Categories

Thoughts on real-time automated translation

By David Ashton Today SDL launched BeGlobal – the combination of the Language Weaver boffins MT science and SDL’s cloud computing delivery mechanism. there has been a flurry of analyst reports and blog entries. I particularly liked Spencer Dalziel’s  blog entry and the Reuters release. For the most part SDL technology team have concentrated on the impact [...]

How does your corporate style translate?

How language specific style guides help translators correctly position content for the intended local audience. By Adriana Beaton One of the most challenging aspects of global-scale translation is deciding on and creating a corporate style for each locale. Every company has a specific way to speak to its audience in domestic markets, but once the [...]

When “Good Enough” is Not Enough for MT – Notes from SDL Roundtable in Irvine. CA

by Jonathan Slaughter I was fortunate to speak at the SDL Irvine Small Forum Networking event on Thursday, October 14, 2010. A majority of the attendees were from the Biotech and IT industries. While we talked about a myriad of subjects (controlled authoring, world-readiness, language prioritization) the biggest item on everyone’s agenda was MT. Having [...]

Building a roadmap to bring about change in the way your company handles localization

by Jonathan Slaughter Increasingly, localization “experts” are telling prospective clients (and anyone else who will listen) that the key to driving significant change in your organizations localization processes is finding a high-ranking executive to act as the champion for your cause. While that is a true statement, what is consistently missing in these “sermons from [...]

Getting to the Heart of Source Content Authoring Issues

In order to remain competitive in the global market, companies are consistently pushing in to international markets for new revenue streams. With the United States, and most or Western Europe saturated in a number of verticals, there is a significant shift to the Eastern European, Middle East and African market places.

How to Capture Your External Translation Spend

By Jonathan Slaughter One of the most common questions asked by localization vendors when assisting clients with their translation needs is “how much do you spend on translation?” and the most common answer is “I have no idea”. If you are one of these organizations, please know that you are not alone. However, finding out [...]

Testing Translation Services the Right Way

More companies are using translation tests as part of their procurement cycle. Testing translation can be beneficial, but it is essential that you understand “what” you are trying to gain from the test. For a test to be successful, you must match your test translation requirements to the most appropriate vendor strategy for your organization. The [...]

Back Translation: Out of Date in the Advanced Localization Community?

Back Translation is the process of translating a document that has already been translated into a foreign language back to the original language – preferably by an independent translator. This process is most common in organizations were product testing and research are a core aspect of the business, i.e Survey organizations, pharmaceutical and biotech companies. [...]

What does the 2009 Fortune Global 500 tell us?

The Fortune Global 500 is a list of the worlds largest companies by revenue. The list was formed in 1995 – before which US and non-US companies had their own lists. What can we see from the 2009 list – and in particular is there anything we can we see that effects the localization business? [...]

Translator research in global-scale translation

I found an interestng blog entry today by Ivete Camargo López. It was part of her series on Sacred Cows of translation – this one was “translators research“. Ivete did a great job of describing how challenging it can be for a generalist translator to translate specialist materials if the localization company doesn’t support them [...]