World Translation Center is a leading provider of language translation and voice recording services using professionals located around the world.
Recent Blog Posts
Machine Translation
Machine Translation is the process of changing text from one language into another language using an auto translator on a computer.
Websites advertise a lower cost for machine translation in a shorter period of time; therefore, more content can be translated in less time, adding that a human translator will edit the machine generated translation. A win-win situation, or is it?
Professional translators are not enthusiastic about editing a machine-produced translation. Often it takes more time to edit a machine translation than to translate from scratch. To produce a professional translation from a machine translation takes extra time, going back and forth to the original text in order to understand the output of the machine.
Dubbing or Subtitling for Children?
According to YouTube, almost 5 billion videos are watched every day on YouTube alone. Many videos are viewed in an abundance of languages. If you post a video on YouTube or any other site, you might want to consider creating that video into another language to broaden your audience. You are then confronted with the question: should I record a voice over in that language or add subtitles? What if children are the target audience of your video?
Winter 2017 Newsletter
The year 2017 is coming to an end. We wanted to thank all clients and all our colleagues for a successful year. We also wanted to give you an update on our projects and share some of our fun.
Inside this issue:
- Happy New Year!
- Our resolutions to our clients
- Hygge
- Communicate in any language
- Funny translations
To view the full text of the newsletter, follow the link below:
Winter 2017 Newsletter
Idiolect
Rush projects are common in any industry, but in the translation industry maybe more than in others. While it takes days or months to agree on the actual final text and sign off on it in the source language, it is not realistic to expect that any translator can do their best work under the pressure of a rush deadline to translate the same within a short period of time. So, why not use several translators to work on the same project and complete it within the given deadline? Let me explain…
Every person has a distinctive and unique language, a specific pattern of speech that includes vocabulary, grammar, punctuation as well as pronunciation. This unique way of speaking and writing is called ‘idiolect’. Idiolect should not be confused with ‘dialect’ which shares language characteristics among a specific geographical area.
Context, Context, Context
Why translators need detailed information:
Many of our translation and recording projects are for IVR (Interactive Voice Response) systems. These systems contain sentence fragments that, once recorded, are combined by the computer to form a grammatically properly structured sentence. As a base, these IVR systems are in English. Translating a sentence fragment can be very tricky if the full sentence is not available or if the client cannot send us the flowchart that shows how everything is structured.
Sync Point in Videos
Translation and recording of videos from English into other languages can become challenging as English uses fewer words than most other languages. The translated text must be short so that recordings can match the length of the English language video. That process often requires rephrasing or paraphrasing to get it just right.
If the purpose of the video is to explain a product or to instruct the viewer to follow a certain process, that can be even trickier. The translated text must be as short as the English and must also follow the instructions as seen on the video.
An International Accent
A large beverage company in Atlanta, GA with affiliates around the world recently asked us to find a voice talent for a commercial with a neutral international accent which would not be identified or associated with any specific country.
We eliminated voice talents from countries where accents can easily be identified, like Germany, France, Italy and Spain and concentrated on languages in countries where people are taught English early on and therefore have less of an accent.
TRANSPORTATION FAT
Nobody likes the idea of wasting money on something that we can get for free or that we can do ourselves. Would you pack your own boxes when moving or would you hire somebody? Would you ask a friend with a trailer for help when moving or immediately hire professional movers? Even if money is no object, most people will try to save some money first.
Why would you not want to save money when it comes to translation?
Many people believe that those who grew up speaking a different language, are from a different country, or spend time in a different country and speak that language, are capable of translating anything. Why not ask that polyglot friend for help in translating your document? Even if you do not want the help of a friend, that friend, secretary, spouse or family member might insist that they can translate for you for free. It is worth a try, right?
