Dr Mark Hooper's presentation from our April Translation and Transcreation Workshop. How does the translation process work? How can you get the best for your translation project from your Language Service Provider? What does technology mean for translation? What are the differences between translation, transcreation and localisation? This informative presentation answers all of these questions and more.

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Translation and Transcreation
Workshop
Welcome
Dr Mark Hooper
Director, Conversis Medical

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What’s the workshop all about?
• Some short presentations
• Introduction to current topics in translation and localisation
• Aim is to generate discussion
• Share experiences and best practice within the industry
• Enable the attendees to implement better localisation strategies and
processes
• For us to learn more about what’s important to you

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Some structure to the workshop
Split into four sections:
1. Translation process
2. Types of projects/files
3. Final step – regenerate translated files/ projects
4. Current technologies
There is overlap between sections, feel free to jump in with questions.

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The
translation
process

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What is involved?
• Translation
• Revision (usually one or two revision steps, often called proof-reading)
• Back translation
• QA
• Client review
• Regulatory approval if required
• Review changes
• Desktop Publishing (Layout)

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• Revise - Examine a translation for its suitability for the agreed
purpose, compare the source and the target texts, and recommend
corrective measures
• Competencies of reviser - Revisers shall have the same
competencies as translators and should have translating experience
in the domain under consideration.
• Review - Examine a target text for its suitability for the agreed
purpose and respect the conventions of the domain to which it
belongs and recommend corrective measures.
• Competencies of reviewer: Reviewers shall be domain specialists in
the target language.
• Proofreading - Checking of proofs before publishing
ISO DEFINITIONS –
EN-15038 (ISO 9001) ISO 17100 (tbc 2016)

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• The standard industry process is at least one revision step, and an
internal QA check as standard.
• Some companies have sufficient in-house revision/proof reading
resource to do ‘revision’ in-house. Note: this technically means that
the project is not EN-15038 compliant, (but don’t let QA dictate to us,
but use it for the advantages!)
• On occasions, due to time or budget restraints, clients prefer not to
include a proofreading stage – this might affect the consistency and
general quality and would not be recommended for projects which
are for publication, but can be ok for documents for internal use.
Translation steps

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• Appropriate translators
• Good process (ISO, same translator throughout, revision steps)
• Consistency (can use translation memories)
• In-house QA steps – software and manual
• Don’t rush (if possible!)
Translation quality

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• Translation is not an exact science.
• How do you judge/reconcile on what is the ‘best’
translation when translators disagree?
• Trust/ experience/ suitability of translators
• High quality Translator Database, experience with
translator abilities.
• Translator suitability – including specialist knowledge or
technical ability e.g. medical or legal. Also softer skills e.g.
sympathetic translation – for marketing, informal or age-
limited content.
Translation quality

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• We try to avoid splitting work among different translators and also
try to always assign the same resources to subprojects.
• If this cannot be avoided due to the scale of the project, we would
ask one proof reader to review the entire translation and ask the
proof reader to make the translations consistent.
• Back translation proves the translation was actually done (as the
‘blind’ back translation re-generates the original English text
without reference to the source). Not very useful for checking the
‘subjective’ accuracy of the forward translation. Discrepancies
could equally be introduced in back and forward translation steps.
• Better ways to do ‘QA’ on forward translation. Maybe machine
translation could be suitable test for ‘blind’ back translations.
Translation quality

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• Trados Studio, Memsource, Wordbee
• What can they do?
• Import many types of files, extract text for translation, present as bi-
lingual tables for easy translation and revision
• Analyse files for number of words, repetitions, matches (fuzzy or not!)
• Help quality, consistency and save time and cost
• Enable use of translation memories
• Help document tracking and control
Computer Aided Translation (CAT) Tools

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• Aid consistency of translation within a set of documents/ project
• Cost saving – repetition/ similar words, time
• Can help in auto-fill of formatted text when design is done after
translation – avoiding cut/paste
• Helps quality control – internal checking, spotting typos etc.
• Also utilise ‘Trademark’ check for specific ‘similar’ project codes e.g.
‘Welcome to the ABCD study’, vs ‘Welcome to the BACD study’.
Translation Memories

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• Aid consistency of translation within a set of documents/project.
• Cost saving – repetition/similar words, time.
• Can help in auto-fill of formatted text when design is done after
translation – avoiding cut/paste.
• Helps quality control – internal checking, spotting typos etc.
• Also utilise ‘Trademark’ check for specific ‘similar’ project codes e.g.
‘Welcome to the ABCD study’, vs ‘Welcome to the BACD study’.
Translation Memories

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Translation Memories

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Translation Memories
Translator can search for specific words

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Translation Memories
When working in a file, 100% matches from the TM are already populated.
Fuzzy matches, such as segment 2, show the level of match and the TM
window shows what the differences are between the text being worked on
and the text in the TM.

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Translation Memories
No matches from the TM

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Bi-lingual tables
Example of a table sent for client review

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Translation management companies add value by carrying out
management of the translation project. This includes:
• File handling, tracking and version control
• Extraction of translatable text from complex documents/ files
• Having known, assessed and certified suitable translators ready,
finding availability and managing the resources
• Reconciling differences between translators, client experts,
regulatory reviews
Project management

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• Number of words – also depends on how many translators used
• Languages requested – obscure languages, number of languages (more
project management time chasing files)
• Services requested – Quality required often defines timescales – number
of steps and time to review ethics/regulatory/client changes.
Top tip: It’s always worth getting any late changes checked/reviewed by
translators. Company experts (such as doctors, legal, regulatory
or compliance) don’t always have good spelling and grammar! 
How long does it take?

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• Project Managers will work out the schedule together with the
client.
• Each translator can do ~2,000 words per day (rough guide).
• Working directly with the final formatted file is generally faster.
• Review - ~10,000 words per day.
• Preparing files, sending out, receiving back, in-house QA – 2-3 days.
• DTP – layout = ~20 pages per day.
How long does it take? II

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Types of
translation
projects

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Traditional – documents/ files
• Word, Excel, Powerpoint
• InDesign, Framemaker, Adobe Illustrator
• Varying amounts of formatting
• Files can all be imported directly to our Translation Management System
(TMS) – which will extract relevant text and re-generate files at end of
translation.
• Files that can be fully controlled by client project managers
• Transfer by email or secure FTP

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Why work with original file format (not converting to Word)?
• Working from the original file format:
– Avoids transcription errors
– Saves time, costs, improves quality
– Translated text is automatically inserted into the formatted final
document
• Working in a converted format, e.g. Word:
– A lot of our clients and their clients prefer to work with Word
files
– Prone to transcription errors
– Content needs to be transferred back to original format
• Alternative: Original file format + Word review table
Work with original file format

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More complex files
• E.g. HTML, JSF, software files
• Often with background code/tags around the translatable text
• Most files can all be imported directly to our Translation
Management System (TMS) – which will extract relevant text and re-
generate files at end of translation
• Often not standalone files. Can have many dependent files or links.
Need IT support to edit or send out or make ‘work’.
• Extra technical challenge.

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• Not a ‘normal file’ – where do they ‘live’?
• How do you get a ‘website’ out of the system? How back in?
(Help please IT-guys!)
• Who does the edits and fixing
• Different levels of system ‘integration’ – find the simplest solution
(that’s effective!)
• How is the website set up? Where is the translatable text?
• Do you need to write a new website for each language?
(Translate or Localise or Transcreate?)
More complex files

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• Everyone wants multi media these days!
• Includes dynamic websites, inserted videos, audio clips, live feeds,
tweets, comments and feedback sections, etc.
• Example – BBC news website, in many languages, with voice-overs
and ‘up-to-date’ feeds.
• Live interpreting and international webcasts
• Can we do it and what are the challenges?
Multi media

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• Voice over or subtitles?
• Technical challenges of editing videos and need multi-party
services (translation, voice artists, directors, studio recording,
mpeg editing, subtitles, writing copy, timing, tech knowledge in
mpegs...)
• Localisation – are the films/images appropriate to the
country/culture?
Challenges of video content

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• A rough guide: Transcription of audio recording takes 4-8 times the
original recording time i.e. a 5 hour recording can take 20-40 hours
to transcribe.
• Another rough guide is audio equates to ~2.5 words per second, so
an hour audio would be ~9000 words.
• Best quality is source language transcription, then translate, then
regenerate audio in target language.
• Cost-effective alternative is real-time translation and transcription
straight into target language. Can be lower quality.
Challenges of audio content

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• Timing/urgency? New ways of working with translators e.g. via text
messages, email, phones.
• Review or not?
• Text speak – shortened messages
• Live webcasts – often slight delay, but use interpreters and webcast
technology
Challenges of live feeds, tweets,
live webcasts, interpreting

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Final step –
not translation
but…
conversis.com

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Once the text/audio is translated, it often needs to be used to generate the
final translated file/media.
• Who does this? Client – can be more convenient or keeps control with
the client’s design team. But... can waste valuable resource in ‘cut/paste’
exercise. Can leave non-linguists exposed to tricky language problems
(working blind).
• Is there any quality check after layout complete? Who does it?
• Translation companies do offer ‘DTP’ services (pretty established)
• Some offer ‘DTP’ layout for digital content (e.g. websites, emails)
• Video files – companies will often offer to sort the sub-titles and voice-
overs for you, not normally handled by the client (unless you are a video
editing/making company).
It doesn’t end with translation...

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DTP Checklist
When generating documents that will need to be translated, there are
certain ways to generate the files’ formatting that will help avoid extra
costs and time in producing the final translated documents. These
include:
• Automatic (built in) formatting: Using Stylesheets, allow sufficient/
spare white space, text frames and formatting.
• Use compatible fonts (for many languages).
• Graphics – try not to hard-wire translatable content into graphics.

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More details on translation-friendly DTP
• Use defined formatting e.g. stylesheets and auto-align functions to
generate the source document. Avoid manually aligning text (e.g. with
tabs or spaces).
• Allow space for expansion of text (very common). Use disconnected
text frames to prevent text from running into next frame/page.
• Avoid using text in graphics which may need to be manually changed.
If text needs to be in a graphic, provide layered Photoshop files with
the text on a separate layer and NOT converted to curves or rasterized
(one fixed image).

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Examples of DTP issues
• Source text only just fits into background
images (Computer).
• Same font and size works for ‘shorter’
translation (POCITAC), but longer translation
needs smaller size (Greek alphabet).
• Decision made on consistency of font size (all
smaller), vs consistency of presentation
(different font sizes, but all almost filling the
space).

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Alignment in text frames
Allow your DTP software to do the work of
aligning text. It makes the formatting of the
translation much easier too.

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Alignment in text frames

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Alignment in text frames

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Example of good text practice
• Don’t use ‘manual alignment’ of list or
bullets – e.g. using returns or tabs.
• Use ‘Bullet’ style sheet, or Indent. Avoids
breaking sentence, so translation will follow
list, not break up in same place.

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Fonts

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Graphics
Picture supplied as a flat
jpeg file. Text has a
background to it.
Wiping the text off the flat jpeg wipes
the background image as well. It may
be impossible to rebuild this.

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Graphics
In this instance the picture has been supplied as a Photoshop (.psd) file
with the text on a separate layer from the background making it easy to
translate the text without affecting the background image.

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Digital Content Editing (‘DTP’)
Translated files
HTML ‘artwork’ files
Conversis magic!
Translated & Formatted
HTML files – websites,
emails etc

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Digital Content Editing (‘DTP’)
• Can be done by cut/paste using your content management system
(Website or Emails), but is slow, takes time and a lot of potential for
errors. Can be blind.
• Tricky part is how to ‘extract’ the files from your server/ system, and
how to put them back in – use most portable suitable file format to
use (e.g. html, php, jsf etc).
• Then use our TMS to extract translatable text, do translation, then
translated file can returned to you.
• One good solution is ‘translated’ file is placed on staging server or
using a ‘shared’ file platform to copy to staging server.

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Digital Content Editing (‘DTP’)
• Then any editing done on website/email/software ‘in-situ’
and any dependencies (links) can be updated or changed (by
the client’s team or by us).
• Images, banners and videos also need checking.
• Formatting of menus and style formatting needs checking.

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Videos, Audio and Live Interpreting
• Video – either sub-titling or voice over. Clients can do
transcription, generate sub-titles, and can process videos if they
have the expertise. Translation company can just translate sub-
titles/ transcript, or do full service (including burning in sub-titles
and or voice over dubbing, and linking into website etc.)
• Audio – as before, need to decide on quality and translation
process.
• Live feeds – interpreting, with delay? Webcasts – sharing
technology. Risks – no QA/ regulatory check! Costings – need 2
interpreters to cover longer work, fee for ‘rights to use the
recording’ etc.

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• Suppliers will always provide ball park quotes.
• Here’s some ideas of costs:
– Translation – normally from £0.10 to £0.20 per word
– (Translation memories can reduce costs for repetitions or matches)
– Revision - normally ~1/3rd cost of translation e.g. £0.03 to £0.06 per
word
– DTP - £15-£20 per page, or £7-£12 per page if translated text ‘auto-
filled’ in
– (Digital content editing around £40 per webpage or email)
– Project management – often ~10% on all costs
– File preparation, Changes review, Reconciliation of back translation
~£40/hour
How can you estimate costs?

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Current
technologies

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Brief introduction to technology being used in translation
projects right now. What help it gives you, what possibilities to
speed up or reduce costs. Can it hinder you?
• CAT tools
• Translation memories
• Workflow/translation management systems
• Machine translation
Technology to help you (and us!)

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Manages the whole process from receipt of enquiry to delivery of
final product. Includes:
• Generation of quote
• Transfer of files etc (can be automated – advantage or not?)
• Allocation of resource
• Tracking of documents through review process
• Invoicing, feedback
• Customer relationship system
Workflow/translation management systems

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Machine Translation
Examples such as Google Translate and more sophisticated programs.
• Sometimes used as automatic translate (e.g. websites)
• OK for lower quality work, not there (yet) for high quality needs
• Good for ‘Gisting’ – could be good way of checking ‘blind’ translation
• Can be used with strong revision, but sometimes more trouble than
time-saving.
• Watch for the future!

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Worked example
Translation-Localisation-Transcreation
• Dr Wolff’s – Linola® – Dry Skin Treatment cream (example taken from
German and English websites)
• Take one paragraph of text and 1 image to translate:
Source: www.linola.de

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• Text translated using Google translate (!!)
• Translated direct without removing original document formatting
Dry Skin - Linola fat
Developed early as 1956, Linola fat is still highly topical. It is precisely in children with atopic dermatitis. This
cream is widely used because the treatment then without cortisone is possible.
• Translated with initial edit to remove formatting
Dry Skin - Linola fat
Developed early as 1956, Linola fat is still highly topical. It is precisely in children with eczema, this cream is
often used because the treatment is then possible without cortisone.
Can you spot the problems with
the translation?
Definition of “Topical” (adjective)
1 Of immediate relevance, interest, or importance owing to its relation to current events
2 Relating or applied directly to a part of the body e.g. topical steroid creams (Medicine)

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• Marketing translated
directly German to
English.
• Cultural issues with ‘a
lot of fat’ as a great
selling point!
• Also cartoons are quite
‘germanic’. Would
change for UK market.If the skin ... ... is dry and itchy ... is red and inflamed
then cream ... ... with a lot of fat ... with plenty of water