Oversetter

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:43:00 +0000

November seems a while off yet, but a new conference has just been publicly announced: The Translator as Strategic Partner. November 2008 will be the first time this conference has been held, and it is exciting to see a new professional conference appear on the translation circuit. The conference will be held in London, England on 22-23 November 2008 at The Camden Centre, which is conveniently located close to the new Eurostar terminus at St. Pancras. Here's the full conference programme. I'll be taking part in a round table discussion on translation, so I hope to see you there!

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 12:46:00 +0000

My passion for Continuing Professional Development is matched only by my enthusiasm for the Tour de France. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, I can combine both. For the next three weeks, I will have German TV on quietly in the background as I work, honing my language skills whilst at the same time keeping up to date with the world's greatest bike race. Bliss!

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:44:00 +0000

Declaration of independence: There has been a lot of upheaval in the translation tools market over the past handful of years. Several producers of translation memory tools (or CAT tools, if you prefer to call them that. Personally, I think a cat has four legs and a tail, but each to his own!) have been bought out. The market has changed quite radically.

So I was interested to receive a "Declaration of Independence" press release from Kilgray, the company behind the MemoQ tent (sorry, that is TenT - which is not something you sleep in whilst hiking, but a Translation Environment). In their press release, the MemoQ guys promise to keep their translation memory toolset independent. Controversial stuff, even if it is just a bit of 4th July fun! Here's their statement:

-------------
Kilgray Translation Technologies, a company dedicated to the development of translation productivity tools, re-iterated their commitment to being an independent provider of translation technology. July 4th 2008 is Independence Day for Kilgray. On that date they will sign a charter committing them to remain an independent technology provider.

“This Declaration is not just about throwing English-headquartered translation tools into the Boston Harbor. We see it as a positive charter of rights for Language Services Providers. This Declaration of Independence is a very serious commitment on our part to protect our customers' best interests. We believe it is important that any claims of independence by translation technology vendors must have real meaning. We also invite other technology companies who share our ideas on independence to join us in signing this Declaration,” - said Istvan Lengyel, chief operating officer of Kilgray.

This is Wimbledon week here in England. We're used to watching tennis matches, to moving our heads in order to follow the ball as it bounces back and forth across the net. I'll be interested to see if any other translation memory tools vendors choose to return this serve!

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:23:00 +0000

Cultural context is one of those terms that you hear a lot in the translation world. And here I must thank my friend Trevor for sending me the enclosed photo, which nicely illustrates the concept.

If I'd seen this Volvo driving down the motorway in Britain, it probably would not have made much of an impression. But in a diffrent cultural context, when spotted by a French driver as he trundled along the autoroute in France, the number plate gave a very clear message.

And no, I won't translate it. And no, I won't tell you what it means in French. But it is a lovely example of cultural context!

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:51:00 +0000

Good to see that the NWTN (the North West Translators' Network) is hosting an evening seminar on "Marketing for translators". The event takes place on Wednesday 25th June 2008, with the seminar commencing at 19:00. Venue is the Manchester YHA in Castlefields, and the speaker is Heidi Kerschl, an experienced translator with a background in marketing and an engaging presentation style. Highly recommended - I might even go along myself!

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 15:22:00 +0000

I learned a lovely new word today at an STC UK workshop. Sarah O'Keefe from Scriptorium has kindly flown over to run a workshop for STC UK, and as part of her "Paradigm Shifts are Never Pretty" presentation, Sarah introduced me to the phrase WYSIOO. This describes the XML paradigm. WYSIOO stands for What You See Is One Option, a lovely reflection on the fact that with XML documentation, content and formatting are two separate things. A lovely term - thank you, Sarah!

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:21:00 +0000

Usability is a big issue in the high-tech sector, so I was interested to read an article which reports that 95% of gadgets returned to the manufacturers are actually working fine - the users simply didn't read the manual. Doh!

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:32:00 +0000

What does the future hold for translators and interpreters?

What skills will translation and interpreting services need in the future?

Well you probably have your own opinions, but if you can take 5 minutes to complete the survey. You can learn what your peers think too, as everyone that completes the survey and supplies their email address will be sent a summary of the survey results.

The survey is part of research by Doug Lawrence of Amicus-Transtec for a presentation he is giving at the Institute of Translation and Interpreting session on "Starting Work as a Translator or Interpreter" on the 7th of June 2008.

Please click the following click to learn more about the seminar http://www.iti.org.uk/ice/pages/viewDetails.asp?id=479

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Wed, 07 May 2008 13:24:00 +0000

XML is a wonderful thing, and you can set up some intelligent translation workflows if you put your mind to it. But one aspect of XML which constantly presents minor challenges is encoding - the hoys of UTF-8 versus UTF-16. And just what is Unicode? Here is a wonderful, short, pithy synopsis of Unicode and UTF coding issues. Well worth a read.

We had to do some reading up and research on UTF encoding in XML files when we translated some DITA files recently. The files were in UTF-8, which is fine. But some text editors didn't display accented characters properly. (If you're really interested, TextPad could not spot that the file was in UTF-8, and opened it incorrectly when left to "open automatically"; if we manually tell TextPad "Hey, open this file as UTF-8" then it behaves just fine. UltraEdit is smarter, and correctly opens the translated DITA files as UTF-8 all on its own, so the accents display correctly).

This called for deeper reading. The real issue is that UTF-8 uses 2 to 4 bytes to represent characters above ASCII 127 (that means accented characters to you and me!). But there's no simple way to show how many characters are in each string, so some text editors get try to interpret half a string as a full string, and they confused. This can be resolved to some extent by including a Byte order marker (or BOM), although this is a political hot potato in the geek world. Some people argue in favour, some claim it is the work of the devil himself.

Like most translation companies, we use translation memory tools to ensure consistency when we translate user manuals and help systems, and to enable us to translate a range of file formats. One the main TM tools (or CAT tools - Computer Aided Translation) is called Trados, and their TagEditor tool started off not handling Byte Order Marks in XML files, then changed to give a (well concealed) option to force a BOM into the translated file (target language file). For anyone translating XML files, or translating DITA files, this is significant. Quite when this significant change was introduced is a bit of a mystery, but our translation memory detectives reckon it was somewhere between Trados version 7.5.0.756 and version 7.5.0.759.

To the "TM detectives" who worked with me on this, a very big Thank you. This stuff would try the patience of a saint! Now, back to our translations.......

And as a postscript, I also enjoyed Christian Flury's Unicode Primer for Linguists on this subject. I particularly like his description of Endianism (or Endianness, if you prefer), comparing it with the difference between counting in English and counting in German: In English, we start with the biggest number first, so "99" is "ninety nine". German starts at the other end, so "99" is "nine and ninety" (or neunundneunzig, in German). So English takes the big Endian approach, and German takes the little Endian approach!

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 13:46:00 +0000

Language training and teaching in the UK is in a sorry state - or rather, the uptake of it is! The number of students studying a foreign language to GCSE or to A-level has plummeted in recent years in England.

Today, I was shocked to read on the website of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting that the University of Bradford's course in Translation and Interpreting is to be discontinued due to funding issues. This is not an airy-fairy course - this was a real-world course that trained would-be translators and interpreters in the skills that they need to become professional translators. I know some really good translators who did the Bradford University course. It seems I am not alone in being shocked... there is a petition to urge the Prime Minister to look closely at the provision of language training in the UK. If this concerns you, please do sign it!

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 11:09:00 +0000

The translation memory world continues to change rapidly.

Firstly, a new translation memory product called Swordfish has been released, which is one of the few TM programs (sorry, that should be "cross-platform translation environments") that will also run on an Apple Mac.

Secondly, I am delighted to report that the development behind MemoQ are as responsive as ever. A few weeks ago, I reported a minor glitch to them that caused autonumbering to disappear when translating a Word file. Today they mailed me to say they've launched an interim version update that fixes the problem. Thank you guys - that is what I call good customer service!

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 09:00:00 +0000

pssst! Fancy a free TM? Yup, the EU is giving away translation memories for free. Or, to be specific, the Directorate-General for Translation is making available to the public the contents of the translation memories that they have built up in a number of language combinations over the years. These TM's are available in 22 EU languages, and they contain aligned sentences (or translation units). The translation memories are supplied in the TMX interchange format.

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:48:00 +0000

Some years ago, back when I was a young technical translator in the computing sector, I used to look forward each month to the arrival of Byte magazine. Partly because it gave a round-up of industry news, but mainly for the wonderful writing style of Jerry Pournelle, a man who brings humanity to technology. Byte magazine is no more, and Jerry Pournelle is now of an age where most of us would be retired, although I don't think the thought even enters his mind.

I was sorry to learn recently that he is facing health challenges at the moment, and just wanted to wish him a speedy return to full health. In the meantime, I loved this anecdote about Jerry Pournelle in his younger days! "Good bettering", as they say in Germany.

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:57:00 +0000

Microsoft Language Portal: Microsoft have set up a website to enable users and language specialists to intereact with Microsoft's own language experts on matters relating to computer technology.

It allows translators and localisation specialists to give feedback on Microsoft terminology issues, for example, or to download a German style guide (interestingly, the English version of the Microsoft Style Guide is only available in print, but it is certainly worth buying if you work in the localization field).

There is also a terminology search function, which accesses the Microsoft Glossaries. This works well on the whole, but when I asked it to tell me the German translation of "You cannot continue unless you install a printer", the system gave me both the expected German translation "Sie können den Vorgang nur fortsetzen, wenn Sie einen Drucker installieren" and also, unexpectedly, the following translation "Dir kënnt nëmme weiderfueren, wann Dir en Drécker installéiert". As a trained translator, I can tell which I need, but there is clearly the potential here for the uninitiated to be led astray.....

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:42:00 +0000

For a technical translator, specialist dictionaries are like old friends. Just as a racing driver wears out cars, so translators wear out dictionaries. And one of my own personal favourites finally fell to pieces the other week, so I had to buy a new version. Of course, the good side to this is that I have ended up with a newer, updated edition.

It also fascinates me how dictionaries change over time. And of course, how people change over time. This particular dictionary, the "Dictionary of Electrical Engineering, Power Engineering and Automation" is actually published by Siemens - or rather, by Siemens A&D Translation Services. It remains one of the best dictionaries in its field, so a special thank you to Siemens. As a technical translation company that does a lot of translation work in the control systems and industrial automation sectors, the team at SalfTrans greatly value this specialist technical dictionary.

This reminds me that I must also update my old German / English edition of the Brinkmann / Schmidt dictionary (or, to use its proper name, the "Wörterbuch der Daten- und Kommunikationstechnik"). The first edition that I used, back in the early 1980's when I was working as a staff translator in Berlin, featured splendid photographs of the two authors, one of them wearing a particularly 1970's jacket and glasses, complete with cigarette in hand. By the next edition of the dictionary in the late 1980's they both looked far more sober. Then Mr Schmidt, disappeared from the credits, and now Karl-Heinz Brinkmann is joined by Herbert Blaha as authors of the most recent 2002 edition.

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:20:00 +0000

Shakedown in the translation tools market: We live in an increasingly complex world. Turn the clock back, and things were simpler. Five years ago, translation companies produced translations, and software companies produced software. Now, that distinction has blurred. Several major producers of translation tools have been bought out by the very translation companies that used to be part of their target market. In that sense, it is a little like a major airline buying Boeing or Airbus.

The trend started when translation company SDL bought translation memory vendor Trados. More recently, we have seen SDL buy first Passolo and then Idiom. Today, word broke that Alchemy (which, like Passolo, is a translation memory tool used in software localization) has been sold to a big translation vendor called Translations.com/Transperfect.

On the one hand, this can be good news. It can mean new investment in specialist tool development. On the other hand, it can concentrate a lot of power in relatively few hands. It promises to be an interesting time, and may well lead to translation companies exploring new, smaller, independent developers of translation memory systems, such as MemoQ. As Don DePalma says in his latest Global Watchtower article: "We think that this deal will cause other large LSPs to review their technology portfolios."

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 20:23:00 +0000

Best Practices for XML Internationalisation: A W3C working group has published a note on "Best Practices for XML Internationalization", and is seeking constructive feedback and comments. Please take a look at their report, and do give them any feedback you may have. The people who sit on these standards committees and who publish these reports and standards all do it on a voluntary basis, and because they care about our industry.

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 15:01:00 +0000

Trains and training: I'm attending a training event in London today, a one-day conference on Content Management Systems organised by the UK Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication (STC UK). For any professional in the technical communications field, staying abreast of changes in technology and in best practice is essential, and I try and attend training events at least three or four times each year. What amuses me is the frequency with which I hit travel problems when attending these events. Today, there is a big question mark about whether I will be able to get a train home to Manchester this evening after some containers got blown off a train by high winds, blocking the West Coast Mainline. Fun and games!

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 12:01:00 +0000

The dangers of machine translation: People often ask me whether our company uses machine translation tools. And they are normally surprised when I explain that all our translations are done by human beings, by trained, qualified, experienced professional translators who combine language expertise with an in-depth understanding of the subject in question. And I like to collect examples that explain why we use this approach.

Here's one such example. A group of journalists in Israel used a web-based machine translation system to translate an invitation from the Dutch Foreign Minister, and the end result very nearly caused a major diplomatic row. Apparently, the system could not differentiate between the Hebrew word for "if" (ha'im) and the Hebrew word for mother (ha'ima). Ouch. Other translation errors included "bandages of the knitted domes" instead of "Dome of the Rock".

The email apparently began "Helloh bud, Enclosed five of the questions in honor of the foreign minister: The mother your visit in Israel is a sleep to the favor or to the bed your mind on the conflict are Israeli Palestinian, and on relational Israel Holland,"

Ho hum. I suspect that causing offence to the Dutch Foreign Minister was NOT the objective the journalists had in mind when they innocently fed their text into the web-based translation tool. I guess the moral is that using one of those web translation tools might be just about OK for getting a general outline of something you can't read, it should never be used to translate important communications that you are going to send to your clients. For that, you need a skilled, qualified, trained, experienced professional translator.

Sure, using a professional translation company costs a little bit of money. But the real cost of this mistake has been that the trip to the Netherlands was cancelled, and the Dutch government is considering filing a formal complaint. Can you afford to risk doing that sort of damage to your relations with your clients? Better by far to incur a small expense and to get it right first time.

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 11:55:00 +0000

Technology as a useful communication tool: I was delighted to recently hear from an old friend of mine, and to catch up on news and gossip. And I was very interested to see that she has set up a translation company the specialises in environmental issues. I wish her every success with her new business!

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 16:14:00 +0000

Gelukkig nieuwjaar! We have used the quiet days after Christmas to launch our Dutch Salftrans website.

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:36:00 +0000

Merry Christmas! We are winding down at the end of a very busy year, and our offices will be closed between Christmas and New Year. Our team of translators, DTP experts and project managers have worked extremely hard this year, and everyone deserves a few days off to recharge their batteries. In the meantime, we have posted a Christmas scene of snow in the hills above Manchester for you to enjoy, gentle reader.

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 17:09:00 +0000

Christmas is coming. I know this not because the goose is getting fat, but because I popped into town today to the Manchester Christmas markets. There are actually three Christmas markets in Manchester this year, but the one in St Ann's Square is my favourite, mainly because they are selling hot roasted chestnuts there! And for a translator like me, it is nice to have a chance to chat to the stallholders in German or Dutch.

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 11:52:00 +0000

More translation mishaps from the wonderful book: Aeroflot can always be relied on, and they don't disappoint with this sign:

"Introducing wide boiled aircraft for your comfort"

And still on an airlines theme, there was the unfortunate Danish airline that advised passengers:

"We take your bags and send them in all directions"

Ho hum. Maybe it really is worth spending a couple of bucks more to have customer-facing literature professionally translated?

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 15:12:00 +0000

As translators, we love language, and words. So a rainy afternoon in Manchester saw some of our translators sat round a table chuckling over more not-quite-right signs in English. Today's gem is the following, from a hairdresser's in Beijing:

Haircuts half price today.
Only one per customer.

Hmmm. The concept that anyone might want more than one haircut today is ... interesting!