When creating the layout of a product catalogue or marketing brochure, most companies outsource this task to a design agency or alternatively turn to their own in-house design department. In either case the focus is almost always a monolingual one. Understandably the idea is to produce a nice-looking document for publication in the original language and very little consideration is given to the possibility that the document in question might be translated into one or more languages.

The decision to translate this kind of documentation has a significant impact not only on the content itself but also on the layout of the document for reasons that may seem obvious but that are often not taken into account when designing the original.

First and foremost is the length of the text. English takes up a relatively small amount of space in comparison to most other languages which use more words to say the same thing. If English is the source language of the document then all translations of this will occupy more space. If the document is to be translated into one language there is very little difference in modifying the original in advance to accommodate the longer text or in tweaking the translated document in order to make the text fit.

However once we enter the realm of multilingual translations we may find ourselves modifying various documents to accommodate various language translations whereas the modification of the original, which we would only do once, would have sufficed. Therefore it is often more efficient to modify the original document in anticipation of the translation.

Simple techniques can be employed such as extending text boxes as far as possible to cater for the longer translated text or reducing the point size of all the text in the original document if there is very little extra space to play with (reducing it once in the original will avoid having to do it once for each language that the document has been translated into).

It is factors such as these which should be taken into account by whoever is designing the document and this is why it is essential for the language service provider to play an increasingly important role in document design.

 Just heard a Spanish reporter talk about an English racehorse called - or so it sounded -  Eslimpi Kins. Only when I saw it in writing did I realise it was Slim Pickings!

No Spanish syllables start with "s" plus a consonant. Instead, an "e" is added so that the "s" becomes the end of a syllable. So while Italian has Spagna, Spanish has España. Similarly, Italian has "stornuto" (sneeze) while Spanish has "estornudo". Portuguese and Catalan share this feature (Espanha and Espanya respectively). There are hundreds of examples.

As a result of this feature of their own language, Spaniards systematically add an extra syllable to foreign words, turning Smith into Esmith, Stravinsky into Estravinski and so on. An interesting case is Bruce Springsteen, which comes out as Brus Espringstin. Interesting because you might expect to hear "Espring-estin". Clearly there is nothing preventing Spaniards pronouncing an "s" before a consonant, after all.

Spanish speakers of English tend to be exposed to other Spanish-speakers while learning English, so they regularly hear the wrong pronunciation and end up asserting that Spanish people are incapable of pronouncing words like "Spain" the English way. Once you decide something can't be done, it's a small step to stop trying, and the supposed impossibility is confirmed. Many speakers feel embarrassed to pronounce something "the right way", which is an interesting demonstration of how entrenched the rules of our own language are in our brains.

No doubt all language pairs have similar issues. Most English speakers, for example, have tremendous difficulty pronouncing pure vowels in foreign words like French "beau" or "très", instead adding a glide to make them rhyme with the English diphthongs in "bow" and "tray".

We're all familiar with the @ character, pronounced "at-sign" in English because of its use in e-mail addresses. Apparently it was chosen by the originator of e-mails because it was an available character in the old 7-bit ASCII (American Code for Information Interchange) code set which would never appear in anybody's real name.

Its original use in English was to represent a rate, as in "3 loaves @ 3p", where 3p is the price of each loaf. But it goes back even further and it's true etymology is a matter of speculation (http://www.atsymbol.com/history.htm). Increasingly today it can seen as a "cool" replacement for the word "at". It came up recently in a technical document we were translating from Spanish as "3 kg @ 20 ºC". But this is not the traditional meaning, and it seems pointless as an abbreviation either for the English "at" or the Spanish "a", both of which are quite short already. So when translating we change it back to "at" or the target language equivalent. But maybe we will see more of this usage.

The @-sign has a huge variety of translations in other languages. In Spain it used to represent an "arroba" which is how it is still pronounced. An arroba is a traditional measure of weight, somewhere around 11 kg. In other languages it's called "little monkey", "monkey's tail", "snail", "little dog", etc. For an extensive list, see:

http://linguistlist.org/issues/7/7-1177.html#1
http://www.herodios.com/atsign.htm

Do they have the necessary IT tools? - As long as your LSP is using up-to-date computer-aided tools (CAT) and is properly trained in them, it shouldn´t make any difference at all. One important difference to look out for is whether your LSP can handle the interface between CAT tools and desktop publishing (DTP) tools (Office, web formats, professional editing packages, etc.).

Can they ensure quality? – Quality is a key issue in the corporate translation world, but it doesn´t always mean the same thing to all people in all projects. To ensure “quality”, you need to combine the best translators, software and processes and have a clear understanding of your own requirements. Whereas LSPs will have more resources in all these areas, you won´t necessarily get better quality just because you´re working with a large company. Click here for more about quality in corporate translation.

Do they have professional internal processes? – Small companies can be less process-oriented than large ones, but will have less bureaucracy and are often nimbler and more agile. You can get an indication of how well a company operates from its sales process: if an LSP takes 3 days to reply to a quote request, chances are its internal organisation is not as well-oiled as it could be. A clear indicator of efficient and effective processes is the ISO 9001:2000 certification.

Are large LSPs cheaper or more expensive than small- and medium-sized LSPs? – Although there is no direct relationship between size of the LSP and price, large companies tend to have greater overheads (nice offices, support personnel, etc.), and smaller suppliers can often beat their prices.

Many companies rely on their independent distributors to handle translation. Usually, the thinking goes something like this: “We’ll let our distributor in country X translate our product data-sheet there; they are fluent, and letting them do it will save us time and money.” Unfortunately, too often the opposite result occurs and companies end up spending more time and money---for an inferior translation---than they would have if they had used a full-service, professional translation provider. Why? The following are a few reasons.

1. Quality: While it is true that a distributor in Germany, for example, will have people who are fluent German speakers, this doesn’t mean that they can perform a quality translation from English. What level of command do they have of the English language? What kind of linguistic background do they have? How will they handle tough idiomatic challenges or English words/phrases that simply do not make sense in German? Finally, who will review their work? (see our blog entry on "The role of client reviewers in corporate translation projects")

2. Time: Handing translation work off to distributors can create a nightmare in terms of coordination and efficiency. If a company has a product datasheet that it wants translated into 7 languages, how much time will pass before all 7 distributors get round to doing the work? Surprisingly enough, although the distributor is the most interested party in getting the materials translated, this work often takes several weeks or even months...!!!

3. Cost: Naturally, if you spend a lot of time trying to chase down distributors for a translation project, you are not able to perform other responsibilities and are therefore not concentrating on your core business. There is a huge opportunity cost associated with this approach.

4. Risk: This approach has several potential risks:

• the risk of getting a poor translation that fails to accurately capture a marketing message or technical details
• the risk of ending up with different messages in different markets, therefore losing brand consistency and image
• the risk of mis-translating product warnings and other legal content which is simply too important to hand over to non-professional translators.

By Shang Er-na, Quicksilver Translation (Shanghai)

压力式泡沫比例混合装置（foam system）

笔者今天来谈谈压力式泡沫比例混合装置。

压力式泡沫比例混合装置即压力式泡沫罐(concentrated tank)，是用来储存泡沫液，并通过PHY压力比例混合器(proportioning mixer)，利用由泵供给的压力水，将泡沫液按一定比例置换出来后与压力水混合成混合液的装置，由于胶囊将泡沫液与水隔开，泡沫液一次未用完，下次可继续使用，而且混合精度稳定、可靠。

当压力水流经过该装置的比例混合器(proportioning mixer)时，能使水与泡沫按 6%或3%的比例进行自动混合。输出的泡沫液供泡沫产生的喷射设备(泡沫产生器、泡沫 枪、泡沫炮)产生空气泡沫灭火。该装置广泛用于油库、化工厂、机库、油田、燃油 锅炉、地下车库等场所。体积1－15立方米，流量（L/S）32－96。 该装置适用流量压力范围大，压力损失小，在各种高、中、低倍数泡沫灭火系统中均得到了广泛应用。

La rapidesa és un punt clau dins el món de la traducció. Les dates d’entrega són cada dia més i més ajustades degut a la lluita contra la competència, i el nivell de qualitat requerit segueix sent el més alt. Combinar aquestes dues característiques no és sempre fàcil però sí que és primordial si volem que la nostra feina sigui valorada i els clients ens donin la seva confiança.

Avui m’agradaria fer notar la necessitat d’actuar amb rapidesa en una de les fases que tenen lloc ben al principi d’un projecte de traducció. Tal com he esmentat abans, una comunicació fluida entre l’agència de traducció i el client és un fet diferencial, però aquest no podria existir sense la completa confiança per part de l’agència en un grup de traductors freelance que consideren aquesta promptitud una característica crucial de la comunicació amb l’agència. En aquest món on cada dia més i més projectes es tanquen sense que hi hagi una comunicació personal amb els proveïdors, totes les parts involucrades  coincideixen a destacar que allò que fa inclinar la balança en una o altra banda, en primera instància, és la capacitat de donar una imatge professional i àgil. El servei en la seva totalitat serà examinat tan bon punt es faci l’entrega de la documentació, però el primer sedàs que s’ha de passar és el de provar un servei ràpid al client i una comunicació sempre alerta i disponible.

El traductor amb feina és aquell que sap respondre ràpidament i mostra, no tan sols una competència i coneixements excel·lents (veure "Quality in Translation - the translator's view"), sinó també un alt nivell de comunicació, àgil i expedit.

Although large companies will always mention size as their main advantage, does it really matter in translation? If size is such an advantage, why is the translation market so fragmented, with thousands of freelance translators and small Language Service Providers (LSPs) serving corporate clients? Surely what matters to users of translation services is that their LSP can handle volume and deadlines, and that the translations delivered are top quality! What you want is a supplier which can handle all your needs, but which is not a bureaucratic monster and can therefore provide an exceptional service.

These are some of the things you should look out for:

How important am I to the LSP? - Just like in other services, the smaller the supplier the more important I am as a client to him. During the sales process, large LSPs will send a senior VP to make you feel warm and fluffy, but you might never speak to anyone senior again. With small LSPs, there is a bigger chance that you will get to discuss linguistic and technical issues directly with the President/Senior Project Manager, etc.

How well do they know my business? – While it may take a lifetime to become a subject matter expert (SME), it does not take long to become an expert in your company’s technical vocabulary. An LSP with the right expertise can use past glossaries and translation memories (TMs) to get up to scratch and produce translations which are consistent with previous translations.

Can they handle our volume and deadlines? – The internet has opened many opportunities for even small LSPs, and getting several translators to work in parallel on a large document is no longer the challenge it used to be. While all LSPs will claim that they have "never missed a deadline", this is not only untrue, it’s also not enough. The issue is not just to deliver on time, it is to deliver on time and ensure quality and consistency too. Only experience will tell you whether your chosen LSP can do this or not.

see the second part of this blog entry here

The first and toughest decision companies have to make when seeking translations is “Who do I turn to?”. For most companies, taking this step is like entering into the unknown. It is a sector they are not familiar with and, since it is not part of their core business, there is rarely any internal expertise in this area. A simple search on the internet brings up hundreds of translation agencies and language service providers. But how do you sift through all of these offerings without knowing exactly what you’re looking for? This is particularly difficult when all potential suppliers claim to offer fast, accurate and competitively-priced translations. The trial and error approach is one solution, albeit an ill-advised and possibly costly one.

And what happens when the choice has been made? What if you can’t evaluate the translation(s) internally? You have to rely on the expertise of the translation agency and hope that the quality of the translation is acceptable. How can companies obtain peace of mind over an issue that they really know very little about?

The answer to these questions may lie in ISO 9001:2000 certification. This is not the only differentiating factor, but it’s certainly one worth considering. But why is this so?

The fundamental difficulty in qualifying translations is that it is a very subjective field. Certain aspects of a translation - such as industry-specific terminology – are often just plain wrong. However, it is generally true that if you provide ten translators with a substantial sentence to translate, you will receive ten different translations. Therefore how do you measure quality and how can you be sure you're getting it in an area which is so difficult to qualify objectively?

ISO 9001:2000 is a well-defined method which offers assurance to customers that they are obtaining services from a company that can deliver quality consistently. ISO 9001 is a set of international standards establishing quality management and quality assurance systems in organisations. As a third-party certification, it authenticates a supplier’s adherence to a well-identified, well-defined, well-documented set of quality procedures which facilitate the delivery of products and services. In other words, ISO 9001:2000 examines everything a company does to deliver its professional service or business product. Applied to the world of translation, it is important to note that ISO 9001:2000 cannot guarantee the quality or accuracy of a specific translation. However, it guarantees that you will receive a high-quality, professional service, managed and measured in an objective manner.

The primary purpose of the ISO 9001:2000 standard is to assure the customer that the translation agency in question has documented and maintained a quality system which ensures the highest possible quality of its product . ISO 9001:2000 certification is impossible unless a company’s processes conform to specified international standards, by which a company and its employees focus their attention on quality, correcting mistakes, and preventing error recurrence. For example, the ISO 9001:2000 standard requires that some form of measuring customer satisfaction is directly incorporated into the company’s core processes, as well as procedures for dealing with customer feedback. Also, the quality of the suppliers (in this case the translators who carry out the work for the agency) must be objectively measured on a regular basis.

Therefore, although an ISO 9001:2000 certified translation agency cannot always guarantee the quality of a particular translation, it can guarantee the quality of its service and that procedures are set in place that help provide an environment which encourages a high-quality product. In such a subjective industry, this is as objective as it gets. Providing this kind of peace of mind is what differentiates an ISO certified company from the rest.