Translation is a service and not a physical product that you can store in the stockroom and have it ready for customers when they request it. This means that from the moment the client requests a translation, a complex process begins. In this process several factors are in play that depend on the specific needs of each client.

For example, if the client needs an urgent translation, the price will be higher than for a normal translation, since a translator, editor, and proofreader who are all available and qualified for the specific field of the project will have to be found quickly.

As a result, we can conclude that if we want a high-quality translation that passes through all of the processes to ensure that the end product is as promised in the sales stage (coherence of terminology, perfect spelling, correct style and localization, etc.) and if we hope it is delivered in record time, and that this all happens at a low cost for the client, we are, unfortunately, dreaming.

A company that hires translation services must take these factors into consideration to be conscious of the reasons why the prices are what they are. Translation is a complex task that requires highly-qualified people, not only qualified in linguistic matters, but also in the specialized field(s) for the particular project.

Given this background, it is important to remember that a combination of two of these fundamental factors should be considered when discussing a translation project, since the possibility of optimizing all three is quite low. The combinations thus are:

-         Price and quality: in this case, time is sacrificed in favor of better project management. What is possible here is having one translator handle translation, one editor work on editing, and one proofreader tackle the proofreading. This offers the best possibility for maintaining coherence in terminology, style, etc.

-         Price and time: here, quality is sacrificed since more than one translator, and potentially more than one editor, must be used, which greatly complicated the ability to guarantee a high-quality, coherent product.

-         Quality and time: this option removes “lowest cost” as the deciding factor and instead focuses on the urgency involved. Translators for the field must be found and, since they will have to work quickly and most likely outside of their accustomed work schedules, the agency is able to charge a higher rate for their services and the total cost of the project.

It is, therefore, extremely complicated to generate a high-quality product at a desirable price in a quick fashion. Companies that are looking to pay for a translation project must understand that and know which of these aspects they are willing to put in the background in order to emphasize the others, guaranteeing that they turn out perfect.

De todo lo anterior se deduce que acceder a un producto de calidad, a un precio asequible y de forma rápida es excesivamente complicado, con lo cual, la empresa que desee contratar servicios de traducción debe ceder en alguna de las premisas para que se pueda hacer hincapié en el resto y al menos se cumplan con total garantía dos de ellas.

(Source: http://blog-de-traduccion.trustedtranslations.com/precio-calidad-y-rapidez-2010-03-01.html)

Tweet This Post

Related posts

• What’s the Minimum Number of Translators Involved in Each Translation Project? (2)
• Trusted Translations New Site (0)
• The Need for Polyglotism within Businesses (0)
• The Most Widely Spoken Languages (5)
• The Financial Crisis and Translation (2)

This is why the creation of translation budgets must be done with as much accuracy and precision as possible.

In the translation industry, the translation itself is not available when the translation budget is created; only the source is at hand. As a result, it is apparent that the most ethically transparent and commercially correct approach for creating the budget is to consider the number of words present in the text in the source language.

The resulting translation, in its final version, will have a different word count than that source. Depending on the source and target languages, there are different levels of text expansion or contraction in the translation process.

To provide one example of the differences in the word count between the source and translated documents, here is a sample sentence in Spanish and English:

Source text: For further information please contact our Sales Department. (8 words)

Translation: Para recibir mayor información, contáctese con nuestro Departamento de Ventas. (10 words)

Advantages of setting prices according to source language

• the budget is real, since it is based on the source document, which is available to everyone;

• the budget is prepared immediately, since there is no waiting for the translation in order to calculate the costs of the work;

• the budget is ethical, since it is based on observable and measurable material.

Drawbacks for setting prices according to target language

• the budget is not real, since it is based on future projections;

• the budget is only created late in the process, since its accuracy depends on the translation end product;

• the budget is debatable, since it is based on calculations and projections that may be incorrect or not in line with what actually is produced.

Cases where the only choice is to set the prices according to the word count of the target language

There are some exceptions to the criteria listed above:

• translation of an audio file without a word count;

• translation from an Asian language;

• proofreading.

For more details on the way to obtain a price for a translation project that is fair for the client and the supplier, visit our translation rates page, which contains information on translation prices per word.

Text contraction and expansion for different language pairs

Depending on the pair of languages (source and target) required for a specific translation project we are quoting, calculating the price per word of the source language and not per word of target language reduces costs at times and at other times increases them. The following are a few examples of the average contraction and expansion percentages for some common language pairs:

English to Spanish: 20% expansion

English to Portuguese (Brazil): 20 to 30% expansion

Portuguese (Brazil) to English (U.S.): 10 to 15% contraction

Spanish to English: 15% contraction

English to French: 15 to 20% expansion

English to German: 5 to 20% contraction

English to Italian: 15% expansion

English to Portuguese (Eur.): 20 to 30% expansion

French to English: 10 to 15% contraction

German to English: 5 to 40% expansion

Italian to English: 15% contraction

Portuguese (Eur.) to English: 10 to 15% contraction

Spanish to English: 15% contraction

Again, these figures are averages for contraction and expansion for the language pairs. To create an exact budget for your translation project, please send us the documents involved to receive a free quote from Trusted Translations, Inc. If the project involves a large amount of words, we will offer a free translation test so that you can evaluate the quality of our translation services and observe the contraction or expansion of the relevant text(s).

(source: http://blog-de-traduccion.trustedtranslations.com/precios-por-palabra-de-origen-2010-02-24.html)

Tweet This Post

Related posts

• What’s the Minimum Number of Translators Involved in Each Translation Project? (2)
• Price, Quality, and Time (0)
• Many critics, no defenders (0)
• Literary Translation (0)
• How to Use SDL Multiterm in Trados Workbench (3)

The title of a work is a linguistic representation that is entirely conditioned by its expressive reference. This means that translators not only have to interpret the language itself, but also the shapes, colors, images, etc., represented in the work. This is why translation is so conditioned in several senses, such as the limited space that on occasions is given to the translation of the title or how to reflect as faithfully as possible the intention of the work’s author with the title that he or she gave to it. It might be a title that is completely coherent with what the work shows, or perhaps it lacks this reciprocity in an attempt to draw the spectator’s attention. Furthermore, the author’s reality at the moment they created the work and what the originally intended audience was have to be seriously considered, since the different realities, cultures, or simply ages can change the meaning of a work.

Nevertheless, there is a clear difference in today’s trends for translations of this type.

The titles of ancient works are not normally open to reinterpretation, especially those of the most famous authors who marked a before and after in the history of art. For the rest, there are different options, from maintaining the original language for commercial or cultural purposes or simply due to the author’s preference; translating the title, which is normally required for art publications, text books, or exhibitions sponsored by artistic foundations with a specific policy regarding translation of titles; and lastly, the current trend for artists to publish their work with a title in English, perhaps because it is the clearest language for communication in the field, and this gives rise to the debate on whether or not it is suitable to translate these works to give them access to a wider audience that is not familiar with the language and that, as a result, would feel discriminated against when sharing the artistic experience.

I think that it’s a topic that is quite interesting once once you start thinking about how correct it is to translate expressive works of art, how useful is the translation? Is any translator capable of completely and faithfully reflecting the author’s intention for the audience?

This theoretical backdrop leads us to think not only of translation per se, but also of a term that is well-known within the circles of translation of works of art: transcreation. This term seeks to lump together the task of expressing a meaning in a different language and transmitting a creative message to another culture, making the translator here a recreater as well.

Beyond any debate, what is still true is how important the job of a translator is in the globalized world we live in today where intercultural communication and the intersection of cultures grows each day. Translators, therefore, cannot limit themselves to the translation of words, but translations also of cultural memes.

(Source: http://blog-de-traduccion.trustedtranslations.com/la-traduccion-o-transcreacion-del-arte-2010-02-12.html)

Tweet This Post

Related posts

• What is Interpretation? (0)
• Tips for new (or not so new) interpreters (0)
• English-only hurts immigrants and translators (1)
• Working as a Translator: Freelance or Direct Employment? (2)
• What is Trados? (1)

Translation cost cannot be a quick estimated calculation. Quite the contrary, it requires a detailed analysis of the material to translate in order to create a budget that is as exact and correct as possible, as well as avoiding omissions and excesses. If the budget does not factor in the full requirements from the client, there will be a problem, as the resources will not agree to work for free and the client will not agree to pay for the difference in costs.

The translation agency, or the individual translator, who is creating the budget needs:

• to have enough time to create the budget, clearly establishing all of the steps or stages that the material will pass through during the process;
• analyze the material in order to:

o    determine the amount and type of repetitions, if there are any;
o    determine the terms for delivery of the work, since many times urgency will affect the rates;
o    consider the cost of processing images, both for any text in images as well as for the layout work;
o    see the complexity of the document in order to select the most appropriate professionals for each task;
o    analyze the language combination of the project, since some languages have very few professionals working with it; and
o    count the total number of words with the utmost precision. Generally they are counted automatically, but there are a few other points to consider that could complicate the equation. In certain circumstances, it is not possible to count all of the material in the budget stage. In these cases, the client will have to send, at the very least, a representative sample of the entire project in order to make the necessary projections.

In order for the quality of the project to have a level of excellency, a Content Manager, who is a resource in addition to the translators, editors, and reviewers, is needed. This Content Manager does not necessarily have to be a translator; instead, the most important aspect of the Content Manager is that he or she is an expert in the field being worked with.

Finally, the costs of the Account Manager, the person who handles the relationship with the client, and the Project Manager, who creates the budget, chooses the appropriate resources, coordinates the stages of the project, and is responsible for the quality of the final product that is delivered to the client, need to be considered.

With regard to the payment for the services provided by the resources, the professionals who work on the project often do so from a different location than the actual agency. For this reason, they receive their payment in cities and banks in other countries. This payment method can get complicated with the resources live in remote places or developing countries that do not have a financial system with sufficient coverage. In these cases, the agency must look into the financial costs for these foreign resources, since they can at times exceed the fee that is to be paid. There are many payment options in the world and the conditions, characteristics, and costs are always changing.

Of course, in addition to all of these costs related to the different resources, both internal and external, the company has to pay for all of its fixed costs, and, preferably, receive profit. Therefore, calculating the costs for translation is always a difficult and highly important task.

At Trusted Translations, we offer the maximum benefit for our clients by minimizing the costs while maintaining quality. If you would like more information about this, please visit our page on translation rates.

Tweet This Post

Related posts

• Client Glossaries (0)
• Working as a Translator: Freelance or Direct Employment? (2)
• What is Trados? (1)
• What is Localization? (0)
• What is Interpretation? (0)

The first question theorists must answer is the possibility of translating. The existence of translations is a social reality. The question then becomes, how well does the translator do his or her job?

Yet, what does translate mean? Among the several established definitions, the one I find most acceptable is, “Translation is the substitution of the textual material of one language with the equivalent textual material of another.” This definition obviously leads us to consider the meaning of a key term, equivalency.

For a translator, the fundamental issue is searching for equivalents that produce the same effects in the translated text as those that the author was seeking for readers of the original text. This forces the translator to consider the text, always from the perspective of literary translation, as the base of an ongoing “negotiation” with the author so that the language of the new text presents equivalent values to those of the original language, without forgetting its strength, dynamic elements, or aesthetic quality. It is generally accepted that meanings are not translated, but messages, which is the reason that the text must be considered in is totality.

When the source and target languages belong to different cultural groups, the first problem faced by the translator is finding terms in his or her own language that express the highest level of faithfulness possible to the meaning of certain words. For example, words related to typical fabrics, culinary specialties, or jobs that are all particular to the culture of the author and the audience of the original text need to be handled with care.

Among the interlinguistic limits are the puns destined to produce ambiguity that cause so much for in the hearts of translators. Titles of stories and novels provide numerous examples of these intentional ambiguities, which are at times extremely difficult or even impossible to translate.

This field is, as a result of all of this, quite different from any other (medical, technical, legal, etc.) and translators need to be even more flexible and transport themselves further beyond the normal limits.

(source: http://blog-de-traduccion.trustedtranslations.com/traduccion-literaria-2010-02-01.html)

Tweet This Post

Related posts

• Prices Per Source Word Count (7)
• Many critics, no defenders (0)

The work of firemen and doctors is not the only work needed there, since we, as facilitators of communication, can offer our assistance we know best, making it possible to ease and quicken this transition period and do our part to get help there as soon as possible.

As with many other sites that are attuned to this catastrophe, the website of the ATA (American Translators Association), of which we are active members, will continue to publish information on volunteering and the best ways that language professionals can help.

Source: http://blog-de-traduccion.trustedtranslations.com/los-traductores-e-interpretes-tambien-podemos-ayudar-a-haiti-2010-01-22.html

Tweet This Post

Related posts

• Why we need to understand the topic of the text we are translating (0)
• What is Trados? (1)
• What is MultiTerm? (2)
• Translator Training (0)
• Translation Studies (0)

The client can be the one who provides the list of terminology through the use of glossaries in Excel spreadsheet format, with the terms in the source language written in one column and the corresponding pre-existing translation on the same line in the other column or columns, depending on the needs and resources of the client.

We are fully aware that the use of synonyms does not change or alter the idea of the original document, but the client often has provided its input for all of the possible options of the paradigm that a sentence can offer. This is the reason that glossaries that are created by bilingual members of the client’s staff are so useful in translation.

Of course, this is initial glossary is the starting point for the translation team, but they will add other terminology whose translation can be codified in the glossary.

At various points over the course of the project(s), the translation team will send the glossary to the client for analysis and input when there are several options that could be correct for a word or phrase that appears several times over the course of the project. In this case, the client will indicate its preferred choice and that terms will then be applied throughout the project.

The glossary should incorporate terminology from ALL projects that have been done for that particular client. It is therefore essential that the agency and client remain in constant communication and exchange reference material.

At Trusted Translations, our recurring clients have their individual glossaries that are used by our translators on every project for that client and that are updated during every project.

(Source: http://blog-de-traduccion.trustedtranslations.com/glosarios-del-cliente-2010-01-12.html)

Tweet This Post

Related posts

• Using Latin in Legal Documents (With Glossaries) (1)
• Video Tutorial on Importing Excel Glossaries into Multiterm (1)
• Research (2)
• Maintaining Consistency within Text (0)
• How to upload a glossary on MultiTerm (0)

The basis for his argument is that the desire to keep these remote languages, such as the recently-extinct Eyak language, which had been spoken in Alaska, alive and in use is the product of purely aesthetic motives. Basically, keeping a language alive does not keep a culture alive and a culture does not completely die off when its language is considered dead. The argument is quite cogent and the article is well worth a read.

However, I do have to disagree with some of what he said. The first is that reducing the desire to preserve languages that are moving toward extinction is not merely an “aesthetic” approach. Mr. McWorther alludes to the idea that imperialism and expansionism are the ugly forebearers of today’s hegemony of English around the globe. But it would appear that he doesn’t appreciate how crucial it is to the psyche of people whose native language has not traditionally been English. Though the fact that knowledge of English is so prevalent throughout the world means that there are billions of potential readers of this blog, but when it reaches the point of obliterating the traditional local language (and this applies to any dominant language in a region, of course), then it is NOT simply a matter of aesthetics; instead it is yet another example of the wasteful destruction of indigenous resources through the philosophy of “might makes right” (here: we dominate you culturally, so you must abandon everything your culture has built over centuries).

Granted, my approach is a bit romantic and the more pragmatic and realistic perspective would be that unifying global communication through the proliferation of English benefits more people throughout the world than isolating people with language barriers. But I also believe that it is undeniably true that the development of languages over the course of centuries is a reflection of a volksgeist that cannot be brushed away with the notion of aesthetics.

For now, I will leave my thoughts at that…I have a feeling I will return later with more.

Tweet This Post

Related posts

• The Importance of Language on Websites (1)
• Specialized Translation Agencies (1)
• When Translations Get Tricky (2)
• Using Latin in Legal Documents (With Glossaries) (1)
• Understanding Shakespeare (0)

However, only recently have linguists elevated translation to a scientific category by creating a branch of applied linguistics.

Thus, Translation Studies was born and it is designed to train professionals through the application of accumulated experiences and the reflection of the researcher. The theories on translation, which were first formed by structuralists and generationists, have recently been supported through the contributions from psycholinguistic aspects.

Translation Studies is the science that studies translation, i.e. the practice and process of translating. It is a discipline centered on metatranslation. In this sense, it differs from translation as an activity (translation), translation as a product (translated text, often incorrectly referred to as translation), and translation theory (due to its explanatory character, and not just descriptive or comparative).

This is the extent at the moments, since several universities around the world offer it as a course of studies, which can then be applied to different aspects of translation: certified translations, research groups, application in different languages, etc.

Tweet This Post

Related posts

• What is Trados? (1)
• What is a Linguistic Loan? (2)
• Translation Experts (0)
• The Rise of Spanglish (0)
• The importance of information sources (0)

http://samuraidave.wordpress.com/2009/03/04/japanese-devils-scare-the-laziness-out-of-kids/

In short, the tradition centers around Namahage, a local mountain deity who…well, he must be seen to be believed (yes, that is a picture of one depiction at the top of the post). His role in the ritual is to punish children who have not been good or have not obeyed their parents.

This is just one of the many unique and distinctive celebrations that are taking place all around the world today and ones that should be shared as much as possible (and preferably experienced by any who are able…) so that all of the wonders and delights of the world are known to all.

Tweet This Post

Related posts

• Happy National Punctuation Day! (3)
• Christmas in Russia – Ded Moroz (0)
• The Advantages of Speaking the Same Language (0)
• Happy Translator’s Day (1)
• Book Club Meeting #2 (0)