A User’s Guide to Translation
What You Should Know About the Translation Process

Introduction

State Department statistics estimate that US firms lose tens of billions of dollars in potential sales annually because of lack of translation. The world is shrinking, and fewer and fewer companies can afford to ignore the global marketplace. The telecommunications revolution continues to erase national boundaries. Nevertheless, many US firms are unable to assess their translation and internationalization needs and, lacking adequate information, fail to match the resources to the task.

The purpose of this handbook is to acquaint the reader with some of the concepts and issues prevalent in modern technical and commercial translation. It addresses some of the frequently asked questions in the field of translation while taking the reader through the translation process step by step.

This handbook is intended for those who need basic information about options in translation today but don’t know how to go about getting it. The contents reflect experience gathered by the authors in the course of over twenty years of combined work in the field. We present this handbook as a public service, to help the reader avoid the experience of many other business people, who learned these lessons the hard way.

The Translation Process

What is translation?

“translate (...) v. 1 a (often followed by into) express the sense of (a word, sentence, speech, book, etc.) in another language” (The Concise Oxford Dictionary, 1990 ed.)

The concept is simple, but the task rarely is. Commercial translation of documentation is a multi-step process. Your company has invested time and money in the creation of the materials that are being translated. However, the process is rarely a matter of saying: “Here, translate this and call me when it’s ready.” Not every translation will require all the steps listed below, but it’s a good idea at least to go through the checklist before embarking on the complicated and important task of translating your documentation.

• 1 Identifying the type of translation
  Is it for publication, for information only, software localization, advertising copy?
• 2 Determining your requirements
  What is the timetable for the project? What is the budget? What are the target languages or countries? Do you know how your company purchases translation?
• 3 Preparing the material for translation
  Was your documentation written with translation in mind? What about pre-editing?
• 4 Selecting the translator(s) or agency
  Can you do the job “in house”? Should you work with an agency or an individual translator?
• 5 Defining the scope of the project
  Do you want the translator/agency to do desktop work? Programming? Product testing?
• 6 Defining/creating the terminology (glossary-building)
  Should a dictionary or glossary be created for the project?
• 7 The translation process
  Will you be using traditional ‘human’ translation? Computer-aided translation (translation memory)? Machine translation?
• 8 Reviewing the materials
  Do you have offices abroad or bilingual personnel in your company who can perform this task?
• 9 Finalization and publication of the translated materials
  Will you be handling the printing? Will the agency/translator input suggested review changes?
• 10 Conclusion
   

• Next →
•  

Latest News

• The annual conference of the Carolina Association of Translators and Interpreters took place on April 19, 2008, at Meredith College in Raleigh, NC. Over 70 professionals gathered for informative presentations and networking.

• Details »
• More News »

Upcoming Events

• More Events »

Recent Publications

• When done properly, judiciously changing nouns to their verbal forms can smooth the wrinkles out of a rough target text. Here are some tips on how to leverage the flexibility of English to achieve a better translation.
• Read More »
• More Publications »

Did You Know?

• The United Nations uses six official languages in its intergovernmental meetings and documents, Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish; the Secretariat uses two working languages, English and French.
• More Language Facts »

Translator’s Corner

Useful information for professionals. Find out how to join our team. Read »