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News and events for people interested in professional and quality translation
Showing posts with label TranslatorsVillage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TranslatorsVillage. Show all posts
January 2016 News
Guide to Buying Translation: Part 2
This is the second part of our information bulletin on how to buy translation. At TranslatorsVillage, we believe that is should be easy and simple so we have put together this guide to help shed some light on the process. Read about the key information you will need including costing and the information you will be required to provide to ensure the best quality translation.
5. What will I pay?
As with most things in life, you get what you pay for. The rates of experienced professional translators will be higher than those that are less experienced or do it as a hobby or as a favour. If you get a friend or colleague to translate because they know a bit of the language you risk misunderstandings that may lead to financial disadvantage or even to creating offence. In the unlikely event a professional translator makes a serious error they will have Professional Indemnity Insurance to claim against.
As with all professionals the rates charged by translators vary considerably. Rates also vary between languages. For some more common languages (Italian, Polish, Spanish), there are more translators so there is greater competition and rates may be lower than for more complex or less widely spoken languages (Arabic, Danish, Swedish).
6. Asking for a quote.
When asking for a quote you should provide the following information and don’t forget to ask relevant questions to help you make the most informed decision:
(Example)
- Text to be translated: Formal report on important developments in the solar energy industry in United Arab Emirates
- Source language (from): Arabic
- Target language (to): English (UK)
- Volume: 7,375 words
- Required date: 28th December
- Required delivery format: MS Word
- Other information: Translator can liaise with our Technical Manager re industry specific terminology, etc.
This information will be required by any translation company before any provisional quote can be provided. Even then, if the actual document received for translation is different there may be changes to the cost.
7. How is a text translated?
A qualified and experienced translator will read the entire text initially to understand
- What it is about?
- What audience it is meant for?
- What is its purpose?
- What are its tone and register?
They need to do this in order to help them ensure their translation contains the same message and meaning as the original. Translators aim to ensure that their translation has the same effect on the foreign reader as the English version would have on a native English speaking reader.
In order to retain in their translated version the same meaning as in the original they clearly need to change the words but they may also need to alter some phrases, word order, verb tenses or structures.
One effect of this is that they may use more or fewer words than the original. This can have consequences especially for websites, marketing materials etc. where the text needs to fit within the overall design and space allocation.If you are designing a website or some webpages that are intended to be translated it is a good idea to allocate a little more space for text than the English version takes – just in case…
Some translators use translation software packages on their computer to help with translations. These packages produce suggested translations for a text, based on actual translations completed and checked previously.
The translators use what the translation software package provides as a guide but then reviews it in detail and revises or re-writes passages that are not correct or that could be better expressed. No professional translator will just send you a translation done using their software. They use it to get suggestions and save some time as the software often incorporates dictionaries of specialist terminology, allowing them to choose the appropriate term rather than look it up separately. They will then produce their own translation and re-read and review it until they are happy with the final result.
Even using available software translation can be a slow process and there is a limit to the volume of translation that can be completed to a high level or accuracy in a normal working day. Depending on the subject and complexity of the text and its format and structure professional translators can deliver anywhere between 2,000 and 4,000 words per day of high quality translation.
In our next and final instalment of our guide to buying translation, we will be looking at cultural difference and localization – a crucial part to consider when choosing a high-quality translation.
Until then!
Our Guide to Buying Translation: Part 1
When you need a document, text, communication or article to be translated it can be difficult to know how to get it done. Many non-linguists will consider that anyone with a minimal knowledge of the two languages involved (translations go from the Source to the Target language) should be able to translate anything with the help of a dictionary. Unfortunately that isn't the case. That is the equivalent of saying if someone knows how to drive a car they will be competent to repair the brakes as well.
A competent linguist may well be able to provide the “gist” of a text but how confident would you be that they had not left out any vital detail or been truly faithful to the original? Understanding the general message is a long way from recreating the full meaning, tone, register and intended impact of the original text.
A few things about translating.
1. All linguists are NOT translators
Translation is a very particular skill that excellent linguists can learn and develop. You have to be an excellent linguist to translate well – but not all excellent linguists are translators.
People who are truly bilingual from birth or learn another language through school, college, university must still train specifically to be able to translate. It is never sufficient to just know the languages well, you must know all the pitfalls, techniques and skills of translation.
Even those who teach languages are not necessarily good translators unless they have undertaken appropriate training.
If you need something translated you should ensure the translator has qualifications and experience.
Ideally they will have a qualification such as an MA in Translation or a Diploma in Translation from the CIOL (Chartered Institute of Linguists). They should also be able to demonstrate experience of translating for professional purposes, that is, translating documents, texts, websites etc. that are published or in the public domain or are used by professionals in their particular disciplines.
2. Translators should only translate INTO their native language.
This is true. However good your “second” or other learned languages are you will only ever have sufficient mastery of your own language to deliver the highest quality translation. So, with the possible exception of some bilingual individuals, translations should be done by someone whose native language is the Target language – the language INTO WHICH the translation must be put.
3. Translators should be experts in the subject matter.
Most professional translators will specialise in a particular field or subject area, such as legal, technical, health, engineering, finance, etc. They will have gained experience within a particular field through a previous career or by focusing on that area during their translation studies. A good, professional translator will want to see a text before agreeing to translate it, to ensure they are competent to handle the subject matter. If they feel they are not sufficiently competent to do a job well they should decline it.
This is where using a good Language Service Provider or Translation Agency is valuable. They retain data on the particular subject matter of all their translators plus information on the quality and reliability of their work.
4. Online translation software is good enough.
For getting the “gist” of a text then yes, some free online translation programmes are quite useful. But it will still be many years before they are good enough – especially the free ones – to have sufficient confidence in them to have the translation they provide published or used as the basis for any important decisions or actions.
As no two languages are completely alike in terms of their grammar or lexicon (range of words) translation is never just a case of exchanging one word with another. Word order and syntax are also different for every language.
A “literal” translation is one in which the words of the Source language are put into Target language using the words that seem to be the closest, without considering how the two languages are structured. Quite simply it means that a literal translation of the basic Spanish greeting of “Buenos días” is “good days” whereas a faithful translation is “Hello” or even “Good morning”. “Good days” is a word for word translation and gives some indication of what the “message” is, but it is not a form of greeting anyone would use in English.
If you read a text that sounds peculiar due to word order or strange phrases it may have been translated literally.
Look out for our second part to our Guide to Buying Translation coming soon...
Spanish Business Quarter held its second meeting in Manchester
The event took place on Wednesday 23 April, coinciding with the
celebration of St George's Day who is Patron Saint in England but also in many
other countries, cities, such as Cáceres in Spain, and regions, including
Cataluña (La Diada de Sant Jordi). Remarkably, it is also the date when both
Cervantes and Shakespeare died in 1616.
Businesses leaders and professionals with direct relationships in
Spanish or Spanish-speaking markets gathered on this special date to network,
speak “Spanglish” and enjoy a great paella whilst forging new links and
interests.
In the company of the Honorary Consuls of Spain in Manchester and
Liverpool, representatives of a wide range of businesses attended the event,
including the organizers of the Spanish Festival Manchester and companies in
the world of fashion, translation, coaching, legal services, tourism, marketing
and many more sectors.
TranslatorsVillage was proud to be the main sponsor of the event.
Let's grow together
Great news!
Globalization opens up new opportunities for your business.
We recently created an youtube account and our first post is a short animation explaining how the platform works, to show our clients how easy it is to hire a quality translator through TranslatorsVillage.
I hope you like it. Do not hesitate to send your feedback, like it or add a comment.
You can also send us the subtitles into your language and we will add them to the video.
Enjoy the viewing.
Welcome Fresh New Year 2014!
Time for our January newsletter, a couple of weeks since Western New Year and approaching Chinese New Year, it’s the perfect time to wish you all a Happy New Year! We hope you enjoyed a peaceful and relaxing festive season and are now ready to take on the challenges that the New Year brings.
This is also a good time to keep you up to speed with our progress.
2013 was our first year of live business activity and brought lots of new experiences. Progress was made from the company formation to its first few commercial steps. We received lots of positive feedback and support that helped us to grow progressively. We developed our social media presence; our translator community gradually built up and by the end of summer the phase 1 web development was finalized.
From March you could find us on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin and shortly after we joined Google+. In October we started our blog activity that allowed us to gather all useful information in to one site for both translators and clients. We also developed our Newsletter to keep in touch with you.
And how has our community evolved?
We are now proud to share with you the figures below:
- Registered translators 1376
- Registered clients 351
- Pages visited 4850
- Facebook followers 1639
- Blog visited pages 1500
Exceeding expectations and receiving amazing responses (thanks to all of you for your great support), 2014 is off to a flying start with actions and events that will help to win the brand recognition, which all participants of TranslatorsVillage suitably deserve.
The Management team TranslatorsVillage
Merry Christmas
Dear Citizens of TranslatorsVillage,
It’s traditional at Christmas to review the
successes that the year has brought.
2013 has been an important year for TranslatorsVillage.
The company was set up at the start of the year, was developed and in recent
months has commenced business activity.
In summer we opened the doors to translators
and built up a successful community that we have today. We would like to give a
huge thanks to every one of you for your confidence, support and participation.
In autumn we gradually built up our client
base. These are loyal clients who gladly refer our services to their friends
and associates.
All of this gives us high hopes for 2014
full of progress and success; which we would like to share with all of you.
We’d like to finish by wishing you all a
very happy holiday season and a prosperous new year.
The Management team TranslatorsVillage
TranslatorsVillage - Toledo
Siguiendo la estela dejada por Alfonso X El Sabio y su Miniatuara de las Cantigas nos fuimos a la ciudad de Toledo, primera piedra en las escuelas de traducción e interpretación, el sábado 14 de diciembre.
Y dejamos nuestra tarjeta en el Café El Legendario
Empresaria de traducción online funda una empresa en Leeds
La empresaria española Blanca González es el cerebro que está detrás de TranslatorsVillage.
Tras localizar un nicho de mercado, esta ex directora de operaciones ha fundado
el portal de traducción online desde su base en Leeds. Bdaily le ha hecho
algunas preguntas para conocer más detalles.
En pocas palabras, ¿a qué se dedica
Translators Village?
TranslatorsVillage es una herramienta que
simplifica el proceso de selección de un traductor. Proporciona un listado de los
candidatos adecuados que concuerdan con el criterio de selección del cliente,
muestra el coste de la traducción con cada uno de los candidatos y permite el
acceso de los clientes a la plataforma de Translators Village, al mismo tiempo
que garantiza la seguridad de los datos y las comunicaciones.
¿Qué le empujó a crear Translators
Village?
La tecnología permite acceder a muchos
recursos que antes estaban ocultos, pero puede añadir confusión. Demasiada
información asfixia a la información y si se busca un traductor inglés español
en internet se obtienen 13 millones de resultados. ¿Cómo elegir al adecuado? Pensé que una
traducción no debería ser más difícil que elegir un destino de vacaciones,
reservar un hotel o un billete de avión. Y eso es lo que me motivó para fundar
TranslatorsVillage.
¿Cómo ha financiado el lanzamiento de la
empresa?
Sólo puedo decir que he tenido mucha suerte
con el apoyo que he recibido de gente cercana desde el primer momento. La
empresa es el resultado de un esfuerzo colectivo, y una gran parte de la
inversión proviene de amigos que han ofrecido su experiencia y contribuido al
éxito del negocio de manera completamente
altruista. Cuando tanta gente trabaja con tanto entusiasmo el resultado tiene
que ser estupendo. El resto de la inversión proviene de los socios e inversión
privada. También tengo que decir que Leeds tiene una infraestructura fabulosa
para las empresas de nueva creación, y eso ayuda mucho cuando estás empezando. Creación
de redes de contactos, seminarios de negocios y también socios comerciales contentos
de adaptarse a los presupuestos de empresas pequeñas.
¿Cómo atrae a los "ciudadanos”?
El boca a boca ha sido la causa principal
de la migración de ciudadanos. Los integrantes de nuestra red tenían
necesidades de traducción y respondíamos a sus necesidades. Pero necesitábamos
una estructura que pudiera proporcionarles el servicio que se merecen. He
trabajado en el campo de la traducción durante más de 30 años y muchos de mis
contactos están aceptando esta nueva idea de negocio. También compartimos
conocimientos e información en las redes sociales y pronto tendremos un blog
donde los clientes y traductores podrán beneficiarse de la información que
compartimos. Periódicamente tendremos invitados para asegurarnos de que
comprendemos las necesidades de nuestros clientes. También hemos utilizado la
publicidad y las relaciones públicas para ayudar a que más ciudadanos
encuentren el camino hacia TranslatorsVillage.
¿Cuáles son sus aspiraciones para la
empresa?
La globalización será una fuente importante
de ingresos para las pequeñas empresas. Queremos ayudarles a crecer con éxito y
apoyarlas con un método de traducción fácil de usar. También queremos
proporcionar apoyo a los traductores a nivel de infraestructura y marketing,
para que puedan concentrarse en lo que mejor hacen: traducir. El 90% de todos
los negocios estás en manos de pequeñas y medianas empresas y el 90% de la
traducción en manos de profesionales independientes, así que es un proyecto
bastante ambicioso y estoy muy entusiasmada.
TranslatorsVillage Statistics
Translators in TranslatorsVillage
- Translators registered: 1200
- Average years of experience of approved translators: 7,9
- Languages combinations: 173
Source language
|
Into how many
languages
|
English
|
35
|
Spanish
|
18
|
French
|
15
|
German
|
13
|
Italian
|
11
|
Russian
|
10
|
Catalan
|
8
|
Portuguese
|
6
|
Greek
|
5
|
Dutch
|
5
|
|  |
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