corefocus135 apr maj 2013

8/22/2019 CoreFocus135 Apr Maj 2013

1/14

Using macros to improve

translation efciency

Translation trends: Intervi

rom the ATA conerence

Online resources as a tool

or the technical translato

TRANSLATIOCORE FOCUApril/May 2013


2/14

| MultiLingual April/May 2013 editor@multil ingual.com42

CoreFocus

Using macros to improve

translation efficiency

Jeremy Coombs

IIn modern society, the reason we can purchase

inexpensive manuactured items rom clothing tosoda is that they are mass-produced to keep costslow. Wherever possible, human labor has givenway to machines that perorm work more quicklyand eectively. Theoretically, anyway, a machineis able to perorm the same task endlessly andwith identical results every time at a lower costthan a human perorming the same task.

Automation is not possible or every task we perorm, how-ever. Despite great progress in translation sotware, or example,human input is still required to ensure accuracy, due to thecomplex and subjective nature o language. Even in the transla-tion industry, speed and accuracy are typically crucial, and oneis useless without the other. Obviously, completing translationwork quickly is worthless i the translation contains errors. Onthe other hand, completing a painstakingly accurate translationwont do any good i it cant be accomplished quickly.

Even something as complex as translation work can takeadvantage o automation to make processes more efcient. Despitethe human knowledge required or some o the work, most large,complex tasks we perorm are composed o small, repetitive steps.These small tasks dont require actual human decision-making,and while individually they take little time to complete, the eortadds up. Implementing the proper automation strategy will allowyou to orgo the constant repetition o those tasks. This results incost reduction, predictability o quality and reduced errors.

The translation process, or example, oten involves dealingwith a large number o fles, each o which needs to be properly

named and organized as part o the project. By allowing thecomputer to complete these small, routine tasks, the operator hasmore time available or the translation work itsel. One o thebest methods or automating tasks is the use o macros or scripts.

The idea o automating tasks with computers has beenaround as long as computers themselves, which is unsurpris-ing because computers were developed with task automationin mind. But users soon discovered that computers arent justgood or automating complex numerical equations; their speedmakes them ideal tools or small, repetitive tasks. As homecomputers became common in the 1980s, macros became popu-lar as shortcuts or programmers, and then or average users.A number o programs such as SmartKey were soon written tohelp users create them.

There are several dierent types o macros. Keyboard andmouse macros map a sequence o keystrokes and/or mouseactions to an output sequence. As a result, you can perorma lengthy series o operations multiple times very efciently.They may be as simple as a shortcut key to save your work orinsert your name into a document.

Other macros oer unctionality more closely related tothat o a stand-alone program. These may take advantage oan applications built-in macro-creation unctionality, and mayinvolve scripting languages such as Visual Basic or Applica-tions, which allows users to perorm unctions with mostMicrosot Ofce products. There are also dedicated macro orscripting applications which can perorm independently withinthe operating system or other applications to perorm taskssuch as fle naming and organization or even controlling theapplication itsel.

Benefits and risksThe most obvious beneft o using automation tools is saving

time and money. Not only does the use o tools such as macrosmean an employee can spend more time perorming skilled tasks,but in many cases both tasks can be completed simultaneously,meaning that you essentially get two workers or the cost o onewhile the script is running. A recent study perormed by MultiLingshowed that among one internal team, the consistent use o just

Jeremy Coombs is the senior vice president ofoperations at MultiLing. He holds a degree inlinguistics with an emphasis on computer science and

Scandinavian studies from Brigham Young University.
mailto:[email protected]


3/14

Core Focus

www.multilingual.com April/May 2013 MultiLingual |

three o their various automation toolsresults in annual savings o approxi-mately $20,000. These macros perormsuch tasks as creating .zip fles o projectdeliverables, converting fles to ormatsand encodings needed by developers andeven dialing the phone.

In addition to direct cost savings,using automation realizes a number oother benefts or companies. As peopleperorm the same tasks repeatedly, theytend to pay less attention each time,which inevitably results in mistakesbeing made. However, when the task isperormed by the computer, the result isequally accurate no matter how manytimes it is perormed. Computers willnever become bored with a task andgive it less attention. As a result, thereis a signifcantly reduced risk o humanerror.

The predictability that a macro bringsto the result also acilitates the orga-nization o fles, because each fle hasbeen modifed in the same manner. Inthe case o spreadsheet data ormatting,or example, this means the resultingdata is ready to be processed withoutconcern regarding consistency. A zeroin the data will never be read as the let-tero, and every cell will have the sametext layout. This predictability also hasthe added beneft o producing data thatis accessible to additional macros, sincemacros and scripts not only producepredictable outputs, but require predict-able inputs.

Macros are easy to create, using themany current macro-creation and script-ing applications. They can be created byany individual with a specifc need, unlikea ull sotware application that requires amore extensive programming knowledgeto develop. Another advantage realizedthrough macro use is that the tasks theycomplete can be scheduled to run at spe-cifc times, such as every Friday. They canalso be programmed to operate in certain

conditions, such as when the number ofles in a given directory reaches a certainpoint or when a particular application islaunched. This saves additional time bynot requiring macros to be initiated everytime they are needed.

Unortunately, macros have becomeknown or their potential or viruses,namely those developed within the Micro-sot Ofce environment. Because themacros execute unctions automatically,

Figure 1: A decision tree or when businesses are considering automation and the implementation path.OTS stands or o the shel, ME stands or Macro Express and AIT stands or AutoIt.

Identiy potential

process orautomation

Defne currentprocess

Documentbenefts o

automating thetask

Defne currentprocess

Is taskrepetitive andpredictable?

NO

NO NO

NO

ME or AIT

OTS

YES

YES

YES

Identiy potential

variables inprocess

Designscript/macrostoryboard

Can automationbe done with OTSapp or automatedwith ME or AIT?

Design, test anddeploy script to

requestor

Unable toautomate

Can variables

be accountedor in script?

Is there apotential OTS

app?

Analyze cost o

OTS applicationvs beneft

I beneft >cost,purchase

application andimplement

Observe results.I useul, train and

deploy corporationwide.

Observe results.I useul, train anddeploy corporation

wide.

Unable toautomate
http://www.hermestrans.com/mailto:[email protected]://www.multilingual.com/


4/14

Core Focus


they can be written in such a way asto compromise the security o a system.In the past, e-mail viruses are otenspread through the opening o attachedfles, which would then cause the macroto execute and inect the recipientssystem.

With current antivirus sotware,however, there is little risk o inectionby a macro. In addition, these risksrelate to receiving an inected fle roman outside source, rather than creatingone yoursel or purchasing one rom areputable vendor.

Another potential problem o auto-mation comes rom automation toolsthat ail to deliver anticipated gains inefciency. In most cases, however, thiscan be addressed through proper stra-tegic planning. A related issue is thato over-dependence on a particular tool,

such as a macro, that is applied withoutregard or the original intent o theautomation. In such cases, these toolsmay be applied in unnecessary situa-tions, which may actually reduce ef-ciency. When automation tools becomeobsolete or superuous, organizationsshould consider replacing them withnew, relevant automation solutions.

Using macrosThe two most common macro devel-

opment tools in use today or Windows-

based machines are Macro Express andAutoIt. For a beginner, Macro Expressis the easiest to use, although it doesrequire a licensing ee to use beyond thefrst month. It allows the user to builda macro using a large set o prepro-grammed actions. Through its wizard-

like interace, a novice can produce adecent macro in minutes. AutoIt is ree,though less intuitive. It has a largerrange o actions and scripts that can beused in building macros, which can thenbe turned into executables that can eas-ily be shared with anyone. Those amil-iar with C++ or a scripting language willeel right at home with AutoIt.

Both applications oer signifcantabilities to generate powerul and timesaving scripts. There are also manyo-the-shel applications available thatprovide macro-like unctionality, though

limited in scope. For example, BulkRename Utility is a simple yet extensiveapplication that allows or renamingmassive amounts o fles in a single click.Such applications can be used stand-alone or in conjunction with other morecomplex scripts to give the user signif-cant automation exibility.

To identiy tasks to automate, evalu-ate your current business processes.First, look or a task which is repeatedon a regular basis, and careully docu-ment it and its constituent processes.

Identiy the potential benefts o auto-mating the task. Next, identiy potentialvariables in the process. I the variablesare limited and conorm to simpleparameters, you can begin to considerthe design or the macro itsel.

Then consider i there is an o-the-

shel solution or the issue. I so, con-sider the cost compared to the beneftsyou will realize rom the automation.Also, determine whether you couldautomate the process yoursel, and howthe cost and reliability would comparewith the o-the-shel solution. I youdecide to purchase or create the solu-tion, careully observe the results. Notethe benefts and determine whether itwould be advantageous to deploy thesolution to others within your business.

For example, within our organiza-tion, we identifed three automations

that were commonly used by a specifcteam. These three macros perormedtasks such as automating the encod-ing o sotware string tables, preparingproject deliverable archives and eventasks as simple as opening fle explorerto a specifed project location. Aterevaluating the time spent on theserelevant tasks without the automationused, we compared the same tasks andtheir required time while automated.The results showed a time savings thatequates to roughly $40,000 per year,just or this one team o eight individu-als. Considering this study ocused onjust three automations o potentiallydozens and only within a single team,it is clear the cost savings are abundantwhen automations are efciently devel-oped and deployed.

Figure 1 shows an example decisiontree or when businesses are consider-ing automation and the implementationpath. Oten when planning automations,as with any technology, there should be acost-driven discussion o build versus buy.

Macros oer a simple, eective auto-mation solution that can save you timeand thereore money in your ofce.These small, easy-to-create pieces osotware can be adapted to any numbero commonly perormed tasks, romsimple unctions within an applicationto fle organization within the operat-ing system. By evaluating business pro-cesses and applying automation wherepossible, companies can save money,experience ewer errors and enjoyincreased workplace efciency. M

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5/14


Cor

eFocus

A

Translation trends: Interviews

from the ATA conference

Jeff Williams

Against a background o blue skies and palmtrees, the 2012 American Translators Association(ATA) Annual Conerence was held October 24-27,2012, in San Diego, Caliornia. Close to 1,700translators rom 45 countries attended the event.

I attended my frst ATA conerence in 1992, incidentallyalso in San Diego, and 20 years later I see the translation pro-ession has changed undamentally rom a cottage industry toa collaborative eort enabled by modern technology, said JiriStejskal, ATA ofcial spokesperson, past ATA president, andcurrent president and CEO o CETRA Language Solutions.

Stejskal noted that a new industry trend is reected in thecooperation between the ATA and the Association or MachineTranslation in the Americas (AMTA). The two organizationscoordinated their conerences to acilitate ace-to-ace com-munication and exchange o inormation. This collaborationspeaks volumes about the growing importance and inuencebeing paid to the machine translation (MT) movement, evenamong individual translators. Even though MT has been her-alded or decades as the next best thing, it fnally appears to begaining momentum, and organizations such as the aoremen-tioned AMTA and TAUS are devoted to promoting the process.

As everyone in the translation and localization industryknows, proessional translators are the backbone and liebloodbehind the scenes. By and large, translation is a solitary unc-tion and most translators work long hours or very exacting cli-ents. Their observations and comments oer important insightinto the state o the industry.

The conerence was an opportunity to speak with a ewtranslators to get their read on the marketplace and what theysee as the emerging, relevant trends. A specifc set o questionswas posed to all the translators. O particular interest were theirobservations on pricing and MT.

Sam Pinson is an English-to-Russian translator and ATAmember, living and working in Washington state. He workswith both agencies and direct clients, but is gaining more direct

clients. At a high level, he observed, I see two approaches totranslation. The traditional approach is to employ a competenthuman translator. A relatively new approach is to combine MTwith post-editing. Given the low barrier to entry, crowds oinexperienced and/or incompetent translators and editors pileinto the feld every day. Some o them distinguish themselvesand within a year or two fnd themselves in a sustainable posi-tion. Others do not, because they lack language skills, writingskills, specialized knowledge or some combination thereo. Inthe past, these olks would subsist by translating at abulouslylow rates. However, with the advent o MT, I dont think therewill be room let at the table or them. To succeed in the indus-try in the not so distant uture, one would either have to be agited translator or a talented post-editor. As or the pricingquestion, he himsel had not experienced lower rate expecta-tions as a major actor in his current business. Im contactedregularly by potential clients who are at various points alongthe pricing spectrum. By oering premium services, Ive beenmoving steadily toward the upper end o the spectrum.

MT was another current topic about which Pinson expressedsome opinions. Like so many or so long, he expected amazingresults in the next 20 years and elt MTs virtues were compel-ling. Its ast, inexpensive and never needs sleep. Its results arealso adequate or many purposes. But when it ails, it ails spec-tacularly and in ways that, as least in my experience, humanswould not. Everybody recognizes this, and thats where the roaddiverges. You can either engage an expert human translatorrom the start, or you can hire a human editor to try to patch upthe holes in your machine-translated text. O course, I clearlyhave a pecuniary interest in the human/MT question. I wouldpreer that clients hire me.

Jeff Williams was the director of sales and

marketing at PTIGlobal and is a 14-year veteran

of the translation and localization industry.
http://www.multilingual.com/


6/14

Core Focus


Alessandra Cortese de Bosis, anItalian-to-English translator livingin Virginia, sees some defnite trendsin the marketplace. A translator is acommunications ofcer, she said, theinstrument that helps make or break arelationship, be it business, social or

political. Sometimes, understandingeach other is hard even when we speakthe same language, so in todays global-ized world, with so many cultures tryingto communicate, I eel that translatorsare instrumental as a means towardunderstanding. Unortunately, due to theeconomy and the need to have it doneinstantly, the quality, and thereore theunderstandability, o most translationshas declined dramatically. But there arestill some institutions and organizationsor which quality is paramount, and itshows. She also said its important or

translators to stay globally competitiveand to market themselves. She charac-terized working with MT as my leastavorite job.

Regarding rates and pricing, de Bosisobserved, Having to compete withtranslators based in the European Unionand in Asia has certainly put somepressure toward lowering ees. Unortu-nately, I eel that a lot o the time, I amcompeting with low quality translatorswho are obviously willing to charge lessto get the job. I have been asked to edittranslations that were very poor quality,and so take double the time to edit.

Steanie Mueller translates rom Ger-man to English and works primarily oragencies. She lives in Arizona and is a longtime ATA member. She mainly views theATA conerence as a great place to meetand mingle with her ellow translators, takeexpert classes and seminars, and network.

My role as a translator is to provide agood translation that ows well and is acorrect rendition o the source text, saidMueller. That job is easy, i there is asimple source text that is to be renderedin the target language. But in recenttimes, I have come across the need toengage a lot more in the technical sideo the translation business, or examplelooking or tag errors in Trados fles thatare flled with ormatting tags. These or-matting tags create additional work orthe translator since most o the time youhave to move around the tags to reect

the target sentence structure a cum-bersome and time-consuming processthat most o the time is not compensatedor by the agency.

She also mourns the loss o work-ing with the editor. Otentimes, I, as atranslator, do not see the edited fle aterthe editing step and thus do not receiveeedback rom the editor, Mueller said.And I also do not have the fnal sayin what changes should be accepted ordeclined. I wish the practice o review-ing editors changes/suggestions could berevived, as I think it would make a betterend-product.

She fnds that pricing and rates playa major role in the translation business.Many agencies are trying to lowerprices, either due to the act that theyneed to stay competitive (they say), orthat they want to keep a larger marginor themselves. A time-consuming hag-

gling war then ensues where the transla-tor will try to work out the best rate orhersel or himsel, and the agency willtry to take the lowest bidder. This hag-gling war always leaves me upset anddisappointed, because essentially thetranslator is the one who carries the bur-den o the lower price and a disservice isdone to the entire industry by translatorstrying to undercut each other. Muellersees this constant battle as a detrimentbut there are some exceptions, shesaid. There are some agencies that donot haggle about price and that gladly

pay the requested price as well as anyapplicable rush charges, and o coursethose are the ones I love to work with,partially because o the rate issue, par-tially because o their excellent projectmanagement abilities.

Mueller said she has not raised herrates in over ten years, and has beenrequently asked by agencies to work orless than her normal rate. Sometimes Iagreed to that, sometimes I did not. Whatthis means (even i you leave acceptingwork at a lower rate out o the equation)is that I now have to work more than Idid beore to maintain my standard o

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7/14

living, since the cost o living has goneup, but not my rates. Sad but true.

Globalization is also impacting thetranslation industry with respect to rates,in Muellers experience. I have to com-pete with German translators who live ina location where the cost o living is con-

siderably lower than where I live. The di-erence between my rate and the rate thatsome agencies sometimes request is hugeand most o the time there is no deal tobe made. On the subject o MT, she notedthat I was very rustrated with the ewMTs that I worked on. It required extensiveediting/rewriting. A good glossary wouldserve a translator better than an MT, in myopinion. I dont accept it anymore.

Finally, I asked the three translatorsor their thoughts on the uture o thetranslation proession. While no one has acrystal ball to orecast where the transla-

tion industry will be headed in the uture,translators experience a critical aspect othe industry frsthand and thus have theirfngers on the pulse and plenty o personalobservations to share. Pinson elt that MTwould continue to improve and create awinnowing process. The human transla-tors who remain will be deep experts intheir areas o specialization. I see transla-tor tools becoming more stable, integratedand language-specifc. Industry standardswill systematize the translation process.

de Bosis also ocused on MT, but eltdierently about the outcome. I reallyhope that the need to save money willnot result in overusing MT. Communi-cation has always been a undamentalelement o civilization and in a global-ized, multicultural world, it is critical.MT is not yet able to deliver the wholeoriginal concept and misunderstandingsmay ensue. Translators are still a criticalelement in global communication.

Mueller was less optimistic than theothers. Given the more than stagnantdevelopment o the industry in thepast 15 or so years, I dont have muchhope or any true improvement or thefnancial aspect o the business. Moreocus needs to be put on cooperation,not isolationist work on the part o thetranslator and editor.

Conerences like the ATA and oth-ers that are ocused exclusively on ourindustry are an excellent way to gatherinsights into the uture acing all o us. Ialways fnd it ascinating to interact withother colleagues and trade stories andexperiences. M

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8/14


CoreFocus

Online resources as a tool

for the technical translator

Igor Vesler

OOver the past 15 years o precipitous growth,the web-based depository o vast inormation and

documentation resources, accompanied by hun-dreds o search engines, has radically altered thework o translators. While computer technologychanged the instrumental and operational aspectso our proession, access to the web aorded limit-less opportunities in terms o how to improve thesubstantive content and quality o our end product.

Back in the 1980s and into the early 1990s, the commonpublic perception o a translator was that o a person sitting ata typewriter surrounded by numerous dictionaries, handbooksand other reerence materials. Today, the translators desk hasbecome neat and clean. There is no need or heavy volumeswith handwritten notations, no dusty encyclopedias, and nonotepads or Xerox copies o terminology lists. Just a keyboard,a mouse and a screen and, literally, the world behind it.

These days, I look at my 1,200+ volumes o dictionaries col-lecting dust on the bookshelves with mixed eelings, probably thesame way an SUV driver looks at a horse-driven cart. Althoughhorse cart driving is a charming embodiment o centuries oartisan cart design, horse handling and grooming, when it comesto getting the job done, the SUV wins hands down. Similarly,the use o traditional dictionaries has become quite limited inthe modern translators world, and the art o their compilationhas been replaced with terminology management technologies.Because online terminology databases and documentary sourcesare widely available, terminological guide compilation and vali-dation take hours rather than months or years.

The ability o todays translator to ully utilize the potential

o web-based resources is a critical actor in both the qualityand the speed o the translation process. Alas, as with any otherast-growing technology, human skills lag behind in this regard.For example, using a traditional dictionary only requires abasic knowledge o the source alphabet, while searching onlinesources in a meaningul manner presupposes sophisticated skillsin the area o compiling and fne-tuning search queries, as wellas handling the numerous resultant hits. Even more importantis the conceptual dierence between using a dictionary, thesau-rus or similar collection o terms, and working with the variouscontexts in which a sought term occurs.

Any nonencyclopedic dictionary is essentially a collectiono terms taken out o context and arranged in some user-riendly order, such as alphabetically or by subject area. Exceptor occasional scope and/or usage notes, an ordinary bilingualdictionary provides no inormation on actual usage, in light othe act that the dictionary meaning o a term and its usagemay dier rom one another (as they so oten do). Furthermore,in cases when a dictionary provides several target terms withno scope inormation, it is incumbent upon the translator todecide which term is the most appropriate one in the targetcontext not an easy task without consulting other explana-tory texts, whether an encyclopedic defnition or a paragraphrom some text in the target language, the subject, style anddocumentary category o which are close to those o the sourcedocument. Generally speaking, dictionaries, being collectionso terms taken out o context, provide insufcient inormation(or no inormation at all) on the actual usage o a term in aspecifc context. This is why one o the most prevalent transla-tor errors consists o incorrect usage as a result o selecting thewrong target term rom a series o quasi-synonymic transla-tions o a single source term provided in a dictionary.

This inadequacy becomes even more acute when a translatorencounters marginal terminology, such as exotic or rarely usedterms, which constitutes a major challenge to technical transla-tion. As a timely example, while recently translating a documentpertaining to cables, I had to employ quite elaborate online searchtechniques in order to fnd an exact Russian equivalent or theEnglish term Chinese fngers, since I could not fnd it in any

Igor Vesler is a freelance Russian andUkrainian legal and technical translatorand interpreter as well as an independentconsultant for Diken Research of New York.


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Core Focus


traditional dictionary. A similar problemarises with terms that have numeroussimilar meanings, such as pin, rod andso on. Choosing the correct target termrequires an extensive knowledge o boththe subject matter and the specifc designor situation described in the text beingtranslated, which, unortunately, is otennot the case.

This is precisely where online resourcescombined with iterative search techniquesimplemented by ull-text search enginescome into play. From the translatorspoint o view, a ull-text search engineis an interace to a gigantic searchablecollection o texts and images contain-ing terms and expressions in the targetlanguage. Unlike special dictionaries as asource o target terminology, a ull-textsearch engine responds to a user querywith real documents samples o theactual usage o a given term in a relevantcontext, which is exactly what a transla-tor needs. See Table 1 or some exampleso useul querying tools.

An images tool, or instance, isextremely helpul to a translator when itcomes to getting an idea o the appear-ance, confguration, view or specifc

visual eatures o an object, as well as

the respective terminology. See Figure1 or an example o using the Ramblerimages tool to get a schematic o anuclear reactor with the Russian nameso its major components.

Figure 2 shows the powerul Quinturasearch engine (www.quintura.com), whichpermits both web and image searches bydisplaying the terms associated with thesearch query.

The ability to search within a spe-cifc website or domain (site search) isimportant when it comes to ensuringthe correct choice o a target term ora specifc country. As an example, theEnglish term afliate (a corporate entity)is traditionally rendered dierently inRussia ( ) andin Kazakhstan (

),

although these two Russian terms areconsidered to be quasisynonyms.

The translation o patents probablyserves as the best example o the con-cept o using existing documentationas a target terminology source. Patenttranslators commonly employ the simpletechnique o identiying patents similarto the one being translated, such as arelevant cluster o patents rom the samesubclass. In addition to terminology,

they contain graphic materials (such asschematics) that illustrate the design,structure and perormance o an inventionin detail.

Another example consists o trans-lating, say, a certifcate o compliance.Here, it is extremely helpul to review

certifcates o compliance that alreadyexist in the target language and country

Querying tool Function Value to the translator

Book search Searching the ull texto books

Especially valuable when a citation rom acertain book appears in a source text that hasalready been translated into the target language.

Cached links Viewing a snapshot oeach page when indexed

Extremely helpul when a pertinent web pageis no longer available online.

Defnitions Obtaining glossarydefnitions gathered romvarious online sources

One o the most valuable translator resources,which, in addition to several defnitions o a term,provides reliable and verifed usage contexts.

File types Searching within non-HTML fle ormats

Greatly expands or ocuses the scope o asearch by including PDF documents, PowerPointpresentations and so on.

Images Searching or relevantimages

Extremely helpul in acquiring relevantimages rather than text.

Phrase search Finding exact wording oran exact phrase

Matches only those documents that containthe exact wording specifed in a user query,such as "heat exchanger ensures uniormityo process ow."

Product search Finding a product or

sale online

Provides access to product descriptions in the

target (non-English) language(s).Similar pages Displaying pages that

pertain to a particularsearch result

Expands the output to include more relevantresults.

Site search Restricting a search to aspecifc site or domain

Focuses on a specifc website or domain orthe purpose o fnding all relevant documents.

Table 1: Some querying tools rom the translators perspective.

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10/14

Core Focus


beorehand. This gives the translator aclear idea o the applicable terminology,style and document eatures.

Yet another example might be thatwhile translating a document on nuclearreactor saety, the translator encoun-ters an excerpt rom an International

Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) regula-tion describing a certain requirement.

At this point, two scenarios are possible:the translator either translates the text othe excerpt and moves on, or attempts tolocate an ofcial translation o this IAEAregulation into the target language onthe web and takes the text o the excerptrom it. I successul, the latter approachnot only guarantees the accurate and

verifable rendering o the source textinto the target language, but quite re-quently makes the translator aware thatsome o the terms or expressions already

present in the translated part o the doc-ument can be rendered more accuratelyin conormance with the establishedterminology and style, so the necessarycorrections can be made beore proceed-ing with the rest o the translation.

Having beore ones eyes a documentin the target language that is as similaras possible to the source document in allrespects not only improves the authen-ticity and quality o a translation, butalso saves the translator a lot o time.

Unortunately, fnding such an exactmatch is more the exception than therule. In reality, the scrupulous translatorhas to deal with a number o reerencedocuments that he or she has oundon the web, each o which covers onlycertain aspects o the source text. Suchreerence materials come rom varioussources, and thereore, their accuracyand relevance vary. That is why thetranslator should always have a clearunderstanding o these parameters.

Multilingual andcorporate websitesRegardless o their afliations and

countries o origin, websites constitute theprimary source o bilingual and multilin-gual documentation, oering parallel textso documents in two or more languages.It should be noted that a website interacedoes not necessarily have to be bilingualor allow browsing in two languages at thesame time. While search and access tech-niques, as well as document availability ina desired language pair, may vary rom siteto site, there is always a very good chance

Figure 1: Rambler.ru image search.

Figure 2: Quintera.com image search.

Figure 3: Example of an original MSDS and its Russian equivalent found on a company website.


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Core Focus


that the translator can locate an unknownterm or expression in the relevant contextin less than a dozen clicks.

The national government agencieso a given country sometimes replicateEnglish-language websites that are rel-

evant to their activities in the local lan-guage. For example, the Federal AtomicEnergy Agency o the Russian Fed-eration (www.minatom.ru) has createda Russian-language site (www.radwaste.ru) that mirrors the English-languagewebsite o the World Nuclear Association

on Radioactive Waste Management (www.wna-waste-management.org).

An impressive collection o reer-ences to more than 170 multilingualwebsites with parallel texts and site-specifc search tips covering more than50 broad subject areas is provided at web.ticino.com/multilingual/Multilingual_websites.htm.

Matching the language pair, however,is not sufcient or a successul search.Since the same word or expression maybe rendered dierently in dierent target-language contexts, it is equally important

to match the context: the document type,style and other textual eatures.

The online documentation availablerom corporate websites includes marketing

Rank SourceRanking Parameter

Authority Trustworthiness Availability

1 Treaties and multilateral agreements 8-10 8-10 6-8

2International organizations andtrade associations

7-9 7-9 8-10

3 National legislation and governmentsources

6-8 7-9 5-7

4 International standards 7-9 7-9 6-8

5 Scientifc and technical publications 6-8 5-7 5-7

6 Corporate sources 5-7 6-8 7-9

7NGOs, public associations andwatchdog organizations

2-3 4-6 5-7

8 News agencies and media 2-3 3-5 6-8

9Blogs, personal web pages andproessional orums

3-5 2-3 5-7

10 Auxiliary and secondary sources 2-4 2-4 4-6

Table 2: Ranking o online terminology sources.
http://youtube.com/XTRFPlatformhttps://twitter.com/xtrf/http://www.xtrf.eu/mailto:[email protected]://www.xtrf.eu/http://web.ticino.com/multilingual/Multilingual_websites.htmhttp://web.ticino.com/multilingual/Multilingual_websites.htmhttp://web.ticino.com/multilingual/Multilingual_websites.htmhttp://www.multilingual.com/http://www.radwaste.ru/http://www.radwaste.ru/http://www.minatom.ru/


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Core Focus


documents and customer documentation,such as manuals, instructions, handbooks,guides and datasheets. Figure 3 showsan original material saety data sheet(MSDS) and its Russian equivalent oundon a company website, where the sameMSDS is also available in numerous otherlanguages. Translators may also fndadministrative documentation as well asannual reports and flings.

From the translators perspective,

there are three categories o major indus-try player websites that can be used asdocumentation sources: the multilingualwebsites o national companies in thesource-language country; the target-lan-guage websites o international companieswith an established presence in the target-language country; and national companywebsites in the target-language country.

Other online sources include non-governmental organizations (NGOs),public associations and watchdog orga-nizations. Secondary sources includejournals o abstracts and web linkcollections such as www.yurkevich.ru,which contains an impressive collectiono links to Russian civil engineering andconstruction websites.

However, not all online resources arecreated equal. Table 2 presents an empiri-cal 1-to-10 scale ranking o online sourcesbased on the authors translation experi-ence in the nuclear power, aerospace, oiland gas industries. Authority reers to thelegitimacy o a source, its standing and/orits ability to position itsel as a touchstoneo standard terminology. Trustworthi-ness reers to the authenticity, credibility,dependability and conormability o theterminology provided in the source. Avail-ability reers to the online presence o aspecifc source and the degree o eortrequired to locate it on the web.

Treaties andinternational agreementsFor search purposes, treaties can be

reerred to by a number o dierent names:international conventions, multilateral

agreements, covenants, fnalacts, charters, protocols, pacts,accords and constitutions ointernational organizations.Treaties and international ormultilateral agreements are,as a rule, readily available

online rom multiple websitesin two or more languages.Since documentation o this

type normally takes precedence overdomestic legislation, it is especially useulwhen translating documents in the areaso international aairs and commercialtransactions. A major online resourceis Oceana (www.oceanalaw.com), whichboasts more than 15,000 treaties andinternational agreements, including taxtreaties. However, United Nations (UN)and international organization websitesare the primary sources or the transla-

tor, since they provide the ull texts oofcial multilingual versions o treatiesand related documents. In addition tolegal terminology and proper style, thesedocuments normally include the ollow-ing helpul components:

A terms and defnitions section.From the translators perspective, this isthe most valuable part o any treaty ormultilateral agreement, since it containsterminological inormation that has beenagreed upon by two or more memberstates and that is provided in two ormore languages. Thus sanctifed, suchterms are a sure bet (see, or example, thedefnitions section in the parallel texts othe model international contracts theEnglish and Russian versions on theRussian website www.miripravo.ru)

Schedules and appendices contain-ing actual inormation

Technical data, material saety datasheets and so on

More detailed inormation and docu-mentation concerning treaties is availablerom the multilingual websites that sup-port such treaties. In addition to the UNwebsite, a good example is the websiteo the Organization or the Prohibitiono Chemical Weapons (www.opcw.org),which provides reerences to documentsin fve languages.

International and professionalorganization documentationIn common usage, the term interna-

tional organization is usually reserved orintergovernmental organizations (IGOs)such as the UN, the European Union, the

Council o Europe or the World TradeOrganization, in which sovereign statesor other IGOs are members. Not onlyare their documents published online inseveral languages, their activities includethe ormulation and implementation oregulatory and reerence materials con-

curred with and approved by the memberstates, which represent a reliable source oterminology.

One such example is the IAEA (www.iaea.org), an organization inside the UNsystem and a leading publisher in thenuclear feld. In addition to key interna-tional conventions and agreements, IAEApublications include international guides,codes and standards aimed at establishingand promoting internationally recognizedprinciples o nuclear saety, radiation pro-tection, radioactive waste management,the transport o radioactive materials, the

saety o nuclear uel cycle acilities andquality assurance or example, the Codeo Conduct on the Saety and Security oRadioactive Sources, which is oered inArabic, Chinese, English, French, Russianand Spanish. Another source o paralleltexts is provided by the IAEA Fact Sheets(www.iaea.org/Publications/Factsheets/index.html), which make available, amongother things, numerous documents in Eng-lish, French, Russian and Spanish.

International standardsInternational standards are ormulated

by international organizations such asthe International Organization or Stan-dardization; the International Electro-technical Commission; the InternationalTelecommunication Union; the BritishStandards Institution; the American Soci-ety or Testing and Materials; and so on,and are available or consideration anduse worldwide. The adoption o interna-tional standards results in the creationo equivalent national standards that aresubstantially the same as their interna-tional counterparts as ar as technicalcontent, and that seek to eliminate di-erences in the technical regulations andstandards independently and separatelyormulated by each nation, nationalstandards organization or industry.

National legislationand government sourcesNational legislation (legislative and

regulatory acts) and national standards arehighly authoritative terminology sources,especially when the intended recipient o

Table 3: Ranking terms by occurrence.

Russian targetterm

Back translationto English

Sitesfound

Documentsfound

RFID- RFID chip 1,969 53,358

RFID- RFID tag 1,980 23,838

RFID- RFID passport 556 4,559

RFID- RFID circuit 236 922
mailto:[email protected]://www.iaea.org/Publications/Factsheets/index.htmlhttp://www.iaea.org/Publications/Factsheets/index.htmlhttp://www.iaea.org/http://www.iaea.org/http://www.opcw.org/http://www.miripravo.ru/http://www.oceanalaw.com/http://www.yurkevich.ru/


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Core Focus


the translated document is a governmentalagency o the target country. Similar tointernational agreements and standards,legislative acts establish core terminologywithin their respective subject areas. Itshould be noted that in legal translation, alegislative act is the terminology source ohighest authority, with very ew exceptions.

National government agencies andauthorities, and the documentation avail-able rom their websites, constitute anotherreliable terminology source. In Russia andthe Ukraine, many ministries and agencies,especially those involved in internationalprograms or example, the RussianMunitions Agency (http://munition.gov.ru/index.html) maintain English-languageversions o their websites and respectivedocuments. Others provide various exam-ples o documentation such as certifcateso compliance and HAZMAT regulations inmining, nuclear and other industries.

Scientific andtechnical publicationsScientifc and technical publications

include proessional and trade journalarticles; newsletters; annual, statistical

and technical reports; policy papers; andliterature reviews. However, as sourceso terminology, their reliability varies.For instance, proessional journals dierrom trade publications, which usuallydo not include in-depth research articles,while scholarly journals tend to be re-ereed publications and can be regardedas more authoritative than magazines.Surveys o published research or litera-ture reviews on a particular topic or ina particular subject area provide a quickoverview o the state o the art in a givenfeld. For the translator, they constitutea source o well-established terminol-ogy and knowledge. Trade publicationsare industry-specifc documents (in thefelds o civil engineering, aviation andso on) that are available rom a variety otrade associations and business groups,such as the Institute o Electrical andElectronics Engineers, the Society orTechnical Communications, the MaterialsResearch Society and many others. Theseorganizational publications in the targetcountry and/or the target language, iand when available, are highly reliableterminology sources.

Validating the terminologyFor translation purposes, verifcation

can be defned as the process o ensur-ing that a target term is an accepted termo art within a relevant subject area anddocument type, while the purpose ovalidation is to ensure that a target termis an accurate equivalent o a source termin the context o the document beingtranslated. In addition to matching thedocument type during an online search,search statistics the number o webpages or documents ound serve as themost reliable tool as ar as preerred usage(especially or multiword phrases). By wayo an example, Table 3 shows the searchstatistics or the English acronym RFIDusing Rambler, a Russian search engine.

Neither the internet in general norany search engine in particular is magic.The translator should always bearin mind that search engine output iscounted in occurrences rather than termsas such. It is the translator who verifesand validates the terms by ranking themas a unction o their sources, and whoselects the target term rom the mosttrusted source in the target language. M

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T

April/May 2013 www.multilingual.com

Core Focus: Localization

he ever-growing, easy international access to information,

services and goods underscores the importance of language

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Who provides services in this area? Where do I start?

Savvy people in todays world use MultiLingualto answer

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MultiLinguals eight issues a year are filled with news, techni-

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Youll find sound ideas and practical help in every issue.

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Global webEvery website is a global website because it can be accessed

from anywhere in the world. Experienced web professionals

explain how to create a site that works for users everywhere,how to attract those users to your site and how to keep the site

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