Blunders Due to Unreliable Translations

Blunders Due to Unreliable Translations

Computer translators like Google Translate or Babelfish are often viewed as quick and cheap sources for translating material. However, for those who have used these methods, the end product is less than reliable-it’s usually peppered with errors.

When these mistakes become public, embarrassment typically follows. An American airline slogan “Fly Leather” was translated as “Fly Naked” in Latin America and Pepsi’s marketing slogan for China, “Come Alive with Pepsi” was translated as “Pepsi brings your ancestors back to life.”

These kinds of glaring mistakes are embarrassing for the businesses involved, but they are the very types of mistakes that a professional translation agency wouldn’t let slip through the cracks. In medical translations such mistakes could be deadly. ASIST Translation Services in Columbus, Ohio, only employs native speakers who are aware of these pitfalls and know how to avoid them.

For a free estimate for translation or other language-related needs, visit http://www.ASISTtranslations.com and click on the “Free Quote” button.

Happy Translation Day from ASIST Translation Services!

Happy Translation Day from ASIST Translation Services! http://ow.ly/6K3Sk

Foreign-Language Recording, Translation for Electronic Media

ASIST Translations routinely provides voice talent, audio recording, translation, casting and other studio services, so that clients can convert content (audio, video, interactive, e-learning, multimedia, Web, etc.) to any other language.

Translate narrations and onscreen text to any language

Proofread onscreen text after placement

Foreign-language voiceovers

• Provide voice talent
• In-studio auditor ensures accuracy and inflection in voice performances
• Record voiceovers in our digital (Pro Tools-based) studio
• Edit narrations and dialog to match picture in video files
• Cultural consultation regarding language variety and spoken accent

Collaborate in the planning of media projects that will be optimized for globalization

• Optimization and disambiguation for translation purposes
• Cultural perspectives on content
• Problem solving for language-support issues in the intended authoring and design software

Page layout, formatting in any language, including double-byte and right-to-left

ASIST routinely provides voice-over recordings for e-learning and computer-based training (Flash, Captivate, Breeze, PowerPoint, etc.). These narrations can be delivered as WAV, MP3 or any other audio file format that clients require. For many of these interactive applications, we often deliver separate audio files for each segment. That way, the interactive authors can easily align each scene, adjusting timing of graphics as necessary for the larger word counts in most translations.

We can also dub videos to many different languages. For clients with in-house video editing capability, the ideal method is for them to export a digital video file (QuickTime format is ideal, although we can convert almost any video file format). We use that video file as the onscreen reference while recording foreign language voice talent, and then edit the translated narrations and dialogs in Pro Tools. In that scenario, we return a WAV file to the client, that is already conformed to the video project. All they have to do is drop this translated narration at 0:00 in the video timeline—everything will line up through the end.

• In order to avoid a rushed pace in dubbed video, it helps to leave some extra padding between paragraphs and scenes in your original English version. With enough editing and/or time compression, we can make anything fit, but it may sound rushed if the translation must accurately reflect all nuances of the original English content. (In fact, creating a “looser” version of the original English program for dubbing purposes is one of the strategies that globalization-savvy content producers will incorporate into their project plan.)

Alternatively, clients can provide us videotape in any format. We then return dubbed versions via videotape, video files or DVD, as required. Of course, for computer-based training, dubbing video files to other languages for online delivery is a routine activity.

ASIST also provides translation and localization for all types of Web content. We have translated large sites to 11 or more languages, including Russian, Chinese, Arabic, Japanese and various other languages that don’t use Latin characters. Proofreading before the client goes live with the formatted content is one of the crucial services that ASIST provides—even in languages using Latin character sets, longer string length, line break issues and diacritical marks can be problematic if not reviewed by a qualified linguist.

ASIST Translation Services, Inc. is a full-service translation agency located in Columbus, Ohio. We provide translation, interpreting, proofreading, page layout, studio voice recording and media production, localization of interactive and Web content, and specialized language services to clients around the world.

www.ASISTtranslations.com

7 Myths About Spanish Translation for the United States

ASIST Translation Services Inc. has been translating to and from Spanish for the US market for over 25 years (as well as other Spanish-speaking countries around the world, of course!). Among the frequent topics of conversation with our translation clients are the many myths and misconceptions about the Spanish-speaking population in the United States. Accordingly, the Spanish translators at ASIST have helped compile a list of the “Magnificent Seven” myths about English-Spanish translations for the US market.

MYTH: Spanish spoken in the United States is “Spanglish.” It includes many English words and incorrect Spanish grammar.

FACT: This observation is true in relation to some of the colloquial or “street” Spanish one might hear in the United States, but it would never apply to a professional English-to-Spanish translation. Educated Spanish speakers surrounded by an English-speaking culture do indeed incorporate a higher proportion of loan words. In Spanish-speaking cultures around the world, borrowing words from other languages is more readily accepted when an exact (and brief!) equivalent doesn’t exist in Spanish. Even when translating to Spanish for other countries, it is not uncommon for our translators to include an original English term in parentheses if they are concerned that the Spanish version might otherwise be unfamiliar or ambiguous.

Despite all this, when ASIST creates formal Spanish translations for use in the United States, all conventional rules of Spanish grammar and punctuation apply and English words would never be gratuitously included in Spanish text. When “US Spanish” is designated as the target language variety, this in no way implies indiscriminate use of anglicisms, non-standard grammar or slang vocabulary that combines English and Spanish.

Among US Hispanics, in many cases their Spanish-language education may be interrupted or incomplete. This accounts for much of the “Spanglish” that Spanish speakers outside the United States always find so remarkable. Our professional Spanish translators are well aware of these issues, and work with ASIST clients to identify the appropriate educational level for the target audience.

MYTH: English-to-Spanish translations for the United States can be Mexican Spanish, because they represent the majority.

FACT: According to the US Census Bureau (2007 American Community Survey), only about 64% of the Hispanics across the United States (including many who speak little or no Spanish) identify themselves as being of Mexican origin. So, if you produce a translation that is specifically Mexican, without verifying its usability for other Hispanic groups, this potentially alienates over a third of your target audience!

These percentages vary widely from one US city to another. For example, census bureau data (ACS 2003) about Hispanic populations in metropolitan areas (without taking into account their native language, or Hispanic residents in their surrounding counties) tells us that:

• In the city of San Francisco, less than half of Hispanics are of Mexican origin.
• Within the city of Cleveland, 82% of Hispanics are of Puerto Rican origin.
• In Philadelphia, 76% of Hispanics are of Puerto Rican origin.
• Less than 5% of Hispanics in Boston are of Mexican origin (Puerto Ricans, at 27%, represent the largest Hispanic group in that city.)
• Within the city of Columbus, Ohio, 59% of Hispanics are of Mexican origin.
• In New York City, only 8% of Hispanics are of Mexican origin. (Over 30% of Hispanics in that city are of Puerto Rican origin, and slightly over 2% stated Cuban origin.)
• However, there are many cities with large Mexican majorities among their Hispanic residents. For example, about 67% of Hispanic residents in Atlanta are of Mexican origin, 73% in Chicago, 76% in Denver, 81% in Las Vegas, 89% in Dallas, 90% in San Diego.

MYTH: Spanish is Spanish. There is only one correct version. The principal Spanish dictionary is that of the Real Academia Española; therefore, the Spanish spoken in Spain is also appropriate for all other Spanish speakers in the United States and Latin America.

FACT: Many varieties of Spanish exist around the world. The formal written and spoken versions used in various countries or regions are equally legitimate. Just as with English, the fact that a language may have originated in a one country, or has a greater number of speakers in another, doesn’t make any given variety “better” than others. Certain vocabulary and grammar used in Spain can be unfamiliar for many American speakers, and in spoken Spanish the accents from regions within Spain can be hard to follow. Each translation must be tuned for the target audience, and when there are significant differences, the knowledge and creativity of the translation team will address this issue.

MYTH: “Neutral” Spanish translations will be equally comprehensible to Spanish speakers from anywhere in the world.

FACT: There is no such thing as “neutral” Spanish! Well-known grammatical differences include the use of vosotros the second-person plural form of address in Spain, and the use of vos to mean “you” in many South American countries. (In some countries, vos is less formal than the tú form, and in others, it is more formal.)

Even more problematic, however, are the thousands of minor differences in vocabulary and usage from one country to another. Words used for even commonplace objects—especially, clothing, food, plants and household items—can vary widely. Experienced, professional  translators have interacted with many Spanish-speaking cultures, and are aware of these differences. This informs their decisions about which terms to use, and whether alternate terms need to be provided in order to produce the most inclusive translation possible. (Indeed, there are occasions when two separate translations are required.)

MYTH: If the Spanish translation is for Florida, it should be Cuban Spanish.

FACT: Even in Miami, census data (ACS 2003) tells us that only about 54% of the Hispanic population in that city is of Cuban origin. In Orlando, a mere 5% of Hispanics state Cuban origin, in Tampa about 35%, and about 13% in Jacksonville. It is interesting to note, however, that half of our nation’s Cuban-Americans reside within Miami-Dade County.

MYTH: In Spain they speak “Castilian,” and in the rest of the world they speak “Spanish” (español).

FACT: Another article in this blog explains how Castilian, Spanish, castellano and  español are all synonyms for the same language. To avoid confusion, the language spoken in Spain can be referred to as Peninsular Spanish or European Spanish. (Occasionally, Spanish speakers in the Americas use the word castellano to mean “good” Spanish; i.e., not regional or slang. But that is a colloquial expression, not a linguistically accurate description.)

MYTH: Because the metric system is used in Spanish-speaking cultures, all measurements should be converted to metric units.

FACT: Spanish speakers in the United States are immersed in a culture where “English” measurements are the norm. Accordingly in US Spanish translations, these units appear first—commonly followed by the metric conversion in parentheses). When ASIST creates Spanish translations for use in other countries, the order of measurement units is usually the opposite, because elsewhere in the world, the metric system is the norm. Exception to this rule are made when approximate metric conversions would be misleading or cause problems; for example, plumbing fittings or wrench sizes.

While we are on the subject of numbers, it should also be noted that, in Spanish, the use of commas and points to separate thousands and decimals is opposite from English. That is, they would write 1.000,01 instead of 1,000.01 as in English. This is the norm in the Spanish-speaking world, except in Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico… and the United States.

ASIST Translation Services, Inc. is a full-service interpreting and translation agency located in Columbus, Ohio. We provide translation, interpreting, proofreading, studio voice recording and media production, localization of interactive and Web content, and specialized language services to clients around the world.

www.ASISTtranslations.com

Managing In-House Review of Translations

When our clients’ foreign offices review a translation, we always value their input. Their intimate knowledge of their customers, internal processes, vendors and industry terms in their specific market is very useful. As your company’s coordinator for multilanguage translation projects, here are some tips from ASIST Translations that will help you make this process more productive:

1. Most of the time, reviewers are not professional linguists, and are not familiar with the laborious review and double-checking the translation process requires. It is important to emphasize that personal “style preferences” must be avoided. Even the smallest change suggestions typically require review by 2-3 people on the translation side alone—hardly a good investment, if the translated text wasn’t “wrong” in the first place.
2. Instruct your reviewers that they must resist the temptation to add anything to the translated text that isn’t in the English original—this is a cardinal rule for our own translators, editors and proofreaders at ASIST. Any omissions or ambiguities in the English should be corrected at the source and addressed in all languages where appropriate. This is crucial for multi-language projects. Otherwise, as your company’s in-house coordinator, it quickly becomes unwieldy to manage documents, and each translation could stray from the English meaning in its own way.
3. It is very helpful if reviewers provide you an explanation in English (as a Comment in the translated MS Word file) for every suggested change—indicating exactly what each revision means and why it’s necessary. As you can imagine, this requirement for explanatory comments in English reduces the number of non-essential changes you will receive! Most importantly, being in the loop on how the content is being altered gives you the chance to manage the process before returning suggestions for review, comment and approval by ASIST linguists. Indeed, some comments may suggest improvement that should be made to the English original (and then updated in the other languages).
4. Timing is important. In-house reviews of a translation should be completed in the source Microsoft Word document before page layout, audio recording and so on are done. This is not only more efficient and reduces extra work, but also improves change tracking and consistency in the translation memories that ASIST maintains for your projects.

ASIST Translation Services, Inc. is a full-service translation agency located in Columbus, Ohio. We provide translation, interpreting, proofreading, studio voice recording and media production, localization of interactive and Web content, and specialized language services to clients around the world…

www.ASISTtranslations.com

Translation of Page Layouts: Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke

OK, you have your translated text. Because you used a professional translation agency, proper steps were followed for translation, editing, proofreading and quality-control. Now it’s time to place all this foreign-language content into a print layout. This can be a very error-prone phase of the process—all your final layouts should be reviewed by professional linguists!

This article highlights a few of the most common mistakes we see at ASIST Translations, when page-layout experts are unfamiliar with handling translated text.

Title Case
Title case (initial capitals on individual words) is customary in English for section headings, titles of articles, programs, etc. However, this doesn’t necessarily apply to other languages—Spanish, Portuguese and Italian, for example,  where sentence case is the norm. Even if the English original is in title case, don’t “fix” individual word caps in the translated version without consulting a professional linguist.

Punctuation
English conventions for punctuation don’t apply to other languages. Here are some common misunderstandings.

• Bullet lists. Punctuation in bullet lists can be fairly fluid in English. However, in many languages the conventions are different and a more structured approach is obligatory. For example, in Romance languages, one bullet list may have semi-colons after each item and a period on the last item—because each of these is treated as an alternate ending to a partial sentence that precedes the bullet list. Conversely, a different bullet list in the same document may have no final punctuation each list item, because they are fragments that aren’t grammatically linked to the surrounding text. In either case, they may differ from the format of the original English bullet list. Use the text provided by the translators, and if in doubt about differences from the English original, consult a professional linguist!
• Spacing. In French, colons (and usually semi-colons) are separated from the preceding words by a space (ideally, a non-breaking space, in word processing or layout programs). We frequently see French text get “fixed” during layout because this extra space looks like an error to English speakers.
• Numbers. The English use of commas and points to separate thousands and decimals in numbers is exactly the opposite of many languages. Most (but not all) European languages other than English use a point to separate thousands, millions, etc., and a comma as the decimal separator. (Note that Spanish text for Mexico, the USA, Puerto Rico and Panama is an exception to this rule.) That being said, the International System of Units (SI) standard also encourages using spaces (technically, thin spaces, 1/5 of an em wide) as the thousands separator, in order to avoid confusion.
• Quotation Marks. Style guides for the American English recommend placing quotation marks outside commas and periods. But that often doesn’t apply to other languages—don’t try to “fix” anything before consulting a linguist! Of course, languages like German or French also use completely different symbols for quotation marks—the well-known “chevron” style guillemet symbols in French, for example. (By the way, it is also best if the spaces inside French guillemets are non-breaking spaces.) Even so, for contemporary text in many of these languages it is also common to use the more international quotation marks, although dialog in works of fiction is a frequent exception.

Symbols
Some common typographical symbols in English are not acceptable in many other languages. When these form part of an artwork file, some redesign may be required. For example, the number sign (#) is not often used in other languages, and frequently gets substituted by an abbreviation for the word “number.” The ampersand is very uncommon in other languages, and gets replaced with their word for “and.” The “at sign” (@) does not automatically suggest an abbreviation for the word “at” in most languages, and its use is mostly limited to e-mail addresses.

Hyphenation and Line Breaks
If the page-layout program doesn’t have a hyphenation table for your target language, the post-layout proofreading process will be more cumbersome. If this feature is available, always make sure that the program you’re using properly indicates the language being formatted. As a general rule, it’s useful to know that Romance languages favor hyphenating prior to the initial consonant of the next syllable, for example. However, in languages like Chinese, where the words themselves are not separated by spaces, only a Chinese linguist can ensure that the line breaks in your final layout don’t create anything “funny” sounding.

One last note of caution: never retype translated text, no matter how brief! Cut and paste directly from the source translation document; you will avoid a lot of problems.
Another article in this blog provides more general tips for foreign-language layouts. Planning ahead for translated content always makes the process smoother.

ASIST Translation Services, Inc. is a full-service interpreting and translation agency located in Columbus, Ohio. We provide technical translation, interpreting, proofreading, studio voice recording and media production, localization of interactive and Web content, and specialized language services to clients around the world.

www.ASISTtranslations.com

Foreign-Language Video Translations: Basic Tips

When producing a video that you know will be translated to other languages, here are a few simple tips to keep in mind:

Translations often have larger word counts; as much as 25% more in Romance languages, for example. Plan ahead by leaving more space around your onscreen text. If you already crowding the available space in your English original, the problem can get much worse in the translated version.

1. Increased word counts can cause you even more headaches in narrations. Suppose your original English voice-over is cruising along at 120 words per minute, with no big breaths or pauses between sentences or paragraphs. For the equivalent translated voice-over with 25% more words, the narrator has to sustain 150 words per minute. For many situations, this is simply too fast for the message you need to transmit—and will inevitably feel rushed to the listener. If you leave a little bit of extra time around each bullet point or paragraph in your original English narration (perhaps even creating a special edit of the video, specifically for dubbing purposes), you and your audience will be much happier with the translated results.
2. Some languages, like Chinese, Hindi, Farsi and Arabic, use more complex characters than the Latin alphabet used in English. Consequently, the equivalent text in your onscreen titles often needs to be slightly larger in order to maintain legibility. For example, many Chinese characters have very fine strokes that can flicker or “sing” when displayed at a small size on a video screen. Be sure to check with your translation agency about which character sets for those languages are most “video-friendly.”
3. If you build graphics or titles in other programs (Adobe AfterEffects or Live Type, for example) that include text, make sure the source script documents you submit for translation include all this text, clearly tagged as a graphic.
4. Even for languages that use the Latin character set, some fonts don’t support the required diacritical marks (accents, etc.). Obviously, this issue is more frequent with specialty fonts, and in languages such as Hungarian, Czech, and so on. Sometimes the errors are obvious, but in other instances it’s more confusing, because characters actually get switched to something else! For this reason (and many others, such as odd line breaks) always have your final video text proofread by your translation agency before releasing it.

ASIST Translation Services, Inc. is a full-service translation agency located in Columbus, Ohio. We provide translation, interpreting, proofreading, voice recording and media production, localization of interactive and Web content, and specialized language services to clients around the world.

www.ASISTtranslations.com

Spanish Voice Recordings

First question: Where is the recorded audio going to be used? In the United States, Mexico, Spain, Puerto Rico, Central America, South America… or some combination of the above? Choosing an appropriate accent is extremely important. Audiences can easily be distracted when a narrator’s accent seems “out of place,” and this impairs effective delivery of your message.

Obviously, when the destination is a single Spanish-speaking country, making voice talent selections with appropriate accents is simpler. However, when a voice recording must be used in multiple countries, ASIST will help you select voices and accents that will be most acceptable to the greatest number of listeners. Accordingly, our discussions will include questions about destination countries, and which of them represent the largest proportion of the audience.

For Spanish-speaking audiences within the United States, the issue of accents is more complex—as is the selection of target Spanish dialects during the translation process itself. Specific geographical areas may have very high concentrations of a particular Spanish variety—Mexican speakers in parts of the southwestern US, or Cubans in Miami, for example. Another article in this blog presents current facts about the Spanish-speaking population in the USA. More than half of this country’s Spanish speakers do cite Mexican origin; but that still leaves a huge number of people who speak other Spanish varieties. People from other countries may not understand some vocabulary that is specific to Mexican Spanish . Often, ASIST will suggest providing multiple terms for certain items, to ensure that your “US Spanish” is as inclusive as possible; however making this flow smoothly in spoken Spanish is an art in itself. In short, you want your recorded Spanish narrations to sound “good” to the largest number of people, and to be understandable by everyone, no matter what variety of Spanish they speak.

ASIST Translation Services, Inc. is a full-service translation agency located in Columbus, Ohio. We provide translation, interpreting, proofreading, voice recording and media production, localization of interactive and Web content, and specialized language services to clients around the world.

www.ASISTtranslations.com

Spanish Translation: World’s Largest Spanish-Speaking Populations

The figures one sees for the number of Spanish speakers per country vary tremendously. One of the biggest factors is whether the number being cited includes all “Spanish speakers”—including those who speak Spanish as a first, second or even third language—or exclusively those who speak Spanish as their first or “native” language (their mother tongue, to use the common expression in Spanish).

Many countries in the Americas enjoy rich linguistic diversity (as does Spain), and not everyone there speaks Spanish as their first language. Additionally, in Brazil and the United States, significant portions of the population speak Spanish as a second language.

It is also interesting to note that, even though the number of first-language Spanish speakers in the United States is relatively small when considered as a percentage of the population (12%), this country still represents the third-largest native-speaking Spanish population in the world.

For example, compare these “top ten” lists:

Spanish Speakers (1^st or 2^nd language) *

1.      Mexico                                         107 million

2.      United States                                50 million

3.      Spain                                           46 million

4.      Colombia                                       45 million

5.      Argentina                                      40 million

6.      Venezuela                                     28 million

7.      Peru                                             25 million

8.      Chile                                            17 million

9.      Ecuador                                        14 million

10.    Brazil                                            12 million

Spanish Speakers (“mother tongue” only) *

1.      Mexico                                           100 million

2.      Colombia                                         45 million

3.      United States                                   43 million

4.      Spain                                              42 million

5.      Argentina                                         39 million

6.      Venezuela                                        28 million

7.      Peru                                                23 million

8.      Chile                                               15 million

9.      Ecuador                                           13 million

10.    Cuba                                                11 million

*   Source: 2009 study “The Economic Value of Spanish” funded by the United Nations and the International Telecommunications Union, based on population data from 2004-2005. Figures rounded to the nearest million. 2004-2005 data estimated 400 million first-language Spanish speakers, plus perhaps 25 million non-native speakers. However, the same study’s projections for 2009-2010 estimate approximately 500 million “Spanish speakers” in total.

ASIST Translation Services, Inc. is a full-service translation agency located in Columbus, Ohio. We provide translation, interpreting, proofreading, voice recording and media production, localization of interactive and Web content, and specialized language services to clients around the world.

www.ASISTtranslations.com

English-to-Spanish: Hispanic Immigrants in the United States

A 2007 report by the Pew Hispanic Center provides statistics about how Hispanic immigrants in the United States manage Spanish and English.

Here, we recap a few points that are of great interest for anyone involved with Spanish translations for the United States.

• 52% of foreign-born Hispanics speak only Spanish at home.
• Only 23% of Latino immigrants say they can carry on a conversation in English very well. However, for their adult sons and daughters, this figure rises to 88%.
• Only 7% of foreign-born Latinos report that they speak English mostly or exclusively at home. In contrast, 48% of their adult sons and daughters speak mainly (or only) English with their own families.
• English proficiency also correlates with educational level. 54% of newly-arrived adult Latino immigrants with college degrees speak English “very well,” compared with 34% for those with high school diplomas. Among foreign-born Hispanics without high school diplomas, only 11% say they speak English “very well.”
• Ability of immigrants to speak English also varies according to country of origin. 52% of Puerto Rican immigrants say they speak English “very well,”, compared to 39% of South Americans, 31% of Cubans, and only 16% of Mexican immigrants.
• 71% of Mexican immigrants say they speak little or no English, as do 64% of immigrants from the Dominican Republic, 62% from Central America, 57% from Cuba, 44% from South America and 35% from Puerto Rico.

ASIST Translation Services, Inc. is a full-service translation agency located in Columbus, Ohio. We provide translation, interpreting, proofreading, voice recording and media production, localization of interactive and Web content, and specialized language services to clients around the world.

www.ASISTtranslations.com

African French Translation

Quick, name the continent with the most French speakers in the world…
That’s right… it’s Africa!

French is spoken in 31 African countries. Out of a population of nearly 900 million, up to 115 million people throughout Africa speak French as their first or second language (compared to 53 million in France, 7 million in Canada, 4 million in Belgium, and 1.5 million in Switzerland).

African French varieties are grouped into 3 major categories. The largest is that spoken in west, central and eastern Africa (75 million), followed by Maghreb French (Mauritania, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia; about 36 million), and a variety spoken by less than 2 million Creoles in the Indian Ocean.

Like Arabic in northern Africa and the Horn of Africa, and Swahili in southeastern Africa, French is an important lingua franca among people from western, northwestern and central African countries.

African French varieties have many differences in pronunciation from European and Canadian French. The differences in vocabulary are even more pronounced, including loan words from other languages, terms that acquire different meanings in African French, plus a wealth of colloquial and slang expressions that, like pronunciation, vary from one region to another.

After Paris and Montreal, the third-largest French-speaking city in the world is Kinshasha (Democratic Republic of the Congo).

African countries with the largest number of French speakers (a majority of these speak French as their second language):

• Democratic Republic of the Congo (24 million)
• Algeria (19 million)
• Côte d’Ivoire (13 million)
• Morocco (10 million)
• Cameroon (7 million)
• Tunisia (6 million)
• Guinea (6 million)

African countries with the highest proportion of French speakers (as first or second language) among their population:

• Gabon 80%
• Mauritius 73%
• Côte d’Ivoire 70%
• São Tomé and Príncipe 65%
• Tunisia 64%
• Guinea: 63%
• Seychelles 60%
• Republic of the Congo 60%
• Equatorial Guinea 60%
• Algeria 57%

This Wikipedia article provides some fascinating information about French speakers in Africa.

ASIST Translations regularly provides translations in European French, Canadian French and African French—as well as other languages from Africa, Asia, Europe and elsewhere.

ASIST Translation Services, Inc. is a full-service translation agency located in Columbus, Ohio. We provide translation, interpreting, proofreading, voice recording and media production, localization of interactive and Web content, and specialized language services to clients around the world.

www.ASISTtranslations.com

Arabic Language – Facts for Arabic Translation

Arabic-Speaking Countries

Current estimates indicate that 360 million people speak Arabic—including those who speak it as a second (or third) language. As of 1999 (according to the Ethnologue site) about 221 million people spoke some variety of Arabic as their first language.

Arabic is among the official languages in 24 countries. In some of these countries, Arabic is a minority language and more than language has official status. (By way of comparison, English figures among the official languages in 55 countries, versus 29 for French, 20 for Spanish, 10 each for Russian and Portuguese, and 7 for German.)

However, Arabic is the sole official language in only 8 countries.

Egypt is home to the largest number of native or second-language Arabic speakers (92 million), followed by Algeria (35 million), Morocco (32 million), Saudi Arabia (28 million), Iraq and Yemen (24 million each).

In the Americas, there are 3.5 million native or second-language Arabic speakers in the United States, 12 million in Brazil (where there are more people of Lebanese origin than within Lebanon itself), 6 million in France, 3.5 million in Argentina and 1.1 million in Mexico. ASIST Translations frequently produces Arabic translations and voice-over recordings that are directed towards Arabic speakers within the United States, for medical, government and corporate clients.

Arabic Translation: Target Varieties

Ethnologue lists 30 varieties within the Arabic macrolanguage. Modern Standard Arabic is usually the target variety when translating to Arabic for audiences from a wide variety of national origins. It is derived from Classical Arabic, which is still in use for religious and ceremonial purposes, and includes a large proportion of archaic grammar and vocabulary. In most Arab countries, proficiency in Standard Arabic (also known as Literary Arabic) is directly related to educational level; at least 101 million Arabic-speaking are not considered fully proficient in Standard Arabic.

Spoken Arabic for Voice-Over Narrations

Spoken accents within the Arabic-speaking world vary dramatically. When recording Arabic narrations for video, interactive training, education, etc., it is extremely important to identify your core target audience—and then use voice talent whose accent will be most acceptable to the largest number of people. It is also important that professional Arabic linguists on your translation team know how to optimize scripts for the spoken word. In particular, the studio voice-recording process will be facilitated if the translated script indicates vowel pronunciations very clearly—even when this would not be strictly necessary for a print-only document. Additionally, when proper names or technical terms from the source English text are transliterated to Arabic (i.e., approximating the original pronunciation using the characters of the target language), it is important that a native English speaker be involved in the studio recording session to assist voice talent with accurate pronunciation.

Arabic text and computers

Written Arabic uses the Arabic alphabet. It is a cursive script and written from right to left. Arabic is the second most-frequently used alphabet in the world (after the Latin alphabet). It includes 28 basic letters that all represent consonants, plus optional symbols to indicate vowels. Many computer programs don’t support right-to-left languages at all (and support for right-to-left languages such as Arabic, Hebrew and Farsi must be enabled in the control panel of Windows). Even among programs that do support Arabic script, artifacts can occur when Arabic text is taken from one program to another—not to mention between Windows and Macintosh platforms! (This is also the case with the Perso-Arabic script used for Farsi and Dari.) For instance, Arabic letters have a basic form when they stand alone, and then change shape according on their position within each word (initial, medial or final), as well as connections to letters that precede or follow them within each word. Additionally, certain pairs of letters get joined together to form a single ligature (sometimes obligatory, sometimes optional; practice varies according to country and personal preferences). It is absolutely essential for your final layout, video or interactive module to be reviewed by a native Arabic linguist. Font errors can be very easily overlooked by non-native speakers!

ASIST Translation Services, Inc. is a full-service translation agency located in Columbus, Ohio. We provide translation, interpreting, proofreading, studio voice recording and media production, localization of interactive and Web content, and specialized language services to clients around the world.

www.ASISTtranslations.com

Subtitling vs. Closed Captioning

This terminology can get very confusing for our translation clients. When you are planning on creating subtitles or closed-captioning in a foreign language,  it is important to understand what these terms mean to the video editors and producers we work with.

In most countries, “subtitles” and “captions” are synonyms. However, in the United States and Canada:

• “Subtitles” help viewers understand what is being spoken when it is not clearly audible, or they may not understand the accent or language. Obviously, for a translation agency like ASIST, providing subtitles in alternate languages is the most common scenario.
• “Caption” text identifies each speaker and displays all spoken dialog—typically (but not necessarily) in the original language. It also describes music cues, sounds effects etc. for the hearing impaired.

Closed Captioning

“Closed” captioning is not automatically displayed to all viewers, but only when a viewer elects for caption text to be decoded and displayed onscreen. On modern televisions, this is the white text within black rectangles that you might see when the sound is muted (or all the time, depending on your menu settings).

In NTSC video (the format used in North America and a few other countries) caption text is encoded into line 21 of the video signal—the “vertical blanking interval” part of the video image that doesn’t show on your TV. Captioning ordinarily is not visible unless enabled via your TV’s menus or remote control. Line-21 captioning is actually part of the video signal itself, and is often incorporated into broadcast programs, videotapes and even DVDs.

Closed captioning for NTSC video is limited to the Latin character set, so this method is not suitable for Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Korean, Hindi, Thai, etc.—not to mention right-to-left languages such as Arabic, Farsi and Hebrew. Indeed, even though the character set was expanded to better support diacritical marks in Spanish, French and Portuguese, these still may not display reliably on all viewing equipment.

PAL and SECAM video (used in Europe, much of Asia and South America) use a different method for subtitling, called “teletext.” If your source video in NTSC format must be converted to one of these formats for another country, the captioning would need to be recreated.

“Burned-in” Subtitles

Another option is to incorporate the subtitle text directly into the video image, as a permanent part of the video signal that can’t be turned on/off. For translation purposes, this offers various advantages: First, virtually any character set can be used (although certain video editing programs may have difficulty with right-to-left languages or alternate character sets). Second, the viewer doesn’t have to do anything special or know how to use the remote control, because subtitles are always on. Third, if the video is going to be converted for playback from a Web site, the subtitles (otherwise be lost in the conversion) already form part of the video image itself.

DVD Subtitles

DVDs support yet another subtitling method, where subtitle text is overlaid as a bitmap on the video signal by the DVD player, and can be turned on and off by the viewer. (Incidentally, video content on a DVD in NTSC format may also contain line-21 captioning.) DVD subtitles are stored in special track. Many different character sets and multiple languages on a single DVD are supported.

For translation purposes, the best solution is often to present a language selection menu on the DVD, when it is not certain that your viewers will know how to use the remote control to make language selections for subtitles. This is especially an issue when character sets other than Latin are involved.

Space Considerations

No matter which method you use, the positioning of subtitles can get tricky if your program already has a lot of text in the lower third of the video frame, or complex graphics whose legibility would be impaired when subtitles are sitting on top of them. When possible, try to plan ahead for this, leaving some neutral space across the bottom of the screen for subtitles.

Conclusion

ASIST Translation Services can help you decide the best method for your target market. We will typically begin with some basic questions:

• How long is the program?
• Which languages are required?
• Will the video be delivered exclusively on DVD (or might it be broadcast, copied to videotape, or converted to web video)?
• In which countries does the finished video need to be used?

ASIST Translation Services, Inc. is a full-service translation agency located in Columbus, Ohio. We provide translation, interpreting, proofreading, voice recording and media production, localization of interactive and Web content, and specialized language services to clients around the world.

www.ASISTtranslations.com

Symbols in Foreign-Language Translations

You need to be very careful how symbols are treated in the source text you provide for translation to other languages. Here are a few common issues:

#

Not everyone associates this symbol with “number.” In many languages, some sort of text abbreviation for the word “number” is used (for example, Nº or núm. in Spanish).

ʺ

This abbreviation for inches should usually be avoided in translations. While it may be recognized in regions familiar with English usage (Canada, Spanish speakers in the USA or Mexico), it is better to use the standard abbreviation in the target language. Of course, unless the item being described necessarily comes in inch sizes—like a nut, wrench or pipe fitting, for example—it should usually be converted to metric system anyway!

&

To most speakers of foreign languages, the ampersand does NOT represent the word “and.”

@

The “at” sign is ubiquitous in e-mail addresses, of course. But many languages use a distinct term for this symbol, that doesn’t suggest the word “at” to speakers of that language at all. Consequently, creative constructions like “Work@Home” don’t translate.

/

American English frequently uses the slash symbol to represent the idea of “or” or “and.” To minimize ambiguity in your source English text for translation, it is recommendable to actually use the words “or” or “and.”

$

When the dollar sign is used in Spanish, to avoid confusion this should be the version with a single vertical bar — not two vertical bars, which is used for the peso in Mexico, Dominican Republic, Colombia and Cuba.

ASIST Translations can help you prepare your source text for translation to a foreign language, to ensure that your original content is as universal and unambiguous as possible. Feel free to contact us about effective communication in today’s multilingual, multicultural environment.

ASIST Translation Services, Inc. is a full-service translation agency located in Columbus, Ohio. We provide translation, interpreting, proofreading, voice recording and media production, localization of interactive and Web content, and specialized language services to clients around the world.

www.ASISTtranslations.com

Spanish Translation: Columbus, Ohio

The Spanish-speaking, Hispanic population in Columbus, Ohio (Franklin County) has increased dramatically over the past few years. Accordingly, the area’s hospitals, healthcare providers, medical suppliers, courts, legal offices, government and social services have met the challenge to ensure that Spanish translations, Spanish interpreters, and culturally appropriate communication is available to the community.

Another article in this blog provides detailed information about the Spanish-speaking and Hispanic population in Central Ohio, based on the most recent information available from the US Census Bureau.

According to the Pew Hispanic Center, data for 2007 shows that the Hispanic population in Franklin County had increased by 74% over the 2000 figure (approximately from 24,000 to 42,000)—and doubled from 2% to 4% of the total county population.

For much more detail about the Hispanic population in Ohio and the rest of the United States, visit this page on the Pew Hispanic Center’s site.

ASIST Translations is among the region’s top providers of Spanish translation, interpreting and media production. But we also translate to almost any other language, not just for clients in Ohio but around the world. Our 25 years of experience. state-of-the-art translation tools and systematic approach to quality control ensure that your multilingual communications are professional and effective.

ASIST Translation Services, Inc. is a full-service translation agency located in Columbus, Ohio. We provide translation, interpreting, proofreading, voice recording and media production, localization of interactive and Web content, and specialized language services to clients around the world.

www.ASISTtranslations.com

Spanish Language Facts: USA

The United States has the fourth largest Spanish-speaking population among all countries in the world (or third largest, depending on how sources tally “native” speakers).

US Census Bureau data from 2007:

• Overall, 19.7% of the US population five years of age and older speaks a language other than English at home (compared to 17.9% in 2000, 13.8% in 1990).
• 38.1 million people (12.6% of the US population) were born in another country. Among these foreign-born residents, 12 million (31%) were born in Mexico.
• The five U.S. states with highest percentages of foreign-born populations are California, New York, New Jersey, Nevada and Florida.
• Among US population five years and older, about 35 million people (12.3%) speak Spanish at home. More than half of these Spanish speakers said they also spoke English “very well.”
• Among US residents identifying themselves as “Hispanic-origin” (regardless of Spanish-language proficiency), 64% were of Mexican background.
• 78% of US Hispanics speak Spanish at home.
• Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas are among US states where at least one in five residents speaks Spanish at home.

Approximately 500 million of the world’s people speak Spanish, including those who speak it as a second language. Spanish is the third most common language in the world after English and Mandarin Chinese, and is the third most-frequently used language on the Internet.

64.2% of Web users are not native English speakers. There are approximately 208 million native English speakers and 608 million non-English speakers online. (Global Reach, 2004).

ASIST Translation Services, Inc. is a full-service translation agency located in Columbus, Ohio. We provide translation, interpreting, proofreading, voice recording and media production, localization of interactive and Web content, and specialized language services to clients around the world.

www.ASISTtranslations.com

Spanish Translations for Business

When translating from English to Spanish for business purposes, it is essential that the translators used for this Spanish translation be familiar with customary business language!

You may be surprised to learn that many freelance Spanish translators don’t come from a business background. Consequently, they may not be familiar with nuances and style conventions in commercial correspondence. When this is the case, you run the risk of receiving translations that can be overly literal, stilted, or be written in an excessively informal tone.

A professional translation agency uses teams of qualified linguists who have been tested for their knowledge of contemporary style conventions—including business language in both English and Spanish. Experienced translators know whether a given bit of jargon or business idiom should be translated, stay in English, or be substituted by some equivalent expression in the target language.

Business Spanish tends to be slightly more formal than contemporary English correspondence; for example, going to greater lengths to make requests sound less like commands. Greetings and closings also tend to be somewhat more formal, even slightly old-fashioned sounding when they are literally translated back to English. In short, there are style conventions, just as in any other language—and no matter how strong a person’s linguistic qualifications, these are no substitute for real-life experience with modern business correspondence.

Be sure to work with qualified, professional translators, whose field of expertise includes business as well as your particular technical field.

ASIST Translation Services, Inc. is a full-service translation agency located in Columbus, Ohio. We provide translation, interpreting, proofreading, voice recording and media production, localization of interactive and Web content, and specialized language services to clients around the world.

www.ASISTtranslations.com

Content ≥ Form: Translation Guidelines for Technical Writers

As a technical writer participating in a multilingual project, the greater your understanding of the translation process and cross-cultural issues in general, the better equipped you are to deliver content that is optimized for multiple languages and cultures. This article highlights a few of the most important considerations when you pre-flight your technical writing for global delivery.

Think Metric. The United States is one of the few countries in the world that hasn’t standardized on the metric system. Providing metric equivalents in the source text helps you ensure consistency and make your own decisions about appropriate units of measurement per the International System of Units (SI), and determine the significant number of digits for each conversion. Beware, however—some things should not be converted, such as wrench sizes and plumbing fittings, for example.

Think Global. Just a few examples… Not only do many countries use different voltages than North America, but the electrical connectors are also different—so your conscientious “3-prong, grounded outlet” advice may not apply to the overseas model of the product. Another common oversight: if toll-free “800” numbers won’t work outside the USA and Canada and you don’t provide alternate phone numbers, how will clients reach Customer Service or Technical Support?

Avoid Catch Phrases and Wordplay. Occasionally spicing up technical text with subculture references or vogue expressions for your own culture can make it more engaging for general audiences. However, these often won’t translate to other languages, and leave translators grasping for near-equivalent expressions—or worse, stilted renditions in the target language. Even trickier are the idiomatic constructions that, as a native speaker, you wouldn’t even think twice about when reviewing text prior to translation. For example, for some translators, “ramp up” or “throttle back” might be more error-prone than “gradually increase” or “decelerate.”

Know Which Regulatory Agencies and Certifications are Relevant. Some end users in the European Union might know what the North American term “UL-listed” means, but for them only the CE marking has similar regulatory importance for health and safety and environmental certification. Similarly, while approvals by the FDA, USDA, other United States authorities may be of some interest, similar regulatory bodies probably govern these fields in your target markets. When possible, list all regulatory approvals and certifications in your source English document (both in the US and elsewhere) to ensure that they appear in every translated version.

Disambiguate. Consider creating a term glossary specifically for the translation teams. As you receive queries while translating one language, be sure to add these explanations to your list. That way, more questions are answered beforehand as additional target languages are added. Often, queries from translators will uncover items that should be reworded in the English original to eliminate any possibility of misinterpretation.

ASIST Translation Services, Inc. is a full-service interpreting and translation agency located in Columbus, Ohio. We provide technical translation, interpreting, proofreading, studio voice recording and media production, localization of interactive and Web content, and specialized language services to clients around the world.

www.ASISTtranslations.com

Translation to Chinese: What kind of “Chinese”?

The most-common Chinese language varieties requested of ASIST are Mandarin, followed by Cantonese (also known as Yue, Gwong Dung Waa,  Yueh, Yuet Yue, and Yueyu). The written form of Mandarin can use either Simplified or Traditional characters, depending on the target audience, while Cantonese generally uses Traditional characters. If you are planning for a Chinese translation, here are some basic guidelines to keep in mind.

Spoken Chinese

While it also applies to a large group of linguistically related dialects, Mandarin usually refers to the Standard Mandarin variety as spoken in Beijing. The name Mandarin literally back-translates as “northern speech.” This is the official language of the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan (a.k.a. Republic of China), and is also one of four official languages in Singapore.

In China, Cantonese speakers are mainly concentrated in the province of Guangdong (previously known as Canton in English) and Guanxi. It is also spoken in Macau—where it is an official language, along with Portuguese. Cantonese is also the traditionally dominant language in Hong Kong used in education, government, business and the media, although Mandarin is also a co-official language there. “Standard Cantonese” usually refers to the Canton-Hong Kong dialect.

There are also large Cantonese-speaking communities in Southeast Asia, Canada, Australia and the United States. The majority of the Chinese-Americans well into the 1980’s could trace their ancestry to the Cantonese province of Taishan; consequently Cantonese was prevalent for many years in the US. As the demographics among Chinese immigrants have shifted over the last 50 years, Mandarin has steadily increased in prominence as the lingua franca among overseas Chinese.

Written Chinese

Presently, two distinct systems of characters are used for writing Chinese: Traditional and Simplified. As the name implies, the Simplified form decreases the number of strokes required for many (but not all) characters. A finalized version of this system was made official in the People’s Republic of China in 1964. Use of Simplified characters is the norm among Mandarin speakers in mainland China, Singapore, Malaysia and in the United Nations. Additionally, writing in Simplified characters is also gradually gaining popularity among other overseas Chinese.

In contrast, Traditional characters are used for written Cantonese in Hong Kong and Macau, and written Mandarin in Taiwan (where use of Simplified characters is disapproved). Many overseas Chinese communities also tend to use Traditional characters, especially Cantonese speakers and families who emigrated before the mainland’s changeover to Simplified during the 1950’s and 1960’s.

There is also a “romanized” version of written Chinese that uses Latin characters to approximate Standard Mandarin pronunciation. Hanyu Pinyin (or simply Pinyin) was adopted by the ISO as the standard romanization for modern Chinese. Aside from its main use for teaching phonetic pronunciation to non-Mandarin speakers, Hanyu Pinyin is also sometimes used for entering Chinese text into certain computer systems that don’t support Traditional or Simplified Chinese characters.

What To Do?

If Mandarin Chinese is requested, and your principal target audience is worldwide or mainland China specifically, it will most commonly be written using Simplified Chinese characters. However, for “Chinese” speaking audiences within the USA, it is important to check beforehand. It is not unusual for both Mandarin and Cantonese to be required. For example, the San Francisco area has separate radio and TV channels broadcasting in each language, and various American television networks broadcast programming in both languages. For written Chinese, a significant portion of Chinese-Americans may be more familiar with Traditional rather than Simplified characters.

ASIST offers translation, interpreting and voice recording in Mandarin and Cantonese, plus many other languages throughout China, Asia and elsewhere.

ASIST Translation Services, Inc. is a full-service interpreting and translation agency located in Columbus, Ohio. We provide translation, interpreting, proofreading, studio voice recording and media production, localization of interactive and Web content, and specialized language services to clients around the world…

www.ASISTtranslations.com

Translating to “Mexican…” Spanish?

According to the Ethnologue Web site, in addition to Spanish, 290 living language varieties are spoken within Mexico. This includes between 87,000 and 100,000 people who speak Mexican Sign Language. Eight percent of Mexico’s population speaks one of many native-american languages. When creating Spanish translations for use in Mexico, it is important to understand that much of this country’s unique Spanish vocabulary reflects Mexico’s cultural diversity, and the influence of other languages that co-exist with Spanish.

To name just a few of the larger language varieties—other than Spanish—that are spoken in Mexico:

• 1,749,000      Nahuatl language family
• 740,000          Maya language varieties (southern states)
• 444,000          Zapotec language family
• 418,070          Mixtec language family
• 367,000          Mazahua language varieties (México, Michoacán)
• 272,000          Totonac language family (Puebla, Veracruz)
• 252,000          Otomi language family
• 190,000          Tzeltal language varieties (Chiapas)
• 185,000          Mazatec family
• 134,000          Chol language varieties (Chiapas and Sabanilla)
• 122,000          Huastec varieties (Veracruz, San Luís Potosí)
• 120,000          Me’phaa language varieties (Guerrero)
• 97,000            Chinantec language family (Oaxaca)
• 95,000            Tarahumara language family
• 90,000            Mixe family (in Oaxaca)
• 79,000            Tzotzil language varieties (Chiapas)
• 59,000            Popoloca language family
• 42,000            Chontal language varieties (Tabasco, Oaxaca)
• 40,000            Mayo (Sonora , Sinaloa)
• 40,000            Plautdietsch (German language; Chihuahua)
• 40,000            Purepecha language varieties
• 38,000            Chatino language family (Oaxaca)
• 36,000            Tojolabal
• 28,000            Amuzgo language family (Guerrero, Oaxaca)
• 25,000            Tepehuan language family
• 20,000            Huichol (Nayarit and Jalisco)
• 15,000            Cora language varieties (Nayarit)

Considering the incredible linguistic diversity of this country, it is hardly surprising that Mexican Spanish (like many other varieties of Spanish spoken around the world) regularly uses so many words originating from languages already spoken in that country before the arrival of the Spanish in the early years of the 16^th century.

ASIST Translation Services, Inc. is a full-service interpreting and translation agency located in Columbus, Ohio. We provide translation, interpreting, proofreading, studio voice recording and media production, localization of interactive and Web content, and specialized language services to clients around the world.

www.ASISTtranslations.com

Portuguese Translation, French Translation, Spanish Translation: Who and Where?

When you employ a translation agency to create Portuguese, French or Spanish translations of your existing material, simply specifying one of these language names is not sufficient!

• The Portuguese variety spoken by 163 million people in Brazil has important differences from the variety spoken by 10 million in Portugal. Use of verb tenses is decidedly different, as are accepted spellings of many words in the two countries—and of course, the spoken accents are very different. Conventions for formal and informal forms of address are also different, and there numerous differences in vocabulary.
• Likewise, Canadian French (native language of 7 million Canadians) has notable vocabulary differences when compared to the language variety spoken by nearly 54 million people in France—and the accents are also very different, of course. Some Canadian practices regarding punctuation, capitalization and idiomatic expressions also differ from European French.
• Spanish varieties present an even more complex mosaic, because this language is spoken in diverse regions around the globe—by nearly 500 million people, if we include those who speak Spanish as a second language. Aside from the extensive differences in vocabulary that you would expect among people from so many different nations,  the most fundamental  difference concerns grammar. Use of the second person plural form vosotros is commonplace in Spain, whereas it sounds archaic or scriptural to most Spanish speakers in the Americas (who generally switch to the more formal ustedes form when addressing more than one person).

To summarize, a professional translation company needs to you specify not only the target language, but exactly where the translation will be used. They can help you identify dialect issues (and accents, if you are recording narrations for a video or e-learning), conventions for measurement units, and ensure that the grammar, vocabulary and style are appropriate for your target audience.

ASIST Translation Services, Inc. is a full-service interpreting and translation agency located in Columbus, Ohio. We provide translation, interpreting, proofreading, studio voice recording and media production, localization of interactive and Web content, and specialized language services to clients around the world.

www.ASISTtranslations.com

Castilian = Spanish = Castellano = Español

This is a persistent misunderstanding… Before starting any Spanish translation, having this information handy might be helpful when clients or distributors tell YOU what variety of Spanish is required, without providing any geographical context.

Castilian/Spanish, Castellano/Español are all synonyms for the same language.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_given_to_the_Spanish_language

In short, it avoids confusion to call the national  language spoken in Spain “peninsular” Spanish or European Spanish.

In many Spanish-speaking countries in the New World, people casually use the term castellano (Castilian in English) to mean “proper” Spanish – that is, not colloquial or a regional dialect, and without a lot of folksy local vocabulary or slang that wouldn’t be understood by Spanish speakers outside of their specific country or region.

One will commonly hear “castellano” used in this sense in Mexico, for instance. It’s sort of like a U.S. speaker saying “the King’s English.” But this is a colloquial usage, and not linguistically accurate.

In some cases, what the client is driving at might be one of the “virtual” Spanish varieties used for translation purposes; for example, “Latin American” Spanish or “Universal” Spanish. These are not really Spanish dialects at all. Instead, in the translation industry they are a convenient way of indicating that the target Spanish variety needs to be comprehensible (to the extent  possible) in various countries and might need to include some alternate wordings where differing vocabulary might cause confusion.

Sometimes Spanish speakers outside of the USA may in fact be specifying “Castilian” because they believe (with some cause) that a lot of what they would consider “bad”  Spanish or Spanglish is spoken within the USA. They may be concerned (again, with some cause) that they might receive this from any translation agency based in the USA. Another article in this blog discusses some of the numerous misconceptions about Spanish translations for use within the United States.

• Another interesting aspect of the term castellano (Castilian) is that many people within autonomous regions of Spain who speak other peninsular languages such as Catalán, Galician or Basque make a point of calling it castellano. After all, theirs are also co-official “Spanish” languages!

Usually, when “Castilian” Spanish is requested, either:

1. The client really does mean European Spanish as spoken in Spain (and Equatorial Guinea, Gilbraltar, Ceuta, Melilla); or
2. Their own clients or distributors have told them “Castilian” as a way of saying “standard” Spanish that isn’t colloquial or regional dialect— it which case it would NOT be appropriate to translate to European Spanish.

• Spanish in Europe has some basic grammatical differences from any New World Spanish variety, including the well-known use of the second-person plural pronouns and verb forms (vosotros). In the New World, these are generally only seen in archaic, poetical or biblical styles. There are also many other important differences in vocabulary, preferences for sentence construction, and compound verb forms. Pronunciation is also very different, and this is of crucial importance when recording voiceover narrations for e-learning, video, PowerPoint, Flash, etc.  A large proportion of European Spanish is intelligible to well-traveled New World speakers, but they will definitely recognize it as a different Spanish variety. Especially in non-technical text, European Spanish sounds more “foreign” to American Spanish speakers than British vernacular does to USA English speakers, for example.

As always, if clients let us know exactly WHERE the Spanish translation will be used, our expertise can help them choose the most appropriate target language variety.

ASIST Translation Services, Inc. is a full-service interpreting and translation agency located in Columbus, Ohio. We provide translation, interpreting, proofreading, studio voice recording and media production, localization of interactive and Web content, and specialized language services to clients around the world.

www.ASISTtranslations.com

Translation Industry Terms You Should Know

Translation communicates the meaning of the original written communication in another language. As anyone who has attempted to use a Web-based or “machine” translation can attest, this is not simply a word-by-word process, but also requires a deep understanding of the target culture and context.

Interpreting is similar, but deals with the spoken word. Interpreting can be either consecutive (speakers pause every few sentences for interpreting; this is the most common method for legal, medical and business scenarios, whether onsite or via telephone) or simultaneous (nonstop interpreting, through headphones at a conference, for example).

Transliteration is how the sounds of an original word are approximated using the characters of a different alphabet. As part of the translation process for many ASIST customers, the proper names of employees, the company or its products will be transliterated. Instead of the Latin characters used in English and Romance languages, for example, a series of Cyrillic, Japanese, Chinese, Korean or Thai characters provide a similar pronunciation. Exact matches are not always available in the target language, however—certain sounds can be especially problematic or simply nonexistent. Especially when transliterating company or product names, an informed decision must be made between accurate and “market-friendly” renderings for the target culture. And needless to say, as translators we must be very careful about transliterated equivalents that may have some inappropriate connotation!

ASIST Translation Services, Inc. is a full-service interpreting and translation agency located in Columbus, Ohio. We provide translation, interpreting, proofreading, studio voice recording and media production, localization of interactive and Web content, and specialized language services to clients around the world…

www.ASISTtranslations.com

Foreign-Language Interpreting Services from ASIST Translations

ASIST Translation Services, Inc. has provided interpreting services for over 25 years. ASIST supplies professional interpreters to county & federal Courts, area hospitals, physician offices, social service agencies, numerous law firms, as well as Fortune 500 companies all over the world.

While some of these bilingual individuals may also be qualified as translators (i.e., for written text), the documentation, formal training and skills evaluation that ASIST Translations requires of onsite interpreters comprises a robust system that has been developed and refined steadily over our company history. In addition to the basic requirement of fully competent interpreting in both directions between English and other target languages, candidates must also demonstrate mastery of legal or medical vocabulary, complete training in interpreting ethics, HIPAA compliance, pass background checks, health and drug screenings, as well as pass oral and written tests of their capabilities—both with the languages and the interpreting profession.

ASIST’s interpreting staff networks with nearly 4,000 professional interpreters worldwide to routinely provide onsite interpreting and telephonic interpreting in over 240 languages. Locally, ASIST provides 24-hour onsite interpreting services 365 days per year, currently working with several hundred active and qualified interpreters in central Ohio. Due to the stringent nature of our language screening and testing procedures—including oral and written evaluations—many bilingual candidates apply but few are selected to even attend our introductory interpreter training.

In addition to medical interpreting and interpreting services to corporate clients, ASIST has provided legal interpreting  for over 23 years, to city, county, state and federal courts, as well as public defenders’ offices, law firms and other organizations.

ASIST Translation Services, Inc. is a full-service interpreting and translation agency located in Columbus, Ohio. We provide translation, interpreting, proofreading, studio voice recording and media production, localization of interactive and Web content, and specialized language services to clients around the world.

www.ASISTtranslations.com

The Measure of All Things: Translation and Units of Measurement

Because 90% of the world uses the metric system, conversion of measurement units from the English system still prevalent in the US is a routine aspect of translation. In actual practice, this involves more decision-making than the simple calculations one might imagine.

Close Enough!

The first issue is always the degree of precision required. For example, when warning consumers to store a gas cylinder at least 3 feet away from an open flame, common sense should tell you that “one meter” away is an acceptable approximation. Specifying “0.9144 meters” leaves them wondering whether a few tenths of a millimeter really make a difference!

On the other hand, measurement units for tools and machinery need to be very specific. Wrench, nut and bolt sizes are a common example, and we frequently see this mishandled in amateur translations. When a 5/8” wrench is required, that’s exactly what must be communicated in any language. Specifying only 1.5875 cm (or much worse, rounding it to 1.6 cm) leaves the user not knowing which tool is required… or possibly stripping the nut because of a misleading conversion in the translation!

All of this is relative to the scale, and the significant digits in the original measurement. When providing high-altitude recipes for cookie batter at 3000, 5000 and 7000 feet, it doesn’t make things any “clearer” to the audience if you specify 914.4, 1524 and 2133.6 meters in your French translation. On other hand, when a component is only several centimeters long in the first place, fractions of a millimeter can often be very important.

Out of Order!

Sometimes you will decide to include both English and metric measurements—either to ensure that units used in the original situation or component are retained, or to provide approximations that help your audience get a sense of the sizes, weights or distances involved. In translation, as a general rule the common measurement units of the target language appear first, followed by the original equivalent (within parentheses, for example). Again, the translation team must have sufficient knowledge of the subject matter—and common sense—to know when a word like “approximately” is called for, and the appropriate level of precision for each conversion.

However, there are exceptions to this default order, like the wrench example cited in the previous section, or where the product itself is supplied in English units—spools of cable in lengths of 100, 500 and 1000 feet, for instance. When documents are directed towards non English-speaking populations within the US, it is also common to use English measurements—sometimes followed by their metric equivalents if that will provide additional clarity.

ASIST Translation Services, Inc. can translate from and into virtually any language. Our professional translators and project coordinators will help you with these and similar localization issues. Don’t hesitate to contact us for guidance in any upcoming translation project.

Metric Trivia:

• The famous platinum bar established as the meter standard in 1799 (at an international scientific meeting in Paris) was supposed to represent one ten-millionth of the distance from the North Pole to the equator.
• The measurement was wrong! We now know that this distance is actually 10,002,000 meters, and our standard meter is actually about 0.2 millimeters short of that exact proportion.
• Today’s definition of a meter: the distance traveled by light in a vacuum in one 299,792,458^th of a second. Yeah, that makes it much easier to remember…
• Thomas Jefferson devoted much effort to make the United States the second nation in the world to adopt the metric system. Obviously, he was unsuccessful. However, it should also be noted that France, the birthplace of the metric system, was reverted to the older system of measurements (livre, aune, etc.) by Napoleon in 1812, and didn’t complete full conversion back to the metric system until the end of World War I.
• Only three countries have not officially converted to the metric system: Myanmar (Burma), Liberia… and the United States of America.

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