About the author: Andrei Gerasimov is a Moscow-based English-Russian freelance translator,
PhD, ATA&ITI member. He has 56 literary works translated to his credit
and over 20 years of experience in translation. Currently he translates for
Ford Motor (Russia), Philips (France), and several translation agencies.
His website: erussiantranslations.com
If your company is involved in international business, one thing is
certain—sooner or later you’ll need to hire a translation services
provider (TSP). Naturally, you want a high quality translation at the
lowest possible cost.
High quality is essential to:
correctly convey your information and your message
demonstrate your company’s high standards to your target market
preserve and improve your brand image.
The quality of translation and target texts reflects your company’s QA
system, and above all, the translation should also be of premium
quality.
A quality translation is accurate, reads smoothly, and consistently
uses correct industry-specific terminology. Furthermore, a quality
translation is meaning-based, showing the translator understands not
only the source words, but also knows how to convey the core message to
the target audience, adapting it to fit that particular audience.
On the other hand, a poor—or even a simply “good enough”—translation can make a negative first impression on your new target
audience. It could be the one thing that makes the difference between
success and a flop.
There are some common challenges in choosing the right TSP. While you
are clearly an expert in your area of business, it’s likely that the
process, business and technology of translation is complete Greek to
you. How to find a TSP that suits your particular needs and
ensures the best quality/cost ratio?
This article is designed to help you:
make an informed choice of TSP
understand the basics of co-operation with a TSP
minimize translation costs without compromising quality.
Choosing a TSP
Your choices boil down to the following: use a translation agency or a
freelancer—either of which may be located in your country or in the
target language country. How to decide?
An agency is preferable when you need to translate into multiple target
languages, in addition to printing the finished product to save you
time. An agency will charge you 2—3 times more than a freelancer for
translation per language. Obviously, agencies pay higher taxes and
administrative expenses, plus furnishing plush office space and
generating profit at your expense. The actual translation is completed
by either freelancers or in-house translators. Some agencies have
rigorous QA procedures, some not. The same applies to freelancers.
If you have a limited number of target languages, the obvious choice is
to eliminate the middle men and go straight to freelancers. How do you
know a good freelancer when you see one? Look for:
memberships in well-known translation associations such as the
American Translators Association (USA), the Institute of Translation
and Interpreting (UK), or similar associations in target language
countries (i.e. the Union of Translators of Russia)
solid references (with contact details) from well-known transnational companies
sample translations in your area of knowledge
willingness to make a small test translation—not necessarily
free-of-charge, since established translators rarely make free tests
proven specialization/experience in your area of knowledge.
While it may seem easier to contact an agency or a freelancer located
in your country, in most cases this isn’t recommended. Translators
living abroad have difficulty keeping up with their dynamic changing
native languages, daily losing some linguistic skills. Another point –
translators living in the target language country can easily contact a
local specialist or terminologist. To determine precise terminology and
ensure an accurate translation, reference materials cannot replace such
“live” consultations. Living in a target language environment is a
prerequisite for a translator when smooth style and up-to-date
vocabulary are critically important—especially in the case of
advertising and marketing texts.
Note that all good translators translate only into their target
language. True bilinguals are very few. For example, Russian
translators living in the USA lose command of their native language
faster than they can improve their English. Also, costs in the target
language country may be much more attractive than in your country.
Working with your TSP
Close co-operation between a client and TSP is critically important for
a high quality translation. That means providing reference materials
(previous translations or original documents which you have edited
and/or approved), corporate/project-specific glossaries, necessary
explanations of technology described in the source text, and sometimes
clarifying sloppily-written parts. When you get a call for any of the
above, take it as a sign that your translator cares about quality.
Actually, the closer the co-operation, the better the results.
Take, for example, one classic case from my translation practice. When
a Moscow-based yacht dealership asked me to translate some advertising
brochures from English into Russian, I requested to meet a company
expert with sound knowledge of yachting terminology. I was introduced
to a marine engineer with many years of experience in operating these
yachts. He gave me all the necessary terminology. Afterwards, however,
the company’s marketing manager edited my translation heavily. Next,
the company’s director made lots of changes to the marketing manager’s
version. We discovered that three experts working in the same Russian
dealership used different Russian terminology. Only after making a
corporate glossary was the problem solved and my job duly appreciated
by the client.
Minimizing charges
Psst! What I’m about to tell you is considered an industry secret by
many translation agencies and freelancers. Source documents and series
of documents (usually called translations projects) often contain
repetitions—either internal (within one document) or external (within
a series of source documents). Example—an automotive catalogue for
2005 may contain 75% of the sentences found in the 2004 catalogue. The
same is true when you compare user manuals for various mobile phones of
the same manufacturer. No secret there.
What you probably didn’t
know is that professional translators use special software (called
Translation Memory) enabling them to translate a repetitive sentence or
phrase only one time. The software compares each subsequent sentence
with the database and automatically offers a translation made
previously. Sometimes this technology considerably decreases time and
effort while improving the quality and consistency of translation.
Note: don’t confuse TM with MT (Machine Translation) which is notorious
for producing extremely poor-quality translation. Translation Memory,
on the other hand, is simply an aid to improving the efficiency of
human translators.
So, where is the cost-savings opportunity for you? Ask your TSP
to analyze the source text (Trados or Wordfast are the most popular TM
software with an analysis function) to determine the percentage of
exact and fuzzy matches, then request an appropriate discount. Typical
discounts are as follows: new words—100%, 99–85% matches—70%, 84–0%
– 100%, repetitions and exact matches—30% (these should be checked
and sometimes edited in a new context). Depending on what the analysis
shows, you may be able to cut your translation expenses significantly.
I’m pleased to offer the tips in this article based on my 25 years of
experience in translation (as a freelancer) in the Russian market, as
well as seven years in the international market. My clients include
Volvo Cars, Philips, Ericsson and UNESCO, in addition to dozens of
translation agencies from the USA, UK, Japan, Belgium, Sweden and
France. Other articles designed to improve understanding between
translation clients and translation services providers are published on
my website www.erussiantranslations.com.
Andrei Gerasimov, Ph.D., English to Russian translator gerasae@aha.ru
Холбоо барих
Шинэ гишүүн
Тусламж
Ажил өгөгч ба орчуулагч нар (HFS)
