Sunday, November 27, 2011

One Stop Shop Translations: Your Spanish Translation Quote – Tips and Advice

One Stop Shop Translations: Your Spanish Translation Quote – Tips and Advice: Choosing the correct translation services is often a very difficult and time consuming. These days there are thousands of freelancers, agenc...

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Translation Memories, Blessing or Curse?

translation memories
A translation memory is a modern technology tool designed to help translators. It is essentially a database that saves previously translated segments of text. The main benefits of a translation memory are saved time and cost, more efficiency and consistency throughout translations.

Moreover, clients and translators must also analyze not only what are the benefits of the Translation memory are but also the the ethical questions posed by this tool. Firstly, it is important to note that the usual practice during the delivery of a translation to the client is for the translator to also deliver the translation memory database so it can be used in future translations, even if the client opts to use a different translator. It is clear to see how this process guarantees consistency. However, here is where a lot of problems can arise. It is true to say that in the majority of cases the the new text to be translated corresponds to the saved translation but there are cases where the corresponding saved translation does not make sense with the new source translation in its current context, especially in the case of literary translations or Marketing translations.

To navigate this problem it is important to understand the analytical nature of the Translation memory. A lot of Translation Memories match a previously translated segment to a new source segment on a percentage basis. For instance, if a translated target segment in the TM and its corresponding source segment match a new source segment to be translated word for word, this segment will be translated automatically and the analysis will return a statistic of 100% matching. But as outlined above, the contextual problem may occur. This is why the 100% segment needs to be checked by the translator. The whole process is not fool proof and we always need some degree of human intervention. This is why most translation services companies and translators will charge a fee even for segments that are 100% matching. The bottom line is that the 100% matching segments have to be checked.

Many clients are often surprised when they get their translation quote to find they are being charged for segments that have been previously translated word for word. Hopefully, the above explanation gives the client an insight into this dilemma. For information the 100% matches are usually charged at a lesser rate, for instance a revision translation rate per word so there is still a very evident cost saving. It is here that the client has to find the best translation rate per word to pay for 100% matching segments and repeated segments. This can lead to huge translation cost savings especially in the case of updates such as software or manuals.

Hopefully this article gives the reader an insight into the workings of the translation memory environment and with this technology, unlike most concepts in the technology world, the fundamental process will stay the same, we will always need some degree of human intervention!

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Mark Kieran, CEO, One Stop Shop Translations

For more information on our translation memory pricing matrix click on this link.

Remember that translation memory rates may cost more in the short term due to the extra processes and management involved but are worth it in the long term especially in the case where the translation is an update or there is a lot of repeated text!

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Preparing for the Hispanic Market

Spanish and Hispanic markets
More and more companies are translating their web content and commercial collateral into Spanish. Is this a coincidence?
Of course not, the importance of the Hispanic and Spanish markets should not be underestimated partly due to the fact that the vast majority of this active and expanding market is Spanish speaking only. Below we will discuss some of the more detailed facts of the Spanish market.
Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, in fact, after English it is the second most widely spoken language in the world with regard to commercial communication and the third most used on the Internet.
It is estimated that in three generations 10% of the world population will be Spanish speaking and that by the year 2040 the largest Spanish speaking population in the world will be in the united States of America with Mexico next.
Spanish is the second most studied language in the world with 20 million students mainly due to its growing importance in the commercial sector.
All the above points give us some idea as to why so many companies are translating all their commercial collateral into Spanish to take advantage of this huge growing market.
Here are some astonishing facts about the US Hispanic market alone.
• The Hispanic population is expected to account for 44% of the total US population growth before the year 2020 and 62% from 2020 to 2050. By 2050 the current Hispanic population of 44 million is expected to double.
• The average age of the Spanish population is 29 years old.
• Hispanic owned businesses increased 78% between 1985 and 2000.
• The Hispanic market accounted for over 600 billion USD in consumer spending last year.
In these uncertain times where the developed markets are saturated its important to open doors to other opportunities such as the Spanish speaking market. Moreover, translating into Spanish not only opens the door to the Hispanic US market but to another 21 countries in the world that have Spanish as their official language.

Its also important to note that the translation of websites and commercial material is not a straight cut deal where one simply asks the first Translation services company they find to translate everything into Spanish because they are cheap. While the Hispanic market may not be as developed as more established markets, corporate image is still a huge factor in breaking into these markets. Intertwined with Corporate image is the need for quality translation as in most cases a poor quality translation is worse than no translation at all and can destroy the public image of the entity in question. This is why it is so important to hire a translation services company that has experience in providing high quality work in the particular area of expertise in question while also fitting into the companies budget criteria. When requesting a translation quote there is usually a wide range of translation price differences one has to ask why some translation services are so much cheaper than others.
Most of the larger multinationals are already taking this expansion into the Spanish speaking market very seriously but for a lot of the medium and smaller sized companies it is a shame to lose such an opportunity especially in such challenging times?

If you like this post please "like" or "share" for more content

Mark Kieran, CEO, One Stop Shop Translations

For more information on our Spanish translation services click on this link or get an economically unbeatable Spanish translation quote here.