Translation and Language Industry Observations
Translation and Language Industry Observations
The state-of-the-art Neural Machine Translation (NMT) systems available today provide a fast, excellent basis for high quality translations. Spelling, grammar and general formulations have a low error rate and therefore the post-editing (PEMT) requires little effort. For post-editing of technical texts, however, specialist knowledge must be available in both theory and practice in order to …
The coronavirus could not have come at a worst time. During the Chinese New Year, many people take to the roads and railroads, sometimes traveling up to three days to be with family. The outbreak of the coronavirus forced many people to stay at home for the holidays. But for most translators, business is usual …
Should you optimize for typos? As someone who has been working in the language industry for many years, one of the most common typos I make is typing ‘Soanish” instead of Spanish. This is a common typo, as the ‘O’ and ‘P’ keys are located next to each other in QWERTY keyboards, both in mobile …
This post provides valuable insight into the mindset of Latin American customers to help you optimize your website localization efforts. Social scientists have studied cross-cultural communication for decades, and some of their findings can shed light on what should and should not be done when trying to appeal to foreign markets. This article explores some …
The world is still abuzz with the state-sponsored assassination of Qasem Sulemani. This triggered talks of a US-Iran war. Then came the unintentional downing of the Ukrainian International Airlines jet by Iran which claimed the lives of 176 souls. This caused mass riots by thousands of irate Iranians who are demanding the ouster of Iran’s …
The fastest and most efficient way of learning a foreign language has always been total immersion, using the language on a daily basis, almost to the exclusion of your mother tongue. For people who are not living in a country where their target language is spoken, this is easier said than done. Luckily for the …
Translating a website into other languages can be expensive. Translating an entire website may not only require a large budget, it usually requires extensive IT support. This may be problematic for small businesses that want to translate their company website at little expense and without a lot of technical headaches. Or sometimes, companies prefer to …
As a freelance translator or a representative of a company in the languages industry, you work with international clients in foreign lands. The nature of our business is international, so your exposure to foreign clients is inevitable. So what do you do when such a client does not pay for services rendered? It’s a good …
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the next big thing in the world of technology. It is nothing less than a revolution in the field of modern software. As any piece of technology before, AI too has posed certain threats to the traditional industries and setups. One particular threat that we will be discussing today is whether …
In the translation and localization industry, translation prices are typically quoted on a per-word basis. So if a document or file has one thousand words, we multiply the number of words by the price per word to get the translation price per 1000 words. It is a simple pricing system which seems to work. Translators …
Anyone looking for a translation service provider knows that there are a lot of factors that come into play. It’s not enough just to be proficient in multiple languages. Good translators should have strong writing skills, industry knowledge where applicable, and cultural sensitivity. After all, you don’t want an amateur translator to compromise a critical …
I love Amsterdam. This was probably my fifth time there. Localization conferences I like a bit less and have not gone to one in years. But my love of Amsterdam outweighed any other consideration and I decided to attend the one day Slatorcon Amsterdam 2019 conference on November 28, 2019 which was produced by Slator. …
Are you considering becoming a full-time freelance translator? Good for you! But before attending to the business side of the matter, you need to be absolutely sure that you know what you’re doing. Unfortunately, simply knowing a second language does not mean you can translate. Learning the profession of translation requires a lot of dedication …