5 Hacks for Smooth Translation Sailing

Are you new to using translators? Or have you been using document translation servcies for some time now? Regardless of what your situation is, here are a few hacks from which you (and your service providers) can benefit and even maintain sanity through the process:

1. Tell them why you need it. 

Translators need to know why the document needs translation. Are you translating for compliance reasons, required by law? Are you trying to sell more products abroad? Do you need to communicate with local customers who speak other languages? Or are you just curious what your text will look like in Arabic? Whatever the reason, share it. Translators need to know who your audience is and what the inteded goal or performance indicator is that you will use to measure your success. Believe it or not, they can choose the right method to influence just what you need.

2. Find your true original files. 

We all love PDFs unless we are asked to translate them. All PDFs originated as a “native file”  – that is, a file native to a specific program – such as MS Word or Adobe Indesign. If you can locate the original version, that is what you need to provide to your translator. Translators thrive on text-editable formats they can use to simply replace the original text with target text. In a PDF-only situation, you risk they will go to great lengths to try to “convert” the file into a text-editable format which may result in an utterly messy situation, introduction of errors, longer processing, and incurred charges for layout and formatting.

Unless your file is a scanned image of the original, the native file live somewhere in your organization and hunting for it will almost certainly pay off.

3. Avoid moving the goal post.

Does your business produce multiple versions of one document? Some organizations have trouble with version control. And with the onset of collaborative tools, ranging from Google Docs to Slack, there might be multiple people editing a document at the same time. The advice for users of translation  is simple: wait until you are done revising your document before commissioning translation. You will avoid a lot of headaches if you let your service finish one translated version before introducing changes. On a similar note, try not to negotiate a quick turnaround for the work, only to throw in six more documents the next day and request the deadline remains the same. No one likes to feel rushed and it will most definitely be you, or your document, who will suffer the most.

4. Be available. 

Translators are linguists, not walking encyclopedias. This means they know the inner workings of a language but not necessarily the inner workings of your industry. All professional translators make up for it by being excellent researchers and avid learners (Hint: if yours isn’t, you might want to look for a new one). If you are available to explain context for a term they have never heard before, a new acronym, or a function of your product, you will make their life infinitely easier. In turn, you will receive a product of much higher quality as well.

5. Use only constructive feedback. 

If you have a professional linguist translate your document and then you ask your bilingual cousin to review it, it is like having an orthopedic surgeon fix your knee and then asking  a nursing student if the surgeon had done a good job. Every person who is asked to “review and correct” a document will look for – and find – issues to correct. This is human nature. The problem is that most of the time this will result in highly  subjective, preferential changes of the “happy” to “glad” type. And one frustrated linguist, I might add.

If you have employees or perhaps in-country distributors who speak the languages into which you translate, instruct them to focus only on terminology and/or shifts in meaning. This type of feedback will be welcome and appreciated. Your translator will feel like they are learning and growing, which is what you want here.

It is also a good idea to tell your vendor that their translation will be reviewed by someone else. They might suggest preparing a glossary, first, and having it approved by your internal sources before translating. That way they will minimize, or even eliminate any subsequent changes and corrections.

If you are concerned about general quality issues, take a look at our blog post about knowing if your translation is correct.

These simple suggestions pretty much boil down to open communication lines which should not come as a surprise to anyone, especially in an industry that is all about communication.