A “two-cent” story

/dans /par

This story is about a translator who wanted to earn a living through his profession. He offered his services at an average market rate.

One day, a client asked him to make a small effort by lowering his rate by one cent per word.

The translator’s initial reaction was to get angry and ask the client what she’d do if her own employer – after five years without a raise despite the quality of work delivered – announced one fine day that wages would be reduced by a small amount, say 10%, “because of the economic situation”.

But the translator knew that freelancers cannot compare themselves to salaried employees. So he agreed to lower his rates a little.

All he has to do now is find a bit more work to make ends meet each month. If he’s lucky enough to find extra work, he’ll need to work weekends and late evenings to make up for the missed earnings, sacrificing his social and personal life, not to mention his health.

If he doesn’t find extra work, he’ll end up changing his lifestyle. If he lives in the city, he’ll move to the country. Or if he was foolish enough to found a family despite his precarious situation and therefore cannot move easily, he’ll start by missing out on holidays and days’ out, while waiting to find a new job and say goodbye to his years of training, study and experience.

Each time a client asks a translator to “make a gesture of goodwill” he or she is asking that person to forego a part of his or her life. That’s not business, it’s blackmail.

That is why, when I align with competitors’ rates, I lower my margin but not the rate requested by the translator(s). I’ll probably end up having to change my own lifestyle, unless I can change the world first…

 

Translating a website: localisation and SEO

/dans /par

Every company has its own website, but few business owners know what localisation is, despite it being their main asset for success in the international market.

Localisation is the translation of all content to be displayed on an interface: from mobile phones to websites, with GPS systems, medical devices or DVD menus in between. Basically everything that is formatted via software and displayed on a screen.

In this particular case, localising a website means not only taking account of the functional limitations and technical characteristics of the electronic medium used, but also adapting content to the target market by transposing cultural elements and adapting style and tone so that the message is perfectly received, understood and assimilated by the audience in the country in question.

If you plan to translate your website, here are the most common mistakes to avoid at all costs:

 

Lack of content management strategy

Website content is often underestimated. Once the entire budget has been spent on technical and graphic elements, plus writing of the source content, more spendthrift companies find themselves penniless when it comes to content maintenance and management. Localisation often doesn’t even get a look in (I still don’t know why companies think to conduct market studies and hire bilingual salespeople when they want to conquer a new market, but always seem to forget translation  – they must surely believe in the power of telepathy). Consequently, various parts of the website are entrusted to different service providers, or even members of staff, without any consultation or coordination regarding communications strategy and without nominating a sole project manager responsible for making all the decisions and answering questions from writers and translators.  Of course, this means that some pages are updated in one language and not translated, that some links do not work, or worse, information is not consistent from one page to another.  Often a single page will contain a mix of several languages because the developers forgot to define a default language!

 

Lack of internal consistency for each version of the website

This lack of single reference person for content causes major usability issues. The user gets lost: buttons, breadcrumb trails and menus are not consistently named; it becomes impossible to find them from one page to another.

Sometimes common guidelines lack for localisation and the choice of language or style. So we see websites mixing UK and US English; websites in Italian addressing users like a court bailiff and a nursery playmate on the same page; Spanish websites with some pages written in very formal language and others in a totally down-to-earth style; websites designed for Portugal but written in Brazilian Portuguese; literal translations, Anglicisms and Gallicisms (depending on the source language) or even worse, websites in Slavic languages without providing for the necessary declensions. You can just imagine the damage done when passing from a language written from left to right to one that is written from right to left…

 

Lack of SEO/SEM for translated versions

If you have invested in SEO or SEM for your website, be aware that it is not enough just to translate the optimised version. You have to go through the whole process again for each language and each target country. Translators specialised in localisation and referencing do exist. They can create a semantic charter, select keywords and expressions, and recommend style improvements for the current version of your website.  These service providers work hand in hand with SEO agencies who know how to incorporate the data supplied by the translators into an analysis of the site tree and monitoring of search trends. They know how to remove blocks that could hinder the correct indexing of content and can guarantee a truly efficient return on investment. In this respect, Fairtrad is pleased to be working with Première Position since 2010.

Not forgetting social networks: the language used may not be the same as for your company website. While the two are linked, it is important to review the general style and expressly predetermine the tone to be used on each social media and for each country in order to avoid a cacophony.

 

Entrusting translation to just anyone

A quick reminder that entrusting translation to non-professionals, or overlooking quality assurance (proofreading in context during the pre-production phase) mean you will have websites full of spelling or grammar mistakes, written in pitiful style, with incomprehensible or even offensive cultural references. All issues that will have the time to discourage many a potential customer before a sufficiently cultivated (and motivated) bilingual employee in your company sounds the alarm. This is usually the moment when you make a panicked call to the cheapest translation agency you manage to find. Before reaching this point however, you can decide to consult Fairtrad or another respectable agency for a quality audit and implementation of a reliable and effective localisation process.

 

Neglecting the impact of localisation on ROI and brand identity

These considerations for the quality of localisation complement and incorporate considerations for graphic interface quality and user experience, in other words navigability of the website.  It is unfortunate that companies displaying too low a conversion rate think to test the usability of their website in terms of structure and function, without concern for language quality, despite the fact that it is a key element in the presentation of their services.

Poor localisation gives an overall impression of incompetency and shoddy workmanship. For users, a company that doesn’t pay attention to the quality of communications in the language of their country is not worthy of their business. So next time you plan your marketing investments, remember to consult a professional and ensure that, as my philosophy professor would say, “the cover is as good as the book”.
Request a quote

 

Translation tests

/dans /par

The use of tests to select translators is often quoted in quality assurance procedures.  However, it is difficult to know what these tests actually involve. Several types exist; here we take a look at some of them:

Undifferentiated tests

A single source text is submitted to all candidates. We’ve all had to do this type of test. You just need to type in one of the sentences to be translated into a search engine and you will come across translator forums where the « solution » is discussed in threads dating back several years. These tests are often corrected by comparing them to a model translation and are supposed to ensure that the “translator understands the source language”.  Yet there is more meaningful evidence for this purpose, such as the language combination validated by a diploma in translation, the country where the translator studied or their country of residence. It seems however, that these methods based on common sense are not standardised, and so do not meet the mark. Some agencies vary tests according to the field (legal, financial, medical, etc.). This is a little better, but here again, if the same text is submitted to all translators, the test is distorted (imagine taking an exam where you already know all the answers in advance).

Targeted tests

Sometimes a company will contact an agency to entrust a large volume of translation and wants guarantees on the quality of translators used. In this case, the agency will organise a targeted recruitment campaign and will prepare a test in collaboration with the client who will validate the translations and the glossary at the same time. This is a good method as long as the tests are remunerated (and should never take more than an hour to complete) with the guarantee for the client that it is those linguists qualified by this process who will undertake the translations and proofreading. Some translation agencies do in fact have tests translated and proofread by expert translators in the required field, to then work with junior (less expensive) translators on the actual project. Some very large agencies even have departments dedicated to translating tests in-house. That is why some companies use two different agencies: one for translation, the other for quality control.

So what about Fairtrad?

At Fairtrad, we start by analysing CVs (only a real translator knows how to recognise a fake one) and we always have translations proofread, so each initial collaboration serves as a test. Upon express request from the client, we do accept to have tests completed but always paying the translator (on an hourly basis), as a test is only valid if it precisely replicates the working conditions for each client. Once the team of linguists has been trained, we can even organise a meeting to introduce to the client all those involved, or supply them with the names and contact details of the linguists if they so wish, in the interests of transparency.

And we should never forget that each translation is a test in itself, as it is always proofread by a colleague and validated by the client. Usually, if you work well and your client is satisfied, you will be called upon to work on future projects. That will be your proof that you passed the test with flying colours.

 

Quality standards in translation: what is the guarantee?

/dans /par

Being a translator is a real profession. As evidence, there are specific diplomas and courses, professional membership associations, official examinations and even quality standards.

The EN 15038 standard was approved in August 2006. Its purpose is « to establish requirements for the provision of quality services from translation services providers » and emphasises quality assurance and traceability.

It details the professional skills and technical resources required by each party involved in the translation process (translator, editor, expert proofreader, project manager) and the procedures applicable to translation services.

Of course each TSP (Translation Service Provider) must produce documentation detailing how they ensure the implementation of mandatory procedures.

The standard is very comprehensive and covers all aspects clearly. It includes both concepts and methods studied during translation diploma courses, as well as the ethical standards to which members of various translation associations must adhere, and as a whole, the quality requirements common to all service provision.

The standard can be applied by all translators for we have all learnt to keep our documents separate: source documents, target documents to be proofread and final target documents. We have all learnt to research and to keep the reference documents of each client. We have all learnt to establish a style guide, glossary, specifications, quotation and invoice. Haven’t we?

Particularly since we must have between two (if university training in the field) and five years’ experience to comply with the standard.

However, no certification for this standard exists. When it was published, there were in fact plans to develop an “NF” label (French certification), but this didn’t happen.

Noting this lack, the French National Chamber of Translation Companies CNET, who participated in the development of the NF EN 15038 standard, decided to create CERTITRAD, its own reference for « Quality of Services from Translation Companies ». According to the CNET, this new standard is born of a “resolutely customer-centric approach », a major innovation given that hitherto translation service providers applied quality assurance procedures just through their own fussy diligence. Members of CNET state that they add to their aim guarantees of « responsiveness, reliability, confidentiality, professionalism, and of course, quality of service », but these elements are already contemplated in the EN 15038 standard for translation service provision. So what is the use of a second standard?

None at all, if not but for one small word: “company” which makes all the difference. Indeed, the CERTITRAD reference system includes all the elements of the EN 15038 standard (which applies to « service providers », so to freelancers as much as firms and agencies) but adds some elements that can only be offered by a « company ». For example, having at least one salaried employee (and at least one « real » translator) and having your own commercial offices. It also mentions translator “datasheets” (CVs! What an original idea!), and a standardised process for selecting subcontractors (those famous translation “tests”)[1]. In fact, even if a self-employed professional translator applies all the NF EN 15038 procedures (for example, working in tandem with a colleague), they will never be able to obtain CERTITRAD certification.

Still, there is one element directly linked to quality which is never cited in the certification procedure: price. It’s all very well to have translators pass tests, promise wonders to clients and communicate about company performance, but when you offer subcontractors a rate equal to half the average price charged, you inevitably end up working with unmotivated people who will botch the job and seize the first opportunity to jump ship. It is for this reason that very few translation companies offer to train a dedicated team of translators for each client: most agencies are on the lookout for the cheapest translator going and transparency would certainly be a major handicap in this type of strategy.

.

What is more, whether for NF EN 15308 or for CERTITRAD, we all know that obtaining certification does not mean we apply the process to each translation request. As House puts it, “everybody lies”.

That is why when it comes down to it, when choosing your service provider, you can ask to consult their General Terms of Sale and Methodology and you can have tests completed to be proofread in-house by your “budding novelist” of a salesperson or your most “exacting” engineer. But the secret to any happy relationship – in business as in life – is trust.

[1]             We will discuss this in our next blog post “What are translation tests for?”