Translating texts from one language to another sounds simple. But in reality, many things can go wrong. The Internet is full of stories about translations from hell. Some translations are funny in their stupidity. That’s why it is so important to perform stringent QA on translations. This is true whether you are a translation company …
Translation & Localization
Translation Services for the Firearm Industry
Last week saw one of the deadliest mass shootings in recent years. The massacre in Uvalde, Texas was especially tragic as it involved grade school children who were murdered viciously at a tender age. Mass shootings are always tragic. And they are always perpetrated by a lunatic whose only motive is blind hatred. But targeting …
10 Common Myths About Translation
by Martha Oschwald One of the biggest gripes among translators is being taken for walking encyclopedias. As ridiculous as it sounds, it’s one of the top misconceptions about the job. Unfortunately, there are many more where that came from. Here are some of the most common myths and facts of a niche industry steeped in …
Facing an uncertain future, Russian translators oppose Ukraine invasion
Many of our colleagues are impacted in Ukraine and Russia during what is a very difficult time. FIT Council would like to express its solidarity, support and deep concern for their lives and working conditions (from Union of Translators of Russia website-you can download full statement here). While the focus of the media worldwide has …
Ukraine crisis felt in the translation industry
Ukraine is currently at the center of world focus. Tensions are mounting as the Russian army has positioned nearly 200,000 troops around its borders with the Ukraine. As a result, stock markets are diving, energy prices are increasing, and the citizens of Ukraine are living in fear of the impending invasion. We are on the …
Navigating the Turkish Translation Bazaar
As anyone who has visited Turkey in recent years knows, the cost of goods and services in that country is very low. One of the main reasons for this is the low cost of labor in Turkey. The GDP per capita in Turkey is about US$8,500. A bit less than 20% of the GDP in …
How Language Services Can Help Affiliate Marketers
by John Wright In 2022, 63.1% of online content is written in English. Considering that only around 25% of internet users speak English as their native language, it’s clear that there must be many languages in which there is an under-supply of online content. This fact presents a huge opportunity for affiliate marketers, particularly smaller-scale …
Translating your manuals to Spanish. A must, or nice to have?
This post describes the rules mandated by the Spanish government regarding the provision of manuals in the Spanish language when marketing technology products in Spain and its outlying regions. When marketing products to Spain, they must be accompanied by a technical description specifying the product components and any data that is considered appropriate about its …
The Role of the Translation Project Manager (PM)
Project management plays a fundamental role in the translation industry. The PM handles some critical behind-the-scenes tasks and orchestrates the management of the project itself. Their job is to make the final result optimal. So what does a project manager do? Keep reading to find out. What does a translation project manager do? In the …
Web Designers and Translators: What They Have in Common and Why They Need Each Other
Web designers and web translators are typically not thought of as fulfilling similar roles. After all, English has become something of a business and internet Lingua Franca, meaning web design tends to revolve around English. From programming languages that use English as a semantic base to web crawlers built for English content, web designers make …
Graphic Design in Translation-a Checklist
Do you need a designer? How can working with a designer provide additional value to your clients? Translators and PMs often encounter such situations when the translated text “does not fit” into the original document format. This can be for reasons such as text expansion, hieroglyphs, and when going from LTR to RTL languages. This …
The Quest for Subject-Matter Expert Translation
One of the questions that we often get here at GTS: are the translators that you are using subject-matter experts? And that’s a great question. Because translation is more than just trading words. A good translation must read well to the people in that field. So if you are translating a legal contract, the terminology …
How does the four-eye principle apply to language review?
The Four eyes principle is a requirement that two individuals approve some action before it can be taken. The Four eyes principle is sometimes called the two-man rule or the two-person rule. (from an official European Union website) Every reputable translation agency uses a quality assurance system in its work process. The QA process can include a number …