The Hispanic population is not only the largest immigrant group but accounts for 56% of the United States population growth in the past two decades. As a result, linguistic diversity is an increasing characteristic in today’s classrooms. Educators need to design instruction to match the demographics of today’s students.

As the Hispanic population continues to grow so will the number of students experiencing difficulties. With this knowledge educators are eager to determine how to bolster English language literacy among the Hispanic population.

If we take seriously the way in which literacy skills drive academic success, focusing on community involved programs makes good sense to help develop students’ literacy skills, but moreover to develop their advanced literacy skills.

Recent research has shifted our thinking: It’s not reading per se that impedes Hispanic students’ advanced literacy skill development; it’s actually the language of print—in the newspaper, the textbook, the magazine article—that proves difficult and demands instructional emphasis.

Our task, then, is to redesign our model for teaching literacy. We’ve gone about much literacy reform guided by the assumption that if we focus on the act of reading—putting the letters and sounds together to read words—then students will engage in deep comprehension. The flaws in this approach have proven particularly problematic for academically vulnerable populations, including many of our Hispanic students.

We must focus on involving ourselves in more community based programs that emphasize advanced literacy development as comprehension is the key to academic success. 

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a cricket tournament played in India and various parts of the world in the months of April and May each year. At present, there are ten teams from all over India participating in this tournament. These ten teams consist of top notch players from all over the world.

Top international cricket players from all over the world display their talent during this two month period. The Indian Premier League is a shorter form of cricket consisting of only 20 overs. Each game lasts about four hours with each side batting and fielding. This tournament is a major crowd attraction in the Asian continent as each game brings in about 50,000 spectators per game. These games are played in India and South Africa even though participants are from around the world. This is considered to be one of the world’s richest tournaments.

The Indian Premier League tournament is also broadcast live all over the world on YouTube and various other online sporting channels. On television, this tournament is broadcast live in Bangladesh, Nepal, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, Pakistan, UAE, South Africa, West Indies, UK, US, Canada etc.

This means that the commentary for this broadcast is done via various regional channels in several languages. In India itself, you can hear the commentary in Punjabi, Hindi, Bengali, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, etc. As India is a one sport country, commentary in several languages is a necessity.

In South East Asia, you can hear the commentary in Thai, Vietnamese, Filipino, Indonesian, Malay etc. In the Middle East, the languages covered are Arabic, Urdu, Egyptian (dialect of Arabic), Lebanese, etc.

Trusted Translations, Inc. has the resources available for all of the languages listed above. We cover a wide spectrum of languages for the Asian and African continent. Contact us today for all your translation/interpretation needs.

According to a report by China Daily on April 17^th, Guo Xiaoyong, the vice-president of China International Publishing Group (CIPG), indicated that translation of Chinese texts remains one of the greatest obstacles to exporting Chinese books, in an interview at the London Book Fair. Given the ascent of the Chinese economy, there has been a growing global interest in Chinese culture, literature, and society. The problem, according to Xiaoyong, is that there are few good translators for the Chinese language and a large pool of influential Chinese texts that have yet to be translated.

In analyzing this situation, one must examine the current issues facing the Chinese language today, and why it is difficult to find well-practiced and highly-rated translators that can work directly from the Chinese language to English, for example. The Chinese language is one of the most difficult to translate, for a variety of reasons. First, Chinese includes seven official dialects and several local sub-dialects or variations, which can present a problem to Chinese translators who may not be familiar with the Chinese written from a particular era and locality. Another complication of the Chinese language is the use of characters, rather than letters from a standard alphabet. Characters do not represent sounds, like in a standard alphabet system, but rather ideas, which transmit meaning differently. Furthermore, there are two different writing systems that exist for Chinese: Simplified Chinese or Traditional Chinese characters; Simplified Chinese was employed in the 1950s in order to increase literacy among society by “simplifying” a traditional character system that wielded thousands of characters. Finally, the syntax of written Chinese differs significantly from Western languages (especially English), and so issues such as verb tenses can be hard to translate effectively from Chinese into the foreign language.

Despite these challenges of translating Chinese to a foreign language, there are reliable resources available to handle specific text translations, with certifications and specified knowledge. In order to guarantee the best quality of a Chinese translation, you should always plan sufficient time that allows you to work closely with the translation team and accommodate for the translator to properly examine the text and research any concepts if necessary. If you are interested in obtaining a quote for a Chinese text or for a Chinese translation of an English text, feel free to consult us for a  free translation quote.

What does a “literal translation” mean, and why would a client specify a literal translation?

A literal translation is one that maintains the original content without changing the structure, form or style.

For example, let’s examine a common Spanish idiom: Te estoy tomando el pelo.

The literal English translation would be: I’m taking your hair.

This translation may have been done word-for-word, but it doesn’t actually convey the same meaning to an English-speaking audience. However, a “transcreation” translation would aim to make the original Spanish idiom understandable in English-speaking culture. Thus, the translator would instead choose the equivalent English idiom “I’m just pulling your leg.”

In most circumstances, a professional translator would recommend to not opt for a literal translation, because the intent is to make the translation not only well-written but also culturally relevant and looking as it had been originally written in the target language.

Nonetheless, there are a few cases where a literal translation may be needed. Recently, I had a client that needed us to provide a literal translation of a document, as their entire court case may have relied on the translation. The translator therefore had to include every grammatical and punctuation error, in order to preserve the integrity of the document.

Literal translations could therefore be used for legal documents, in order to avoid any contention that the translation purposefully left out any important information. If you are a translation services account manager, you should check with your client about how they need the translation of special materials to be done. In most cases, a literal translation should be avoided and could reflect poorly on the quality of the translation, especially when the client is marketing towards a specific audience. However, keep in mind that some clients may have different requirements for their translation, which you as a vendor should try to gauge once initiating the sale process.

If you were to mention the name “Barack Obama” to a Guarani, you would literally be telling them in their own language “I already moved the guitar” (Mbaraka Ovama). Despite this accidental fact, several English words actually have Guaraní roots, such as “tapioca”, “piranha,” “toucan” and “jaguar.”

Guarani refers to a group of indigenous peoples in South America, primarily in Paraguay, the Entre Rios and Corrientes provinces of Argentina, south Brazil, and some parts of Bolivia. Although their population has been significantly reduced because of European Colonization and mestizaje (ethnic cleansing process), there are important populations of Guarani throughout the continent, and guarani has become a written language recently. Guarani became an official language largely because the Jesuit missionaries from Spain chose it to preach Catholicism to the Indians; the Jesuits created missions to physically protect the Guarani peoples from European slave hunters, and many Guarani peoples are descendants from survivors of the Jesuit missions.

Today, Guarani is the second official language of Paraguay, where 90% of Paraguayans speak Guarani, other than Spanish, the first official language. In fact, teaching Guarani has become fundamentally important in Paraguayan public schools, with official translations of literary texts like “Don Quijote.” Despite the undeniable importance of the Guarani language in South America, the Guarani people still have to actively fight for recognition of their civil and human rights, so that they may preserve their cultural heritage as well as their community’s standing. The Guarani language actually borrows a large amount of words from Spanish, especially verbs, and so the preservation of the original language has become more difficult over time.

So, when thinking about the languages of the Americas, don’t underestimate the value of indigenous languages like Guarani, and consider the importance of including all linguistic groups and subgroups. If you have a text in or into Guarani or any other language, do not hesitate to contact us by requesting a free Trusted Translations quote.

We get many phone calls and e-mail from clients interested in having their website translated. With the emergence of growing large markets and increasing internet penetration in various countries, the need to translate a website is just common sense. With the amount of speakers of Chinese, Spanish, French, Arabic, Russian, as well as numerous other languages, translating your website to make it accessible to potentially millions of other clients is the first step to take. Many people realize this and ask: can you translate my website, and how? Important questions.

There are generally two ways in which we go about quoting and eventually translating a website. The first way involves downloading your website to our computers, or being granted access to it, and then going in and doing a word, graphics, and formatting count. This will give us the final quote, which we will then pass onto you, the client. However, in the vast majority of cases, we must work very closely with clients so that they can point out exactly what it is that they want us to translate. Frequently, this takes a needless amount of time and effort on the client’s part, as time is spent simply pointing out what to translate and what not to, while we make notes about it. Also, since web pages generally include text all over them (not just in one area), we must go through each part bit by bit, together. This method will ultimately end up costing the client more time and money.

The suggested way to go about this involves simply sending the text to be translated in a MS Word or MS Excel file. This way, the quote can be processed much more quickly and precisely, and the cost will be, in most cases, dramatically lower. By avoiding Desktop Publishing (formatting, images, etc.) costs, we can send you back a side-by-side translation in as many languages as needed. From there, all that is required is for you to input the same text into another version of the website – or, as is likely to occur in a company, simply send the text to be uploaded to the web designer with access to the site. This way of translating websites will require some time and input on the client’s part, but it is much less time and it will ultimately result in us translating exactly what the client wants – nothing more, nothing less, and at a better price.

For a free quote, please get in touch with a friendly and highly knowledgeable sales representative/account manager.

Globalization has effectively changed the scope and breadth of economic development throughout the world, pushing nations to find resolutions that would allow them to effectively integrate into the global economy. One of the most important examples of these resolutions for economic and even political integration is the European Union.

With an old and diverse multilingual heritage throughout the world, the European Community has adjusted well to the effects of increased globalization.

Representing an economic and political coalition of 27 member states, the European Union places multilingual policy as one of its most central themes.

With 23 official languages, the culturally and linguistically-diverse European Union has developed key strategies for cross-border communication, and serves as an important example of why learning a second language is vital in participating in today’s most fundamental business transactions and institutional functions. E.U. representatives understand that the language in which its policies and economic agreements are conveyed will affect their outcomes, and so they have dedicated strategies and resources that promote and foster linguistic diversity and cultural awareness for effective communication.

E.U. Policy dictates that foreign language education in public schools is considered paramount to regional objectives. Although responsibility of implementing language policy is allocated to the member states, the European Union does provide funding programs that promote language education and linguistic diversity.

According to the European Union website, E.U. objectives for “multilingualism policy” aim to:

1. “Give citizens the chance of learning two languages in addition to their mother tongue from an early age.

2. Create friendlier societies, where different communities and individuals engage in dialogue with one another.
3. Strengthen the role of languages in improving employability and competitiveness.”

Multilingual policy can thus be promoted as an objective within today’s most important international businesses’ strategies. At Trusted Translations, we aim to help businesses achieve their multilingual objectives by providing extraordinary customer service and professional, high-quality language-related solutions that connect our clients to the world.

Reference:  2013. “Language in Specified Areas.” The European Commission. http://ec.europa.eu/languages/languages-of-europe/languages-in-specific-areas_en.htm

Although not every business dedicates sufficient time to planning and projecting their finances for the next year, budgeting for makes good financial sense!

So why not start by budgeting and planning ahead for next year’s translation projects? Get all of the information regarding turn-around times, regular retails rates, and rush rates. Inevitably, there may be unexpected projects that arise, so it is better to know in advance what a last-minute project will cost you and be able to adjust for higher costs. Otherwise, with sufficient planning and time allowance for turn-around, you can cut down on translation costs and re-allocate them for other necessary expenditures.

Remember that it’s not always about the cheapest translation, but also the best quality. Look for translation service providers that guarantee quality in their production process. If you don’t have your own design team, also consider using a translation agency that can properly format your translations at a competitive price. Make sure that your documents for translation have adequate time for editing and proofreading by a second translator, so that translated materials are presented professionally to your international clients and associates.

Consider which times will be the busiest during the year. When will your conferences and important events take place? How many foreign clients will be attending these events, and will they require live interpretation and translated print materials? At Trusted Translations, we also provide on-site interpretation services, and we can send interpreters and necessary equipment to any location within the Unites States.

To speak with a representative about the costs of translation and receive a free quote, visit our Trusted Translations website.

Professor and researcher Jan Terje Faarlund recently caused quite a stir in the English-speaking world when he claimed that English is in fact a Scandinavian language. According to Faarlund, English has its roots in Old Norse, a North Germanic (Scandinavian) language, and therefore belongs in the linguistic family of Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, and Faroese. He draws his conclusion from the hypothesis that Middle English – from which contemporary English is derived – had its roots in Old Norse, a North Germanic language, as opposed to the commonly-held belief that Middle English is derived from Old English. For Faarlund, this would explain why Old English differs so much from Middle English.

Also known as Anglo-Saxon, Old English was a West Germanic language brought from Northern Germany and the Southern Jylland islands (German/Danish peninsula jutting out of Northern Europe into the North Sea) which the Angles and Saxons spoke when they migrated to the British Isles in the 5^th century. Concomitantly, waves of Scandinavian-speakers arrived in the British Isles, a situation which produced serious clashes over political control of the land. Scandinavian-speakers controlled the northern and eastern territories of the land, while Anglo-Saxon speakers were limited to the south. This status quo persisted until the Norman conquest of 1066.

As a result of the Norman invasions and the deplorable conditions to which the conquered were subjected, Scandinavian and Old English speakers were forced to live together. According to Faarlund, Old English was extinguished, while Old Norse – heavily influenced by its proximity with Old English after the Norman invasion – survived and eventually gave way to Middle English, from which Modern English is derived. This is the fundamental point: that Middle English was derived from Old Norse (Northern Germanic) as opposed Anglo-Saxon (West Germanic) – as it would challenge the established conceptions about English’s true linguistic roots.

History aside, what concrete linguistic elements lend credence to Faarlund’s hypothesis? One argument involves the way in which languages influence each other. In the vast majority of cases, languages simply borrow words from one another other, but do not borrow grammatical structures. From grammar to the smallest linguistic units (morphemes), English shares fundamental structures that are very similar to Scandinavian languages. Another argument has to do with the words that were borrowed: Old Norse in the British Isles borrowed everyday words from Old English that they already had in their language – this might explain the large Western Germanic influence in Modern English as well as why many linguists mistakenly believe that Middle English was derived from Old English. Finally, it is interesting to note that in general, Norwegians find it relatively easy to learn English, and tend to make the ‘usual’ mistakes less often.

While our esteemed company does not offer translation into Old Norse or Old English, we do offer all kinds of Scandinavian and West Germanic translations, as well as a large variety of other languages. Get in touch today for a free price quote with a friendly and knowledgeable sales representative.

As clients rush to get translations in on tight deadlines, we as an account management team, production managers, and translator teams feel the same pressure to get your project completed in the best way possible, as quickly as possible. While some projects do not need to be as exact as others and require a lower level of translation, many of the projects that we deal with are not only on a rush deadline, but also require a great deal of attention to detail. The issue with these projects is exactly that dichotomy: the rush to meet a deadline vs. the time it requires to adequately review documents and ensure that their miniscule details are correctly translated. For this reason and in these cases, a little quality assessment may save your life, or at least your project.

For technical, financial, legal, or business documents which will be printed, shared, sent, discussed or used in any professional way, we want to make sure that your translation is on time and spot-on. The process that we use for these types of projects, time permitting, is a three-step Translation, edition, and proofreading process, with an optional QA at the end. Even though the three-step process produces high-quality results, there are cases in which the QA can work wonders. For example, I recently facilitated a project in which an MS Word doc in English was to have the translation of different phrases, words, and paragraphs immediately under the original phrases and paragraphs piecemeal, which the client would later copy and paste onto their website. What happened? The three-step process to produce the translations was excellent, but when all 3 languages of the translations were placed piecemeal underneath the phrases, there were some issues with the context of the translations which did not coincide 100% with the original. Luckily, we had a final QA phase which allowed us to identify these issues (which were not mistranslations) and deliver to the client a final version of the document quickly and accurately.

In cases of highly important documents and/or that require industry-specific terminology, the importance of a final QA cannot be overstated. Even though it may take a bit more time to produce, it’s certainly worth the extra time! Get in touch with our sales team for a quote, and for more information about a final QA.

This weekend I watched two very interesting, although very different genre movies. One was the latest action Bond film from the renowned James bond franchise: Skyfall, and the other a drama film directed by Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez: Biutiful.

Not only was the content of these films very different but also the languages. Being an English native speaker, subtitles were necessary for the Spanish movie, Biutiful.

As a visual and spoken art, movies allow us to experience a cultural diversity which would be impossible without subtitles or dubbing due to the language barrier.

Here poses the question, would the movie in the Spanish language been better if it were dubbed or would that cause it to lose its significance?

With subtitles we can continue to perceive what the director and actors wish you to experience as the movie and sound track remain unaltered and the translated words are added as a text on the screen

When dubbing, the picture itself is not modified but the soundtrack is replaced by the language of choice, where actors speak over the original dialogue.

Dubbing can drastically change the essence of a film as the intonation of the actor’s voice in the original picture is very important. Movies in this era are generally not silent films and body language + words together create the magical experience that films provide. Understandably subtitles require your full attention in order to watch, listen and read the translated words, but in this manner you are able to attain the message depicted by the director and actors.

Ironically enough “Biutiful” refers to the phonological spelling in Spanish of the English word beautiful. With this we can see how something can change when interpreted by someone other than the creator. Translations are necessary to survive and enjoy this multicultural world, but buyer beware of things getting lost in translation.

For all your dubbing/subtitling needs, please do not hesitate in visiting us at Spanish Post Production or call Trusted Translations, Inc. for a free quote.

As a translation company that provides multiple services to all sorts of different companies, organizations, and private clients, it is fundamental for our clients that our translations be specific and precise to the purposes and objectives of the documents. For this reason, it is important to calibrate the technical level of the projects. We translate into multiple languages, so we maintain a number of reliable multilingual translator teams that are experienced in the technical terminology of a variety of different industries and fields. It is very important for the translator teams to have a specific background in our clients’ industry in order to deliver not only a quality translation, but an industry-specific and tailored document that will be valued by industry experts who are familiar with the terminology and vocabulary used. This is important, particularly for growing markets such as Latin America and China, as our clients are readily able to diversify products and communications efficiently across languages without losing any of the meaning and technical specification.

Of course, some projects require deeper technical expertise than others, but even for small translation projects, we ensure that our translators are trained professionals with credentials in the type of translation project that they undertake. For legal documents and personal documentation projects, such as birth and marriage certificates, our translators are trained in legal translations to ensure the highest quality. Likewise, for various industries, we seek out translators who are qualified experts in all kinds of different fields. Our translators are specialized in fields as diverse as:

Mining, Automobile, Medical, Marketing, Business & finance, Patents and patent applications, Engineering specifications, Instructions and operating manuals.

Furthermore, with our 100% quality assurance guarantee, we promise our clients that if there are any mistranslations within the projects that we deliver, we will work hand-in-hand with their teams to come up with a tailored translation. For more information on our services, please visit our website and get in touch with the friendly sales team for a quote.

I was on the phone the other day contacting a client regarding a pending invoice. The company representative asked me this question, accounts payable or receivable? I was stumped, who exactly was I looking for? Do I need to get in touch with my contact and ask this question? Will I sound dim-witted? I pretended that the phone was breaking up and I hung up. But I was perturbed and thought, let’s explore this a bit.

Let’s assume that Company A sells merchandise to Company B on credit. (Perhaps the invoice states that the amount is due in 30 days.) Company A will record a sale and will also record an account receivable. Company B will record the purchase (perhaps as inventory) and will also record an account payable.

Our example reminds me of an old saying, “There are two sides to every transaction.” In accounting we also expect symmetry: Company A has a sale and a receivable, Company B has a purchase and a payable.

The main difference is one receives the cash and the other spends the cash.

Accounts Payable tracks the bills or debts a company incurs and pays them accordingly. Accounts receivable tracks the money owed to the company.

Adding to the above,

1. AR is an asset & AP is a Liability – in an Organization

2. AR means – Debtors & AP – Creditor

3. An Org. is itself AR (Debtors) & AP (Creditor) to other org.

Being in translation sales, it is very important to keep track of your collections. It is also advisable to let your clients understand the terms that we offer and for them to make sure the payments are processed on time. At times, translation projects are time sensitive, but your clients should know that for a prompt delivery, prompt payment is necessary as well. This is a key point in managing recurrent clients who send projects on a weekly basis. After all, this is your money.

Although the majority of websites are written in English, many assume that internet users already know English. However, as internet access has become near-universal, a huge untapped market of non English-speaking customers has emerged. For example, the Spanish-speaking market wields about $1 trillion worth of purchasing power, thereby serving as an attractive market for any company with a global outreach or even within the U.S., as more Latin American consumers are engaged in the global economy. Furthermore, over 60 percent of internet traffic comes from native speakers of other languages.  What these statistics show us is that international websites translated into multiple languages are critical for any company projecting itself into a global market.

It is important to invest in multilingual website translations through a proper provider for various reasons. Perhaps the most obvious and important reason is that a company or organization needs to protect its own reputation by ensuring that website content has been carefully translated. Mistranslations could potentially damage client relations if information is unclear or completely misrepresented in the foreign language. Therefore, when looking for the appropriate translation provider for the translation of your website, you should ask that they explain their process that ensures quality. At Spanish Translations US, our regular retail rates include a three-step process of translation, edition, and proofreading, conducted by different professional translators, in order to ensure quality of the translation.  Furthermore, one must plan-ahead in order to properly invest in website translation. Be sure to allocate sufficient time for the translation of your project, as rush projects restrict the amount of time needed to thoroughly translate content. Translation is an art rather than an exact science, and meaning of the website content may remain subjective to the cultural expectations and understandings of the foreign audience.

As a multilingual translation company, we regularly receive requests to translate into multiple and often very different languages. Although we do a tremendous amount of work to and from Spanish, our clients also regularly request French, Portuguese (both Brazilian and Portuguese), and other European languages. Increasingly, with the emergence of a huge market in China, as well as of Chinese companies, we see more and more translations being done not only into Chinese but into other Oriental languages, such as Thai, Japanese, and Korean. Oftentimes, contingent upon a variety of factors, the turn-around times and costs associated with the translation of the same file into different languages can vary dramatically.

Why does this occur? The files with the least variation in time tend to be plain text files such as Microsoft Word documents with minimal formatting work (tables, graphics, etc.) required. Files with more design involved, such as InDesign files, or documents with images, graphics or tables, may carry an additional charge and require extra time. There are two primary explanations for this. First of all, the way in which languages are written differ: for example, while English is written from left to right in successive lines, Oriental languages may be written from up to down. As a result, there is a good deal of time and attention that the translator, editor, and proofreader must pay to translating, placing, and then checking the translation. Secondly, in order to ensure the highest quality, we work with translator teams that are native in the Oriental languages. Consequently, there are frequently time differences between us (US East coast time) and some translator teams.

All of this simply serves the ultimate purpose of producing the highest quality translation possible, into all different kinds of languages. It also means that when planning a translation project, extra time might be required for certain languages pairs, so plan ahead!

Desktop publishing (abbreviated DTP) is the creation of print ready materials using various industry standard software to combine and reorganize text and images for creating digital files. Desktop publishing can be used for designing brochures, flyers, posters, logos, letterheads, etc. Depending on your needs, Desktop publishing services may or may not be needed. Desktop publishing services are necessary for producing newsletters, brochures, books, and other documents that formerly required a typesetter.However, this service might not be needed if the output is for internal viewing/read only purposes. This can also be skipped if the source format of the document is in an editable format (MS Word, Excel, MS ppt, etc.). The cost for this service can either be incorporated in the per word cost of the language pair or considered as an add-on depending on the client’s budget and needs. This way the client can pick and choose which service is needed. If quality is the driver, then it is advisable to itemize this cost along with the cost of translation.If time is the driver, then you are better off omitting DTP as the graphics dept might need additional time to mirror the source files. And finally, if cost is the driver, it is better to try and absorb the DTP cost where necessary. It is important to highlight these details to client and modify the project as per the client’s needs.               Trusted Translations, Inc. specializes in customizing each and every project as per the customer’s requirements. The account manager assigned to your account discusses this with the project manager working on your project and offers multiple solutions that can be tailored as per your requests.

Among the various fields of translation, scientific or technical translation is a difficult task that requires knowledge of the industry and experience translating complex scientific or technical material.

Many specialized technical companies choose to assign translations of material to bilingual employees, whom they believe to be the only ones with specialized knowledge of their technical products and processes. However, it is necessary to hire a professional translator to do the job, as a professional translator understands the art and science of transferring meaning from one language into another. Translators are linguists with strong research skills required to effectively translate a complex technical document or medical report. Explaining this to the customer hesitant to send a document along for quotation will be extremely beneficial to the account manager, as this assure the client about our experience in the field and also inform them of how the translation industry works.

In addition, it is extremely important to ask the client for glossaries. In order to establish a preference over which terms to use in a translated text, the client should send glossaries and product information. These materials will allow the translator to visually see the product or understand the context of the product or process, so as to best translate the text into the target language. Providing glossaries and reference material also reduces the amount of time and money required for the translator to conduct independent research on the text. If translation preferences are not established before the project is initiated, then a second review of the translation for preferential changes must be compensated on the part of the customer. Some customers think that a post-translation preference review is included in the original cost, as they believe there was an “error” in the original translation. In reality, preferential choices over terminologies are not translation errors (as would be with a grammatical or punctuation error), and the translator will have to spend additional time in “correcting” a translation that wasn’t wrong.

We receive many requests for a price quote on any given day, which of course require a good deal of effort on both the prospective client’s end, from the account managers, as well as from the back-office.  The three parties involved have one thing in common: we are all collaborating together in order to produce a translation/interpretation project that is the right fit – in terms of price, quality, and time – for the client.  Since the price quote is only the first step, it’s important that it be done correctly. It is equally important for step two, client’s feedback, to be received and taken into account.

The main take-away idea of this post, which I cannot stress enough, is for the account manager and the client to actively participate after the price quote has been sent.  This implies following-up and giving feedback on the price quote, as price and time are major aspects that we are able to modify. As an account manager, many times I have quoted an interesting project believing that a client’s main concern was turn-around time, when in fact it was price (the same case applies vice-versa).  Of course, the client – who probably thought that the price quote was set in stone – decided to go with another company, without ever having given any feedback.  When we receive feedback, it helps us to tailor the project to your needs, whether that means modifying the price, the turn-around time, or any other aspects.

I’m convinced that we can deliver the right product at the right price; but I am not convinced that price quotes are always 100% spot-on the first-time around.  That requires work, and it requires feedback.  When the client wants or expects something else, I urge them to let us know this before moving on.  That way, we can see what modifications can be done, so that as mentioned earlier, we all collaborate on a project that is the right fit.

The best approach while selecting a translation provider is to request a sample test from multiple agencies. Consider performing a paid test project starting with the most promising vendor. The test project should have similar requirements as your actual project in all aspects except volume. Measuring the success of your test project depends not only on accurate translations, but on other important factors like responsiveness, timely delivery, meeting technical requirements, willingness to adapt and meet your specific needs, accurate billing and a mutually enjoyable work relationship. Once the test project is completed and delivered. Have several personnel’s on your end evaluate the test. At this point, also specify all preferential/styling issues that you may have.Once the test is accepted and a company is selected, the project starts. At that point a project manager is assigned to manage tasks. Translation tasks may involve multiple translators different from the original translator that worked on the sample. This is not to intentionally deceive the newly acquired client, but often is due to miscommunication or scheduling, availability and cost tradeoffs. The end result will still be acceptable if you have chosen a competent vendor. It is also advisable to ask for references, preferably from clients that they have executed similar projects for. Do your due diligence. Call their clients and ask pertinent questions relating to your requirements. Find out about any problems they encountered and how they were addressed and resolved.  Make sure you can assure yourself of their ability and commitment to retain clients and satisfy budget, schedule and quality requirements. Ask if you will have a dedicated project manager to work on your project. A good project manager trumps a good translator. This project manager will be charged with staffing your projects and making them successful. If you are to test someone, test the project manager’s technical skill, communications abilities and work ethics.

At many points during the day as an Account Manager – whether I have a price quote to provide, to ask or to answer project-specific questions, or to get feedback on a finalized project – I find myself asking whether I should call or e-mail a client. In general, phone communication serves as a much faster means of asking and answering various questions, and is especially helpful in clearing up doubts or concerns right off the bat. As a rule of thumb, I tend to follow-up these conversations with e-mails, detailing what was discussed as well as next steps.

Of course, there are times when e-mail is more practical, as in situations where formal written communication is called for (such as price quotes or written approval) or when there are a few practical and relatively straightforward aspects to be cleared up. In general, there is a fine line that a customer service representative should observe, between bothering a client with incessant questions and not getting enough information. We strive to produce the most tailored and high quality translation/interpretation project, for which we frequently need to communicate with clients on a number of points. A translation is a process that begins with communication and exchange of sometimes very detailed information, so it is important to keep lines of contact open as much as possible and for clients to be prepared to participate in this process.

At the beginning of a big or complex project, it is always good to make contact on the phone, even if briefly, to get an idea of expectations, deadlines, budgets, etc. Once the main issues have been cleared up, e-mail communication tends to be most effective, as both parties can read and respond at their convenience and have a chain of information.  It is a good way to keep all project information straight.

Information is fundamental for a high quality product, so feel free to get in touch with us at any time – either by e-mail or by phone.