Asia the Future of Technology in ASL Translation

Language | Technology | Business July/August 2014

Region Focus: Asia The future of technology in ASL translation

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Join in the discussion at Blogos! MultiLingual Blogos, our industry blog at multilingualblog.com, #145 Volume 25 Issue 5 features thoughts and opinions from Ultan Ó Broin July/August 2014 and the editors at MultiLingual. Recent topics Editor-in-Chief, Publisher: Donna Parrish include: Managing Editor: Katie Botkin Proofreaders: Bonnie Hagan, Bernie Nova ■■ Localization World Dublin 2014 News: Kendra Gray Production: Darlene Dibble, Doug Jones ■■ Number Isn’t Up for Global Website Cover Photo: Donna Parrish ASCII URLs • The ribbon, particularly for new users and others who are not Technical Analyst: Curtis Booker Assistant: Shannon Abromeit ■■ Silicon Valley and Localization: The Movie aware of all the settings in the old menu structure Circulation: Terri Jadick • Much more accurate Concordance search results Special Projects: Bernie Nova ■■ Localization: Culture and Context Cuts • Speed improvements Advertising Director: Jennifer Del Carlo Both Ways Advertising: Kevin Watson, Bonnie Hagan • Virtual merge and autosave Editorial Board ■■ Localization Unconference Silicon Valley 2014 • Improved display filter Daniel Goldschmidt, Ultan Ó Broin, Arturo Quintero, Lori Thicke, Jost Zetzsche • Easier access to the various help resources Advertising • New TM fields and field values are immediately available [email protected] www.multilingual.com/advertising Free online resources • Very stable 208-263-8178 Subscriptions, back issues, MultiLingual’s Core Focus and previous Tuomas Kostiainen customer service Getting Started sections provide basic concepts Translator and SDL Trados Trainer | www.finntranslations.com [email protected] and practices in the language and global www.multilingual.com/ business community. Intended as primers for subscriptionInformation Join the conversation people new to the business or as refreshers Submissions, letters for anyone who needs them, they are [email protected] Tuomas Kostiainen Editorial guidelines are available at provided free on our website at www.multilingual.com/cf.php. tradoshelp.wordpress.com www.multilingual.com/editorialWriter Reprints: [email protected] You may view them online, or download, print MultiLingual Computing, Inc. and share them. We encourage you to take 319 North First Avenue, Suite 2 advantage of this service. Sandpoint, Idaho 83864-1495 USA [email protected] www.multilingual.com © MultiLingual Computing, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. For reprints and e-prints, please Subscriptions e-mail [email protected] or call 208-263-8178. MultiLingual (ISSN 1523-0309), July/August 2014, is published monthly except, Apr-May, Jul-Aug, Oct-Nov for US $58, international $85 per year by MultiLingual Computing, Inc., The print magazine is mailed nine times a 319 North First Avenue, Suite 2, Sandpoint, ID 83864-1495. Periodicals postage paid at Sandpoint, ID and additional mailing offices. year (eight issues plus an annual resource POSTMASTER: Send address changes to MultiLingual, 319 North First Avenue, Suite 2, Sandpoint, ID 83864-1495. directory/index) for $58 domestically, $85 www.sdl.com/studio2014 Purchase or upgrade to internationally, and includes full access to This NewPage paper has been the digital version of MultiLingual, deliv- www.translationzone.com/studio2014 SDL Trados Studio 2014 today chain-of-custody certified by three independent third-party ered in a new interactive format. A digital certification systems subscription is available for only $28. Take it further, share projects with MultiLingual is printed on 30% Subscribe online at www.multilingual.com/subscribe. post-consumer recycled paper. SDL Studio GroupShare /sdltrados www.translationzone.com/groupshare2014 July/August 2014 MultiLingual | 3

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Cultural renegades

A few summers ago, as I was choices about school, for example, and and are shared by many communities chatting late into the night with my how important various things such around the world of various ethnicities Korean-American friend about the as “my parents thinking well of me,” and religious persuasions. Anon-mainstream ways we grew up, “having time to do what I want,” or The poll strengthened an idea forming it occurred to me that people raised being “polite to everyone” ranked on a in my mind: if companies are having more traditionally might have an easier personal level. trouble with interpersonal global time relating to cultures — such as The responses were broken down relationships, perhaps they should many Asian cultures — that embrace by background, and although the consider hiring people from traditional collectivism over individualism, stronger results were not plentiful enough to be microcultures to help bridge the gap. power structures, strong family statistically significant, it did appear Plausibility and hiring regulations aside, influence and so on. that people who were raised in a the fact remains that there are plenty of I was so taken with this theory that religious homeschooling environment, individuals within any given population I tried setting up an online poll to test for example, were fairly similar to Asians who think more like foreigners than it. I asked questions such as “if I were in the responses they chose about they do their own countrymen — even to consider someone to date or marry, respecting authority, the influence if they look a lot like everyone else. I would (or did) most rely on a. my of their larger community and so on. You could even call them cultural father’s opinion b. my mother’s opinion Interestingly, these attitudes were also bilinguals, in that they grew up dodging c. my own opinion and instincts,” with shared by the participants who had between the different worlds of their the possibility of choosing multiple military backgrounds. These are typically own microculture and the larger, more answers. Other questions covered categorized as “traditional” attitudes, mainstream one. If you don’t have the option of gambling on this hairbrained idea, there are plenty of other things you can do, education being the foremost. Bob Donaldson starts out this issue’s region focus on Asia with a look at some

EN15038:2006 Certified by LICS cross-cultural stereotypes, followed by ISO 9001:2008 Certified by CERMET various other articles on Asian markets, Korean, localization in China and how GMX-V deals with word counts in Asian Technical authoring for ECJK languages. Aki Ito’s Takeaway looks at McDonald’s in Japan, and Joseph In house multilingual LQA/DTP solution Campo’s column relates his beginner’s experience with starting up an offshore Medical translation documentation team in India. There are also not one, but two, columns on Chinese GB Ukraine and Russia — which is not to say compliance consulting that Ukraine is part of Asia, though its Mobile app diaspora has high numbers in Asia, given localization that Russia spans two continents. The diaspora has always been [email protected] beneficial to those of us in the www.ezuserguide.com localization industry. Perhaps in time, the cultural renegades will also be able to contribute in similar ways. W 4 | MultiLingual July/August 2014 [email protected]

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n Up Front n Region Focus: Asia n 3 multilingual.com 23 East and West: Overcoming stereotypes n 4 Post Editing — Bob Donaldson n News 26 Underserved Asian markets n 6 News — Benjamin B. Sargent n 13 Calendar 28 Korean introduces new n Columns and Commentary challenges to localization

— Hyelim Chang Up Front 14 Off the Map — Kate Edwards 33 GMX-V: Slaying the 16 Macro/Micro — Terena Bell word count dragon 18 World Savvy — John Freivalds — Andrzej Zydro´n 20 Perspectives — Joseph Campo 37 History of the localization 57 Takeaway — Aki Ito industry in mainland China — Chuanmao Tian n 51 Buyer’s Guide 56 Advertiser Index n Technology 40 The future of technology in ASL translation — Jennifer Sunga 42 Audio localization from films to games About the cover — Jacques Barreau Topiary depicting the word welcome in Chinese characters on the grounds of the Shanghai n Business Museum, Peoples Square, in Shanghai, China. 46 Communicating value in business terms — Luigi Muzii

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4-5-Postediting/TOC #145.indd 5 6/26/14 10:37 AM 6-8 3pgNewsFrontTAUSreport#145.indd 6 6 | MultiLingual July/August2014 the recipe andexperiment.“Experimenta- the strange, theweird.” Second,playwith look forsecrets, “forideasamongthesilly, Lindkvist, youshoulddofourthings.First, ing andSwedish.” do bothifyou’re consensus-seeking,bor- asked, addingjokinglythat“youcanonly to create, andmakeenemies?”Lindkvist cover of compete and make friendsandbeonthe the competitionobsolete.“Doyouwantto because theytendtoeventuallyrender in theirownera andeventhreatening, true innovators are oftenconsidered odd News If you want to create and innovate, said If youwanttocreate andinnovate,said go inwithlegacythinking.” inherit theearth,becausetheydon’t placent andentitled.“Theamateurs that itoftenmakescompaniescom- organization,” saidLindkvist,stating dangerous forces tounleashinan “Success ispossiblyoneofthemost theme ofdisruptiveinnovation. Lindkvist followedtheconference by Swedishfuturologist Magnus localization sector. of them from Ireland’s booming record numberofattendees,many tion Centre Dublin,anddrew a was heldJune4-6attheConven- magazine, or do you want Forbes magazine, or do you want Lindkvist went on to explain that Lindkvist wentontoexplainthat The June5keynoteaddress given Localization World Dublin2014 Localization WorldDublin2014lookstothefuture

over lunchandduringbreaks. the conference intheconference hall, opening reception June4andthroughout ditional networkingtookplaceatthe dancing andtraditional Irishmusic.Ad- the citythathostedaneveningofIrish at Taylors Three Rock,alarge puboutside Agency Ltd. model,” notedMonikaPopiolek ofMAart maybe youshouldchangeyourbusiness ness modelisjusttoselllarge volumes, thrive intimesofchange.“Ifyourbusi- business practices andhowtoadapt jump-start students’careers. with internshipsandtraining provided to tion betweenuniversities andbusinesses, cluded theideaofheightenedcollabora- topic. Thediscussionofthelatterin- a preconference workshoponthesame ing localization professionals based on a panelonattracting, training andretain- World thedaybefore. Similarly, there was workshop andround tableatLocalization sion resulting from thefirst consultant consultant microtalk, aone-hourdiscus- the middle.” because “anything canlooklikeafailure in be patientandpersistent; thinklong-term, failures. Fourth,andrelated torecycling, tion iscreation,” saidLindkvist.Third, recycle The conference dinnerJune5washeld The keynotepanelJune6followed New totheDublinconference wasa opening receptionattheCCD. Dublin (CCD)in the background; crowd atthe the rainbowlightsofConferenceCentre Beckett BridgeacrosstheLiffeyRiverwith Taylors ThreeRock.Below:FuturisticSamuel tertainers presenting traditional Irish music at venue fortheconferencedinnerJune5;en- shared withanattendee;Taylors ThreeRock exhibit hallsalesexpertisefromVisableThread note speakerLindkvistafterhispresentation; ers DonnaParrish andUlrichHeneswithkey- visual designworldwide;conferenceorganiz- with hissessionconcerningglobalbusiness Right: UltanÓBroin,OracleAmerica,Inc., Above: Keynote speakerMagnusLindkvist. (Photos byFrankHerrmann,lower right:Katie Botkin) [email protected] 6/26/14 10:38AM www.multilingual.com 7

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TAUS Industry Leaders XTRF, Adobe, Jonckers, Symantec and Dub- Forum in Dublin lin City University. Together they tried to identify the current common problems in Over 60 industry leaders joined a TAUS quality evaluation, establish whether prog- Forum at the Clontarf Castle Hotel in Dublin ress has been made toward solving these on June 2 and 3, 2014. The TAUS Industry issues since the last TAUS Industry Leaders Leaders Forum 2014 began with a debate Forum when the topic was raised, and iden- between two well known language writers, tify ways in which end users can contribute Lane Greene and Nicholas Ostler. The topic effectively to work toward adoption of a was the new lingua franca, discussing the common framework of definitions, best question of whether English will remain the Above: Jaap van der Meer after presenting practices, evaluation tools and metrics. Lane Greene and Nicholas Ostler with their lingua franca or whether machine transla- TAUS Excellence Awards. Below: The main The session on interoperability brought tion (MT) will take over in the near future. session crowd in Great Hall at Clontarf Castle together key coordinators of translation Both men made a strong case, but in the Hotel, Dublin, and a break-out discussion on interoperability initiatives. The focus was end it seemed they agreed more than they enterprise language strategy. on bridging these initiatives and laying out disagreed. The audience was asked to vote a strategy that would drive adoption of the via an online poll and even though the result and people together into toolkits for agreed formats and best practices. was very close, the majority voted for the getting the job done. These discussions will be continued rise of MT. Not surprising for this industry. Geocustomization was next on our at the TAUS Annual Conference 2014 in Other topics on the agenda were data agenda. Representatives from LinkedIn, Vancouver, British Columbia on October sharing, the power of the crowd, geocus- Lionbridge and tauyou discussed how reaching global between Lane Greene and Nicholas among others. In the data sharing session markets depends on culture, target cus- Ostler is available at www.taus.net/ on June 2, representatives from Lingosec, tomers, competitive situations and many fortune-telling-in-the-translation-industry. the European Commission, Cisco and EMC other factors. It’s getting easier to target the You can also still cast your vote for the new discussed data safety and protection as well right group of people now that machines lingua franca on the website. as the development of a structured frame- know where we are and even who we are. work that allows selling data. In another For the discussion on translation qual- — Anne-Maj van der Meer, session, the focus was on the crowd versus ity, TAUS invited speakers from Welocalize, TAUS: Translation in the 21st Century the community. Key people from Moravia, MemSource, Smartling and Proz.com talked about the difference between community translation and crowd translation and how both affect the quality of the translation. June 3 started with an enterprise language strategy session. A panel of industry leaders from Dell, Welocalize, Safaba and Acrolinx discussed the twenty-first century strategy to go global. What are we willing to compromise to preserve utility, gain speed and reduce costs? Ap- parently, the twenty-first century global strategy is all about pulling technology

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Business Texas location. opening a new office in Taiwan and mov- Welocalize www.welocalize.com ing its offices in China, Japan and South Keywords acquires Binari Sonori Korea into larger facilities. Keywords International, a provider of out- In Every Language relocates MultiLing www.multiling.com sourced video game localization and testing headquarters services, has acquired Binari Sonori S.r.l., In Every Language, a provider of trans- LanguageWire in Gothenburg a provider of translation and outsourced lating, interpreting and localization solu- LanguageWire, a provider of translation voiceover services for game developers and tions, has relocated its headquarters from services, has opened a second office in Swe- publishers. Louisville, Kentucky, to Washington, DC. den. Lea Backhurst has been hired as sales Keywords International www.keywordsintl.com The company’s satellite office in Durham, manager for the new Gothenburg office. Binari Sonori S.r.l. www.binarisonori.com North Carolina, is unaffected. LanguageWire www.languagewire.com In Every Language www.ineverylanguage.com New website for hebrewtrans.com delsurtranslations updates website Rina Ne’eman Hebrew Language Services, WordPressLang delsurtranslations, a provider of language- Inc., has rebranded and launched a new web- WordPressLang offers tutorials and ar- related services, has updated its website to site. The company provides translation and in- ticles about how to make a multilingual improve functionality, design and navigation terpretation services for clients such as prime WordPress website using plugins, widgets, structure. ministers, law firms, major television networks themes and search engine optimization in delsurtranslations and multinational corporations. more than 80 different languages. http://delsurtranslations.com.ar Rina Ne’eman Hebrew Language Services, Inc. WordPressLang http://wordpresslang.com www.hebrewtrans.com Verztec opens office in Vietnam Skrivanek opens Sao Paulo branch Verztec Consulting Pte. Ltd., a provider Google acquires Quest Visual Skrivanek Group, a provider of localiza- of multilingual communication services for Google, Inc., has acquired Quest Visual, tion solutions, has opened a branch office industries such as medical, petrochemical developer of an app that translates, in real- in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Portuguese is one of and life sciences, has opened a new office time, printed words from one language to the company’s most frequently requested in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The com- another using a device’s built-in camera. target languages. pany has a total of seven regional offices Google will incorporate the translation app Skrivanek Group www.skrivanek.com worldwide. and its current language packs into Google Verztec Consulting Pte. Ltd, www.verztec.com Translate. Translatize Google, Inc. www.google.com Translatize LLC, a new translation com- Interpreter Education Online pany, has unveiled its fully automated online redesigns website Text United website redesigned platform for purchasing human translation Interpreter Education Online has rede- Text United GmbH has redesigned its services. The platform is intended to empower signed its website. The group collaborates website. The company provides an all- buyers to obtain a quote instantly within their with state courts and health care organiza- in-one business model and cloud-based particular parameters regarding each project tions to provide quality training and test- enterprise translation solution designed requirement. ing to interpreters. to enable companies to consolidate their Translatize LLC http://translatize.com Interpreter Education Online translation processes. www.InterpreterEducationOnline.com Text United GmbH www.textunited.com Traducta rebrands Traducta, a Portuguese translation com- People Office expansion for Saudisoft pany, has rebranded and changed the com- Saudisoft Co. Ltd, a provider of informa- pany name to Traductanet. The company Recent industry hires tion technology development strategies, has offices in South America and Europe, ■■ Netwire, a provider of language ser- distribution services and localization so- and specializes in localization, interpreting vices that include transcription, subtitling lutions, has expanded its office in Cairo, and terminology services for companies and voiceover, has hired Bruno Henrique Egypt. The company has also added a new worldwide. Penedo to its technical department. translation and localization team to its Traductanet www.traductanet.com ■■ Latin Link (Language Partners Ltd), Jeddah, KSA, headquarters. a translation agency focused on medical Saudisoft Co. Ltd www.saudisoft.com New look for Anzu Global translation in Spanish, English, Portuguese Anzu Global LLC, a globalization staff- and French, has hired Mike Downey as pro- Welocalize acquires ing services company, has designed a new duction director. CD Language Solutions website. The company also provides trans- ■■ Safaba Translation Solutions, LLC, has Welocalize, a provider of integrated glo- lation business brokerage services. announced changes in its management balization services, has acquired the assets Anzu Global LLC www.anzuglobal.com team. Udi Hershkovich will assume the of CD Language Solutions and will merge role of CEO. Alon Lavie, founding CEO and its operations with Park IP Translations, also MultiLing opens Taiwan office chairman of the board, will become CTO. a Welocalize company. Park will continue MultiLing, a provider of IP translation ■■ MultiLing, a provider of IP translation to maintain client services, sales and op- and related services for foreign patent fil- and related services for foreign patent fil- erations based out of the acquired Houston, ings, has expanded its operations in Asia by ings, has promoted Michael Degn to vice

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10-13 News-Calendar #145.indd 10 6/26/14 10:41 AM president of global sales. workflow management capabilities of Ka- of InDesign files via any web browser. The ■■ 1-Stop Translation USA, LLC, a pro- leidoscope’s quickTerm solution. new tool is an integrated component of its vider of Asian language services, has hired SDL has also introduced SDL Language cloud-based language management system Skye Kim as its new chief operating officer. Cloud. The cloud-based language platform called i plus. ■■ L10n People, a localization industry offers human, machine and specialist ma- translate plus http://translateplus.com recruitment vendor, has hired Derek Farren chine translation and intends to provide a as business development director. solution for translating all content. Clients and Partners ■■ Akorbi, a provider of linguistic, staff- SDL www.sdl.com ing and technology services, has hired Ralph Plunet and Welocalize Bonaduce as vice president of international memoQ 2014 combine technology services. Kilgray Translation Technologies, a de- Plunet GmbH, a provider of business man- Netwire www.netwire.com.br veloper of translation productivity tools, agement software for translation services Latin Link (Language Partners Ltd) has released memoQ 2014. The latest ver- and agencies, and Welocalize, a provider www.latinlink.com sion includes features such as project tem- of integrated globalization services, have Safaba Translation Solutions plates and workflow automation, image created a joint interface between Plunet www.safaba.com localization, ability to import terminology BusinessManager and Welocalize Falcon. MultiLing www.multiling.com from other tools and integration with TaaS Plunet GmbH www.plunet.com 1-Stop Translation USA, LLC www.1stoptr.com (Terminology as a Service). Welocalize www.welocalize.com L10n People www.l10npeople.com Kilgray Translation Technologies Akorbi www.akorbi.com www.kilgray.com Acrolinx, K15t Software partner Acrolinx GmbH, a developer of content Financial XTRF 2014 Spring quality software, has partnered technol- XTRF Translation Management Systems ogy with K15t Software, a provider of inbenta receives funding sp. z o.o., has announced the release of documentation tools and solutions. Based inbenta, a provider of natural language XTRF 2014 Spring. The latest version in- on the Confluence collaboration platform processing and semantic search solutions, cludes a redesigned user interface, email from Atlassian, the combined technology has received $2 million in funding from template editor and Vendor Portal. is intended to help writers collaborate and InverSur Capital, a venture capital firm XTRF Translation Management create documentation. based in Santiago, Chile, that operates the Systems sp. z o.o. www.xtrf.eu Acrolinx GmbH www.acrolinx.com Telefónica Amerigo fund. inbenta www.inbenta.com Bento 2.1 KantanMT partners with Reverbeo Jonckers Translation & Engineering, a KantanMT, a subscription-based ma- Smartling Series D funding round provider of software, e-learning and mul- chine translation service, and Reverbeo, a Smartling, Inc., provider of a cloud-based timedia localization services, has created website translation platform, have part- software platform, has secured $25 million a new version of Bento, its cloud-based nered technology to allow Reverbeo users in a Series D funding round. Iconiq Capital translation portal. Among the key capa- to export website content to the KantanMT led the investment, joined by earlier back- bilities supported by Bento 2.1 is direct machine translation platform. ers First Round Capital, Harmony Partners, support for agile development through KantanMT http://kantanmt.com IDG Ventures, Tenaya Capital, U.S. Venture rapid-response translation. Partners and Venrock. Jonckers Translation & Engineering. Haymillian chosen by Victory Media Smartling, Inc. www.smartling.com www.jonckers.com Haymillian, a provider of language services including subtitling, dubbing and voiceover, Products and Services Your MT Department program has been chosen by Victory Media to provide Asia Online Pte Ltd., a developer of au- subtitling services for a new web TV platform XTM 8.5 tomated translation technology, has started called I Love TV. XTM International, a developer of XML the Your MT Department program, intended Haymillian www.haymillian.com authoring and translation tools, has re- to empower project managers to customize leased XTM 8.5. Updates include a trans- and control machine translation (MT). The XTRF awarded European Union grant lation quality scoring system and a wide program is the result of six months of con- XTRF Translation Management Systems range of translator features intended to sultations with users of MT and their project sp. z o.o., has been awarded a European improve editing, viewing and usability. managers. The study identified factors that Union grant. The project titled “Continu- XTM International www.xtm-intl.com can make the difference between failing or ity of the processes and data security minimal gains, and obtaining translation in a translation management system” is SDL MultiTerm Workflow, productivity gains with MT initiatives. financed from the EU Innovative Economy Language Cloud Asia Online Pte Ltd. www.asiaonline.net Operational Programme. The purpose of SDL, a provider of global customer ex- the project is to develop technologies to perience management, has created SDL design plus ensure operation continuity and extreme MultiTerm Workflow, a workflow and life- translate plus, a language service pro- data security. cycle-management system for terminology vider, has launched design plus, a cloud- XTRF Translation Management that combines SDL MultiTerm with the based tool intended to enable text editing Systems sp. z o.o. www.xtrf.eu

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Nuance signs agreement with Oracle The Unicode Consortium has released online learning and professional develop- Oracle has selected voice and language version 2014-05-16 of the Unicode Ideo- ment, called GALA onDemand. Information offerings from Nuance Communications, graphic Variation Database (IVD), register- includes video training, presentations, tech- Inc., a provider of voice and language ing the new Moji_Joho collection. The nology demos and conference content pre- technology, for a broad set of Oracle mo- database provides a registry for collections viously only available to on-site attendees. bile apps. Nuance cloud solutions enable of unique variation sequences contain- Globalization and Localization Association human-like speech recognition experiences ing CJK Unified Ideographs, allowing for www.gala-global.org for most devices and platforms, in more standardized interchange according to UTS than 40 languages. #37, Unicode IVD. Survey results available Nuance Communications, Inc. The Unicode Consortium www.unicode.org in report on compensation www.nuance.com Common Sense Advisory, Inc., an inde- Oracle www.oracle.com White paper on information security pendent market research firm specializing Across Systems GmbH has published a in the language service industry, has pub- Translations.com selected by Subway white paper with recommendations on lished a report on the results of its survey Translations.com, a provider of language how enterprises can protect information of compensation at language service services and translation-related technol- from manipulation, theft, loss and un- providers. “The State of Compensation at ogy products, has been selected to provide wanted disclosure to unauthorized parties. LSPs: 2014” provides data intended to as- technology for the localization of content Across Systems GmbH www.across.net sist executives and hiring managers as they for Subway, a fast food operator, with over hire new staff, revise salaries and incentive 40,000 locations in 105 countries globally. ELRA adds speech resources structures at review times, or benchmark Translations.com www.translations.com The European Language Resources As- internal wages. sociation (ELRA) has added two new speech Common Sense Advisory, Inc. Resources resources to its catalog. The Nepali Spoken www.commonsenseadvisory.com Corpus contains audio recordings from differ- Unicode 7.0, new version of Unicode ent social activities within their natural set- Translation quality white paper Ideographic Variation Database tings. The CLIPS_MT_MANUAL is a subcorpus Safaba Translation Solutions has pub- The Unicode Consortium has announced of the original Italian CLIPS corpus (Corpora e lished “Redefining Translation Quality,” version 7.0 of the Unicode Standard. Up- Lessici dell’Italiano Parlato e Scritto). a white paper covering how measuring dates include the addition of 2,834 new European Language Resources Association translation quality is not the same as mea- characters, new currency symbols for the www.elra.info suring business value. Russian ruble and Azerbaijani manat, ap- Safaba Translation Solutions www.safaba.com proximately 250 emoji pictographic sym- GALA onDemand bols and 23 new lesser-used and historic The Globalization and Localization As- Announcements scripts. sociation has created a new platform for 15th anniversary for STAR Servicios Lingüísticos STAR Servicios Lingüísticos S.L., the Spanish branch of the STAR Group focused on translation services and the development of linguistic technology, is celebrating its 15th year in business. STAR Servicios Lingüísticos, S.L. www.star-spain.com Connecting your vision, Correction

The print edition of the April/May technologies and 2014 issue misleadingly stated in Jose Gambin’s article “Evolution of cloud- based translation memory” that Idiom customers. WorldServer, subsequently sold as SDL WorldServer after SDL’s acquisition of Idiom, is freeware. Only WorldServer’s translator Desktop Workbench is free. An edit was made that introduced this error, and the error should not be attributed www.star-group.net to the author. The digital edition of the article has been corrected. — The Editors

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Translator and Interpreter Training Calendar It’s Time For a Big Idea: The Human Language Project September 25-26, 2014, Novi Sad, Serbia. July 17, 2014, San Jose, California USA. International Association for Translation The International Multilingual User Group, and Intercultural Studies, http://bit.ly/TbzwfB www.meetup.com/IMUG-Silicon-Valley/events/169351252 Translation Forum Russia AIIC professional development course September 26-28, 2014, Ekaterinburg, Russia. July 28-August 1, 2014, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Business Bureau of the Association of Interpreters International Association of Conference Interpreters, http://tconf.com http://aiic.net/events/147 October August Brand2Global FIT XXth World Congress October 1-2, 2014, London, UK. August 4-6, 2014, Berlin, Germany. The Localization Institute, http://brand2global.com International Federation of Translators, www.fit2014.org IV International Conference Computer-Assisted Translation Course Translating Voices, Translating Regions August 5-8, 2014, Monterey, California USA. October 2-4, 2014, Durham City, UK. Monterey Institute of International Studies, http://tr.im/5b985 Centre for Intercultural Mediation, Durham University https://www.dur.ac.uk/cim/events/tvtr CIDLeS Summer School 2014 August 11-15 2014, Minde, Portugal. MedTranslate 2014 Centro Interdisciplinar de Documentação Linguística e Social October 3-5, 2014, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. www.cidles.eu/summer-school-coding-for-language-communities-2014 GxP Language Services, http://medical-translators-conference.com

CETRA 2014 Elia Networking Days Tuscany August 18-29, 2014, Leuven, Belgium. October 5-7, 2014, Tuscany, Italy. Centre for Translation Studies ELIA (European Language Industry Association) www.arts.kuleuven.be/cetra/summer_school www.elia-association.org/index.php?id=ndtuscany

COLING 2014 Loc Kit Software Localization Conference August 23-29, 2014, Dublin, Ireland. October 10, 2014, Moscow, Russia. International Committee for Computational Linguistics All Correct Localization, http://lockitconf.com www.coling-2014.org LavaCon Conference on Translate in Quebec 2014 Content Strategy and User Experience August 24-27, 2014, Estérel, Quebec, Canada. October 13-15, 2014, Portland, Oregon USA. Anglocom, http://translateinthelaurentians.com LavaCon, http://lavacon.org/2014

PAX Dev Seattle Statistical Language and Speech Processing 2014 August 27-28, 2014, Seattle, Washington USA. October 14-16, 2014, Grenoble, France. Penny Arcade, http://dev.paxsite.com Research Group on Mathematical Linguistics, GETALP http://grammars.grlmc.com/slsp2014 September KATS International Conference Content Marketing World October 17-18, 2014, Seoul, Korea. September 8-11, 2014, Cleveland, Ohio USA. Korean Association of Translation Studies Content Marketing Institute, http://contentmarketingworld.com Ewha Research Institute for Translation Studies http://translationstudies.or.kr Technical Communication UK September 16-18, 2014, Brighton, UK. Jazoon Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators, October 21-22, 2014, Zurich-Oerlikon, Switzerland. www.technicalcommunicationuk.com Keynode AG, http://jazoon.com/conference

Translating Europe Forum Localization World Vancouver September 18-19, 2014, Brussels, Belgium. October 29-31, 2014, Vancouver, Canada. DG Translation, http://bit.ly/UiY4UK Localization World Ltd., http://www.localizationworld.com

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10-13 News-Calendar #145.indd 13 6/26/14 10:41 AM Off the Map Kate Edwards

The creative difference Column

Most of us who work in localization and brought with me not only my geopolitical and cultural expertise culturalization have a pretty solid understanding but my very thorough knowledge of Star Wars’ fictional universe. During my culturalization review of thousands of pieces of content, of the types of content that are typically adapted I was able to evaluate through my cultural lens as well as in the for international markets. I would venture that the context of what is logically consistent and “true” to that fictional Mmajority of content localized today involves pretty content I know so well. Arguably, I would say that my intimate knowledge of that straightforward text copy and other media that are particular creative IP empowered my work in a way not typical of descriptive, logistical or administrative in nature — properties for which I have no passion or prior understanding. Of things such as user interface text, medical records, course I wouldn’t work any less diligently on any other project, but technical manuals and so on. I’m essentially refer- I’d say that those aligned closer to my personal interests and knowledge certainly leverage additional benefits. No doubt this is the case ring to nonfiction types of content. with anyone who is able to work on something for which they have a personal passion or interest. Because we operate within a consumer ecosystem that’s increas- One of the reasons that familiarity with the creative properties ingly driven by digital content, we’re also seeing a continued is so important is because they often generate issues that go way increase in the need for adapting creative content, meaning more beyond the terminology, including many culturalization challenges and more content like books, films, television programs and video such as new symbols, environments, costumes and outfits, races games. When it comes to both localization and culturalization, and species. These new realms demand new skills, such as the ability these kinds of content present unique challenges, as many people to manage what in essence is the creation of worlds. And thus this who work with them are well aware. In the field of video game is a fundamental difference at the heart of dealing with creative localization it’s often said that “It’s not ‘typical’ localization; one content: we as localization and culturalization professionals are really has to know and love games to fully understand how to responsible for being partners in the art of world design. adapt them.” So why is creative content considered to be unique? Essentially every creative property is some form of manufactured One aspect of dealing with creative content is pretty straight- world with its own form of cultural rules, systems and processes. We forward, and that’s dealing with all the new and unfamiliar words act as creative partners with the original writers, artists and design- and phrases that arise in fictional content. Each translator has his or ers to convey the uniqueness of these new environments to other her own way of dealing with these, and it’s really not too different cultures. The need for cultural adaptation to be so closely tied to from perhaps many of the unique terms that arise in medical and creation only underscores the necessity of localization and cultural- scientific literature. Where things begin to get complicated is when ization being fully integrated with the entire development cycle. a broader context exists for the unique milieu in which the terms This sounds like an incredible challenge — how does one even are found. It’s not just about interesting and creative terminology begin to evaluate if something never seen before might be appro- for its own sake, it’s how the objects appear in a context that may priate for a locale? That’s where another critical aspect of creative not have existed previously. If translators have no familiarity with content comes into play, and that’s the issue of precedence. Many the creative intellectual property (IP), then their ability to capture of the issues that arise with creative content have very few or no the intent of the designers may be challenged. In my own work, I’ve had this experience numerous times. For people who know me well, it’s no secret that I’m a major geek who Kate Edwards is a geographer and the principal consultant can readily quote lines from Star Wars (yes, I even possess a Jedi of Geogrify, a Seattle-based consultancy for culturalization Knight costume) and I’m also an avid gamer. So when I had the and content strategy. She is also the executive director of the opportunity to work on the game Star Wars: The Old Republic, I International Game Developers Association (IGDA).

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14-15 EdwardsCol#145.indd 14 6/26/14 10:42 AM Column

examples where a culture has been exposed Bond film Die Another Day). who are quite passionate about their to that specific case. So when companies Oftentimes it’s possible to circumvent ideas, stories and designs. This can be are seeking to release a new creative IP major changes to content just by doing a a very rewarding experience, but also in specific target markets, they may not careful examination of precedence. I know somewhat challenging at times, as man- have any knowledge as to how culturally many cases where an issue that could be aging their expectations for what does compatible their IP might be. One method potentially problematic was left alone and does not work on a specific language for helping to mitigate potential cultural because other media have widely lever- or locale may yield pushback and defen- impact is to examine similar media to aged that same issue, which effectively siveness. We need to respect their work ascertain if there have been prior problems. lessens the impact. That doesn’t automati- but also help them (delicately sometimes) Let’s consider the South Korean market cally mean a company leaves it in without to understand the nature of our work as an example. Even rudimentary market thinking of impacts, but the issue comes to and how our function is to really help research for this locale would reveal that them “pre-mitigated” to a degree. as many people as possible around the North Korea is a potentially sensitive topic, Going back to my example of Star world enjoy their ideas. and in fact most people would probably Wars: The Old Republic, as familiar as The intent of highlighting the par- surmise this just from their general knowl- I and so many people are with that IP, ticular challenges of creative content for edge. What fewer people may realize is I actually found a few cultural issues localization and culturalization isn’t to that as contentious as the relationship with that I would have recommended for downplay the critical importance of other North Korea might be, South Korea has a change. Surprising to be sure, but content, nor the role everyone plays in often shunned content that portrays the because that particular creative con- adapting content for international mar- north as an enemy. So when game titles tent is so prevalent and ingrained, to kets. Rather, it’s meant to emphasize that such as Ghost Recon 2 and Mercenaries change one of the issues I found would working with content that has a fictional cast North Korea as a villain in the plots, the mean altering “canon” for that world context brings specialized challenges games were banned by the South Korean — something that is highly unlikely to and responsibilities. We are partners in a government. This could have been avoided happen. world-building exercise, sometimes of epic by reviewing other media that had encoun- Lastly, working with creative content proportions, that will be experienced by tered similar restrictions (such as the James means working with very creative people millions of people. M The World Speaks v6!

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14-15 EdwardsCol#145.indd 15 6/26/14 10:42 AM Macro/Micro Terena Bell

Pragmatism, conflict

Column and translation

As of this writing, Ukraine — depending on your ensures that slang, tone and current changes in meaning (such politics — is either on the verge of war with Rus- as that gay no longer means happy) are so accurate that the sia or with itself. Beyond the natural humanitar- end reader will feel as if the translation was written next door — because, in a way, it was. ian concerns that any reader with a heart must But the reality is, this isn’t always possible. Sometimes clients Ahave, there are concerns unique to our industry need something back the same day and ask for it after every- that we must pragmatically look at when it comes one in the target country has gone to sleep. Sometimes that to how we process translation for these countries’ country is in the developing world, and shaky access to electricity or internet causes delays that would mean late project deliv- languages. ery. Sometimes you have to use someone in a different country for the mere logistical reason that the target country doesn’t I’ve written on war in this column before but only in the allow payment via PayPal or whatever means your LSP uses to hypothetical. Now that it’s about two actual nations, both of transfer funds. The list goes on. Be it time zones, infrastructure which have MultiLingual readers, writing gets a lot more stress- or something else, geography gets trumped by practicality more ful. While I won’t say which side my politics align with, the first often than best practices would like. thing I have to do is admit a bias as a journalist: I have a clear In an international industry, this type of concern is nothing opinion on right and wrong here. But what isn’t clear to me new. Neither is war, unfortunately. The situation in Ukraine as a language service provider (LSP) owner is how our industry has gotten quite horrible lately, regardless of your politics. It’s should handle the business side of this or any other war-like gotten so horrible that even though this article will run two conflict. months after I write it, I feel safe as a writer that something Here’s the issue: Russian translators live in both Russia and will still be going on there at the time of publication. But even Ukraine. They also live in the United States, Canada and all sorts if it’s not, and even if by some miracle of God, the conflict is of other countries around the world. That’s the nature of the over, I doubt two months more will fix the situation between beast: that when we as LSPs (or even clients, for that matter) Israel and Palestine. Or that it will fix the one in Syria. Maybe pick a language, we don’t just pick a language, we pick a geog- Sudan will have calmed down. I need to be optimistic about raphy too. With any given project, where your translator lives something. is based on a combination of factors. Globally-accepted best Conflict is. Let me say again, conflict is and very well always practices require a native speaker of the target language living may be. It is only how we react to conflict as people and as an in a country where that language is not just currently spoken industry that we can change. but is spoken by the living, breathing mainstream. Doing this This is something LSPs dealing in certain language pairs deal with regularly. For example, take Rina Ne’eman, owner of Rina Ne’eman Hebrew Language Services. Having built her business off of providing Hebrew and Arabic to companies in the United Terena Bell is CEO of In Every Language. She formerly served on the GALA States, Israel and elsewhere, Ne’eman has spent her entire board and currently serves on the White House Business Roundtable. career working with both clients and translators in conflict

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zones. An Israeli native, Ne’eman is so — a quality translation delivered on time this year’s Ukraine Translation Industry used to the situation in her home coun- and under budget. The fact that this Conference (UTIC) has seen a record try that she felt my interviewing her for translation provided income to a linguist number of speaker cancellations, includ- this piece “does an injustice to people in a conflict zone may make them feel ing its keynote speaker, Hans Fenster- in countries where there are truly acute warm and fuzzy, but it’s not going to macher. Due to last summer’s Egyptian issues.” I don’t know about you, but the get them to stay if the work doesn’t conflict, the Globalization and Localiza- conflict between Israel and Palestine meet expectations, and it’s definitely not tion Association (GALA) cancelled last seems acute enough to me, as I watch going to make them choose you over year’s think! Middle East event in Cairo. it on television from my air-conditioned your competitor. Pragmatism is a force While blindly sending them projects is living room. But what looks like conflict and I’m not going to overcome it here, in not necessarily the answer, neither is to me is just standard day-in, day-out this single column entry. abandoning them. for someone else. Whether we are willing or able to I am not saying that people need to Conflict does impact daily operations send projects to war-torn areas in order put their lives at risk to attend these in our industry no matter where we are. to morally help them out is not just an events. But whatever happened to Skyp- From here in the United States, that’s individual LSP decision, it’s an individual ing in? ProZ.com has offered virtual con- very hard to claim. I certainly have never project one. In light of what’s going on ferences since 2009. If the technology had a colleague shot and killed through in Ukraine, each of our project manag- is there to translate in the cloud, then my front window while he was trans- ers needs to do as she sees best for each the technology is there to talk about lating — something that happened at document on a case-by-case basis. While translation in the cloud, too. Arabize’s Egyptian office during conflict the effort is welcome, a single translation If we are to grow an international there last August. That an employee project, or even several, is not enough to industry, then we need to look at the could be killed while working on a stand on by itself. Ours is an international darkest places translators must work translation is a reality I can’t even begin industry, and international means more from. And that is where we first must to fathom. than just North America and Europe. bring the light. We cannot fix Russia and As a human being, this makes me want Because of the situation in Ukraine, Ukraine. But we can fix this. M to outsource every single bit of Arabic language work In Every Language has straight to that company. In the United States, we have this perception that money fixes everything. Wrong as it may be, Americans have a capitalism-minded culture where dollars dress a wound and pennies form a poultice. It would be easy, then, for our industry to “deal” with conflict by simply throwing money at it. But no amount of projects that my or any other company sends Arabize will bring their colleague back. In addition, we have that nasty, nasty problem of practicality that I mentioned at the start of this piece. In Every Language promises clients that we don’t outsource work to other LSPs. And whether we like it or not, when a translator is located in a war-torn area, it may affect infrastructure via internet and electricity. It affects a translator’s stress level, which then may reflect in poorer quality of translation — 12 may become 2, grammatical or punctuation errors could be made. Thus, what we think we can fix with the bottom line could actually negatively impact the bottom line. And having run In Every Language as a certified social enterprise for the first six years we were open, I can tell you clients don’t care. Sure, they care on some intrinsic, personal level, but at the end of the business day, they still want — no, need

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16-17 BellCol#145.indd 17 6/26/14 10:44 AM World Savvy John Freivalds

Language and turmoil Column in Ukraine

Close to 300 million people spoke Russian in The Ministry also complained that the forcible removal of Rus- 1994, just after the fall of the Soviet Union. That sian monuments in the Ukraine, such as statues of Lenin, consti- number has already decreased by about 120 mil- tuted “attacks and acts of vandalism performed on monuments of historical and cultural heritage.” lion, according to Russia’s Benjamin Kaganov, Geopolitical considerations aside, this was all too much for Cdeputy minister of education and science. And the Putin to take. The venerable mother tongue that he grew up number of Russian speakers is projected to keep with was being rejected in favor of Ukrainian, and Putin is dropping in the next 50 years, something that has frightened by what he sees happening to the Russian language. According to “The Future of Russian Language,” published on the spurred Russia to allocate around $46 million to Center for Russian Language Studies website, it is possible that open language learning centers around the world. by 2025, the number of Russian speakers in the world will halve. It is likely that within ten years, Russian, now ranked fourth in It was this huge decline plus an action of the Ukrainian Parlia- the world, will be overtaken by French, Hindi and Arabic, and ment that was perhaps an overlooked catalyst for Vladimir Putin within 15 years by Portuguese. Controversial Russian politician invading Crimea starting in late February 2014. The action: the Vladimir Zhirinovsky claimed in March 2014 that this language Ukrainian Parliament abolishing the 2012 State Language Policy decline is partially the fault of the Russian vowel ы, close but law the day after it voted to dismiss President Viktor Yanukovich not identical to the sound of y in English. “This primitive, Asiatic on February 22, 2014. The law allowed the country’s regions to sound is the reason people don’t like us in Europe,” Zhirinovsky use more official languages in addition to Ukrainian if they were told lawmakers, asking for removal of the letter. The politician spoken by over 10% of the local population. Because of this said Russian was the only language with this sound, but the let- law, 13 of Ukraine’s 27 regions, primarily in Eastern Ukraine, had ter ы also exists in some Turkic languages, including Kazakh and adopted Russian as a second official language. Two Western re- Kyrgyz, which use the same alphabet. gions introduced Romanian and Hungarian as official languages, What Ukraine did was dramatic, but all the former Soviet but with the abolition of the law this is no longer true. republics have encouraged their native languages at the expense Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said the cancellation of Russian, remembering what the Soviets did to them. Claire of the law was a mistake. Commenting on the instability in the Nuttall, writing in Russia Beyond the Headlines in an article Crimea, where the majority of the population speaks Russian, entitled “In Central Asia, Russian wave ebbs away,” quotes a he told CNN, “The new Ukrainian government should signal very report from Minority Rights Group International noting that in eloquently to the ethnic minorities in Ukraine that they are Kazakhstan, “Although the Russian language is deemed ‘equal’ welcome in Ukraine; that they are going to be part of the new to Kazakh under the constitution, legislation and programs of Ukraine. And also Ukraine is a member of the Council of Europe, ‘Kazakhization’ since 2001 are increasing the use of the Kazakh [with] its laws on protecting minorities.” The Russian Foreign Ministry weighed in, claiming that this was an “infringement of the right to speak native language John Freivalds is managing director of the marketing communications [and] discrimination based on ethnicity or country of origin.” firm JFA and the marketing representative for his native country, Latvia.

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language as the main language of govern- That the Russians would now claim Ukrainians in Kiev said they use mostly ment,” which is “proving to be an obstacle Ukrainians were being unfair to Russian Russian as a chief means of communica- to access to education and employment speakers is ludicrous considering what tion; 18% said they use Ukrainian; and in the civil service for a large part of the was done in the Stalin era. During the 32% said they use a mixture of both. Russian minority population.” years 1929 and 1930, a large group of The developments in the Ukraine are The same is true in Latvia where I was Ukrainian intelligentsia was arrested and symbolic of the decline of the Russian born and still own land. But to pro- executed. Additionally, ideologues warned language as a whole. The aforementioned tect itself, Latvia joined NATO and the of over-glorifying Ukraine’s Cossack past, Benjamin Kaganov said in a 2013 confer- European Union and adopted the euro and supported the closing of all Ukrainian ence that Russian could totally disappear — all to send a warning to Russia. I used cultural institutions and literary publica- beyond Russia’s borders within 50 years, to be considered a fringe nationalist by tions. An assault on Ukrainian identity and under competition from more aggressively many people, but after what happened in education was combined with an artificial mobile tongues such as English. The Mod- Ukraine, I am mainstream again. famine, and all of this dealt Ukrainian a ern Language Association in the United The translation company Kwintes- crippling blow from which it would never States reports that Russian and Latin are sential notes on its website that “One of completely recover. vying to be among the least-studied major the remarkable aspects of the Ukrainian The Ukrainian language is a member languages in college; Spanish, French and language is the fact that it exists at all of the East Slavic subgroup of Slavic German are at the top. in the modern world. It has been banned languages and the official language But no intervention by Putin in and discouraged by many non-Ukrainian of the Ukraine. Lexically the closest to Ukraine or any other former Soviet state regimes, but has always maintained its Ukrainian is Belorussian (84% of common can help reverse this tide. The major existence somehow, even by informal vocabulary), followed by Polish (70%), global legacy of Russian language has methods of keeping the tongue alive Serbo-Croatian (68%), Slovak (66%) and been the classic Russian literature of such such as songs, folklore, and Ivan Kotlyar- Russian (62%). Some Russians maintain greats as Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, but wsky’s Eheyida, which was the first book that Ukrainian is merely a dialect of not too many people seem to be lining to be published in Ukrainian and has Russian, as it retains a degree of mutual up to read Russian classics in their origi- become a classic.” intelligibility. In the 2001 census, 52% of nal language. M

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18-19 FreivaldsCol#145.indd 19 6/26/14 10:45 AM Perspectives Joseph Campo

Creating a documentation

Column team in India

If your team is like mine, you constantly face ter” of India. It was about 75 degrees Fahrenheit. We noticed the challenge of doing more with the same or less that two gentlemen were trying to assist our driver, who was rolling our baggage along just fine. Upon reaching our car, one staffing. We need to be flexible with finding qual- of the gentlemen put out his hand, and I shook it. Both men ity employees, wherever that road might take us. quietly walked away. Our driver said that they would appreci- IIn the case of Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks, that ate any help we could provide. That was a recurring weeklong theme. road took us to the 3DPLM offices in Pune, India. Driving in India is an experience everyone should have. Indian In February 2014, my colleague Lyn Amidon and I traveled to roads are not in great condition compared to, say, Boston. The cars India to greet and train our new technical writer, and to learn how drive on the left as in the United Kingdom. There are hardly any to create and grow a SolidWorks documentation team there. lane markers. There’s a mixture of cars, trucks, motor bikes, pedal I manage the SolidWorks documentation team based in bikes, three-wheeled taxis and people crossing the road amidst a Waltham, Massachusetts. SolidWorks is a computer-aided design cacophony of constantly honking horns. Drivers use their horns to program and as such, it requires a fair amount of technical signal others that they are passing or to alert them. Many trucks documentation. We had a staff member resign this past sum- actually have words painted on their rear bumpers, such as “Honk mer and could not backfill the position. Then, unexpectedly, my OK Please” or “Horn OK Please” (Figure 1). The Indians were very manager mentioned the possibility of hiring a writer in India and polite, even with their honking. actually visiting India too. We also tried one of the inexpensive, open-air, three-wheeled After originally saying no, I rethought the situation and ubiquitous black and yellow taxis. You get to experience the jour- said yes. I realized that we needed to embrace the new reality ney up close and personal — sometimes too close, like within inches of expanding our documentation team to India, particularly of the surrounding traffic. There are no other really viable forms of because we have many development teams there now. public transport in Mumbai. Traveling to India requires some preparation. We wanted to The next morning we walked on the esplanade around nearby travel in February because it’s still relatively cool and dry, with Powai Lake. People invited us to play cricket at one of the ad hoc no conflicting holidays. We were advised to stay two days in games taking place throughout the city. We returned to our hotel, Mumbai before going to Pune. We needed business visas, vari- met our driver and took off for Pune. ous vaccinations and other medicines. For basic preparation, I watched several Bollywood movies and read a Dummies book Joseph Campo is senior manager of the User Assistance Team at Dassault about doing business in India. Systèmes SolidWorks Corp. He has 16 years of experience in technical communication and is a certified PMP. He speaks several languages, Getting there studied in France, worked in Switzerland and has traveled extensively, We arrived in Mumbai at around 11:30 p.m. and immediately including hitchhiking from New York to California and back with his best knew we were no longer in the winter of Boston, but the “win- friend after college.

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The trip from Mumbai to Pune is about 125 miles, but can take four hours because driving out of Mumbai and into Pune is difficult. In between is a fairly modern expressway, complete with tolls. The expressway driving experience has less honking, but we still saw people walking across the road. We saw billboards advertising beautiful apartment complexes with green lawns, with random signage urging you to Observe Lane Discipline. Pune is a city of about nine million people. An American-born Indian friend explained the high tech industry in India so I could understand it from an American viewpoint. He said to think of Bangalore as Silicon Valley in California; Figure 1: A truck requesting that other drivers signal their presence with their horns. Mumbai as New York, not as much high tech but more finances; and Pune as Bos- our new writer in her cube. This made needed was not yet available to her. ton, with a decent amount of high tech it much easier for our trainee to do the We had hired our writer in December and many good universities. tasks herself with Lyn looking on. Lyn by leveraging 3DPLM’s local knowledge. Our partner company, 3DPLM, is frequently referred the new writer to our We coordinated our candidate search via located in Hinjawadi Industrial Park, internal tools and process guide so that a well-respected 3DPLM documentation along with many other high tech com- she can find answers to questions when manager and the 3DPLM director for panies. Our hotel was about a 15 minute Lyn is not available. SolidWorks. They reviewed approximately walk from the offices. Pune appeared to Lyn was able to cover most of the 30 to 40 résumés. After we reviewed a be a very safe city, except when you tried items in the training plan, though not handful of résumés they sent us, one to cross the roads. Every morning we had necessarily in the intended order. Some- candidate stood out because of her prior to cross a dangerous traffic circle. We times events provided opportunities to do experience working with 3DPLM. saw sandals strewn about the circle, and training that was more than an exercise. I was impressed by the strict 3DPLM wondered what happened to the people The biggest obstacles were development recruitment and employee review pro- who had been wearing them. One morn- issues with the software being docu- cesses. There are seven levels for 3DPLM ing we saw a shepherd herding his flock mented and the fact that some of the staff. Candidates take a general intel- of goats around the circle. equipment and software that the writer ligence and aptitude test, two rounds of There were two main goals of our trip. Lyn was to meet and train our new writer. My main goal was to understand what 3DPLM was, how the company worked, and what I needed to do to potentially expand my 3DPLM documentation team. Training the new writer We hired our new writer two months before our visit to India. During those two months, Lyn spent about 1.5 hours daily doing training over the internet. For the trip, Lyn prepared a training plan ahead of time and sent it to our writer. Lyn concentrated on processes that are difficult to demonstrate remotely, such as how we use our graphics tools and our internal editing procedure. Normal working hours at 3DPLM are from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. or later, to try to interface with Europe and the United States. We were in the office by 9, and Lyn spent a solid eight hours daily training the new writer. Although we were given individual “cabinets” (closed offices), Lyn preferred to work beside

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interviews and an in-person interview. another company, they might be required to Regarding the quality of documen- In our case, there was an additional give up to three months of advance notice. tation from India, Dassault Systèmes two-hour writing test, considered a I met other key personnel who all invested time developing English special skills test, that rates candidates seemed keen to help me expand our doc- language training for our India-based on their English language knowledge, umentation team in Pune in the future. technical writers. I need to coordinate including structure, grammar, writing for We were impressed by the general level with the local documentation manager users, editing and essay writing. Once of technical knowledge and the interest to see if our new writer would benefit candidates are hired, depending on their in how we do things in our US offices. from this training. Dassault Systèmes is experience, they may take up to three also investigating potentially purchasing months of training on core skills, com- Measuring results an authoring assistance software product pany products and tools. Since our visit to Pune, Lyn reports that that could enforce our corporate style 3DPLM has discrete criteria on which she now meets with our new writer twice guide and provide a baseline copyedit each employee is graded in three per week for 45 minutes each time. She still to improve quality for all our writers different sections such as meeting spends support time building her environ- globally. expectations, providing enhancements ment to test the product and reviewing About 50% of our documentation and training taken. The local manager specifications, along with technical review staff work in the United States, and 50% sets employee goals and evaluates the and copyediting. Lyn provides insights that work in Europe and India. Many writers employee twice a year, collecting addi- only she can have because of her years of know English as a second language or tional input from the reporting manager. experience with the product. speak a different variety of English. Vari- The process seemed to be much more Our goal is to have the new writer ous Dassault Systèmes acquisitions may transparent than any process I’ve ever become independent so Lyn can take on introduce more writers from different seen in the United States. other tasks. We are meeting soon with countries. This global makeup makes it From discussions with the 3DPLM docu- the product team to gather their help in even more important to have an author- mentation manager, his manager in opera- supporting our new writer, especially for ing assistance software product, or even tions and the head of 3DPLM recruitment, I technical reviews. We anticipate that we a simplified technical English option with learned that there are good technical writer will achieve our goals over time. If we can a restricted vocabulary. Both products candidates in India, but you need to have a expand our documentation team in Pune, would reduce our localization costs, with very thorough search and vetting process. they can develop their own knowledge to a quick return on investment time of less Many engineers apparently want to work for independently answer questions instead of than one year. 3DPLM, so 3DPLM can be selective in hiring relying on Lyn. A local Pune team would Longer term, we should work toward only the best staff. This up-front effort also be better equipped to do self-editing, creating a centralized content manage- results in a low attrition rate. You therefore which should reduce our overall editing ment database hub to share content must allow sufficient time to find the best load, improve quality and hopefully globally across departments and brands. candidates. If candidates are hired from improve our localization team’s efficiency. The optimal solution would be to share all content sources across all departments that generate content (training, sales and marketing, technical support and education) for all Dassault Systèmes brands. That solution would leverage shared content to the maximum and reap huge localization cost savings. Final thoughts India is a land of huge contrasts. We saw extreme wealth next to abject poverty. We visited some beautiful natural sites that were next to pollution and waste. Con- struction is everywhere, but the roads to get anywhere are in bad shape. Providing basic services gets harder as more people flock to the cities for jobs. Air pollution and water pollution are problematic. While boarding our flight out of Mumbai, we chatted with an ex-pat Indian who said that the rate of growth in India, much of it from booming technology like ours, is not sustainable. He said his son was coming to work for a time in southern India to start working on researching solutions to the problems facing India. M

22 | MultiLingual July/August 2014 [email protected]

20-22 Campo#145PerspectivesCol.indd 22 6/26/14 10:47 AM Region Focus

East and West: Overcoming stereotypes

Bob Donaldson

“Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the personal aspects of any business relationship. This can lead the twain shall meet.” The opening lines of Rud- to a very confrontational approach to problem-solving and a tendency to assign (or avoid) blame when things go wrong. And yard Kipling’s famous Ballad of East and West, lastly, we tend to lack self-awareness, being slow to recognize written 125 years ago in 1889, are familiar to differing cultural expectations or the way we are transgressing Omost of us. We in the localization business are cultural norms. The Asians in the group also helped us to see committed to helping our customers overcome that our view of “Asia” as being “all the same” on some level was also part of the problem with our approach. the language and other barriers that still sepa- Meanwhile, we also addressed typical Asian characteristics rate East and West today. And yet, it seems that that are easily misunderstood by Westerners. There often seems we often encounter difficulties ourselves. This to be a hesitancy to ask questions or seek clarification. There was the topic of a panel discussion I moderated also seems to be more emphasis on group consensus and what appears to be an avoidance of individual responsibility. As at Localization World in Bangkok earlier this Westerners desiring to help other Western companies overcome year. Representatives from language services these cultural barriers, we acknowledged that we need to make a companies in both the East and the West came paradigm shift ourselves. Rather than immediately perceive these kinds of interactions through our Western-centric interpretation together to discuss some of the stereotypes and grid, we need to cross the divide ourselves, recognizing that we the practical challenges they sometimes present. are not experiencing passive resistance, but rather a non-West- ern approach to constructive and respectful cooperation. At the The first challenge we had to take on was that of the concept same time, our Asian colleagues need to become more aware of of a stereotype. We all recognize that stereotypes are inherently Western expectations and take communication risks that would unfair, and yet there is a sense in which they are not altogether not be “acceptable” in their home cultures. Cooperation that is unhelpful. It really is true that, in general, Americans (like me) truly respectful needs to include a degree of directness and even are too loud, too direct and too informal when seen from the confrontation that may make them uncomfortable. perspective of many other cultures. And it really is true that the This exercise was important, because it also presented a sort cultural predispositions of many Asians to avoid causing others of “meta-stereotype,” meaning a preconceived understanding of to “lose face” can result in severe communication problems when the word “stereotype” that tended to inhibit dealing with the very combined with the direct Western approach to problem resolu- real barriers to cross-cultural connection. We discovered that in tion. So with these cultural characteristics as a backdrop, we explored several areas that often give rise to difficulties between us, inhibiting our ability to serve our customers effectively. Bob Donaldson is a consultant in language As we began to address this challenge, we recognized that technology tools and language service business we all need to do a better job of seeing ourselves as others see models. Founder and principal of Carson Strategy us. As Westerners, we often pride ourselves in being direct, yet Group, he previously served as vice president of this is frequently perceived as simple rudeness by others. We are strategy at McElroy Translation. He has over 25 also often in a hurry — too focused on the goal to acknowledge years of experience in technology application.

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In part this is due to a desire not to micromanage, but it also interacts with a second assumption — the assumption that a cooperative vendor will ask for clarification if the instructions are ambiguous or incomplete. However, in many Asian cultures, questioning the instructions is tantamount to criticizing the “boss,” causing an unnecessary loss of face. In other cases, there may be an assumption on the part of the vendor that they are expected to understand the instructions, and there is a hesitancy to admit this perceived incompetence. Either way, a simple communication gap can expand into a project-wrecking fissure. Both parties need to recognize the danger here and get outside their comfort zones. The second case had to do with problem resolution. It is a simple fact that Nickson Cheng of Lingua Technologies speaks on a panel discussing problems crop up in localization projects overcoming stereotypes at Localization World Bangkok 2014. just as they do in other types of projects. And when the pressure is on, it is very an effort to avoid giving offense, we were tations. And while this is not a problem easy to fall back into a default mode trying to pretend that there really are not that is limited to East/West collaboration, of thinking that does not acknowledge any barriers. We finally recognized that it does seem to be much more prevalent that our own “default” is not universal. the only way forward is to acknowledge when the customer and the vendor are A Western project manager will be very the difficulties and reach out across the on opposite sides of that invisible line. driven to resolve the problem at any barrier to jointly find a solution. We dealt The problem is that the natural cultural relational cost. In some cases, there is a with several specific cases. assumptions on both sides do not hold. focus on assigning blame, even though The first case had to do with clar- A Western project manager will often this is rarely helpful at this stage. ity of instructions. One of the common assume that the vendor will use some The result can be a directness that sticking points in any project has to do initiative and even creativity in “reading spills over into rudeness and a confron- with clearly defining and setting expec- between the lines.” tational approach that is counterproduc- tive. A Western vendor may simply rise to the challenge and become just as confrontational in return, while still working toward an ultimate resolution that pleases all parties. As we explored this kind of conflict, we decided that a “stereotypi- cally Asian” response might look very similar on the surface, yet would be far different in terms of outcome. The Asian might respond in a defensive manner to avoid losing face. His or her “default” mode of thinking involves always giving the opposite party a way out, and when the Western project manager does not do that, it represents a much more serious and personal threat than it would in the Western mode of thinking. So again, even well-meaning efforts to identify root causes and solve problems may result instead in an escalation of tension and a loss of relational capital. The third case had to do with contractual issues, and this was a harder topic to deal with. This is because contractual provisions are not always understood the same way in different jurisdictions.

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23-25 Donaldson #145.indd 24 6/26/14 10:48 AM Region Focus

From a Western perspective, there is real ties — opportunities for us to establish ■■ Communication structure and concern about whether a nondisclosure strong relationships with our Asian internet access are very good and agreement or noncompete clause will be partners so that we can then jointly help improving in most areas, though still enforceable in certain Asian countries. our customers address some of these subject to some government control and There are also concerns about Asian challenges. filtering. companies, especially those in China, Our actual panel discussion closed ■■ The work ethic is very good, and making use of lower-paid and less-qual- with a fairly detailed case study of how once there is a solid basis for relational ified translators in remote areas after some of these barriers were overcome trust, productivity is high. winning the business based on a more and the benefits of pushing through ■■ Spoken English ability continues qualified set of translators. them. Tess Medina of data services pro- to be a problem in many areas, but the From the Asian perspective, there are vider Chrisian walked through the history situation is improving. plenty of examples where payment has of her company’s business development The general sense of the discussion been withheld or delayed for some rea- efforts in China and Myanmar. She dis- afterward was that these characteristics sons that (at least to them) do not seem cussed each area in terms of things such describe the situation in many other warranted. A simple Google search will as labor cost, spoken English ability, Southeast Asian countries as well. reveal that this is not limited to or even availability of well-educated staff, access So in some ways this is where we frequent in the localization business, per to internet and other technology infra- started. We often quote the first line of se, but it still introduces uncertainty into structure. Chrisian invested heavily in the Kipling’s poem, but the closing stanza the contract negotiations. Here again, “relational capital” necessary to instill puts it in quite another light. though, we determined that the way to such corporate values as service excel- Oh, East is East, and West is West, overcome these fears was for both parties lence and customer satisfaction that has and never the twain shall meet, to work hard at building the relationship led to a 25-year success story in China, Till Earth and Sky stand presently at on the other party’s terms — a sort of as well as ten years of solid performance God’s great Judgment Seat; commitment to meet each other in the in Myanmar before political instability But there is neither East nor West, middle, even if we’re coming from the forced them to close that operation. She Border, nor Breed, nor Birth, opposite sides of the world. closed with a very encouraging insider’s When two strong men stand face to face, This whole topic grows in importance assessment of the opportunity: tho’ they come from the ends of the earth. daily. We constantly read about the ■■ There is an increasing supply of Kipling appears to be saying exactly growing economic importance of Asia skilled and well-educated labor in China, what we concluded in our panel discus- on the world stage. As language vendors, both for translation and for all the pro- sion — that when two parties determine we have seen Asian target languages duction tasks surrounding it. to overcome differences and work increase as a proportion of our overall ■■ Costs are increasing, but at a man- together as equals, the benefits can be business activity, and many expect ageable level. enormous. M Chinese and other Asian languages to become important source languages over the next several years. Much of our panel discussion in Bangkok involved Translation success stories in which those East/West barriers were overcome to the benefit of automation for all concerned. LSPs and global There is plenty of motivation to Machine Translation System companies. do so. There is an important (though shrinking) cost advantage in Asia, and companies that can effectively tap into the highly educated workforce there can gain significant competitive advantages. Productivity Integration Flexibility Free evaluation These advantages included cost, but also increased capacity, increased time MT for High-quality zone coverage and broader language standard Hosted 30-day trial capabilities. project- CAT tools or local with full We also recognized legitimate con- speciﬁ c MT and installation support cerns that do complicate business coop- engines eration between East and West. Issues processes such as taxation, regulatory compliance, registration, ownership and other areas where the rule of law that is taken for granted in the West may be less predict- ® able in some Asian countries. We agreed, Globalese though, that while these may be reasons Powered by MorphoLogic Localisation. www.globalese-mt.com for caution, they also present opportuni-

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23-25 Donaldson #145.indd 25 6/26/14 10:48 AM Underserved Asian markets

Benjamin B. Sargent Region Focus

Indonesia is the world’s fourth largest coun- men as very high — over 50% visit English-language sites on a try by population (250 million), spread across regular basis. When we asked in our “Can’t Read, Won’t Buy” study why they shop at English-language websites, respondents 13,466 islands. Its inhabitants speak over 700 from Indonesia answered “To buy products and services not languages. Java, the largest and most popu- available in my language” more than any other country we Ilous island in the world, is home to the country studied. So we know the online population is accustomed to interacting with English-language sites. capitol, Jakarta, as well as several widely spo- Compared to other big economies in the region, Indonesia ken indigenous languages: Javanese (84 million appears to suffer from lower internet penetration, reaching only speakers), Sundanese (34 million) and Madurese 22% of the population at the end of 2012. However, calculat- (13 million). Madurese is spoken on the island ing that percentage is notoriously difficult, as a single internet connection or mobile phone may have multiple users. Internet of Madura, part of East Java, and also on the World Stats (IWS) reported only 55 million users as of December main island. Sixteen other languages represent 31, 2012 (Figure 1), while Facebook alone reportedly had 63 between one and ten million speakers. million accounts in Indonesia as of April 2013. The bottom line is that Indonesia is notably underserved. In our ranking of the world’s most-globalized websites (In How should global brand websites address this sprawling “The Top 100 Global Websites for 2014” and “Assessing the market? There are three possible language strategies: first, stick World’s Most Prominent Websites”), Common Sense Advisory with English; second, adopt the national language; or third, go examined language coverage. Among other things, we mea- local all the way. sured the number of top 100 global websites that offered local As for the first option, the language of Shakespeare and language versions, broken down per country. Isaac Newton is alive and well in Malaysia, for example, though We discovered that Indonesian, Malaysian and Filipino are the country recently backed off from its formal policy of dual underrepresented in global websites compared to to Korean, language education. Originally intending to teach math and sci- Traditional Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese. Part of this has to do ence in English, the government still makes English a manda- with lower per capita incomes, but the other reason is higher tory subject. Meanwhile, back in the Philippines, English is used tolerance for English. extensively in the media and education. While comprehension Based on our survey of more than 3,000 global consumers tends to be lower in Indonesia, the global lingua franca still gets from ten non-Anglophone countries in Europe, Asia and South used here, too. In the absence of high-quality translation, many America, Indonesians self-assess their English language acu- internet users prefer English for global brand content. In each case, the second option of adopting the national language is the best choice for broad acceptance in these markets. Because they are the languages of education and media, most people are comfortable reading and writing in them. Even so, the majority of these populations speak a different language or Benjamin B. Sargent is a senior analyst at dialect in the home, which undermines the localization ideal of market research firm Common Sense Advisory. He has language intimacy, or what we call the “pajama effect” — the worked in the language services industry since 1989. language people speak when they’re in their pajamas.

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26-27 Sargent #145.indd 26 6/26/14 10:49 AM Region Focus

Online Language Top Country 2012 country Percent 2012 internet with a strong physical presence in partic- 100 sites population online users by country ular cities or islands. For online services with a relatively low cost for product Simplified Chinese 100 China 1,343,239,923 40% 538,000,000 localization, there are dozens of popula- Japanese 100 Japan 127,368,088 79% 101,228,736 tions in these countries with a million or more speakers. Korean 93 South Korea 48,860,500 82% 40,329,660 In the final analysis, we recommend Traditional Chinese 90 Taiwan 23,234,936 75% 17,530,000 that global brands and websites looking to penetrate the market in Indonesia use Thai 74 Thailand 67,091,089 30% 20,100,000 Indonesian rather than English, but only Vietnamese 56 Vietnam 91,519,289 34% 31,034,900 if there is a commitment to high-quality translation or locally written content. Indonesian 46 Indonesia 248,645,008 22% 55,000,000 English-language content is preferable to poor-quality Indonesian. Use of local Malaysian 14 Malaysia 29,179,952 61% 17,723,000 languages for global brands, for the most Filipino 5 Philippines 103,775,002 32% 33,600,000 part, will be useful in point-of-sale and offline advertising. Social networkers Figure 1: Relative online population data for Southeast Asia and the Far East. may use their home language chatting Source: Common Sense Advisory, Inc. and Internet World Stats. with family and neighbors online, but expect the interface itself to be in Indo- Going all the way local may be tricky. these countries. For example, Javanese nesian. If your goal is to maximize the However, while approaching these mar- has 60 million native speakers in Indone- number of people who can read what kets with the hundreds and hundreds sia alone. That’s roughly the population you publish and interact with your web- of distinct ethnic languages won’t be of France or the United Kingdom. Using sites, good content in the local language feasible, there are major sub-groups in local languages can work for businesses is always the best solution. M

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26-27 Sargent #145.indd 27 6/26/14 10:49 AM Korean introduces new challenges to localization

Region Focus Hyelim Chang

Korean is spoken by over 75 million people Since Google set up a localization team in Seoul, we have worldwide, just over 1% of the total world pop- been making conscious efforts in the market, raising awareness ulation. This makes it one of the top 20 lan- of localization to users, attracting talented resources to the fas- cinating world of localization, and tackling unique challenges guages by number of native speakers around we face when localizing into Korean. Kthe globe. However, when we enter the realm of the web, its presence is even greater. Korea is a A lonely language Korean is a loner. It is often classified as a language isolate, highly wired country, with 40 million internet meaning it does not share a common ancestor with another lan- users, and jumps way up on the list to tenth guage. A few consider it, somewhat controversially, to be part of among languages used on the web. the Altaic language family of central Eurasia. Many see Korean as part of the CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) group and assume The Republic of Korea is also a leader in electronics and the three are closely related linguistically. Korean was indeed telecommunications. It is home to global brands such as Sam- heavily influenced by Chinese culture, and this can be seen in sung, Hyundai and LG. The country is well known as a test-bed the lexicons of the language. Roughly 57% of Korean vocabulary for these kinds of companies, with a large community of early is Sino-Korean and derived from Chinese. However, the two lan- adapters hungry for anything new and high tech, and eager to guages are completely different in structure. Chinese has an SVO try out new technology, be it hardware or software. Its presence (subject-verb-object) word order, while Korean has SOV. On the as a cultural power is also influenced by Korean-made movies, other hand, Korean and Japanese share SOV word order but show drama and games that attract fans from overseas. apparent distance in phonology. Korean tends to follow the rule These factors would likely make you think that localization of vowel harmony and has a complex vowel system of ten vowels is a widespread, well-developed industry in Korea — a been- and 11 compound vowels, while Japanese has no vowel harmony there-done-that kind of field, with trials made and errors fixed and is not particularly rich in vowels. Many linguists argue that as Korean-made goods and services swarm the world and global the similarities resulted from frequent and intense language con- businesses target eager consumers in the tech-hungry country. tact, and that the two have no genetic relation. Quite to the contrary, localization is still relatively unknown So what makes Korean so different that it does not have any and underdeveloped. Not a single major localization conference brothers or sisters among the 7,000 languages spoken around has taken place in the country, for example. Ask a professional the world? A variety of things, but postpositions (or particles) translator whether they have heard of “localization,” and only would arguably be the single most unique grammatical structure few would answer yes. Localization is still not mentioned in for many foreign language learners. Some twenty different par- major translation schools, let alone included in the curriculum. ticles are attached to words to indicate their grammatical roles This is in stark contrast to many education institutions in other in a sentence. In English, whether the role of a noun is a subject countries with localization courses and degrees. or an object is mainly indicated by its position in the sentence: Anna called Billy. Billy called Anna. Hyelim Chang is a senior language specialist at In Korean, whether the noun is a subject or an object is Google, managing localization for Korean. She indicated by the particles that follow the nouns, and otherwise joined Google in 2007 after graduating from the the two sentences are identical: Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation, Anna가 Billy를 불렀다. Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. Anna를 Billy가 불렀다.

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28-32 Chang #145.indd 28 6/26/14 10:51 AM Anna is the subject of the sentence when her name is followed by the subject case marker 가(ka), as in the first sentence, and it is an object when it car- ries an object case marker 를(reul) in the second sentence. What adds to the complexity — on top of the mere existence of the particles, as they are a totally unknown form of grammar in English and many other languages — is that different particle forms are used for nouns ending in consonants and nouns ending in vowels. For example, 을(eul) is an object case marker for consonant- ending nouns, and the aforementioned 를 (reul) is for vowel-ending nouns: 집(jip)을 사다. 자동차(jadongcha)를 사다. The first phrase shows that 을(eul) is used, because 집(jip), meaning house, ends with a consonant. The second phrase uses 를(reul), as 자동차(jadongcha), meaning car, ends with a vowel. This would no doubt give headaches to learners of Korean as a foreign language. But what does it have to do with challenges in localization? It becomes a problem when we deal with messages with placeholders, for example. Many software localization projects use placeholders to avoid having to create dupli- cate messages, which saves time and money and achieves consistent quality. Imagine if we did not have the option to use placeholders. Google would have to create a separate “Welcome to XXX” message for more than a hundred products we offer. So placeholders are a blessing. But it can quickly become a nightmare for Korean localizers. With so many different nouns that can replace “XXX,” you cannot cross your fingers and pray that they all end with either a consonant or a vowel. We need to come up with a way to make it work for both cases. Ever-increasing personalized messages add to the challenge. Messages such as “XXX likes the photo,” common in social networking services, are now found in a variety of other services. Grammatical particles need to follow the names to make a proper sentence in Korean — and we have no idea what strange names are out there! The Korean localization team at Google takes on these cases in different ways. Exceptional particles can be used for both consonant and vowel-ending nouns. “Welcome to XXX” is translated using a locative particle 에(e), which can take both consonant and vowel-ending nouns.

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28-32 Chang #145.indd 29 6/26/14 10:51 AM Region Focus

The result is “XXX에 오신 것을 환영합니 다," which is literally “XXX to welcome.” But this is not always feasible. For user- name placeholders, we add an honorific suffix, 님(nim), making each name into a consonant-ending noun. “XXX likes the photo” is translated to “XXX님이 사진을 좋아합니다," which literally reads “XXX nim photo likes.” This enables us to safely use particles for consonant-ending nouns and also gives the impression that Google is a polite person — or a polite company, Figure 1: Translation of “Please log in” rather. But in many other cases, we resort in seven different speech levels in Korean, in descending order of formality. to adding both case markers, as in “XXX Figure 2: Unlike linear-written English, the (을)를 찾을 수 없습니다," which means Korean script is written in syllabic blocks. “Cannot find XXX.” Here, both 을(eul) level. So contemporary Korean mainly and 를(reul) are added with 을 in brackets uses four levels: hapsyo-che, a formal to indicate that either one of them would style; haeyo-che, semi-formal; and haera- be used in the sentence. che and hae-che, both informal. Translators have a lot to say when it In Figure 1, different verb endings comes to localizing messages with place- are used after 로그인 (log in) for each of holders. Korean has a variety of counters, the speech levels. Choosing the correct and you need to know what you are speech level can be a tricky business. counting to choose from them: 개(gae) Google aims to be friendly to our users, for counting search results, 명(myung) but not to the extent that we come out for counting people, 번(bun) for counting sounding rude. The lowest two levels are views, 권(kwon) for the number of ebooks, used when conversing with close friends 곡(gok) for music and so on. “X out of Y,” or to those lower in social status, leaving and “X to Y” are some of the messages Google with hapsyo-che and haeyo-che as that can be challenging to localize if you options. We used to translate in the formal do not have information on what you are hapsyo-che for ad products and the semi- counting or if the message is used in mul- formal haeyo-che for consumer products. tiple places. The ideal solution is to find But as more people perceive hapsyo-che out what is being counted and use the as being an older style, we now use the appropriate counter, but as a workaround middle speech level for all our products — Figure 3: A typical linebreak error in Korean. we sometimes use neutral translations although there are exceptional cases such such as “X/Y” or “X - Y.” as legal documents. This is part of our one letter corresponds to one sound. This constant effort to be closer to users, but way of writing a word coincides with the Friendly, but not rude not too close to be deemed rude. convention of linear writing in English. Korean is an honorific language with However, the letters are not written extremely systematic grammar to indicate Hangeul: a syllabic linearly as in English. Instead, they are the social relationship between the speaker, writing system grouped into syllabic blocks of two to addressee and the subject. Special honorific Although lonesome in the world of three letters — initial, medial and final nouns and verbs are used to show respect languages, Korean has a very good friend — which makes the writing nonlinear. to the subject of the sentence. Seven dif- which came into being with the sole pur- These blocks are arranged horizontally ferent speech levels have their own set of pose of supporting it. Hangeul is unique from left to right or vertically from top verb endings to indicate the relationship of in that it was a deliberate invention to to bottom. To write Hangeul, for exam- the speaker to the addressee. provide a way to write the Korean lan- ple, you would not write h-a-n-g-e-u-l, It is even said that in Korean, a sen- guage. The script was invented in 1443 you would write in blocks: han-geul, 한 tence cannot be uttered without the and is regarded by linguists as the most (han) and 글(geul). As seen in Figure 2, speaker’s knowledge of his or her social scientific writing system in the world. It although 한 looks like one letter, it is relationship to the addressee, considering can express as many as 8,778 sounds with actually composed of three letters: ㅎ,ㅏ social status, age, kinship, familiarity and ten vowels, while maintaining the strict and ㄴ, each representing the sound h, a so on. Otherwise, the utterance may sound one-to-one correspondence between a and n. In 글, the letters ㄱ, ㅡ and ㄹ rep- rude, inappropriate or awkward. Picking written syllable and sound. The shapes resent the sounds g, eu and l respectively. the correct speech level is far from simple. of the characters represent the way the The ingenuity of the script earns praise Of the seven levels, hasoseo-che, one of mouth, tongue and lips form the sounds. from linguists but can be the cause of the two higher levels, is no longer used in Hangeul is different from most writ- headaches for people in the localization daily conversation. Hage-che and hao-che ing systems in that it is half-alphabetic industry. The nonlinear writing system are merging with haeyo-che, all middle and half-syllabic. It is alphabetic in that can be problematic with text wrap. This

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28-32 Chang #145.indd 30 6/26/14 10:51 AM Tools & Services Showcase

Translation Services Europe’s No. 1 Your Polish Provider in SEE Greek Localizer Competence Center CIKLOPEA is one of the leading translation and Since 1986, EuroGreek has been providing high- localization services providers in the region of South quality, turnkey solutions, encompassing a whole Since 2000, Ryszard Jarz˙a Translations has East Europe (SEE) specialized in translation projects, range of client needs, for the following language been providing specialized Polish translation, interpreting and localization into the languages of combinations: localization, marketing copy adaptation, the region (Croatian, Slovenian, Serbian, Bosnian, • English into Greek and DTP services. We focus primarily on life Macedonian, Montenegrin, Albanian, Bulgarian • Greek into English sciences, IT, automotive, refrigeration and and Romanian). Our fields of specialization are: • German into Greek other technology sectors. • Manufacturing, consumer products, • French into Greek We have built a brilliant in-house team made engineering, industry, technology, IT All EuroGreek’s work is produced in our Athens up of experienced linguists and engineers who • Medical, pharmaceutical, health services, production center and covers most subjects: guarantee a high standard of quality while life sciences, law • Technical maintaining flexibility, responsiveness and • Economics, business, finance, insurance • Medical/Pharmaceutical accountability. Our services are certified to EN • Marketing, PR, communication, tourism • IT/Telecommunications 15038:2006. CIKLOPEA is certified in accordance with • Economics/Legal |ISO 9001:2008, EN 15038:2006 and All EuroGreek’s work is fully guaranteed for ISO 27001:2005. quality and on-time delivery. Ryszard Jarz˙a Translations CIKLOPEA d.o.o. EuroGreek Translations Limited Wrocław, Poland Zagreb/Rijeka, Croatia • Belgrade, Serbia London, UK • Athens, Greece [email protected] [email protected] • www.ciklopea.com [email protected] • www.eurogreek.com www.jarza.com.pl

Technical Publications Medical Translations MediLingua is one of Europe’s few companies specializing in medical translation. We provide Full Content Life Cycle all European languages and the major languages At Omniatext we manage every step of the of Asia and Africa as well as the usual translation- related services. How to Be content life cycle, from technical writing using controlled English, to translation, DTP and Our 450-plus translators have a combined World Savvy multi-channel publishing. We draw on a tight medical and language background. International Marketing Communications integration of best-of-breed technologies, service, We work for manufacturers of medical and premium language professionals who know devices, instruments, in-vitro diagnostics and Market Research their industry domain inside out and can clearly software; pharmaceutical companies; medical Marketing communicate complex, technical concepts, publishers; national and international medical allowing our customers to deploy technically organizations; and medical journals. accurate and culturally sensitive content in the Call or e-mail Simon Andriesen or visit our global marketplace. website for more information.

JFA Marketing MediLingua BV Minneapolis, Minnesota USA Omnia Group Leiden, The Netherlands [email protected] USA • UK • Italy • Germany • France • Norway [email protected] www.jfamarkets.com [email protected] • www.omnia-group.com www.medilingua.com

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kets would need to get it right. For us it means even more. This is our way of making information universally accessible to everyone, independent of which language they speak, which is part of Google's stated mission. Korean consumers have very high standards. They know what they want and they are used to getting it. Korean businesses are quick to meet their needs and agile in adopting new trends. Korea is well known for its 24 hour delivery food and 24/7 customer service. Hungry at 3 a.m.? You can choose from a whole range of foods — from hamburgers, pizza and fried chicken to rice, sushi and Figure 4: Large font makes Korean look awkward and unpolished. pasta — delivered right to your doorstep in no time. Your computer crashed? Just call the manufacturer hotline and is a challenge that is shared with Chinese Google, celebrating its tenth birthday, a repairman will be ringing your door- and Japanese. In English, when a word is asked for ideas to change the world and bell even on weekends. There is even an too long to fit into the remaining space promised to fund the best ideas. “errand service” where you can ask for of a given line, it is shifted to the next Italics also don’t work, as they tilt the anything — pick up the dress you need line or hyphenated. However, in Korean, square-looking blocks. At Google, we for a party from the laundry by a speci- a word can be incorrectly chopped pay extra attention so translation is not fied time and bring it to your office, or up if multiple syllable blocks form a lost in these font issues. We have specific have someone stand in line for you at single word. Manually adding linebreaks guidelines on which font type and size a must-eat restaurant that doesn’t take doesn’t always fix this, as different to use. We ask translators to remove ital- reservations. To attract such demanding devices have different screen sizes. ics tags if possible, check for linebreak consumers, investing in localization is Figure 3 shows a typical linebreak errors and inappropriate font. As clothes essential. error in Korean. The first sentence, “새 make the man, font makes the text. Google has a dedicated team to pro- Google 지도를 만나보세요," which means Figure 5 shows part of a Help Center vide quality localization to users in non- “Meet the new Google Maps,” has the article for Google Accounts. Part of the English speaking markets. And Korea, last word, 만나보세요, split in two, with second-to-last line is in italics, which with its leading global brands and 만 on the first line and 나보세요 on the make the Korean script look out of place. tech-savvy users, is a strategic market following line. We solved this by removing the italics for Google. We are constantly working Korean's unique look and feel, tags from before and after the sentence. to identify and tackle the unique chal- although beautiful, means fonts that are lenges we face in localizing into Korean. fine in English can look ugly in Korean. True localization We are lucky to have demanding users Large font sizes can make words look as Localization is key to attracting inter- in Korea, who will not be satisfied with if they were written by a kindergartener. national users, so any global business anything below expectations, to push us Figure 4 is from the Project 10100, where aiming to succeed in international mar- to be even better. M

Figure 5: Part of a Help Center article for Google Accounts.

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GMX-V: Slaying the word count dragon

Andrzej Zydro´n

One of the most enduring measure based on a decimal scale — although features of the localization somehow the ten-day week did not catch on. Some ask why we don’t just use Microsoft industry has been the incon- Word as the basis for word and character counts. sistency of word counts, not However, this in itself is deeply flawed. Microsoft Oonly between rival products, does not, to the best of my knowledge, publish the basis of its word counts, so there is no way but also sometimes between of independently verifying them. Even within different versions of the same Word, the counts that are produced do not product. Trying to establish a mea- reflect the actual workload for the translation sure for the size of a given localization of a document: Word includes automatically generated text such as table of contents, task is not unlike trying to fight indexes and so on in the word counts. It does a many-headed dragon — with not include header and footer text. Word also Asian languages that use differ- counts automatically generated numeric list ent writing systems providing items (such as 1, 2 and 3) as words. Additionally, the basis of Microsoft additional challenges. Word counts have, in the past, changed between versions. This obviously results in The havoc that the lack of a uniform system of measurement a lack of consistency and continuity, even between the latest can cause was exemplified in 1999 when the Mars Climate versions of Word. Orbiter Spacecraft was lost because one NASA team used The broader question becomes how you conduct a word imperial units for a key spacecraft operation, while another count for non-Word documents, such as complex XML, HTML used metric units. The total cost of this error was $125 million. or FrameMaker documents. This leads to more questions: Trying to cope with a lack of a common definition for estimat- how do you count hyphenated words? How do you count ing the size of a localization task can be equally catastrophic. aujourd'hui or quelque'un m'a dit in French? And last but not This lack of a unified count is similar to the situation for least, consider how you would count example in Word. tion. A French foot (pied du roi, 12.79 inches) was different from an English foot (12 inches) as was the Welsh foot (9 Standards to the rescue inches). Certainly the French appendage was the larger. The GMX-V (Global Information Management Metrics - Volume) is basis of the current imperial linear measures in England were a European Telecommunications Standards Institute Localization unified in 1308 by Edward I, who ordained (in a highly scientific manner for the fourteenth century) that an inch was to be three grains of barley, dry and round, taken from the middle of the ear, and that twelve inches were to make a foot. I have often suspected that many of the metrics produced by Andrzej Zydro´n has been working in IT for 35 years, current computer-aided translation tools use similar formulas 22 of which have been in localization-related based on their output. It took the French Revolution to provide systems at Xerox, Ford and Oxford University Press. a (mostly) logical approach to establishing general units of He is now the CTO of XTM International.

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Chinese word count being determined by GMX-V. GMX-V adoption is gradually increasing across computer-aided translation tools. It is now used in XTM, thebigword, Opaki Framework, all systems based on Okapi such as Ontram and so on.

Industry Standards (ETSI LIS) specification. footer, table of contents and so on, GMX-V and is designed as a way of exchang- Originally developed within LISA OSCAR, produces word counts that are not dis- ing translatable data in an XML format. it has been incorporated along with the similar to Microsoft Word, but it does so GMX-V relies on the XLIFF representa- other LISA OSCAR standards within ETSI in a documented and verifiable form. tion as the canonical form for the basis LIS, where it has been developed further. GMX-V mandates both word and of word and character counts. GMX-V GMX-V version 2.0 was published in character counts. Character counts mandates that all characters are counted 2012 and includes factors for converting convey the most precise definition of a in their Unicode representation and that Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Thai char- translation task, whereas word counts all multiple space characters are reduced acter counts to word counts. Full details are the most commonly used metric to a single character. In addition, word of GMX-V are available from ETSI LIS at in the translation industry. GMX-V boundaries are defined with reference http://goo.gl/U1IIdQ. encompasses both measurements, thus to Unicode Technical report 29 – Text GMX was always intended to be a affording the translation suppliers and Boundaries, also known as Unicode group of standards relating to provid- customers with a choice as to which TR29. This provides an unambiguous ing key standard metrics, such as P for measurement most adequately reflects definition of what constitutes a word. percentage fuzzy match, C for complexity the translation task in question. By using XLIFF as the canonical form and Q for required quality. Using GMX-V/ One of the main problems with cal- for counting the source language text, P/Q/C, you can quantify and automate the culating word and character counts is GMX-V establishes a common and quoting for a localization task. GMX-V the plethora of differing proprietary file well-defined format for word and char- provides a clear and unambiguous way formats, which can contain a mix of acter counts. GMX-V uses the XLIFF of counting as well as categorizing word form and content data. Trying to estab- source element for the canonical form. and character counts for all languages lish a standard that addresses all of these Example: and scripts. It also offers an XML vocabu- formats is impossible — the word count An example of the lary for exchanging localization metrics dragon has too many heads to attempt canonical form of a text data between computer systems. to cut them all off with one swipe. As unit. GMX-V addresses two very important soon as one head is cut off, a new one Within XLIFF, inline codes are inter- issues: how you unambiguously and will appear somewhere else. A better preted as inline XML elements. The verifiably count words and characters approach is to force the dragon to enter inline elements are not included in the for a given localization task, and how a narrow passage where the heads are all word and character counts, but form a you exchange word and character counts forced together. Enter the XLIFF knight separate inline element count of their in a uniform and rigorous form between riding in on a charger called Unicode. own. The frequency of inline elements systems. Interestingly, for a document XLIFF is the OASIS standard for XML can have an impact on the translation containing only text, without any header, Localization Interchange File Format, workload, so a separate count is useful

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33-36 Zydron2 #145.indd 34 6/26/14 1:03 PM Asia Showcase Yongmei Li For Korean and All Chinese Translator Asian Languages in New York Gate to the New World • Full-time freelance translator since 2002 • Since: January 15, 1984 GlobalWay, a leading localization company • Skype: Sarahymlee in Korea, provides professional localization and • ISO: ISO 9002 on April 14, 1998 for the globalization services with exceptional quality and first time in Korea. Revised to ISO 9001 on • Tel: (1) 718-961-1364 also offers a wide range of content and document April 20, 2002. • Profile: www.proz.com/profile/1273792 managment services. • Services: Software localization, localization of • CAT tools: Trados, SDLX, WordFast websites and online materials, engineering and • Availability: Monday through Friday, Services include: technical services, document translation, weekends and holidays negotiable • Localization and globalization of IT, games, DTP, voiceover, printing • Capacity: 3000 words per day software, manufacturing, marketing, medical, legal and more • Language Pairs: All Asian languages to/ • Language pairs: English < > Simplified Chinese from English and German, Korean to/from (For Mainland China), English < > Traditional • Multilingual desktop publishing European languages Chinese (For Hong Kong and Taiwan) • Multilingual voiceovers • Fields: Medical science/life science, bio- • Fields of expertise: financial, legal, technical, Certification: ISO 9001:2008 chemical/pharmacy, automotive/machinery/ aerospace/military, legal/marketing/ life science, media and public communications Languages: Major Asian languages (CCJK) finance, it/telecom, ERP/CRM/e-learning and more Yongmei Li JTS Korea New York GlobalWay Co., Ltd. Seoul, Korea [email protected] Seoul, Republic of Korea [email protected] • www.jtskorea.co.kr www.proz.com/profile/1273792 [email protected] • www.globalway.co.kr

when sizing up a job. For the canonical GMX-V does not preclude producing These factors are well established in the form, only g (inline elements with con- metrics directly from non-XLIFF format localization industry and have been used tent) and x (inline elements with no con- files as long as the format for counting over many years. You divide the character tent) inline elements are used. Example: is based on the XLIFF canonical form for counts by the following factor for each In this example the in- be done dynamically on the fly. In these ■■ Chinese (all forms): 2.8 line codes do not feature instances an audit file will be necessary ■■ Japanese: 3.0 in the word and character for verification purposes. ■■ Korean: 3.3 counts. The main goal of GMX-V is to provide ■■ Thai: 6.0 In this example the in-line codes do not sentences. The aim is to provide sufficient GMX-V specification) this would be feature in the word and char- detail to enable an accurate definition of divided by 2.8, and the resulting count acter counts. the scale of the translation task. The cus- will be 4,806 words. Standalone punctuation characters tomer and supplier can then decide which also feature as an additional category in of the statistics to use or not when costing Quantitative and qualitative both word and character counts. They the translation task for a given file. measurements are included in the main count, but can Another aspect to the symbiotic rela- GMX-V counts fall into two catego- be deducted from both by mutual con- tionship between GMX-V and XLIFF is ries — how many, and what type. The sent if they do not increase the transla- that GMX-V counts can be embedded in primary count will always be unquali- tion workload. an XLIFF document, thereby exchanging fied — how many characters and words GMX-V addresses all of the issues not only the text to be translated, but there are in the file. This is the minimal of how to count words and characters also the word and character counts. conformance level proposed for GMX-V. in the XLIFF canonical format. GMX-V As previously mentioned, version 2.0 A typical translatable document will proposes a sentence level of granularity of GMX-V added word count support for contain a variety of text elements. Some for counting purposes within XLIFF. The Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Thai. Word of these elements will contain non- sentence is the common accepted atomic counts for these languages are based translatable text, some will have been unit for translation. on factors applied to character counts. matched from translation memory and

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some will have been fuzzy matched by ■■ Alphanumeric Only Text Unit to other nontranslatable word and char- the customer. It is therefore important to Count: this is an accumulation of the acter counts. be able to categorize the word and char- word and character count for text units Similar counts exist for charac- acter counts according to type in order to that have been identified as containing ters. For this reason, and in summary, provide a figure in words and characters only alphanumeric words. GMX-V provides unambiguous and ver- for the specific localization task. ■■ Numeric Only Text Unit Count: this is ifiable counts for words and characters, GMX-V recommends the following an accumulation of the word and character standalone punctuation, inline code and count categories: count for text units that have been identi- references for all languages and scripts. ■■ Total Count: the overall count. fied as containing only numeric words. It also provides additional qualitative ■■ Exact Matched Count: this is an ■■ Punctuation Only Text Unit Count: counts for the text element categories accumulation of the word and character this is an accumulation of the word detailed above. count for text units that have been matched and character count for text units that GMX-V is based on well-defined unambiguously with a prior translation and have been identified as containing only standards — XLIFF, Unicode ISO 10646 require no translator input. punctuation. and Unicode TR29. All of this detail ■■ Leveraged Matched Count: this is ■■ Stand Alone Punctuation Count: allows a precise and unambiguous an accumulation of the word and char- this is an accumulation of the stand- definition of the localization task for acter count for text units that have been alone punctuation word and character a given electronic file. This rich detail matched against a leveraged translation counts from the individual text units allows suppliers and customers to be memory database. that make up the document. able to precisely measure the task in ■■ Fuzzy Matched Count: this is an ■■ Measurement Only Count: this is an hand. This must surely be a good thing accumulation of the word and character accumulation of the word and character for the localization industry as a whole. count for text units that have been fuzzy count from measurement only text units. In addition, GMX-V provides a way matched against a leveraged translation ■■ Other Non-Translatable Word of electronically exchanging counts memory database. Count: as the title suggests, this relates between different systems. M

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History of the localization industry in mainland China

Chuanmao Tian

For almost 20 years, China has witnessed the The Localization Industry Standards Association (LISA) development of its localization industry. Most organized three forums in Beijing and Shanghai in 1998, 1999 and 2003, which were followed by other LISA forums recently, Chinese localizers have been strength- and conferences, as well as the Globalization and Localization ening their exchanges with foreign counterparts Association (GALA) and Localization World events. In 2005, Fas well as the publicity of their services. The Lionbridge organized the China Localization Industry Summit previously chaotic state of the sector has been Forum in Beijing, which was attended by general managers of major domestic and foreign localization companies, such as replaced by a standardized and orderly develop- Lionbridge, Worksoft, Beyondsoft, hiSoft and so on. The Local- ment pattern. Although the worldwide financial ization World Web (www.giltworld.com), China's first nonprofit crisis crippled some localization enterprises, it localization information and technology service website, organized four communication conferences in Beijing as well as the offered the Chinese precious opportunities in First Localization Translation Competition. In 2006, the website accelerated globalization. Thus, China has grad- sponsored the Third Beijing Localization and Translation Sector ually become one of the major centers for mul- Communication Conference. tilingual localization services. From 2004 on, the entry of localizers from other countries and regions into China’s localization market was accelerated. In the mid-1990s, the earliest localization companies were In 2004, Czech-based Moravia and Skrivanek, US-based Local- founded in Beijing, among which were Worksoft Creative Soft- ize Technologies and Symbio, and Taiwan-based TargeTek ware Technology Ltd. (1995), Beyondsoft Corporation (1995), all established offices in Beijing and Nanjing. They provided hiSoft Technology International Limited (1996) and Lionbridge software testing services; translation and interpreting services; (1996). At the beginning, they were small-sized, focusing on traditional and simplified Chinese localization services; desk- software localization. For example, Worksoft provided the top publishing services; East Asian languages localization and localization translation services for the products of inter- internationalization; multilingual localization; and interna- national IT giants such as IBM and Microsoft. Most of these tional engineering treatment. In 2006, Belgium-based Jonck- companies were established by domestic investors and a few of ers Translation & Engineering opened its branch company in them by foreign investors. Beijing. In 2007 and 2008, US-based TransPerfect Translations The Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 and Shanghai World Expo and Europe-based Tek Translation International established a in 2010 fueled the country’s rapid development and international company branch in Beijing. communication across almost all fields. The growing economic prosperity of China, the great demand of the product localization market, the competitive cost of human capital and the government policy of promoting the IT industry put the domestic Chuanmao Tian is a professor of English at Yangtze localization sector on the freeway of development. China’s local- University with a PhD in translation and intercul- ization market attracted the attention of the world. International tural studies. He is a director of the Hubei Provincial localizers wanted to know how to enter China’s market and how Translators' Association and an advanced member to adapt themselves to Chinese culture and traditions. of the Translators' Association of China (TAC).

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The acquisition of Trados by SDL and experts and combined translation and Global Technologies, which is the first the acquisition of Bowne Global Solu- localization into one whole businesss. company to focus on localization service tions by Lionbridge in 2005 triggered the It seems that it is a general trend for training, was founded in 2004, with the tide of mergers and acquisitions in China. translation companies to offer localiza- aim of providing localizing technologies, In 2006, the purchase of China’s Transco tion services in China. Like translation management and training curricula for and Rainbow by US-based Welocalize companies, localization companies are foreign and domestic software devel- and US-based thebigword helped foreign now under the leadership of the Transla- opers, localization service companies, companies enter the Chinese market. tors Association of China (TAC). translation companies, university stu- Ensemble International Ltd. and Teksen The service pattern of localiza- dents and individuals. Yuda adopted var- Systems were incorporated into hiSoft, tion companies underwent remarkable ious forms of localization training, such which was then ranked among the top changes starting in 2002. Outsourcing as enterprise training, open classes and 25 language service providers (LSPs) in service companies began to purchase employment training. The Localization the world according to Common Sense localization companies, and traditional World Web conducts web-based training Advisory statistics. localization companies tended to trans- and ISTQB testing, training and accredi- China’s localization companies have form into outsourcing service providers. tation, dividing localization technology been expanding their services from For example, Worksoft changed its soft- into technical writing, localization trans- first-tier cities to second-tier cities by ware localization service into a software lation, desktop publishing, technological establishing their branch companies. For outsourcing service. Henceforth its devel- tools and project management. example, Shenzhen SDL established its opment was sped up and it became one A growing number of domestic localization desktop publishing center of the listed companies of the New York companies are aware of the growing in Changsha City in 2007 and hiSoft Stock Exchange as the leading enterprise importance of localization services in opened its branch company in Wuxi of China’s software outsourcing service the internationalization of their prod- City in 2008. They have also established industry. Localization technology has ucts. They have become or will become their offices in other countries and also been developing rapidly in the past a member of international localization regions. Due to cut-throat competition decade. SJTU Sunway Software Industry associations. For example, Huawei Tech- and increasing technological strength, Limited was the first to formulate the nologies Co., Ltd., the leading enterprise many translation companies, especially concept of “information localization” of China’s communication equipment technical translation companies, began in China, and in 2004 it successfully and technical service, became a member to enter the localization market — com- developed Yaxin CAT, a computer-aided of LISA in 2005. Among the world’s top panies such as Jiangsu Sunyu Informa- translation tool, with the ambition of 500 enterprises, 480 so far have opened tion Technology Co., Ltd., Shenzhen becoming the largest information local- a company branch in China and 42 of Haoboyi Co., Ltd. and Chengdu Lan- ization expert in the Asia-Pacific region. them have China as their Asian head- bridge Group. These companies have As far as localization technology quarters, undertaking the design, devel- had their staff trained by localization training is concerned, Beijing Yuda opment and localization of international products. Trends in Chinese localization Statistics show that worldwide infor- | SolutionS for Sdl language WorkerS mation in the coming five years will increase ten times, and information in www.quickterm.at - www.kaleidoscope.at China over the same period will increase 30 times. In turn, localization services will experience soaring growth. Currently, the buyers of language information services are increasingly adopting content management systems (CMSs) or even global management systems. They prefer information services that can be seamlessly connected with CMS, exchanging data smoothly in order cORpORATE TERM MANAGEMENT to enable swifter and more transparent TAkE MULTiTERM TO ThE cOLLAbORATivE wEb 3.0 localization and internationalization of information. wORdS iN REcORd Ti ME The new generation of machine translation technology, showcased by WEB POWER FOR YOUR CAT TOOLS tools such as Google automatic translation, exerts a major impact on the global language information service sector. In wORdS iN REcORd TiME AppROvALS MAdE EASY TURN QUERiES SOLUTiONS fOR particular, machine translation of Latin iNTO kNOwLEdGE LANGUAGE wORkERS and European languages is greatly

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improved. For certain scenarios, some Localization companies established TAC was filed to the Ministry of Civil clients are willing to adopt this model, in earlier years in China are located Affairs for approval. The Committee relying mainly on machine translation mostly in Beijing, Shenzhen and cities was approved in January 2009. The supplemented with human editing. that are economically developed. How- Department of Language Information With the rapid growth of communi- ever, the cost of human resources and Engineering of Peking University started cation technology in various sectors and office facilities are rising rapidly due to offer masters-level education of com- territories, users of mobile phones have to keener competition in these cities. In puter-aided translation and natural lan- quickly increased in number. Thus, the addition, the price of Chinese localiza- guage processing, and to probe into the need for technological communication tion has been reduced, which brings possibility of combining this major with in different languages is growing fast. greater pressure on the operational cost a masters in translation and interpreta- In sectors such as international con- of localization companies. tion, with the aim to train graduates ference, business negotiation, global At the same time, second-tier cities in multiple skills. These organizations hospital diagnosis and patient nursing, in China are restructuring their economy play a role in completing the ecological global service support and call centers, and supporting IT and software sourcing chain of the localization service sector the demand for interpretation of mul- sectors. Attracted by favorable policies in China, and promoting the healthy tiple languages has increased. The tradi- and supportive measures, localization development of this sector. tional interpretation model that relies on companies, along with other sourc- In 2012, with the support of the the language proficiency of interpreters ing companies, move to cities such as government, the Multilingual Engi- can no longer meet the need of these Chengdu, Wuhan and Jinan. In April neering Research Center (http://www. particular service sectors. As a result, 2009, the TAC and the Chengdu High- cloudtrans.com) was jointly established computer-aided interpretation systems Tech Zone Management Committee by the translation company Trans, the or software tools are being introduced jointly established a global multilan- TAC and more than ten universities and to assist in improving the efficiency and guage information processing center institutions. The center focuses on cloud quality of interpretation. in Chengdu, with the goal of attracting translation technology, aiming to create As previously mentioned, the global Chinese translation and localization an “internet of languages," which would financial crisis beginning in 2008 had a companies to set up their offices there. be characterized by integrating all pos- deep impact on the localization service During 2007 and 2008, the chain of sible language information resources in industry. Localization companies have the localization service sector witnessed the world into one swift, barrier-free, had to lay off employees, stop recruiting changes in its approach to coopera- intelligent multilingual communication or reduce salaries in order to keep costs tive enterprise. Localization companies network. In 2014, the TAC is drafting low. Chinese localization service compa- started to join forces under the TAC in three sets of industry norms for language nies felt the same pressure from the mar- 2007, and the proposal for establishing services, including the Codes of Selection ket in 2009, as 99% of their clients were a Localization Service Committee under for Localization Service Providers. M from Europe and the United States. This limited income source had its drawbacks and was seriously challenged in the face of the financial crisis. On the other hand, this may have helped to spur diversifi- cation. Since 2010, among the top 25 global localization service companies, over 80% have set up branches in China. With the extension of product lines, the quantity of information content soars. Global companies focus on core businesses, such as the development of new products, and outsource technical writing to vendors, which had been previously undertaken by the companies themselves. In China, IT companies such as IBM and Microsoft are finding vendors for some of their technical writing projects, which brings in new business opportunities for localization companies. To meet the need of their international clients for technical writing, localization companies must have skilled staff that is proficient in English writing and familiar with the clients’ products as well as technical writing standards.

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37-39 Tian #145.indd 39 6/26/14 10:53 AM The future of technology in ASL translation

Technology Jennifer Sunga

As we all know by now, technology is con- gesture capture device, has also been suggested for this purpose, although its pricepoint so far has been steeper than the Kinect. stantly changing the way we interact with other Leap Motion is another example of these exciting new pos- people and the world around us. Machine trans- sibilities. It is a virtual reality device released last year that is lation has been around for many years, and its designed to allow for haptic computer control in three dimensions Areliability and accuracy is improving all the time. using proprietary motion capture sensors. Although it has not been explicitly designed for American sign language (ASL) use, it The same sort of technology has even begun to has been tapped for possible application interpretation due to its be applied to spoken language, with translator ability to accurately represent human hands in three dimensions apps available on many smartphones. Of course, and in real time. Leap Motion tracks users’ fingers with placement the hit-or-miss accuracy and reliability of these accuracy of up to one hundredth of a millimeter. Although this type of technology has been created before, Leap Motion is the technologies means that they are no substitute for first product that has both the caliber of sensitivity and the real- professional human translation, and are unlikely time processing capabilities to show potential for sign language to become so, but they provide examples of how interpretation. A price point targeted at the individual consumer rather than business-to-business sales doesn’t hurt either, with a technology has begun to explore language and typical unit costing roughly around $80 total. can provide valuable tools to those who are So far, despite its potential impact on the signing commu- unable to access or afford professional services. nity, most mentions of Leap Motion and its possible implemen- tations for ASL have been constrained to the tech industry and Recent developments in the world of motion capture tech- its publications. nology have opened up the same exciting new possibilities in the world of sign language interpretation. Microsoft’s Kinect is Leap Motion possibilities for the ASL community perhaps the most widely known example of a modern applica- Despite having only been released to the public last year, tion of motion capture as a method of interaction, but the quick the development community of Leap Motion has been actively and precise movements involved in sign language have meant working toward ASL applications. Although there are a number that it is beyond the reach of motion capture devices to process. of different projects working to integrate the Leap Motion tech- However, this is something that has begun to change over the nology into suitable form factors and create software support, as last year. Michael Kan reported late last year in PC World that of yet there are no products on the market due to the complexi- Microsoft is exploring how to use Kinect and the Xbox 360 to ties involved in perfecting this new concept. The vast majority of “read sign language from deaf users.” AcceleGlove, a glovelike these projects can be placed under several categories. Improving communication in everyday life is an obvious one. Signing has some drawbacks; from trying to mail a pack- age at the post office to ordering a drink at a coffee shop, communicating with people outside of intimate circles with signing Jennifer Sunga joined Interpreters Unlimited knowledge has its challenges. Currently, most people in the deaf in 2012, where she currently manages the and hard-of-hearing community express themselves by writ- company’s marketing efforts and campaigns. ing messages with pen and paper or typing them out on their Interpreters Unlimited is a provider of language mobile phones. However, the deaf community has expressed services based in the United States. feelings of frustration with how laborious this task becomes.

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40-41 Sunga #145.indd 40 6/26/14 10:54 AM Technology

relation to the rest of the body; a factor that is vital in proper expression of ASL. As of now, there is no support for showing the hands in relation to the body in Leap Motion, but it has been mentioned that it is being considered for future iterations and updates for the device. Another issue is that Leap Motion cannot see through solid objects, and this includes other fingers. This could potentially affect the readability of certain signs in which fingers overlap one another, and consequently block the reading of the rest of the hand. All in all, despite having only been released last year, the developer community of Leap Motion has shown con- siderable promise. For example, late last year a Sydney-based team comprised of Catarina Araujo and Sofia Santos started Figure 1: A modified Leap Motion device would enable automatic translation of sign language. the development of a modified Leap Motion device that would be worn around The possible applications of Leap American would be relegated to working the neck of the mute or deaf individual Motion to address this need have been with other deaf people who would use (Figure 1). The currently unnamed device varied. One possibility was to encourage a different signing dialect than the one would translate gestures it sees and would the installation of Leap Motions at help he or she would have been using for the display them on its face for easy read- desks and cash registers, where an ASL majority of his or her life. Again, this is ability by the conversational partner. The speaker could sign over the Leap Motion where Leap Motion and ASL learning device is expected to enter production in and have his or her translated message software would be able to address the the next few years. This team is just one appear to the non-ASL speaker. Another needs of the individual. of many that are actively incorporating application places a modified version of There are a number of obstacles with Leap Motion into sign language based the Leap Motion directly on the person Leap Motion technology for ASL, how- applications, which will be the first of of the signer, and this device would then ever. In the current iteration of Leap many to have an affordable price point display a message automatically. Motion, a user’s hands are not shown in targeted toward the general public. M Additionally, people looking to learn ASL can run into a number of problems. First of all, if a user lives in an area without a large ASL community, it can be difficult to learn ASL in isolation. Although there are books, diagrams and learning videos, there has been a long- standing need for improved study tools. Leap Motion developers have been utilizing the device’s ability to show signs in full three-demensional mode, which can be viewed and manipulated as the user wishes. Besides providing realistic reference images, a user could practice signing with the Leap Motion and have his or her mistakes corrected. This is a level of self-learning that was not feasible for most users who did not have access to classes. A related but separate problem is when individuals are living in an area with a different dialect of sign language than they are speaking. For example, an English speaker could be living in the United Kingdom for a year before return- ing to America. During that time, the

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40-41 Sunga #145.indd 41 6/26/14 10:54 AM Audio localization from films to games

Technology Jacques Barreau

A few years ago, at the very beginning of my movie. The demand for dubbed movies across the world has been involvement in game localization, I met with growing, and a similar demand for games is growing fast. This can at least partially be explained by the fact that young kids don’t read an executive from a major game company. He or don’t read well enough to follow a movie or game. Having to asked me: “How do I make my games sound read subtitles and play at the same time would be too distracting. Alike a theatrical movie?” I answered immedi- The game world is growing very fast but like in the film ately, almost without thinking: “record it like a world, before Dolby 5.1 and now 7.1, the sound has often been behind the picture in terms of quality and process. The media theatrical movie!” on which we watch movies or play games is usually not the same. Although games can be played on big screen TVs and big My group at Warner Bros. (WB) had been dubbing movies in sound systems, the majority of them, at least for the kids, are more than 25 languages for more than 15 years when we began played on smaller screens with one or two small speakers. The game localization. This led us to approach this new challenge from games will follow the same trend as TV: kids now want to watch a different angle than the rest of the industry. It appeared to me what they want, where they want and when they want, and it’s that applying our expertise in film dubbing to game localization unlikely that the majority of them will plug their consoles or was the most logical thing to do and, most importantly, it was what iPads into a separate sound system. Most kids play on their way everyone in the game industry wanted at the time: high-quality to school, in the bus or in the car. This is actually one of the dubbing for games. This may seem simple, but the film world and big issues with the sound for games, just as it was for TV for a the game world were (and still are) far away in the localization long time. On these small devices, even a great mix done in a universe, and this is where this new gig became really challenging. theatrical mixing room will miss all the extreme audio ranges Games appear more and more like movies. This is obvious in terms of bass and high frequencies, and keep only the mid- when you look at the picture, but what about the sound? Cur- range audible. The fact that the human voice is located in this rently, the sound for games is not at the film level, but it has range (300 Hz to 3000 Hz) changed the way we have listened made huge progress, especially in terms of sound effects. The to movies over the years. In a theater, we can hear the full mix, main difference is the way the dialogue is recorded and how the but the same film watched on TV will miss most of the basses audio is mixed and integrated to the game. and highs. We became accustomed to this for many years, as One can watch a localized movie three different ways: origi- what we want to hear is primarily the dialogue. Our brain can nal dialogue with local subtitles, dubbed into a local language or recreate sound effects and extreme frequencies as long as we voiceover, which still can be found in a few countries of Eastern can still hear even a very small part of these sounds. Europe, mainly Russia and Poland. A game may have the spoken The same way Star Wars created a huge jump in sound qual- lines translated and appearing like subtitles, or the spoken lines ity for movies at the time by using Dolby surround sound in can be rerecorded locally, which would be equivalent to a dubbed theaters, audio for games has to do its own jump now that the visual effects have arrived at an amazing level of quality, detail and resemblance to a movie. The fact that players don’t play in theaters limits the sound, but home systems are becoming so sophisticated these days that the sound of a game now Jacques Barreau is vice president of dubbing compares to the sound of a Blue-ray DVD. and subtitling at WB. He travels all over the When we started to localize audio for our games, we had two world and is responsible for providing language choices. The first one was to make the game studios try to record conversion services for all WB business units. like a theatrical dubbing studio and the second one was to have

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parts of the game and consequently with different mixes and situations. The first challenge in recording great lines for games compared to what an actor does when recording for a movie is that the game actor doesn’t see much. He or she looks at a computer screen showing lines in English and in the local language. To me, this is closer to reading than acting. How can you really perform and give life to a character by looking at a list of lines? We always guide the actors by telling them what’s going on in the game as we receive information from the producer. But being able to watch the character you dub on the screen makes a big difference when recording. As previously mentioned, the recording for games is almost always done in small rooms. The actors follow the script on a Pro Tools session that has all the original lines. The actor listens to the original line and records the line in his Figure 1: What the actor sees when dubbing for games — only a script, no screen. or her own language. At this point, audio reference is almost a luxury since we our theatrical dubbing studios record The game studios haven’t needed big don’t always receive it. The length of games, which was a new adventure for rooms until now, as the actors had no the recorded line is very important and everyone. We did both, but for the charac- idea what the perspective would be when must be the same in the domestic and the ters that already made it to the big screen, his character speaks in the game. For this localized version, even if the actor doesn’t such as Superman, Batman, Harry Potter reason, most game studios have small have to sync his or her lines to the screen. and so on, we recorded at our theatrical recording rooms and record neutral voices An actor dubbing a movie will not think dubbing studios. without any perspective. Not only does about the length of the recorded line the When you enter a theatrical dubbing the actor not know where the line will be, same way, as he will watch his character studio, the first thing you notice is a big but the same line could be used in various on screen and lip sync his lines to the recording room with a big screen. It is much bigger than any recording room in a game studio. The reason is simple — Next when you record a film, you match what BusinessManagement Project you see on screen. A big room with a big screen helps the engineer and the actor to makes the Difference www.plunet.net not only record the voice but also helps capture the perspective they see on screen. One can argue that you can fix a lot of Process things in the mix, but perspective is very Level hard to recreate if it has not been recorded 99 properly. When you record an instrument or a voice you need to record it with some space around it. If you feel that the voice is up close, right in your face, the actor was probably too close to the microphone and subsequently created what we call a proximity effect. A good recording should give you a sense of perspective in the space created by the speakers around the screen. I have spent (and I am still spend- ing) a fair amount of time explaining to engineers how to record a voice, but it is true that sometimes the recording rooms Plunet BusinessManager are so small that you cannot entirely The Management Solution for the Translation Industry achieve this.

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42-45 Barreau.indd 43 6/26/14 10:55 AM Technology

to totally change the environment in real time. I think this will always be the main difference between films and games in terms of audio. A film is a finished product and the mix is married to the picture. A game, on the other hand, is an interactive product and the mix will change according to the situations created by the player. If we really want the audio for games to match the quality of audio for movies, we would have to think about each situation the player can create and have different recordings and mixes for each of them. Birth of a brand In the film and TV world, some characters such as the Looney Tunes with Bugs and Daffy, or DC Comics with Batman and Superman, go beyond their appearance. They have an attitude, a very recogniz- Figure 2: Jacques Barreau demonstrates to an actor how to dub a line in a movie, looking at a large able voice (characterization) and some video screen to follow the action. The engineer also looks at the screen to understand what's going on. memorable key phrases, such as “What’s up, Doc?” They are used by marketing and original ones. If the lip sync is good, the product at this point but more a succes- merchandizing, they live in theme parks, length of the recorded line will be the sion of scenes where it is very difficult to they act in films and are now in games. At same as the original one. create continuity in terms of actors’ per- this point, they become brands. For a film, after recording the dia- formance and audio mix. This is probably In recent years, as the majors started logue, a local version will be mixed in the the biggest challenge in the localization to really push the big brands, we saw theatrical mixing room. There will be a of games. The way we dub games makes a lot of games being a continuation of big screen, big speakers and a lot of space consistency difficult to achieve. blockbusters. More and more, films and to accurately recreate what we see on So, will we ever be able to control games using the same brand are done in screen such as perspectives, panoramic game mixes the same way we control parallel and help each other in terms of moves, reverbs and so on. The foreign film mixes? Some software developers are sales and marketing. versions of games are not mixed the same trying to address this issue and starting to From their birth in 1934, DC Uni- way. The local dialogue lines are inserted propose systems creating mix states that verse characters now total over 5,300. into the game, which is not really a final can be triggered from within the game Superman started in 1938 and Batman

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followed the next year. In 1990, Batman: place during the film dubbing by using Game localization vs film dubbing the video game was already following the the same directors and the same record- From a strict line count standpoint, plot of the 1989 movie. In 2005, Batman ing studios. On one of our Lord of the game localization can be (and often is) Begins was following a side plot of the Rings games, we even used some audio bigger than film dubbing. The reason is movie released the same year. The game files from the movie. In this case, match- simple. A movie is a finished product that and film even shared the same title. ing the voices was not only a creative runs between 90 to 110 minutes on average. The first Harry Potter novel, one of choice but a technical requirement. This A script has approximately 120 pages with our biggest franchises, was released in is a complicated process, and it can also 60 lines per page. This represents roughly 1997. Within 14 years it was translated be costly, but we achieve fantastic results 7,000 lines. This is what we will dub. A into 67 languages. Eight of the Harry and the posts in magazines and blogs game line count is much more complicated Potter games correspond directly to the are unanimous: using the same cast to evaluate, as you don’t know how many books and films, and were released to and doing a theatrical-quality record- lines you’ll watch until you start playing. coincide with the films’ debut. ing dramatically enhances the player’s Your playing will trigger certain lines but Our Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s experience. It is reassuring to know that not others. This doesn’t really matter for Quest from 2010 was a family game the end users will see the difference and us, as we have to localize everything. This focusing on Aragorn. A year later, War appreciate our efforts. is why we have games with 20,000 or even in the North used both literary and movie In some special cases, voices have to be 50,000 lines, numbers that you almost influences from Lord of the Rings. processed. Finishing a new Batman game, never see in a movie script. Finally, what a career for Batman, we are processing the voice of Bane the Our big movies, especially the family who as an animated character became a same way we did in the movie. For the entertainment ones, are dubbed in 25+ huge movie star in the 1990s and started theatrical release of Batman, we centralized languages. The games are not at the same a new career in games with the very the foreign mixes and used the same voice level yet and we’ll see in the near future successful Arkham Asylum. Like our treatment (a series of Pro Tools plug-ins) if the number of languages increases — superstar Bugs Bunny, Batman is every- for all the different versions. We had to presently there are around eight. where, from films to TV to games. As The optimize the amount and color of the effect Films are obviously seen by more Dark Knight helped Arkham Asylum to to the different actors’ voices (French, Japa- people and are available in more locations become a AAA game, it is also true that a nese or Spanish languages don’t have the than games are. For a variety of reasons, new generation of players wanted to go same dynamic) but the effect was the same its difficult to compare film locations and to see the Batman movies. and all these voices sounded similar. We are game platforms, but we’ll have to reevalu- Thus, localization goes beyond film or now doing the same thing for the game. As ate this in a few years. With interactive game. We localize an entire universe. Bat- explained before, we apply the voice treat- trailers now available in selected theaters, man, Harry Potter, the Looney Tunes and ment without seeing what is really going we can easily imagine that the game world the Lord of the Rings, to name a few, are on, but this is the best we can do to be as will expand in the near future. How and obviously big brands for WB and all of close as possible to the movie character. where? This is the question! M them made it from the big screen to the game. So, for us, the localization has to go beyond the film or the game. The player, who was previously a spectator, has to continue the same experience he started with the movie in a more interactive way. As a passive spectator in the theater or an active player in the game, the experience must be the same. We need to ensure a smooth transition from the film to the game. How do we do that? We start com- piling glossaries with character names, locations, objects, vehicles, weapons and everything else that needs to be translated. We do that in 40+ languages using existing books, TV shows, movies and so on, but this is just the beginning of the process. How would a player react if the voice of Batman is not the same in the film and in the game? If we want to have the film and the game in the same universe, the voices must match. This is my group’s expertise, but the voice is only one aspect of the recorded performance. We recreate the same ecosystem that was in

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42-45 Barreau.indd 45 6/26/14 10:55 AM Communicating value in business terms Business Luigi Muzii

It takes money to buy things, and saving measuring things to the point that we sometimes lose track of money can be a virtue, a requirement or both. measuring what really matters. Reportedly, Albert Einstein had a sign on his office wall that stated “Not everything that counts Therefore, while everyone theoretically believes can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” in the importance of speed, gain and quality, The first step is then to determine your business priorities, Imost often the customer’s choice is based on because on-time delivery, lead time and cost should be the most price. Price is still the main driver for translation important. In other words, any organization should focus on three areas: on-time delivery, lead time from receipt of order to shipment, buyers. and the lower total cost of production. To do this, meaningful goals must be set and contributing factors must be identified. Critical In fact, the current system favors lower costs and loyalty success factors can be used to measure performances against pre- rather than excellence, with quality being the unique selling specified benchmarks and to derive indicators to align daily activi- proposition for the whole translation industry, thus making ties to strategic goals. Since measurements can be very subjective, offers indistinguishable and hence definitely irrelevant, at least established metrics are necessary to quantify performances. from a sales perspective. This is where performance indicators come in, expressing For this reason, many are still campaigning to educate the what is done (result indicators), how it is done (key result indica- customer. In plain words, as industry guru Don DePalma wrote tors), what to do (performance indicators), and what to do to in an article for the Multilingual July/August 2003 Supplement dramatically increase performances (key performance indicators). in the article “Establishing Key Performance Indicators for Maybe an automotive metaphor can help better illustrate the Localization," “localization practitioners and suppliers [should] relationship between results and performance. The speed a car communicate their value in business terms.” is traveling is a result indicator, while how economically the Value is indeed the competitive advantage a vendor could car is being driven is a performance indicator. Some perfor- provide customers with, and the first step in making value mance indicators can be used to measure a business’s success perceivable consists in measuring performances against goals, as a grade of the achievement of its goals. In this respect, such thus substantiating one’s own existence and business on solid indicators express the value of the business’s activities and are arguments and data that business owners can understand. then called key performance indicators. The saying “what gets measured gets done” has been attrib- Key performance indicators should be used to manage a uted to Lord Kelvin, Edwards Deming, Peter Drucker, Tom Peters business by helping assess progress against stated strategies. and others. Unfortunately, we often get hung up on metrics and They must then be relevant to that particular business and its strategy, and supposedly have a significant impact. Therefore, they should be revisited frequently to drive appropriate actions. In today’s knowledge economy, company value is no longer Luigi Muzii has been working in the language driven primarily by physical assets, but is increasingly attribut- industry for more than 30 years as a localizer, able to nonfinancial business drivers. Success and future value author, trainer and university teacher. He has creation depend on the effective measurement and management authored books on technical writing and of these critical nonfinancial or intangible resources that com- translation quality systems. prise the intellectual capital of the business.

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Key performance indicators should Let’s talk for a moment about customer (delivery performance/reliability) that help monitor the production processes satisfaction, for example. A satisfaction appear to have been overlooked. (such as sales orders, shipments and index of 95% is not necessarily more Further questions could help, starting backlog, turnaround times, suppliers’ desirable than 85%. In the latter, there with “why don’t customers know the date delivery performances and quality stan- is room for cost-effective improvements. of delivery?” It may become apparent dards) as well as customer satisfaction The former can be misleading focused on through a series of such questions that and managerial weaknesses. Hence, they achieving the 5% missing, causing exces- the answer is something like “we do not are essentially nonfinancial. sive strain and dispersion of efforts with- have standard procedures for responding However, one or two financial indi- out a reasonable expectation for effective to customer inquiries,” and this will defi- cators can be useful too. For example, improvements. Indeed, it may more easily nitely call for immediate action. the capacity utilization ratio is an indi- lead to misunderstandings and losses. Delivering in full, on time, all the cator reflecting the way in which an Customers could be satisfied and yet time is crucial in almost any industry, organization uses its resources to obtain not buy that much. In this case, key per- and it is as important for language ser- revenue and profit, thus how efficiently formance indicators must maintain the vice providers as it is for airlines. The and effectively it is managed. It calcu- expected quality levels, possibly by que- timely arrival and departure of planes lates the total revenues earned per euro rying customers about what to measure impact nearly all the balanced scorecard or dollar of assets. The higher the ratio, to better serve them, what is important perspectives of an airline. In 2013, Emir- the better. to them and what they want to see. ates was awarded the highly coveted In contrast, customer satisfaction In any case, the customer satisfaction World's Best Airline award, primarily for could be a misleading indicator. It can- index is a key performance indicator and punctuality and timeliness. not be calculated out of a formula, and a could be a call to action. For example, if higher value is not necessarily the better. it dropped 25% in respect to last year, a Lessons from ISSELservice It is a measure of how products and ser- few steps can be taken to try to under- ISSELservice felt the need to collect vices supplied by an organization meet stand why and remedy that. One could and measure indicators since its founda- or surpass customer expectation, and start by asking the obvious question “why tion in early 2006 to communicate its it makes sense only when compared to has customer satisfaction dropped?” A achievements and development to its specified predetermined goals. Customer good answer might be equally obvious: parent company, ISSELNORD. This urge loyalty would probably tell more about “customers do not appreciate our ser- became a must when ISSELservice decided an organization’s capacity to satisfy and vice.” The following question could then to proceed with quality certification (UNI retain customers, especially when com- be “why do customers not appreciate EN 9001:2008 and UNI EN 15038:2006). bined with client growth rate. our service?” and after a bit of research So far, ISSELservice has measured Every measurement should be linked this could be answered with “they don’t its major processes: sales, marketing, to the organization’s strategy and goals, know the date of delivery.” Here is a first management, administration, produc- and should be known and shared by link to other key performance indicators tion, training, corrective and preventive the staff, who should be empowered for participating and contributing. Measure- ments should enable management to take action for continuous improvement. Empowerment means, for example, that staff should be given the ability to stop a production line without consultation when a quality defect is detected. Key performance indicators should measure profitability; marketing and sales; operational processes; and organization efficiency. Data for key performance indicators must be collected from producers, and teams must be adequately trained and supported to develop their measures. Managers should first identify the critical success factors for the organization, limit the number of performance measures and provide for a repository to record these measures. Also, they must be allowed the necessary time to learn how to collect data, which data to collect Skrivanek takes your message to a galactic audience: • Sophisticated software localization solutions with testing in target countries and how to understand this data. Finally, Translating your wor[l]d for 20 years • Website globalization and multimedia localization for multiple platforms www.skrivanek.com in a perspective of continuous improve- • Product adaptation for any international market [email protected] ment, these indicators must constantly • State-of-the-art technology and QA procedures +1 (212) 858 7561 be refined to maintain relevance.

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46-48 Muzii#145.indd 47 6/26/14 10:56 AM actions as well as customer satisfaction, formance tracking report is created with indicators collected from in-house automatically based on a specific algo- developed databases and a customized rithm with parameters for on-time deliv- translation management system (TMS). ery, quantity carried out in a specific All relevant data is evaluated once a timeframe and quality. year, after comparing them with goals ISSELservice is working on develop- set and agreed upon at the beginning of ment of new advertising material based each year with the company’s general on its findings. In general, LSPs could management. sell their services by displaying the value All relevant financial data, perfor- of their business activities through key mance indicators — such as sales rev- performance indicators. Just like for dia- enue, cost of sales, other indirect costs, monds and pearls, an LSP could show- No software fixed direct costs and any other type of case its Economic Value Added, meaning costs — are collected in a dedicated data- the profit it earned minus the cost of base and can be retrieved at any time. financing its capital. As far as production performance is Quality can be a part of an LSP’s offer- No hardware concerned, ISSELservice decided to mea- ing if communicated in business terms sure production (quality service) based that the customers can perceive, under- on the value of nonconforming docu- stand and assess. In this case, through No upfront costs ments, the number of nonconforming something like the quality index. A qual- words and the number of claims. Actions ity index is a multi-item measure of key taken were also evaluated to achieve a dimensions of operational, product and higher number of preventive actions in service quality consisting of a group of comparison to corrective actions. key performance indicators assessing the Finally, ISSELservice also measured vendor’s capacity to meet the customer’s customer satisfaction, based on the num- expectations at an acceptable cost. ber of founded/unfounded claims. Other In the showcase, an LSP could then indicators are not relevant to this par- display its quality index, made up of six No limits! ticular case, since the company is mainly indicators: working on framework agreements, in ■■ The DIFOT (delivery in full, on some cases as an exclusive supplier. time) rate conveying a measure of deliv- ISSELservice is now evaluating what has ery reliability been measured so far, why these indicators ■■ The order fulfillment cycle time, are measured and whether the measure- measuring the time from an order to the XTM Cloud ments taken correspond to its needs and receipt of the product or service by the goals. To this end, last year ISSELservice customers is a powerful CAT tool and TMS, started investigating whether the indica- ■■ The FPY (first pass yield) rate, accessible from wherever you are. tors measured met customer expectations. expressing the percentage of units com- So whether you’re On the basis of this analysis, ISSELservice ing out of a process with no rework a translator, agency or enterprise created customer-tailored templates to ■■ The rework level, giving the per- the sky is the limit with XTM Cloud. measure customer satisfaction. centage of units requiring rework For this purpose, customer meetings ■■ The rate of customer complaints were held to define what service aspects solved, measuring the organization’s capa- and requirements were to be considered bility to deal with customer negative feed- important (depending on the kind of ser- back about the goods or services provided vice delivered, such as text comprehen- ■■ The HCVA (human capital value sion, terminology, syntax, delivery time added) conveying a measure of the and project management). At the same extent to which staff add value to the Sign up today for a 30 day free time, evaluation parameters were set on business, calculated by subtracting all trial at www.xtm-intl.com/trial a scale from 1 to 6. expenses except for labor expenses from To appraise vendor performances, revenue and dividing the adjusted profit ISSELservice developed a special TMS figure by the total headcount. report based on the data collected after For all these reasons, complaints are each production step (translation evalua- not problems to be avoided, but instead tion after review and final quality evalu- provide important feedback, and as such ation carried out by the project manager should be welcomed. Complaints allow in charge) on each translation job carried the organization to know what is wrong out by vendors. with its product or service and how to All evaluation parameters are col- improve it. Complaints highlight any lected in the TMS and a vendor per- weak links within the organization, and www.xtm-intl.com 48 [email protected]

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(how the company distinguishes itself and why it is better positioned in the market against competitors). ■■ A listing of the company’s areas of expertise, services and subject field(s). ■■ A listing of the company’s technologies, certifications, accreditations, licenses, clearances and awards. ■■ A list of clients, according to subject field; this implies that different customers in different industry sectors should receive different capability statements. ■■ A performance statement; in this respect, a few key performance indicators would help, grouped by topic and subject field relevance. ■■ A qualification statement of senior staff and/or board of directors that should include experience, skills and basic education information. ■■ A qualification statement of how the company performs its services. ■■ A statement and assurance about what the client can expect from the company. ■■ A list of strategic partners. ■■ A testimonial or two. ■■ Contact details, possibly for a single point to inquire according to subject field. The layout of these details could look something like Figure 1. In the previously mentioned article, DePalma argued that “LSPs should measure performance against goals and that practitioners both inside companies and at the firms that supply their localization service and technology needs often justify their existence and paychecks to each other, each building on the same arguments and data. Few appeal in terms that budget owners can understand, thus compounding the irony of people responsible for communication being unable to communicate.” LSPs can differentiate themselves Figure 1: A capability statement laid out on two sides of a single sheet of paper. by signaling their offering to customers using indicators that customers express what is important to customers bility statements instead of the typical can understand. For companies fully or provide ideas for new products and marketing flyer. outsourcing translation projects, a services. Most customers do not com- vendor’s key performance indicators plain and instead just take their busi- Capability statement can make the difference in establish- ness elsewhere. Therefore, adequate A capability statement is a brief ing a long-term supply relationship. complaint handling, up to the solution description of the competences, skills, Key performance indicators can tell of the problem and its communication experiences and performances of an customers how their translation budget to the public, could be a critical suc- organization, showing why it is the best is being spent, helping them run a par- cess factor. choice for a task or a project. allel comparison with their own orga- The showcase to customers should be A capability statement should contain: nization’s key performance indicators, in the form of marketing information, ■■ A company profile, declaring the understand localization as valuable though, not just cold, hard bullet-point company’s vision, mission and value and important and consider it worth facts. To this end, LSPs could use capa- statements, and its competitive advantage an investment. M

www.multilingual.com July/August 2014 MultiLingual | 49

46-48 Muzii#145.indd 49 6/26/14 10:56 AM October 29-31, 2014, Vancouver Convention Centre, Vancouver

Sponsors

Your Vision. Worldwide.

2015 Asia — Spring 2015, details to be announced Europe — 3-5 June 2015, Maritim Hotel, Berlin North America — October 14-16, 2015, Santa Clara Convention Center, Silicon Valley

Produced by The Localization Institute and MultiLingual Computing, Inc.

Sponsorship and exhibit information available on request. [email protected] • [email protected]

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50 LW ad 145.indd 50 6/26/14 10:59 AM

Associations 51 uyer’s Guide Conferences 51 about the needs of potential clients, or get information about Consulting Services 51 Associations new and existing Unicode-enabled products. The Unicode Consortium Mountain View, CA, USA esktop ublishing 781-444-0404, E-mail: [email protected] D P 51 Web: www.unicodeconference.org/ml-bg Ad on page 9 Enterprise Solutions 51 Localization Services 52 ELIA Nonprofit Organizations 54 ELIA, the European Language Industry Association, brings together translation, localization and interpreting compa- Localization World Terminology Mgmt 54 nies that do business in Europe. The association provides Localization World conferences are dedicated to the lang- its members with tools and opportunities to improve their uage and localization industries. Our constituents are the Translation Mgmt Systems 54 businesses such as training and networking events, resources people responsible for communicating across the bound- for business development and joint marketing efforts. Above aries of language and culture in the global marketplace. Translation Services 54 all, ELIA is a community of peers. It is a place for language International product and marketing managers participate companies to learn, grow, socialize and share. Join us. in Localization World from all sectors and all geographies to Translation Tools 56 Discover ELIA. Share the enthusiasm. meet language service and technology providers and to net- ELIA Leeds, United Kingdom, +393458307084 work with their peers. Hands-on practitioners come to share E-mail: [email protected] their knowledge and experience and to learn from others. See Web: www.elia-association.org our website for details on upcoming and past conferences. Desktop Publishing Localization World, Ltd. Sandpoint, ID USA, 208-263-8178 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.localizationworld.com Ad on page 50

Consulting Services Global DTP Globalization and Localization Association Global DTP s.r.o., based in the Czech Republic, offers The Globalization and Localization Association is a fully professional multilingual desktop publishing and media representative, nonprofit, international industry associa- engineering solutions to the localization industry. For tion for the translation, internationalization, localization the past ten years, Global DTP has become one of the and globalization industry. The association gives members leading DTP companies. We have been delivering high a common forum to discuss issues, create innovative solu- LocalizationGuy, LLC quality and cost-effective services for at least eight of the tions, promote the industry and offer clients unique, col- LocalizationGuy, LLC, is a consultancy serving buyers and top 20 LSPs and many other companies/agencies. Given laborative value. providers of language services. We help companies that buy our extensive experience in localization and knowledge Globalization and Localization Association Andover, MA USA language services to identify and deploy optimal localiza- of the prepress, media and publishing industries, our 206-329-2596, E-mail: [email protected] tion solutions to fit their needs. We offer veteran expertise team of 20 in-house professionals handles more than Web: www.gala-global.org as our clients navigate the many personnel, process and 400 projects every year. Our core services are multilin- technology decisions involved in running effective local- gual desktop publishing and Flash, video and HTML ization operations, whether in-house or through external engineering. localization vendors. LocalizationGuy also helps language Global DTP Brno, Czech Republic, +420 603 574 709 service providers formulate business goals, develop and E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.global-dtp.com implement sound business strategies and launch strategic marketing efforts. LocalizationGuy is led by a 20-year TAUS localization industry veteran and former chairman of the Enterprise Solutions TAUS is a resource center for the global language and trans- Globalization and Localization Association. lation industries. Our mission is to increase the size and LocalizationGuy, LLC Dallas, TX, USA, 612-986-3108 significance of the translation industry to help the world E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.localizationguy.com communicate better. We envision translation as a standard feature, a utility, similar to the internet, electricity and water. We support buyers and providers of language services and technologies with a comprehensive suite of online services, software and knowledge that help them to Across Systems grow and innovate their businesses. We extend the reach and Multiple Platforms growth of the translation industry through our vision of the Across Language Server is a market-leading software plat- Human Language Project and our execution with sharing Rockant Training & Consulting form for all corporate language resources and translation translation memory data and quality evaluation metrics. Rockant provides training and consulting to managers of processes. Within a very short time, the use of Across can TAUS Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 31-299-672028 international programs, products and services. Rockant increase the translation quality and transparency, while E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.taus.net consultants represent the buyer community. Programs and reducing the workload and process costs. The Across services constantly evolve with the needs of buyers of lo- translation management software includes a translation calization services and the capabilities of the marketplace. memory, a terminology system, a powerful PM and work- Rockant's in-depth knowledge of the vendor community flow control tools. It allows end-to-end processing for a Conferences stems from experience with actual implementation proj- seamless collaboration of clients, LSPs and translators. ects. Rockant provides online training and consulting Open interfaces enable the direct integration of third-party where managers of international programs, products and solutions like CMS, ERP or others. Customers include services need it most: From managing your subject mat- Allianz Versicherungs AG, HypoVereinsbank, SMA Solar ter experts to automating translation and improving time Technology, ThyssenKrupp and hundreds of other leading to enter new geographies, Rockant prepares your global companies. Languages All workforce to beat expectations. Across Systems GmbH Karlsbad, Germany, 49-7248-925-425 The 38th Internationalization Rockant Training & Consulting Rockville, MD USA, 301-825-5418 E-mail: [email protected] & Unicode Conference E-mail: [email protected], Web: https://rockant.com Across Systems Inc. Glendale, CA USA, 877-922-7677 The Internationalization & Unicode Conference (IUC) is the Ad on page 21 E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.across.net Ad on page 15 premier technical conference focusing on multilingual global software and web internationalization. Each IUC covers cur-

rent topics related to web and software internationalization, globalization and Unicode. Internationalization and Unicode experts, implementers, clients and vendors are invited to at- Get the latest industry news at www.multilingual.com/news tend. Meet and exchange ideas with leading experts, find out www.multilingual.com July/August 2014 MultiLingual | 51 Buyer’s Guide

STAR Group ADAPT Localization Services Bahasa Bagoes Translation Services Multiple Platforms ADAPT Localization Services offers the full range of services Established in 1999 and based in Indonesia, Bahasa Bagoes STAR Group was founded in Switzerland 30 years ago with that enables clients to be successful in international markets, manages all projects exclusively in-house with a dedicated the exclusive focus of facilitating cross-cultural technical from documentation design through translation, linguistic team of experienced linguists and applies strict QA proce- communications in all languages. The company has grown to and technical localization services, prepress and publication dures. Experts in life sciences, IT, telecommunication, legal, be the largest privately held multilingual information tech- management. Serving both Fortune 500 and small compa- HRD, games, automotive, tourism and hospitality, e-learning, nology and services company in the world with 46 offices in nies, ADAPT has gained a reputation for quality, reliability, marketing, machinery, consumer products and many more. 31 countries. Its advanced technology developments have technological competence and a commitment to customer Languages English, German and Japanese into Indonesian propelled STAR to its current market position. Core services: service. Fields of specialization include diagnostic and Bahasa Bagoes Translation Services Depok, Indonesia information management, translation, localization, publish- medical devices, IT/telecom and web content. With offices in +6221 78883228, E-mail: [email protected] ing, on-demand printing and consulting. Core technologies: Bonn, Germany; Stockholm, Sweden; and Barcelona, Spain, Web: www.bahasabagoes.com Transit (translation memory), TermStar/WebTerm (termi- and a number of certified partner companies, ADAPT is nology management), GRIPS (product information manage- well suited to help clients achieve their goals in any market. ment), MindReader (context-sensitive authoring assistance), Languages More than 50 STAR CLM (corporate language management), STAR CPM ADAPT Localization Services Bonn, Germany (corporate process management), i-KNOW (competence 49-228-98-22-60, E-mail: [email protected] management) and SPIDER (Interactive Electronic Technical Web: www.adapt-localization.com Ad on page 17 Manual). Languages All Precision Matters in Translation STAR Group Ramsen, Switzerland, 41-52-742-9200 216-691-7827, E-mail: [email protected] EC Innovations empowers communications with quality Web: www.star-group.net Ad on page12 already priced into our rates and customized technology solutions used by the world’s largest and most recognized companies. An Asia-Pacific headquartered leader in trans- Localization Services lation and localization since 1997, with offices around the globe and linguists in 100+ countries, EC Innovations continues to set its clients apart from their competition by Alliance Localization China (ALC) improving global brand recognition, increasing cost-effi- ALC offers document, website and software translation ciency and speeding time-to-market through the use of a and localization, desktop publishing and interpreter ser- true global communication supply chain. Specialities include vices. We focus on English, German and other European translation, localization, customized solutions for the web, 7Brands Global Content languages to and from Chinese, Japanese, Korean and documentation, software, digital media and content. ISO 7Brands Global Content offers solutions that are tailored other Asian languages. We use TRADOS, CATALYST, 9001:2008 certified. Languages All to your business while providing results that are on time, SDLX, Transit, Wordfast, memoQ and other CAT tools, EC Innovations, Inc. Wilmington, DE USA, 312-863-1966 on point and on budget. With offices around the world, as well as DTP tools including CorelDRAW, FrameMaker, E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.ecinnovations.com our experienced management team ensures that your busi- FreeHand, Illustrator, InDesign, PageMaker, Photoshop Ad on page 41 ness becomes our business and all of our solutions are and QuarkXPress. Our customer-oriented approach is handled as part of your team. 7Brands’ services include supported by strong project management, a team of spe- translation, desktop publishing, localization, SEO and cialists, a large knowledge base and advanced methodolo- web development. Our expertise in this industry allows gies. We always provide service beyond our customers’ us to stand out in the crowd, so your business also can while expectations at a low cost and with high quality, speed, achieving its global goals. Languages All dependability and flexibility. Languages Major Asian and 7Brands Global Content New York, NY USA European languages 212-300-5990, 800-725-6498, E-mail: [email protected] Alliance Localization China Beijing, P.R. China High Quality Asian Localization, Web: www.7brands.com Ad on page 22 86-10-8368-2169, E-mail: [email protected] Voiceover and Multimedia Web: www.allocalization.com EQHO Communications — one of Southeast Asia’s largest independent localization firms, has over 70 in-house staff. Building on a well-educated and inexpensive labor base in Thailand, EQHO has created an internationally recognized localization firm specializing in the rarer Southeast Asian languages, as well as Chinese, Japanese and Korean. EQHO operates from a 1,000-square-meter office in central Bangkok. With in-house linguists, DTP operators, localization and multimedia engineers, and WHY ? on-site recording studios, we offer an unrivaled level of Gateway to Asia – TOTAL SOLUTIONS FOR YOUR BUSINESS service and rapid turnaround. EQHO also has facilities in Vientiane, Lao PDR and Brno, Czech Republic. In 2012, Languages: Major Asian languages, including Korean, Japanese, S-Chinese, T-Chinese, EQHO was ranked as a Top 20 Asia-based LSP by CSA. Thai, Malay, Indonesian and Vietnamese Languages Translation: All commercial languages, specializing in Asian pairs. Voiceover/multimedia: All languages Established in 1995, E4NET is a leading provider of high-quality localization and global- EQHO Communications Bangkok, Thailand, +66 (0)2 637 8060 ization services. We also provide the full scope of linguistic testing services in Windows, E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.eqho.com Ad on page 27 Macintosh, Linux and Unix, DTP services, and audio recording/video script translation. Our accumulated experience and know-how have allowed us to successfully accom- plish many major projects for clients such as Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, LG Electronics, SAP, Digi-key, Panasonic and more. We specialize in the fields of IT such as ERP/CRM/DBMS, consumer software, hardware/equipment, OS, server application, management and storage. In addition, our service expands to other industries such as EuroGreek Translations Limited Established in 1986, EuroGreek Translations Limited is medical/healthcare, travel, fashion, game, automation and automotive. Europe’s number one Greek localizer, specializing in technical and medical translations from English into Greek [email protected] • www.e4net.net and Greek into English. EuroGreek’s aim is to provide high quality, turnkey solutions, encompassing a whole range of Tel: 822-3465-8500 • Fax: 822-3465-8502 client needs, from plain translation to desktop/web publishing to localization development and testing. Over the years,

52 | MultiLingual July/August 2014 [email protected] Buyer’s Guide

EuroGreek’s services have been extended to cover most subject areas, including German and French into Greek localization services. All of EuroGreek’s work is produced in-house Your Vision. Worldwide. by a team of 25 highly qualified specialists and is fully guaranteed for quality and on-time delivery. Language Greek EuroGreek Translations Limited London, United Kingdom Full-service Translation, Localization Saudisoft Co. Ltd Athens, Greece, 30-210-9605-244, E-mail: [email protected] and Multilingual Testing With 30 years in the language industry, Saudisoft knows how Web: www.eurogreek.com, Ad on page 31 Net-Translators provides turnkey translation, localization to support your business growth by localizing your content. and multilingual testing services and customized strategy- Specializing in the Middle Eastern, African and Asian lan- to-deployment localization solutions. For over ten years, guages, the company has five offices around the region in it has helped technology companies and medical device Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Dubai. Saudisoft provides multilin- manufacturers prepare their products and services for gual software localization, documentation, website localiza- global markets. For software applications (GUI, online tion, multimedia localization, DTP, engineering and testing help and documentation), marketing materials, websites services. Linguistic and engineering capability combined iDISC Information Technologies and more, Net-Translators’ customer-focused, professional with unrivaled levels of service and attention to detail have iDISC, established in 1987, is an ISO 9001 and EN 15038 teams deliver consistent, accurate results in compliance to earned Saudisoft awards from leading companies worldwide. certified language and software company based in Barcelona international regulations. Their one-of-a-kind Multilingual Languages More than 100 with branches and teams in Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Bolivia Testing Center is specially equipped and staffed to offer and Guatemala. We have dedicated teams for web content, Saudisoft Co. Ltd Egypt, 20-2-3303-2037 the ultimate testing environment for localized products. E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.saudisoft.com software localization and translation of technical, business, EN 15038:2006, ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 13485:2003 cer- automotive, biomedical and marketing documents. Our soft- tifications and a long-standing reputation for quality have ware development engineers and translation teams provide earned Net-Translators the trust of industry leaders world- high-quality and on-time production solutions that are cost- wide. Languages More than 60 efficient, flexible and scalable. Languages Spanish (all vari- Net-Translators ants), Portuguese (all variants), Catalan, Basque, Galician, USA Cupertino, CA, USA, 800-320-1020 Valencian, K’iche’, Quechua, Aymara, Guarani E-mail: [email protected] iDISC Information Technologies Barcelona, Spain USA Marlborough, MA, USA, 617-275-8128 34-93-778-73-00, E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.idisc.es E-mail: [email protected] TOIN Corporation Europe London, England, +44-20-3393-8385 TOIN has achieved a 50-year track record of excellence by, E-mail: [email protected] as our clients say, being consistently “present” to meet their Middle East Or Yehuda, Israel +972-3-5338633 needs. TOIN offers a spectrum of translation, localization E-mail: [email protected] South America Posadas-Misiones, Argentina, +54-3764-487029 and consulting solutions to Global 1000 companies across E-mail: [email protected] a range of industries including automotive, IT, telecom- New markets for your Web: www.net-translators.com Ad on page 59 munications, life sciences, e-learning, software, gaming, products and solutions semiconductors and consumer products. TOIN provides Janus Worldwide Inc. exceptional strength in Asia as well as a global reach, with Janus is a leading provider of language solutions to the world’s offices in Japan, China, Korea, the United States and the most global companies. Our flexible, scalable and proven United Kingdom. Languages Japanese, Traditional and approach enables our team to deliver services with top-qual- Simplified Chinese, Korean, Malay, Thai, Vietnamese and ity results both on time and on budget. Industries we serve European languages include IT, telecom, life sciences, energy, financial and auto- TOIN Corporation motive. Some of the services we offer are: functional and lin- Japan Tokyo, Japan, 81-3-5759-4353 guistic testing; software, website and multimedia localization; Greek Localization Experts Since 1983 E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.to-in.co.jp and technical, e-learning and marketing translation. Our pro- Founded in 1983, ORCO S.A. is a leading translation and lo- North America Dallas, TX USA, 1-612-986-3108 calization provider, specializing in software localization and E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.to-in.com cesses are backed by the ISO 9001:2008 and EN 15038:2006- Europe London, United Kingdom, 44-7890-290123 05 quality certification and our clients include Microsoft, technical translations (IT, telecommunication, medical, auto- E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.to-in.com IBM, Siemens and Volkswagen. We have nine offices in Asia, motive, engineering, marketing, financial, EU). ORCO deals China Shanghai, P.R. China, 86-21-3222-0012 Europe and the US to facilitate communication globally. primarily with English into Greek projects, although trans- E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.to-in.com Languages 80 and growing lation from several other European languages can be taken Janus Worldwide Inc. Moscow, Russia, +7-495-913-66-53 aboard. With its experienced in-house personnel, ORCO US 855-526-8799, E-mail: [email protected] offers high quality services, including localization, product Web: www.janusww.com testing, engineering, DTP and more. Our client list includes long-term collaborations with companies such as Abbott, Canon, Cummins, Ford, General Electric, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Sony and important international institutions such as the EU (CdT, DGT, European Parliame nt) and Ushuaia Solutions UNHCR. Language Greek Ushuaia Solutions is a fast-growing Latin American com- ORCO S.A. Athens, Greece, +30-210-723-6001 pany providing solutions for translation, localization and E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.orco.gr globalization needs. Ushuaia Solutions is focused on being Moravia creative and proactive to meet tight time frames with a high

Moravia is a leading globalization solution provider, enabling level of quality and a cost-effective budget. Customizing its companies in the information technology, e-learning, life sci- processes, Ushuaia assures project consistency and techni- ences, consumer electronics and telecommunications indus- cal and linguistic accuracy, thus reducing clients’ time-to- tries to enter global markets with high quality multilingual market. Ushuaia combines state-of-the-art technology with products. Moravia’s solutions include localization, product top-notch experienced native translators, editors and soft- testing, multilingual publishing, technical translation, con- ware engineers. Our mission is to work together with our tent creation, machine translation and workflow consulting. clients, thereby creating a flexible, reliable and open rela- ® Adobe , IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and Toshiba are among some Localization and Globalization Partner tionship for success. of the leading companies that depend on Moravia for accu- Saltlux was founded in 1979 as the first Korean technical Languages Spanish (all varieties), Portuguese (Brazil) translation company. Our services encompass translation, rate, on-time and economical localization. With global head- Ushuaia Solutions Rosario, Argentina, 54-341-4493064 quarters in Brno, Czech Republic, Moravia has local offices in localization, DTP, MT post-editing, planning and writing of E-mail: info@ushuaia solutions.com Europe, the United States, Japan, China and Latin America. To technical manuals. We have extensive experience in medical Web: www.ushuaiasolutions.com Ad on page 24 learn more, please visit us at www.moravia.com. Languages All and pharmaceutical products and equipment, IT, software, Moravia electrical, automotive and technical industry, and so on. With USA Newbury Park, CA, USA, 805-262-0055 32 years of accumulated know-how, Saltlux will be your ideal E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.moravia.com global communication partner. To learn more, please visit Participate in language Europe 420-545-552-222, E-mail: [email protected] www.saltlux.com. Languages Korean, Traditional and Sim- Ireland 353-1-709-9822, E-mail: [email protected] Asia 86-25-8689-6500, E-mail: [email protected] plified Chinese, Japanese and other Asian languages, Euro- industry discussions at Japan 81-3-3354-3320, E-mail: [email protected] pean languages Argentina 54-341-481-2992, E-mail: [email protected] Saltlux, Inc. Seoul, South Korea, 822-379-8444 www.multilingualblog.com Ad on page 60 E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.saltlux.com www.multilingual.com July/August 2014 MultiLingual | 53 Buyer’s Guide Terminology Management

VistaTEC VistaTEC is a leading provider of globalization services XTM: Better Translation Technology and specializes in the localization and testing of enter- Multiple Platforms prise, mobile and desktop applications. VistaTEC provides Kaleidoscope XTM is a fully featured online CAT tool and translation man- translation, technical consulting, engineering and testing, quickTerm manages the entire terminology life cycle. If agement system available as a pay-as-you-go SaaS or for in- language review, transcreation and brand integrity services you would like to see your SDL MultiTerm terminology stallation on your server. Built for collaboration and ease of during the design, development and marketing cycles of cli- used enterprise-wide, Kaleidoscope has the ideal add-on: use, XTM provides a complete, secure and scalable translation ents’ products. Languages All quickTerm. With quickTerm, individuals do not need to be solution. Implementation of XTM Cloud is quick and easy, with no installation, hardware costs or maintenance required. VistaTEC terminology-savvy power users or have their own MultiTerm Europe Dublin, Ireland, 353-1-416-8000 license to quickly and easily access terminology. Users can Rapidly create new projects from all common file types using USA East Silver Spring, MD, USA, 301-649-3012 simply search for terminology from within any application the templates provided and allocate your resources to the au- USA West Mountain View, CA, USA, 408-898-2364 or via a web browser. This alone significantly raises the level tomated workflow. XTM enables you to share linguistic assets E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.vistatec.com of terminology adherence. Additionally, quickTerm enables in real time between translators. Discover XTM today. Sign up Ad on page 45 enterprise-wide participation in terminology discovery, ap- for a free 30-day trial at www.xtm-intl.com/trial. Languages proval and revision processes, which further ties in colleagues All Unicode languages in the terminology process. Languages German, English XTM International Bucks, United Kingdom, +44-1753-480-469 Kaleidoscope GmbH Maria Enzersdorf, Austria, 0043223643498-0 E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.xtm-intl.com E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.kaleidoscope.at Ad on page 48 Ad on page 38

Xlated Ltd. Xlated is a young and dynamic localization service pro- ranslation vider, founded and managed by translators with 16+ years T of specialization in software localization. Thanks to a proven anagement ystems XTRF Translation Management Systems knowledge of internationalization and localization processes, M S Multiple Platforms a team of highly skilled and motivated professionals, and an XTRF is a global management system for translation agen- intelligent use of the most recent translation technologies, we cies. With built-in cutting-edge Java technology, XTRF is a offer a wide range of multilingual services for small to large flexible, customizable and web-based software, enabling and complex software localization projects. Services include web access for a company’s suppliers and customers. It’s terminology management, translation of GUI and user designed to help translation companies to streamline all of documentation, linguistic and functional quality assurance, their daily activities, and it guarantees smooth management engineering, multiplatform DTP and consulting. Languages Plunet BusinessManager of the company while reducing administrative costs. Project Greek, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian Multiple Platforms management, invoicing, quotations, ISO 9001 reports and Plunet develops and markets the business and workflow Xlated Ltd. Kells, County Meath, Ireland, +353-(0)46-925-0005 CRM are the main fields covered by the system. Designed by management software Plunet BusinessManager — one of E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.xlated.com translation and localization professionals and created by the the world’s leading management solutions for the translation best IT team, this powerful tool will reduce the time spent on and localization industry. Plunet BusinessManager provides repetitive tasks and increase a company’s effectiveness. Nonprofit Organizations a high degree of automation and flexibility for professional language service providers and translation departments. XTRF Kraków, Poland, 48-12-255-14-80, E-mail: [email protected] Using a web-based platform, Plunet integrates transla- Web: www.xtrf.eu tion software, financial accounting and quality management systems. Various functions and extensions of Plunet BusinessManager can be adapted to individual needs within ranslation ervices a configurable system. Basic functions include quote, order T S The Rosetta Foundation and invoice management, comprehensive financial reports, Access to information is a fundamental right. We want to flexible job and workflow management as well as deadline, relieve poverty, support health care, develop education and document and customer relationship management. promote justice through access to information and knowl- Plunet GmbH Berlin, Germany, +49-(0)30-322-971-340 edge across the languages of the world. The Rosetta Founda- E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.plunet.com Ad on page 43 tion supports the not-for-profit activities of the localization

and translation communities. It works internationally with Translation Services Provider in SEE those who want to provide equal access to information across CIKLOPEA is one of the leading translation and localization languages, independent of economic or market consider- services providers in the region of South East Europe (SEE) ations, including localization and translation companies, specialized in translation projects, interpreting and localiza- technology developers, not-for-profit and non-governmen- tion into the languages of the South region (Croatian, Slove- tal organizations. Languages All nian, Serbian, Bosnian, Macedonian, Montenegrin, Albanian, The Rosetta Foundation Dublin, Ireland, +353-87-6736414, E-mail: Bulgarian and Romanian). Our fields of specialization are [email protected], Web: www.therosettafoundation. com Wordbee Translator manufacturing, consumer products, engineering, industry, Web-based technology, IT, medical, pharmaceutical, health services, life Wordbee is the leading choice for enterprises and transla- sciences, law, economics, business, finance, insurance, mar- tion professionals who need to save money and make their keting, PR, communication and tourism. CIKLOPEA is certi- company run more efficiently. Wordbee has the most com- fied in accordance with ISO 9001:2008, EN 15038:2006 and plete feature set of any cloud solution: a CAT editor includ- ISO 27001:2005. Languages More than 25 languages ing linguistic resource management, QA, spellchecking and CIKLOPEA Croatia +385-1-3751736, E-mail: [email protected] machine translation combined with project management Web: www.ciklopea.com Ad on page 31 Translators without Borders capabilities such as automated workflows, crowdsourcing, Translators without Borders is an independent registered business analytics and API connectivity with third party nonprofit association based in France that assists non-gov- applications. Project setup effort is significantly reduced. ernmental organizations (NGOs) by providing free, profes- Project manager tasks such as translation assignment, dead- sional translations. Founded by Lexcelera in 1993, Translators line calculation, project phase kick-offs, mid-cycle source without Borders has provided over two million dollars worth document changes, delivery, cost management and invoicing of free translations. Thanks to the funds saved, NGOs are able can be automated in the collaborative translation platform. to extend their humanitarian work. Languages 11 Languages All Diskusija – Translation and Localization Translators without Borders Paris, France, 33-1-55-28-88-09 Wordbee Soleuvre, Luxembourg Founded in 1993, Diskusija specializes in technical trans- E-mail: [email protected] +352 2877 1204, +1 503 287 0023 lation and localization services from Western European Web: www.translatorswithoutborders.org Ad on page 58 E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.wordbee.com languages into all Central and Eastern European languages with a strong focus on Baltic languages (Lithuanian, Latvian,

54 | MultiLingual July/August 2014 [email protected] Buyer’s Guide

Estonian). Our experienced team is able to handle projects and hardware manufacturers as well as for the sectors of of any complexity. We guarantee a professional and personal business, technology, legal matters and medicine/medical approach to our clients’ needs, the use of state-of-the-art applications. Our services also range from glossaries, post- industrial technology, quality management at all stages of a editing, project management and desktop publishing services project, on-time delivery, competitive rates and flexibility. We to many other related services. Rely on Rheinschrift to deliver have extensive expertise in the following industries: IT, soft- Localization Care, Because We Care the most competent translations and meet your deadline, ware, hardware, telecommunications, medical equipment, Localization Care offers a full range of services from docu- whatever it takes. Languages German to/from major Euro- medicine, pharmacology, accounting, finance, automotive mentation design through translation, linguistic and tech- pean languages industry, electronics, legislation and EU documents. nical localization services. Our experienced team is able to Rheinschrift Übersetzungen, Ursula Steigerwald Languages Central and Eastern European languages handle projects of any complexity. We guarantee a profes- Cologne, Germany, +49-(0)221-80-19-28-0 Diskusija Vilnius, Lithuania 370-5-2790574, Fax: 370-5-2790576 sional and personal approach to our clients' needs, including E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.rheinschrift.de E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.diskusija.lt on-time delivery, competitive rates and flexibility. We have Ad on page 44 extensive expertise in the following industries: automotive, electronics, finance, medicine, pharmacology, medical equipment, IT, software, hardware, legislation and more. Our client list includes long-term collaborations with companies such as Nikon, Sony, St. Jude Medical, Nike, Adidas, Google, Microsoft and Apple. Give us a try! We are sure you won't be Localization? Asianlization with HansemEUG disappointed! Languages All Translation and Localization Into Polish HansemEUG is a leading localization provider specializing in Localization Care Limited Partnership Kraków, Poland Ryszard Jarz˙a Translations is an established provider of Korean, Chinese, Japanese and other Asian and Middle East- +48 12 418 41 83, E-mail: [email protected] Polish translation, localization, marketing copy adaptation ern languages including Vietnamese, Thai, Malay and Arabic. Web: www.localizationcare.com and DTP services. We focus primarily on life sciences, IT, We have over 150 in-house staff who are all professionally automotive, refrigeration and other technology sectors. Our trained and experienced in developing content for a variety in-house team is comprised of experienced linguists with of audiences. Our professionalism and experience ensure that medical, engineering and IT backgrounds. We guarantee a your software or mobile device localization, or medical trans- high standard of quality while maintaining flexibility, unpar- lation projects are accurate, clear, and of the highest quality. alleled responsiveness and reliability. Our services are certi- HansemEUG provides a single solution for all your documen- fied to EN 15038:2006. Language Polish tation projects, including manual development, in-house DTP Ryszard Jarz˙a Translations Wrocław, Poland, 48-601-228332 and graphic design, language audits and consulting services E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.jarza.com.pl Ad on page 31 for Chinese GB compliance. Our headquarters are located in Medical Translations Only Korea. Languages Asian and Middle Eastern languages Medilingua is one of the few medical translation specialists HansemEUG, Inc. Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do, Republic of Korea in Europe. We only do medical. We provide all European +82-(31)-226-5042, E-mail: [email protected] languages and the major languages of Asia and Africa, as Web: www.ezuserguide.com Ad on page 4 well as translation-related services to manufacturers of devices, instruments, in vitro diagnostics and software; pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies; medical Skrivanek s.r.o. publishers; national and international medical organiza- Skrivanek has been delivering outstanding language solutions; and other customers in the medical sector. Projects tions for 20 years, affirming its position as a world leader include the translation of documentation for medical in the translation industry. Our network of 50 offices in 15 LinguaLinx Language Solutions, Inc. devices, surgical instruments, hospital equipment and countries throughout Europe, Asia and the United States enables the provision of quality translations and product LinguaLinx is a leading provider of global content and lan- medical software; medical information for patients, medi- localization services in over 100 languages. Supported by guage intelligence to organizations around the world. The cal students and physicians; scientific articles; press releases; 3,000 linguists, 350 in-house native reviewers, teams of content experts at LinguaLinx help manage and localize mes- product launches; clinical trial documentation; medical experienced project managers, software engineers and DTP saging to enhance efficiency and provide consistency across news; and articles from medical journals. Languages 45, specialists, our cutting-edge technologies facilitate cus- all forms of communication. With offices around the world, including all EU languages tomer-driven solutions to meet the most exacting require- LinguaLinx provides organizations with localization solu- MediLingua Medical Translations BV Leiden, The Netherlands ments. Our reputation is guaranteed by ISO 9001:2008 and tions that fit their needs including: translation and interpre- +31-71-5680862, E-mail: [email protected] EN 15038:2006 quality assurance certification and a clien- tation, marketing communications and website localization, Web: www.medilingua.com Ad on page 31 tele that includes global corporations and major interna- translation memory deployment, multilingual SEO, transla- tional organizations. Languages All, with a focus on Central tion readiness assessment and global content management. and Eastern Europe Unify your global organization with a customized content intelligence strategy and ensure that your messages resonate Skrivanek s.r.o. Prague, Czech Republic, 420-233-320-560, E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.skrivanek.com Ad on page 47 across borders with language intelligence. To learn more, visit

lingualinx.com. Languages All Omnia S.r.l. LinguaLinx Language Solutions, Inc. Troy, NY USA, 518-388-9000 E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.lingualinx.com Omnia has been helping companies successfully deploy their message in the global marketplace for 25 years. Let Omnia partner with you to meet your international communication objectives through a range of bespoke services, including technical documentation translation; marketing collateral transcreation; website and software localization; multilin- SpanSource Lionbridge gual desktop design and publishing; content authoring and SpanSource provides translation, localization and re- Lionbridge enables more than 800 world-leading brands to controlled English; and content and term management. lated services from Western European languages into all increase international market share, speed adoption of prod- Languages 150 language combinations including rare and regional varieties of Spanish as well as other language ucts and effectively engage their customers in local markets obscure languages combinations through our network of select SLV partners. worldwide. We provide translation, online marketing, global Omnia Group Sassuolo, Italy, +39 0536 881375, Our domain focus is on health care and life sciences, soft- content management and application testing solutions that E-mail: [email protected] ware and IT, heavy machinery and automotive, legal and ensure global brand consistency, local relevancy and techni- Web: www.omnia-group.com Ad on page 31 financial, oil and gas, corporate training and educational cal usability across all touch points of the global customer materials. Our comprehensive service portfolio also in- life cycle. Using our innovative cloud technologies, global cludes unparalleled desktop publishing and multimedia program management expertise and our worldwide crowd localization engineering support for e-learning materi- of more than 100,000 professional cloud workers, we provide als. Our in-house staff of 25 includes project managers, integrated solutions that enable clients to successfully mar- senior linguists, desktop publishers, software engineers ket, sell and support their products and services in global and graphic designers, which prove to be fundamental markets. Languages All Rheinschrift Übersetzungen, Ursula Steigerwald in SpanSource’s centralized, customer-centric approach. Lionbridge Waltham, MA, USA, 02451, 781-434-6000 Outstanding localization requires world-class experience. Languages Focus on Spanish and Portuguese, other lan- E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.lionbridge.com Rheinschrift gives your business a native voice in the Ger- guage combinations through partners Ad on page 7 man-speaking world. We offer more than 20 years’ experi- SpanSource SRL Rosario, Argentina 54-341-527-5233 ence providing translations and localizations for software E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.spansource.com www.multilingual.com July/August 2014 MultiLingual | 55 Buyer’s Guide

market-leading translation tool, SDL Trados Studio 2011, which offers a complete translation environment including translation memory, terminology and powerful project management tools. With support for the largest number of file formats, an open API and growing app marketplace, Studio TripleInk Multilingual Communications MadCap Lingo 2011 is the right choice for professionals serious about the As a multilingual communications agency, TripleInk has Windows business of translation. Languages All provided industrial and consumer products companies with The leaders in technical communication bring you MadCap SDL Language Technologies Maidenhead, United Kingdom precise translation and multilingual production services for Lingo, an XML-based translation management solution +44-1628-417227, E-mail: [email protected] audio-visual, online and print media since 1991. Our expe- used by large multinational corporations, technical writ- Web: www.translationzone.com Ad on page 2 rience in adapting technical documentation and marketing ers and freelance translators. MadCap Lingo offers support communication materials covers a wide range of indus- for a wide range of file formats, works with major industry tries, including biomedical and health care; building and TM systems and is fully integrated with the leading content construction; financial services; food and agriculture; high- authoring application MadCap Flare. Through its strategic tech and manufacturing; and hospitality and leisure, as well partner Microsoft Corporation, MadCap Software delivers as government and nonprofit organizations. Using a total solutions optimized for Microsoft Windows, Visual Studio quality management process and state-of-the-art software and the .NET environment. A free 30-day trial download is available at www.madcapsoftware.com. Languages All Sovee and equipment, our team of foreign language professionals Multiple Platforms delivers the highest quality translations in a cost-effective MadCap Software, Inc. La Jolla, CA USA, 858-320-0387 The Sovee Smart Engine is equipping today's language ser- and time-efficient manner. Languages All major commercial 888-623-2271, E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.madcapsoftware.com Ad on page 19 vice providers with the intelligent innovation they need to languages succeed in a rapidly changing industry. The Smart Engine

TripleInk Minneapolis, MN USA, 612-342-9800, 800-632-1388 is designed to do the heavy lifting and significantly reduce E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.tripleink.com post-editing time. The Engine learns translation preferences for industry terms and uses them to translate more efficiently across all media, including moving targets such as dynamic Translation Tools website content, video and live chat text, as well as more traditional document translation. Languages All Globalese MT System Sovee Chattanooga, TN USA, 855-997-6833 E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.sovee.com Ad on page 29 Linux Globalese® is a statistical machine translation (MT) system developed for LSPs and content owners. With Globalese, MT Kilgray Translation Technologies can be easily integrated into the standard translation workflow Windows while project managers and translators can use their well- Kilgray Translation Technologies is the world’s fastest growing known CAT tools such as SDL Trados, memoQ or Wordfast. provider of computer-assisted translation tools. In 2005 the Globalese allows users to build project-specific engines in an company launched the first version of memoQ, an integrated easy and flexible way. Globalese can be managed from a user- client-server translation environment designed to facilitate friendly, web-based interface from any standard browser. By SYSTRAN interoperability and teamwork. All of Kilgray’s products — using your own local installation of Globalese, you can ensure Multiple Platforms memoQ, the memoQ server, memoQWebTrans, qTerm and that you do not need to upload any of your confidential content SYSTRAN is the market leading provider of machine Language Terminal — optimize productivity and control of to third party providers or the cloud. Languages All European translation (MT) solutions for the desktop, enterprise and the entire translation process and environment. Rated #1 by languages, Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Japanese and Korean internet. Our solutions facilitate multilingual communica- Common Sense Advisory among translation-centric TMS MorphoLogic Localisation Budapest, Hungary, +36 1 225 3704, tions in 52+ language pairs and in 20 domains. SYSTRAN systems, and used by thousands of translators, language E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.globalese-mt.com Ad on page 25 Enterprise Server 7, our latest achievement, is powered by service providers and enterprises throughout the world, our new hybrid MT engine which combines the predict- memoQ and other Kilgray tools are accepted and appreciated ability and consistency of rule-based MT with the fluency as premiere translation technologies. Languages All of the statistical approach. The self-learning techniques Kilgray Translation Technologies Béke sugárút, Hungary allow users to train the software to any specific domain +36-30-383-9435, E-mail: [email protected] to achieve cost-effective, publishable quality translations. Web: www.kilgray.com Ad on page 36 SYSTRAN solutions are used by Symantec, Cisco, Ford and other enterprises to support international business opera- SDL Language Technologies tions. For more information, visit www.systransoft.com. Windows Languages 52 language combinations SDL Language Technologies is the leading provider of trans- Find us on Facebook SYSTRAN Software, Inc. lation software to the translation industry and recognized North America San Diego, CA USA, 858-457-1900 www.facebook.com/ globally as the preferred computer-assisted translation tool Europe Paris, France, +33 (0)1-44-82-49-00 multilingualmagazine of government, enterprise, language service providers and E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.systransoft.com freelance translators. Its product portfolio includes the Ad on page 39

Advertiser Index 7Brands Global Content 22 Kilgray Translation Technologies 36 SDL Language Technologies 2 Across Systems GmbH 15 Lionbridge 7 Skrivanek s.r.o. 47 ADAPT Localization Services 17 Localization World, Ltd. 50 Sovee 29 CIKLOPEA 31 MadCap Software, Inc. 19 STAR Group 12 E4NET 52 MediLingua Medical Translations BV 31 SYSTRAN Software, Inc. 39 EC Innovations, Inc. 41 Moravia 60 Translators without Borders 58 EQHO Communications 27 MorphoLogic Localisation 25 The Unicode Consortium 9 EuroGreek Translations Limited 31 Net-Translators 59 Ushuaia Solutions 24 GlobalWay Co., Ltd. 35 Omnia Group 31 VistaTEC 45 HansemEUG, Inc. 4 Plunet GmbH 43 XTM International 48 JFA Marketing 31 Rheinschrift Übersetzungen 44 Yongmei Li 35 JTS Korea 35 Rockant Training & Consulting 21 Kaleidoscope GmbH 38 Ryszard Jarz˙a Translations 31 56 | MultiLingual July/August 2014 [email protected] 57

Takeaway | 6/26/14 11:02 AM MultiLingual Aki Ito July/August 2014 McDonald’s once was a hot spot in Japan, in the same way in Japan, in the same way once was a hot spot McDonald’s less happy to wait in line at are My niece and others for the McCafé has also caused a kind of split personality that California chain In-N-Out Burger was an instant hit in was an instant hit in that California chain In-N-Out Burger in I remember here. my town, Dallas, when they expanded cool to take a date to it was considered high school in Tokyo, that buzz has long worn As you might expect, McDonald’s. to take food back often prefer young people off. Today, local convenience home to hang out. They may opt for the costs and frequently that is fast, has a wider variety, store get to a “new kid in less. Starbucks may be as close as you is willing to wait town” vibe in Japan. My niece, age 23, to buy coffee and meet in line at Starbucks and pay more they whipped cream the extra She appreciates friends there. and the chipper service. the clean environment give her, store the McCafé concept increased Introducing McDonald’s. but Starbucks and other competitors, and countered traffic - A plan to speed things up by remov longer. then lines grew counter and using paper menus ing menus at the ordering to have backfired. in line appears passed to customers has long appealed to families in Japan McDonald’s stores. and feed them with the notion that you can bring children Today, price in a family-friendly environment. at a reasonable Aki Ito is president of LocalizationGuy LLC and director of interna- Corporation. LocalizationGuy helps clients tional operations for TOIN implement effective localization solutions for the tough challenges. Corporation, at 50 years, is one of the longest established pro- TOIN viders of translation and localization services. on a language-industry issue, send a Takeaway offer your own To contribution to [email protected]. Localizers could help could Localizers the “love” find brands

“I’m not necessarily lovin’ it.” This is what is what “I’m not necessarily lovin’ it.” This I suspect many of us in the localization industry would be I suspect many of us in the localization industry would be and polled I decided to do some anecdotal market research

Japan is saying to McDonald’s, with the global global with the Japan is saying to McDonald’s, sales and fast food icon experiencing declining McDonald’s in a key market. Last year, profits After a disastrous Japan shuffled leadership. by dropped in which profits half of 2013 first who Eiko Harada, than 40%, president more stepped of growth, over six years had presided Casanova. A year by Sarah down to be replaced the company is still struggling to attract later, itself in an increasingly and redefine customers competitive market. What to do? How to help? I www.multilingual.com thrilled to be invited to the table to help overcome such a such a thrilled to be invited to the table to help overcome challenge. But with a few notable exceptions, we generally and linguistic not. I wonder why? As insightful cultural are in experts, often with significant networks and resources of more operate, the global markets in which these brands instead of downstream. us ought to be involved upstream up loving American Besides, as a Japanese man who grew of Big Macs — I ought — and eating my fair share culture both as a to know something about Japanese McDonald’s, customer and as a localization specialist. I came away with friends in Japan about McDonald’s. several it is not as fast is not trendy; some key themes: McDonald’s confused by are or convenient as it needs to be; customers experience; it is too expensive. the store

57-58 Takeaway#145.indd 57 Takeaway

some mothers with noisy children shy Japan, my takeaway is this: it has been much more. You are a source of infor- away from McDonald’s because it is full a long time since you were trendy. mation. You are feet on the ground. of businessmen having coffee. This is okay, and you may or may not You are an analyst of raw information, These issues are compounded by become trendy again by introducing a able to reveal salient knowledge. the perception that McDonald’s is wasabi mayo kobe burger with pickled I asked a Hispanic retail marketing too expensive, or, more precisely, just ginger, though I would like to try that. expert about this, Roberto Siewczynski, as expensive as many other options. But you could be like an old, reliable executive vice president of Catapult McDonald’s Japan has frequently friend. People love old friends, too. You Marketing. He replied, “There is a succeeded by marketing value, such practically invented convenience food, reason certain expressions and jokes as Harada’s successful ¥100 menu so I know you will conquer the logisti- sometimes do not translate, because campaign. Other McDonald’s Japan op- cal problems. Old friends tend to be they are designed for a particular tions, such as premium sandwiches, are good listeners — it is one of the skills culture. There is an opportunity to not really value items. One friend told that earns you old friends status. By leverage localization experts beyond me she goes to McDonald’s less than listening to customers’ practical needs, translation competency. Ultimately she used to because of higher pricing. the relationship can continue. And they are also cultural experts. Rather What Americans know as “extra value don’t forget to smile. than assigning translation projects, meals” are getting more expensive, so Sarah Casanova is an adept execu- companies should first consider a she chooses to go to family style res- tive. No doubt McDonald’s Japan has qualitative read from these experts. taurants for the same cost and a wider gathered all this information. The You might say that they can tell you if variety of food. point remains, however, that those of the joke translates.” What does a brand do once the us in the localization industry could be Perhaps for many of us in the infatuation phase has ended, which the ones to provide it to McDonald’s localization industry, our challenge presumably even Starbucks will face? or any other client. “I am a translator,” is a question of customer perception, Every difficulty is an opportunity to you may say. “You are a translator,” which sounds a lot like the challenge change perceptions. For McDonald’s your client may say. In fact, you are McDonald’s faces. M

58 | MultiLingual July/August 2014 [email protected]

57-58 Takeaway#145.indd 58 6/26/14 11:02 AM “Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.” Henry Ford

www.net-translators.com

59 Net-Translators #145.indd 59 6/26/14 11:03 AM “The future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed.”

William Gibson

Content curation will blur the lines between content authoring and translation.

Between the Internet’s abundant content and the shrinking consumer attention span, social media are increasingly influential in purchase decisions. Successful global companies will need to provide content that’s carefully selected and organized —or curated—for each local community. More than translation or even transcreation, content curation will become the most impactful way to capture attention and demonstrate thought leadership in target local markets.

Lara S. Daly Director of Sales, North America Moravia

Flexible thinking. Reliable delivery.

moravia.com

60 Moravia #145.indd 60 6/26/14 11:04 AM