Translation Cost Saving Tips Part II
Posted on Wed, Mar 10, 2010
BLOG POST BY: Vanny, Quote Manager for the Translation division
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Translation can be a costly endeavor especially when translating into multiple languages. To help our clients maximum their budget without sacrificing quality translation, we provide cost-effective solutions to meet their needs. I want to share just a few best practices that will help you better plan and budget for your translation project.
Write With an International Audience in Mind from the Start
If you anticipate your document being translated in the future, plan for it now. Write your English copy with an international audience in mind. Remember that many English words can have more than one meaning. It is also important to clearly identify your target audience. Are there certain reading levels, literacy issues, industry specific terminology, possible regional dialects that need to be addressed? To that end, make sure that your message is conveyed clearly, without any abstract ideas, colloquialisms, or culturally sensitive material that may pose an extra challenge for your translation team. Also, proofread carefully to make sure all English (or source) grammar is correct.
The concept of writing with an international audience in mind may also apply to the layout of your document. For most languages, the text may expand up to 30% when translating from English into the target language. Also, some languages such as Arabic and Farsi have a right-to-left text orientation, or require special fonts that may require more space. If the English layout is not designed to accommodate text growth or special fonts, this may drive up the formatting cost to fix. Many common layout issues can be avoided if the designer plans ahead and is aware of the issues involved when laying out a document intended for translation. Visit our DTP Best Practices for more.
Develop Pre-Translation Tools: Standard Glossary & Style Guide Development
For projects with a high volume word count and are complex in overall project scope, we recommend developing a standard glossary and style guide to help ensure consistency. These pre-translation tools will help save money and time for subsequent projects that may require updating or new translation.
A translation glossary is a reference for proper terminology. It helps eliminate the guess work on how to translate terms that are specific to your industry or business, or just to adhere to stylistic preferences. If there is terminology within your organization that needs to be standardized or translated in a certain way, this should be addressed before any translation work begins.
A style guide is a set of rules to help determined the tone of translations, visual and textual style, reading levels, fonts, use of metrics, and how to handle linguistic issues such as text expansion, grammar, etc.
Investing the extra money and time upfront to develop these translation tools can help you in the long run. Most importantly, these tools ensure that you will receive quality and consistent translation on budget and on time!
If you would like to learn more about other cost saving tips, feel free to email us at blog@ctslanguagelink.com or check back in with our blog for more to come!
Talk to you soon,
Vanny