Don’t get lost: essential glossary for the translation industry

What’s the difference between translation and localization? What’s translation memory and should you invest in it? What’s the level of expertise most suited to your project? The answers to these and other questions in this essential glossary of translation.

Localization

It’s the process of adapting a message from a foreign language to reflect its connotations and meanings in the target culture. It involves adapting the language to convey the idea that the content was originally produced in the target language.

Localization is particularly suited for Marketing materials, website translation, videos and multilingual SEO campaigns. In these situations, technical standards and style references such as grammar, color, currency and even the measurement system can be adapted to local standards.

Translation memory

It’s the computer process which applies previously used human translations stored in files, to deal more efficiently with the repetitive and recurrent processes of translation. The software uses these translation memories (TMs) to identify and suggest translations for identical words and phrases.

This is a widely used and effective technique to translate manuals, contracts, protocols or websites with a high number of recurring phrases. The 100% matching suggestions can be readily accepted by translators, but when there is a partial match, between 50% and 99%, the translator can review the suggestions, approve some elements and edit others.

TMs allow to speed up the human translation process, reduce costs in texts where repetition rates are high and improve the quality and consistency of the final result.

CAT tools

It’s the acronym for Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) and it’s a computer software designed to help human translators to perform their job. Unlike machine translation, the software helps the translator and not the other way around, so quality is always guaranteed.

There are many CAT tools such as SDL Trados Studio, memoQ, Wordfast, OmegaT, among others, that allow translators to work faster and more effectively, saving previously used sentences in a database and suggesting translations for repeated terms and phrases.

Native speaker

Someone who has learned a language as a child and uses it as his/her mother tongue. A native speaker is someone who internalized the language instead of learning it deliberately.

Linguists believe that at a very young age we all have the capacity to internalize any language in the world, that is to say, no one is more inclined to learn one language over another. Children can learn several languages and have more than one mother tongue, if exposed to different languages up to the age of 6.

The debate about whether translations should only be made by native speakers is almost as old as translation itself. Lingfy translators only work on projects in their native language.

However, sometimes the use of a non-native professional is justified, for example, when dealing with certain language combinations and specific expertise. For example, if the Japanese patent translation to English was only assigned to native speakers, only a very small percentage of these translations would be made.

Transcreation

This term is often used by marketers to refer to content translation to another language, keeping the message tone and at the same time adapting it to the local context. To do an outstanding transcreation we need to fully understand the content and purpose of the original text and recreate the essence of that message in a different language, dialect or variant.

In fact, transcreation can even be applied in the same language, due to the cultural differences and nuances of each country. For example, a Brazilian advertising message must necessarily be adapted to the Portuguese market or you risk getting some funny or even embarrassing misunderstandings.

Transcription

It is the act of converting speech into text. When you send us your video or audio file, our translators listen carefully to its contents and write them in a text document. Usually, the translator listens to an audio and converts it into text in his own native language.

However, we can combine transcription with translation into several languages, so you can have your video or audio file transcribed into other languages. Lingfy’s transcription service is charged by blocks of 150 words, the estimate we have for each period of one minute of speech.

Proofreading

The proofreader is responsible for finding and correcting errors in texts before publication to ensure the quality, professionalism and accuracy of the text. When we detect and correct typos, grammar and punctuation errors we assure consistency and the quality of the text so we can build trust with our target audience.

A customer will hardly order a product or service from a website that has spelling mistakes and other kinds of linguitic errors. It’s a question of trustworthiness. However, proofreading might not alwayas be necessary and you might want to check this text, where we clarify when it makes sense to order this kind of service.

Translation speed

Our team of translators works at a minimum speed of 200 translated words per hour. A professional translator can reach up to 400 words per hour, depending on the text difficulty and his familiarity with the subject.

We all know how important speed is in this business, but more important for Lingfy is to meet our deadlines so we don’t promise things we cannot deliver. Thus, our customers are assured that when we say a project takes a certain amount of days than they can be assured we will keep our commitment.

Why hire a Language Service Provider? And why Lingfy?

There are several advantages of hiring a Lingfy translator:

• Our alert system immediately notifies all available translators for the requested language(s) that your project is ready to begin
• We screen and test each translator to hire only motivated, hardworking professionals to our team
• A predetermined deadline will notify you and the translator(s) when the project will be finished
• Client satisfaction is our top priority! For any issues, we assign additional translator(s) to your project or offer a refund for complete dissatisfaction.
• Clients may give feedback for the translator(s) they worked with after each successful project
• We offer highly competitive prices and discounts for large volumes

Quality Levels

Lingfy offers two different quality levels with distinct rates. Standard Translations are recommended for everyday content such as emails, blog and social media posts, general business documents, etc. But don’t worry as the job is still done by a qualified native translator.

For complex documents that demand a deep knowledge of a particular topic, we provide the Expert Translation level where jobs are done by experienced native speakers. Expert Translations are suitable for various speciality areas such as health, law, computer science and engineering or other technical texts.

You can find out more about our different levels of expertise here.

Curious how quality translations could help your organization reach new international customers? Get an instant quote at Lingfy.com or drop us a line at hi@lingfy.com