The Creation of Custom Data Sets to Meet Customer Needs: A BSC Project
Rapidly advancing technology and the growing need for accurate and efficient data analysis have led organizations to seek customized data sets tailored to their specific needs.
The world of translation is not always clearly understood by the average Joe who doesn’t request translations on a regular basis. In fact there are a lot of myths about translation out there. Most of my friends don’t even know what I mean when I say I work in the translation industry. “Ah so you’re a translator!” is the usual response. I say “I’m not” and then they run out of ideas. What else would you do if you are working in the translation business?
The world of translation is filled with much more than translators (although they make up the vast bulk of it) and there are a lot of misconceptions. Let’s take a look at Pangeanic’s list of some of the most common myths about translation we hear from time to time in our production center.So the idea here is that only a very large multinational LSP (Language Service Provider) can produce the goods. Nope, afraid not, that’s a huge misconception. If you are seeking translation for just one language or in a specialized industry, you might even be better off working with a small agency or a professional freelance translator who understands the intricate nuances of a region or language. Large agencies have their role of course–usually in supporting large customers that spend hundreds of thousands of dollars/euro or yen on translations. Just as a Ferrari might not be the best option for doing the weekly groceries, and IBM servers to run your desktop applications, large providers and their intricate compartmentalization are definitely not the best solution for every single type of project.
Bilingual employees are a great addition to the team, but if they haven’t been hired as an internal translator, asking them to translate or review text might not be the best idea, as it is not technically what they are qualified to do. A serious misconception associated with this approach is that just because someone speaks additional languages, they have the expertise and knowledge to translate, and that’s just not the case and could lead to quite disastrous consequences. By the same token, anybody who can read and write should, in theory, be able to write a book, but in reality that is not the case. To be able to provide a professional translation, which many consider to be a work of art, you’ll need years of practice, a degree in translation or a similar qualification, in-depth knowledge of CAT tools (what are CAT tools?) and much more.
Although we train our translation teams to question the source content, many “translation errors” are actually due to source text being unclear, or at least ambiguous. Translators rely on their professional experience and the tools at hand to try to figure out the intended meaning. This is not always the best approach and can obviously lead to a translation that does not meet expectations. A professional translator will always spot these and highlight them, or send a query to clarify the meaning. Oftentimes, run-of-the-mill daily expressions have no equivalent in another language and being literal is no option. Pangeanic’s linguists do not just try their best to translate what’s in front of them, they send a query or feedback to our project managers to alert our clients. Not doing so can sometimes have an undesired effect–not necessarily due to any fault on the translator’s part. Communication is a two-way street. If the source message isn’t clear, the translation often won’t be either.
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Sadly you can’t fix a problem by throwing money at it. It’s true that some language combinations will always be more expensive than others; this comes down to supply and demand. You need good structure, standards and selection processes. Buying translation is not easy, because usually you can't evaluate the quality and have to trust the service provider. Don’t worry; we have you covered here too. Check out our 5 Useful Tips for Translation Buyers.
We hope we have uncovered some of the myths and you have a clearer vision of what these very talented people do.
Get in touch with a member of our team if you have any questions.
Rapidly advancing technology and the growing need for accurate and efficient data analysis have led organizations to seek customized data sets tailored to their specific needs.
The technological advances that have occurred over the course of the last few decades have made it possible to optimize and streamline the work of human translators. One of these advances is machine translation (MT).
Synthetic data is data that has been artificially generated from a model trained to reproduce the characteristics and structure of the original data. The goal is for the synthetic data to be sufficiently similar to the...