5 Tips for First Time Translation Service Buyers by Ulatus

- Your Translation Partner

Tips for First Time Translation Service Buyers Business@ulatus.com

Reality Check!  Language Translation goes beyond converting words from one language to another  Before making a purchase decision you must chalk out answers for the following parameters: ●

Purpose of the document to be translated (Publication/ Technical/ Manual/ Marketing Material/ Website)

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Accuracy Expectations (Standard/ Mediocre/ Superior)

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Delivery Time (Standard/ Fast/ Urgent)

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Form atting Expectations (Standard/ Special)

 Answers to the above param eters sets up a basic expectation of the service you need

Crimson Interactive Inc.

Tip # 1: Machine Translation – Best Fit or Misfit?  The first question that com es with Machine Translation is “Good enough for what?”  Machine Translation can be good for you if your agenda is Real-tim e Com munication where understandability is the only motive  It can serve as a cost effective tool if you need some data like emails to be translated  Machine Translations are advisable when the purpose of the docum ent is not publication or som ething that bears social/legal liability  Machine Translation can also work well when used with post-editing support by a hum an Proofreader  Machine Translations are an unreliable source for professional, Marketing and academic content as the output is often garbled  Machine Translations are not advisable when the content bears the organization’s/ individual’s reputation at stake Crimson Interactive Inc.

Tip # 2 Monitor Usage of Colloquial Expressions & Governing Norms  Identify and m aintain the style of your document from source language to target language  It is im portant that your translator understands the differences in vocabulary and the fitm ent of words as form al or colloquial term s  Puns and Metaphors should be handled with sensitivity and del ivered faithful to the original script  Machine Translation fails this test over professional hum an translators in most instances  Expert Translators are those who are native and understand the governing laws of the target language  The Chinese Advertising Law has banned usage of words like “The Best”, “Highest Degree” etc through advertising cam paigns  Such nuances have to be kept in mind by translators to avoid legal implications across target languages Crimson Interactive Inc.

Tip # 3 Carefully Choosing Your Language Service Provider  Quality Translations can be best sought with Professional Translation com panies  Translation Compani es like Ulatus employ highly experienced professional translators with the subject matter expertise and linguistic qualifications  Translation Compani es m ake sure to have a robust Quality Managem ent System where your translation is validated through proofreaders and editors  Always ask for trial translation before m aking a purchase decision for high volume translations  Many websites display Sam ples of Translated documents clearly explaining the kind of enhancem ents that are m ade at each level of translation (Translation, Proofreading, Native Check, Editing)

Crimson Interactive Inc.

Tip # 4 Be Informed of Word Count Increase & Reduction  Word count increase and reduction happens in m ost cases but it is important to monitor the intensity of it  Languages like Japanese & Chinese use characters as opposed to words in English  It is normal for a script i n English translated to Japanese to be considerably shorter given the character : word ratio  Portuguese as a language m ay tend to report a higher word count after translation from English  A Translation Buyer is advised to work on space m anagement in case of websites and brochures once the translation is done  It is im portant to understand how a translator charges you for word count  Most Professi onal compani es charge you on source word/ character as its known in the beginning, whereas target count is unknown.

Crimson Interactive Inc.

Tip # 5 Know how the quotation is arrived at- Safest Parameters  Find out if the translation com pany is charging you per source unit or per target unit  Its best to know the final quote before you place the order  Charging per source unit is an industry wide best practice.- We recommend fee @per source unit  Few companies charge on per target uni t which is unknown at the tim e of placing the order  Fee according to per target unit can drastically increase or decrease disturbing your translation budget  Some companies charge per page instead of per unit text.- We recom mend per unit text  Customer stands to lose if he/she is charged per page for pages with less text content

Crimson Interactive Inc.

- Your Translation Partner

Thank- You www.ulatus.com www.ulatus.jp www.ulatus.tw www.ulatus.com.br Crimson Interactive Inc.

Business@ulatus.com