Translation Guidelines

 

 

Steps to Assure a Great Translation

 

 

There are a series of steps that are normal and typical in a translation project. Different projects have different steps, so if you do not find something that applies to you in the limited space on this page, send an email to support@internationalservices.com and you will receive step-by-step recommendations for your own personal guidelines.

1. Source Files: Find the original files of your project, editable documents, unless your text layout is super-simple

2. Determine the Audience: Decide who your target audience is - your employees? the general public? television?

3. Determine the Dialect: Make a list of the geographical locations of the people who will receive the translation. If they speak Spanish, for example, are they only in Texas or Miami, or are they all over Latin America, or in Spain?

4. Prepare Glossary: Look at your text and try to determine if there are many "industry specific" words. For example, does your document say something common like "wrench" or more specific like "crimp"? Make a list of these words, and see how long that list is. If there are several words, that means you need a specialist translator, such as "Technical" or "Medical" or "Technology". And, if you have pre-existing translations for these words, please include them when your order the job. These words are called a Glossary. Translators work in multiple industries, so Glossaries are highly recommended if you have preferred translations of your own.

5. Select Category: Follow the Directory links to your language and click on the link indicating the language of your choice and the type of translation you decided upon in #4 above. Send an email to the translator, specify the type of translation you think it is, and attach the documents, or at least a good excerpt of the documents. If your project is still in the concept phase, do some "guessing" as to its future content.

6. Request Cost: Exchange emails requesting a cost estimate and be sure to include your deadline. The translators on this site are excellent, responsive and reliable.

7. Order Translation: Order the first round of translation, called the "Base Translation," from the translator, and agree on turnaround.

8. Translation Receipt: The base translation will be done on time, barring unforeseen circumstances. The translated document will look like the original unless the project is an exception or has special needs.

9. Review of the Base Translation: When the Base Translation arrives, it is your choice how to proceed. If the text is for a voice recording, such as a video script or IVR script, then you can probably go straight to studio, and ask the talent or studio to do a final quick review of the translation (because minor typos do not affect audio recording). If, however, your text is for distribution, you may wish to consider the merits of engaging a Reviewer. Many companies bypass the review stage if the text is for their employees for budget control. However, even though the translators in this Directory are some of the finest in the world, they are still human, and if the text is for distribution in any way that an error could possibly hurt your corporate image, it should go through a review stage. You can click on the Review link in this Directory for the language of your choice and request a Reviewer. Or, you may have internal people for review. If you use internal people be careful that they are highly educated in the foreign language, not just "home speakers." The best reviewers are PhD's with specialization in the area of the translation and who have not lived outside their native country for more than 3 years. Other good reviewers are certified translators accredited by the U.S. State Department or ATA. If you have used one of the translators from this Directory, we recommend that you do not automatically accept any changes that your own personal reviewer desires to make, but rather, send the suggested changes back to the Directory translator for confirmation. They will be honest with you.

10. Desktop Publishing: If your project goes to desktop publishing or to a printing company, or is to be distributed as printed material, the Directory translators will be available to proofread a final copy, which may be a document or a "Reader's PDF," to look for things that go wrong during the desktop publishing process or discrepancies that may have been missed. For example, there might be characters that change when imported or a typo. Desktop published materials are rarely perfect the first time. Go through as many reviews of docs or Reader's PDF's as are needed - usually only 1 or 2 - until any and all discrepancies are noted and corrected. If you need a desktop publisher, especially for Asian languages, click the appropriate link in the Directory. NOTE: One of the most common errors people make is to try to retype foreign text if it is Spanish or a similar Latin Alphabet language. Avoid typing. Rather, copy-paste. Please turn off any auto-hyphenation, remove any auto-correction features, and do not change from caps to small or small to capital letters without permission of the translator.

Subtitling & Captioning Guidelines

Steps to Assure a Great Subtitling Project

Preparation: Setting Timecodes. The first step is to set timecodes. Perhaps you already have a "captioning file;" this will do the job. Or, your media developer sets timecodes for subtitling. Or, click the appropriate link in this Directory to request a vendor to break your project down into original-language subtitles which will serve as the basis for translation.

1 - 9) Follow steps #1 through #9 under Translation Guidelines above.

Then, add the following steps:

10) Line Length: Subtitling and Captioning translations have varying important requirements for "line length." Captioning has a fixed line length of 32 characters per line, yet translations are 25% longer than an original English script, which means too much text, too little space, and the text must therefore be adapted.

Subtitling allows for longer line lengths. But there is a "readability issue" (avoid so much text on screen that it cannot be read in the length of time it appears on-screen). The average reading speed is 15 characters per second, and foreign languages can go as high as 18 characters because they are more accustomed to subtitles than English-speaking cultures. It is vital to adhere to the lengths determined by your multimedia or DVD author. Also, line length may vary if on the web versus on DVD, and your translators may need to adhere to the lower character value of the two.

There is a software to help and support translators during this subtitling translation process. The software colors the text that is too long until the translator has adapted or rewritten it to fit in the time allotted. This software is online.

For Captioning: http://www.TranslateYourCaptions.com

For Subtitling: http://www.SubtitleYourVideo.com

These same software can also convert the results from the translation, preparing it for subtitling or captioning software, or even making a web movie for you with language selector.

11) Proof Video: Whether the DVD author imports directly from the translator or receives the elements that the author needs from SubtitleYourVideo, this step marries the text with the visuals. It is recommended at this point to make a "proof video" of small size (e.g. 320 by 240) for each language. The best method is for fast download, then upload this to the web for review by translators. If the video materials are not web-friendly, they can be exchanged via FTP.

12) Follow instructions in #13 under "Voice Guidelines."

For help and support with subtitling, send an email to: support@internationalservices.com

 

Voice Guidelines

Steps to Assure a Great Voice Recording

1 - 9) Follow steps #1 through #9 under Translation Guidelines in the right column.

Then, add the following steps:

10) Narration: If your translated recording must be the same length as the original, such as narration for a video, then the translated script must be assured to be the same length - paragraph by paragraph - as the original language script. This can be done with "table type" documents, like MS Word tables or Excel. Or, import the original and the translation into the inexpensive software called TranslateYourVideo. This software will actually highlight the text that is too long and will continue to assist the translator until the script is properly adapted for recording. If, however, your video is not narration, but rather has lips moving on-screen for which you are trying to replace the spoken word (lip sync), then translators cannot assist with this. Modifying a script for lip sync is a highly skilled form of adaptation, and lip sync projects tend to be approximately 2 to 3 times more expensive than non-lip sync projects. For help and support with lip-sync adaptation, send an email to: support@internationalservices.com

11) Choosing Voice Talent: If you are using a voice talent from this Directory or its partner site the Global Director Center, your recording will be extraordinarily professional. However, it is vitally important to differentiate between a Directed Talent (recording in an audio studio, with engineer and probably a director present), versus a Freelance Talent (a talent working out of his/her home, with microphone and simplistic recording equipment). The huge draw to the Freelancer is, of course, lower cost. There can be substantial savings working with a freelance voice talent. However, where audio studio recordings undergo checks and verifications during the process (with talent, audio engineer, director and talent all working together), the Freelancer is a single person responsible for all of these services (performance, directing, editing and quality control). Because no one person can be perfect, the Quality Guarantee cannot apply to Freelance voice talents. Do not be surprised if a home studio freelance talent recording is not always perfect.

12) Product Check: All end products need to be checked. Your chances of flawless work from talents listed in this Directory and listed on the Global Director Center who record in audio studios are 95%, but there is still that remaining 5% possibility of an editing error or a misunderstanding of a technical word, or similar. It is recommended to either forward the recording to the translator for a "Product Check," or to sync the sound to a video and then send the sound to the translator for "Product Check." We recommend against using the same people who recorded the track to act as your product checkers.

13) On-Screen Graphic Text: If the project also contains on-screen graphic text, one of the common errors people make is to try to retype the text if it is Spanish or a similar Latin Alphabet language. Avoid typing. Rather, copy-paste. Please turn off any auto-hyphenation, remove any auto-corrections features, and do not change from caps to small or small to capital letters without permission of the translator. Note that many graphic fonts that function in, say, English may be lacking the accent marks and letters of another language, and keyboards vary throughout the world. On-screen text must also be very carefully proofed for errors once inserted into your project. Proofed until perfect if any errors are detected. Cutting-corners on this is not recommended, because typos on-screen are very obvious.