How we leverage technology to benefit you

COMPUTER-AIDED TRANSLATION

How we leverage technology to benefit you

The translation industry has made a huge leap in the last 30 years.

From this…

to this:

And we are all grateful for it.

Our implementing these innovations ensures that you, our clients, benefit from the translation accuracy, quality and speed you need.

Our 80+ Languages

In reality, we can do at least 120 languages but we prefer to be modest. Instead, we are pleased to present just the top 80 into which we translate, interpret and localize. In addition, we provide many dialects such as Canadian French, Argentine Spanish or UK English for translating, and Mandarin and Cantonese for interpreting which we don’t even count as part of our list. Need others not shown? Please ask—our linguistic translation professionals just might surprise you!

Evolution

As relevant science and technology started expanding a few decades ago at a universal scale, translation was the indispensable ingredient for the success. The translation industry benefited enormously from technological progress and followed right along. When Microsoft, Google, eBay and Twitter – to mention just the biggest ones — are interested in developing and improving language technology, the industry listens and has followed. Technology, far from replacing humans, has become a tool helping them to keep up with growing demand for high quality translation.

How is Technology Helping Language Service Providers?

Software used in the translation business is of inestimable value, providing: content management systems; project management programs; resource and staff management tools; computer-assisted-translation tools; terminology databases; plus programs for formatting, layout, transmission, storage, instant worldwide communication, etc.

Additional tools for localizing websites, software and mobile apps have opened new branches of business. Machine-assisted translation as well as a machine translation (MT, also known as translation software) are of huge importance paving the future development and new directions of language industry.

Besides basic daily tasks, machine-assisted translation and other technologies have also opened our door to the huge range of competent translators across the globe who have diverse specializations and do less common languages. And all are vetted before we use them.

The Normal and Modified Processes

To guarantee accuracy, the translation process has three critical steps:

Draft or initial translation using a subject-specialized, professionally trained translator of each target language;
Editing (Revising) using a second subject-specialized, professionally trained translator of each target language to review the draft; and
Proofreading the file for spelling, punctuation, grammar and formatting.

When a text has many repetitions or tight deadlines, Auerbach International often uses computer-aided translation for Step 1 with human translators for the critical Steps 2 and 3. This combination of machines and people maximizes accuracy and delivers quality quickly.

But MT can still make comical and critical mistakes, and does not work well with complex sentence structures and many Asian languages. In these cases, we use a professional, human translator for the draft (Step 1) and another professional translator (or two) to edit and proofread the text (Steps 2 and 3).

Getting language nuances, expressions and colloquialisms right is also challenging for MT.

Computer-aided translation and other technologies also cannot acculturate. For example, for an interior design firm that “creates soothing office spaces”, we rewrote the text for the Arabic translation to say that it “makes soothing office spaces.” That’s because for devout Muslims, only God can create and not acculturating would doom the client’s promotion.

When technology reaches its limits, we always use human professionals.

How is This Technology Helping You?

In today’s highly competitive marketplace, communicating across multiple languages and cultures is essential for:

launching your product worldwide;
developing new technologies;
collaborating with world-renowned scientists for research;
getting essential information to (minority) populations speaking different languages; and
making sales in foreign countries.

New technology integrated into language industry ensures:

faster turnaround times;
on-time product releases;
higher levels of accuracy;
consistency throughout all media and brands;
improved quality;
lower prices; and
services adapted to real needs, whether a machine translation for internal use, over-the-phone interpreting, or easy management of your content for translation.

Our machine-assisted translation and technology processes ensure that you get greater competitiveness and better success on the global market, regardless of your particular industry.

Quality and Accuracy

Your translation projects undergo a thorough and comprehensive process, coordinated by a professional project manager and involving some or all of the following phases:

Creation of a glossary for your in-house linguists’ or distributors’ review;
Draft translation by a native-speaking, translator of each target language who usually has a Master’s-level or equivalent training, ten years’
ongoing experience, and specializes in your industry terminology. Multi-lingual projects all work simultaneously;
Quality Assurance review (“editing”) by a second native-speaking, subject-expert translator of each language to ensure accuracy;
Acculturation for the dialect or terminology of your target country or region (such as Brazilian Portuguese, Canadian French or European Spanish);
Proofreading for spelling, punctuation and grammar;
Formatting to correspond to the design of the source files as closely as possible;
Multilingual desktop publishing (DTP) (if required);
Final, post-layout proofing; and
Creation or update of a Translation Memory which captures terminology in each language to ensure consistency across all languages and allows for substantial discounting of future projects.