Archive for March 29, 2010

Matthew Connaughton | March 29, 2010
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D’oh! Simpsons greatest contribution to English language

“You may know it from other popular Simpsons’ catchphrases, such as ‘eat my shorts’ and ‘craptacular’”.

I_believe_in_D__oh_by_mistermoster

Homer Simpson: Influential

Well, that would probably be how Troy McClure would introduce it, but you might know it from mocking yourself (or someone else) after a moment of absent-mindedness.

No wonder then, that Homer Simpson’s “D’oh!” has been confirmed as TV-hit, The Simpson’s greatest contribution to the English langauge.

The origins of the word go back as far as 1945, however in the show, Homer was initially scripted to utter an “annoyed grunt”.

A recent study of 300 professional linguists concluded that D’oh!, having worked its way into the Oxford English Dictionary in 1998, was the show’s stand-out contribution to the English language, along with other commonly-used phrases from the show with 37% of votes, along with:

  • Introubulate – 13%
  • Craptacular – 11%
  • Eat my shorts – 10%
  • Knowitallism – 9%
  • Embiggen – 7%
  • Meh – 6%
  • Learning juice – 4%
  • Cheese-eating surrender monkeys – 3%
  • Kwyjibo – 1%

It was also claimed that Homer must be “the most influential wordsmith since Shakespeare”, to which he would (probably) have replied “Meh!”

Other “non-words” from TV that have infiltrated the English language include “go commando”, made famous by Friends (I’d Google the meaning!), “bouncebackability” from Hull City manager, Ian Dowie (though this is, amazingly, disputed) and the now annoying “simples” from a popular car insurance comparison website.

Do you know of any others?

Category: Cultures, Languages | Tags: , ,
RichardLoyer | March 27, 2010
3 comments

“I want a word-for-word translation”. Actually, you don’t…

It’s a common enough demand from some callers to our translation department and it appears to make a lot of sense. Why spend all that time and energy producing excellent websites, brochures, posters etc to then run the risk of having the translated version being inaccurate?

Perhaps we should think about how language has evolved and then decide if “word-for-word” translation is even possible…

Each language sets its own rules, grammar, spelling, syntax and structure, but these don’t necessarily apply to any other unrelated language. We all know that in German the verb is at the end of the sentence, which explains why the Germans always laugh last when anyone makes a joke at the European Parliament (don’t be surprised, it does happen).

Word for word translation: Impossible it is, hmm?!

Word for word translation: The impossible you ask, hmm?!

This doesn’t mean that a translation from German to English will keep the verb at the end of the sentence, unless imitating Yoda, you are.

In French, adjectives usually come after the verb, but there are exceptions of course.  In English the adjective is always first, so “word-for-word” is impossible and therefore unsuitable.

We’ve all watched films with subtitles and wondered why the character on screen talks for 30 seconds and the subtitle just says “yes”.  As with the best translations, all that is happening is that the meaning is being communicated, not simply a substitution of one word for another.

Hopefully, the translation is culturally sensitive too as a line like “did you know..?” in English doesn’t translate well into French, as it implies that the listener lacks any knowledge in the first place.

Some concepts find the language barrier difficult to traverse, too. A “single room” in a hotel can mean just one room or a room for one person, even in English.  “Station” is a very adaptable word in English and could mean Train, Bus, Petrol, Fire, or Police Station – but in most languages you would need totally different words to get the concept across.

We’ve all seen poor translations in our daily lives. It’s not so long ago that microwaves built in the Far East came with an English manual that was indecipherable, and I still look forward with trepidation to building furniture from a flat-pack where the instructions are, perhaps, not in a version of English that I can read.

Here are a few more Translations that may have been “word-for-word” but possibly failed to get across the exact meaning:

  • Swiss restaurant menu: Our wines leave you nothing to hope for
  • Sign in a Bucharest hotel reception: The lift is being fixed for the day. During that time we regret that you will be unbearable
  • In a Paris hotel: Please leave your values at the front desk
  • Copenhagen check-in desk: We take your bags and send them in all directions
  • Hong Kong supermarket: For your convenience we recommend courteous, efficient self-service

Fortunately, we have a way of completely avoiding all these problems.  All linguists at Applied Language Solutions translate into their native tongue, and are almost always based in-country e.g. An English to Austrian German translation will be done in Austria by a local specialist.

This way, we can be sure that our customers receive translations that are culturally accurate and communicate the exact meaning (there’s that word again) of the original piece.

If you have any examples of amusing, silly, surreal or downright dangerous translations, please let me know and leave a comment.

Category: Cultures, Languages, Localization, Translation | Tags: ,
Lauren Nemec | March 26, 2010
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Night at the Museum – Quite the Discovery!

by Shane Grevin

Noche_en_el_museo

I’m at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge, in a picturesque field surrounded by a group of forty kindergarteners.  The business world of multiple languages is the furthest thing from my mind, for about two minutes that is… until my girl finishes her snack and we head to the basura to drop our non-recyclables.  I stop in my tracks.  Basura?  Even before my daughter and I enter the Discovery Museum, I have learned something.  This is an English/Spanish bilingual Touch, Play, Learn & Say museum.

At first I think it is neat…  The teléfono is next to the baño and exposición de peces, etc.  Later, as my six year old studies a mariposa, I get to thinking harder about it – is the Museum catering to enough languages or too many?  What made them think, “We need to label everything in Spanish and English,” and not, say, Simplified Chinese or Japanese?  I mean, we are 15 minutes away from Chinatown and at least that far from any primarily Spanish-speaking areas of San Francisco or Marin Counties.

Of course, a day later a client asks me, “How should I set my team up for success to localize our application and support documentation for the first time?  What should I translate? What can I get away without translating? Who might buy an English-only version?” Typically, I have an easy answer – and it starts with questions – Who do you want to reach?  What market do you want to penetrate? How will you measure success? What is your budget? I advise… know your reason for doing it and how/what to do it will come easily.

And that brings me full circle: I wonder if the Discovery Museum went through these or a similar set of questions?  I can tell you the only ones speaking Spanish this day were my pack of kids, clearly not the intended audience as English is their first language and they just happen to take Spanish classes because Dad is pushing them toward being bilingual.

Come to think of it, by the time they are grown will bilingual be enough?

How do you or company go about making decisions about what & how much to translate?

Please leave a comment and let us know!

Category: Business Management, Cultures, Languages, Localization, Translation | Tags: ,
Lauren Nemec | March 25, 2010
4 comments

A bad sign for translation?

I seldom find articles I enjoy as much as the one I read on Slate.com the other day, debating the effectiveness of our lovely American EXIT sign.

You’ve probably never really stopped to ponder the Exit sign before, but if you will do so now, ask yourself these questions:

1. If you were a non-native English speaker, would you understand the word “Exit”?
2. If you had never seen this sign before, would you immediately understand its meaning?
3. Considering our use of the color red elsewhere, would the red Exit sign invoke you to stop or proceed?

Exits

When you compare our Exit sign to the green “running man” sign adopted by many other countries, maybe you’ll agree that ours is ripe for a re-design.

What makes the running man sign a good choice? As a pictogram, just about anyone should be able to interpret the meaning of the sign. Also, the color green gives the sense of inviting rather than forbidding you to proceed through a doorway.

Anyway, this article got me thinking about the way companies are increasingly using icons and illustrations in lieu of translating text in their documentation, or as icons on their web site. These days, many global companies opt to use illustrations and symbols to increase understanding or decrease the cost of translations into multiple languages.

Flat-Pack Directions

IKEA is a perfect example of a company successfully using illustrations and icons in place of text, and if you’ve ever bought a piece of furniture from IKEA, you know what I mean.

Lauren pic1IKEA’s assembly instructions show you rather than tell you how to put your new bookshelf together. I am not sure about you, but I’ve found these instructions to be quite user-friendly. And can you imagine how much money this must save IKEA in translation costs? Consider that they have a range of 12,000 products and they translate into 30 languages!

Of course, it’s fairly easy to interpret in which direction you need to turn a screw, or where to place a shelf, so this system works well for IKEA.

Calorific McValues

In 2005, McDonald’s introduced a new nutrition label on their food packaging with symbols that are meant to represent nutritional components. They look like this:

Lauren pic2

And in case you’re having trouble understanding, here is the nutrition chart decoded:

XXX McDonald's Nutritional hamburger_bar_chart.jpg

What do you think about these icons? Are they easy to interpret? Based on your knowledge of nutrition, would you have been able to decode the nutrition label on your own? Do you think it is a good idea to generate an icon or image that will be understood by people in 109 countries, without modification or adaptation for different markets?

Are pictures better than words?

Feel free to leave your comments, but I will tell you that there are many issues that may prevent the effectiveness of using symbols, icons or illustrations in place of translated text. How can a company choose a group of icons that will mean the same thing in any location in the world, without causing offense or confusion?

It’s quite a challenge and in knowing that, McDonald’s did not choose to go at it alone – they enlisted the help of a language services provider. As this trend grows, more language services providers are offering cultural evaluation services for companies using images, symbols and illustrations in their documentation.

Experts (such as marketers or iconographers) evaluate symbols against a certain set of criteria to determine possible cultural offensiveness or insensitivity, appropriate use of color, similarity to existing symbols, ease of comprehension, etc.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But I say, unless you can show the right pictures, you’d better use words. Wouldn’t you agree?

Category: Cultures, Languages, Localization, Translation, Translation Mistakes | Tags:
GavinWheeldon | March 24, 2010
One comment

Budget for businesses: So what took so long, Darling?

In anticipation for Alistair Darling’s budget announcement, I sat at home startled at what Sunday’s evening TV news threw at me… “Banks to be forced to lend to businesses”.  At first I thought “good news, at last”, and I still do. However the finer details of today’s announcement might prove to disappoint, and I’ll tell you why…

Today’s budget included a doubling of the annual investment allowance, a £200m growth capital fund for SMEs, a £2.5bn one-off growth package for small businesses and the guarantee that Lloyds TSB and RBS will together lend at least £94bn to UK businesses.

Great! All of the above is needed, but unfortunately that’s been the case for far too long.

Growth to nowhere? Darling's budget lacked direction in my opinion.

Growth to nowhere? Darling's budget lacked detail.

Back in October 2008 we rallied Government to extend loan guarantees to small businesses. The banks, either through collective ignorance or in self-preservation, started to rescind credit lines that viable companies had previously thrived on. This forced many companies capable of repaying debt to go bust – or in our case, put vital expansion plans on hold. We also urged the Government to force banks to lend to companies that want to grow, even suggesting that a change in VAT accounting could increase short term liquidity.

The Government and the banks could have helped (and saved) many more businesses in this past year to grow, expand, and keep more people in employment. They could have, that is, if guaranteed (forced) lending had been in place about year ago.

Our, very valid, argument was that exporting was the only real way to ensure we address our widening trade deficit and get the UK out of recession. When you look at  how countries like Japan, whose exports almost doubled last month alone, are coping with recession – it’s quite embarrassing on the world stage.

So where in this budget are the incentives that UK businesses and the economy need for boosting exporting? How do we redress our increasing trade deficit to make sure we’re not buying more than we’re selling?

Therein lies the huge gap in this budget – there are no such incentives.

Lanscape Gardener, Tina Powell shows Alistair Darling how it's done with Lego (Image courtesy of Metro.co.uk)

Building blocks of the economy: SMEs could stand to benefit from increased lending and Government support outlined in the 2010/11 budget

Perhaps it has finally dawned on Mr Darling that increased business lending was desperately needed. The ongoing improvement in market conditions is creating new opportunities for businesses all the time, and businesses can use this protection to secure funds for reinvestment and hiring new staff – but nobody’s steering the boat – a point I made after the last pre-budget report.

However, today’s help comes, admittedly, as a nice surprise, but we’ve yet to see the finer details about about how the Government will distribute this new help, and how companies will be qualified for funding.

As the saying goes “To qualify for a loan you must first prove that you don’t need it.”

How true. In pursuit of securing funding, many businesses incur accountancy and quality assurance fees that go with the due diligence processes needed to qualify their needs and prove they are viable. That can often dissuade companies from applying for funding, as sometimes the extra cost simply isn’t worth it – that is, if you know where to look and who to ask for said funding.

So, I look forward to seeing how these extra measure set out in the budget will be carried out in practice.

Now, when we started this blog we said we wouldn’t use it as a political soapbox. We would instead hold true to our values, promoting common sense and best practices for businesses who want to expand with localization. We also said we’d only mention the economy whenever appropriate for our audience.

Judging by the headline of this article, and indeed the opening paragraph, you could be forgiven for thinking that isn’t the case here, but you’d be wrong. My tone simply stems from my frustration about the lack of help afforded to businesses in the worst recession in over 60 years – that and the annoying little fact that we’ve been asking for this kind of help for over a year, without success.

So, to whoever is promising to help UK industry this week or indeed at the time the next Parliament is formed, may I please ask that you put our money where your mouth is – or just where businesses can get to it?

And yes, by that I do mean our money.

Category: Business Management | Tags: , , , ,
GregRosner | March 24, 2010
2 comments

What will the U.S. 2010 Census tell us about languages spoken in the U.S.?

Census

I just opened my 2010 Census envelope that came in the mail this weekend and as expected, there is a question about what race/language I speak at home. Required by the United States Constitution, the US census has been conducted every 10 years since 1790. Out of curiosity, I went online to download the 2000 Census report which and found this piece related to languages spoken in the U.S. (See chart above)

2000 Census2I am eager to see the results of this new survey of 300+ million people living in America because my sense is that besides there being many more people in the U.S. than there was in 2,000 (estimates say we grew from 282M to more than 310M) I think there are many more people speaking other languages than did in 2000.

Why is the language of your audience important to know?

Many businesses struggle to know precisely what languages their customers prefer, or what languages/markets they should try to endear. Getting this census data is critical for public facing organizations in making the right decisions about programs and initiates. From what I see, businesses don’t really have a good handle on what languages their customers prefer. My judgement is that their marketing strategies are largely unscientific potions, concocted by conducting sporadic survey’s, sprinkled with a dose of anecdotes from people have seen and heard on TV. That’s why this census report is so valuable for businesses and organizations as it will give them the facts they need to justify spending money on translations for their customers, patients or employees.

What’s your prediction?

Feel free to comment below on what your prediction is about how the language demographic has changed in the U.S.

Category: Business Management, Cultures, Interpreting, Languages, Translation, Translation Mistakes |
GregRosner | March 21, 2010
One comment

Translate This!

The PDF problem and why it’s costing you much more on translation than it needs to.

Documents picWe have a customer who has several PDF manuals they need to publish in several languages. Simple right? Not really. The problem is, those manuals are made up of several PDF files – and the client doesn’t have possession of the source files which were used to generate the PDF’s they do have. So when it comes time for translation, not only are they paying for extra desk-top-publishing costs for us to re-layout the manual, but they are not getting any use of Translation Memory. (More on this below.) These two issues will lead to a company spending double or triple what they should be spending on Translation Services.

Why is this client in this situation to begin with?

This client, like many others in the manufacturing sector, buys aspects of their product, from other companies, repackages it and sells it as a different product. Take a car for example; Ford doesn’t actually make the glass for their windows, batteries for their hybrids, or radio’s for their dashboards. They buy these products from other companies and integrate them into their unique design as a Fusion, and sells them. So, in some cases, their service manuals would be simply a series of their OEM’s (Original Equipment Manufacturer) manuals, compiled into one big manual. While this will work for English (or the source language that the manuals are in), when it comes time to translate the manuals into several languages – you’re facing a world of problems to get this done at a low cost.

pdfMaking things even worse, (and more expensive to deal with) many of these Manuals could have been produced years ago, and today cannot be located. And not only do the source file not exist, but the PDF files could actually be a picture-scan of the text, instead of text that can be extracted manually. This means, that the text is not scanable, highlightable, or saveable by any means, except by using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) process, which is slow, expensive and still requires someone to proofread and edit the source text before you even start the translation process.

My Advise To You (If you are like this client)

1. Require OEM’s to produce editable manuals: It stands to reason that if you are buying products from OEM’s, you should be able to dictate in your purchase agreement that they need to provide you with editable, electronic source documents which comprise their manuals. If they refuse, perhaps you should look at buying from their competitors, because the significant extra costs you will incur in translation of their manuals.

2. Pass on costs: If they can’t or won’t provide you with editable source manuals, then pass your surcharges in translation to them. This measure may get them to comply in the future.

3. Brute Force Method: If you can’t get source documents no matter what you say or do with your OEM, then there will be these surcharges in translation, regardless of which translation supplier you choose:

A. Optical Character Recognition scanning and editing
B. Re-Layout of Source Document
C. Graphics and Charts with text Redesign

A Word About Translation Memory

If these charges aren’t bad enough, consider how much money is wasted when you’re needing to update a previously translated version? In these common cases, where you are merely updating a translated manual instead of launching a new one, you will not be able to get any translation memory benefits from text that are exact matches, fuzzy matches, or repetitions. You are essentially being charged 100% for each word, because there is no recycling of previously translated assets.

If anyone reading this has any comments or suggestions on dealing with the PDF problem – please feel free to comment below.

Category: Business Management, Localization, Technology, Translation, Translation Mistakes |
GregRosner | March 16, 2010
No comments

Is Knowledge in the Cloud?

How our minds may not have caught up with technology when it comes to the accessing information.

evolution to computer man

This is an observation about how people (still like me) who sometimes still think it’s important to collect information, when that same information is freely available at anytime, most anywhere for viewing on line. I consciously resist this vestigial urge to download and save information on my laptop. Maybe this is a habit from the good old days of bookshelves and libraries in our offices. For example, yesterday I clicked on a link to view a PDF presentation on managing change with website translation, and after reading it, I thought to myself that I should “keep” a copy of this on my laptop in case I need it. But then I thought to myself, “why should I clog my hard-drive with megabytes of stuff if I can get a copy of this at this web site anytime, and bookmark it instead.”

Apple's iPad available in April 2010 will surely change the way people access and keep information.

Like Amazon's Kindle did with digital books, Apple's iPad available in April 2010 will surely help change the way people access and keep information.

“Can you please send me a brochure about your translation services?” We get this request all the time from prospects. Not to mention the negative impact it has on our environment to print and send collateral, people who ask for a printed brochure  have this leftover mindset about how information needs to be “kept” and sorted, which hasn’t evolved as fast as our technology. When you go to trade shows, it’s common to see companies handing out paper brochures, most of which I think end up in landfill, but serve only as a reminder for that person to go to their website.

“Can you translate this manual so we can print it and ship it to our European distributors?”  Even though printing and shipping of translated material is so “twentieth century”, I still hear this from clients once in a while. And even though printing is so much cheaper when it’s distributed versus centralized, I wonder how much of the brochures, manuals, catalogs, booklets and reference guides we translate actually get printed and “shipped”, or rather just get put up as a link on a companies web site instead. (Comments anyone?) And I further wonder how many of their audience in different countries “save and print” files they download for future reference on their computers, or whether they just “bookmark” the page for future reference. (Question for you – please comment – do you save and download or just bookmark?)

google syncAnd speaking of bookmarks, Google has now made it possible for you to sync your (now extremely valuable to have wherever you are) bookmarks on any computer you are using, so you could actually have access to everything you previously seen and wanted to save, from any computer.

So then it hit me – that this desire we have to collect knowledge and information as things we can hold in our hands has not evolved with the technology we use to access it. There was a time in my life when information was a scarce and valuable resource. I think now of the Encyclopedia Britannica, which my parents bought me and my brother when we were kids. These massive books filled with tiny text, diagrams, pictures and maps, 2 inch think, 3 pounds each, and we had about 20 of them in a custom made shelf. I think I got more use out of them as a drum set or as stools than I did for research reports. (Guess that doesn’t speak to well for what I’ve learned then does it.)

brochure pilePrevious to the web, information was something people had to collect, libraries had to store, and the more you can memorize and have “on hand” the more successful you were told you would be. Memorization of facts like, who was the 23rd US President, for example, was drilled into you as a kid. (Benjamin Harrison,  with a little help from google :) ) But now that information is readily available at the click of your mouse, old habits are still much harder to break.

Some things don’t change.

What hasn’t changed is the need to translate communications. In fact, since distribution and availability of information is free relatively instantaneous, and the growth of “opensource” as a means for collaboration, the need for content to be available in German, Spanish, French and Chinese – has increased, because of the web. What companies call internally focused websites, “Intranet”, “Knowledgeshare”, or perhaps less glamorously named, “Repositories”, are where companies store a lot of the information which we translate for them for their global employees and partners.

Category: Cultures, Languages, Localization, Technology, Translation |
Jonathan.Bates | March 10, 2010
No comments

Come fly with me..out of the recession

After the economic struggle of the last two years and with travel and tourism being one of the worst affected industries, we are only just beginning to see a rise from the ashes, just in time for British Tourism Week, which is from 15th – 21st March.

With summer fast approaching and consumers jumping back into holiday mode, now is the time to be communicating with your international audience, as they turn to the world wide web in search of the best package deals, flights, hotel bookings and car hire.

As frugal consumers (and let’s face it, who isn’t one these days?) from every region of the world start to look for the best deals, the UK, as the 6th most popular holiday destination worldwide, is  fast becoming a very popular prospect indeed. According to visitbritain.org, over 40 million visitors to the UK spend over £16 billion between them each year.

With the serious decline in the value of the pound there’s no reason why those figures can’t rise in a similar fashion. However, less people are in fact travelling to Britain – the number of people travelling to Britain (on inbound holiday or short-stay flights, at least) today is almost 2% less than this time last year. This was compounded, or perhaps caused, by an annual 4% drop in global tourism last year, which makes the market more competitive than ever.

To be Frank, the tourism industry could help itself with localization

To be Frank (sorry), the tourism industry could help itself with localization

Now, you might be led to believe that attracting new customers in the tourism industry has always involved investing in localization – but I wouldn’t be so sure that this is the case.

In fact, many online industry operators still only operate in a single language.

It’s crucial to speak to existing and potential customers in their own tongue. The Common Sense Advisory revealed that international customers are four times more likely to buy from a local language site.

At Applied Language Solutions, we focus heavily on supporting the tourism sector with localization services.

We have teams of specialist linguists covering a wide variety of languages who are both experienced in the industry, online marketing and, crucially, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

As well as offering quality localisation, delivering your messages into any language and country, we’ve added the “kill two birds with one stone” service, by adding localized SEO services to ensure more visitors are attracted to your offers in the first place.

With people worldwide warming to the idea of holidays and trips abroad, the time is right to localize your site and capture audiences that speak different languages.

Likewise, if you want to attract new visitors to your hotel, golf course or even your town (anywhere that a tourist might be interested in visiting) – get in touch and we can open your business up to new audiences straight away.

Category: Cultures, Localization, Technology, Translation | Tags: , ,
GregRosner | March 9, 2010
No comments

Why Settle for Satisfaction?

Good vs great

Yesterday I got an email from someone on my sales team forwarding a comment from a customer who wasn’t happy with the services they recently received.

They were absolutely ecstatic. Here is an excerpt:

“I would highly recommend Applied Language Solutions for any translation related needs. The entire translation process, from initial quotation to final product delivery, is meticulously documented and audited to insure that the highest accuracy and quality is being delivered. Additionally our project coming in on-budget and ahead of schedule pleased our investors who are holding us to a tight timeframe. My team at Applied language Solutions will definitely be getting any future translation projects our business requires.”

And the great thing is I see these emails come in all the time. Here’s another one I saw last week;

“Your team has always been on top of your game and super-rapid turn-around times.  I couldn’t be happier with you guys, and the rest of my team and management concurs.  Excellent 10+ overall.  Thanks to all of you for making our lives easier over here.”

 

I am really proud of my team here as they are really doing great work for our customers and is the reason for our growth. With these kinds of raving fans, why do some prospects we speak to feel so squeamish about swapping out their current translation supplier with us? Why do they settle for mediocrity?

Conquering the fear of change…

Change: Alien to many

Change: Alien to many

Time and time again I speak with prospective clients who tell me how they’ve endured poor linguistic quality and poor project management. How they’ve been bounced around from one project manager to another and how they’ve tolerated the silent treatment and reactive responses instead of proactive communications.

I hear how they get e–mails with bad news, like missing Tuesday morning’s deadline at 6:30pm on Monday. Even in these cases of vendor abuse, making their jobs more difficult, why are they still so reluctant to change?

I believe it comes down to the human fear of change. The fear of the devil you know versus the devil you don’t know.

The risks that change represents are often perceived to be greater than the reward that a new relationship can bring.

So to help you deal with that concern, (if that’s actually your concern) or, to help you come up with a strategy to try working with us (in case you are just “happy” with your current translation provider), here is some advice:

Five Baby-Steps To Changing Translation Suppliers

1. Cover Your Assets

Your first strategy should be to first protect your Translation Memory assets and your ability to make your current deadlines before you compare capabilities. With regard to Translation Memory, those assets are estimated to be worth 1.5 times your annual spend on Translation, so it’s typically well worth the effort to get them from your current supplier.

Asking your current supplier for a copy of their Translation Memory will sound like they are being fired, so you don’t want to give that indication just yet. So, to mitigate that, tell them you are conducting an intellectual property audit and that you need a full export of the Translation Memory data to keep on your computers.

2. Get a quote for a real project from Applied Language

This is a simple way to get an apples to apples comparison of services and costs. If there is a Translation Memory in use, share those TMs with us as well.

3. Hire us on that project – in stealth mode.

This way, if you are not joyful about the results, not too many people will know.

 

4. Move your translation work to Applied Language

After a successful project, the risk of change should be mitigated and you should feel more comfortable with transferring your on-going projects to Applied Language.

 

5. Fire your current translation provider

While this may give you some primal satisfaction, it may be  difficult because of relationships that are currently in place. To make it easier, try conducting an RFP process to make the firing a “business decision”, or say your organization is moving towards a “multi-vendor strategy”, implying that you want to spread the work between agencies to reduce risk.

So if you’re working with www.averagetranslations.com or www.translationsthatareok.com, you deserve better for your investment in time and money. To schedule a discussion with one of my team members who are responsible for NOT just making you satisfied, please contact me.

Category: Business Management, Languages, Localization, Translation, Translation Mistakes |
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