How Does the Final Translation Product Depend on the Original Version?

If you think that your translated documents are not really up to scratch after they have arrived back from a professional translation services agency should you blame the translator or was your original document or documents to blame?

Translation is a sequential process and there are several steps involved. If there is a weakness in any of the individual steps, then the translation product will not be 100%.

When you submit a document or upload it onto a translation services in Australia website, then the skills of the translator are obviously very important. How experienced is the translator and how knowledgeable are they when it comes to the sort of document that you have submitted? Some documents are highly technical and the vocabulary can be very specific. Does the translator understand what the document is trying to say if there are idiomatic expressions in it? How well did the translation agency do the editing and proofreading after translation?

Assuming that all these steps were efficient and thorough then maybe you should take a look at the type of document that you are submitting. The quality of the original document can certainly influence the final outcome and if the original is poor or hard to decipher, then it’s likely that the translator will have a hard job doing a good job.

Some of the ways that you can ensure that you have made the translator’s task easier are given below.

1.Proofread the original document carefully and make sure there are no grammar errors in it and it makes sense. Any grammatical errors or lack of clarity will probably be converted into poor grammar and lack of clarity in the target language.

2.Try and avoid submitting a pdf version of the document. Pdfs are fine for what they are intended to be used for, but are often hard to modify (that’s the intention, of course!) Use an editable version of a document like Word. It’s not only quicker and easier for the translator, but will mean that mistakes inherent in the conversion process are not going to occur.

3.If you expect to depend on a lot of translations, it may be useful to compile a glossary, especially if your documents are very technical. You will find that a good professional translation services provider will appreciate an accompanying glossary. If you do a lot of work together it is something that can be digitised and expanded. This makes it easier for any member of your staff and any translator in the same translation agency to work with the documents you submit.

All About Translation and Translators in 2016

With translation becoming one of the fastest growing career choices across the western world over the last few years is there anything new about this often hidden industry in 2016?

The growth in translation services in Australia is not likely to stall over the foreseeable future as the numbers of travellers, businesspeople, refugees and migrants continues to grow. This is certainly not a trend that is confined to Australia as reports from the U.S., for instance, show a massive 46% increase in the demand for translation services over the last five years and government agencies predicting that this growth is likely to continue for at least the next 10 years.

The demand for human translators rather than cheap or free machine translation tools doesn’t mean that anyone with fluency in another language other than English can become a translator. In fact, despite the growth in demand for services generally, actually getting work can be quite competitive.

In Australia, partly driven by official government policy, most translators working as freelancers or employed by translation services in Melbourne or other city in Australia are most likely to be accredited by the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI).  As far as many organisations in Australia are concerned using a translated document that has been translated by a NAATI translator provides peace of mind that the translation is of good quality and is an accurate copy of the original.

The importance of NAATI seems unlikely to change in the immediate future and anyone thinking about a career shift into the emerging future of translation and translation services in 2016 should be looking for training in translation techniques which will eventually lead on to a recognized certificate and accreditation.

Some people who have built up experience in another field may find that the translation service industry is appealing. If they have legal, medical, scientific or technical experience, then they may be able to use their knowledge to advantage as a translator. Many translation projects require a more specialised knowledge and are likely to be more rewarding financially than basic document translation like certificates and licenses.

What is changing the face of the translation industry across the world is the increasing use of technology. While computer aided translation tools are unlikely to completely replace human translation for years yet, they are certainly helping to lighten the workload and translate text which is highly repetitive. This is yet another example of where translation training is important if you want to get your foot on the ladder as firmly as possible.

Getting Things Done as a Translation Business

Translation is a business and good NAATI translators know how to satisfy the needs of their clients. However, there is more to translation than performing the translations themselves. They have to run their businesses effectively too. There is one methodology that is being used at present and that is called the getting things done (GTD) methodology. It takes a bit of time to get to grips with it, but it is basically divided into a set of actions as outlined below:

1) Capture ideas

This means record all ideas that come into your head and write them down immediately. if you have your smartphone available you could even quickly send an email to yourself with your ideas. It's amazing how easy it is if you are busy and an idea comes to your mind and you forget it if it's not written down somewhere.

2) Clarification

Clarify when you intend to action your ideas. When you have a list of ideas that need to be actioned anything that can be done in just two minutes set your mind to doing it right now. Other ideas you will have to list in order of priority and break the tasks in easy to do steps. It's quite surprising how using GTD frees up a lot more time whether for work or leisure tasks.

3) Organisation

This is organising ideas that are actionable into categories which are then prioritised. You can at this point set a date for each actionable idea.

4) Reflection

Look through your translation services list of actionable ideas and decide when each should be done which makes good use of available time. This means not scheduling on, for example, late Friday something like your blog page which may require more engagement when your mind is really on what you intend to do over the weekend. You are better spending your time tidying up your desktop for the next week's work load.

5) Engagement

Ensure that the task you choose to work on will fully engage you. This is of utmost importance if you want to make full use of the time available to organise your business and get your translation work done too.

Another GTD tactic is making use of the concept "Kanban". This has been used in manufacturing industries in the project management environment and it suggests that cards or notes are used as reminders and they are stuck onto a board for you to see easily. The Kanban board can be divided up into things "To do", "What you are Doing" and "What you have Done". The basic idea of the Kanban is to record the various steps of each post and then each one gets moved from the To do, to the Doing and then to the Done. Kanban offers a visual way of seeing the progress of your projects.

Speak the Language of Your Audience

There are still English speakers who really think they can get away with speaking English wherever they go but in reality only one quarter of the world speaks a form of English. Bearing that fact in mind if you own a business and you want your product name to grow and your sales too you should be getting closer to your potential customers by translating your global advertising material and your website into as many languages as possible. Content put into a potential customer’s local language drives sales.  There are 5 billion people who live in our world who speak a language other than English. That’s a huge untapped market, many of whom have cash and access to the Internet.

Many of these non-English speakers who are seeking out new products to buy are frustrated by the lack of information in their own languages. Brands do have global followings like Coca Cola and McDonald’s fast food restaurants, but there are still people in the countries where these brands appear who have failed to learn more about the products despite their presence. Some businesses think that by getting their product descriptions translated into say Spanish will immediately open up a vast Spanish speaking world but this is not necessarily the case as there are variants of the language in all Spanish speaking countries so one size does not fit all.

It’s the experienced translators from translation services in Australia who know the nuances of the different variants of Spanish that are relevant to the purchasing of products. There is more to marketing than just a photo of a product as it should be accompanied by a relevant slogan used by the language speakers of the country where the product is being marketed.

You are really only speaking to the people when you talk idiomatically when engaged in conversation otherwise the match is not that good as you don’t appear to really speak their language. The Common Sense Advisory Board surveyed recently three thousand international consumers and discovered that 75 percent of online shoppers are far more likely to make a purchase from a website written in their own language.

In addition to that 74 percent are far more likely to make further purchases if any follow-up content appears in their language. There is no better reason for getting familiar with your likely customers’ languages and using translators from document translation services to compile accompanying handbooks for your customers to boost their confidence in you.

5 Myths Concerning Quality Translations

1.Bilingual employees do not offer useful feedback

Of course a bilingual employee who knows a lot about the company they work for can offer some valuable feedback. They may have some good ideas regarding terminology and word choice when it comes to company products. In the end though getting a NAATI translation is your best option as the quality can be guaranteed.

2.Quality Translations Depend  on client and translator agreeing 

Sometimes clients try to intervene and offer word choices that are not really suitable and translation services Australia has to tell them why certain words are simply not correct. However, it is important that both the client and the translation vendor work alongside each other to ensure that the best translation services Australia is offered. Even though the document translation services put much effort into providing quality translations, the client has to be pleased with the outcome too..

3.Short translation projects are the easiest to do

It does seem that having to translate less words will mean the translation job is easier but because it is shorter it is easier to spot smaller errors. Translation services in Australia scrutinise all translation jobs in exactly the same way and even the shortest translation project will start with the translator followed by the editor and ending in an internal review.

4.Larger translation companies may offer better results

Larger translation companies may have access to translators in a wider variety of languages so if you want product information translated into some less common languages, you may get a better service from a larger translation company.

If you require a translation for only a single language, or for a very specialised industry, a smaller translation agency may reap better results for you once you have located one that has particular expertise in your preferred language and your industry.

5.A translation may not be finished overnight

Time is often important to people when they want a job done but a translation is not quite the same as the translator allocated to the job needs time to ensure that the product quality is good and acceptable by the client. If a translation is required in a number of languages the right translators have to be found to complete the job. Some languages are in higher demand than others so the non-availability of suitable translators may mean a translation cannot necessarily be completed overnight.

An International Reputation for Your Business is Important

The internet and the growth in international trade has made the world smaller in some ways but from a business perspective it has increased competition because if a business doesn’t open its products to the international market it’s likely to lose its grip in terms of price and economic gain as well as its potential to grow. 

Ebay and other international marketplaces, such as China’s Alibaba enable businesses to market and sell their products to a global market. These sorts of marketin

g campaigns are far cheaper for the results they bring on a grand scale than any other marketing possibilities.

How can you help your international reputation?

First impressions of a business are important and one way you can make a great impression is by translating your website and product information into a variety of different languages. You will for sure be able to win a whole host of new customers if you are able to provide much needed information about your product in potential customers own language.  

You don’t need to translate your complete website but only vital product information which may drive visitors to your site. Chinese sellers that are frequently found on Ebay can claim success in their marketing campaigns because they have bothered to translate Chinese product descriptions into English from their source language which is likely to be Mandarin. 

If you have products that you think the Chinese population would like go ahead and use the Alibaba online advertiser to market your products but don’t forget to get your product descriptions translated by a reputable NAATI translator who will provide the most appropriate translation for your desired market and in Mandarin the preferred language used in mainland China. This sort of translation will boost your reputation as it shows that you are seeking to market your high quality product and you have faith in the Chinese as potential customers.

If you are seeking a good translation for your products in Mandarin seek help from translation services in Brisbane who have English Mandarin translators available on daily basis and can provide a service that is as good as immigration translation services which have to be perfect.

What is the Explanation for the Rapid Expansion of the Translation Industry?

This question needs no answering if you are already in the industry yourself, but those who are not aware of the reasons why translation services in Australia and elsewhere in the world are in such hot demand may be wondering what is going on.

There are two essential reasons why this is happening. One of them relates to the trend towards greater immigration and emigration and the growing diversity within a single nation and national market. The other relates to the onward march of globalisation. Love it or hate it there seems to be little that can be done to stem the effects of globalisation and its insatiable appetite for language translation services of all types.

Diversity on the inside

There are many socio-economic reasons why people get up and leave their country of birth and seek work and home in another country. Part of it is due to the wide differences in standard of living, sometime between two geographical neighbours such as Australia and Indonesia or the U.S.A and Mexico. It is inevitable that there will be a push for those in the poorer nation to want to migrate, legally or illegally into the richer one. That happens on a global scale, even between relatively affluent nations such as Britain and Australia or Canada and the U.S.

Then there are the many other “push” factors that drive people to leave, or even flee their native homes. War, religious intolerance and oppression can result in the movement, sometime in massive numbers, from one unfortunate part of the world to one that is more stable.

These two dynamic realities mean that a single economic market within a single nation now has to cope with many more people speaking different languages. Hence the need for better and more translation services to mediate communication.

Diversity on the outside

Many companies that used to only sell their goods within their own country are now expanding their business overseas aided by the Internet and translation services worldwide. Their products are being sold, sometimes from new bases in those new countries, but also online and the only way to do this competitively is to be able to ensure that the new markets understand what is on offer.

Globalisation doesn’t just mean the economy. Closer ties between different countries are at many levels. Greater communication and effective cooperation depends on understanding and here again translation service providers, whether they are NAATI translators in Australia or document translation service businesses anywhere in the world are at the centre of the trend towards a new and smaller world where people are forced to communicate and get on to solve what have become truly global issues and problems.