I Hate Translation Projects!

I have heard this from clients and, although I own a translation agency, I have often said it myself. Usually the frustration is related to feedback from a client review, stating that a translation is “wrong,” due to the fact that the “reviewer”:

• Used an online translation tool and got a different word for something.
• Was never given the source English that the translator had
• Doesn't speak English well enough to be able to compare the source text with the translation adequately.
• “Studied” the target language only primarily in school and is not a native speaker.
• Is not familiar with industry-specific terminology.

After investigating, it is usually discovered that this “wrong” translation:

• Is the standard term understood and used in the industry or context, but the reviewer wants to replace it with a Google translation.
• Is a correct translation of the source text, but the suggested translation to replace the “wrong translation” strays from the original and is more of a re-write of the material.
•  Is perfectly acceptable and only a synonym was provided.
• Cannot be substantiated with concrete reasons or suggestions: a red flag in the translation business.
• After discussions, is recognized as the correct translation, because the reviewer misunderstood the original English.

Translation is subjective and can be purely preferential. There can be several ways to translate something, none of which is wrong, and one must simply decide which to use. Specifically used industry or company terminology provided by the client is welcomed and can be incorporated by translators and put into a translation memory for future use.

This can be confusing and controversial, as languages are constantly in flux. That is why you need professional native-speaker translators. We actually have some translators and editors whom we will NOT put on the same project, as their writing styles differ too much. They can even end up disagreeing over terminology in their own language. And each of these professional translators is very talented and works well when paired with someone else.

“I hate translation projects” has also been stated by company employees who are given the task when it is not part of their job. When a company grows, often no consideration is given to who will handle the new task of communicating in a foreign language, so everyone fends for themselves and is then saddled with the additional work of managing the translations. Even a two-person company may need to communicate in another language. For these people, translation can be frustrating and even scary. Usually the translation is urgently needed, highly confidential or an extremely large amount of material. They may feel they have no control and must trust that it is done correctly. And they wonder what it is they are paying for. Why does it cost so much? They view it as a necessary evil. I cannot tell you the number of times a first-time translation buyer has said “How will I know it is done correctly?”

Sometimes larger or growing companies with ongoing translations hire a dedicated employee with “translation” in their title or make it a department function. They receive internal requests and send them to the appropriate translation vendor(s).These employees may have an international background and find the process fun, adventurous, challenging, or educational. They love languages and culture. Usually they are detail-oriented and very organized. But even they can “hate” translations when told something is wrong that was supposed to have been professionally done. They may have had bad experiences working with international counterparts, independent translators or other translation companies.

I remember a Polish translation project with thousands of software strings, which were out of context and connected to other strings, with coding we needed to work around. A client contact not working on the project volunteered his 89-year-old Polish grandmother to review it. She spoke little English, knew nothing about software or its function and said “sounds funny, makes no sense, has typos.” It came back to us stating it needed to be fixed. Fixed how? Of course it sounded funny; so did the English, which was just a list of words that didn't form complete thoughts, within software coding.

Whether using a decentralized or centralized approach to translation, be prepared for conflicts. Having someone say “this is wrong” after completing the translation accurately, on time and within the budget puts the kibosh on all the hard work. I am sure there are many who would disagree about the use and meaning of kibosh and how to translate it into another language! And here we go again…

The “Normalization” of Relations with Cuba

Now that there has been some normalization of relations with Cuba there are some things to consider about the island nation before thinking of pursuing this market.

Most businesses and properties are still government owned and privatization will take place at a very slow pace. The big problem with Cuba is the lack of technology, mainly the internet. Internet availability beyond usage by the government is only at about 22%. Up until 2008 people weren't even allowed to buy their own computers. So if you have or have access to a laptop or tablet of any sort, you are probably a government worker or in some type of intelligence department. Most only have access to a radio if that.

Due to the way the country has been and is still functioning, in Cuba an average worker makes the equivalent of about $20 a month. As most rent and living expenses are still subsidized by the government, Cubans are still worried about paying for the basic necessities and don’t have any spending capital. Those who have been able to visit Cuba in the recent past comment on the old fashioned cars they still drive. So the latest trends are not known or have been lost there.

Businesses - the few that exist - have little disposable income. And Cubans, don’t want to attract businesses simply to make money. There will be bureaucratic red tape and you will likely have to deal with a local intermediary if they will accept you. All business deals between Cubans and foreigners, as well as any formal business deals between Cubans themselves, are made with the explicit knowledge and approval of the Cuban government and its structured more for socialism than open capitalism. Any “business” has to meet both the social and economic need in the country, determined by the state and not simply the consumers, so most entrepreneurs have to check their egos at the door and be prepared to do things the Cuban way.

Even hotels and restaurants have limited services and are owned by the government as a way to get hard currency. And it’s all cash. Due to the fact there’s no real viable internet and most don’t even have bank accounts, credit card machines and other means of electronic payments are few and far between.

But if you are forward thinking and venture out and try to break into the market, consider a translation vendor with access to Cuban Spanish linguists. The unique political situation today has led to the development of words which are specific to modern Cuban culture. There will be many different preferential words for things, words that aren’t the most widely used in other Spanish speaking locales. Over the years of being isolated, the language has become debased by "street" language rather than any foreign influence. It's also become very pedestrian, although a normal "high" register of language can be expected in formal and business communications. English is known by some but used more in the hospitality and recreational industries.

Bottom line, even though there is much talk about Cuba opening up, we may not see a great commercial sector to play with right away.  

The Impact of Translation

Finding actual statistical information is very difficult, so for those who are driven by numbers, it will be hard to find any. Who wants to take part in a survey to say they missed the boat? The translation industry itself has not engaged in getting to the numbers either positively or negatively either. What can be told, are actual stories to support the need of translation in at least three main areas.

•     Loss of Sales Versus Unlimited Growth

Several international studies confirm that, in spite of living in a globalized world, buyers still opt for proximity for products or services that are being offered in their language. This statement is based on the premise that we feel more at ease if we understand what we buy and if we do not clearly understand a product or service, we are reluctant to request it. To address your prospective clients in their language will convey the trust and proximity they need to utilize and purchase your products or services instead of those of your competitors.

As an example, a U.S. equipment manufacturer was doing business with a company in China. A new sales rep came on board and suggested to management that they translate the manuals into Chinese. The owner said there was no need and their client had never asked for it in all the years they were dealing with them. Several months later, a competitor from The Netherlands stole the business right out from under them and for more money. How? They approached the Chinese company in their native language and offered all the manuals and support materials to be provided in Chinese. Sad to say that with the loss of that one large client the company went out of business.

Reversely, another company saw growth from $3M to over $40M in ten years with market and global diversification, which included the translation of the necessary materials to support the strategy.

• Employee Safety and Engagement

There is a growing concern regarding the increased amount of non-native speakers in higher injury risk jobs working for American companies either in the U.S. or abroad. The number of workers for whom English is a second language is expected to continue to increase in the future. Therefore, taking a proactive initiative is critical to ensuring worker safety. It is imperative to remember inclusivity in safety training versus exclusivity. Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing a safe and healthy workplace for all employees. Bridging the language gap in workplaces small and large with the ultimate goal of aggressively eliminating injuries, illnesses and fatalities for all workers, is essential for success.

English-speaking workers have the benefits of learning from each other. Traditional safety training is not effective for non-native English speakers or those who speak a little English, especially when it is delivered by a trainer who expects the worker will receive it properly enough to understand and use it. Furthermore, safety memos, tool box talks and posters are not as productive when only presented in English. Efficient communication with non-English-speaking employees results in fewer workplace injuries, illnesses and fatalities, as well as increased morale, productivity and profit. Injuries impact insurance and unemployment rates as well as leave open the door for law suites.

OSHA has alliances and public-sector outreach initiatives for Latino and Hispanic workers as well as other non-English speaking groups. Many OSHA publications and safety training materials are available in multiple languages, including Spanish, Chinese, Creole, Korean, Russian and Vietnamese.

•     Costly Legal Ramifications

The legal ramifications of not having a translation of even the simplest of documents can have such an impact that a business could fail. The legal realm of translation is a really broad area and can cover any of the following both internally (employees, distributors, or vendors) or externally (customers or competition):

• Product liability issues from misuse of the product and injury
• Loss of proprietary information and trade secrets that result in loss of sales and court costs to rectify
• Law suits from an employee who is let go, to a class action suit filed on the behalf of many injured parties
• Breach of contract and use of logo
• Patent infringement cases; such as infringement on a current patent held in another country 
• Exporting or importing compliance and regulation followed incorrectly may mean a delay in being able to sell, as well as additional legal fees or IRB costs.

Certain industries like chemical, medical and pharmaceutical, and other countries as well, require the translation of specific material to be compliant. Product labels, instructions for use, or equipment warning decals may need to be provided in the target language. So know what you need to have in order to do business in a particular country.

Where there may not be necessary rules that mandate translation, there are the safety issues of products or equipment exported and the risk of injury and results that should be considered. Manufacturing equipment, safety equipment, electronics and consumer related items such as food, beauty items, and toys. Any that would present a hazard or danger if improperly used, should be properly communicated.

Stacking the Deck

Watch Out for Translation Companies That “Stack the Deck”

Several years ago a large translation company, which we won’t name, acquired smaller niche translation companies to basically buy a rolodex of their clients. However, said company, acquired these smaller competitors but maintained the individual identity of that company – name, logo, web site. The client roster of that company saw no change. And unless you had somehow been made aware the acquisition happened you wouldn’t have known any different. And things all seemed the same, at first…

Now the twist. All of these acquired companies were now operating under the umbrella of the larger company and began to bid on the same RFPs as if they were all separate entities. Doing this in order to “stack the deck” to ensure one of them would get the work.

In one case, 10 shortlisted translation providers were asked to bid and 5 were operating under the umbrella company. Yes, half of the bidders were technically all part of one main organization. This defeated the purpose of even using an RFP because the client’s main goal was to deviate from the using the umbrella company to begin with.

Now you might feel that this “stacking the deck” is an unethical way of doing business. And we couldn’t agree more. When the larger company bought the smaller ones, they implemented a different set of business practices which then affected the quality and delivery of the translations to their core customers. So the acquired companies actually started to lose their base clients. This umbrella company is known to use sub-par linguists for translation and skip on proofing and checking the final deliverables, which was not normal practice before the umbrella company took over.

On the vendor side, translators are actually boycotting this umbrella company because of low pay, ridiculous turnaround and the splitting of work between too many translators to meet unrealistic deliveries. However, these same translators were still working for the acquired companies. But, word was quick to spread and so has this boycott.

Now it seems that other translation companies, rather than taking a stand, have decided to fight fire with fire and are engaging in the same practices of acquiring or merging and maintaining a separate identity. Confluent has been approached on several occasions because we are known in the industry for quality work and have long time client retention rate of 97%. But, we refuse to sacrifice our ethics and commitment to our clients and will not sell out to these larger companies and destroy the confidence our clients have in us.

So, when choosing a translation service, it helps to do some homework. There are many types of translation agencies: single-language, multiple-language, full-service, ISO certified, etc. And all of the companies should be able to explain their translation procedures. A quick internet search can also tell you if they are actually part of any larger organizations as well. That way you know who you are dealing with and can avoid companies that are not on a level playing field.

A Worrying Trend - Using Automated Translation

From the home consumer to the corporate consumer everyone is trying to save money. However cheap, as we have all found out at one time or another, doesn’t go hand in hand with quality. We have all heard the saying “you get what you pay for”. I’ve said this before, in translation you really do.

This latest worrying trend is the use of automated software translation, whether it be internet or machine based, and then asking a “real” translator or translation vendor to edit or finalize it. This is a no win situation. More than likely what you have from these types of translation programs is unusable. Especially depending on the business you are in. Professional translators will not accept the job of trying to edit or fix it as it would be less time and cost intensive to start over from scratch. Wasting all of the money and time you already invested trying this “automated” approach.

We ran into this situation with one of our clients last week. They had a huge document already translated into Arabic (supposedly by an internal resource) and this year they wanted to have us edit some new and revised material this linguist would be adding in an upcoming revision. We asked for a sample of this “translator’s” work and I approached our usual linguists working in this language to give me a quick opinion of the quality. I received some interesting comments, “I will not be able to take part in this project”, “this translation is not going to be able to be edited, it seems that it might be machine translated”, “this translation has incorrect source interpretation and many errors in grammar, spelling, readability, etc.” So we had to turn down this project as I had 3 professional and competent linguists refuse to take it. All saying it was not possible to edit it; it needed to be re-translated.

The client is investigating what type of automation was used, but most translation software and internet based automated translation services are not up to par. Language and translation is based on context. A computer does not understand context. Underlying meanings and inherited understanding needs to be interpreted. And a machine cannot handle this. Language is more nuanced. It has to contain cultural context and even industry jargon.

We have all seen the funny mistranslations pop up on social media. Unfortunately these are true. If a software program can mistranslate something as simple as warning people to stay off of the “newly planted grass”; which software translated as “the little grass is dreaming”, it will surely not understand more technically written material where there may even be many different words for the same thing. And if you are using a web or software based translation tool, you will not get anything understandable in return. So if you include options to automatically translate your site or your material online, also using a type of translation software imbedded in the web site software or adding on an online software tool translation button, it will most likely be garbage.

Finally, software can only translate exactly how the source text is entered. So if there is complicated formatting or even places where there are different line breaks or a return is accidentally found, it will change the whole context of the translation. Electronic translation tools will translate word for word and do not notice if it is grammatically incorrect or incomprehensible as it is written.

If you are going to print or use that material for products and these will be used by customers, you may find yourself spending a ton of money to reprint or even rebrand your product if it is based on a nonsense and incorrect translation. It can even cause a potential customer to wonder whether or not you are a legitimate business.

In the case of our client, they had over 400 pages of an educational report that was mostly incoherent and sounded ridiculous. And this had been distributed to their Arabic speaking clients who did not look favorably upon them or the quality of the material they had distributed. They’ve lost clients and revenue due to this poor image.

You think it’s too expensive and will take too long to hire a “real live” translation vendor using professional human linguists? Wait until you pay for the problems caused by a bad automated one…and have to start over anyway.

Managing Translators Internally

Many companies are tempted to translate material using resources they have found on their own when first going global or the need arises. However, when managing translation and particular translators internally you must consider the amount of additional work that is involved, what may be compromised, and what hidden costs may be associated as well.

Ask yourself these questions:

Would you be able to tell, from a resume, email or while speaking with someone in English, that they were native-speakers of the target language and good writers?
Speaking is not writing and oral fluency does not guarantee smooth, coherent, or stylish writing of the end product. The person you are asking to do the translation may not be able to read the original English well enough to translate it effectively. And in some cultures, they are too polite to let you know what experience they really have translating. They will either stall or do it anyway, but slowly and it will be of very poor quality and sound like a bad translation.

Who writes your English material?
Just as all English speakers are not necessarily good writers, the same applies to any other language. Does your floor manager write your marketing material? Does your accounting department write your software instructions? I’m sure that’s not the case. Usually someone with a writing background or a professional service is charged with the writing of company publications, or other material seen by the end user or prospect. The same goes for translation. It should be performed by someone experienced in the craft and with industry specific knowledge.

Where did you find the translator?
If your in-country contacts recommend them, are they truly a certified professional translator? Knowing your industry is important so asking if they have translated the subject matter and understand the English is a first start. Most professional translators specialize in a particular area. There are many translators found on-line that are very inexpensive. But how can one guard against them taking your money and then using a free on-line tool that will ultimately provide gibberish or may even be crowdsourcing for large volumes?

We often have clients come to Confluent that switch from an internal process that was not working. The most commonly heard complaints being that the translation took too long which resulted in product deliveries not being met and that the quality was poor. It took time employees away from their main job and left them feeling that they were wasting time and money. In other cases, eventually the volume and languages required soon became too much to coordinate and process in-house. Others felt big opportunities were being missed by not concentrating on core business functions, like sales.

Most businesses also don’t have their own translation memory tool and some of the non-professional translators don’t either. So each time a company had similar stock material the translator used maybe retranslated the same material over and over again. The end result is lack of consistency, added external and internal cost and more time spent than if having used a qualified translation service.

If desktop publishing (DTP) is involved, all of the translated material needs to be re-created in the translated language. There are many automated tools that a professional translation service uses with translation memory, but individual translators do not maintain that type of software. Individual translators usually do not have QuarkXPress, InDesign and other software packages that work in conjunction with translation memory.

Most companies that are managing translations internally forget one very important step, and that is post DTP proofreading. So that is another management step needed to be included that someone should take the time to do internally by sending back the material to a native-speaker.

Switching from an internal process to using a translation service provider doesn’t have to be like swimming in rough waves. Confluent has structured steps and processes to make the transition smooth and cost effective. This way you can be assured you are getting the quality translations done by professional linguists and written for the intended audience in order to be successful in all of your global communications.

Don’t be too creative…

Trying to be creative when writing copy that may be translated? When in doubt, leave it out.
So many times over the years we have received copy written in English that can in no way, or no easy way, be localized into other languages for in country use. For example, the source may contain:

• catch phrases or colloquialisms
• sayings or adages
• slang or jargon
• rhyming words
• sport analogies
• abbreviations
• certain tag lines or company specific acronyms

These things are not easily translated into other languages and may not make sense in another culture. Not all languages use the same manner of speaking or have the same type of phrasing.
For example, in the past I had a client that wanted a marketing brochure translated into various European languages for a product they sell. The whole ad was based around baseball terminology, “rounding home”, “hitting a home run”, etc. Unfortunately we had to break it to them that it was almost impossible to use and to translate for Europe as they don't play even play baseball. So “hitting a home run” would really not have the same impact. The whole ad would have had to have been written around soccer, since that’s their most popular sport, and it could have been written to have the same impact. But unfortunately, the source copy was already written.
Translation vendors and the translators cannot take liberties and rewrite a client’s copy. They translate the text to say it in a way the reader will understand in the particular language, but they do not stray from what is written in the source. So the client would have had to revise their copy to provide exactly what they wanted it to say and be translated as such.
However, along with leaving out items such as catch phrases and slang, there are some things that should be added or included to English source when thinking of translating in the future:

• metric measurements if any English measurements are listed; to include sizes, temperatures, etc.
• explanations the first time acronyms are listed; especially when they are not standard accepted industry terminology and might be acronyms only your organization uses internally.
• other conversions, for example, USD for prices and costs

So when writing copy, be sure to write it in a manner that could be easily conveyed in a translation that someone would understand anywhere in the world, without later having to rewrite the entire piece so that it will be understandable.
At Confluent we have seen good and bad marketing and instruction materials over the years. We work with our clients and provide tips along the way to help make the copy effective in any language after it is translated. We also review layout, photos, illustrations and color usage to inform clients of any issues or possible problems that may arise so that the project can run smoothly from the beginning.