Jaoul Translations: The Blog

Holidays approaching!

2010-08-12T18:13:00.002+02:00

Image: br3akthru / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

At last, holidays are coming! It's been busy lately: translating technical documents for HEXIS amongst several other projects, Madeleine has gone through two months of non-stop translation, and she quite deserved some time off. She is readying her holidays while finishing the final parts of current projects, and this week end, off she goes to la maravillosa Spain!

The planning is still full of events though, even on holidays: Barcelona, Madrid and Zaragoza. Museums, meetings with friends, tapas and chocolate con churros... and preparing some new features for the website within two months, which will have more information later on.

Wishing you some nice holidays if you haven't already picked them up,

Aurélien for Jaoul Translations.

We support Earth Hour 2010, how about you?

2010-03-28T12:03:00.002+02:00

Lights were switched off at our offices, yesterday between 08:30PM and 09:30PM.

It was a truely special hour, as we tried to see around us who was following, and who wasn't. And so many people were it's just simply amazing. Of course, one hour switching the lights off is nothing compared to what we have to achieve for us and our future generations, but it's a step showing to governments unable to agree on something real in Copenhagen that everyone but them has the will to change things.

What about you, did you switch the lights off for Earth Hour? What did you do during that one hour? Let us know, so that next time, we can think of your ideas! About me

Get to your info the way YOU want it

2010-03-24T20:11:00.001+01:00

We've seen on our web metrics that quite a lot of people coming to the website did not notice it was available in their native language. Italian, British and French versions can be accessed through their respective flags, on the top right of the website.
In order to make it easier to get the right information as fast as possible, we've redesigned the first page you see when heading to www.jaoul-translations.com:
A pop-up will appear with our logo wearing your preferred language's country flag. If you click on, say the Italian logo, you will be redirected to the website, in Italian.
You can of course change to any other language at any time, through the flags on the top right of your page.
It's that simple, really!

We do hope this will make your browsing even more pleasurable. Do not hesitate in commenting this post to let us know how it feels. About me

Heads-Up - 12th March 2010

2010-03-12T18:35:00.002+01:00

The big day is finally there. Jaoul Translations is finally hosted on a professional web server, with a professional domain name. We are truly dedicated professionals looking for long-term partnership with you, our customer.

And as Jaoul Translations begins the journey into professional dotcom domains, we take another look at what makes Jaoul Translations a company you'll want to cooperate with.

Image: Salvatore Vuono

Why translating?

Be it a document, a newspaper article, a website or a software, translating it means more. More potential customers, an easier corporate communication, a wider communication to the people that matter to you. When you read something in a different language than your own, don't you feel less into it than you could have been? Or did you ever find an article on your company that you couldn't understand due to the language barrier? Translators are here to solve all those problems.

Why hiring a professional?

Yes, translation students and unofficial freelancers accept a lot of work at a total bargain. But:

They deliver the translation late. If they fail to deliver it on time, that will always be your fault, strangely.
They have no qualification to certify their quality of work, which leads to the following point.
They generally deliver bad quality. If you pay them 0.04$ or less per word, you cannot possibly expect your texts to be suited for release in your foreign markets. You will loose credibility, but that's up to you. Better ask Babelfish to do the translation for you, it's the same ugly quality that no one can understand, but at least it's free.

On the contrary, professionals:

Deliver the job on time, according to the final quote. If a translation work does get late, a professional will offer a commercial cut on the price. And you'll avoid stress and unnecessary, low-quality non-professionals.
Do have qualifications to prove they have been studying on translating at a business-ready standard. Mistranslations are rare, and glossary is respected to the letter.
Are generally available any time you want to answer your questions or provide you the best support they can. Students or unofficial freelancers generally have courses or some other work to attend to.

Why translating into only one target language is important to you?

Simply enough, even the people having natural qualities with foreign languages cannot know everything inside-out on more than one language. Culture, actual spoken language, new and old expressions, exact wording is hard enough to learn and use in your own language, so translators offering their services on "excellent standards" for a language that is not their own are either geniuses, or liars. You might well have mistakes here and there that can only alter your original message if translators are not native speakers. We provide only one target language (what your document will be translated into): French.

Why specializing?

For the same reasons as above, in a way. Being a native speaker doesn't mean you know it all on environmental sciences, robotics or tyre engineering processes. Therefore a translator, in order to reach the quality standards any customer expects, must make choices in specializations. Of course, texts of general matters can be translated by any professional translator, but I personally wouldn't trust someone offering pharmaceutics services if they've been relying on translators not specialized in pharmaceutics and medicines.

Why Jaoul Translations?
Because we have all of that: we are a professional company, specialized in English to French and Italian to French translations, seeking for partnership within the wine industry; the videogames industry, and the tourism industry. Jaoul Translations is a company based in France, so that we are able to keep up with the never-stopping linguistic changes. We strive for the best quality you can get in your translation works.

And if that wasn't enough already, we have even more to offer:

Proofreading in French
Interpreting services in French/Italian/English
Translations using CAT tools, providing you a reliable translation of your glossary throughout your document

You need even more? Jaoul Translations is happy to provide it to you:

A network of native European proofreaders and translators in FIGS (French, Italian, German and Spanish) to contact to proofread or translate into the 4 most important languages in the European market!
Easy, fast communication with your French translator, Madeleine Jaoul
And last, but certainly best, a very reasonable price on our services!

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Happy website anniversary!

2010-02-18T19:51:00.002+01:00

Whew, what a time we've had setting up the website and its different "widgets". All we had were GPL-licensed scripts and templates, some ideas and Notepad++. Each new webpage is a long process due to that, as we were trying to obtain a web 2.0 feeling in a web 1.0 working environment. But what are the results of one month on online presence? Get them after the break.

Results are satisfying. According to Google Analytics, we've had:

124 pageviews
28 absolute unique visitors
59 visits
and about 2 minutes per session on the website

And that is without counting in this blog!

What are the next things Jaoul Translations could work on to improve its website? Well, first of all is the use of a CMS. CMS (Content Management System) are interfaces to help an administrator maintain content on a website with ease, given he will not have to do all the boring work: adjust the webpage, classify it, update all links to and from it... With the use of a template for the whole website, administrators can create new articles, new sections, and make them appear online as soon as it's finished, as all is done online. Given that you do not require any HTML knowledge or FTP software, that will allow anyone administrating the website to update it.

We are still deciding on which CMS will be used for future versions of the website, but the main CMS are the following:

Then, implementing a personal space for every clients working with us, showing them an history of what has been translated, on which project... and instant, easy payment through our website, letting them track accurately their translation expenses.

Finally, but most importantly, having a domain name in .com for example, on a professional server, would allow a better view and an advertisement campaign to shake a bit our concurrents.

While we work on that, please stop by and see that what we have to offer is different from other translators: the will to always improve our services. Just for you. About me

Millésime Bio unexpected change, Vinisud instead

2010-01-20T10:42:00.003+01:00

Some posts ago, we were telling you about potential exhibitions. Next week end, Madeleine will head to Marseille in order to meet Japan Expo Sud’s organizer and negotiate a contract.

Unfortunately, we won’t be present at Millésime Bio, however we’ll participate at another famous wine exhibition called Vinisud, in February. Last year’s edition gathered 1650 exhibitors coming from Spain, Italy, Lebanon, Tunisia, Portugal and Morocco. Many more people is expected this year.

New website coming up, New 2010 survey

2010-01-14T16:49:00.002+01:00

While I hope everyone recovers from winter festivities, Jaoul Translations is far from waiting the next missions to work hard on getting a better website.

As I have announced last year, we are still working on the website to get it more accessible to partners, clients and prospects. More after the break.

Here's our changelog:

Improved navigation
Improved eye-appeal
Easy-Call&Status Skype™ technology
Auto-changing blog feeds feature
Free Instant Quote technology
Search field feature
And much more...

The new Jaoul Translations' website preview

Please note that the new website is still offline, and under heavy testing, but it gets closer to being release everyday.

Meanwhile, Jaoul Translations has opened a new survey to clients who've already ordered translations from us. And because we care about giving the best to our customers, the survey gives away a 10% OFF voucher for your next order! About me

Back to work! Japan Expo Sud and Millésime Bio

2010-01-07T21:50:00.002+01:00

Jaoul Translations is now in communications with both the Millésime Bio 2010 and Japan Expo Sud salons to negociate the faisability of being involved into both. While there is a lot of difference between wine buyers and otakus, those are two fields Jaoul Translations is getting knowledge on, in English, Italian and French, as these have something... special to us.
With French people getting more and more interested in cosplay and mangas, and the Languedoc-Roussilon heritage of wine culture, we couldn't pass on the opportunity to explain to interested people how important exporting to France can be, and how important for your marketing impact a perfect translation is.
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Jaoul Translations helps the less fortunate

2010-01-07T21:21:00.003+01:00

Winter is far from being over, and after having recently moved to a new location, Madeleine had lots of jackets and sweaters being left alone, that no one uses since at least ~~2005~~ catholic wars.
Well, instead of letting it gathering dust into her new flat, and while people are still dying from cold, all those war clothes should go to those in needs of them.

A total of 6 big jackets and a dozen sweaters have been given out to the Secours Populaire Français by Madeleine Jaoul. It might not be much, but it might as well save a life or two, and the same way Jaoul Translations is getting involved in getting your translations complete, Madeleine gets involved with charity. Even the two people we've met in the local charity building were impressed with so many warm clothes brought, you didn't need to hear "Thank you" to understand it was that important to them.

Do you give to charities? Which ones? We would like to hear from you and your involvement, as there are plenty of other charity groups to consider
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Happy new year from Jaoul Translations!

2009-12-31T23:16:00.003+01:00

We at Jaoul Translations are happy to wish you and your colleagues a happy, wonderful new year! Lots of opportunities, be them professional, in your private life or socially, shall rain on you, according to our predictions specialist!

Hoping YOU will choose an easier professional life in 2010 by getting your translations done by Madeleine Jaoul here at Jaoul Translations.

Anyway, see you in 2010, tonight we celebrate all the past and future events!

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Google and us, Part 2

2009-12-20T17:22:00.003+01:00

Jaoul Translations is now indexed by Google, that's a step to achieve regular traffic on the website. Now good keywords is something we have to work on, as the website still scores pretty low on non-custom searches.

This will improve over time, as we always try to improve our customers' happiness and easiness of collaborating with us. Same for our website, still being rebuilt as you read these lines.

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Jaoul Translations changes HQ location

2009-12-11T17:27:00.003+01:00

Madeleine being freelance, she can work from anywhere in the world. That brings lots of advantages, and lots of inconvenients too. But as of today, Jaoul Translations will be based in a quiet little town slightly further than Montpellier: Clermont l'Hérault. Please join me in congratulating Madeleine with this move, as it allows her more space and devotion to her work!

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Google and us

2009-12-05T13:09:00.005+01:00

Jaoul Translations' website is still going through lots of ongoing changes, and in a way not being indexed by Google isn't all that bad. But things certainly changed since year 2000. Now a Blog is created every second on the Internet (most being abandoned 3 months later), and Google is having troubles referencing every bits and blobs on the net.
While waiting for the indexation, I'd like to remind that Jaoul Translations is still actively searching for new clients, new translations in tourism, videogaming and press to put into French. Do not hesitate, contact us through the links on your right!
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Jaoul Translations opens up!

2009-12-03T23:09:00.002+01:00

After some months going through mail-sending, a very, very rough website created (it will change soon to something much, much better), some administrative papers and so on, Jaoul Translations finally opens up and is ready to take on translations and interpreting at the best quality that can be offered.

No more than 3 different clients are greeting Madeleine with work to do! An Italian newspapers' article to translate in hurry, PSP testing with DHM Interactive, and another company which we'll keep for us since a NDA has been signed.

Way to go, and hopefully more and more work to come!
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