Archive for the ‘Translation’ Category

Lessons from a Graduate Student in Translation

August 3rd, 2010 by Maria, Contributing Writer

“To be an interpreter, you have to be weird.”

That was among the first pieces of advice I was given upon arriving in Monterey, California, to study Russian Translation and Interpretation (T&I). One month ago, your faithful Beyond Words writer packed her bags and headed cross-country to begin a two-year master’s course in Russian T&I in the only university in the U.S. to offer such a program. While most burgeoning translators and interpreters spring-board their professional lives freelancing here and there, many of the ones that decide to make a career of it find that a gregarious nature and a knack for finding the right word do not an interpreter make (at least, that isn’t enough).

After some six years of experience in the field, I realized that I was still incapable of direct, one-to-one translations, and that I occasionally faltered in finding appropriate technical terms. That, coupled with the frustration of putting my bachelor’s degree to work waiting tables, was enough to convince me to take on staggering student loans in the hopes of carving out a niche in an extremely appealing and exciting market.

Classes don’t start for another few weeks, but I’ve already been dealt enough insight into the heart and mind of the interpreter to make a few general assumptions. Why is the interpreter “weird”? Because the interpreter lives an independent – even lonely – existence. Through conferences and projects, the interpreter makes brief but instantaneous connections all over the globe. The interpreter does not allow deep connections because of the knowledge that, after a few days, he or she will move on to other conferences (a constant cycle meeting new people and sometimes never crossing paths with them again). Those interpreters who love what they do call this independence.

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Posted in Interpreting, Translation | 2 Comments »

The Pros and Cons of Crowdsourcing

August 2nd, 2010 by Rachel, Guest Contributor

Crowdsourcing—the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people —has been a hot topic across the web, stirring up controversy as well as passionate support. Outside of the translation world, crowdsourced projects like Wikipedia continue to flourish with over 16 million articles written and edited by over 91,000 contributors in over 270 languages. Although it isn’t perfect, Wikipedia is certainly powerful—and it uses its vast number of participants to help guide it in the right direction.

Crowdsourced Translation

Efforts to crowdsource translation, however, have been a mixed bag. Many translators, as well as the American Translators Association, were up in arms when LinkedIn asked professional translators to crowdsource its website last year. On the other hand, charitable organizations such as Kiva have harnessed the power of volunteer translators to help alleviate poverty around the world.

One company that has produced crowdsourced translations with both resounding success and huge criticism is Facebook. Through its Facebook Translations application, Facebook has used its members to localize its interface into over 100 different languages. While its success in reaching users around the world has been heralded by many, Facebook has also encountered one of the biggest problems with crowdsourcing: Quality control.

Quality Control & Crowdsourcing

One advantage to crowdsourcing is the sheer number of eyes looking at the material. Wikipedia, for example, uses its thousands of contributors to watch for errors and biases in its articles. However, a thousand untrained eyes may not catch an error that a handful of professionals would see right away. When Facebook introduced its translated interface, it was criticized by many Spanish speakers for its numerous errors and misspellings. And just recently, users took advantage of a flaw in the Facebook Translations application to replace correct translations with profanity.

In other words, crowdsourcing often skips the quality control offered by professional translators—both in terms of their skill and the review process they use.

What Professional Translators Can Learn From Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing is not going to go away, and translators will only lose out by trying to ignore it. Many organizations are successfully using crowdsourced translation, despite its flaws, to further their causes.

Why?

Many potential clients aren’t aware of the benefits of professional translation. By increasing client education and highlighting the quality control benefits of using professional translation services, translators can attract companies and organizations that require high-quality translations.
Many organizations need a “good enough” translation instead of a perfect one, and the work of amateur volunteers is good enough. It is important to remember that many organizations using crowdsourced translation will always want a faster or cheaper solution; translators must target potential clients that truly need professional services.
The sheer volume of material to be translated is more than any one translator can take on. Perhaps it’s time for translators to start building their own model of crowdsourcing, harnessing the power of the crowd with the quality control of a professional—whether this means professional, paid translators overseeing amateur volunteers or a group of end users providing input on a professional project. Some translators and agencies are starting to move in this direction, and it’s a direction worth exploring.

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Rachel McRoberts is a freelance Spanish to English translator based in San Diego. Her business, which offers translation, editing, and desktop publishing services, aims to translate Spanish into success for every client she serves. You can contact her through her website or on Twitter at @RMTranslations.

Posted in Translation | No Comments »

Scholarships and Grants
for Language and Translation Students

June 10th, 2010 by Maria, Contributing Writer

Obtaining a degree in the field of translation/interpretation can be a grueling and costly process. Top U.S. universities like the Monterey Institute of International Studies, and top-tier schools with degree-seeking programs in this field, like Georgetown and Stanford University, have yearly tuitions exceeding $30,000, and relatively few slots available for highly competitive merit-based scholarships. But before the future translators and interpreters of the world lose hope, it should be noted that grants, scholarships, and fellowships are out there. To help you start your search, we’re providing you with information about some of the most generous funds currently available to language students.

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Posted in Most Popular, Translation | 3 Comments »

Translator Respect

June 8th, 2010 by Manny, Director of Web Content

Here’s an excerpt from translator Tim Park’s recent Guardian article on why translators deserve more credit than they receive. We agree wholeheartedly:

What is it that a translator does?

He reads with maniacal attention to nuance and cultural implication, conscious of all the books that stand behind this one; then he sets out to rewrite this impossibly complex thing in his own language, re-elaborating everything, changing everything in order that it remain the same, or as close as possible to his experience of the original. In every sentence the most loyal respect must combine with the most resourceful inventiveness. Imagine shifting the Tower of Pisa into downtown Manhattan and convincing everyone it’s in the right place; that’s the scale of the task.

Thank your translators today!

Posted in Translation | 2 Comments »

Why use a Translation Agency?

May 24th, 2010 by Doug, Senior Project Manager, Translation Services

The translation landscape is a minefield that must be carefully navigated. Obtaining a quality translation that will represent the source text of a document faithfully and eloquently in the target language is a difficult task to achieve for a project involving just one language. For each additional language, the probability of obtaining high quality across all languages diminishes dramatically when using untested resources. Add the elements of technical source files, multilingual desktop publishing, and large scale project management, and the argument for using an established, trusted agency becomes very strong.

The primary advantage of using the services of a professional translation agency versus finding a private translator is the higher probability of obtaining a quality product.

The reality of the translation business is that there are nine mediocre translators for every good one, and the truly exceptional are even harder to find. Many translators enter the field because they’re bilingual and want to find a career that utilizes this ability. However, merely being fluent in a foreign language does not mean an individual is an outstanding writer.

There are certainly disreputable agencies out there that employ translators who haven’t been properly vetted; however, the reputable agencies have generally gone to great lengths to assemble a team of translators in various languages and specialties who, in some cases, have been working with that agency for decades. The ability of these translators to deliver a quality product and consistently meet critical client deadlines has been established over many years. If you have questions about how to choose between companies offering translation services, refer to one of our first blog posts, How to Choose a Translation Company.

You believe you’ve found a quality translator, but are you certain that he or she will deliver the translation on time?

Translators are not robots—they’re people with human flaws and tendencies. Some translators have the ability to deliver quality work but cannot be relied on to consistently deliver projects on time.

Project managers know their resources. They know which translators are dependable, which ones tend to get stressed out and unreliable if overloaded with work, and which ones are so prone to missing a deadline that a fictitious deadline must be created in order to ensure on-time delivery. Translators and translation projects have to be “managed,” and that’s part of the value-added service of working with a professional translation agency.

Imagine you have a critical project being translated into seven different languages. Not only do you have to ensure that you’ve found quality translators for all seven languages—you also have to hope that all seven translators will deliver their work on time. The probability of achieving both goals using untested translators with whom you’re working for the first time is remote.

Are you working with source files in software programs like Adobe InDesign, FrameMaker, Illustrator or QuarkXpress?

Few translators are able to work directly with files from these desktop publishing programs, as very few actually own the programs. Most translation agencies have invested many thousands of dollars into both the desktop publishing software itself as well as the software required to export the text in files from these programs in a way that allows translators to work with it without actually having to own the programs themselves.

Additionally, most clients whose source files are from a desktop publishing program don’t just want translation—they want full layout services as well, and a final deliverable that is truly print ready. Most translation agencies employ the services of design specialists who are experts in multilingual desktop publishing. The rare translator who actually owns a program like Quark or InDesign is even less likely to have a true expertise in the area of desktop publishing.

Translation agencies are a one-stop shop for multilingual projects.

With a single phone call or email, a project comprised of multiple languages can be handled by a single source. Using private translators requires a client to deal with multiple individuals, which can be extremely time consuming and problematic.

Project managers spend significant time each day fielding questions and handling issues that arise during the course of a translation project. Clients who’ve hired a team of translators in a number of different languages have to be prepared to do the same.

Project management is a skill that requires an individual to wear many different hats, and project managers are more than language experts. They’re also experts in managing projects in a way that ensures a successful outcome. This includes expertise in areas like workflow, quality assurance, technical support and software. Project managers at translation agencies manage both projects and translators, and, in doing so, provide tremendous added value to their clients.

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ALTA has 30 years of experience providing translation services to government agencies and businesses of all sizes. In addition to handling over 50,000 large-scale multilingual translation projects over the years, ALTA was the official translation services provider for the 1996 Olympic and Paralympic games held in Atlanta, GA.

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Beyond Words 2010 Quarterly Round Up

April 13th, 2010 by Daniel, Beyond Words Contributor

Spring has arrived and we’re taking a look back at the articles we’ve posted since January. Here are a few from the past four months that you might have missed. Hopefully, they’ll provide an informative and entertaining break to your day:

Top Multilingual U.S. Cities
If you haven’t already filled out your 2010 Census form, this article might inspire you to bust out a pen and a stamp. Using data from the previous census, we ranked the United States’ 40 largest cities according to their multilingual characteristics.

Fictional Languages in Film:
The Linguists Behind Na’vi, Sindarin, Klingon and Ulam
Get your geek on! Jennifer discusses the linguists who created a few of the most popular fictional languages in film, and she provides short clips of the languages in use.

10 Confusing English Words and How to Conquer Them
Beyond Words contributor, Maria, looks at five pairs of words that English speakers often muddle up. After reading this, you’ll never “flout” your mastery of English again.

Beyond Words Podcast: Landing in Morocco, An Arabic Lesson
This is the first episode of Beyond Words’ new language podcast. Take a few minutes to learn how to get from an airport to a hotel speaking Modern Standard Arabic, and download the lesson for later playback.

Periodic Table Manners, Wordnik.com, and other Notes on Language from Erin Mckean
Is it possible to not love Erin Mckean? We don’t think so. If you still don’t know who Mckean is, this article serves as a great introduction to the lexicographic work she has been doing for years.

Hegan: The New Male Vegan
The latest neologism of 2010 is hegan. Beyond Words contributor, Jes, analyzes the development of the new word, and offers insights on its cultural sticking power.

10 Foreign Language Covers
Studies show that singing in a foreign language might help learn that language faster. In this article, we compile ten fun English language songs and pair them with their foreign language counterparts. You can listen to both versions of the songs, which should leave you walking like ein Ägypter.

Top 10 Languages Tested
This article breaks down the top languages ALTA’s clients tested for in 2009. The results provide an interesting glimpse at language trends for business and government.

5 Must-See TED Talks on Language
We sorted through all of the TED talks about language from past TED conferences. These are five of the most thoughtful, interesting, and entertaining talks on the subject.

If you’re interested in getting more language-related articles and media from around the web, follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Happy reading, listening, and watching!

- photo by mccoryjames

Posted in ALTA News, Language and Culture, Translation | No Comments »

Haitian Creole In Translation:
Medical Phrase Pronunciation Guide

February 16th, 2010 by Daniel, Beyond Words Contributor

Since the earthquake in Haiti, thousands of medical workers, translators, and interpreters have organized for specialized relief efforts. Translators Without Borders will soon offer a medical triage dictionary for use with Haitian Creole, and ALTA has enlisted our resources to translate and record Haitian Creole medical phrases for aid workers and volunteers. Based on selections from the Emergency Multilingual Phrasebook published by the Red Cross, we hope that the phrases are useful for those who want free Haitian Creole pronunciation practice.

Haitian Creole sometimes has more than one term or phrase to describe a medical condition or English term. In those cases, our translator was asked to choose the most common Haitian Creole variant in order to be understood by all speakers despite regional and cultural differences.

You can listen to the phrases directly on our website or download them for later playback on any standard MP3 compatible device. Each sound clip contains a recording of the English phrase followed by the Haitian Creole pronunciation, and finishes with the Haitian Creole phrase repeated for emphasis. We hope that this resource is helpful and we welcome any feedback.