Sep 1st, 2005 | Agencies, Interviews, Medical Translation, NCTA Info, Translation | No Comments
By Michael Schubert
Monique Rivas is the CEO of NCTA corporate member LUZ, Inc., a global translation services company with headquarters in San Francisco and a production facility in Buenos Aires. Along with partner Sanford Wright, Monique co-founded the company in 1994, when both individuals saw an opportunity to fill a need that was not being met by the marketplace: namely, providing comprehensive translation support for large-scale projects in the life science industries. “Luz” means “light” in Spanish, and it symbolizes the founders’ desire to create a transparent approach to translation service offerings.
Did you grow up bilingually?
Monique Rivas: I am a third-generation Mexican-American and grew up speaking both Spanish and English. But a foreign language can get quite diluted by the time it makes its way down to the third generation, so I did see a need for advanced language studies. I earned a degree in Diplomacy and World Affairs from Occidental College (in Los Angeles, near Pasadena) with a minor in Spanish.
Describe LUZ: type of business, areas of specialization, number of employees …
LUZ translates into about 35 languages—about 80 to 90 percent of our business is from English—with an exclusive focus on life science industries, specifically medical devices, diagnostics, and pharmaceuticals. Since most of our clients are affected by the European Union’s regulations, we have seen increased activity in Eastern and Central European languages. These clients must have their materials translated into the new EU languages; this is no longer a voluntary marketing decision but a necessity for compliance with the In-Vitro Diagnostic Directive and Medical Device Directive. Our market is a highly regulated industry.
To handle this, we have 25 full-time employees and work with 1,500 to 2,000 freelance translators, depending on the workload. Our focus of large-scale medical devices can generate quite a bit of volume. Our San Francisco office handles sales, while the Buenos Aires office focuses on production—translation and desktop publishing.
Is there an advantage to being located in the Bay Area?
Yes! Sanford and I considered the Bay Area to be the ideal place for our business, both because of the biotech centers here and for the proximity to leading universities. We do much of our recruiting at the Monterey Institute for International Studies, Stanford University, and the University of California, San Francisco.
Will the new stem cell research center to open in San Francisco be a boon to your business?
That is still to be determined. Research and development industries have less of a need for translations; most of our business is generated from the tried-and-true industries. The stem cell research center could be helpful as a resource or recruiting center, however.
Has it been your experience that most of your clients understand the importance of quality translation and budget accordingly, or do you have to engage in a lot of client education?
Since we provide services to highly regulated industries, our clients inherently buy quality at two levels: the translation work product and, equally important, consistency of internal production/QA.
Which industry-specific software do you use in-house?
For translation memory, we use TRADOS and SDLX. For Web globalization, we use Idiom’s WorldServer. We have also developed an internal translation management system called Aurora, as well as a suite of TM automation tools.
How has the Internet changed the translation business?
The Internet has changed the business in two ways: Linguists have become more technologically savvy, and the Internet has allowed pharmaceutical companies to expand their business, which in turn has expanded ours.
How do you see your business in five years?
We want to be the industry-recognized number-one provider of life science translations and the best place to work in the industry. Every quarter we measure how much closer we are to that goal.
May 1st, 2005 | Interpretation, Interviews, NCTA Members | No Comments
By Michael Schubert
After working as an interpreter for over 25 years both in Taiwan and in California, NCTA member C.J. Phillips retired at the beginning of this year. Her résumé is a long and distinguished one. She worked as the chief translator and editor at the National Central Library and National Museum of History in Taipei, Taiwan, from 1980-1985, and as a freelance translator and editor before starting work in 1997 as a registered Mandarin interpreter for U.S. District Court in San Jose and for the Santa Clara County Superior Courts. C.J. translated statements made by Democracy Movement leaders following the Tiananmen Massacre for the San Francisco Chronicle in June 1989, and also did work for the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, among others organizations. Visit C.J.’s website, www.cjphillips.com, for more on her amazing career.
While an interpreter, C.J. was an active member of NCTA, as well as the Bay Area Court Interpreters (BACI) and the National Association of Judicial Interpreters and Translators (NAJIT), and is known among her colleagues for her mentoring of younger Chinese interpreters, her presentations at workshops and lectures on interpreter issues, and her work for interpreters’ benefits and rights. C.J. is married to Chinese scholar and author J.H. Huang. They have one daughter, Deborah.
Is your imminent retirement to be a clean break, or do you anticipate still dabbling in translation and/or interpretation?
C.J. Phillips: This should be a clean break from court interpreting, although I still have a few old cases and good clients that will keep me from going completely to pasture. I have some private translation work that will keep me busy, too. This mainly will be translation of classical Chinese works.
What has been the proportion of interpreting to translating over your career, and which activity do you prefer or find more fulfilling?
About 50-50, and I enjoy both types of work very much. From the standpoint of immediate gratification, I got a lot of pleasure out of working as a court interpreter, since I was able to work directly with people. From an intellectual standpoint, translation is wonderful because it gives me time to think about my work and hone it until I’m satisfied with the results. I’ve been very lucky in that I’ve worked in both fields from the very beginning.
I have heard Taiwanese acquaintances say that the simplified written Chinese, dominant on the mainland, is ruining the Chinese language. Do you see it in such stark terms, and do you believe traditional written Chinese can survive whatever eventual reunification there is between China and Taiwan?
I don’t know whether simplification will stand the test of time, but both forms are widely used in the Chinese-speaking world. However, even though government-mandated simplified forms remain the standard in Mainland China, they generally are not understood in the areas that still employ traditional characters. Some of this has to do with politics, but much of this has to do with how a culture evolves. One thing many people forget, though, is that not all the characters were simplified; in fact, only less than ten percent, or around 2,800, so it is only a small fraction.
The Chinese government has a new policy now of “yong jian, ren fan,” meaning that while simplified characters should remain the norm, people should begin to recognize the traditional forms, too. The problem is that while the evolution and sources for traditional script remain very clear, the synthetic creation of the simplified forms cut the language off from its cultural roots. China’s 5,000-year-old history is too closely intertwined with its written language for the traditional forms to be blithely discarded. And the Chinese people I know generally agree with this.
What I’ve found encouraging is that more and more people—particularly the intelligentsia and the young—have returned to traditional script. I’ve even seen everyday people come to the U.S. from Mainland China and start picking up traditional characters so that they can read the paper, watch Chinese television with the subtitles on, and be more a part of the local Chinese community. Of course, the media and the Internet have helped a great deal, too. But I haven’t seen this interest flow in the other direction!
As to which form will last, perhaps the two forms will evolve together into a new form. Who knows? Only time will tell.
I see on your website that you have experience in movie subtitling. Does the recent boom in Chinese martial arts/fantasy cinema represent the kind of Chinese cinema that is also popular in Asia, or are these films directed more toward a Western audience?
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was a hit, as have been films in the same vein such as Hero and House of Flying Daggers. Cross-cultural action movies such as the Matrix series, Shanghai Knights, Tarantino’s films, and so forth have also proved to be big at the box office, but then again, so have all the other big movies we’ve enjoyed here in the U.S.
I imagine you have traveled widely. What are some of your favorite places on Earth?
In no particular order: San Francisco, Chinese Turkestan, Xi’an, Tainan, Beijing, Vancouver, and the Big Apple.
May 1st, 2005 | Interviews, Localization, Machine Translation | No Comments
By Anna Schlegel
Tiziana Perinotti is the founder of TGP Consulting and creator of the award-winning Silicon Valley Localization Forum website and services. She has over 15 years of successful software development and product marketing experience with companies such as Olivetti, Microsoft, PowerUp! (acquired by The Learning Company), Radius, Verity, and Palm Computing, to name a few.
In 1996, she founded TGP Consulting and helped the original founders of Palm Computing (also founders of Handspring) develop what it is now the very successful Palm handheld. Tina has developed and offered training and courseware material for end enterprises as well as freelance translators and translation companies.
Where did you grow up, and when did you come to the U.S.?
TIZIANA PERINOTTI: I was born and raised in Turin, northwest of Milan, near the Italian Alps. I developed a desire to move to the U.S.—Silicon Valley, in particular—when I was in college. So, as a student in Turin, I decided to travel and take communication and other computer summer courses in the U.S. during my visits to an old uncle who used to live in Pittsburgh.
How did you start in the localization field?
Right after my Computer Science degree and Masters in Linguistics, I was recruited by Olivetti, the large computer conglomerate located in Ivrea, near Turin, Italy. At the time, Olivetti was very active in the research field of software office automation, not just for the stylish typewriters the company was manufacturing, but also for the first PC lines.
There was a need to localize Olivetti Italian hardware and software products into English-ready products for all English-speaking markets around the world. In 1997—when the joint venture/OEM project between Olivetti and Microsoft was established—I was sent to Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington, to work on Windows 2.0 and the Windows version for the first 386 machines. We developed all the device drivers for Olivetti that were included in Windows and completed the first localized versions (Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish).
What localization challenges do corporations face today?
The mantra “fast and cheap” localization has reached new levels, and the challenge is how to add “quality” to that equation in a process that has outsourced all skills, including engineering, testing, management, and customer support. Cultural and communication barriers among the product team members located in very different locales are another big challenge as well as a lack of training for IT, engineering, customer support, marketing/sales, and project management staff to be able to operate at the best of their abilities in a stressful, multi-cultural environment under strict deadlines.
What are the new trends you see in localization?
Because of the new challenge of introducing products less expensively, more and more localizers are relying on machine translation tools, online terminology tools, and project management tools to expedite the localization process and achieve consistency. Localization has also expanded beyond the traditional computer and electronics industry; for example, biotech, pharmaceutical, medical device companies, and the government are in need of more localization.
How does English influence other language localization?
In the U.S., in general, my experience has been that corporations tend to be biased towards the English language. Products still tend to be first architected and developed in an English context, before they go through some internationalization process. Part of the problem is that we ask engineering to make certain product development decisions that would be better made by professionals who have the training and experience of designing for a global audience. The outcome of this approach may be a poorly localized product and unsatisfied customers who are forced to use an English-based product with a translated user interface that is less than optimal for them. This is an obvious cost to the company in terms of missed sales revenues and market opportunities.
Have you experimented with machine translation?
Yes, since the very beginning of my career I have used and tested many tools and systems, from the most sophisticated to the very basic ones. I am very pleased with the progress and advancement in this field, and other areas such as voice recognition and search and retrieval engines; all the signs are there that these tools will become better and better and employed in more aspects of our life.
What would you like to see changed in localization?
The mentality, meaning that when corporations need to cut their budgets, one of the first things they drop off their priority list is internationalization and localization. That’s a symptom of not understanding the investment opportunity and added value of the internationalization and localization product cycles.
Feb 1st, 2005 | Chinese, Interpretation, Interviews, Localization | No Comments
By Anna Schlegel
Kaimeng Huang is a Senior Program Manager at Adobe Systems Inc. in San Jose, where she manages the enterprise-level internationalization and localization program of Adobe’s Intelligent Document Business Unit – the developer of Adobe’s flagship product, Adobe Acrobat. A native of the People’s Republic of China, Kaimeng speaks Mandarin and English and is a United Nations-certified conference interpreter.
Where did you grow up? How did your background influence you to enter the field of language and translation?
KAIMENG HUANG: I grew up in Beijing, China. In this wonderfully aesthetic and symmetric city which has been the cultural and political center of China for over 500 years, I acquired all my formal education from kindergarten to university. My father is a nuclear physicist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and an editor-in-chief with the Standards Press of China; my mother is a physician with a local hospital. Both learned Russian in college.
Because of my father’s passion for foreign languages, I started to learn Japanese and English when I was about five years old. Since China was closed to the rest of the world in the early 1970s, I got my first Japanese and English lessons from listening to the radio. I began to take language more seriously when I entered Beijing University in 1988.
In 1992, I applied for the United Nations-sponsored Training Program for Translators and Interpreters at Beijing Foreign Studies University, and received my Master’s in Translation and Interpretation the following year. As one of the first dozen professional conference interpreters in China, I took on an extensive range of assignments, working as an interpreter for many world leaders visiting China, as well as for international organizations including political, economic, and educational institutions. This eye-opening experience made me believe in the need for communication and understanding among different cultures, countries, and peoples.
How did you get started in the globalization business?
By accident. In 1995, I applied for and was awarded the prestigious Stilwell Scholarship at the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS). The timing couldn’t have made a bigger difference in my choice of a career and life, as when I received my Master’s from MIIS in May, 1997, Silicon Valley was just booming, and the MIIS campus was swamped with IT companies looking for new graduates to fill an explosion of openings. Within a month, I got four offers because of my business, technical, and language degrees although I knew almost nothing about working for American companies! I even declined an offer from a San Diego company called Qualcomm because I thought it was too “far away.”
I took an offer with Adaptec Inc., of Milpitas, as localization coordinator, and six months later, through the referral of a fellow alumni, I joined Adobe Systems. Little did I know then what a tremendously rich and rewarding experience working for Adobe would mean to me over the next seven years; and that I would be going through so many ups and downs as the IT industry went from boom to bust, and from depression to recovery again.
What type of translation and localization agencies do you look for and like to work with in your projects?
Because of my passion for language, technology, and culture, I like to work with agencies that share this passion and are willing to invest in tools and processes; with knowledgeable people who know how to strike a balance between these influences and deliver a high-quality localized product. Companies that neglect to capitalize on the emerging global potential will be blindsided, while those who find ways around obstacles and prepare for next stages will win out.
Can you describe what is happening in China as far as the translation business goes?
The translation business is going through a transition in China, becoming more integrated with the rest of the world as China strives to maintain its extremely strong, 8% economic growth over the past two decades. In spite of this, most locally based translation companies are either workshops that are outgrowths of the publishing business or small-scale software companies. Despite the enormous talent pool and low labor cost, they lack process maturity, professional human capital, and cross-disciplinary expertise, as well as exposure to international communication. The more promising ones are those that have been injected with foreign capital, with direct links to U.S. software clients, as well as to vertical industry domain knowledge.
Corporations have a CEO, and CFO; would you like to see a CGO (Chief Globalization Officer?)
Sure, why not? The CGO should be the one to define globalization’s full potential for his company. To realize it, organizational change is required. The bottom line is, globalization should be part of any company’s corporate strategy if it is to become a truly global company.
Feb 1st, 2005 | Agencies, Arabic, French, Interviews, NCTA Info | No Comments
By Anna Schlegel
NCTA Corporate Member Loq-Man Translations was founded in 1995 by Tarek Dachraoui and his colleague Natalie Mann. The agency provides expertise in all languages, with a special emphasis on Arabic, French, and English, offering translation, interpretation, localization, technical editing, copywriting, page design, production support, ongoing quality control, and consulting. A native of Tunisia, Tarek holds a B.A. in English Literature, a B.A. in Linguistics and an M.A. in Translation and interpreting from the Institut Bourguiba in Tunis, Tunisia.
Where did you grow up?
TAREK DACHRAOUI: I was born and raised in and around Tunis, in a multilingual and multicultural environment in which Arabic, French, and Italian were “de rigueur.” After high school I spent a year as an exchange student in the U.S. in a small, remote, and snowy town in upstate New York. A career in linguistics and languages seemed most natural to me, and once back in Tunisia I pursued my language studies. After a quick stop at the Ecole Superieure d’Interpretes et de Traducteurs in Paris, I headed to Moscow for a year to learn Russian, with the incredible thought that I might one day be able to read Dostoyevsky in the original (of course, that never worked). I then lived in Rome for four years, where I worked at a European Economic Commission agency coordinating different programs between the Italian government, the FAO, and different regional organizations.
How did you start your business?
I hate cubicles and ties. Starting my own business seemed the most logical thing to do when I moved to the Bay Area!
Have you seen an increase of work due to the political developments of these past couple of years?
We have definitely seen an increase in demand for our services based on recent political developments. As one might guess, there is currently a very high demand for quality translations from Arabic into English and vice versa. We have been working with federal agencies and local governments as well as the private sector.
Where is your work, and your translator pool, based?
Our office is based in Richmond, and we try as much as possible to employ local translators. However, our network extends beyond the state and the country. We regularly get job orders from outside the U.S., and so we work with translators and interpreters in Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, as well. Of course, the jobs are assigned in connection with the project and the destination of the finished product. For the last four to five years, we have been providing our services in France, the UK, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Finland, among others. We just finished a large job that is going to Spain.
Describe the translator that you love to work with.
Quality and time are of the essence for every competitive business, and translation is no different when it comes to these considerations. We want to work with translators who can deliver what they promise; who don’t get in over their heads with high volumes of work or subject content that they aren’t comfortable with.
We want our translators and interpreters to be naturally inquisitive; who keep up-to-date about current events, and who read the news and specialized magazines and reviews. Not people who feel they “know it all,” and who are never wrong. We believe that translation is an art – it is a professional art, and as such, it is demands constant learning.
We are always very responsive to our translators’needs. We help them extensively; we provide glossaries when we have them, and set reasonable deadlines. We want our translators to feel comfortable while working with us and in doing their work.
What are the challenges of the Arabic language in the US market?
We spend lots of time and energy educating our clients about translation in general, and the Arabic language in particular. Many people are not aware that Arabs do not speak the same language they use to read or write. Arabs speak “colloquial Arabic,” which is not written and differs from one country to another. They use Modern Standard Arabic to write and read. However, it is a language taught in school and, of course, the higher your education is, the better you master the language.
There are also other technical aspects. Arabic is a bidirectional language. In bidirectional scripts, the text is written from right to left, while embedded numbers or segments of text in western scripts (Latin-based ones such as English or French) are written from left to right. Furthermore, languages that use the Arabic script have special ligature and shaping features which add a level of complexity in their display and printing that do not apply to other European and Asian languages. Because of these factors, most clients do not have a good understanding of how to support bidirectional languages. We spend lots of time explaining these special features to our clients and helping them set their operating systems and applications.
Feb 1st, 2005 | French, Interviews, Literary Translation, NCTA Info, NCTA Members, Translation | No Comments
Interview by Michael Schubert
NCTA member Alison Anderson leads a triple life as a novelist, French-to-English literary translator, and employee of the French consulate in San Francisco. After growing up in the eastern United States, she moved to Switzerland as a teenager. There she earned a degree in French and Russian literature and later an M.A. from the University of Geneva School of Translation and Interpretation. Widely traveled, she has taught English in Greece and Croatia and also lived in France.
After two decades abroad, she returned to the United States, finally settling in the Bay Area in 1987. Her first novel, Hidden Latitudes, was published in 1996 and named a Best Book of the Year by the San Francisco Chronicle. She is a recent NEA grant recipient for literary translations (works of Christian Bobin), and her published translations include Onitsha by JMG Le Clezio and a comprehensive history of the Surrealist movement. Alison’s latest novel, set in Mauritius, is entitled Darwin’s Wink and has just been published by St. Martin’s Press. Alison’s association with the NCTA goes back to 1988.
You’ve cited your travels as inspiration for your novels – specifically, your sailing trip to Mexico for your first novel, Hidden Latitudes, your trips to Mauritius for Darwin’s Wink, and your time in Greece for your novel-in-progress, The Road to the Island. Can you elaborate on how travel inspires you?
ALISON ANDERSON: Travel heightens the senses and attunes you to the exotic. It makes you more aware of the people who surround you, even if you don’t speak their language. Travel opens your imagination.
Are language and culture important plot elements in your fictional work?
Not in Hidden Latitudes, since it’s set on a desert island! They are more important in Darwin’s Wink, because Mauritius is a melting pot of many different cultures. I had to reflect these historic and cultural differences. The Road to the Island is more homogeneous, about a Greek-American woman who goes to Greece to research her family history.
Is your multilingualism and your experience as a translator always present in your thoughts as you write? Do you imagine how people of different cultures will understand your words or how translators will render them?
First of all, I came to writing through translation; it was the confidence I developed through manipulating other people’s words which gave me the strength to try it on my own. As far as incorporating my knowledge of languages into my own fiction, in The Road to the Island, I am aware in writing the dialogs that the people are actually speaking Greek and I imagine this dialog in Greek and “translate” it. The same was true for French in Darwin’s Wink. But I don’t imagine or worry about the job of some future translator when I am writing in English!
Tell us about your career as a translator.
I translate almost exclusively literature now. After I earned my M.A., I began doing general translation work. I tested for the United Nations, but they weren’t hiring. I did various other jobs before finding my way to literary translation. My first translation, of La place by Annie Ernaux, was not accepted by the publishers, but they thought enough of my work to steal my rendering of the title! (The British translation, which they ended up using, had been called Positions; it was published in America under my title, A Man’s Place). My next experiences were better: two books on sailing for Sheridan House. In a nice instance of serendipity, it was through them that I found the agent for my first novel. Since then I’ve translated a number of art books, several novels (I’m most proud of Onitsha, which is a beautiful autobiographical novel about Africa), and am currently working on two more novels, one a fictional biography of the great Egyptian singer Oum Kalthum.
Do your writing and translation careers compete with or complement each other?
Complement. Of course, they sometimes compete for time, but they complement each other in their methodology. I devote roughly equal amounts of time to both translating and writing, though that can vary depending on my specific projects. My travels, my knowledge of foreign languages, and my experience with different cultures have all helped my careers in both writing and translation.
Dec 1st, 2004 | Agencies, Interviews | No Comments
By Anna Schlegel
Founded by Karl Klaussen in 1972, NCTA Corporate Member Biotext LLC (www.biotext.net) has been operating under its present name since 1999 and provides a wide range of translation services in the fields of health care, pharmaceutical trials, medical equipment, and biotechnology research. A native of Germany, Karl has lived in the U.S. since 1964. He joined NCTA in 1996, has served on the Board of Directors, and in 2000, along with Tony Roder and Jeanette Ringold, helped establish the Translator Certification program at UC Berkeley Extension.
Tell us a bit about yourself.
KARL KLAUSSEN: I was born in Aachen, Germany. I left the country in 1960, lived in Sweden on and off for a few years, and then traveled around the world until I emigrated to the U.S. in 1964. I lived in Santa Monica for four years and moved to San Francisco in 1968. I received my BA from UC Berkeley in 1974, my MA in 1976, and my Ph.D. in 1986, with a dissertation on interlingual transfer in technical and scientific texts.
While I was a student at Berkeley I got into the restaurant business, opening my first restaurant, Café Mozart, in San Francisco, in 1981 with a partner who left shortly thereafter. I later opened two other S.F. restaurants, Haymarket in 1986, and Aubergine, in 1990, before quitting the business and going into translation full time. I’ve been married to my wife, Patricia, since 1970; we have one son, an active naval officer, and one daughter, a teacher.
What were your beginnings in translation?
My first translation job was in 1973, while I was a student at Berkeley. It was the translation of a paper from German to English entitled “The Development of the Olfactory Sense in Hymenopterous Insects.” Small jobs followed. I tried my hands at technical and business texts but became more and more interested in medical translation. Jobs included the translations (into English) of “Freud, Biologist of the Mind,” by R. Sullivan, in 1979; and “Spoerri’s Descriptions of Psychotic Speech,” in Speech Pathology and Schizophrenic Disorders, edited by J. Darby, M.D., in 1981.
After I left the restaurant business in 1996, I started a translation company, Syntaxis, with offices in Vienna, Virginia and San Francisco, in 1997. In 1999, my East Coast partner and I decided to simplify things and came to the amiable agreement that he would continue to operate on the East Coast as “Syntaxis,” while I established a new company, Biotext LLC, in California, devoted to medical, pharmaceutical, and biotech translations.
What languages do you deal with the most?
Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, and German. However, we recently worked on a large project in over thirty languages, among them Pashto, Maori, Niuean, Tonga, and Cook Islands dialect.
Where are your translators based?
We do lots of business outside of California, and we contract with translators in Florida, Canada, Germany, Iceland, France, Greece, Italy, New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil, Sweden, Turkey, Belarus, and the Czech Republic—and of course California! On occasion I consult the ATA list to find translators in the U.S.
Describe your ideal translator.
Everybody makes mistakes once in a while and I can forgive a translator’s errors (that’s why we have editors). However, I can’t forgive late deliveries and sloppy work. My ideal translator would always meet deadlines and deliver well-executed translations without omissions or sloppy formatting. As for interpreters, although I retain them for established clients (usually law firms) on an infrequent basis, punctuality and a very professional demeanor are again, musts.
What mistakes do translators most often make in your field?
Translators most frequently make terminological mistakes, especially when it comes to abbreviations and acronyms. I expect the translator to ask questions so that I can contact the client if there are abbreviations that are unfamiliar to the translator.
What are your current challenges?
Convincing clients that the cheapest way is not always the best way; balancing the need to be competitive with other companies who employ cheap labor overseas, and still employ local translators whose rates are comparatively high. An ideal situation would be where translations are done overseas and edited locally. That way I could offer competitive rates to my clients while still employing local translators.
Words of wisdom for a translator starting out in the business?
Stay informed about the latest developments in your field and read, read, read.
Where do you see the translation business in 10 years?
I see a potential for the business to increase dramatically.
Dec 1st, 2004 | Interviews, Localization | No Comments
By Anna Schlegel
Christiane Bernier is a Senior Globalization Consultant with Merrill Corporation in San Francisco. She started her career at small, regional translation companies in the Midwest, and came to the Bay Area in 1998, where she managed the San Francisco operations of Lionbridge Technologies, a worldwide provider of globalization and testing services. She can be contacted at Christiane_Bernier@yahoo.com.
Did you grow up speaking different languages?
CHRISTIANE BERNIER: Yes, I grew up with different languages with a French-speaking Canadian father and an English-speaking Canadian mother. My mother was very much of a Francophile, and she insisted we speak only French at home. I remember her still taking French classes, when I was little, and I recall correcting her on the gender of nouns and on verb forms. This was not surprising then, but now, I think how odd that my mother tongue is not my own mother’s mother tongue! Needless to say, I developed an awareness of language very early on, and was curious about different languages and cultures. The language bug had bit me in a way that would not become clear until later on.
How did you get started in the globalization field?
I took translation courses at University and did some freelance translation work throughout my studies. I was nearing the end of my Ph.D. studies and the job prospects in academia being very poor, I jumped at an opportunity to work inhouse at a small translation services company within a larger advertising agency in Minneapolis. That was in 1993. I started realizing then that I liked the management of translation projects, and this is how my career started. A couple of years later, I moved over to another company, and ended up managing their large inhouse team of linguists. I found I enjoyed managing teams of people. In 1998, I moved to San Francisco and joined DLC, then about to be acquired by International Communications, itself acquired a year later by Lionbridge .
From a globalization perspective, what is the importance of Silicon Valley?
Silicon Valley is still one of the most important centers of globalization activity worldwide. It continues to create lots of opportunities and drive innovation in our industry. Certainly, what has happened is that localization, the tools, the processes, but especially the talent, have matured over the last few years. This, together with the new financial performance and profitability standards companies are being held accountable for, has meant that translation and localization budgets are scrutinized much more carefully, and buyers of these services, who are much savvier now, expect more for less.
What globalization challenges do corporations face today?
Continuing challenges, in addition to the financial performance standards that shareholders are holding companies accountable for, include whether to integrate and migrate to a single platform for multilingual content or keep English and the rest of the world languages in separate systems.
As well, multilingual service providers today need to evolve their offerings to the new realities: mature localization talent on the client side, but also maturing tools, technologies, and processes. But at the core as always—probably more so today than in the past—are high quality translations.
Information technology has evolved and now easily supports many, many languages. Tools now work with ever-increasing formats. Standards like XML are gaining wide adoption fast, and are removing a lot of the problems service providers solved in the past of English-centric formats. Content Management Systems are providing authoring platforms with built-in text recycling, reducing the amount of text needing to be (re)translated. Multilingual service providers also continue to face the challenge of finding and retaining good professional (external) translators, as well as good project managers and technical staff.
This means terrific new opportunities for freelance professional translators. To be sure, the translators that will benefit from this will be the type that also enjoy some amount of project management and can work technologically and otherwise, directly with clients. Our industry continues to fascinate me at its every turn and change.
In your opinion, what makes a great globalization team?
People: you’ve got to start with good, thinking, and experienced individuals. Processes: you have to have ground rules for working together, and everyone needs to know his or her role and tasks intimately well. Tools: you have to provide the team with access to as many tools as possible. And leadership: you need to make sure the team knows where they’re going, how success will be defined, and what the stakes are for each and every team member.
Sep 1st, 2004 | Interviews, Localization | No Comments
Interview by Anna Schlegel
John Yunker is the founder of Byte Level Research (www.bytelevel.com), a consulting firm focused on Web globalization and wireless technologies. His firm has helped a wide range of companies improve their global websites, including John Deere, Intel, and Giorgio Armani. John is the author of the widely acclaimed book Beyond Borders:Web Globalization Strategies (Pearson, 2002). He can be reached at jyunker@bytelevel.com.
What led you to work in the globalization industry?
JOHN YUNKER: About six years ago, while working for a startup translation firm, I began managing Web globalization projects. I soon realized that Web globalization was not only inevitable for most companies but a competitive advantage. I founded Byte Level Research in 2000 to focus specifically on this emerging field. We were the first firm to rate the quality of global Web sites across a number of metrics, establishing best practices along the way. Our ongoing goal is to help companies develop localized Web sites that are usable and effective in their target markets.
How did your business get off the ground?
Word of mouth has been essential to our success. The Web globalization industry is close knit; I find that past clients often refer us to new clients. The book, Beyond Borders, has also been a good source of contacts.
Did you learn different languages as you grew up?
I learned Spanish in high school and spent the subsequent years forgetting everything I learned. Now that I’m based in San Diego, I plan to dive back in. I’ve also had some basic training in Chinese and Arabic.
Do you work with translators directly?
I keep in close touch with a number of freelance translators and translation firms. I also help translators and firms improve their Web globalization skills. Byte Level also publishes The Savvy Client’s Guide to Translation Agencies, a resource designed to help companies make wise translation purchasing decisions.
What are a couple of “no-nos” in global Web navigation?
Using flags to denote languages and locating the “global gateway” at the bottom of the home page. In general, companies tend to underestimate the importance of navigation for non-English-speaking Web users, yet navigation can make all the difference when it comes to traffic. There is no single solution to global navigation. I advocate four overlapping techniques that include local domain names, splash pages, and permanent global gateways. A few good sites to check out include 3Com, Ikea, and E*TRADE. We have additional information on our website.
What do corporations understand about globalization?
Multinational corporations understand that they cannot afford to overlook emerging markets such as China, India, and Eastern Europe. Companies are investing heavily in establishing local offices or partnering with local companies to expand their presence and get up to speed in these markets. Companies are also doing a much better job these days of localizing products and promotions, although there is still room for improvement.
What do corporations not understand about globalization?
Companies typically underestimate the costs and complexity of Web globalization. In a recent survey I conducted, we discovered that most companies spend less than half of what they should on Web globalization. And the major reason for this comes down to viewing localization as a “nice-to-have” rather than “must-have” attribute of a website. This attitude is fading fast.
Centralization or decentralization; what do you recommend?
It really depends on the company, its management structure, and its goals. To save money and convey a consistent global image, companies need to centralize content and some controls. But local offices also need the flexibility to tailor their websites and promotions to their customers. In the end, it’s about striking the right balance and ensuring that this balance evolves as the company evolves.
Why do we have CEOs and CFOs but don’t have CGOs (Chief Globalization Officers)?
There is a sense in many companies that there are too many C-level positions already, so adding a new position is not a trivial task. I do believe that globalization is a C-level issue, but it doesn’t necessarily require a C-level position to match. In a sense, every officer should have globalization responsibilities and awareness. Companies that have created effective global websites, such as IBM, Ikea, and Dell, often do not have CGOs; they do, however, have CEOs who value the importance of truly global websites and invest accordingly.
Tell us what you are reading now about globalization.
I’m now making my way through “The Power of Language: A Natural History of Language” by John McWhorter. I’m also reading “Sea of Glory,” a book about the Charles Wilkes expedition, which charted over 1,500 miles of the Antarctic coast.
Sep 1st, 2004 | Agencies, Interviews, NCTA Members | No Comments
By Anna Schlegel
Founded by Dagmar Dolatschko in San Carlos, California in 1991, NCTA Corporate Member Peritus Precision Translations (peritustranslations.com) offers a full range of language and globalization services including translation, interpretation, software localization, linguistic quality assurance, and international brand name analysis. A native of Germany, Dagmar is certified as a translator by the Bavarian Ministry for Education and Culture, and has a graduate degree from the highly accredited European language institute “Sprachen- und Dolmetscher-Institut,” in Munich.
How did your business get its start?
DAGMAR DOLATSCHKO: Peritus began as an “international trade consulting side business” in 1991, although it has since evolved into a focused translation agency. Originally, it was the outcome of my work in export/import and the desire to start something of my own after obtaining my MBA. It was called Peritus International at the time and, strangely enough, was founded in San Carlos, CA, where we landed again in 1999, after having been in Massachusetts for some time. In the first year of our new agency, in 1996, I had already won a few projects that required up to seven languages. Today that number is at 70 languages, with about 50 percent of our business coming from California, and the rest from all over the U.S. and some from Europe.
What languages do you deal with the most?
The majority of our work is in the standard business languages, such as French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. This is probably true for most agencies, and is determined by economic need for those languages. But we also work in Nordic and Eastern European languages, as well as Vietnamese, Russian, Khmer and Lao.
What does the name of your translation agency stand for?
Peritus is Latin; it describes a person who helps others with their knowledge; an expert, a qualified professional. That was fitting for the image I want the firm to portray.
Describe your ideal translator.
My ideal translator is solid in two or three languages. He or she either studied the languages and/or lived in countries where those languages are spoken. This translator truly knows his or her mother tongue, is specialized in a number of related fields, and has the professionalism to say no to work in areas that he or she does not feel fully comfortable in.
We use quite a lot of translators who are excellent examples of what I expect of our profession. Besides the professional, linguistic background and experience, I am also looking for certain characteristics such as great attention to detail, commitment to quality, flexibility, willingness to follow instructions, technical capability to use today’s software as necessary, willingness to accept feedback to learn and grow, and the ability to work on a team with an editor or other translators (on large projects).
Describe your ideal interpreter.
My ideal interpreter meets criteria similar to the translator’s from a linguistic and professional background. But the best interpreters also have quite a few years of experience, have diplomacy and sensitivity, can adapt easily to change, and always come across as true professionals. A translator can often hide behind the computer and has more time to figure things out. An interpreter is on stage and needs to perform the way an actor performs. Another aspect I find very important for both translators and interpreters is the willingness to speak up if you find errors or oversights in the source language. This is more the case for translators—interpreters have to handle such issues with great tact. This shows that the translator is really engaged and has thought about the work and did not just mechanically translate the text.
What are your current challenges?
Client education—making sure clients understand why there is a certain price for good work and at the same time dealing with the ever-increasing price pressures from low-cost translation vendors, both in the U.S. and overseas. That is probably the biggest challenge. It makes it hard for all of us professionals, to see the low price at which the art of translation is traded in some circles.
Where do you see the translation business in 10 years?
I see more and more mergers and acquisitions. The big fish will get bigger. The small fish will have to find their niches and diversify or specialize. Using tools such as MT can no longer be avoided and will be an important part of the survival of the fittest. I don’t think that machine translation will be a challenge to high-end, high quality translation, however. There is no substitute for the subtleties of the human mind.
