‘Translation Tips’ Archives
Internationalized Domain Names
Are you already localizing your website content into other languages? Consider doing the same to the website URLs. Consider acquiring ccTLDs (country code top-level domains) like ".de" and ".es" for your multilingual website. ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) has recently approved non-Latin ccTLDs. Prior to this [...]
Language Use by Region
What are the top 10 languages by population in New York and other states? Where are the most Armenian speakers living in the United States? The U.S. Census used to track and report the number of language speakers for virtually every language in every state and county. This data was very useful for companies planning localized multilingual [...]
Native Speakers
Use only translators that are native speakers of the target language. The same is true for editors and internal reviewers. Companies should not hire non-native speaking translators and interpreters for the same reason they should not hire non-native speaking copywriters or spokespersons. Even a native speaker who has been living outside of [...]
Language and Country Codes
Many multilingual websites are organized using subdomains and subdirectories based on language codes or country codes. These are usually ISO codes. See the following example that Google gave for a French website in Canada using the alpha-2 code for the French language: French language code subdirectory: www.example.ca/fr French language code [...]
Language and Country Names List
English speakers expect that a link to an English language/country option on a website will be listed in English, not translated into another language. Otherwise, how easily would an English speaker find a link to English content if the language name were written in Asian, Cyrillic, or Middle Eastern characters? Or how easy would it be if the [...]
What Google Says about Multilingual Websites
The world's most popular search engine will not reveal everything about its proprietary search algorithms, but it does provide some help through various portals and blogs. In order to ensure high ranking, it naturally makes sense to pay attention to what the search giant has to say on the topic. Similarly, when creating a multilingual website [...]
Translation Memory Hostage Situation
Standard practice in the translation industry is for language services providers (LSPs) to provide a translation memory (TM) to a client upon request. Your company may never actually need to request a copy until you switch providers and then need to take the TM with you to continue receiving the benefits of cost, speed, and quality the TM [...]
Free Translation Memory Tools
Free translation memory (TM) tools for computer-assisted translation (CAT) are becoming more common. Everyone in the translation industry should already be very aware of paid translation memory programs like Trados. Here are a few of the free translation memory tools that you might want to check out: Free Translation Memory - Online [...]
Video Localization Costs
There are many ways to localize a video for e-learning, marketing, entertainment, or other purposes. Localization can include graphic text localization, subtitle translation, multilingual voice-over, localized dubbing, or even video localization that includes re-shooting the video with localized actors and localized scripts. When considering [...]
Image Localization
Sometimes localization of text is not enough. We've already pointed out that colors, gestures, symbols, and icons often need localization. The same is often true for other graphic, photographic, and video imagery. It's simply a matter of providing imagery that reflects what exists in a country's context. Regarding the models used in images, [...]
