Five tips for translation preparation

Good translation has nothing to do with luck and finding a four leaf clover. It has everything to do with preparation. You prepare for a launch. You prepare for a meeting. You prepare for a presentation. You may even prepare for St. Patrick’s Day (happy St. Paddy’s Day!). And you should prepare for your translation and localization project. It’ll save you time and money in the long run.

Here are five quick tips to help you prepare for any translation project — no matter what the target language (i.e. German, Arabic, Portuguese, or perhaps, Gaelic).

1. Create a glossary and style guide that are reviewed and approved by all internal parties. Determine the tone of what you’re trying to capture in the target language. Constantly update your glossary with new terms and revisions.

2. Give as much detail to your translation vendor about the subject matter. The more detailed the better so your vendor can choose qualified translators who have an advanced degree and/or extensive experience in the subject matter area.

3. Use a translation memory tool. Your vendor can create and manage this for you. This will help keep your words and terms consistent. It will also help reduce costs since you won’t have to constantly re-translate the same words over and over again.

4. Make sure your vendor has a native, target language editor to review the translation and ensure QA (Quality Assurance).

5. Determine up front, who will be helping you with in-country review (more than likely someone from your in-country team), but be aware that they should know the background of the translation and the timeline for launch. You should also have them involved with the initial glossary and/or style guide creation.

Photo attribution: kaibara