Author Archives: Terralíngua

Technical Tips for Website Localization

We have always talked about the challenges that translators face in terms of language, grammar, composition, cultural sensitivities, and so on. However, have you ever considered any adjustments the technical team has to make if a website has to be translated? There are a few basic but important rules that the technical team has to follow if the website has to be localized and made available in a range of different languages. Here are some technical tips for translating websites.

Use Unicode for Encoding and Serving Your Web Pages

It goes without saying that encoding is one of the basic levels of security a web developer incorporates in his or her website. However, there are different encoding standards and formats that can be followed. But if the website has to be translated and served in a number of different languages, the best encoding format that can be used is Unicode. There are more than 110,000 characters in the Unicode format and no language has so many characters. Therefore, Unicode can be used for all languages without any encoding issues.

Using Styles as Opposed to Using Tags

If you want to localize your website, it is better to use style sheets rather than using the tag for changing the font of the content. The issue here is that not all computers will have the font set that your computer will have. So, if you use the tag, the formatting might not happen as you intended and the text will be displayed as plaintext. On the other hand, styles in style sheets do not require the font to be present in the computer of the user. In case there is any variation in the font size or formatting as well, the style sheets will automatically readjust.

XML Documents are Ideal for Localized Sites

XML or XHTML files are ideal for coding a website if it has to be translated into different languages. XML documents support a number of language fonts and are supported by a number of online translation softwares also. As a result, the time taken to convert XML files into different languages is much shorter. Also, translators can work with the actual code of the web page, which will further simplify their task.

Avoid Graphics Wherever Possible; Use Text Instead

It is not that graphics cannot be translated into different languages. It is just that the effort required to convert graphical content in one language to another is very high. There are a number of processes involved in creating animated graphical content and it is just not a question of running it through a translator. The whole process has to be repeated from the start. To avoid this, try to use text instead of graphics. With a little bit of creativity, you can create effective content even without the usage of graphics.

Navigation

Take the example of a page converted into Arabic from English. English is read from left to right while Arabic is read from right to left. As a result, if the menu bar of the English site is on the left hand side, the menu bar for the Arabic version should be on the right hand side. So, ensure that the navigation of the site is designed in such a way that it can be translated independently.

Avoid Embedded Scripts or Keep Them Invisible

Try to avoid embedded scripts like SQL queries, JavaScript, etc. in your web pages. This will allow the translator to be more flexible with translations. If you have no other choice but to use embedded scripts, try to keep them hidden as much as possible.

Integrating Translation in Business Documents Development Process

Businesses that have operations in more than one country have to ensure the important business documents they use for communication should be understandable to all their employees and clients. If the locations are in countries where there are different local languages (for example USA and China, where the native languages are English and Chinese), the business documents have to be translated into the local languages to ensure effective communication. Most of the times, the companies draft the business documents in English and then worry about the translation part.

However, there are two ways in which you can go about translating the business documents into the local language. Either the documents can be drafted in English and then submitted to a translation company, or the translation process can be integrated into the development process of the business documents.

Why Translation Should Be a Part of the Document Development Process

Business documents have to be developed in such a way that they can be officially sent out to all the branch offices. They should not have any errors and should communicate the same message, irrespective of the language they are in. If you translate business documents later, you might run the risk of altering the meaning of the message that the document conveys. Also, the biggest factor to be considered is the time. Translation will take a certain amount of time, valuable time that you may not have at your disposal. Keeping all these factors in mind, we can conclude that it is a good option to include document translation as a part of the development process.

How to Include Translation Services in the Business Documents Development Process

To find the solution to this problem, you must actually analyze the process that your organization employs to develop business documents. By and large, most companies develop the documents during the course of the business meeting and finalize them after the meeting, or hand over the information to the documentation team after the business meeting is over for drafting.

If you choose the first method, it is always better to have someone who is fluent in English and the native language in which your company’s branch is located as a part of the meeting. If you use the second method of documentation, you can have the translation team and the original documentation team working in parallel to ensure that the documents in English and the other languages to be translated into are ready at the same time. Whichever way you choose, you save valuable time by integrating translation services into your business documents development process.

Some Tips to Facilitate Easy Translation

It is important that you work in a way such that the translation team will also find their job easier. After all, a company is all about team work and mutual support. If you follow some of the tips given below while developing business documents, you will make the job of the translation team easier.

Stay Away from Cultural References

Business and culture may not have much in common, but there could be certain situations where cultural references are used. Such references may not be relevant in another culture, and make no sense when translated into another language. To avoid that confusion, it is best to avoid cultural references altogether.

Stay Away

from Idioms

Idioms in English are very difficult to be translated into another language. So, it is always better that you avoid the usage of idioms in business documents. Use a simple tone with direct words rather than referenced idioms.

Employ Consistency in Style

Never change the style of the document between paragraphs as translators will find it difficult to achieve consistency in the translated document. A simple tip to avoid this is to allow one person to draft the entire document while the other feed him/her ideas.

Six Important Software Localization Guidelines

Imagine a scenario where you have translated your software into a number of different languages. You have announced the release date also. And then, you may suddenly realize that you have made the software available in most languages, but have not really tested them in all. The fact that you do not know if the software actually runs in a particular language can lead to panic. To avoid stressful situations like this, here are some rules that you can follow.

Convert User Strings into Resource Files

When you have a string that is visible to the user, make sure that you convert it into resource files. Examples of user visible strings are error messages, product names, titles, image strings, etc. When you add these strings in resource files, you can easily translate them. Most translators specify values to different translated strings. When a user selects a particular language, the software matches it with the translator value you have assigned and text in the corresponding language is displayed.

Avoid String Concatenation

Concatenation bug is one of the most common bugs that localization experts have to deal with on a regular basis. Take the example of a shopping site that allows you to buy t-shirts. The shirts available on the site could be of different colors. When you write the translator code for, let’s say French, you would use the commonly used French term for shirt and just append the translated version of the color that the user picks. But for French, this kind of translation does not work. French uses modifiers before some words and don’t use it for others and ignoring this aspect will result in wrong translation. So, the best way to avoid this bug is by completely avoiding string concatenation.

Include Punctuation Marks in Resource Strings Only

Punctuation marks also work like concatenations, except that punctuation rules differ from language to language. So, you cannot let punctuation marks be as they are and just translate the words. The best way to deal with this is to put all the punctuation marks into the resource strings. This way, you can add the relevant punctuation marks wherever necessary according to the translated text, without any grammatical errors.

Be Careful With First Names

In North America, people tend to use the last name more regularly. In some eastern countries, predominantly Asian, some people will have only one name. You cannot figure out if it’s the first or last. Obviously, the direct translation algorithm will mess this up and the blunders can be frankly embarrassing. The errors will be in the prefix to the name. To avoid this, make sure to add a gender tag to the name so that you have a comparative parameter while translating the string and add the right prefix.

Make Provision for Extension and Compression of Strings

When the user interface is designed, sentences will have a specific number of characters. But the problem in translation is that some words that are short in one language are long in another. The best way to deal with this issue is not to have any limitation in characters in the layout. You can just allow the text to orient itself in the space available. Just ensure that there is enough space for the strings to grow or shrink.

Stick to UTF-8 Character Encoding

Another issue that you are going to face with translated text is character encoding. There is the UTF-16 standard that you will be tempted to use. But keep in mind that UTF-8 is ideal for all your needs. Make sure you invoke the encoding at the top of your page to avoid any confusion and ensure that the standard is maintained throughout. Make sure you maintain this uniformity across all UI pages’ code.

Challenges of Software Localization

Software development is a constant necessity and a booming business in today’s IT world. There are a number of companies that produce high quality software. To ensure the global reach of the software that they produce, developers make it available in multiple languages. While this is a logical move by the company, there are a number of hurdles that the developers have to overcome. The basic source code will remain the same, but the user interface (UI) designers will have to work with the translation team to ensure that the software is effectively localized. Here are a few solutions to the challenges that the developers would face while localizing the software.

Localization Should Begin When the Coding Starts

If you are familiar with the software development cycle, you are aware of the fact that the user interface (UI) design is finalized before the coding part actually begins. So, the team responsible for the development of UI will already have started working even before the source code work starts. As a result, the UI team will have to work with the translation team to ensure that the UI is effectively localized. For each region, a separate UI is designed and coded. The basic design and layout remains the same. Only the text in the UI will be made available in the regional languages.

All Editions Should Be Rolled Out Simultaneously

One of the secrets of successful software is its simultaneous global release. When you release software on a global scale, your competitors have fewer chances of getting the jump on you to release their products. As a result, translators also have to work on a tight schedule to ensure that the localized UIs are ready for a global release. This is not an easy task especially if the localization is handled by a single company. They will have to work on tight deadlines and ensure that the quality is of the highest order.

Help File and Legal Documents Translation

One of the biggest challenges that a localization team will face while working with software localization is its technical documents. Localization experts are well versed in languages but they are not aware of the minor technical details which are crucial for a technical manual or a help file that is provided with the software. So, the translators will have to work with the technical team to ensure that they get all the minor details spot-on.

The same is true for legal documents. Without being aware of the legal ramifications, a translator might use terms that are considered legally wrong. To avoid this, translators should closely co-ordinate with the legal team to translate the legal documents accurately without any discrepancies.

Although the aforementioned activities are fairly simple and straightforward, they consume a lot of time. Also, quality is something that cannot be compromised on while localizing software.

Updated Content

When an update or a patch to the software is released, the developer team must ensure that the UI patches, if any, should be localized. The localization team will again have to work with the developers to get the terms in question right. If any content in the help file or the software content has to be updated, the relevant patches should be localized before they are released.

Cultural Barriers

There are certain cultural barriers that the localization team should be aware of while working on localizing particular software. For example, the usage of specific terms might be culturally inappropriate in some parts of the world, although it is accurate on a grammatical basis. Similarly, these small cultural details should be at the back of the localizing experts while they are working on software localization.

Top Language Choices for Technical Publications

It is a very well-known fact that English is not the most widely spoken language in the world. Although it is considered as a global language, not everyone can speak it. People from countries with the largest economies of the world, like China, Japan, Germany, France and Brazil, prefer to use their native language as opposed to English. So if you decide to sell your products in areas where English is not the main language, you should provide user/technical manuals in those local languages. Then, you may wonder about the number of languages you need the manual in if your product is offered globally.

Target Areas

The truth is that you will not need the manual in so many languages. Before you make your choice on the preferred languages, you must first consider which areas you are trying to target. For example, if you are targeting only a few countries for your business, then consider only those regions’ languages. But if you want to make your publications available on a global scale, here are some of the top language choices.

Chinese

China has emerged from a developing economy to become one of powerhouses in the modern world. Yet, the majority of the Chinese population is not familiar with English. That is because Chinese government promotes education in its national language rather than in English.
If you translate your technical publications into Chinese, you can actually reach the largest population on earth while in terms of economic opportunity you can reach approximately 6.1% on a global scale.

Japanese

Japan has always been a country that is known for its technological development, despite the fact that the country is often affected by natural disasters. By translating your technical publications into Japanese, you can reach out to around 4.5% of the online population. But the economic opportunities or business opportunities that you can generate by translating your technical publications into Japanese is a decent 10.5% owing to the Japanese economic strength.

German

Only 1.4% of world population speaks German, but the economic opportunities that you can generate using the internet by translating your technical publications into German are as significant as 8.4%. Also, Germans have a reputation of being tech savvy and have a very small tolerance level to technical mistakes. So, make sure that the German version of your technical publications is of very high standards.

French

The percentage of global population that exclusively speaks French is only 1.5%. But if you have the technical publications of your products translated into French, you can actually target 6.2% in terms of business opportunities.

Brazilian Portuguese

Brazilian Portuguese is spoken by the 190 million inhabitants of Brazil. The country offers immediate attractions to new market entrants, such as a consistent and stable economy, built on the development model of a policy adopted by the Brazilian government in the last years. The adopted measures made provision for constant growth with generation of formal employment, better income distribution and ability to absorb external and internal shocks.
Therefore, the market for technical translations in Brazil has become highly specialized since the 90’s due to a scenario of growing number of imports, increasing demand for translation of technical publications, the privatization of large enterprises and globalization.

Spanish

Around 7% of the world population speaks Spanish. So, that is the third most sought after language for technical manual translation needs. However, the economic opportunities that you can generate by making your technical manual available in Spanish are a decent 7.8%. Also, there are a few variations of the Spanish language that you should consider while having your website translated into Spanish. It is recommended that you discuss about these variations with your translation company before actually going ahead with the job.

Always Localize!

You can look at this scenario in many different ways, but the percentage of target audience who knows English is rapidly decreasing by the day, due to the growing market size. So, it is always a good idea to have your technical publications translated into more than a couple of languages, especially if you are planning to market the product on a global scale. Terralíngua has the technical and scientific expertise to help you translate your publications into several languages.

Three Common Website Globalization Errors

The internet turned our world into a very small place. Business people have made full use of this situation and are offering their products and services on a global scale. However, one of the challenges they have to face on a regular basis is the language barrier. Even though every part of the world we live in is accessible via the internet, lack of knowledge of the local languages continues to be a problem. To overcome this barrier, business people have come up with a novel idea: offering the website in regional languages.
Although English is accepted as the global language, not everyone on the globe can read, write and converse in English. This is why there are a number of companies that offer professional translation services. You can get your website translated into a number of different languages. However, there are a few common mistakes made by these professional on a regular basis. This article will highlight those errors so that when you get your website translated, you will ensure that these mistakes are not repeated.

Purpose of Translation

Before going into the mistakes that translation professionals make, it is important to understand the purpose of translation. Your website is available in English by default. If a visitor who can’t read English visits your website, he/she should be able to access the website easily, in the language they are comfortable with. The word ‘easily’ here implies that they should be able to get their native language version of site with only a couple of clicks. With that in mind, let’s look at the common website globalization errors.

Using Country Flags for Language Navigation

You would have noticed the small icon of a nation’s flag, with the language printed next to it, on the home page of a website that is available in multiple languages. If you want the site in English, you have to click on the US or UK flag. If you want it in Chinese, you have to click on the Chinese flag. The same holds true for French, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish and other languages.
But did you know for a fact that English is the native language of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and many other countries? Also, Chinese language is not exactly Chinese. There are many regional dialects and variations of the Chinese language. Mandarin is the most used dialect of Chinese as it is the official language of China and is spoken in other areas like Taiwan, and Singapore. Cantonese is spoken in the Canton province of China, Hong Kong and Macao.
As there are differences in spoken Chinese, so also are there differences in written Chinese. Currently Chinese characters are divided in two forms: one is the ‘traditional’ and the other is the ‘simplified’. This split was promoted by the government in 1949 in order to increase literacy rates among the population. The new and simplified version of characters came into use in Mainland China, while the original traditional script was kept in use by the Chinese population outside mainland China (Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao). The fundamental difference between the two forms is that the traditional one uses more strokes and is based on earlier characters. The modern simplified Chinese is much simpler.

Apart from being factually inaccurate, using the flag of a single country to representa language spoken by many might be felt as inconsiderate and disrespectful. For example, with the tension between Taiwan and China, Taiwanese visitors might feel offended if to visit the website in Mandarin, they have to click on the Chinese national flag. This is one mistake you should try to avoid in your site.

Usage of Target Language Script to Indicate the Language Availability

Translated websites are available in many languages, but some of them indicate the available languages in English script. For example, the script used in Chinese language is totally different. As a result, if someone who doesn’t know the basics of English visits your site, they will look at the language choices and fail to recognize the word ‘Chinese’ in English script. That might be a potential client you just lost. It is important to make sure that all available language options in your site are written in their native scripts, so that visitors can easily recognize and access them.

Lack of Visibility of Language Navigation Option

If your website is available in multiple languages, and the navigation option is not clearly visible, there is no point in translating your site. Make sure that the language navigation option is clearly visible on the home page itself. Ideally, place it at the top right corner or the top left corner of your home page to ensure maximum visibility. This will also guarantee that the investment you made on the website translation is worth every penny.

In order to have an adequate assessment of your localization needs, please visit our website and send us a message or request a quote.

Top Tips to Break the Language Barrier

Website availability in multiple languages is a trend popular with most website owners, especially if their target audience is spread globally. However, language translation is something that is not easy and people can easily recognize shoddily translated work. This might even irk some people. To prevent this from happening and to ensure that you break the language barrier, here are a few tips that might come in handy.

Be Careful with Puns and Conversational Expressions

When you translate a line word to word, you might not be very effective in communicating what you intended to. Machine translations carry out word to word translations and are not effective in more than 60% of the sentences. This is where a professional translator will be helpful. The translator will read the whole sentence, the paragraph also, if needed, and translate it in such a way to preserve the true meaning. By doing this, the translator will ensure that the message that you wished to convey is displayed, with very little room for misinterpretation. This problem usually arises with the usage of metaphors, puns, and conversational expressions.

Contraction and Expansion Factors

You may notice that the number of words used in a particular sentence in one language do not remain the same when it is translated into another language. . Due to varying sentence structures and word usage, there will usually be an increase or decrease in the word count. For example, a typical translation from English to Russian will increase the word count by roughly 30%. When you design a web page or a theme, you would have chosen the styling to suit a fixed number of words. If there are more words, you cannot accommodate them. Less number of words implies empty spaces in the web page which doesn’t look good. So, make sure you take this factor into account while getting your site translated.

Cultural and Legal Limitations

Make sure that you take into account the cultural bounds and the legal limitations of the region you are targeting. This is important because you must not post content that will hurt the sentiment of the locals. Similarly, if you post something that is against law, and even if you do it inadvertently, you will be in trouble. Not to mention the hit that your company’s reputation takes. So, try to be as passive as possible and stick to hard facts without being judgmental.

Beware of Machine Translated Text

Machine translations work only on the most basic sentences. If you type in a long complicated sentence, the machine will translate each word as it is. It might result in a sentence that means something different altogether. So, try to avoid machine translations as much as possible. Even if you have to go ahead with machine translations, make sure that you get the output reviewed by someone who is familiar with the language that it is translated into. Also, try to keep the English sentences short and very simple if you are using a machine translator. This will ensure that the translated text is accurate.

Choosing Translator Services Carefully

To avoid all the aforementioned problems, you must be very careful while picking translator services. There might be a number of them on offer but only a handful offer very high quality services. If it comes to budget, try to be a little flexible as translation is a onetime investment and you do not want to compromise on the quality. You can actually do a bit of research before hiring a translation service. Website translation is being considered by almost all companies in a bid to target a global audience. So, chances are that you could get some really good recommendations.

Benefits of Having a Website in Different Languages

Owing to the worldwide accessibility of the net and the web pages on it, business owners are choosing to make their websites available in a number of different languages. To do this, you need the help of a translation expert and you have to pay for the services. If you believe the localization of your website is an unnecessary investment, think again. The benefits of getting your website translated into different, leading local languages makes the investment totally worth it. Here are the top advantages of having your website translated.

Expanding Your Customer Base

English is the universal language and that the one language that you design your website in, by default. However, if you are of the understanding that English can be understood by most of the people in the world, you are wrong. English, although omnipresent, is not understood by many, some of them could be your potential customers. If you are seriously looking to expand your customer base and rope in business from countries around the world, you need to have the website in those local languages. For example, if you want to target German customers, make sure that you make your website available in German.

Engage Customers with Your Site

Imagine that your native language is English but you have learnt French or Spanish or any other foreign language. You might be able to understand it and even read and write the language fluently. But do you get the same feeling as you do when you read English? That is exactly how it feels for people from other countries when looking at your site in English. On the contrary, if it is available in native language, they feel at home when they are viewing your site. A recent survey showed that a potential consumer is more likely to go through the site if it is available in his/her native language rather than in English.

Clarity in Message

By using native languages in your website, you also avoid the confusion that is sometimes created by the usage of English. People who are not so familiar with English might misinterpret a sentence on your site and get the wrong message. This is very bad for business when you look at the bigger picture. So, it is a good idea to have your website available in local languages so that these misinterpretation issues are avoided.

Please visit our website to find out how Terralíngua can help you expand your website beyond the borders.

Search Engine Optimization Benefits of Website Translation

SEO One of the lesser known benefits of getting your website translated into local and regional languages is that you get it optimized for the search engines. You must be well aware of the fact that a website without SEO in today’s world is literally useless. So, when you get the content on your site translated, you must ensure that all the trouble you took to optimize your site is not wasted. Also, keep in mind that your site is reaching out to a global audience, and English is slowly fading out as the most widely used language in the world.

Business or Consumer Site

When your site and the services you are offering are solely for business, having a site in English only will not help. A recent survey conducted by a multinational company showed that although English is still the most widely used language in the business community, the number is reducing steadily. People prefer the local languages like Chinese, French, Spanish, etc., even in business dealings.

Coming to the consumers, it is very well known that people of many nationalities prefer their local language. In fact, recent surveys show that 58% of China’s educated population is not well versed with English. Brazil, for instance, is on the 67th English fluency ranking position in the business environment. Also, other countries like Spain, France, Mexico, Germany, Russia, Sweden, Indonesia, etc. are not far behind.

Implications of the Usage of Local Language to SEO

When people prefer using their local language, they will obviously use the local term for whatever they are searching for. A search engine spider does not understand the term it is searching. It just scours the World Wide Web for the term you specified and latches on to it using compare. In case your site is not optimized for those local terms, you might miss out on a lot of business.

Take the example of someone searching for web design services in Brazil. You must have the term ‘Website Design’ in Brazilian Portuguese in some part of your website for your listing to be shown up on the SERP. Similarly, the same technicality holds good for other languages also. That is the reason why most websites prefer to be presentable in a number of languages.

Some Tips to Keep in Mind

If possible, conduct a SEO survey of the region to which you are catering to and use those keywords on that language in the content of your site. Also, make sure that the language is according to the SEO optimization rules. You might want to take the help of a SEO expert for this.

What to Look for in a Translation Company

Magnifying glass Since most websites are available for a global audience, its availability in different languages is very important. You might be surprised to know that people in some of the most developed nations, including China, are not well versed in English. To translate the content on your site, you have to hire the services of a translation company. Naturally, you look for the best translation company that suits your needs and budget requirements. This article will highlight some of the key characteristics that you have to look for in a translation company before hiring it.

Experience of Translators

Translation is a job that needs a lot of practice. There is no other way of mastering a language except using it in a way where you have to pay attention to grammar and other key aspects of the language. Naturally, more experienced the translator more will be his/her command over the language. Before hiring a translation company, ask for the experience of the translators that it has at its disposal. At Terralingua, for instance, all of the linguists are college graduates in Translation or Linguistics or have at least 3 years of experience in their main translation area. Furthermore, the Terralíngua linguists are all native speakers of the target language, ensuring that the translated text has the required natural fluency so that the final text does not sound like a literally translated text. For example, to translate into German, we only use translators whose native language is German and who live in Germany, and thus are culture sensitive to language nuances.

If after analyzing the company you realize that they have a good experience and they can show the relevant proof to back it up, you can go ahead and hire the company.

Quality of Work

If you are well versed with a language, say English, you might be aware of the fact that there are numerous ways of wording a sentence. All of them might be grammatically correct but only some of them will sound right. You would want your translation company also to use only high quality sentences while translating content on your site. There are number of ways you can gauge the quality of work of a translation company. Here are a few of those ways.

Translation Certificates

Reputed companies obtain certifications from certain internationally accredited boards just to show their clients that their translation is of the highest quality. To be certified, the companies need to have translators who have passed a basic level test and also have some minimum experience. If the company you chose has this certification, you can assume that its work will be of good quality.

Reputation

Like in any other field, good translation companies acquire a reputation for themselves over time. This is a result of their consistent delivery of quality work to clients from around the world. At Terralíngua we have 85% of our clients satisfied with our services. We are always concerned to meet our client’s needs and expectations. We are ISO 9001:2008 certified and SAP partners, which lends us worldwide credibility. If the translation company in your radar has a good reputation, you can assume that the services of this company are of good quality.

Other methods of gauging quality include quality assurance, accuracy, confidentiality, free revision services, among others.

Terralingua uses the LISA method to keep up with linguist quality standards. This method is based on the standards accepted by the localization industry. You can have more information about this methodology by accessing our webpage about the LISA quality assurance.