Author: admin

Where translation and content creation meet

Nowadays, multilingual content marketing is an absolute must for every company that is active in various countries and markets. But is it possible to simply translate content? Here we will show you what you need to pay attention to and how translation and content creation go hand in hand.

Why do you need multilingual content marketing?

Content marketing is multifaceted and also involves many stakeholders: From the first draft of the strategy to the final print file, you need to find the right messages to bring about the desired effect. Still, even the best content won’t automatically be suited for international marketing. Countries and markets vary in terms of:

• Cultural frameworks
• The popularity of content and social media formats
• The makeup and preferences of marketing personas
• Services and products
• Marketing strategies

What role do translations play in multilingual content marketing?

Marketing is all about appealing to emotions. Research has shown that we react  to emotions more strongly in our native language. But where can you find content for each language? Is translation the right strategy for multilingual content marketing? The answer is yes – but only if certain aspects are taken into account for the translation:

• Cultural and linguistic nuances
• Different wording for the same message, with the same effect
• Appealing to emotions and the target group
• Creative elements, such as wordplays, are adequately reflected
• Potentially also incorporating SEO keywords into online content 

Is there an intersection between translation and content creation?

What exactly does this mean? Aren’t translation service providers supposed to keep cultural and linguistic nuances in mind anyway? Shouldn’t creative, catchy slogans be a given?  Of course the points listed above are relevant for all translations, but they play an even more important role here because content marketing depends heavily on emotion and creativity. In the end, it’s not just a matter of providing information but rather of winning people over!

What can you expect from your translation company?

This need to take creativity into account influences the quality of translations and also changes what is required of service providers. For multilingual marketing, it’s not enough that content is simply mirrored without any mistakes. Translating content involves much more – it’s about being able to write creatively, which means that you need to really understand content creation. And this is precisely where translation and content creation meet. You can and should expect the following from your translation company:

• Creative, culturally appropriate, precise texts or recordings
• Background knowledge of and experience with marketing and content creation
• The ability to convey messages, along with the desired effect and emotion, into every language
• When necessary, consulting on formats and content
• Continuous strategic adjustments to texts and formats

Multilingual content marketing can take many forms – whether a flyer, an image brochure, website content, videos, blog posts, catalogues, product presentations or newsletters. Get in touch with us to make sure that you’re making a great impression in every language. We’re happy to advise you.

The transitional period for compliance with the European Union Medical Device Regulation 2017/745 (EU-MDR 2017/745, or simply EU-MDR) was supposed to expire on 26 May 2020. Due to the current situation, the EU Commission decided to postpone the regulation’s application by one year.

By this date, manufacturers of medical devices as well as importers, distributors and suppliers in the European medical technology industry will need to be informed of the many new and amended requirements and have adapted their processes, documentation and qualifications accordingly. What’s important for manufacturers — and for us as a translation service provider — is that the language requirements for documentation and thus also for translations for the EU countries where medical products are placed on the market are more relevant than ever.

The EU-MDR applies to so-called economic operators[1] within the EU as well as to those who import medical devices from elsewhere. Here you can download an overview in which we list the points that may need to be adapted from the obligations stipulated in the German Medical Devices Act and the European Council Directive 93/42/EEC (Medical Devices Directive, MDD). Please note, this overview is not intended to be an exhaustive list, nor is it meant to replace a consultation from certification experts.

Speaking of experts, you can always turn to Peschel Communications for a comprehensive consultation regarding the translation and localisation of your texts. We are happy to translate instructions for use (IFUs), labels and trial documentation, taking into account the new definitions laid out in the EU-MDR 2017/745 and other EU terminology. But that’s not all — we are also passionate about formulating advertising texts that are meant to deliver specific images and emotions and that may have a different effect depending on the language. We would be pleased to provide you with references upon request. We have also achieved the international ISO 17100 standard for translation services and received our ISO 9001 certification at the start of 2021.

As regards translation, the translations of most documents couldn’t previously be prepared until the original documents were given the CE marking of conformity. But that has changed. According to the provisions of the new EU-MDR, labels and instructions for use must be translated before being submitted to the notified bodies as part of the technical documentation. That is to say, translations must now be planned much earlier on in the workflow, significantly tightening time constraints. At the same time, the importance of flawless translations for the target market should not be underestimated. Readability is not only crucial for liability issues, where misunderstandings could lead to improper use of the device, it also plays an important role in the product’s commercial success abroad and can affect the manufacturer’s public image.

The new EU regulation 2017/745 places generally stricter requirements on linguistic clarity in order to ensure product safety. This applies in particular to texts intended for the end user (e.g. instructions for use). Not only source texts but also translations must be written in terms understandable to the intended user. The volume of documents to be translated may also increase, since the new regulation now covers products without an intended medical purpose, such as coloured contact lenses and skin exfoliation devices. Existing technical documentation for such products must also be revised before it can be translated into the required EU languages. As an experienced language service provider, we can offer support both in proofreading your medical device documentation for comprehensibility and translating it into a foreign language.

We are happy to translate any of the following types of documents:

• Technical documentation, including instructions for use (IFUs) and manuals
• Labels, packaging
• Documents related to quality management, such as QM manuals, standard operating procedures (SOPs), process instructions
• Flyers, newsletters, marketing brochures, website texts
• Contracts and other legal documents
• Training materials, software and app contents

Contact us for further information or to receive a non-binding quotation!

[1] See EU-MDR 2017/745, Article 2 Number 35 and Article 22(1) and 22(3)

The WIN-Charta – a German abbreviation for “economic sustainability initiative charter” – is a charter which has been developed as part of the state of Baden-Württemberg’s sustainability strategy for businesses who wish to publicly pledge to act accordingly. Commitment, personal initiative and outward communication form the foundation of the charter. By signing the WIN-Charta, Peschel Communications has committed itself to upholding the twelve guiding principles and continuing to make the company more sustainable. In 2021, we have decided to concentrate our efforts on the following guiding principles of the WIN-Charta:

• Guiding principle 2: Employee well-being – “We respect, protect and promote the well-being and the interests of our employees.”
• Guiding principle 4: Resources – “We work to improve resource efficiency, increase resource productivity and reduce the utilisation of natural resources.”

Employee well-being

These key areas are particularly important to us because Peschel Communications is a small company which relies on close collaboration and a flat organization. Since our workflows require good teamwork, we place great value on honest communication, transparency and empathy.

The well-being of our employees has always played a central role in our company. For instance, we promote continued professional development through internal training sessions on topics such as mindfulness and nonviolent communication, and we offer preventive healthcare opportunities at the workplace. Our routine meetings foster regular communication within the team, from our daily morning conferences to annual or biannual employee development evaluations to the weekly check-ins between individual employees and the general management. Peschel Communications also offers the opportunity to adjust working hours to personal needs. This allows us to ensure a healthy work-life balance. Last but not least, we take part in joint activities to nurture team spirit, including the annual company barbecue.

Steps we are taking toward improvement

• Annual anonymous survey on employees’ well-being
• Training sessions/consultations regarding health (e.g. nutrition, exercise, ergonomics at the workstation)

Resources

We think that we have an exemplary role to play when it comes to resource management, and we seek to shoulder our responsibility to continuously reduce our already comparatively low consumption of raw materials. This means using energy responsibly, travelling sustainably wherever possible and using recycled materials for our printing and advertising needs.

And we are already well on our way. We use 100% recycled printer paper and have sourced our electricity for many years from the Elektrizitätswerke Schönau, a utility that supplies electricity from 100% renewable sources. Instead of purchasing bottles of water, we carbonate our own tap water to eliminate the transport and cleaning of reusable bottles. We make sure that the consumer goods we purchase are locally sourced: Our coffee is always organic and fair trade, our herbal teas come from a local supplier and we buy our fruit from a farmers’ market. Even our consumables (cleaning materials) are environmentally friendly. Additionally, we make sure to only purchase electronic devices such as computers that are of the highest quality to ensure a long service life.

Steps we are taking toward improvement

• Use of public transportation or an electric vehicle for necessary business trips
• Reservations at hotels with the highest environmental standards
• Use of primarily recycled materials for advertising purposes
• Purchase decisions with a focus on sustainability

You can find comprehensive information on the WIN-Charta and other WIN-Charta signatories at www.win-bw.com (in German).

Have you ever wondered about the precise difference between consecutive and simultaneous interpreting? Or even what the proper term is? Is it simultaneous translation or synchronous interpreting? We frequently encounter all sorts of imaginative descriptions of our job, such as:

• real-time interpretation, real-time translation
• live translation, live interpretation
• liaison interpreting, negotiations interpreting, conversation interpreting
• oral translation, spoken translation, spoken language translation, speech-to-speech translation
• booth interpreting
• parallel interpreting, parallel translation
• concurrent interpreting, concurrent translation
• simultaneous translation
• extemporaneous translation
• synchronous interpreting, synchronous translation

While the multitude of terms can be cause for confusion, it’s actually quite simple: When professionals speak of translation, they are referring only to written language. In contrast, the verbal rendering of one language into another is properly called interpreting. And when the interpreter and the presenter speak at the same time, this is known as simultaneous interpreting.

What is simultaneous interpreting?

Simultaneous interpreting involves (nearly) synchronously verbally rendering one spoken language into another while the presenter is speaking. And how is it that the interpreter can speak at the same time as the presenter? Can interpreters read minds? No. Strictly speaking, interpretation occurs with a slight delay, known as décalage (French for delay), and interpreters are simply very well-practised at recognising sentence structures and predicting how a sentence will end.

But why is this called simultaneous rather than synchronous interpreting? Isn’t it the same thing? Not quite. Calling the practice simultaneous actually doesn’t refer to the temporal aspect of interpreting, but rather to the fact that interpreters perform multiple tasks at once: listening, understanding, translating and speaking. If you can remember back in your school days how difficult it was to listen and comprehend what your teacher was saying, while also holding a conversation with a classmate, you might have an inkling of what it’s like. But unlike pupils, simultaneous interpreters can’t afford to lose focus for even a fraction of a second. Intense concentration is needed, which is why simultaneous interpreters always work in teams and switch off every 20 to 30 minutes.

Simultaneous interpreters are in high demand for longer events that are held in more than two languages. They work in teams of two or three in soundproof booths, which allows them to hear the speaker without any distracting background noise. The interpretation is then spoken into a microphone and broadcast live to the listeners’ headphones.

If interpreting booths aren’t available – be it on account of a lack of space or because the interpreting is taking place at an outdoor event or a function such as a factory tour or company visit, where participants are often on the move – tour guide systems can be used.

The difference between simultaneous and consecutive interpreting

While the interpreter and speaker speak at nearly the same time in simultaneous interpreting, consecutive interpreting involves a time delay. In other words, the interpreter waits until the speaker reaches a logical stopping point before beginning the interpretation. This means that the speaker and interpreter take turns speaking. To ensure that nothing is lost during longer segments, interpreters rely on a special note-taking technique.

Consecutive interpreting is suitable for shorter events of up to 1½ hours, such as press conferences or short presentations. In contrast to simultaneous interpreting, technical equipment is not typically needed. But new technologies are also making it possible to provide consecutive interpreting services remotely. Remote interpreting utilises software such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams to provide consecutive interpretation of telephone conferences and video calls. Interpreting studios known as hubs even allow for simultaneous interpreting to be streamed over the internet.

For conversations, liaison interpreting is another option. In contrast to consecutive interpreting, liaison interpreting involves interpreting sentence-by-sentence into and out of each language (i.e. from French to English and then from English to French) and is also offered by language service providers who are not necessarily trained conference interpreters.

Whether consecutive or simultaneous – Peschel Communications would be happy to consult with you personally to determine which mode of interpreting is right for your location and event. We also welcome your questions on organising multilingual teams, arranging for interpreting equipment and identifying possible language combinations.

People often ask us what it’s like working in Germany as a foreigner.  We’ve both been part of the Peschel Communications team for some time now. Mari is British and completed her Bachelor’s in Durham with an Erasmus semester in Freiburg. After graduating and working near London for a year, she moved back to Germany’s sunniest city in 2016 for an internship at Peschel Communications that happily turned into a permanent position as an in-house translator. Eliot’s journey from the US to Freiburg was similar. After completing his Bachelor’s in Boston, with an exchange semester in Dresden, he knew that he wanted to live in Germany long-term. He returned to Dresden to teach English as a foreign language before moving to Germersheim to complete a Master’s in translation, then Freiburg in 2018 for an internship at Peschel Communications which also led to a job upon completion. We both translate a wide variety of texts into English, in the fields of marketing, technology and law among others. We spend our working day engaging with the differences and common ground between various languages and even the varieties of our own — so it’s a natural step for us to take a closer look at how everyday habits and conventions differ between our home countries and Germany, too.

One of the first differences we noticed between a German office and one in the UK or the US is the level of formality. Since German has both the formal Sie and the informal du, meeting new people sometimes involves a tricky decision. In English, it’s straightforward — everyone is “you”. And the workplace atmosphere back home feels more relaxed in general. It’s common for colleagues to address each other by their first names, and emails tend to begin with “Dear Peter or “Good morning” rather than “Dear Mr Miller”, for example. Some people might well prefer the formal approach as a way of signalling a respectful distance when talking to their managers or customers, but for others, especially if they’re just entering the world of work or working in a foreign language, it can seem more alienating than anything else.

We count ourselves lucky that we can address everyone in our office here with the informal du,since it makes things simpler and it comes more naturally to us. But on the flipside, a more informal office culture makes addressing customers with the formal Sie feel a bit stilted and untrue to our character. This is a perfect example of how integrating into a foreign culture is about much more than just learning grammar and vocabulary.

As language service providers, we tend to use different languages in the office on a regular basis anyway. We generally speak German with the rest of the team but usually switch to English one-on-one, and if we come across a good English joke, we know that everyone else will understand it and be able to share the laugh. We’ve often had people tell us with a chuckle that our English personality is different to our German one. It’s not that we can’t express ourselves in German, of course, but even in more informal situations, the repertoire of expressions we tend to use differs between the different languages that we speak and the cultural circles we find ourselves in.

Work-life balance

While we each have our own opinions about working conditions in Germany, we agree that they’re generally better than those of our home countries. The difference from the US is particularly stark. In Germany, many people have three times as much annual leave as in the US — and even if you’re just starting out, you’re guaranteed a comparatively generous amount of leave by law. What’s more, it’s generally accepted here that if you’re ill, you shouldn’t be coming in to work. In the US, employees have a fixed amount of annual sick leave, and you have to use it wisely. If you run out too early in the year, you might find yourself out of a job the next time you’re too ill to work. So we certainly appreciate being able to take it for granted that we can stay at home and recover without going into debt. It just seems a lot more humane to have laws in place that protect this basic need for free time and recovery.

In the UK, the situation is a little different. Most people have around 20 to 25 days of annual leave, so not quite as many as in Germany, but the working week is not so long — on average 37.5 hours a week instead of 40. There’s also a more relaxed approach to sick leave in the UK. Generally, you don’t need a doctor’s note unless you’re going to be off work for a week or longer. But the flipside of this is that, without a doctor’s confirmation or any fixed rule about when you can call in sick, you feel under pressure to justify every day off and you’re reluctant to stay home unless you absolutely have to,which means dragging yourself coughing or sneezing back to the office as soon as the worst of the illness is over. The number of paid sick days you can take per year depends on your employment contract. Once you’ve used up all of these days, you either have to get a doctor’s note or you can expect to have the time away from work deducted from your pay cheque.

Something we’ve both noticed about the German work culture that we’re less impressed with is that people often take a little longer to answer emails or get around to minor tasks. Maybe this goes back to the same attitude that it’s important to take your time and not work yourself into the ground. It’s certainly a good idea not to let yourself get distracted by every email,but we both feel that when you’re trying to collaborate with someone, you should at least be able to count on getting a reply within the same day.

Food

Before we get too serious, there’s one more difference between our home countries and Germany worth mentioning — the culture surrounding food in the workplace. In many companies in the US and UK, it’s considered the norm to bring your own lunch or buy a quick bite somewhere nearby — usually just a sandwich or a salad. But Germans insist on a hot meal at lunchtime! Some large companies even have their own canteen. Personally we both find this approach very interesting, as we’re the kind of people who plan our whole lives around food and what we’re going to eat for our next meal. But we see a hot lunch as more of an added bonus than a must-have. In the US and the UK, cold food and the nine-to-five go hand-in-hand, and it’s perfectly fine. It’s in the evening that we absolutely insist on a proper meal. For us, that’s the only way to properly finish the day!

Some things are just the same here in Germany as in our home countries. We have the same conversations in passing in the kitchen, about how we spent the weekend or what the chances are of someone bringing in some snacks to share with the team (a homemade cake is a must on your birthday). Once you’ve found your bearings a little, this foreign country doesn’t seem so foreign after all.

In November we organised a team of interpreters for a major event held by VEGA Grieshaber KG at Europa-Park. With eight target languages and around 700 participants, it was certainly a memorable job. Interpreting into so many languages was a first – not just for the client, but also for us. While both sides were immediately excited by the project, the prospect of putting together a team of 16 interpreters and coordinating the necessary technology, including booths, was also a bit intimidating.

Luckily for us, our client not only started planning very early, but also approached the process with a great deal of care and professionalism. This was true both for general event planning and for aspects specific to interpreting. Although this was the first time that VEGA had offered interpreting for an event of this kind, our contacts at the company had a keen sense of what might be important for our interpreting team right from the start. The client even invited us to their headquarters more than half a year in advance of the event so that we could talk about our respective needs and desires.

Interpreting equipment is also key

Our long-standing partner for conference and interpreting technology, PCS Professional Conference Systems GmbH, was by our side throughout the entire process and also sent one of their employees to the preliminary meeting with the client. This allowed us to address many questions in person and at a very early stage in the planning process.

The client’s terminology is always a crucial consideration. Here, too, the preparation was ideal. Both the VEGA website and the product brochures were available in multiple languages and – the icing on the cake – there was even a terminology list with definitions. This gave the interpreters an excellent opportunity to familiarise themselves with the very specific and technical topic in advance.

A good rehearsal is half the battle

Around half of the interpreting team was present for the general rehearsal in the EP Arena – a clear indication that the client spared neither cost nor effort to ensure a smooth and successful event. All of the conference interpreters as well as Ellen Göppl, who served as the on-site coordinator, were put up at the same two hotels as the conference participants, which allowed them to discuss important updates and specific challenges at dinner on the evening before the event.

The event itself was a huge success. The interpreters were impressed with the professionalism of the organisation, the moderation and the varied presentations on both days. And despite the number of people involved, the atmosphere was intimate and at times emotional. Even the next generation of the “VEGA family” was present and Managing Director Isabel Grieshaber couldn’t resist the opportunity to bring her baby up on stage with her – a clear indication that at VEGA, balancing family and career is more than just a slogan. Afterwards, everyone agreed that the results were well worth the effort. Despite the challenges, the event was very rewarding and a lot of fun for all involved!

The most important points for the client:

VEGA had previously held similar events exclusively in English, but ultimately realised that not all of their sales representatives were able to follow the presentations, and some didn’t even travel to the event because of their limited English. This year, VEGA wanted to address its representatives in their own languages – with the result that far more guests from around the world registered than in previous years.

The team of interpreters helped present product innovations in an understandable manner to all the participants. But just as importantly, offering this service was a sign of respect that is very much in keeping with the company’s philosophy that they are all “one family”. The fact that emotions are more immediate when they are conveyed to the audience in their native languages offered yet another advantage.

Our biggest challenges:

Of course, we approach every interpreting job with a checklist. But an event of this size with eight target languages brings additional challenges and considerations: Is there enough room to fit eight booths – ideally next to one another – in the hall? How many tables are needed to set out headphones and receivers for 700 participants each morning? Are suitable conference interpreters available in the region or will some interpreters need to travel from abroad?

While we certainly try to keep travel costs low when planning, we also believe that many years of professional experience are particularly important – especially for such a technical topic – and we only work with simultaneous interpreters whom we already know or who have been recommended to us.

In this case, the language of the conference was English rather than German, with interpretation provided not only into several Western European languages, but also into Russian, Chinese and Thai. Thanks to our comprehensive network of conference interpreters, only four of our colleagues had relatively long journeys to Europa-Park, including the two Thai interpreters, who travelled from the UK.

Given the size of the interpreting team, it quickly became clear that rather than having one of its members fulfil the typical dual role of conference interpreter and organiser (chef de cabine), Ellen Göppl would be present at the event as the project manager in order to provide optimal support to both the interpreting team and the client.

From ordering water for the interpreters to helping to coordinate the distribution of the receivers to passing on the latest versions of the presentations, Ellen Göppl ensured that everything was in place for the team throughout the event. She was pleased to hear positive feedback from the interpreters and from our contacts at VEGA, for whom one thing is sure: “The next time we need interpreters, we definitely want to work with Peschel Communications again!”

Anyone who’s ever had anything translated knows that it can be confusing to understand the price breakdown. That’s why it’s particularly important to understand which services are covered in the price. Prices per line or per word often include a range of services, such as translation by native speakers, project management, answering follow-up questions, revision by a second translator, proofreading, adaptation of a text to specific cultural aspects, technical review, etc. To be able to properly do a price comparison, you should know to ask what services your translation company offers. And before submitting your enquiry, it’s helpful to consider what you expect from your translation service provider. Any good agency will be happy to offer you advice!

1. Don’t just do it yourself

Surely you can just translate your document on your own since you had English in school, right? Or maybe your colleague who spent five months in London last year can take care of it? Preparing a translation within your own company carries with it the risk that, should it turn out to be sub-optimal, the whole project will become more expensive in the end than if a trained translator had been commissioned at the start. Firstly, translation professionals are exponentially quicker in their work than anyone who only has the opportunity to try their hand at it now and then. Bear in mind how much time you would need to complete a translation yourself and what this would cost your company — especially since you wouldn’t be able to take care of your normal tasks during that time. What’s more, professional translators have sound linguistic, technical and cultural knowledge to aid them in making sure that no embarrassing mistakes fall through the cracks which could end up ruining your reputation.

2. You get what you pay for — and vice versa

All too frequently, translations are only published in part or not at all. When time is scarce, translations get ordered before actually clearing up which texts or which parts of a text are actually needed. You can save time and money by carefully considering what you actually need — if sections of text are not needed in another language, there’s no need to have them translated, because in the end, you pay for what you order.

3. A picture is worth a thousand words

To make a text shorter and thus cut costs, a simple image, symbol, diagram or infographic may be the right solution. They are often easier to understand and convey more information than convoluted descriptions.

4. Wait until your text is finalised

Changing the source text you’ve already submitted means added work for your translation service provider and therefore higher costs for you. Even if you only change one sentence, the project managers have to let everyone involved with the project know — that’s at least one translator and one revisor per language! This means that the translators have to interrupt their workflow to adapt the context accordingly. And if the text is being translated into several languages, the time needed is multiplied. If the translation is so urgent that the process must be started before the text is finalised, time-consuming misunderstandings can be avoided by at least marking the various versions in a clear manner, for instance by dating them.

5. Plan ahead

If possible, plan your translations so that they don’t become too urgent. Ordering a translation over the weekend, overnight or on holidays can cost a pretty penny — translators sometimes charge up to twice as much as their normal rate. On the other hand, some translators may offer a price reduction for more involved projects. A single translator can translate an average of 1,500 words per day, but translation agencies are often in a position to arrange for multiple translators to work on a single text, enabling a speedier process from the same mould, as it were.

6. Ask about bulk pricing

Some translation service providers are willing to offer a discounted price for longer texts since larger projects frequently involve proportionally less administrative work and the translators require less time to research the subject matter at hand in relation to actual translation time.

7. Find the right format

For translation service providers, PDF, PowerPoint and JPEG file formats are more cumbersome than Word files because the layout needs to be recreated before and/or after the translation process. You can keep costs down by submitting text files (e.g. .docx or .rtf).

8. Submit relevant background information to supplement the text

Provide your translator with as much information as possible. Where is the translation going to be published? Who is the audience? What do you wish to achieve with it? Do you have any resources on the text’s topic? The better the translators understand the material, the quicker and more accurately they can find the right words.

9. Build a relationship with your translation agency

If you work with a single translation company long-term, the translators have a better chance of becoming more and more familiar with your company’s philosophy, products or services. Technical resources such as computer-assisted translation tools (CAT tools) ensure that you won’t pay double for content that you may have already had translated. By briefing the translators and project managers on your products and regularly providing them with feedback on their translations, over time you will see a noticeable decrease in the time you have to spend adapting their work to your company’s values and terminology.

English dominates the world. It’s the language of diplomacy (or lack thereof), business and Hollywood. 378 million people world-wide speak English as their mother tongue[1] and, according to the British Council, 1.75 billion people speak English at a useful level (whatever that may mean). So why should anyone bother having their website translated into anything other than English?

1. Immediate growth

A multilingual website is a quick and easy way of massively increasing your potential client base. In a Eurobarometer report in 2012, only 39%[2] of French people said they felt able to hold a conversation in English, in Spain the figure was 22%[3]. The remaining 61% and 78% of French and Spanish people are hardly likely to use an English language website at all. By offering a version in their native language you immediately open the doors to millions of new potential clients. Even those who know English to a high level will always be more comfortable navigating a website in their native tongue, and by putting them at their ease linguistically you show them that you care about their business.

2. Vast markets

The internet was an invention that came out of the English speaking world; Tim Berners-Lee made the World Wide Web open to the public in 1993 and initially English-speakers had the best access. As the number of websites exploded like a supernova, English-language content was at the forefront. Today, the percentage of English language sites is at about 53%[4]. The remaining 47% of Web space is divided up between all the other world languages. This leaves huge scope for increasing traffic from non-English speakers, especially as Internet access becomes ever more common on a global scale.

3. Culture vulture

Going multi-lingual shows you’re willing to go that extra mile for your clients’ comfort. Additionally, you may find that engaging a translating firm to manage the process means you not only translate your website, you localize it. Localization is the process of adapting a product both linguistically and culturally for a new country or region. This may sound superfluous, but there are subtle differences in the ways different countries handle things like structure, text or even colour.

4. Navigating linguistic minefields

So why not just follow the Internet’s lead, let customers use the Google ‘translate’ function and have done with it? Firstly, entrusting your website to Google translate is like putting a chimpanzee in charge of a fireworks factory: ill-advised and likely to blow up in spectacular fashion. Here’s an example from our own website: „Im Laufe der Jahre haben wir uns ein umfangreiches Hintergrundwissen angeeignet – von A wie Aktiengesetz bis Z wie zivilrechtliche Streitigkeiten.“ And here’s what Google translate makes of it: „Over the years, we have acquired a wealth of background knowledge – from A to Akt, to Z to civil litigation.” Not exactly confidence-inspiring.

Some countries have regulations governing commercial translations. In Quebec, Canada, for example, the French Language Charter[5] requires websites to be available in English and French. Non-compliance means that a website can simply be taken off the net. Using a translation company ensures a high quality translation from people who know their way around the language, the culture and the regulations that might govern it.

5. International Search Engine Optimisation

Your translation service provider can help you optimise your website for international markets. In addition to translate the contents of your site, aspects such as URLs, local links and key words also need to be considered. To make your website a local success globally, it is definitely worth involving experts.

Translation adds value

In summary, having a multi-lingual website is a simple way of promoting a business. Making the effort to bridge the language gap is easy and pays off. It shows that you respect and care about your customers and also makes your website easier to find.

[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/266808/the-most-spoken-languages-worldwide/

[2] http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_386_fact_fr_en.pdf

[3] http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_386_fact_es_en.pdf

[4] https://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/content_language/all

[5] https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/retailers-forced-to-block-english-only-websites-in-quebec-or-face-sanctions-from-language-police

This may sound familiar: You need a translation, and since you don’t want to cut any corners, you opt for what appears to be a professional translation service provider. But the final product isn’t at all what you had in mind. The vocabulary doesn’t match what’s usually used in your company, the text sounds wooden and the individual words seem to have been strung together without any consideration for style.

How could this happen? To avoid another disappointment and make your next translation project a success, there are a few things you should consider.

Define your expectations

First of all, you should have a clear idea of what you want from a translation. Is it purely for the purpose of understanding (“I just want to know what it says”), meaning it should follow the source text as closely as possible? Or is it going to be published? And if so, where? Can the style in a brochure be a little more creative, or is plain, matter-of-fact language more appropriate – for example in a scientific journal? Are there specific words that should be used, or avoided?

In our work for the European Commission, for example, some texts come with the requirement to avoid foreign words wherever possible, to ensure that the translation is accessible to all citizens. So instead of the relatively common German phrase “Import”, it’s better to use the Germanic synonym “Einfuhr”. And Anglicisms are largely taboo, no matter how popular they may be elsewhere.

For marketing translations especially, having a precise idea of the target group and taking into account particular cultural characteristics is the key to a successful rendition into another language. When translating from American English into German, for example, it’s often a good idea to tone down the typically American exuberance of the original text.

If you clarify in advance what you need the translation for and who the intended readers are, you’ll save yourself time and trouble – and cash.

Which service provider is right for you?

Choosing the right service provider is not as simple as it may seem. To start with, you should be aware that around 70% of translators are independent freelancers, while at the other end of the spectrum there are huge translation service providers covering all the languages and specialist subjects imaginable.

The choice between an independent translator, a large agency or a smaller translation company should be based on your priorities. Do you place greater value on personal contact with “your” translator, or on 24/7 availability and rapid turnaround times for large, multilingual projects? Perhaps you need to have press releases translated overnight? Or you work in an industry where accuracy is particularly crucial, such as pharmaceuticals? If this is the case, established quality assurance processes and stringent confidentiality protection will be a priority.

In very technical fields, you may want to collaborate with translators who specialise in the relevant subject matter. A translator with a background in business is the perfect person to translate your annual report. On the other hand, you may work for a multinational company with a permanent presence on the international stage. In this case it makes sense to find a one-stop service provider for all the language combinations you might need, plus additional services such as proofreading or interpreting.

A valuable tip:

When comparing prices from different providers, make sure that the services being offered are also comparable. For example, is revision (by a second translator and/or subject matter expert) included? Does the provider work with qualified translators?  Do they guarantee consistent use of your company’s terminology?

Cutting corners is never a good idea, especially if you want to publish the text. Settling for a cheap translation can easily turn out to be a false economy if your colleagues abroad have to painstakingly correct the text before they can use it. And if a translated brochure contains typos that are only spotted after printing, it can end up costing more than it would have done to buy a package of services including translation, revision and proofreading in the final format.

Qualification is key

“Translator” is not a legally protected job title, so there’s no guarantee that everyone who calls themselves a translator has had the appropriate education or training. Recognised qualifications include an MA or MSc in translation or translation studies, as well as other less well-known ones such as the Diploma in Translation (DipTrans) or the German “Certified Translator” (staatlich geprüfter Übersetzer). Membership of a professional association is also an indication, as these associations only admit translators with the relevant qualifications.

Even if your company has multilingual employees, being multilingual does not automatically qualify someone to be a translator. After all, you wouldn’t let someone write your German marketing texts purely on the basis that they were a native German speaker either. During their training, qualified translators will have learnt how to apply a range of linguistic registers, how to mediate between different cultures and how to approach specialist texts. And experienced translators can work much faster and more efficiently – leaving your multilingual employees free to concentrate on their key tasks.

To be certain you’re choosing the right translation service provider, you can also ask them for references. For a larger project, or if you’re looking to establish a long-term working relationship, it can be a worthwhile investment to begin by commissioning a short test translation.

How you can help to optimise the end result

Misunderstandings occurring during the translation process are often caused by ambiguous formulations or inconsistent use of subject-specific terminology. For example, a German telephone service provider used to send its customers a “user name” and a “personal security code”. But the user interface then asked them to input their “access number” and “password”. Unsurprisingly, this led to a flood of customer service inquiries – resulting in significant costs.

Problems like this can be avoided by closely checking the source text and providing style guides and glossaries which set out the specialist terminology used. This stage of the project can also be supported by a translation service provider.

Brief your translation service provider on your target audience and the intended purpose of your text. Will the medical brochure be used for patient information, or is it aimed at doctors? Does the contract you’re having translated make reference to other contracts? If so, send these to your service provider too as reference material.

If your company already has glossaries, style guides or other relevant documentation, make these available to your translation service provider – and specify whether they must be followed to the letter or are just for guidance. This way, the translator can use your preferred terminology from the very beginning and ensure their text is adapted to your company’s style.

Depending on the type and quantity of the translation work, an in-person briefing can be very useful. For example, technical demonstrations or a tour of your factory could provide your translators with valuable insights which will help them to accurately convey the content of technical texts.

Wherever possible, send your translation service provider editable documents rather than PDF files. This avoids the need to laboriously reproduce the layout, saving you money as well as time. Most translation companies are perfectly able to work with all kinds of file formats, from Office applications to InDesign or HTML.

Making time

Like any creative work, translations turn out best when they’re not rushed. So make sure your project planning includes plenty of time for translation. As a rule of thumb, you should allow one hour for every standard page to be translated (consisting of 30 lines with 55 characters per line). Translation companies can divide up longer texts between several translators and still guarantee consistency.

Speaking of consistency: Only send completely finished texts for translation. Once the translation is underway, changing the source text involves the risk that something will be overlooked, and creates significant additional work. Making a single change to a text that’s being translated into five languages sets off a time-critical chain reaction. After you have let the project manager know about the change, she then has to pass this on to the five translators. Each of these has to send back confirmation and deal with the changes, interrupting the flow of their work. If changes are unavoidable, you can save some time by clearly marking the points in the text where you’ve made changes.

It’s not unusual for a good translator to have a few queries about the text they’re working on. This may be due to ambiguous phrasing (no one reads a source text as closely as a translator!), or a technical aspect which needs a little more context. The easiest solution is to put your translation service provider in touch with a named person at your company who can answer these questions directly.

If you have a translation revised by an in-house employee, for example from an overseas branch of your company, it’s best to give them clear instructions and ask them only to make changes that fall within their area of expertise or responsibility, such as preferred product names. In some cases it can be worth putting this employee in contact with the translation service provider so that they can clarify any final questions.

Providing feedback on the finished translation will help your translator to ensure you are even more satisfied with the next piece of work they send you. Be sure to inform them of any adaptations you make to the translation once it’s been delivered, so that you don’t have to make the same changes again for the next project.

Summary

Translation is anything but a one-size-fits-all service. For the perfect result – a translation that meets all of your expectations – it’s crucial to ensure effective communication between the translation service provider and whoever is commissioning the translation.

2018 marked an important anniversary for us, and that is why this year, I want to look back on the last 20 years at Peschel Communications.

Thinking about the early days, the first thing that springs to mind is the people. I was still sharing offices with a small publishing house when I took the decision to hire my first employee back in 2000. This is a decision I have never regretted, because without Ellen Göppl it would have been impossible to build the company up to what it is today, continually adapting to new developments. Three years later, Andrea Unkelbach came on board — another stroke of luck for us. Even during her first months with us as an intern, Andrea displayed an exceptional knack for organising and a true “can-do” attitude.

It was after this that we truly picked up speed, something which would have been inconceivable without the many excellent translators who worked with us, each and every one of them making their own personal contribution.

Back then, our customer data were stored in a Microsoft Works spreadsheet and we translated using enormous dictionaries for reference. We were the proud owners of a fax machine with thermal paper — after all, many translations were delivered via fax (or saved on floppy disks and sent by post). Only some of our customers had email, so I bought a five-pack of floppy disk envelopes. Technology developed faster than expected, though, and I only ever used one of these envelopes. Seemingly overnight, everyone had an email address and a website (us included!).

The next important technical innovation was the advent of computer-assisted translation (CAT) software, also referred to as translation memory software. Back in the day, you needed a dongle to make it work. In all honesty, we were reluctant to adopt the new technology, a technology that we now can’t imagine doing without! Our Excel glossaries have long since been imported into the CAT tool’s integrated terminology database, and translation memories (databases that store our translations) are an intrinsic part of our day-to-day work — as is the possibility for several translators to collaborate on a project, which makes things so much more efficient.

Eventually, our offices on Friedrichring became too small, so in 2004 we moved to Wallstrasse, at the other end of Freiburg’s old town, where we still are today. These offices may now also be getting a bit small, but we’re reluctant to leave our wonderful high-ceilinged building, which dates back to the turn of the 19th century.

Our records also found a new home when we introduced a software program which not only helps us manage client and project data, but accommodates our entire workflow — from a new enquiry to the final invoice — as well as supplier data.

In the early years there wasn’t much division of labour, but as the company grew, a clearer structure became indispensable. Andrea took over the project management completely while Ellen and I translated, and all other tasks, from marketing to buying printing paper, were distributed according to who had the time and the inclination. Again, this setup had to adapt to the ever-growing number of staff. We now work with two project managers, both qualified translators, who use their translation know-how to coordinate projects and advise our clients. This allows our translators (four German and three English native speakers) to fully concentrate on their linguistic work. They all translate themselves and revise colleagues’ translations, depending on the project, because each translation delivered by Peschel Communications is revised by a second member of staff. In addition to our existing project managers and translators, we have created a role for managing private customer projects and providing general assistance to the team, and have also employed a marketing manager. And let’s not forget a steady flow of wonderful interns and our fantastic freelancers!

The size of our company today means that it’s no longer possible for every team member to be able to perform every task. We have responded by creating a clearer organisational structure — a process which is still ongoing. At the same time, we’ve managed to preserve the spirit of a small team, for instance by holding a brief team meeting every morning. This is a chance to discuss general issues as well as the day’s business.

Which brings me back to the people. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to work with so many different people. Our anniversary party at the end of September gave me the opportunity to celebrate with my current team as well as many former team members — some of whom had travelled a long way to be there! I can certainly say that we have achieved a lot in the past 20 years. I can’t wait to see what the future has in store!

Riding a bicycle across the United States with a group of 35 people to raise funds for the American Lung Association gives you a lot of time to think. Where have you been? Where are you going? What are your aspirations? During the seven weeks it took to pedal 3,250 miles from Seattle, Washington to Washington, D.C. in the summer of 2005, I decided to take my career in a new direction. A fellow cross-country cyclist, who had founded a German-English translation company in Seattle, became my mentor. Years later, after earning a Bachelor’s degree in German, I resigned from my position as a data integration programmer to focus on the new career. With my husband’s encouragement, I made plans to spend several months in Freiburg. I applied for an internship at Peschel Communications, but none were available in the right time frame. Then Fate smiled on me. On the morning of my departure from Seattle, I received an E-mail asking if I was still interested in an internship, as the winter intern had cancelled. Absolutely!

“Programmers do something very much like translating”

Perhaps this comes as a surprise that translators and programmers actually have a few things in common. Programmers do something very much like translating: they think and work in two (or more) languages. Programming languages, however, generally aren’t spoken. A programmer is not likely to get tongue‑tied as can sometimes happen when a bilingual person is searching for the perfect word in conversation but only words in the “other” language pop into mind. Life in the office is also similar. Software development teams following Agile methodologies conduct a short check-in meeting every morning to discuss highlights and upcoming deliverables. The team at Peschel meets each morning to share customer feedback, review the list of deliverables coming due and make accommodations for any last‑minute urgent projects. Peschel Communications has high quality standards: every translation gets peer‑reviewed before final delivery to the client. In computer programming, the developer should always deliver the code to someone else for testing and quality assurance. In both fields, feedback from colleagues and customers is essential to continuous improvement.

“Guidance from a professional translator outweighs anything learned in the classroom”

This feedback is what I most appreciate about my internship. I have had the opportunity to translate dozens of documents of varying length, complexity and subject matter. Each of these projects was carefully reviewed by a more experienced colleague. Guidance from a professional translator who gives real-time feedback on real-life translations far outweighs anything learned in the classroom or through independent study. Interns at Peschel Communications also gain valuable hands-on practice with a CAT tool. The CAT tool also provides an efficient medium for feedback with its comment and change-tracking features. This is most useful when the intern takes time to look at the document revisions independently before discussing them with the mentor, leading to an even more productive learning opportunity.

The importance of lifelong learning

Being an intern has reinforced the importance of life-long learning. Collaborating with the team, learning from each of its smart and qualified professional translators and observing their dedication to high quality translations has been a great experience. Although I still have few miles ahead of me, I feel am on the right path to the career transition that began with a daydream while pedalling uphill somewhere in the state of Montana 12 years ago.

This year I am celebrating twenty years as a conference interpreter. When I look back on my career so far, one trend in particular stands out: More and more international conferences and meetings are being held in English, without interpreters – even when only a minority (or none!) of the speakers and attendees are English native speakers.

The decision to use English as a lingua franca is mostly driven by the desire to save costs. But does it pay off? After all, there are a number of factors to be taken into account.

1. Limited linguistic repertoire

While native speakers are able to draw on the full repertoire of their native language, non-native speakers are usually linguistically limited. Many Germans have a good command of English – 62.35% of them, according to the EF English Proficiency Index – but their ability is usually a long way off that of a native speaker. An educated native English speaker has an active vocabulary of 10,000 words; German pupils taking their school leaving exams are expected to know around 3,000 English words. And while Germany nonetheless comes in ninth in the EF English Proficiency Index, France is ranked 32nd. This means that for a diverse international audience in particular, we have to assume a relatively low level of ability – what we might call “bad simple English”.

2. Language as a measure of competence

The level of someone’s linguistic expression is often equated with that person’s general competence. I have seen speakers who are celebrated in their field utterly embarrass themselves because they found themselves lost for words and started to stammer.

3. What goes unsaid is just as important

Less noticeable are situations – especially when answering questions – where speakers don’t share everything they know, simply because they lack the linguistic tools to do so.

4. Joke-free zone

Everything that adds colour to a talk and makes it more entertaining, such as wordplay and a varied range of expressions, is significantly reduced in a foreign language. The talk comes across as dry. And anyone who finds public speaking nerve-racking enough as it is, will hardly be reassured by the prospect of doing it in a foreign language.

5. Added challenge for the audience

Even for an audience with a relatively good command of English as a foreign language, listening to talks in English will be more of a challenge. Someone who learnt English as a foreign language in the US will likely have problems understanding a Scottish speaker – and that’s without taking into account the broad spectrum of non-native accents such as Greek, Italian or Danish, which will be encountered in any international group of speakers.

In addition to tricky accents, grammatical mistakes typical to native speakers of a particular language are often confusing for speakers of other languages, making it harder still for them to understand.

6. Mind the gap

Thus, when a non-native speaker uses English to address an audience made up of other non-native speakers, the level of mutual understanding can be extremely low.

7. Who understands “real” English?

An entirely different problem arises when a native speaker of English addresses an audience drawn from non-English-speaking countries. The diverse range of accents in English – spanning from India to the American South – paired with complex sentence structures, a vast vocabulary (English has twice as many words as German!) and usually rapid speech creates an enormous barrier to understanding. I have seen more than a few German audiences who are perfectly able to follow along when German speakers address them in English, but reach for their headsets to let the interpreters take over as soon as a British speaker opens their mouth.

8. Afraid to ask

Listeners who are able to follow a talk in English may not necessarily have the confidence to ask questions in the language. Particularly at events which aim to create dialogue, this can cause proceedings to drag somewhat.

9. Knowledge falls by the wayside

Using English as a lingua franca results in a less successful transfer of knowledge. This has been confirmed by a study at the University of Vienna, which found significant differences in how much content is successfully conveyed depending on whether communication takes place in speaker and listener’s native language or in non-native English^[1].

10. English is exhausting

Anyone who has ever had to communicate in a foreign language for a whole day knows how exhausting it is. The Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences has researched this phenomenon and found that understanding the same amount of input requires significantly more resources when it is in the listener’s second language^[2]. According to the researchers, this is because “grammatical processing operations are not automated in non-native speakers”. This naturally leads us to ask how conference organisers’ interests are served if attendees can barely make it to the lunch break before they are too tired to take anything else in.

11. Emotionless listeners

As well as the transfer of knowledge, other levels of communication also suffer. At events which aim to reach people on an emotional level, such as sales events or training courses, using English as a lingua franca should equally be regarded with scepticism. As the German newspaper Die Zeit reports, “our native language has a deeper emotional resonance … Its words trigger stronger emotional reactions in us”^[3].

12. Intercultural miscommunication

Something else which is often overlooked is the low-level friction generated by cultural differences, for example when a German speaking English uses “please”, “would you” and “could you” less often than their British counterpart would consider polite.

13. Participants selected by language ability

Even at the preparation stage, when a conference is being publicised, choosing to use English as a lingua franca has a significant impact. Limiting communication to English means limiting the pool of potential speakers and attendees. Requiring speakers to present in English makes language competence – rather than competence in their field – the deciding factor in the selection process.

14. Meeting halfway

Allowing participants to use their native language is, aside from anything else, a gesture of good will and consideration. The Goethe Institute website has this to say on the subject: “It is in the interest of every speaker, whether native or non-native, for their language to be used in as many situations as possible. This is the basis of its value as a tool for communication and understanding and as a professional asset.” Conference attendees from Italy, Spain and France will certainly feel much more welcome at an event if they are addressed in Italian, Spanish and French than if they are reduced to English.

15. And how much will that cost?

Time and time again, I have heard organisers argue that a truly multilingual conference using interpreters simply costs too much.

But when we consider how much more successful a conference can be when the most qualified speakers appear, the pool of potential attendees is not restricted by language barriers, no time is lost to linguistic misunderstandings, all of the content is conveyed in full and the desired emotional impact is achieved, it rapidly becomes clear that interpreters are a worthwhile investment.

[1] http://othes.univie.ac.at/16750/
[2] http://www.cbs.mpg.de/institut/forschung/zweitsprache
[3] http://www.zeit.de/zeit-wissen/2015/02/sprache-veraenderung-persoenlichkeit/seite-2

Where are you from and how did you become a translator?

I grew up in New Glarus, Wisconsin, a small town south of Madison, the state capitol. Known as “America’s Little Switzerland”, New Glarus was named after the Swiss canton of Glarus, and the community remains very proud of its heritage. Thanks to the many festivals that are celebrated there each year, I was exposed to (Swiss-) German at a very early age. When I was seven, I began learning German from my mother, a former German teacher who decided to offer lessons for my classmates and me after school. So it’s safe to say that my interest in language and culture developed at an early age.

When I went to college in Minnesota, I continued my language studies with a Bachelor’s degree in German. Translation wasn’t really discussed as a potential career path, so when I graduated, I opted to pursue an academic career in order to continue to work with language.

As part of my Master’s program in German Studies, I spend a year abroad in Berlin, where I had the chance to work as a translator for an academic center. I found the work exciting, and it offered the perfect opportunity to apply my language abilities and the skills I had honed during my studies. After I returned to the US, I continued to work as a translator part time, while also taking online courses through New York University to earn a Certificate in Translation. The courses helped me to learn more about the industry, various translation tools and fields such as legal, financial and technical translation. With my move to Germany four years ago, my focus increasingly shifted to translation. I finally made the leap to translating full time when I was hired at Peschel Communications two years ago. To further bolster my qualifications, I successfully passed the German state exam for translators last year.

How did you discover Peschel Communications?

When I moved to Freiburg, I wanted to learn more about the translation industry here. As part of my research, I came across the Peschel Communications website. At Peschel Communications, I saw an opportunity to work in a tight-knit team and to learn from other experienced translators. I also identified with the company’s mission statement and its focus on quality and close collaboration with customers. In short, I felt that Peschel Communications was a place where I could grow as a translator. I kept an eye on the website and when a position for an English translator opened up, I applied.

What do you particularly enjoy about your work?

I love being immersed in language every day. I like to write, and I enjoy working with texts and thinking about how best to convey a message in English. Another perk of the job is the wide variety of interesting topics that I get to work with on a daily basis. My workday might look something like this: I start off the morning with a marketing text, where I can really let my creativity flow. Then I move on to a contract, where a precise translation is required. And to wrap up the day, I dive into the world of renewable energies. With so many diverse tasks, there’s always something new to learn and I never get bored.

Which languages do you speak and would you like to learn any more? If so, which ones?

In addition to English and German, I studied a bit of Russian, but that was quite some time ago. While there are many other languages I would like to learn, given Freiburg’s close proximity to France, French is currently at the top of my list.

How do you relax after hours of focused work?

Since I spend most of my workday in front of a computer screen, I enjoy spending my free time outdoors – often hiking or biking. I also like to cook and I play the piano.

When are you satisfied with a translation?

A good translation doesn’t just reproduce the content of a text, it reads as if it had been written in the foreign language. When I translate, of course I ensure that the content of the original text is conveyed correctly and professionally, but style and clarity are just as important. If the reader stumbles over awkward phrasing or has to fight their way through overly complicated sentences in order to understand the translation, the effect of the original is lost. I work on a translation until I feel that everything is in place, and the final text is one that I would enjoy reading. In the end, however, style is subjective, so that I am only truly satisfied when I know that the customer is satisfied as well.

How important is context for a translation?

It will come as no surprise that a text for experts is written differently than a text for lay people and that the tone of an advertising flyer is different than that of a contract. Many words also have different meanings depending on the context and must be translated accordingly. When the German word “Absatz” is used to refer to a section of a text, the English equivalent is paragraph. But a financial context, “Absatz” most likely means sales. And if you come across the same word in a text about fashion, it is probably referring to the heel of a shoe.

A colleague recently told me a joke: How many translators does it take to change a light bulb? It depends on the context. In other words, context is key. Although you can often infer the context from the text, sometimes that isn’t enough. One example that has come up a few times as of late is a brochure to be included with written correspondence. While English makes a distinction between an enclosure (included with a letter) and an attachment (included with an email), German uses the same term for both. Thus in order to correctly translate the text, the translator needs to know whether it will be sent as a letter or an email.

Computer or red pen – which would you prefer if you had the choice?

A while ago, one of our customers requested that a proofreading job be done on hard copy with a red pen. At first it was a bit unfamiliar, but once I got going, I really enjoyed it. It was nice to get away from the computer for a bit, and you read a text differently on paper than on a screen. But even if I’d like to work with pen and paper sometimes to change things up, doing this job without a computer is unthinkable. From dictionaries to specialist articles to our customers’ websites, almost all of our research is done online. In addition, we rely on a translation tool to archive our translations and save our terminology. This allows us to establish that when translating for Customer X, “Arbeitsvertrag” should always be translated as employment agreement (and not employment contract) and that the “Geschäftsführer” of Company Y is known in English as the Managing Director and not the CEO. If the same (or a similar) sentence comes up again, we can see how it was translated the first time. Not only does this save us time, it allows our customers to rest assured that their terminology will be used consistently across multiple texts and by multiple translators.

How important is contact to colleagues?

For me, the opportunity to collaborate with other translators is the biggest advantage of working in an office. If I’m working on a really tricky German text and want to be certain that I’ve understood something correctly, I can ask one of the native German speakers in the office. If there are questions of style or the difference between British and American English, I can consult with my British colleague. Or if particular creativity is needed, the two of us can brainstorm together. The end result is often better than if I had worked alone.

Why is it so important for translations to be checked by a second translator?

Anyone who has written a text knows that language is fraught with error. No matter how careful you are, typos and other inadvertent mistakes are alarmingly common. The translator may also overlook a word or misread a sentence. A second pair of eyes serves to ensure that these sorts of errors are avoided as much as possible.

Are translators in direct contact with customers or do they sit silently with their texts?

Translation requires intense concentration, so a quiet work environment is important. However, I have worked in several large offices over the years, and as a result I’ve gotten pretty good at tuning out noise. Our office is set up so that the project managers coordinate all contact with customers. Projects often involve multiple languages and thus multiple translators. When questions arise, the project managers gather them together before passing them on to the customer. The customer’s answers are then forwarded to all of the translators. This ensures that the customer has a consistent contact person and does not receive the same question from multiple translators. And if the customer has questions about a translation, the project managers likewise collect the information and pass it on to the translator. This way the translator (who may be deep in another translation at the time of the customer’s call) has time to find their way back into the translation in question in order to provide an appropriate answer. Often queries are settled via email, but sometimes it’s helpful to speak directly with the customer.

Do you think that studying languages and literatures is a good starting point for working as a translator?

I have found that my degrees in German Studies offer several advantages for translation. First and foremost, as part of my studies, I had the opportunity to spend considerable time in German-speaking countries and learn German at a very high level. The focus on literature taught me to read texts very closely and pay attention to things like word choice, style and register. The research skills that I honed during my studies help me to identify reliable sources and to quickly get up to speed in new subject areas. Close attention was also paid to good writing. As a result, I learned to write clearly and well – a very important aspect of translating that is often overlooked.

Many people are skeptical of translators who have not studied translation. Is their skepticism justified? Do you feel that as a career changer you need to do more to be taken seriously by both customers and colleagues?

“Translator” is not a protected job title, which means that anyone can theoretically call themselves a translator. But just because someone speaks several languages doesn’t mean they can translate well. Translators not only need to have a broad vocabulary and an impeccable command of both languages, they also need to understand the material to be translated and be able to express themselves like an author or an editor.

Unfortunately a lot of people who decide to switch careers lack this expertise and these skills, and are therefore unable to deliver good translations. As a result, those who have studied translation are often rightly skeptical of those who have not. In order to be taken seriously as a career changer, it’s important to be able to demonstrate that you understand the industry and specific specialist areas, and that you actually know how to translate. Taking courses and, of course, gaining as much practical experience as possible is helpful in this regard. Specializing in one or more areas and taking the exam to qualify as a certified translator are also recommended.

Since I started Peschel Communications almost 20 years ago, translation projects have become ever more complex: more languages, varying file formats, increasingly demanding specialist subjects and more and more complex requests from clients. As a result, project management work is making up a much larger share of our overall workload than it used to. In the early days, our translators handled project management alongside their translation work. Today, the role of translation project manager is separate from translation.

This division of labour allows the translators to focus on translating. Project managers need the skillset of a superhero to keep everything else running smoothly.

A quick search shows that the number of books and courses on project management is infinite. It is important to note that project management in translation services is different from project management in advertising or IT where projects may run over months or even years. Translation companies always have a large number of projects of all shapes and sizes on the go simultaneously.

But let’s start from the beginning. What is a project?

As a distinction from ongoing, day-to-day operations, a project is defined as a one-off piece of work carried out within a specified time period. In the translation services sector, projects are almost always characterised by time and cost pressure. They are both linguistically and technically complex while their size may range from a one-page press release into one language to a technical manual of several hundred pages into ten. Project management costs for translation projects are rarely recorded and invoiced separately. So it’s unsurprising that most clients do not realise that translation project management is a significant cost item which requires a comprehensive set of qualifications and skills.

To understand the work of a translation project manager, it helps to know a few facts about our industry. The market of translation service providers is highly segmented with almost 80% of translators working freelance. Many large translation agencies do not employ in-house translators at all, relying on the work delivered to them by freelancers. Translation companies are able to offer a wider range of services (such as interpreting services or voice-over), work with a wide variety of file formats, coordinate translations into many different languages, provide desktop publishing and much more. Translation companies are also more likely to be able to mobilise extensive capacities at the drop of a hat.

The complexity of many translation projects is also highlighted by the number of team members involved in a project. The obvious players are the project manager and the translator. But it doesn’t stop here: depending on the assignment, the work of proofreaders, terminologists, subject specialists, technical editors and graphic designers also needs to be coordinated. And of course the client and the target audience, who will read the translation, also must be factored into the equation.

The role of project manager for translations is still relatively new, and comes in many disguises: Translation Project Manager, Translation Manager, Translation Coordinator, Project Leader for Translation Management, Project Manager for Translations, to mention only a few.

According to Common Sense Advisory, a market research firm, there are currently around 82,000 translation project managers. Most of them work in-house for translation companies.^[1]

So what does a pro manager’s work in a translation company look like in practice?

Let’s start with the enquiry.

Enquiries mostly arrive electronically, although the client may call beforehand. Most clients begin by asking for an offer, which specifies the costs and timeframe required to complete the translation. These depend on a variety of factors: the translation company’s capacity, the length of the document, the subject area, the degree of complexity and the desired language combinations. There will rarely be time for the project manager to read the entire text, but he or she has to assess the above factors, as well as any potential difficulties and peculiarities (graphics that cannot be edited, very specialised terminology, etc.). If the project manager fails to correctly assess all of this at the outset, the project may be delayed further down the line – for example if the layout requires much more editing than expected. Time is money, and clients usually expect an offer as quickly as possible.

Once the document has been assessed, the client’s requirements often need to be clarified: which variant of English should be used, who is the target audience of the text, which register of language is preferred? How should proper names be dealt with and are there company-specific guidelines on terminology or spelling and style? An in-depth consultation with the client often precedes the offer – and this consultation is of course also a sales pitch. Are any additional services required, such as proofreading prior to printing, or correction of the source text?

When the client requests a very quick turnaround, the project manager may have to check the availability of translators and proofreaders before sending the offer. Processing time can also affect the price. While very tight deadlines often generate a surcharge, at our company we also offer discounts for longer processing times.

Once all of these issues have been resolved and the order has hopefully been confirmed (if not, all of the work described above was for nothing, i.e. unpaid…) it is time to begin work on the project itself.

Working on a Translation Project

Preparing the Project

Some of the work mentioned here may already have been carried out during the offer phase. In particular for very time-sensitive projects, enquiries will already have been made with translators and proofreaders. It is one of our project managers’ magical powers to know what to do when.

Before actual translation can start, the translation project is entered into the system. The client’s information and the key project information – name, contact person, text length, price, language direction and deadline – will probably already have been entered during the offer stage. Other important project information are the subject area, type of job (translation, proofreading, etc.) and information for the project team (reference material, target audience, purpose). There are several professional software tools for the administration of translation projects.

The next step is to book translators, proofreaders and – where required – desktop publishing or graphic design experts. Depending on the language combination or the time of year (for example, during the holidays), this can take quite a while. Of course, experienced project managers know exactly who is suitable for which project, in terms of the languages involved and the subject matter, and always try to use the same translators and proofreaders for the same clients. This information too should be documented.

Before the translators can get to work, the project manager usually has to prepare the source text document. This step has become increasingly time-consuming in recent years. More and more customers send their documents in pdf-format, which is difficult to edit using translation tools. Complicated Word formatting also creates additional work, for example if a large number of tab stops and text boxes are used, or graphics can’t be edited.

Any reference material (such as previous translations or in-house terminology), translation memories, glossaries or style guides must be also be shared with the project team.

As soon as the translators have received all the material and information, the actual translation work begins. The project manager will check up on the progress of the project at regular intervals to ensure that the work is on schedule. Another task is to contact the client to resolve any queries raised by members of the project team – for example regarding unclear wording in the source text, or preferred terminology – and provide technical assistance.

Depending on the system used by the translation company, the translation is delivered and passed on to the proofreader either automatically or manually. Most translation tools are compatible, but different versions and systems may cause technical glitches, which have to be resolved – you guessed it – by the project manager.

Next, the project manager exports the text from the translation software into the format desired by the client (Word, PowerPoint, or perhaps idml or HTML), and carries out a final check. Then either the graphics will need to be edited once more, or the text will be sent directly to the client.

You might think that the project is then finished, the invoice will be sent and our superhero can turn his or her attention to the next project. But good project management always involves follow-up work. The client is asked for feedback, which is passed on to the translators and proofreaders. Any changes made by the client will be entered into the system, and terminology databases and translation memories will be brought up to date. Larger projects may necessitate a debriefing with the whole project team. It is also the project manager’s job to document all of the information that was gathered and everything that was learnt in the course of the project. This includes client preferences, feedback for freelancers and any complaints and how these were handled. Only once all of this has been completed can the invoice be sent.

You can imagine that a translation company that only worked on one project at a time wouldn’t stay in business long. In fact, translation project managers juggle a number of different projects every day, for a wide variety of clients with a range of different project members.

And that’s not all. In many cases project managers in translation companies take on additional tasks that are needed to keep everything running smoothly. This includes managing and maintaining client data, supplier management (though in some companies, managing external staff is a separate role) and tracking offers. Translation companies that do not have a separate marketing department may also require their project managers to take over a fair share of sales and marketing tasks.

Looking at this miscellany of tasks and responsibilities, it quickly becomes clear that carrying them out requires a wide variety of special skills, only some of which are linguistic.

Good project managers must be completely service-oriented. They have excellent communication skills and are approachable and always friendly – even under stress. Prioritising tasks within a complex setting and structuring their work are a necessity. As project managers are the liaison between the client and the project team, they have to be diplomatic team players. The role also requires a head for business: project managers need to keep one eye on the company’s margins and spot any new business opportunities. I think most translation companies would agree that the work of translation project managers is probably where most efficiency improvements can be made.

In addition to all of the qualities mentioned, translation project managers also need to have linguistic and translation skills. They must, as described above, be able to assess the difficulties and challenges of a particular text with little more than a glance.

A certain technical ability is also imperative. Project managers work with different software and file formats every day and must be confident in providing technical support to both project members and clients.

In my experience, there are only a small number of trained translators who will thrive in translation project management. Of course, in some companies, trained translators work as project managers and translators at the same time. There are translators who say they would miss contact with clients, colleagues and freelancers if they did not also do some project management. No matter what a graduate’s preferences and talents may be – in my view there is a need for translator training to cover project management as a career option within the field of translation. Even though professional associations have recently recognised the trend and have started offering training for project managers, most translation project managers working today have been trained on the job.

Further Information

http://othes.univie.ac.at/29613/ – in German, abstract in English)

https://csa-research.com/

Keiran J. Dunne (ed.). 2011. Translation and localization project management. Amsterdam: Benjamins

[1] https://csa-research.com/

2016 has been a good year for Peschel Communications. We completed more projects in a year than ever before, breaking our record with project number 1,000. We have our long-standing customers to thank for this, who have supplied us with a steady stream of translation projects. At the same time, we attracted some new customers from fields as diverse as education, law, logistics and medicine. As ever, it has been a privilege to enjoy such regular opportunities to get to grips with new topics. The time we invested in an application for a tender by the EU Commission has also paid off: We were awarded a contract with the European Commission this summer, and have been busy translating a wide range of demanding documents ever since.

Interpreting services were also in demand in 2016. Throughout the year, I have been travelling to and fro from supervisory board meetings, technical conferences, town hall meetings and television studios. The latter was a new experience after almost 20 years of working in conference interpreting – and I absolutely loved it!

But back to our Freiburg office:

While our translation team remained unchanged this year, some reshuffling was needed in the project management department following Lynn Kalic’s decision to leave this summer. Fortunately, Helena Triesch was well-equipped to take over seamlessly, having gathered extensive experience during her time with us as a trainee. Helena was up to speed and working efficiently alongside our Senior Project Manager, Andrea Unkelbach, in no time at all.
Let’s not forget our 2016 interns: Isobel Hamilton, Marieke Herbrechtsmeier, Mari Smith and Ann-Kathrin Krüger, who will be staying with us until the end of January. We found Mari Smith so great (and evidently the feeling was mutual) that she will be returning to Peschel Communications next autumn after completing an internship in Spain.

Escaping the miserable winter weather, our project managers enjoyed a trip to Barcelona at the beginning of December, where they attended a conference on translation project management. Andrea and Helena brought back a whole list of ideas; as well as a feeling of reassurance that the project management at Peschel Communications is already at a very high standard.

The rest of the team have also received their fair share of trainings on topics including CAT-tool usage, translating medical documents, terminology management, communication and time management.

Full order books in 2016 meant that we searched for – and found – some new freelance translators. Once we have checked their qualifications, we always start off by giving new freelancers relatively short assignments which are thoroughly assessed. This helps us to find out whether the translation quality meets our expectations, whether collaboration is constructive and whether the freelance partner is reliable. Over time, we develop very special personal relationships with our freelance translators. Without having these great linguists for support we would not be able to offer so many different languages, we would not be able to meet deadlines even when our internal capacities are used up, and we would not be able to successfully deliver large translation projects spanning several hundred pages.

But the moment has come for us all to take some time off and unwind. As ever, the coming year has exciting changes in store for us – we are looking forward to welcoming some new additions to our team!

On that note, my team and I would like to wish you happy, relaxing holidays and a great 2017!

“I can’t read while I’m also trying to see things!”

This line from Channel 4’s The IT Crowd sums up the view which was a staple punchline for many 90s stand-up comedians: namely, that men hate subtitles. I’ve tried to trace the origins of this particular male stereotype; I thought perhaps it had something to do with the cliché that men can’t multi-task, or that foreign language TV is considered to be more ‘artsy,’ and therefore belongs to the domain of women. Truth be told none of the theories I could come up with held much water, maybe men hating subtitles is one of those stereotypes that was born of so many micro-factors that its birth was all but spontaneous. But whatever the origins of subtitle hatred, the future of subtitled shows has never been brighter.

It was long believed by network execs that subtitled television was ‘unwatchable’ and therefore not commercially viable. However for the last five years or so this trend has been slowly but steadily bucked as subtitles become ever more at home in mainstream television. So what lies behind this new trend for subtitle-tolerance?

US shows with a multi-lingual twist

The year 2000 saw the dawn of a new millennium, and with it came the first majorly popular bilingual US TV show. Dora the Explorer may lack subtitles, but it is an indication of what has been a driving force in multi-lingual programming in the US, Spanish. The Hispanic population in the US has exploded in recent years: in the 2010 census, people of Hispanic and Latino descent made up 16.3% of the country’s population, and that figure is ever growing. This has made an impact US television, with more and more shows erring away from the classic ‘English spoken with thick accent = foreign language’ paradigm. Hit shows like Breaking Bad and Orange is the New Black do not shy away from subtitling when Spanish-speaking characters are in conversation with each other. It may not be the main language of these shows, but its presence is significant and important to the naturalism of the pieces. Orange is the New Black also features guest appearances from a host of other languages including: Chinese, Creole, German, Pennsylvania Dutch and Russian. Their inclusion lends authenticity to the distinct diversity of characters in the show.

Between Fantasy and Reality

One particular hit US show went above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to subtitling. Game of Thrones is set in a fantasy world where the majority of the characters speak ‘the Common Tongue’ (better known to you or me as ‘English’) but the producers decided that to best convey the sense of a whole world, complete with different ethnicities and cultures, they needed some new languages to go with it. To this end they hired David J. Peterson (co-founder of the Language Creation Society) as the show’s ‘language consultant.’ So far he’s created three languages for the show: High Valyrian, Low Valyrian and Dothraki – all complete with grammar and vocab. Subtitled scenes of the characters speaking in these invented languages are common and often used to highlight cultural differences between characters through quirks of ‘translation,’ e.g. when one character tries to explain the word ‘throne’ to her Dothraki husband, whose culture has no concept of such an object.

This may seem like a lot of extra effort for a show that is already weighed down with the challenges of a huge cast, spectacular sets and eye-watering CGI. However, far from undermining the grandeur of the piece, the subtitles add to it. Game of Thrones has always endeavoured to brutally demythologise medieval-style fantasy, and the multi-lingual aspect is one of the realistic touches that help ground the show. It makes Geroge R. R. Martin’s world of dragons, ice-zombies and magic napalm that much more believable, even more enjoyable.

Scandi-Noir

Scandinavian Noir (also called Scandi-Noir or Nordic Noir) has become massively popular in the UK. Crime shows and thrillers from the Scandinavian countries with their dark storylines, flawed protagonists and desaturated colour palette, have become a genre in their own right. Arguably the trend was kicked off by The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo, and followed up by greats such as Wallander, The Killing and The Bridge. The language is as much part of Scandi-Noir as the grizzly murders, and although many of the shows have received English-language remakes, the original Scandinavian language versions remain fiercely popular. The Bridge is a particularly ambitious example, as it is split between two Scandinavian languages, Danish and Swedish. However its ambition paid off, and a total of two million Brits tuned in when the third season aired in the UK.

Internet Streaming

Streaming services such as Netflix have made subtitling into multiple languages so much easier to broadcast. Rather than having to sell multiple subtitled versions of shows to different broadcasters in different countries, you offer a single platform from which viewers can select the language of their choice. This makes it much easier for Netflix to produce multi-lingual TV shows (such as Orange is the New Black) because as the characters move between different languages, there’s no subtitles suddenly clashing with each other on-screen, it can all be kept in one fluid language. Furthermore streaming sites have further facilitated access to subtitled English-language TV for non-English speakers. Conversely, streaming services are increasingly marketing non-English programming to the Anglophone market, with Netflix producing and promoting its own non-English original shows such as Narcos (Spanish) and Marseille (French). Britain’s Channel 4 has jumped on the foreign-language-drama-train and are now promoting a section of their catch-up site called Walter Presents, which is entirely dedicated to foreign language drama ‘box sets’ from a wide range of countries, from Brazil to Poland to Czech Republic.

It’s unclear whether there is a direct causal link between the recent flourishing of subtitles and comedians easing up on them as an object of ridicule. Perhaps the material – like aeroplane food, ex wives and whatever ‘the deal’ is – became too worn out for them to keep re-hashing, and so the social cliché went long enough without being reinforced that it gave foreign language TV the break it needed. Or perhaps the reverse is true, that the breakout success of subtitled shows in spite of social stereotype robbed the jokes of their funniness, as the idea that subtitles turn people off became so obviously wrong. Of course, I speak about a relative minority of programmes, the vast majority of programming in the US and UK remains English-speaking, and there are still those who resent the idea of having to read and watch at the same time. Nevertheless the recent success of subtitled content is encouraging, perhaps indicating a viewership that is more open-minded to foreign-language TV – at least when it comes to drama and thrillers. There remains of course the translator’s final frontier … comedy.