind words

Localization goes beyond literal word-for-word translation and the syntactic aspect of a language. This process is a bridge between cultures since it aims to adapt the source content into a specific culture and/or locale – hence the name. It’s a powerful marketing tool with the mere goal of commercializing a service/product in a target market.

A beer company for example, could show a group of friends watching a football match in its advertisement for Argentina. However, this approach may not be ideal for, let’s say, Asian countries, where other sports instead of football are considered national favorites. Although the first thing that comes up to mind when talking about localization is marketing content, this process is a good choice if we talk about many types of eLearning content, games, or website content as well.

Transcreation: The art of creation

If localization goes beyond translation to address cultural expectations, transcreation is another step further to ensure your marketing messages are perceived in the way you expect them to be. Etymologically speaking, transcreation is a blended word that merges the terms Translation and Creation and that’s the key to understanding this concept. In the transcreation process, the tone, intention, context, and even phonetics prevail over the text itself. Many times, the target text doesn’t have anything to do – syntactically speaking – with the source one.

This process is the one chosen for slogans. For example, a literal translation for Rexona’s “It won’t let you down” will not be as catchy as its “No te abandona” translation in Latin America. This target slogan maintains the original intention but it introduces as well a perfect and grabby rhyme. And that’s what transcreation does: it captures the essence and the main purpose of the source material and replicates it in a different language creating an emotional connection with the target market.

Conclusion

Translation, transcreation and localization have many things in common but they also have distinctive characteristics. The first thing to do when you’re seeking for this kind of service is to establish your goal and scope. Next is to define what it is that you want your target audience to perceive to ensure that you’re paying for the solution that best suits your needs.

If you still have questions or doubts about this topic, you can contact us here. We will be happy to assist you choose the best approach to your language translation, localization or transcreation requirements.

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