1 . o 2010 N t . FEBRUARY FEBRUARY VOL TRANSLORIAL

Crowdsourcing: Outrage or Opportunity? BY NAOMI BAER, P. 10

PERSPECTIVE REPORT PERSPECTIVE Editing vs. Poetry, Emotion, & What Makes a Proofreading Collective Beauty Good Agency? BY GRISEL CREMONESI, P. 5 BY MARGARITA MILLAR, P. 6 BY HERBERT EPPEL, P. 14 CONTENTS

FEBRUARY 2010 contributors NAOMI BAER is an ATA-certified HERBERT EPPEL is a chartered engineer. Contributors...... 2 Portuguese > English translator with over Originally from Heidelberg, he has been Letter from the President ...... 3 15 years of experience in the translation living and working in the UK since 1988. NCTA Board Reports ...... 3 field. In 2006, she founded the Community Herbert diversified into translation in 1995, Member Benefits ...... 3 Translation Program at Kiva, a non-prof- and is a member of several ITI networks. Continuing Education Points...... 3 it organization facilitating microloans He works in a wide range of technical and From the Editor...... 4 online, and has since expanded the pro- scientific subjects. For more information, New Members...... 4 gram to include over 400 volunteer trans- see www.HETranslation.co.uk. Poetry, Emotion, & Collective Beauty ...5 lators. As Director of Microloan Review SARAH LLEWELLYN is a freelance French ALTA Conference Report ...... 6 and Translation at Kiva, she is responsible > English translator with a background in TRADOS Tips ...... 6 for developing the infrastructure and pro- marketing and public relations. Born and Progress Report ...... 7 gram framework required to support Kiva’s raised in the UK, she spent the early part Upcoming Workshops ...... 7 growing translation community. of her career working in France before December General Meeting...... 8 MARGARITA MILLER is a native of moving to Sydney, Australia to work for January Brunch...... 9 Colombia and has lived in San Francisco a French airline. She is now based in Crowdsourcing ...... 10 since 1983, where she obtained a B.A. in San Francisco. Sarah holds a degree in The Translorial Tool Kit ...... 12 Journalism and an M.A. in Comparative Linguistics from the University of London The Transmug Report ...... 13 Literature at San Francisco State University. and is a certified translator with the UK What Makes a Good Agency? She has worked for 15 years as a profes- Chartered Institute of Linguists. (courtesy of ITI Bulletin) ...... 14 sional interpreter and translator. She now YVES AVÉROUS is a French native and focuses on contemporary Latin American has been a professional translator in San General interest articles are available and American literature, and is a freelance Francisco since 1996. He began his translat- online at www.translorial.com. journalist and documentary filmmaker. ing career while a journalist in Paris; today, TRANSLORIAL is a publication of NCTA, GRISEL CREMONESI has been a project his major focus is technology localization a nonprofit organization for professional manager at Valle Translations for the past and marketing. In 2005, Mr. Avérous car- translators and interpreters. five years. She has had extensive experience ried his journalism experience into the Publisher as a professional translator, copy editor reshaping of Translorial, and created its Elisa Rossi...... [email protected] and proofreader (specializing in health- online archive, http://translorial.com. He Editor care). In her native Argentina, she com- serves as Vice President of the NCTA in Nina Bogdan...... [email protected] pleted coursework in Technical, Scientific charge of communications and is also a Concept Yves Avérous ...... [email protected] and Literary English-Spanish Translation Mac evangelist and co-founder of the Mac Distribution Studies and is currently working towards a User Group for translators, TransMUG at Tatyana Neronova [email protected] B.A. in that field. http://transmug.com.D Ad Manager Sarah Llewellyn ...... [email protected] Printing NORTHERN CALIFORNIA Online Referral Service Sundance Press...... (800) 528-4827 TRANSLATORS ASSOCIATION www.ncta.org [email protected] Layout/Pre-Press P.O. Box 14015, Berkeley CA 94712-5015 Directors Flight 19...... www.flight19creative.com Continuing Education Images Yves Avérous, Raffaella Buschiazzo, Administration/Telephone Referral Norma Kaminsky (510) 666-0544 iStockPhoto.com, Tuomas Kostiainen, Sharlee Juliet Viola (510) 845-8712 [email protected] [email protected] fax: 845-8712 Merner Bradley. Ethics & Publications Proofreaders Naomi Baer, Andrea Bindereif, Officers Elisa Rossi (415) 430-8955 Donald Couch, Sharlee Merner Bradley, [email protected] Brigitte Minault-Reich, Michael Schubert, President, ATA Certification [email protected] Gabriela Urricariet. Tuomas Kostiainen (415) 258-8247 [email protected] fax: 457-5153 Events [email protected] Raffaella Buschiazzo (415) 674-8439 YOUR TURN! [email protected] Translorial is always looking for contributions. Vice President Marketing & Public Relations We publish our members’ stories, ideas and Yves Avérous (415) 285-9837 Sonia Wichmann (510) 589-7068 thoughts. Submitting an article also helps [email protected] [email protected] maintain your ATA certification and grants Secretary Membership you a free “plug” in the Contributors section Alexandra Jaffe (917) 617-7847 Janeth Mónica Pérez (510) 222-5653 of this page and on the Translorial archive [email protected] fax: 373-3719 [email protected] page of our website. Send your ideas and Treasurer Webmaster comments to the editor at [email protected]. Dagmar Dolatschko (650) 421-2500 Paula Dieli (415) 710-5366 Submit articles now for upcoming issues.D [email protected] fax: 421-2501 [email protected]

2 TRANSLORIAL NEWS

letter from the president BOARD REPORTS

At the November Board Meeting Planned the NCTA New Year’s brunch. Discussed how to organize the Translorial team. Distributed updated brochures and cards for the NCTA Referral Service among the USEFUL directors. BY TUOMAS KOSTIAINEN Validated votes for the General Meeting location and printer for Translorial. ince the previous issue of Translorial ATA Mid-Year Spanish Language Division Voted to approve the E-voting service . Sjust came out less than two months ago Conference in San Diego on March 4-6. At the December Board Meeting and it has been relatively quiet during the And since I started listing these more Discussed sponsorships obtained for NCTA holidays, I don’t really have anything new or less local events, here are a few more: workshops and GMs. and exciting to write about. So, I will use the Game Localization Summit in San Discussed membership renewal drive. this space for some useful reminders and Francisco on March 9, the CHIA Annual announcements. Conference, “Technology and Healthcare Planned to record the December GM. To start with, at the risk of being shame- Interpreting,” in Costa Mesa on March Reviewed timing for the February issue of fully repetitive, I want to remind you about 18-20, and the Localization Certification Translorial. membership renewals. Please pay your Program by CSU Chico in San Francisco Nominated recipients of the Volunteer of the renewal dues in time so that you don’t on March 22-26. These events and the Year and One Year Honorary Membership risk losing your membership. Also, when upcoming NCTA workshops give you a awards. renewing your ATA membership, remem- wide selection of high quality continuing Reviewed the NCTA budget for ’09-’10. ber to mark NCTA as your chapter for the education opportunities in which to par- Discussed the possibility of attending the ATA chapter rebate. ticipate during the few months. MIIS job fair in February. Please take a look at the membership You should have received instructions At the January Board Meeting benefits table below this letter. Are you uti- on how to vote electronically in the NCTA Reviewed progress on the membership lizing all the benefits, and are your contact Board elections and hopefully you have renewal drive. information and online profile up-to-date? already voted. If not, don’t let this historic Planned for content in the next issue of You don’t want to miss a potential job moment pass you by. Depending on when Translorial. because of an outdated e-mail address or this issue of Translorial comes out, you Reviewed the E-voting process for the because you forgot to update your profile. might still be able to vote online. If you upcoming NCTA election. How about giving a presentation at the haven’t, you will be able to vote in person Updated the ’09-’10 NCTA budget. next ATA Conference in Denver at the end at the General Meeting in February. Reviewed 2010 NCTA Board Timeline. of October? The presentation proposals are And one more reminder: our GMs in Viewed a portion of video from the usually due by early March. Another ATA February and May will be at the SFSU event that you should be aware of is the Downtown Campus. See you there.D presentation at the December GM. D member benefits continuing The NCTA is working hard to promote the association and its members. education points

This year, the NCTA offered a free six-month membership to all 2009 graduates of the Workshops offer an affordable and local way Membership Translation/Interpretation/Localization program at the Monterey Institute for International for MIIS grads to accrue Continuing Education (CE) points. Studies. See our recent press release on www.ncta.org. All ATA-certified translators now need to LinkedIn is an effective site for networking and increasing your professional . Join accrue 20 CE points during each three-year NCTA the group to display the NCTA logo on your LinkedIn profile and instantly connect to other period in order to maintain their certifica- LinkedIn group NCTA members. tion (see http://www.atanet.org/certification/ For sharing news and announcements of NCTA events and activities, including non- guide_education_points.php). Many options Facebook page members who are Facebook users. Spread the word! are available to fulfill the requirements. If you can’t come to every General Meeting, Members Yahoo Don’t forget to join over 300 members on the NCTA listserv to quickly receive answers to Group list: your questions, exchange information, or post jobs. take a workshop or two each year. Just two four-hour workshops a year will give you Enhance your professional image by displaying the NCTA logo on your website, business NCTA logo more than enough points, at less than $100 card, and email signature. Contact [email protected] to request use of the logo. a year. TK

FEBRUARY 2010 3 NEWS WELCOME MAKING The following members joined NCTA between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, 2009: CONTACT INDIVIDUAL BY NINA BOGDAN, EDITOR

Farinaz Agharab Carmen Roman San Francisco (fa-fr) Redwood City (es) [email protected] [email protected]

Wing Yan Winnie Au Yeung Richard (Bob) Serina Pacheco (es-zh) San Jose (computer tech) 2010! [email protected] [email protected]

Marta Donayre Tyson Craig Shelley he number alone seems to have some Sunnyvale (es-pt) Monterey (es) Tkind of special significance. Perhaps [email protected] [email protected] the reason for this is that every time I say it, I hear the soundtrack of the film 2001: A Sheree Escoto Kayo Shiraishi Space Odyssey in my head. The connection Capitola (es) Redwood City (ja) is that its sequel was titled 2010: The Year [email protected] [email protected] We Make Contact. Strange how the mind works. To be honest, I don’t remember Camilla Anna Maria Giddens Tovah Elyse Skiles what the soundtrack was in 2010 but the Dallas, TX (de) Davis (es) title works for the purposes of this column. [email protected] [email protected] Maybe this will be the year that we make Richard Giles Catherine N. Stevenson contact with lots of new clients? Long Beach (de) Oakland (fr) We start off the year with a controver- [email protected] [email protected] sial topic: crowdsourcing. Not only did we have an interesting presentation on Marlene Hudson Kristen N. Templeman the question as it relates to the transla- Santa Rosa (es) San Francisco (fr) tion industry, focusing on Kiva and Idem [email protected] [email protected] Translations, by Naomi Baer and Monica Moreno at the December general meeting Nanaka King Claire Pei-Yi Tsai (see Sarah Llewellyn’s report), but Naomi Palo Alto (ja) San Jose (zh) provides a thoughtful analysis of this issue [email protected] [email protected] in our feature article. In addition, Grisel Cremonesi provides Lucy G. Kryuchkova Andrea Valencia García de Bustamante an agency perspective of editing vs. proof- San Francisco (de-ru) San Francisco (es) reading, another much-discussed topic [email protected] [email protected] among translators, and Herbert Eppel Emmanuel X. Lemor offers his perspective on what makes a San Francisco (fr-computer tech) CORPORATE good translation agency. The latter article [email protected] first appeared in the July/August issue of EPIC Translations the journal of the Institute of Translation Javier Moreno-Pollarolo Jamie Bonnette and Interpreting, the ITI Bulletin. The Oakland (es) Sacramento (916) 220-6307 author discusses issues that concern both [email protected] Fax: (877) 358-8252 agency owners and freelance translators. [email protected] Our reports include Margarita Millar’s Rexford Osei-Ansah www.epictranslations.com impressions of the ALTA conference, Sacramento (es-fr-it-la) Linda Joyce’s overview of discussions about [email protected] Kiva.org National Medical Interpreter Certification Naomi Baer at the 2009 ATA conference, and a photo San Francisco (415) 358-7518 UNICODES montage of the November Trados work- [email protected] shop at our new meeting location. Find the key to the two letter codes that www.kiva.org designate a member’s working language at Our January event, the annual New Year’s http://tinyurl.com/d99x3v. brunch, was, as always, a great success and a great way to start the New Year.D

4 TRANSLORIAL PERSPECTIVE THE NUANCES OF EDITING AND PROOFREADING Although professional translators make a clear distinction between editing and proofreading services, clients do not necessarily do the same. BY GRISEL CREMONESI

s language service providers, we deal the target text against the source text prior unformatted translation against its for- Awith editing and proofreading on a to the proofreader’s review. We divide our matted proof in order to verify that there daily basis, and, unfortunately, we find copy editing process into two steps. The are no content discrepancies that sometimes clients use these terms first step entails a line-by-line comparison between them; for instance, interchangeably. Since we realize that there of the original text against the translated ensuring that no text was is a definite difference between editing a document in order to identify omissions omitted, left untranslated or translated document and proofreading it, and additions, as well as mistakes relating accidentally modified. The sec- this article aims to dispel the notion that to meaning. The second step focuses on ond step involves checking the they are the same thing and elucidate the grammar, usage, word choice, inconsisten- formatted proof of the target text differences between each process. cies, punctuation, and spelling errors, in against the formatted final version It is not unusual for our office to receive addition to basic format considerations. of the source text to verify correct location requests asking for proofreading quotes It is very important to point out that copy of graphics, illustrations, tables, and any when, as a matter of fact, what the client/ other form of art; text placement; page agency needs is editing of their material. numbering; table of contents; cross refer- At times, this confusion is real; that is, ...many clients do not ences; incorrect word breaks; captions; many clients do not genuinely know (and font; colors; etc. There are as many rounds of course they are not required to) what genuinely know (and of proofs as necessary. This is the last stage each process implies. Other times, the of course they are not prior to the translation being published. request may be made deliberately in order As we can see, even when these activi- to obtain lower rates. For this reason, we required to) what each ties involve different levels of reviews and strongly believe that clients and transla- changes, there is some overlap among tion agencies need to be educated in this process implies. them. In order for us, as language service regard. Consequently, it is important for providers, to be able to charge what is fair the language service provider to clearly editing does not involve content changes for each service, it is our responsibility and properly clarify ahead of time the or major rewriting/reorganizing of the text to clarify ahead of time what each pro- terms used for these processes so that the (also called substantive, structural or con- cess involves and what the price for each client knows what to expect with regard to tent editing), or major stylistic changes service is. We truly believe that the wis- service and rates. (also called stylistic editing), unless the est thing to do when someone requests a Because there seems to be no pre- client specifically orders this type of edit- proofreading quote is to ask the client to cise definition for these terms in the ing. On the other hand, if necessary, we send a sample of the text. With sample translation business, they are used generally make minor style changes and in hand, we can then assess it, determine indistinctly when, in reality, they also provide a few suggestions to enhance exactly what the client needs and prepare a involve different activities. Thus, fluency. quote accordingly.D we may come across various terms such as editing, copy editing, stylis- Proofreading tic editing, line editing, proofreading, Proofreading is performed on the final ver- reviewing, and so on. In our practice, we sion of a copy-edited translation. It basi- consider that editing involves any kind of cally involves the revision of the translated modification that affects both content and piece in order to seek and correct typos and form, even though in the translation busi- minor details that might have gone unde- ness the term editing is sometimes broadly tected during the copy editing process, such used for copy editing. We primarily focus as a comma instead of a period, a straight on two editing processes: copy editing and opening quotation mark instead of a curly proofreading, and we define them as fol- one, double between words, among lows: other possible typos. Proofreading is per- formed independently of the source text. Copy editing There is yet another form of proofreading Copy editing encompasses a wide variety that we are frequently asked to perform: of linguistic activities with the purpose of reviewing of typeset copies or proofs. This preparing a translated document for pub- process encompasses two steps as well. lication. This process involves comparing The first one involves checking the final

FEBRUARY 2010 5 CONTINUING EDUCATION POETRY, EMOTION, AND COLLECTIVE BEAUTY Expectations were surpassed at the ALTA Conference in November. BY MARGARITA MILLAR

his was my first time at the American ings with my translation of the poems by afternoon, too late for me to attend, Dr. TLiterary Translators Association the late Colombian author, Maria Mercedes Ronderos and the translator of her work, (ALTA) conference, which took place in Carranza. The book, Canto de las moscas Mary Berg, allowed me to listen while Pasadena in November of 2009. When (Song of the Flies), will be released in they prepared for their presentation. This I registered for the conference in July, I January 2010 (http://freedomvoices.org/ was such an unexpected gift: to witness didn’t know what to expect. The program new/canto). I was assigned to read in a the dialogue and exchange between a poet seemed really interesting and the topics group of poetry in Sumerian (Betty De and her translator, and in the case of these were diverse, ranging from song translat- Shong), Hebrew (Chana Bloch and Chana women, the equal collaboration of two art- ing to finding ways to publish literary Kronfeld), Yiddish (Leah Zazulyer and ists. When the original and the translated translation. The pre-conference reception Natania Rosenfeld), and Spanish. At first poems were read together, it resulted in a was auspicious. Held on the outdoor patio I thought it was an odd combination of mesmerizing echo of the works. of the Pacific Asia Museum, it was the stage languages, in which Spanish seemed out of But it wasn’t all emotion and poetry at for the presentation in song of Vietnamese place. But as our reading progressed the the conference, there were also panels poetry performed by Lê Phanm Lê, a poet collective beauty of these poems electrified addressing practical matters, such as how and resident of Oakland, and her translator the room. They were a powerful combi- to get your work published. Amy Stolls, the Nancy Arbuthnot. To be outdoors listen- nation of works by women poets from National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) ing to poetry, with plenty of food and wine different parts of the world and periods Literature Program Officer, discussed ways to go with it, was truly a magical moment. in history, in which they expressed their to obtain NEA grants for this purpose, and The festive evening set the mood for the anguish about repression and war. For me, encouraged the submission of proposals rest of the conference for me. it was very moving to experience the true for translated works. She said that the NEA importance of the art of translation in the doesn’t receive that many requests for this Bilingual readings company of these women, whom I met type of work, but the money to fund it is Although the ALTA event featured plenty here for the first time just an hour earlier. available. Kate Gale, the managing edi- of academic discussion, the bilingual read- Although from different cultures we spoke tor at Red Hen Press, stressed her interest ings of participant translators’ works were the common language of human emotion: in translated material, mostly poetry and an important component of it. Among poetry. fiction. Gale said her publishing house these presentations, I really enjoyed lis- focuses on works which would have a hard tening to Anne Milano Apple’s segment Equal collaboration time getting published in the mainstream from her newly released translation of Getting to know people who share your publishing world, which was relevant to Why Italians Love to Talk about Food by E. interests is one of the benefits of coming to many of us attending this panel. Kostioukovitch. Her colorful rendition of this type of gathering. I had the great for- It was clear throughout the event that the making of Italian Cassata transported tune to meet Clara Ronderos, a Colombian this was a gathering of old friends. At the me to that old kitchen in the south of Italy poet and a teacher at Lesley University same time, as a newcomer, I felt welcomed. for a few moments. in Cambridge. Because the reading of And like everyone else, I bought more I also participated at one of these read- her poems was scheduled for Saturday books than I could carry in my bag.D

TRADOS TIPS

On November 21, 2009, Tuomas Kostiainen, an SDL Trados-approved Trados trainer, taught two SDL Trados Studio workshops. The first workshop was for beginners and provided hands-on experience for new users while the second session was geared for Trados users wanting to migrate to the new SDL Tradios Studio 2009. The work- shops were held at NCTA’s new meeting location pictured here: San Francisco State University’s Downtown Campus at 835 Market Street in San Francisco.D

6 TRANSLORIAL REPORT A PROGRESS REPORT UPCOMING National Medical Interpreter Certification was a hot Working with PDF Files topic at the 2009 ATA Conference. BY LINDA JOYCE SATURDAY 13 MARCH 2010, 1 PM - 4 PM SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY he National Board of Certification for medical interpreter certification was years DOWNTOWN CAMPUS TMedical Interpreters was very pleased away. She noted that National Board devel- 835 MARKET STREET, SAN FRANCISCO to participate in the ATA 50th Annual opments that have occurred this year and Conference, held in New York City on other efforts are positive, since it will This workshop covers a wide range of October 28-31, 2009 and to introduce afford a framework for the profession, as topics related to PDF files such as editing, conference attendees to the nation’s first well as a baseline for competency that will commenting, and searching PDF files, fill- National Medical Interpreter Certification. evolve in future iterations of the test. The ing out electronic forms, using electronic Interest was extremely high from the point, she said, is that we have started that signatures, and many other useful Adobe over 2,300 attendees representing dozens process. The room was packed and a poll Acrobat features. In addtion, there will be of countries. Members of the National by the moderator showed that there were a comparison of various commercial and Board and their supporters offered attend- interpreters, interpreter trainers, and asso- shareware tools for creating and manipu- ees information about the National Medical ciation leaders in the room, among others. lating PDF files, and much more! Interpreter Certification process, and the In the discussion, an attendee suggested activities around the certification effort. including languages where no certification About the speaker There was a constant flow of people to exists—in her case Hebrew—pointing out Tuomas Kostiainen is an ATA-certified IMIA table with a keen interest in what the that there is a “hunger for credentials.” The English to Finnish translator specializing National Board had to offer. Interpreters, National Board representative discussed in technical and medical translations. interpreter trainers, providers and many the 23-year process towards certification, others stopped by, inquiring about the cer- the issue of patient safety and the need to The Entrepreneurial Linguist tification process, how the process works, get informed and involved. A participant SATURDAY 10 APRIL 2010, 1 PM - 4 PM and how to register. also refuted the idea that for-profits some- SFSU DOWNTOWN CAMPUS Certification for medical interpreters how “taint” the process, emphasizing that is a hot topic so discussions continued everyone must take part in a project of this This is a hands-on presentation about throughout the conference. Attendees magnitude. marketing, finance/economics, account- noted that they had attended conferences In conclusion, the moderator, pointing ing, and entrepreneurship for linguists. held by IMIA, the Tennessee Association to the early divisions in the sign language of Professional Interpreters and Translators interpreters field between the Registry of About the speaker (TAPIT), the California Healthcare Interpreters for the Deaf and National Judy Jenner is a translator in Las Vegas Interpreting Association (CHIA), the Texas Association of the Deaf during their certifi- specializing in marketing, legal, tourism, Association of Healthcare Interpreters cation history, and how they came together e-commerce and business. She runs Twin and Translators (TAHIT), the Nebraska later to form the National Council on Translations with her twin sister. She shares Association for Translators and Interpreters Interpreting, noted that this may happen her marketing tips for translators through (NATI), and others where they had already in the field of medical interpreting.D her blog, Translation Times.D heard about the launch of national medical interpreter certification. A session, “Open Dialog on National Wireless Communications Equipment for Interpreters Interpreter Certification: Possibility or For less than $100, interpreters can now have their own set of wireless transmitter Pipe Dream?” included several speakers, and receiver, including microphone and earphone. In many instances, the rental of similar equipment for just one day exceeds this purchase cost. who discussed the possibility of a general- ist interpreter certification as well as infor- TN Communications offers dependable, long-lasting wireless equipment. Equipment is very light and small and easily fits in a shirt pocket. Transmitters and mation on the status for the specializations: receivers come with a one-year warranty. ASL, community, medical, conference and In addition to our VHF single-channel and 3-channel equipment, we now offer legal (court) interpreter certification or UHF 16-channel sets. lack thereof. Katharine Allen, a freelance We now also have battery chargers and rechargeable batteries and charging boxes interpreter who is on the CHIA Board, for the 16-channel equipment. Optional headset microphones and headphones are was charged with presenting the progress also available. toward medical interpreter certification Visit www.tncommunications.com and attempted to give a balanced presenta- for product specifications and availability. tion, admitting the challenges. Katharine concluded that just a couple of years ago Or you may call 1-888-371-9005 or email [email protected] for more information. many in the field were saying national

FEBRUARY 2010 7 From far left, NCTA President Tuomas Kostiainen and Continuing Education Chair Norma Kaminsky address the crowd; clockwise from top left, VP Yves Avérous speaks; Nina Bogdan talks up her book, ners Emily Oster and Kristen Templeman smile for the camera; Paula Dieli conducts new member orientation; Stafford Hemmer (raised hand) makes a point; and Monica Moreno and Naomi Baer discuss crowdsourcing. CROWDSOURCING: THE KIVA/IDEM CASE STUDY Wisdom of the crowd or something for nothing? BY SARAH LLEWELLYN

he final general meeting of 2009 took —Nina Bogdan, Scott Saylor, Yves Avérous huge volumes can be translated in a rela- Tplace on December 12 at The Center and myself—each gave a short presenta- tively short period of time—something in San Francisco. Despite the rain and the tion on some of the conference highlights. that would be well beyond the realm of upcoming holidays, the meeting enjoyed a translation services provider. It took an excellent turnout, with over 40 mem- Main event Facebook’s community, for example, just bers and non-members in attendance. Then it was time for the meeting’s spe- one week to translate 300,000 words from Things got underway promptly at 1:45 cial presentation, entitled “New Trends English into Spanish. Secondly, content p.m. with announcements regarding in Crowdsourcing: The Kiva/Idem Case that might otherwise not be translated for upcoming social events and first quarter Study.” Guest speakers were Monica years, if at all, can be translated through workshops. Then it was time for NCTA Moreno, localization manager at Idem crowdsourcing. This is the case with Tier President Tuomas Kostiainen to present Translations, and Naomi Baer, Director of 2 languages, for example, or material that the annual NCTA awards—awards con- Microloan Review and Translation at Kiva. would only be of interest to a very small ferred by the NCTA Board on two mem- Naomi is also responsible for developing market segment. bers “for extraordinary volunteer service the infrastructure and program required An overview was then given of four greatly benefiting the NCTA.” The first to support Kiva’s growing translation com- major translation crowdsourcing models: award was for Volunteer of the Year and munity, and for leading the team which Facebook, Intel Moblin, TED (Technology, the proud recipient was… me! (Thank you, manages this volunteer program. Entertainment, Design), and Asia Online. Board!) I received a one-year free mem- Monica began the presentation by ask- Of these, only TED is non-profit. bership and a beautiful bouquet of roses. ing the audience what they understood The second award was Honorary One-Year crowdsourcing to mean. One view put What is Kiva? Membership and went to Nina Bogdan in forward was that it was a good thing when One of the biggest challenges of a crowd- recognition of all her hard work as a vol- it involved non-profit organizations, but sourcing program, says Naomi, is sustain- unteer and her “incredible achievements as bad when it involved for-profit organi- ing interest over time. To be successful, a the key driving force behind Translorial.” zations. Monica provided the Wikipedia program also has to build a community, definition of the term and explained that provide a solid technological infrastruc- ATA conference review it was a method of using “the wisdom of ture, create a simple user interface, estab- Before proceeding with the day’s feature the crowd.” She stressed, however, that lish a quality control process, and be a presentation, there was a brief review of crowdsourcing translation is not a means scalable model. the 50th ATA conference, which took place of reducing costs. On the contrary, crowd- Before describing Kiva’s crowdsourcing in New York last October with the high- sourcing models are enormously costly to model, Naomi gave some background on est attendance ever (just short of 2,400 establish and maintain. the organization, whose mission is to “con- delegates) and 80 exhibitors. Four NCTA Naomi explained some of the benefits nect people through lending for the sake members who had attended the conference of crowdsourcing translation. First of all, of alleviating poverty.” This non-profit,

8 TRANSLORIAL MEETINGS

NEW YEAR’S BRUNCH From far left, NCTA President Tuomas Kostiainen and Continuing Education Chair Norma Kaminsky address the crowd; clockwise from top left, VP Yves Avérous speaks; Nina Bogdan talks up her book, Russian San Francisco; door-prize win- ners Emily Oster and Kristen Templeman smile for the camera; Paula Dieli conducts new member orientation; Stafford Hemmer (raised hand) makes a point; and Monica Moreno and Naomi Baer discuss crowdsourcing. BY NINA BOGDAN

microfinance organization has gone from n Wind, Rain, Sleet or Snow... $2 million in loan volume in 2006 to a I No, I’m not referring to the postman’s work ethic, but to the perseverance of those cumulative loan volume of $100 million in who attended the NCTA’s annual New Year’s Brunch. Despite inclement weather, about 50 November 2009. With such rapid growth, NCTA members, some accompanied by their significant others, made the trek to Berkeley it soon became clear that Kiva needed for the annual New Year’s Brunch at Skates by the Bay on January 17. This post-holiday a solution to address the language bar- event is a great way to start the New Year. rier. As a non-profit organization with Skates certainly does have a great view of the Bay so, after battling some gale-force cross- limited resources, it developed a hybrid winds that seemed to be centered on the entrance of the restaurant, it was quite pleasant to professional/volunteer translation model. come in and sit down with a nice hot cup of tea or coffee and view the storm clouds over It uses the services of professional transla- the water while socializing with fellow translators. I had made a note to myself to circulate tion agency Idem, a company deeply com- at this event since I always end up staying in one spot and chatting. Though there’s nothing mitted to giving back to the community, wrong with that, I miss out on meeting more people in person whom I only know through to provide expertise and linguistic support e-mail or the NCTA Yahoo group list. As usual, I duly ignored my note to self (note to (glossary/TM development, translation/ self: stop ignoring my to self) and pretty much followed the same pattern I’ve always consulting services, etc.), and a team of followed. The conversations were great though. Topics covered included: working for the 400 volunteers (professional and amateur government, pros and cons; using CAT tools (always a favorite); on-line dictionaries; sites translators) to ensure fast turnaround of like ProZ and whether they are helping to undermine the translation profession by not set- around one million words per month from ting payment standards for job posters. And as a bonus, the food was quite good. Spanish, French, Portuguese or Russian But wait, there’s more! Sharon Neeman, visiting from Israel, entertained the crowd with into English. her song about translation, “5000 Words” (a rendition is available on You Tube). Last but Finally, Naomi gave some insight into not least, there was the traditional stroll on the pier to walk off the lovely brunch. Not ones what motivates the Kiva volunteers. Not to break with tradition in spite of the chilly wet weather, a die-hard group did prepare to only can they learn about microfinance, set forth. I’m sure it was quite bracing. Yes, tradition is important but I opted for getting in but they can gain valuable translation my nice warm car and setting out for home after an afternoon well-spent.D experience and/or improve their transla- tion skills through Kiva’s mentoring pro- gram. They also enjoy being part of a lively community and having an opportunity to connect with other professionals. But for many, it is a way of “giving back” by using their skills to help alleviate poverty. Door prizes were donated by Adobe (Acrobat 9) and were won by Emily Oster and Kristen Templeman The afternoon’s refreshments were provided by Luz, Inc. The NCTA thanks Naomi Baer and Monica Morena for their interesting and highly informative presentation.D FEATURE CROWDSOURCING: OUTRAGE OR OPPORTUNITY? The debate about translation crowdsourcing encompasses a number of concerns, not the least of which are quality, professional standards, and ethics. BY NAOMI BAER

n June’s issue of the ATA Chronicle, Jiri for new ways to rally non-professionals rather than take away existing work. IStejskal announced in the President’s around translation activities can be seen as With respect specifically to the concerns column that the ATA Board had declared yet another nail in the coffin of the dream about quality, client education, and ethics, crowdsourcing one of the two top threats of linguistic awareness among clients and the answers may be more complex. Like to the profession and to the association, at the public at large. How can translators any other methodology, there are times the same level as the other top threat they hope to educate clients about the value of when crowdsourcing is an effective and identified, the economic downturn. professional translation when all around appropriate approach and times when it is This new trend—and the perception that them they see amateurs creating transla- not. Furthermore, just as there are success- this is just one more modern variation tions for major companies? ful and unsuccessful approaches to identi- on the age-old theme of using unskilled, fying good resources and managing trans- low-cost labor to produce translations— lation projects through traditional process- has engendered a strong reaction in the es, there is a broad spectrum of successful translation community. The most notable strategies for crowdsourcing that can yield example is the controversy that arose after translations at appropriate quality, speed, LinkedIn surveyed members, asking if they volume, and consistency—as well as a would be willing to contribute translations spectrum of unsuccessful strategies. to the website for compensation such as As Jost Zetzsche wrote in the October account upgrades, recognition, or just for edition of the Tool Kit, there is an oppor- fun. The ATA quickly responded with a tunity for the translation community to press release and open letter to LinkedIn, use its “unmatched expertise [and] good and the New York Times covered the track record” to take on leadership roles to resulting outcry, describing translators help shape this trend and potentially learn variously as “irked,” “surprised,” “upset,” from it, rather than turning our backs on “annoyed,” and in one case, “excited” about it. I suggest that an effective response to the opportunity for public credit. the growing trend toward crowdsourcing translations is for the professional transla- Key concerns The Facebook leader board in Spanish. tion community to discuss criteria for the Concerns about crowdsourcing in the appropriate uses for crowdsourcing, and realm of translation come from several Last but not least, there is an ethical con- effective approaches, and be prepared as angles. First, there is the concern about cern, as expressed by one of the December an industry and as individuals to educate translation quality, and the public percep- NCTA General Meeting participants, that clients and the public, as we do with other tion of what it takes to produce quality companies stand to profit from volunteer issues affecting our profession. translation. While this is in some ways a labor. When corporations crowdsource the simple desire to see quality writing and design of a logo to “the crowd,” or crowd- First, some don’ts translations in the world, and a desire to source the creation of a marketing video Let’s start with what doesn’t work. One enable speakers of multiple languages to for their product, and proceed to profit company has begun to crowdsource the gain meaningful access to information, from these creations, are the relatively translation of business cards, allowing products and services, behind this concern small rewards (if any) that are offered potential translators to contribute through also lies another: that the propagation of adequate and appropriate? When compa- an automated system. Part of the attraction amateur translations will degrade respect nies such as Facebook stand to profit from is that there is no minimum fee, so “you for the profession, and that it reflects an the expanded markets that translators help don’t have to pay $50 for translating a busi- existing lack of respect. them build, is it ethical for these contribu- ness card anymore.” I think we could all There is also the fear, plain and simple, of tors to receive only electronic badges and easily explain to our clients precisely why losing work, and what could be the depre- non-monetary rewards? this is a bad idea: ciating value of the education and profes- » High-stakes content should be carefully sional skills that translators have invested When is it appropriate? translated by a professional, because in over so many years. Along with that is In our talk at the December General even a minor error can cause major the frustration that the continual task of Meeting, Idem Translation’s Monica brand damage or significant lost busi- educating clients, and potential clients, Moreno and I addressed some of the ness. For business cards, quality mat- can sometimes seem to get more diffi- above issues, most notably that translation ters, and it absolutely matters for every cult, rather than easier. Public enthusiasm crowdsourcing is likely to “expand the pie” word.

10 TRANSLORIAL » Short texts, and business cards in par- ticular, are notoriously difficult to trans- late, lacking context and requiring a professional who will ask the right ques- tions to be able to translate meaning appropriately. For short texts, one could also ask if the money saved is significant enough to justify any trade-offs. » Business cards are a tool for branding— of the company and the individual the card represents. Titles convey more than just meaning (and often convey very little meaning); they convey rank, and The Kiva volunteer . need to be positioned within the context of other titles at the company and in the ways to give back. If the professional industry. support collaboration and feedback. Many translation community supports your In a second case, why did LinkedIn’s companies contract professionals to review work, support local translation organi- strategy inspire such indignation? I would the final crowd-produced translations. zations and professional development. argue that it was primarily because they Ensure adequate resources to manage If your crowd helped you build a new did not know their community. What the crowd and support the technol- social network in Haiti and among the many have called an undiplomatic out- ogy infrastructure used by the crowd. Haitian-American community, consider reach effort was indeed insensitive and Active communities require active support, how you might contribute to that com- unwise—specifically, it showed LinkedIn’s and large communities require scalable munity. lack of preparation in understanding who infrastructure to enable community mem- » Build on the community’s experience of their community of users is and what they bers to support each other and to encour- translation. For newcomers to the field, expect from the site, and a lack of respect age leaders to emerge. Assess your organi- guide them through the new experience in how they approached them. zation’s resources realistically against the of encountering translation challenges. volume you need translated, the number Offer resources to build basic skills and Potential criteria of target languages you hope to achieve, help them locate paths to professional- What are some positive criteria that we and the costs of facilitating crowdsourced ization. Provide an entry point for trans- could use to educate translation users, to translations. lation students seeking to gain practical help gauge effective and appropriate use of Be prepared to recognize and/or com- experience. Provide feedback to build translation crowdsourcing? pensate contributors. Depending on the crowd’s skill level and understand- Know your crowd. For crowdsourcing the project and the motivations of the ing of translation techniques. to work, your organization or company crowd, you should be prepared to publicly As translation crowdsourcing programs must inspire a large community of users to credit contributors and, under some cir- continue to emerge, the professional trans- participate in a project. Successful projects cumstances, compensate them financially. lation community could benefit from are built on existing communities, social To help determine appropriate compensa- continuing this conversation, adding to causes, or a linguistic challenge. tion, consider whether the organization and refining a criteria list, and examining Select material for crowdsourcing that and project are for-profit or not-for-profit, how projects measure up. In Northern lends itself to community input. Your and how much non-financial benefit users California, we have a unique opportunity users may know your product best, so derive from participating in the project. to watch this trend in the technology sec- enable them to contribute their translations Some crowdsourcing projects not only tor. of your unique content. Assess whether the address these five key criteria, but model With a defined framework for appro- material is high-stakes for your organiza- exceptional approaches to crowdsourcing priate and effective translation crowd- tion, whether there is enough content to that other organizations could pursue: sourcing, there is an opportunity to guide make building a crowd worthwhile, and » Invest in professional quality control. what has been considered a threat to the always provide context. Legal and other For key languages, and key content, translation industry into a form that is documents requiring domain expertise are contract qualified translators to review more acceptable, and perhaps even into best left to professionals. the crowd’s work and approve it before a positive model—seeding collaboration Assess your organization’s quality publication or release. Contract profes- between amateur and paid professional needs and create a plan for achieving sional resources to vet members of the translators, providing a training ground the quality standards you set. You may crowd before they begin contributing. for new translation graduates, while, at the need the services of a professional transla- » Give back to the community. If indi- same time, expanding the material that tor to help with defining quality standards, vidual contributors are not compen- gets translated, broadening access to infor- and you will derive maximum benefit from sated financially, take note of which mation, and exposing more people to the the wisdom of the crowd when your tools communities are contributing and find translation process in all its complexity.D

FEBRUARY 2010 11 TOOLS OF THE TRADE THE TRANSLORIAL TOOL KIT The Tool Kit is an online newsletter that comes to its subscribers’ mailboxes twice a month. In Translorial, we offer a quarterly digest of Jost’s most helpful tips from the past season. BY JOST ZETZSCHE © 2010 INTERNATIONAL WRITERS’ GROUP, COMPILED BY YVES AVÉROUS

All about 7 The flavors of Windows 7 French, German, Japanese, and Spanish. Before we explore Microsoft’s new operat- Like its predecessor it comes in a variety of If you have a hard time falling asleep and ing system, here are some language-related flavors and price tags. With Vista, the pur- want to read some technical information pieces of information that you might not chase of either the Professional or the Ul- on foreign language versions of Windows, have read about so far: The new glossary timate versions was a no-brainer for many check this site: http://msdn.microsoft.com/ for Windows 7 is available. You probably because of the backup facilities it offered. en-us/goglobal/ee461121.aspx. know some of the history of the so-called In Windows 7, these backup features are “Microsoft glossaries.” These were never not only made better but are also available Integrated utilities really glossaries but large translation mem- in all other versions. So, is there a need to Here are some of the little things for which ories with the translation data of the user buy more than the Home version? There I owned special XP utilities and that are interface for many of Microsoft’s software is one really good reason left for language now part of the : products. From 1994 through the summer professionals to buy the Ultimate version Rearranging buttons on the taskbar — of 2006 they were available for free on one (especially project managers and other One of my pet peeves was that the buttons of Microsoft’s FTP sites. In July 2006 the on the taskbar were subject to the order free offer was replaced with a multilingual you opened the programs in. In Windows 7 glossary, which now is gone as well. What you can drag it to where you want it. still remains is the Microsoft Language Por- Renaming files — How often do you want tal at www.microsoft.com/language. The to rename the whole name of a file, includ- interface of the portal is available in Ger- ing the extension? Rarely, if ever. Now, the man, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, extension is no longer highlighted when Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and of selecting a name of a file in Windows Ex- course English, but much of the language plorer for renaming. You can highlight a content is available in many more languag- name for renaming and then start over- es. Aside from a very fast glossary search writing the actual name right away. from English into a very large list of target Notes — What’s up with still having Post- languages, you can download style guides it notes all over your office in the computer for the same large set of languages. Or you age? Windows 7 now offers Post-it notes for can find links to Microsoft’s attempt at folks who have to work in many languag- your computer with Sticky Notes. crowdsourcing, the Microsoft Terminology es): the availability of the client language Screenshots — We all shudder at the huge Community Forum, where users can com- packs for that version. You are able to run emails with a couple of screenshots that ment on terms that are to be included in your operating system in Arabic, Bulgar- someone sends us—all in bitmap format future projects. The terminology search ian, various flavors of Chinese, Croatian, and several megabytes large! Bitmap was feature now includes the terminology of Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, the only format that Windows was able to Windows 7—important data for everyone Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, store with the traditional PrintScreen com- who translates software applications for the Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lat- mand, so many of us had separate applica- Windows operating system. vian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Por- tions for this. Now Windows 7 (and Vista) The translation memory files that were tuguese, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, has Snipping Tool to take care of that. previously available for free can also still Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swed- Link to the desktop — There always were be accessed, but not for free. However, ish, Thai, Turkish, and Ukrainian. Phew— numerous ways to minimize all applica- they do of course contain the updated thank goodness for copying and pasting! tions and get to the desktop, but they all Windows 7 and other current materials. And the “running” of the operating sys- required either two clicks of the mouse or What has recently changed for the positive tem not only includes dialog boxes in dif- a keyboard shortcut. Typically a keyboard is the price tag. Previously you had to be ferent languages but all other locale- and shortcut is what you want, except on the a member of MSDN for at least US$699 a language-specific settings as well, includ- desktop where you’ll want to do something year to access them, but now you can also ing the speech recognition engines. The with your mouse anyway. Now there is a access them with a TechNet subscription much-praised speech recognition engine little button to the very right of your time/ for US$349. You can find links to both of Vista is also available in Windows 7. It is date display that will open your desktop subscription models right on the Language not available for all languages listed above, (and then go back to your previous appli- Portal. but you can find it for Chinese, English, cation when you click it again). And if you

12 TRANSLORIAL TOOLS OF THE TRADE

THE TRANSMUG REPORT Mac OS X in the early days. CHALLENGE FOR A NEW DECADE We’ve already lived 10 years past the end of can integrate the OS’s that supports the world and gosh, how quaint 2000 sounds drag and drop and integrates spellchecking in already! Remember Y2K? And Windows 2000? 15 variations of the 17 languages included in The latter was the marriage of professional the one and only version of Mac OS X. NT robustness with the friendlier interface of If I were independently wealthy, I would Windows 98. Ten years later that line ended offer a challenge to developers: bring your TM with XP and is finally tweaked to the point of engine on top of TextEdit, make an elegant usability with 7. In this issue’s column by Jost blessed Mac users with the sexiest machines, the native Cocoa app for Mac users, and win a you can read about how so many Mac-like most advanced operating system, and the most prize! Mac users are not happy about having to features have made it to the PC with Windows developed customer support.Ten years later, it is continue to run Windows in our Mac to access 7 but still on a patched, tired architecture enviable to own a Mac, but it is still a challenge to the better tools. The time has come for a new On the other hand, the buggy, nascent Mac trans-late on one. The dearth of tools is dis-heart- Trados on the Mac. Will someone get a clue? OS X of 2001 is now fully mature and is gaining ening. What is most shocking to me is that there Join TransMUG and our movement for a more and more enthusi-asts, helped by a sup- are so few develop-ers who are aware of what native full-featured translation environment port infrastructure second to none. Apple has they could do on that platform. For example, they on the Mac at http://transmug.com.YA select the right-click option Peek at desk- top you can just hold your mouse over the button to look at your desktop rather than actually selecting it. New folder in Windows Explorer — This is something we all have to do ALL THE TIME—create a new folder for a new client or a new project—but it required some mouse or right-click acrobatics in previous versions of Windows. Now there is a standard New Folder button on the toolbar in Windows Explorer. Clocks — Probably the most translator- related topic for a translator is the ability to add two clocks to the standard time and date display in the notification area to the right of the taskbar. Right-click the time display, select Adjust date/time, select Ad- ditional Clocks and now you can select to show up to three time zones when clicking on the date/time display. Help change lives in the The WinKey developing world with

The WinKey has always been my little Kiva.org is an innovative micro-lending website. It lets friend and I have written about it in the individuals lend to specific borrowers in the developing world – past, but its activities were confined to a empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty. Through the Kiva Volunteer Translation Program, volunteers few shortcuts. Now there is a whole pletho- support the Kiva mission by translating loan requests and stories. ra of new ones. My favorite is: Use your translation skills to contribute to Kiva.org, to network, and to build your resume.  WinKey + +: Zoom in to 200% (WinKey We encourage professional translators to join the Kiva Peer Review Program. You’ll contribute to the + - goes back to 100%). Kiva Volunteer Translation Program by mentoring Kiva translators on your own schedule. And one other additional helpful Windows 7-specific shortcut: Kiva Volunteer Translation Program Apply online at www.kiva.org/volunteer Join today:  Shift + Click (or Middle Click) on icon Kiva Peer Review Program Send resume to [email protected] in taskbar: Open a new instance of the

application. Kiva believes in the power of connecting people through micro-lending Happy shortcutting!D and we support the translation communities that bring these connections to life. Kiva is a proud supporter of NCTA! FEBRUARY 2010 13 PERSPECTIVE WHAT MAKES A GOOD AGENCY? Advice for ensuring the relationship between freelance translator and client remains harmonious, productive, and pleasant for both sides. BY HERBERT EPPEL

n the 15 years since I started diver- Word-like web , or desktop publish- translations, in which case any revision Isifying into translation I have worked ing formats, you will want to charge file can be more time-consuming than a new with around 100 different clients and have maintenance fees to compensate you for translation. encountered dozens of others, many of the extra skill required to manage and them translation agencies. Based on this translate within such file types. Typically, a “Faffometer” experience it is worth reflecting on what 10%-20% surcharge (depending on project It is worth introducing the concept of distinguishes these agencies in terms of complexity) is customary.” a “Faffometer” for measuring the satis- their interaction with the translator. faction level of the working relationship The great discount debate between agency and freelance translator. Initial contact and terms Some clients ask for discounts on the Sadly, I cannot claim to have invented the It is good practice for translation agencies grounds that a job is particularly large. I term. It appears to have been introduced seeking new freelance suppliers to send out would suggest that such a priori discounts by Business Productivity Expert Mike personalised invitations that are relevant to are inappropriate, because: a) a commit- Pagan, and for him it is an Excel spread- the circumstances. In addition, before ask- ment to undertake a large job within a sheet divided into equal time periods in ing translators to complete lengthy forms, standard timescale may well prevent a the working day where the least possible it is a good idea to negotiate a mutually translator from taking on work from other amount of time is spent “faffing about.” satisfactory rate as a basis for future col- clients in the meantime; and b) it could At the high end of my Faffometer scale laboration. be argued that translators who can offer are agencies who tend to be reluctant to ask The issue of free test translations has the additional project management skills the end-client whether source texts can be been discussed at some length in various and resources required for handling such made available in a format that can readily forums over the years. In my view, while projects should in fact be rewarded, rather be processed with a CAT tool and expect anyone is entitled to request a test transla- than penalised. translators to deal with auxiliary IT aspects tion, it should be treated just like any other such as extracting text from PDF files. paid job. With respect to confidentiality agree- While anyone is Ideal scenario ments, professional translators who are At the other end of the Faffometer scale members of professional organizations entitled to request is an agency I have been working for generally sign up to a code of conduct regularly for around 10 years. The agency that includes confidentiality clauses. I am a test translation, it invariably deals with all file format conver- not a legal expert, but lengthy and com- sion and translation memory aspects and plex additional confidentiality agreements should be treated just handles all pre- and post-processing tasks would therefore seem rather unnecessary. like any other paid job. that may be required. Specifically, all their In certain circumstances, urgent dead- texts (regardless of the format of the origi- lines requiring a translator to work out- nal source document) arrive in the form of side normal office hours are unavoidable. Similarly, translators are often asked to specially formatted MS Word files, where A good agency is a freelancer’s ally, and accept a sliding discount scale. Such a any pre-processed text (e.g. 100% transla- should be prepared to negotiate surcharges scale takes into account internal repeti- tion memory matches or internal repeti- with the end-client where appropriate. tions, so-called 100% TM matches and TM tions) is clearly identified. The attraction matches with varying degrees of fuzziness. of this approach is that discount negotia- Auxiliary tasks In my experience, fuzzy matches may well tions and sliding discount scales are never As the job title suggests, a translator’s require more time to adapt to a new text an issue, while the pre-processed text con- main task is translation. Handling of aux- than translating the relevant sentence from tained in the original file can be helpful iliary tasks such as PDF extraction or scratch, and therefore I do not offer “fuzzy for reference. In addition, the agency tends layout refinements in complex file formats discounts.” to make translation memory and glossary such as PowerPoint should not be taken It is worth pointing out, however, that extracts from their in-house TM and ter- for granted. A statement published by a the origin and quality of 100% matches minology management systems available, well-known translation memory software is a crucial factor that often seems to get always tries to obtain reference material provider back in 2002 speaks for itself: overlooked in the “great discount debate.” from the end-client, and happily responds “Pricing is not just set on a per word basis In other words, the 100% matches for to terminology clarification requests.D when complex file types are involved. If which the client may expect a discount ... you are translating in file types other than could have been based on poor previous Read the full version article online at translorial.com

14 TRANSLORIAL TITLE OF THE PAGE

The World Leading Translation Software With 170,000 Users

Translate faster Speed up your translations by reusing previously translated content with our pioneering translation memory technology

Translate more easily Make life more simple by working in a user-friendly, customisable and fully integrated translation environment

Translate more content Turnaround projects faster than ever before with the numerous productivity-enhancing and innovative new features www.sdl.com/NCTA FEBRUARY 2010 15 PRSRT FIRST CLASS MAIL Attn: Juliet Viola, Administrator U.S. POSTAGE P.O. Box 14015 PAID Berkeley, CA 94712-5015 TUCSCON, AZ

Blue planet CMYK C55/M5/Y0/K5 RGB R93/G184/B226 PERMIT #271 Web #48BBE7 ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

Orange CMYK C20/M80/Y90/K5 Golden Gate RGB R192/G83/B52 Web #C05334

Blue NCTA CMYK C100/M100/Y15/K15 RGB R42/G40/B115 Web #2A2873

NCTA is a Chapter of the American Translators Association. Become a fan of NCTA on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @nctaorg.

NCTA February 6 General Meeting March 29 Happy Hour in San Francisco

February 22 Happy Hour in Oakland April 10 The Entrepreneurial Linguist

March 13 PDF Files: Tools, Tips and Techniques May 8 ATA exam sitting in San Francisco

See http://ncta.org/calendar.cfm for up to date information.

Transitorial_Ad2010.indd 1 11/12/2009 10:20:46 AM