EVS Translations GmbH

Translation services providers certification according with EN 15038

evs2 — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:30:11 +0000

The European Committee for Standardization (CEN) released the EN 15038 (European Quality Standard for Translation Services) in 2006. EN 15038 establishes and defines the requirements for the provision of quality services for translation service providers (TSPs).

EN 15038 is a quality standard developed especially for language translation services providers.

It is a translation industry-specific standard which providers both translation services providers and their clients with clear criteria for achieving and evaluating highest quality of language translation services.

Main characteristics of EN 15038:

Specifies the requirements for professional competences of each participant in the translation process;
Specifies the requirements for the process used in the provision of translation services;
Sets out the steps in the client-TSP relations;
Sets out provisions for translation services procedures (Project Management, Preparation and Translation).

Receiving EN 15038 Certification

To receive EN 15038 certification, a translation services provider has to be audited by a third-party independent certifying organization, which is registrar licensed to issue the certification.

The audit is a comprehensive assessment of TSP's quality management system.

To earn this certification, a translation services provider is required to establish, throughout document and monitor the processed for:

managing client inquiries;
determining project feasibilities;
drawing quotations and agreements with clients;
drawing the contractual terms and conditions;
ensuring professional competences of participants in the translation process (translators, reviewers, revisers, and proofreaders);
ensuring the availability of technical resources required (technology, software, communication equipment);
project assignment;
pre-translating, source texts analysis, terminology work and style guides;
project management;
offering value added services;
quality assurance management;
work flow/ operational processes documentation;
final verification;
concluding and delivering translation projects.

In order to keep their EN 15038 certification, all certified companies must undergo regular audits which guarantee that the quality levels sets by CEN are maintained. If any discrepancy is found, the certification shall be revoked.

Main benefits for a TSP of gaining EN 15038 Certification:

Having a set of strict guidance to comply with;
Improvement of human and technical resources;
Improvement of corporate image and a better placement on market;
Processes control helps to become more cost-effective and efficient;
Improvement of internal communication;
Improvement of key business and customer satisfaction.

Main clients' benefits of working with a translation services provider that is EN 15038 certified:

Certainty that the translation services provider, in handling the client's project, will conform to the strict international quality standards set by the European Center for Standardization.
Confidence that the human and technical resources used in the translation process meet the requirements that are set by translation experts across Europe.
Strict project management and quality assurance systems in place.
Safe and confidential handling of the client's documents.
TSP is continuously monitoring and improving the quality of language services provided.
High-quality end results thanks to well-organized and monitored work flows.

EN 15038 is the most important European certification awarded within the language translation industry and a relevantly small number of translation companies have succeeded in achieving it.

The standard is gaining acceptance worldwide and the European Union, the United Nations bodies and authorities, and various international organizations and institutions have begun including it as a benchmark in their tender specifications.

The European Standard EN 15038 has–more than any other standard in the service sector–impacted the translation industry.

Both translation services providers as well as their clients are increasingly aware of the standard and use it as a tool for quality assurance and evaluation in their business transactions.

Editing vs proofreading

evs2 — Thu, 10 May 2012 14:06:00 +0000

Editing and proofreading are two different elements of the revision process and they concentrate on different aspects and use different techniques.

Editing is the process of examining a text with the intention of improving the flow and quality of writing. In other words, the process of checking and improving the copywriting of a document. This process concentrates less on the form and more on the terminology.

Editors check for contextual mistakes and inconsistence and it is the editor’s job to verify facts and make sure that the correct terminology was used.

This is usually achieved by researching in specialized dictionaries and industry and corporate terminology glossaries as well as on the websites of relevant company, organizations or institutions.

The process of editing is accompanied by recommended corrections.

In their work, editors can – if necessary – rewrite whole paragraphs and change the style of the translation.

The normal practice is that when it comes to terminology and factual changes, that editors do not implement the changes themselves, but send their comments and recommended corrections to the translator or translators of the original document and ask the translators to decide on and apply any or all of the recommended changes.

It is typically understood that a document which has been edited still needs to be proofread, as editing and proofreading are truly not the same.

Proofreading is the final stage of the editing process and should start only after all the editing revisions have been completed.

Proofreading implies checking a translated document against the original and making sure that everything is correct.

Proofreading is the process of examining a text and looking for spelling, grammar, syntax and punctuation errors, typos and other unintended mistakes.

The context, terminology and facts are quite irrelevant here, as the job focuses on the correctness of the text.

Though proofreaders may make comments and suggest corrections that refer to the content as well. Or may have questions related to the content. Proofreaders do not apply any such changes but instead return the document to the editor along with their recommendations and questions.

The major difference in proofreading vs. editing is that editing is mainly concerned with contextual and factual changes, all potential style and content questions are flagged and taken care of by editors, while proofreading solely focuses on grammar, style, punctuation and spelling corrections and proofreaders are responsible for a flawless final product.

Professional editing and proofreading services combined together ensure the quality of the translation output for the end users.

How does Translation Memory work?

evs2 — Tue, 08 May 2012 11:55:37 +0000

A translation memory (TM) is a database that is used in software programs designed to aid human translators. It is a database that consists of text segments in a source language and their translations in one or more target languages and is built up of previously translated materials.

While TMs have a broad scope and include everything ever translated and they work on a segment-by-segment basis, glossaries are lists of individual, company or industry specific terms, abbreviations and short expressions.

In brief, a glossary is a database containing a bilingual list of approved or predefined translations of key terminology that is specific for a given company, industry, project, etc.

The integration and the usage of glossaries alongside a translation memory can bring numerous advantages.

For example, in the process of translation, the translation memory can find a high percentage match between the segment to be translated and a previously translated and stored one, yet some terminology can differ significantly between clients and projects. In this case, the translator can refer to the terminology glossary that has been sent by or complied in cooperation with the client and find the most appropriate term to be used.

The integration of translation memories and glossaries enforces consistency, reduces translation time and costs and highly benefits for the client’s branding and corporate identity. Moreover, glossaries become even more important for consistency the more different translation resources are used.

To be effective, both translation memories and glossaries have to be efficiently managed, kept consistent and regularly updated.

As a standard, translation service providers have their own domain and industry specific terminology glossaries that are used along with those provided by the client. At the end of each project, translation services providers can deliver a project-specific glossary as per the client’s request.

Structured authoring saves translation costs

evs2 — Thu, 03 May 2012 09:42:39 +0000

Structured authoring is the process of systematically organizing information into units that can be easily accessed, managed and reused.

In a structured authoring environment, the organization specifies elements and their characteristics and how they relate to each other. Authors and editors then create and edit documents in an order that is permitted by the structure’s specifications.

Structured authoring is usually highly automated. Once elements are assigned to content, the formatting is implemented automatically to create the final output files.

Structured authoring improves information management by creating consistent content structure and helps organizations to increase productivity and revenue, reduce costs, minimize risk and serve an increasing global market presence.

Main advantages of structured authoring

Improves content management and integrity
Increases author productivity and operation efficiency
Reduces performance errors and time to market
Ensures security, quality and compliance
Minimizes content customization and localization

Structured authoring and translation costs

Migrating from unstructured to structured authoring can result in significant costs savings.

Translation costs are often the main cost component of content development.

By enforcing structured authoring during content development, a structured workflow can significantly reduce the cost of translation.

Structured authoring reduces translation costs by:

Minimizing the amount of content that has to be created, modified and translated
Allowing only new and changed content to be translated
Eliminating or minimizing translation services providers’ desktop publishing costs
Reducing the need for manual layout and formatting
Eliminating the need for translation of repetitive or highly similar content used in multiple documents
Enabling efficient content traceability and review
Increasing the consistency of both format and content
Allowing translators to leverage existing translation databases
Increasing the degree of collaboration between translators, proofreaders and editors

Chinese language translation: challenges and specifics

evs2 — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:15:08 +0000

Since China has opened its doors to international business by becoming a full member of the World Trade Organization back in 2001, it is considered one of the largest markets in the world. This translates into huge economic and cultural exchange that requires clear communication.

China possesses one of the largest industrial bases in the world and at the same time is the fastest growing consumer market. However, unlike other nations with global markets where English language is predominantly used, Chinese is still very much a dominant business language in China. This has brought barriers to entry for companies looking to do business with Chinese companies.

Mere handling of the behemoth republic has engendered the need for professional Chinese language services. Little wonder that amongst all the translation requirements in the business world, Chinese translation services have grown at exponential rates.

With thousands of distinctive characters called ideographs or pictographs, a complicated alphabetic form, language patterns and dialects, Chinese is considered to be one of the most difficult languages to translate.

The use of characters instead of Roman letters

The Chinese writing system is one of the oldest of its kind. The Chinese writing system uses Chinese symbols known as ideographic characters. Today, Chinese is the only modern language that is entirely based on characters.

Each character represents a word or often a concept and in many cases serves multiple purposes; each Chinese character has one, or more than one, independent meanings.

A Chinese translator has to face this linguistic challenge. Accuracy of Chinese translations depends on context as well as the literal meaning of each written character.

A professional Chinese translator must know the number of syllables each Chinese word has and the corresponding written character each syllable must have. A Chinese translator must also know which character can be used independently or could only be used in a combination with other Chinese characters.

Furthermore, a Chinese translator must have an in-depth knowledge of the 3,000 most commonly used Chinese characters and a good knowledge of the 6,000 Chinese characters that are common for literature and technical writings.

Two character systems: Traditional and Simplified Chinese

Chinese is a complicated language to translate as Chinese speakers use different types of character systems. Mainland China, Malaysia and Singapore use the Simplified Chinese characters, whilst Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan prefer Traditional Chinese characters.

When performing a Chinese language translation, translation services providers must take into account the targeted Chinese speaking audience and define precisely which version is required.

Many dialects

Chinese is a complex and varied language that includes seven main and numerous other recognized dialects.

The various dialects contain unique vocabulary and are generally quite different from each other.

Only a small number of Chinese translators are capable of translating all dialects; in fact, most concentrate on only one or two or in the best case three dialects.

Even when a translator has knowledge in all the Chinese dialects, there are still a number of important grammatical characteristics to be kept in mind when translating from or into Chinese.

For example the Chinese language lacks tonal inflections and doesn't stress different syllables within each word. In Chinese language tenses are indicated by adverbs and the context itself, but not by verbs.

New manager for our Bulgarian location

evs2 — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 06:03:03 +0000

We are very happy to welcome back Boyan Yordanov to the EVS Translations Team as General Manager for the Bulgarian Office in Sofia.

Boyan brings 8 years of experience to the team and will be responsible for sales and for managing large scale translations projects for Bulgaria. During his career Boyan has excelled in maintaining very high quality translation results for major key accounts within the IT sector, such as Microsoft. He is very familiar with complex and time-intensive projects and therefore brings great value to the team.

“After graduating from Sofia University I worked as English teacher but soon developed a passion for translations. In 2004 I started my career as a translator/interpreter and worked for the Bulgarian Ministry, a news agency and soon joined EVS Translations as a translator for 7 years”, says Boyan.

“During my time at EVS Translations I was actively involved in the activities of the Vick Foundation – an organization established by the owner of EVS Translations, Mr. Edward Vick, to promote Bulgarian literature. After a short break in 2011 I am more than happy to rejoin the EVS Translations family as General Manager and to be part of the growing international team”, Boyan adds.

Top interpreter tips

evs2 — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 12:03:30 +0000

The following guidelines may prove helpful if you plan on working with a interpreter in the near future:

1. Establish ground rules with your interpreter. For example, try to clearly communicate how you want a meeting run, the number of sentences to be translated at a time, the confirmation of jargon or idioms before they are translated, when breaks will be taken, and also seemingly trivial matters like seating arrangements.

2. Try to brief the interpreter prior to any face to face meetings. Familiarize them with important individuals as well as the subject matter and other potentially important particularities of a meeting or appointment. If there is any specific terminology to be used ask them if they understand it. If you foresee any tricky issues or tense topics, prepare them for it.

3. If you plan to give a speech or read from a script, give the interpreter a copy of your manuscript. The more familiar the interpreter is with the subject matter, the better a job they will do.

4. While speaking through an interpreter always engage with your counterpart directly. Even though you cannot understand what is being said, show interest, keep eye contact and remain focused. If you start to converse through an interpreter you lose any chance of building trust, rapport, and confidence.

5. Try and avoid humor. Most interpreters will agree that jokes do not translate well. If you are giving a speech and plan to start it off with a joke, it is advisable to consult the interpreter first to see if they think it will work.

6. Plan your time carefully. Conversing through an interpreter makes conversations twice as long. For example, if you are preparing a presentation remember that anything you say will first be translated, so the likelihood is that a one hour presentation will take two. Compensate for this by cutting down your presentation or speaking in shorter, more precise sentences.

7. Do not rush. Interpreting is a taxing job and it is mentally exhausting. To alleviate the pressure as much as possible, speak slowly and clearly. If you rush the conversation, the interpreter is more likely to become stressed and the quality of the translation may drop.

8. Interpersonal communication, by its nature, involves emotion. An interpreter should never translate emotions. If the speaker is annoyed this will be obvious in their body language and tone. Never involve the interpreter at a personal level in any discussions, and if you see an interpreter translating your emotions, ask them to stop. The interpreter is there to purely translate what is being said.

9. Make sure the interpreter understands that they are never to answer questions on your behalf. Even if the answer is simple, the interpreter should still convey every question to you. If an interpreter starts to speak on your behalf, this can have numerous negative consequences, such as undermining your position or even losing face.

10. Ask interpreters not to change or alter what you say even if they think it may be offensive to your conversation partner. If you plan to talk about a controversial issue let the interpreter know. Before discussing it with an audience announce that what will be said is not the opinion of the interpreter but your own. This then frees the interpreter of feeling uncomfortable and nervous.

Plunet: automated translation processes management

evs2 — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 12:15:53 +0000

As EVS Translations positions itself in the global corporate marketplace, our customers need a global translation management solution that can amalgamate quote and order management processes, invoicing and detailed reporting into one web-based platform. Being able to provide our clients with detailed reporting functionalities we are able to optimise our processes resulting in quality and efficiency improvements.

Plunet BusinessManager is a business management software that supports the full range of organizational structures and business processes within a company.

This software provides a high degree of automation and flexibility for the language and documentation industry. It is especially well-suited for optimizing all management and workflow processes relating to translation services providers.

Plunet BusinessManager uses a single web-based platform for automating the handling and management of all translation project activities and processes.

The system includes business as well as process and document management and integrates translation software, financial accounting, and content and quality management systems.

With other words, Plunet automates the translation process from quoting, ordering, and job and workflow management to invoicing, comprehensive financial reporting, and management of translation teams, glossaries, documents and partner and customer relations.

The recent cooperation between Plunet and the world leader in Computer Automated Translation - Trados resulted in full integration of Trados technology functionality.

Linking both systems, the SDL’s information management and the business project management functions of Plunet, further enables translation services providers to establish integrated translation management processes.

At EVS Translations, we are using Plunet BusinessManager as the company’s central automated translation processes management system. The implementation of the software increases productivity and quality, cost-effectiveness, timely delivery and overall customer satisfaction.

Enthusiastic telesales person for B2B (service industry)

evs2 — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 14:40:56 +0000

Location: Nottingham, United Kingdom.

You will have the following responsibilities and tasks:

Telephone sales of EVS services to corporate clients with responsibility for services sold in the UK and France
Using of CRM database for sales prospecting, task management and maintaining relationships
Supervision of mailings to potential clients
Acquisition of new clients in various industries and business areas
In cooperation with the Sales Manager development and implementation of marketing strategies

You must have several years of working experience in telephone sales, ideally in a translation environment with extensive person-to-person contact and organizational skills. You are a very customer-oriented person, ambitious, enthusiastic and friendly. Being a native English or French speaker is essential, with excellent knowledge of French or English and very good skills in Microsoft Office are required.

You will receive comprehensive training. EVS Translations offers an interesting package with salary, commission and medical benefits, flexible working hours and extensive prospects with a rapidly expanding group.

If you are interested in this position, please send your application (cover letter and resume) via e-mail to careers(at)evs-translations.com.

MadCap facilitates the translation and localisation workflow

evs2 — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 11:20:20 +0000

In order to provide high quality multilingual translation services, simply having a team of professional localisation experts is not enough. The choice of the right authoring tool and content development processes play a significant role as well.

Choosing the right authoring tools not only makes the translation itself more efficient, it also cuts processing time and costs. For a long time, Adobe RoboHelp was the tool of choice among help authoring tools. Recently, however, a strong competitor has emerged and is swiftly gaining: MadCap Flare.

MadCap Flare is an effective tool for multilingual authoring and publishing of Help systems and other document formats.

Here you can find the main benefits of MadCap Flare:

Industry standard markup language and easier translation workflow

MadCap Flare offers a completely open architecture and stores all content and project files into pure and compliant eXtensible Markup Language (XML) format.

This means end users can easily share, add, remove and edit content and project files in MadCap Flare.

Since all Flare project level files are in XML, an entire project can be sent out for translation, rather than just the output. Furthermore, the XML format makes all Flare projects and source files compatible with most of the leading computer-aided translation tools, allowing translation service providers to easily use any existing translation process that may have in place.

Easier localisation workflow and lower localisation costs

MadCap’s unicode-based environment is not affected by the choice of a language and offers easy and efficient localisation into many languages. The output is user friendly and ensures equally high quality for all languages.

Flare also comes with several built-in tools for team collaboration that make it highly efficient for big scope translation projects.

Furthermore, the tool includes a snippet library or reusable content that can be indexed and reused. This ensures consistency and significantly decreases localisation costs.

Minimising desktop and print publishing costs

MadCap Flare offers a high level of control when designing documents. The software offers full Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) support and can use external and multiple CSS files for different components, as well as CSS mediums (specify different style data for on-screen or print usage).

MadCap supports high end image and vector graphics and offers several options for content creation according to user requirements: print-ready PDF, desktop, web, and even mobile ready.

With all these advantages, MadCap Flare offers the best flexibility with the least amount of specialised technical knowledge and significantly minimizes publishing costs.

MadCap Lingo: Flare’s translation memory application

One of Flare’s greatest benefits is its Translation Memory (TM) application: Lingo. It can translate content created in many different formats and provides TM and terminology databases management. The integration of Flare and Lingo make the movement of content to and from translation much more efficient.

A well planned MadCap Flare project can significantly reduce the time and costs of translation and localisation processes when compared to other tools of the kind.

EVS Translations supports Flare projects from the start to the end.

Still, should you have a project in another format, EVS Translations can still help. We can process any file format and create any output that the client requires. For example, if you have a translation project in RoboHelp, we can either convert your files to Flare or translate your RoboHelp files directly.

Language services for Societas Europaea – the European Company (SE)

evs2 — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 12:31:03 +0000

Since 2004, the European Company otherwise known as the Societas Europaea Statute enables companies to operate their businesses on a pan-European basis and be governed by a supra-national European law directly applicable in the member states, rather than by national law.

Registering a European company can be a beneficial business decision, which can improve a company's global competitiveness, reduce administrative and legal costs, and make decision-making processes faster and more efficient.

However a European Company is formed, it cannot be registered and established unless an agreement on arrangements for employee involvement has been concluded, or if the period for negotiations on such an agreement has expired without an agreement being reached. This generally means a many meetings with international participants.

Involvement of employees in the decision-making process secures the right of employees to information and influencing decisions to be taken within the company using the mechanisms of information, consultation and participation. Employee involvement in an SE is governed by the provisions of EU Directive 2001/86/EC.

The registration of a European Company must be published in the Official Journal of the European Communities. Every SE must be registered in the state where it has its registered office, in a register designated by the law of that state.

What does it mean for language services? In preparation for any of the meetings, a special negotiating body (SNB) is established to prepare the agreement on a European Works Council with the company becoming an SE. A translation company is generally required to translate all background documents that have to be presented and discussed at the meeting, along with the draft agreements and meeting's agenda. These include key information on co-determination.

When management and employee representatives negotiate on an agreement for establishing a European Works Council, all these meetings should be attended by representatives of all countries in which the company founding an SE have offices. The documentation needs to be translated into all languages of the participants. This means that the language translations needed can reach and even exceed 23 languages.

At the meetings themselves, at least 2 interpreters per language should be available. Every participant must be able to communicate with all the others, very frequently on subjects with which they are entirely unfamiliar. In general, the agreements tend to follow the legal situation in the country in which the headquarters of the company establishing the SE is sited. It is advisable that simultaneous interpretation is used, instead of consecutive interpretation. Consecutive interpreting can slow down the meeting in times. Meetings for establishing European Works Councils are similar to multilingual conference ones and similar techniques to conference interpreting apply. It is not advisable to rely on a single interpreter per language, because one interpreter cannot effectively interpret for more than a couple of hours at most.

After establishment, European Work Councils meet for an agreed number of times a year. It is advisable to use the services of the same interpretation and translation company for each meeting to ensure consistency.

At meetings, it is important that all concerned have an accurate record of what was said and what was agreed upon. A translation company must provide full translations of the minutes and the meeting's executive summary report.

Finally, the negotiated agreements must be translated and made available not only to the participants but to all employees in their own languages.

EVS Translations has successfully assisted several companies in achieving SE status. Our knowledge of the European Union legislation, information on co-determination especially in Germany and our capability to provide skilled teams of interpreters are key elements here.

Benefits of corporate terminology management

evs2 — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 06:17:47 +0000

One word, several meanings – why terminology can save money and mean success.

Expertise or competence? Organic or natural? Assistant or secretary? Terminology is an essential part of corporate communication and corporate identity.

Every corporation is likely to have a unique terminology that is an important carrier of information and that helps with differentiation and branding.

Managing a consistent and comprehensive terminology ensures successful and efficient communication within the corporation as well as between the corporation and its customers worldwide.

What is corporate terminology management?

Corporate terminology management is the process of systematically gathering and consolidating the corporation’s primarily used terms together in databases of terminology corpora and their storage and effective management.

Corporate terminology management is a key component to managing global content and communicating with global customers effectively and leads to many internal and external benefits.

Benefits of corporate terminology management

Better internal and external communication, less misunderstandings, less complaints
Better customer experience
Easier adaptation of products and services to global markets
Time-to-market delivery of global content
Legal and standards compliance
Brand consistency
Enhanced content quality
Decrease of the cost for translation and localisation services
Increase in efficiency and error reduction
Increase of the value of the brand

Corporate terminology management strongly contributes to the good reputation and image of a corporation.

Its absence can lead to many and different internal and external misunderstandings. The consequences can be very cost intensive.

That is why it is essential for companies to implement methods and to use tools for corporate terminology management.

Among the rest, an effective corporate terminology management is the key to high quality and consistent translations of a company's corporate documentation. Terminology can significantly shorten release deadlines in software and other publications. Long term it will reduce authoring and translation costs, improve translation quality and is therefore essential for international success.

Haniel Group reporter observed the work of EVS Translations

evs2 — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 08:17:55 +0000

From “Rasender Reporter” to “speedy reporter”
Almost every day, I send an e-mail to Nick Fraczkowski. And he always writes back – even though we’ve never met. But Fraczkowski is not my pen pal; he works for EVS Translations. For two months now, the translation company has been ensuring that our colleagues abroad can also read the dispatches from the “speedy reporter”. Now I’m curious and want to know exactly what happens to my reports before they appear in English on the Haniel Group Net. So it’s off to Offenbach in Hessen.

Arriving at EVS Translations headquarters, I get to meet Fraczkowski in person. Contrary to my expectations, he is not much older than I am. In fact, Fraczkowski does not conform to my idea of a translator at all: his desk is not piled high with dictionaries or other books and instead of the glasses I had envisioned, Fraczkowski has a pierced eyebrow.

Do you speak Gaelic?
All my orders are sent to Fraczkowski. He distributes the texts to the translators and makes sure that the agreed deadlines are met and the customers are satisfied. Dealing with around 40 translations a day, he has plenty to do. But English is not the only language requested: “We offer translations into 123 languages including Azerbaijani, Gaelic and Kurdish. Our specialist area is annual reports.” explains Fraczkowski as we tour the office. The thing I notice most is the silence. Most of the employees are in offices for one or two people so that they can work on their texts without distraction. Unfortunately, “my” translator is not there today – he’s on holiday. A colleague in Nottingham is filling in. So it’s not just me travelling, but my texts as well – to the UK and back every day!

Corrected by the boss himself
One person here knows my texts particularly well: Around the Haniel world in 90 days is a matter for the boss – managing director and company founder, Edward Vick, corrects the English version of my reports. “I really enjoy reading the texts; they’re a welcome change from the number-heavy translations I normally work on,” says Vick. The boss checks the content of the translations, the spelling and makes sure that the correct Haniel wording is used. “It is very important that a company’s publications are always written in the same tone and with the same vocabulary. For example, while one company is led by a Chairman of the Board, another might have a Managing Director. We have to ensure that the same terms are always used,” explains Vick. To do so, EVS Translations creates a glossary for every customer using the vocabulary from previous translations. A computer programme is used to define how specific terminology is to be translated: in my case, the “Rasende Reporterin” becomes the “speedy reporter”.
However, the glossary isn’t much help when it comes to my texts. “You write very freely and on a wide variety of subjects, so it’s quite rare for the programme to find matches with your texts that we have previously translated”, explains the boss of EVS Translations.

Simultaneous proofreading
A “ping” from Vick’s mailbox indicates that the translation of my text has arrived from Nottingham. This gives me the opportunity to observe Vick at work. When proofreading the text, he reads it twice: a special programme shows him my German sentence with the English translation beneath. “This means that I can see whether they say the same thing. The English may be beautiful, but the content could be completely wrong. There are things that our native English speakers may not understand, such as plays on words or references to current events in Germany. That’s where I come in,” explains Vick. “Translations also require thorough research. With a complex German word such as Bohrbetriebsleitung, the translator has to understand it before finding the English equivalent.” But if a word comes up that the translator really doesn’t know, he or she marks it for the proofreader rather than wasting too much time trying to find it. Today, Vick has little cause for complaint. He corrects one spelling mistake and makes one small change.
“Journalistic texts such as yours are greatly sought after by the translators – they allow them to be creative. Financial reports leave no room for interpretation. A good translator needs years before they are able to translate a little more freely, rather than being too literal,” comments the Englishman. “But the most important thing in our line of work is a passion for languages.” With a click of the mouse, Vick sends the text to my inbox and within a few seconds the translation can be opened at Franz-Haniel-Platz. I, on the other hand, have to catch the train.

EVS Translations update: US expansion and Berlin makeover

evs2 — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 11:21:30 +0000

To serve our clients around the globe even better, we have expanded our team of EVS Translations USA and moved our Atlanta office to a new location. Atlanta is a strategically important location for EVS to serve the US market. In Atlanta, we have in-house project management, interpreters and translators who work on multilingual projects.

“We are looking to increase the team in the USA and that is also why we are still recruiting for the Atlanta office. The amount of translation projects and our good work in the past enable us to offer great opportunities for language experts”, states Mrs. Radina who manages vacant positions in the US from Germany. “Our talents have the option to change locations within our international branches which is very attractive and enables especially younger and flexible professionals to explore a different lifestyle abroad.”

“A few of our German head office personnel have relocated to the USA and it also works the other way round. Our offices are a multicultural melting pot which makes every work day interesting and surprising. Examples of this transnational exchange include Jon from Texas who now works in the Offenbach branch and Gabi from Uruguay who loves working in Munich”, she adds.

In addition to the exciting changes in Atlanta, our EVS Berlin office also had a creative makeover. We have worked with a local artist to create a unique feel for the Berlin location. The parrot is part of our symbol and the architect and artist have been working together to achieve a welcoming office for customers and employees.

Enthusiastic sales person for B2B in the service industry (Atlanta, Paris, Nottingham)

evs2 — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 12:35:06 +0000

Job Description

You will have the following responsibilities and tasks:

Telephone sales of EVS services to corporate clients with responsibility for services sold in designated country.
Supervision of mailings to potential clients.
Acquisition of new clients in various industries and business areas.
Responding to client enquiries, making offers and following up.
In cooperation with the Marketing and Business Development Manager, development and implementation of marketing strategies.

Desired Skills & Experience

You must have several years of working experience in telephone sales, ideally in a translation environment with extensive person-to-person contact and organizational skills.

You are a very customer-oriented person, ambitious, enthusiastic and friendly.

Very good skills in Microsoft Office are required.

You will receive comprehensive training. EVS offers an interesting package with salary, commission and medical benefits, flexible working hours and extensive prospects with a rapidly expanding group.

Have we caught your interest? Then we look forward to your application (cover letter & resume), including your desired income and availability.

Company Description

EVS TRANSLATIONS: A LEADING TRANSLATION PROVIDER

EVS Translations, headquartered in Germany, is one of the top translation companies in Europe. It also has offices in the UK, France, Bulgaria and the U.S.

The EVS Translations Group employs more than 75 employees worldwide, including 50 in-house translators and project managers, and cooperates with specialist translators across the globe.

Our translation company handles more than 10,000 individual assignments every year for over 1,000 clients drawn from all sectors. Translations into and from more than 40 languages form the basis of the services provided.

Contact

EVS Translations (USA) Inc.
Downtown Atlanta: 260 Peachtree Street NW, Suite 1801, Atlanta, Georgia (Greater Atlanta Area)
Attn.: Human Resources
E-mail: careers(at)evs-translations.com
http://www.evs-translations.com

Senior Translator (German to English) for Finance and Technology

evs2 — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 12:23:40 +0000

Job Description

You must be a native English speaker with a comprehensive command of German, with a degree in languages. A further degree in translations would be an advantage.

A minimum of 5 years experience as a full-time translator is required as well as outstanding knowledge in your specialized sector.

Other prerequisites to join our highly competent team of 25 native English speakers are very good knowledge of MS Office and translation programs (Trados and/or Transit) as well as an eye for detail.

We offer salary commensurate with experience and performance, a comprehensive benefits package, flexible working hours and extensive opportunities within a rapidly expanding group.

Have we caught your interest? Then we look forward to your application (cover letter & resume), including your desired income and availability.

Company Description

EVS TRANSLATIONS: A LEADING TRANSLATION PROVIDER

EVS Translations, headquartered in Germany, is one of the top translation companies in Europe. It also has offices in the UK, France, Bulgaria and the U.S.

The EVS Translations Group employs more than 75 employees worldwide, including 50 in-house translators and project managers, and cooperates with specialist translators across the globe.

Contact

Proofreader (German to English) for Technical, Automotive and Finance Translations

evs2 — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 12:08:07 +0000

Job Description

We offer an exciting job characterised by diversity and responsibility in a professional and international environment with good benefits and a pleasant working atmosphere.

You are responsible for the final quality check of texts translated from German into English in your field. You check the English translation in particular for linguistic and accuracy. You also translate from German into English in your field, maintain terminology databases and proof layouted texts prior to printing.

Look forward to a seasoned first class team within the EVS Translations Group and profit from the knowledge and experience of your colleagues.

Have we caught your interest? Then we look forward to your application (cover letter & resume), including your desired income and availability.

Desired Skills & Experience

You are a perfect fit if you have the following qualifications:

a completed degree with a linguistic focus on German and ideally an added focus on Engineering or Finance,
native speaker of English with very high stylistic and grammatical competency,
extended experience in the translation field, including proofreading of English texts,
exceptional German language skills,
comprehensive experience in using Trados and/or Transit,
and a pronounced sense of quality and responsibility.
Additional languages would be advantageous.

Company Description

EVS TRANSLATIONS: A LEADING TRANSLATION PROVIDER

EVS Translations, headquartered in Germany, is one of the top translation companies in Europe. It also has offices in the UK, France, Bulgaria and the U.S.

The EVS Translations Group employs more than 75 employees worldwide, including 50 in-house translators and project managers, and cooperates with specialist translators across the globe.

Contact

Comic translations – transferring humor across 20 languages

evs2 — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 14:58:34 +0000

One work stream we are involved in is the transcreation of explanatory medical comics for children. We localise these into 20+ languages; providing a transcreation service which entails content adaptation rather than translation. We ensure that, whilst staying true to the original message the local culture is reflected, allowing customers to achieve maximum impact in each locale.

Highly creative linguists are used in this process who specialise in ensuring the same impact is made on the target audience as the original source text intended.

Probably the most difficult, but most important content adaptation involves humorous content. What one culture finds amusing may in fact be offensive in another; or the meaning simply ‘lost in translation’ if literally translated. Fitting different languages into the same size bubble is also a challenge as often graphically these adaptations cannot be made. Cultural sensitivity plays also a role. Are the characters and words applicable and does how the action is portrayed fit into the cultural setting? Instead of just translating the original version the creators chose to do a reinvention instead. A deep emotional connection has to be established. Comic translation is not focused on just the translation of words but to create a culturally appropriate version.

Transcreation is only a part of the translation process. It takes culture customs, slang, vernacular, colloquialisms, and connotations into consideration when creating translations.

So instead of transferrinf word for word, creativity is used to make sure that that target audience is able to relate to the translation.

Its not just about Comics: Transcreation is often used for marketing and advertising purposes. A brochure, an advertisement or a commercial relate to a foreign audience and therefore cannot be literally translated.

Transcreation is an extremely demanding, but profoundly rewarding form of localization – the benefits of choosing transcreation over standard translation for customers can be enormous and should form part of a company’s global strategy discussion at its outset.

Legal matters leave no room for translation mistakes – but how do you make sure?

evs2 — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 10:52:36 +0000

A small error in a legal translation can mean the difference between winning and losing a case.

When recently tasked with translating an urgent request from our client, we looked at over 90,000 words in 4 working days and found the solution:

“100,000 words. 21 legal contracts. Definitely achievable; but we must take into account formatting, proofreading, desktop publishing, assigning the translation, glossary development and project coordination”, says Project Manager Beata Kowalczyk.

So where do you start with a project like this?

Step by step: First the Project Manager assembles and coordinates a global team of translators and proofreaders for this project. The Project Manager ensures all parties are aware of their responsibilities and submission timeframes. Our global DTP department began pre-formatting and preparing all 21 files into an editable translation format. Starting with the files that were due for translation by our US translation team (coordinated by our Atlanta, GA office) and finishing the remainder of the files that were to be translated by our UK translation team (coordinated by our Nottingham, UK office) so that our UK translators had their files ready in their inboxes first thing in the morning. Before receiving any translations, our proofreaders create a unique glossary of terms that would enable all translators and proofreaders to ensure that all key terminology maintained consistent throughout all 21 files.

Is this normal procedure? There is very few companies in the world that can offer this level of service and project management expertise.

Mr Vick, Founder of the EVS Translations group said “We do not aim to be normal, we strive to be exceptional, this is why we follow stringent quality processes and have specialist legal teams in place for such critical projects. Using this glossary, the latest translation software and our streamlined project workflow all 21 files were translated in line with one another, although the two teams remained thousands of miles apart.”

EVS Translations has a team of over 40 full time in-house translators as well as our network of qualified and highly experienced legal translators that ensured our client the highest quality translation even in such a short timeframe.

Why use a translation company as opposed to freelance translators?

evs2 — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 10:24:55 +0000

Every year companies invest a lot of money in outsourcing their translation projects to either freelance translators or translation companies. According to figures, only one third of these businesses are pleased with their language services providers.

What is the difference?

Professional translation companies have in-house IT, DTP, project management and quality assurance departments as well as being an all-in-one solution for all multilingual translation projects.

Translation companies as a rule prefer to work with in-country teams of translators rather than with individual freelancers. Team work is now gradually becoming best practice in the translation industry.

A team of translators usually consists of:

translators: translators are native speakers of the target language. They input all available resources into the material for translation. In their work, translators interact with a translation facilitator.
translation facilitator: translation facilitators contribute with linguistic and/or technical help.
translation reviewer or proofreader

Freelance translator vs a translation company

A freelance translator is usually an expert in one or two language combinations.

For large-scale translation projects or translation projects that involve using more than one translator, using an in-house team of translators has major advantages, especially noticeable in the consistency of styles and convergence of vocabulary.

A freelance translator typically has expertise in one or a couple of industry sectors and might struggle with various specialisations (legal, commercial, technical, medical, financial, IT, chemical translation etc). To be successful, a freelance translator has to also be a computer expert (in a way) investing money in up to date software.

Some freelancers offer project management services but what happens when your translation project requires additional services such as proofreading by a second translator, editing, back translation, transcription and glossary creation?

A translation company that employs in-house translators and designated proofreaders are familiar with each other’s writing styles, preferences and even terminology choices. However the proofreader should always be the favourable party. Proofreaders should be used because they are industry specialists only in one area. They should be highly experienced industry professionals with qualifications and background in their chosen subject area. This is also indicated in the BS EN-15038:2006 standards for translation companies.

Lastly, translation companies offer accountability and follow a policy of building intensive and long-standing relationships with clients.

The odds show satisfaction from freelance translators vs. translation companies been 1:4 in advantage of translation companies. Companies that have a global presence will have the need for what is known as Multi Language Vendors to manage translations from 1 into often 20-30+ languages and therefore managing multiple freelancers will become a task on its own with the need for additional resource to coordinate.

Dangerous Deeds: The Risky Business of Renaissance Translators

evs2 — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 13:48:49 +0000

Es ist mein Testament und mein Dolmetschung, und soll mein bleiben und sein.
Martin Luther “Sendbrief vom Dolmetschen und Fuerbitte der Heiligen”

Modern translators certainly face a lot of pressures from their clients. Literary authors want to ensure that their distinctive style of writing is preserved even in a language other than their own, while corporate clients may fear the legal consequences of a misconstrued mission statements and inaccurate contracts. While these daily pressures can certainly plague the mind of a professional translator, they pale in comparison to the dangers their historical predecessors faced. For Renaissance translators, finding the right words was often a matter of living with the blessings of royal patronage or burning at the stake.

In late September of 1536 the British scholar and translator William Tyndale was led to a public execution site near Vilvoorde in present day Belgium. The Englishman had been found guilty of heresy and treason and was now to be strangled and his body subsequently to be burned on the stake. Tyndale was a famous scholar of his time, but neither his fame nor his friendship with Thomas Cromwell could safe him from the public burning. Tyndall, a true child of the reformation and the changing intellectual and religious climate in Europe was the first to translate considerable parts of the Old and New Testament into English, thereby laying the groundwork for the authoritative King James translation of 1611. While his efforts to translate the Holy Scriptures from Greek and Latin into the English vernacular catapulted him to the top of the reformed scholar community of particularly Germany and France, they also placed him into the sights of the counter-reformation. When Tyndale added insult to injury and publicly opposed the divorce of Henry VIII from Catherine of Aragon his fate was sealed and he paid the price for both political and religious insubordination at the stake.

Not unlike his British contemporary, Etienne Dolet was both a public intellectual and a productive translator. In addition, he made a name for himself as one France’s leading printers who published, besides the standard repertoire of clerical and philosophical works, the volumes of French novelist Francois Rabelais. In his translations, Dolet mainly focused on the works of Plato and it was this passion for the ideas of the Greek philosopher that would ultimately cost Dolet his life. After Dolet had already been imprisoned multiple times on charges of alleged atheism and even murder, he was again charged with atheism and heresy in the summer of 1546. This time, however, the prosecution at the theological faculty of the Sorbonne judged his offense especially grave as they presented hard evidence for the charges. As proof for his heretic beliefs the tribunal cited his recent translation of one of Plato’s Dialogues in which, as James Munday explains, Dolet had added “the little phrase rien du tout (“nothing at all”) in a passage about what existed after death” (Munday 24). After short deliberation the translator’s own words were deemed sufficient proof for his atheistic relapse and on August 31546 Dolet was publicly burned after he had been strangled and his body tied to a wooden pole in the Place Maubert.

William Tyndale and Etienne Dolet both burnt at the stake for their translations of religiously sensitive material. In a time of increasing tension between the defenders of the status quo and the emerging forces of religious and cultural change, church officials felt that their translations diverged too far from the “correct,” that is officially sanctioned reading, of the bible and its meaning. Nonetheless, both cases also exemplify the power of the written word and its seminal importance for the spread of revolutionary ideas; both in the Latin and Greek of the ancient philosophers and scholars and in the vernacular translations that reached the ordinary people. It is therefore no surprise that the possibly most famous of all translators of the period, Martin Luther, had something to say about the importance of translations for the spread of the Reformation.

Martin Luther is, of course, most famous for his translations of the New (1522) and the Old Testament (1534). In addition, however, he also wrote an explanation of his translation that outlines his methodology while addressing the criticism directed against his use of the German vernacular. Luther’s “Sendbrief vom Dolmetschen und Fürbitte der Heiligen” (1530), he responded to the criticism that he had altered passages of the bible, “mistranslated them” and thereby distorted the divine message of the holy text. In a remarkable passage he answers the accusations by highlighting the individual aspect of all faith and points out that his translation not only spreads the gospel but also teaches the population, and the nobility, proper German. His bible translation is in Luther’s eyes therefore not only a religious achievement but also a social accomplishment. Luther writes:

Aber dieweil ich gewuβt, und noch vor Augen sehe, daβ ihrer keiner recht weiβ, wie man dolmetschen oder deutsch reden soll: hab ich sie und mich solcher Mühe überhoben. Das merkt man aber wohl, daβ sie aus meinem Dolmetschen Deutsch lernen Deutsch reden und schreiben, und stehlen mir also meine Sprache, davon sie zuvor wenig gewuβt; danken mir aber nicht dafür, sondern brauchen sie viel lieber wider mich. Aber ich gönne es ihnen wohl; denn es thut mir doch sanft, daβ ich auch meine undankbaren Jünger, dazu meine Feinde reden gelehrt habe. (274)

Fortunately the times in which translators risk their lives by the mere selection of the text they translate or the language they choose are over. Nonetheless, it seems appropriate to pause and remember from time to time how translators, publishers, and printers have helped to promote the ideas of freedom and equality we cherish and thereby shaped the societies we live in today.

Already tied to the stake, Tyndale utters his famous last words as the executioner strangles him.
Illustration from John Foxe’s The Horizon Book of the Elizabethan World. New York: Houghton Mifflin.1967: 73

Works Cited
Luther, Martin. Luthers Volksbibliothek: Ausgewählte vollständige Schriften Dr. Martin Luthers. St.Louis: Wiebusch und Sohn, 1867.
Munday, James. Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and Applications. New York: Routledge, 2001.

Google Translate now supports Esperanto

evs2 — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 14:55:13 +0000

On 22 February, Google officially declared Esperanto to be the 64th supported language in Google Translate.

The Esperanto language was created by Dr. Ludwig L. Zamenhof in the late 1800s. Designed to be a politically neutral lingua franca, the primary goals of the language were to be easy to learn, spread on an international basis and to foster world peace.

Though Esperanto has never been listed as an official second language of any recognised nation, is the most widely spoken artificially constructed auxiliary language.

According to Wikipedia data:

“The number of speakers ranges from 10,000 to 2 million.
Esperanto is spoken in about 115 countries, and use of it is especially high in Europe, East Asia, and South America.
It is the 27th most used language in Wikipedia articles.”

The Esperanto language was constructed in such a way that it is easy for people to learn. It is thus easy for computers to translate. Being a very exact and logical language, it is particularly well suited for use as an intermediate language in computer translations.

The addition of Esperanto to the list of supported languages in Google Translate can be viewed as a symbolic measure, emphasising the goal of both Esperanto and Google Translate — helping people around the globe to communicate better.

Food for thought

evs2 — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:33:03 +0000

I was on the train recently and the previous occupant of my seat had thoughtfully left behind a copy of one of that day's broadsheet newspapers - in the literal sense of the word as well.

After reading some interesting articles on topics such as the Berlin Philharmonic touring Asia and single women "borrowing" their best friends' husbands for various household tasks and concluding with the question as to why none of the author's husband's single male friends ever phoned up to "borrow" the author for household tasks, I was just scanning the rest of one section when a small article about the donation of a collection of hamburgers to a museum caught my eye.

As a proofreader always on the lookout for something new or unusual, I was intrigued by the fact that over 30,000 items were going to be donated. Instantly in my mind I tried to imagine all the different types of hamburgers, cheeseburgers, fishburgers, veggieburgers, gherkins, sauces, rolls and other ingredients and paraphernalia that it would take to amass this number of articles for donation. Perhaps the memory of a summertime job in a "McDo" in the rue de rivoli in Paris in the 1980s also heightened my interest - what sort of objects would I have collected from hamburger restaurants? Would people really want to see them on display, and possibly even pay for the privilege?

As is my wont when proofreading and coming across something unusual, I went back over the text to make sure that I had read everything properly. It was just as well I did. The article was actually about a collector from Hamburg, who was in the process of donating a spectacular collection of Egyptian artefacts to a museum.

The 30,000 articles were right, as were Hamburg and collector, but I had overlooked the lack of a hyphen in the German between "Hamburger" (of/from Hamburg) and "Sammlung" (collection). That brings to mind some other amusing linguistic misunderstandings involving food, but more about that another time.

Film titles translation pitfalls

evs2 — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 07:56:14 +0000

We’ve all heard hilarious tales of films given titles in foreign languages that either completely miss the point, change it completely or give away the ending. Apparently, “Grease” became “Vaseline” inArgentina... The question is, can a great film title be replicated when transferred to other languages, and if it is, would it work?

One of the key ways to get people flocking to the cinema is to come up with a snappy, yet intriguing title for your film. As a bit of an action movie fan, I can't think of a better example than “Die Hard”. Simple yet effective, it has spawned a whole host of – in my opinion inferior – tributes.

In Germany, “Die Hard” became “Die Slowly” (Stirb Langsam). Translating the English title literally (Stirb Hart) just wouldn’t work, but the German title used keeps the short, sharp punch of the original. And let’s face it, whatever adjective you use, when you couple it with the word “die”, it’s not going to be good, is it?

But if you can’t replicate it exactly, it must be possible to come up with a different title that still encapsulates the spirit of the film. Take “The Full Monty” for example, or “All or Nothing” (Ganz oder Gar Nicht) as it became in German. Different titles, same concept. And it works in both directions. The German film “Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei” (literally: The fat years are over) – about a group of young political activists – is known in English-speaking regions as “The Edukaters”, a title that conveys what the characters are trying to achieve, while the misspelling keeps it edgy.

SEO translation. Website translation and optimisation

evs2 — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 10:27:45 +0000

SEO translation is the translation and optimisation of a website into foreign languages.

Combining the website’s content translation process with content optimisation ensures that the foreign language copy is professionally written and optimised in order to most efficiently be read by users and search engines.

Our SEO translation services are designed to ensure that the client’s website content is
search-engine- and user-friendly.

Typical steps involved in SEO translation services are:

Keyword research and localisation

The client provides a list of pre-defined keyword phrases that they currently (or would like to) have optimised in the source language.

These keyword phrases will act as a basis for optimisation in foreign languages. However our SEO experts carry out a thorough keyword research for the target languages and markets. If this step is left out and the keyword phrases are just literally translated then this can seriously affect the optimisation performance. It is vital that all keywords are correctly analysed, adapted and localised specifically for the relevant target markets/languages.

The localised keyword suggestions are then submitted to the client for their final approval.

Keyword mapping

Once the keyword phrases have been determined, the next step will be to map the website architecture and text structure based on the keyword phrases.

The translation company should create a sitemap of the website structure (internal linking) and assign the target keyword phrases to the relevant web pages.

Secondly, a map of the text content structure (hierarchy of topics/paragraphs) is created for each individual web page that has to be optimised.

Text content translation and optimisation - SEO copywriting

After the completion of the keyword phrases and text content mapping, the translation can begin.

The mapping will ensure that the translators keep the translation consistent with the optimisation process.

Our translators will not provide a literal translation of the source text, but will instead perform a translation with optimisation in mind, basing the text content around the keyword phrases.

This technique is known as SEO copywriting.

Meta tags, image titles and anchor text creation and optimisation

For effective optimisation, as well as the actual web page content itself, the keyword phrases need to also be present in:

· Meta tags (title tag and description – found in the HTML source code)
· Image alt texts and titles (the text that describes an image)
· Anchor text / navigational links (the visible, clickable text used in hyperlinks)

Our SEO copywriters will ensure that keywords are used at the correct density.

Best SEO results are found when the on-site optimisation is combined with:

link building
search engine submissions
social media positioning and marketing
SEM and PPC campaigns
article and blog creation and marketing
copy written email marketing campaigns

EVS Translations can offer all of the aforementioned services, along with performance monitoring and reporting.

If you are interested in getting your website translated, localised and optimised then contact our Business Development Manager – Mr Gregg Babbs on +44 1159 644283. Or alternatively email him on
Gregg.Babbs (at) evs-translations.com

German Anglicism for 2011

evs2 — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:11:06 +0000

Shitstorm is the “German Anglicism for 2011”. According to an independent German jury which selected it from some 60 proposals, “The word fills a gap in the German vocabulary resulting from changes in the public culture of discussion. Over the last year the word has moved from the net community into normal use.”

Criteria for German Anglicism of the Year are that the English word must fill a gap in the vocabulary, find broad acceptance in general use and fit well into the verbal and grammatical structure of the German language. Shitstorm – this year’s winning word – fits all these categories.
It describes ongoing and unplanned outrage about the behaviour of persons in public life or institutions, a criticism carried by social networks and blogs. It quickly becomes independent, moves away from the factual core and spills over into the traditional media. According to the jury “shitstorm” describes a new type of protest differing in type and scope to what happened in the past. The word allowed a clear differentiation to words such as criticism, protest or indignation. And even though the word comes from American slang, it is not considered vulgar in Germany.

The second ranked German Anglicism was stresstest.

EVS assists emerging companies to access new markets

evs2 — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:32:36 +0000

Every year the renowned global media company Red Herring publishes its Red Herring 100 list. Evaluated based on numerous criteria, including technological innovation, original leadership, and financial growth. The companies included in the top 100 reflect new trends in global business and emerging industries.

While Red Herring publishes a top 100 for Asia, Europe and North America, the elite circle of companies who make it onto the lists are great indicators where technological innovation is headed.

When we take a closer look at last year’s selection of companies that made the list of the top 100 in North America, we notice that the vast majority of companies share two factors. Firstly, many of the top 100 businesses come from the software, internet technology, and computer hardware sectors. Secondly, almost all of the companies on the 2011 list operate globally.

Especially in global economies like the software and IT-sectors the ability to effectively present one’s product and ideas is an absolute necessity. While English is still the dominant language in the software world, there is a growing demand for multilingual software localization. Consider, for example, the statistic below which shows the rapid growth of internet users in China.

As companies enter into the global marketplace, the need for a global multilingual product becomes a necessity as well as the demand for legal and marketing translations. EVS Translations works with many of the world’s leading software companies, giving them access to the global marketplace.

EVS Translations provides multilingual translation and localization solutions for user interface components such as dialog boxes, menus, text strings and error/status messages as well as online documentation tools including help files, java files, and read-me files.

With an in-house team of IT professionals, experienced in web design and scripting, internet marketing, promotion and search engine optimization that is backed by an in-house team of multilingual DTP and graphics engineers, EVS Translations is able to offer the highest quality multilingual website and software localization services.

REQUEST A FREE QUOTATION NOW

Irritating Expansion, or “How do we fit 20% more text in the space allowed” – InDesign Blues

evs2 — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:03:08 +0000

The fascinating thing about language is that it tends to grow.

The positive part about that is that it adapts with the people who use it, so it never “goes out of style” – unless of course, all the people who speak it give it up for something less complicated, as happened with Latin.
But from a layouter’s perspective, growth, or better language expansion can be pretty frustrating.
Of course, what we mean by expansion is how much a text “grows” when translated from one language to another.

Take a translation of in InDesign project we recently did from German into FEPS (French, English, Portuguese and Spanish).

The text we had in German fit perfectly in the layout the global automotive client provided; after all, they have professional layouters creating their InDesign files, and their language being German, it obviously looked great.
But when you translate into French, for example, you end up with about 20% more text – that means every sentence is about 20% longer than it was in the original.
Problem is, the space allowed for the text doesn’t change, so we have to figure out how to get those 20% to still fit.
If there’s extra space allowed on the page (hint to any clients reading this!) we can compensate by simply filling up the empty space. If there isn’t, we have to start fiddling with font sizes, space between characters and lines and get pretty creative.
The fun really starts when even the font size and the spacing are only allowed to change minimally.
And then consider that Portuguese still expands 10% more than French, a total of 30% longer than the original German.
That was a headache!
But at the end of the day, what counts is that we managed, with some cooperation on the part of the client, and delivered what the client needed: a multilingual version of their user guide in print-ready InDesign format.
And besides, another challenge we tackled – if not for the first or last time – is always good for our personal sense of satisfaction.

BRIC regions – how to overcome language issues

evs2 — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 07:00:13 +0000

As automotive sales in the BRIC regions are set to rise significantly over the next 10 years, international OEMs and automotive suppliers are preparing to take advantage.

We take a look at what potential language issues companies may face when entering these markets.

What languages are spoken?

Firstly, it is important to understand the local languages and dialects that are spoken in these countries to consider whether your company may encounter any language barriers.

Brazil – Brazilian Portuguese (there is a difference between European Portuguese so be sure to bear this in mind)

Russia – Russian is the official language of Russia, however 27 different languages are considered official languages in various regions of Russia, along with Russian.

India – Hindi is the official language although English is the secondary official language. Other popular languages include Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Punjabi, Gujarati, Kannada and Malayalam.

China – The main two languages in China are Cantonese and Mandarin. But your translation company will often ask you whether you need Simplified or Traditional Chinese, so it will be useful to take note of which is which. Cantonese is Traditional Chinese and Mandarin is Simplified Chinese. Mandarin is the official language of the Republic of China. Cantonese is mainly spoken in Hong Kong, Macau and the Guangdong province in China.

What are the factors to consider when translating for these markets?

Although many international OEMs and automotive suppliers regularly produce documentation that is translated, they are often unaware of the ways in which the languages of the BRIC regions can pose translation issues.

We have compiled a short list of the most common problem areas:

Font compatibility issues
Creating print-ready pdf files
Layout/Formatting/DTP issues
Authoring with internationalisation in mind
Translation vs localisation
Managing quality via in-country partners
Incorrect use of technical terminology
Incorrect understanding/use of abbreviations
Translation memory issues
Time differences creating product delays

Case studies

We take a look at a recent case study addressing one of the above issues. Other case studies will be provided over future editions of the newsletter.

Case Study

Managing quality via in-country partners

Our client approached us looking for a long-term partner to provide a Simplified Chinese language solution. Having a presence in China through several distribution channels, they had traditionally let their Chinese partners assume responsibility for the translation of their technical and marketing documentation into Simplified Chinese.

However, they had concerns that they were not able to control the quality of the documentation that was being provided to their Chinese clients.

They still wanted to keep their Chinese distribution partners involved in the translation process in some way, as they felt they offered a valuable insight into the Chinese market and how to effectively market and sell products in China.

Solution

Being highly experienced in working with this channel of information exchange, EVS Translations was able to provide its client with an ideal solution.

Firstly, we needed to assess the quality and usability of their existing Simplified Chinese technical documentation and marketing materials.

Utilising our large team of in-house translators and our in-house localisation engineers, we aligned their English and Simplified Chinese documentation to establish a translation memory. This memory was fully analysed and cleaned with the input of the client and their distribution partners so that it contained only accurate and acceptable client-specific terminology which is to be used for all future translations.

We then got together on dissecting their documentation for client-specific and industry-specific technical terms and abbreviations. The English terms and abbreviations were then submitted to all of their Chinese distribution partners to compile a list of equivalent Chinese terms and abbreviations. This can be very challenging because some of the terms simply do not exist in Chinese, so suitable alternatives had to be carefully considered.

Interestingly, even though these partners all work in the same industry for the same client, their suggestions were not identical – even for those terms and abbreviations that do exist.

Alongside the suggestions of the partner, EVS Translations submitted its list of equivalent terms and abbreviations as well.

Now, all parties (EVS Translations, its client and its distribution partners) communicated together to create a final master glossary list.

Once the glossary and TM had been established, our client had a secure way of monitoring and improving its quality and consistency for all of its Simplified Chinese documentation. The glossary and TM are constantly updated after every translation using the same communication exchange channels to ensure that they are always accurately maintained and up-to-date.

Future

The client has now partnered with us to provide a translation solution in over 10 languages.

For more information on how EVS Translations could help you, please contact us:
E-mail - uk(at)evs-translations.com
Phone - +44 1159 644283

EU membership and the Croatian automotive industry

evs2 — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:38:48 +0000

At the European Summit in December, the European Union and Croatian leaders signed Croatia's EU Accession Treaty. Following the recent Croatian referendum on EU membership, it seems the large majority of Croatian people want to join the European Union and accession is now foreseen for 1 July 2013.

The set of official EU languages is now bound to grow.

In order to reduce translation and interpreting costs, some European diplomats unofficially proposed that a single language, a hybrid of Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian and Montenegrin be admitted. Such a language would not be changed when other Western Balkan states eventually acceded to the EU. Such suggestions, however, have been deemed incompatible European Union legislation.

The EU's acceptance of Croatian as an official language will result in a considerable increase in the demand for Croatian translations and for some industries, the result will be that all documentation accompanying products sold to Croatia will have to be translated into Croatian.

How will EU membership affect the Croatian automotive industry?

The automotive sector in Croatia can be attractive for foreign investors.

The main strengths of the Croatian market:

Cost competitiveness
Geographical proximity to markets
Strong historical legacy
Skilled workforce

Croatian Automotive Cluster

Founded: December 2006
50 member companies
Total employment: 6,000+ employees
Total turnover 2010: EUR 420 million
Exports - 90% to Western European countries/regions
Cluster members: production companies, engineering companies, R&D institutions
Export markets: Germany, Austria, Italy, France, etc.
Major clients: BMW, Bentley, Ferrari, Ford, Mercedes, Opel, Renault, Peugeot, Scania and Volkswagen Group.

Some of the cluster's clients are the most prominent companies in the global automotive market.

As of 1 July 2013, all companies from the automotive industry marketing their products in Croatia will be obliged to provide a Croatian translation of any product documentation.

This will impact the global content strategies of companies wishing to take advantage of Croatia’s EU membership status.

For further information on how EVS Translations could be your ideal Croatian language partner, please feel free to contact us.

E-mail - uk(at)evs-translations.com
Phone - +44 1159 644283
Website - www.evs-translations.com