Been handed a project, and thinking what the hell do I do know?

Then you’ve come to the right place! By the time you’ve finished reading this free translation guide, you’ll be able to answer the 2 most important questions to ensure a successful translation project.

Question 1: What is the Right Type of Translation?
Clarifying project requirements is essential to determining what the right type of Japanese translation is for your project.

For example, is your translation project for internal or external consumption? Is translation price & cost more important or is translation quality more important? Another requirement that may be of importance to your project is time. What is the turn-around for your translation project? Then, again, translation service satisfaction may be your overriding priority.

Translation can be categorized into the following types:

1. Professional translation
2. Computer translation
3. Translation crowdsourcing
4. Translation cloud

If all these options seem overwhelming, don’t despair! Click here to get a super easy to following summary of Translation: The many differences

We are a Tokyo based Japan Translation Service so naturally recommend professional translation by human translators. However, you don’t need to take our word for it -- Read these informative articles on the translation quality you can expect with:

• Machine translation (MT)
• Translation crowdsourcing

(Note that there is a continuous churn of new technologies and methodologies in the industry as companies attempt to gain the upper hand in what is a very competitive market space. However, there’s only ONE option if quality translation is your overriding priority!)

Still not sure what’s the right type of Japanese translation for your project? Then contact industry experts for a free consultation

Question 2: What is the right type of translation service
Ready to reduce your frustration buying translation? Selecting the right type of translation service can be just as frustrating as selecting the right type of translation for your project (you have that under control, right?). Do you go with a Japanese translation service by a company, agency or free-lance translator?

The following criteria, while not an exhaustive list, will help you determine the right professional translation service for your project, and guarantee that you get the most value for your investment in translation. Read this before settling on a Professional Translation Service

Bonus: Translation Buying Guide Tips and Techniques
Finally, what would a guide be without a few tips ‘n techniques?

You're almost ready to commit. Guarantee the success of your Japanese translation project by taking a few more minutes to truly prepare (peace of mind; priceless!). Tips and techniques for quality translation

About the Author
Ivan Vandermerwe is the CEO of SAECULII YK, the owner of Japanese Translation Services Tokyo, Japan. Visit SAECULII for the latest case studies, articles and news on Professional Translation Services

Copyright (C) SAECULII YK. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this article is permitted with inclusion of the "About the Author" reference as is (including text links, japan-translators.saeculii.com/english/services/japanese-translation-services.cfm), and this copyright information. Articles may not be altered without written permission from SAECULII YK.

Most businesses realize that they are simply a click away from any corner of the globe.

Abandoned Shopping Cart

Well, actually two if you include the Yahoo! search a potential customer does to access your shopping cart. What most businesses, unfortunately, do not realize is that their shopping cart is struggling to make it to the checkout counter.

Bill Dunlap, managing director of Global Reach, Inc. notes that:

"for every $2 million a site is doing in domestic sales, they're leaving another $1 million on the table in international sales if they're not making themselves easily available."

To paraphrase the above, let me draw on a quote from Willy Brandt. The former West German chancellor is reported to have once said:

"If I'm selling to you, I speak your language. If I'm buying, dann muessen Sie Deutsch sprechen (then you must speak German)."

In economics this is referred to as opportunity cost -- The cost of something in terms of an opportunity foregone. The opportunity cost of not speaking "German" is a whopping 50%! This simple truth is supported by statistics.

Donald A. DePalma reported in a study conducted for Forrester Research that:

• Visitors linger twice as long as they do at English-only URLs,
• Buyers are three times more likely to buy if addressed in their own language, and
• Customer service costs drop when instructions are displayed in the user’s language.

(Source: Donald A. DePalma, Strategies for Global Sites, 1998)

Another Forrester Research report, quoted in an article titled "Reasons for Success in International E-Commerce" (webpronews.com) provides statistics that indicate:

"over 55% of the online world accesses the Internet from countries where English is NOT the native language."

The message is loud and clear: Do not assume that there is no reason to translate your marketing materials or that English is used in other countries! To be sure, English is the lingua franca of the world, and many people do have the ability to read English. But, faced with a choice, would you pull out your wallet for a company that caters to your needs in your non-native language, or your native language?

If translation and localization is not part of your global e-commerce strategy, then you may be leaving money on the table!

And, if you see the truth in this message, you have a couple of options available. You can:

• Develop an in-house translation capability, or
• Commission a professional translation service to translate your marketing materials.

Developing an in-house translation capability is prohibitively expensive, not to mention that it is a long-term effort. An appropriate analogy to illustrate this point is that of an IT department. So, unless you have deep pockets, buying translation is definitely the way to go.

Buying professional translation, however, can be overwhelming with all the technical jargon, and frustrating with all the endless marketing hype and "mission statements" that are thrown at you. Fact is, the basics of purchasing translation are pretty easy. Read on!

Your starting point should be the clarification of your project requirements. Consider:

• Is translation price & cost more important or is translation quality more important?
• What is the turn-around for your translation project?
• Is translation service satisfaction your overriding priority?

By clarifying project requirements, you are establishing the framework to answer the 2 most important questions that will determine the success of your translations project. For example, if you are targeting the Japan market:

1. What is the Right Type of Japanese Translation?
2. what is the Right Type of Japanese Translation Service?

About the Author
Ivan Vandermerwe is the CEO of SAECULII YK (Tokyo Japan), the owner of Tokyo based Translation Services Japan Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news on Japanese Translation Service

Copyright (C) SAECULII YK. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this article is permitted with inclusion of the "About the Author" reference as is (including text links, japan-translators.saeculii.com/english/services/japanese-translation-services.cfm), and this copyright information. Articles may not be altered without written permission from SAECULII YK.

We've said it before here -- In machines translation you get what you pay for!

Takeda Random House Japan Co., Ltd has been forced into bankruptcy with 930 million yen in liabilities. Although the company has seen falling revenues for a number of years due to lackluster performance of the publishing industry, it seems the use of machine translation in a publication was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.

Here's a Japanese English translation of that news article on News 47:

Publisher Takeda Random House Japan Co., Ltd Bankrupt, Liabilities of 930 million Yen

It was reported on 17 December that Takeda Random House Japan Co., Ltd was authorized by the Tokyo District Court to enter bankruptcy proceedings. According to Tokyo Shoko Research Ltd the ruling was handed down on 12 December. Takeda's total liabilities are 926 million Japanese yen.

Random House Inc and Kodansha Ltd established Random House Kodansha Co., Ltd through a joint venture in 2003. The joint venture was dissolved in 2010, and the company's name changed to Takeda Random House Japan Co., Ltd.

In August 2011, the discovery of numerous unedited machine translation passages in a biography of physicist Albert Einstein lead to a recall.

(The original news article has been removed from the Web; however, the following article in Japanese provides pretty much the same information – Click here)

The company’s spiraling economic fortunes over the last couple of years -- and no doubt the marketing hype of machine translation vendors -- almost certainly provided the impetus to forsake Japanese human translation for cheap machine translation. Any savings Takeda initially achieved have been totally wiped out, as has the company itself!

Unfortunately, too many folks realize too late that machine translation (MT) is never a credible solution for professional Japanese translation.

(This translation article was originally publish in 2013 on the SAECULII &DISCUSS Translation Blog.)

About the Author
Ivan Vandermerwe is the CEO of SAECULII YK, the owner of Translation Services Japan Visit SAECULII for the latest case studies, articles and news on Professional Translation Services

Copyright (C) SAECULII YK. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this article is permitted with inclusion of the "About the Author" reference as is (including text links, japan-translators.saeculii.com/english/services/japanese-translation-services.cfm), and this copyright information. Articles may not be altered without written permission from SAECULII YK.

Until very recently machine translation (MT), or “computer translation” as it is sometimes referred to, was a dirty word in the translation industry synonymous with atrocious quality.

I know, it's a storm cloud

Indeed, it used to be that clients threatened to pull an account, or worse, if machine translation was used on their projects. And, in turn, predictably, translation companies threatened divine retribution against any translator tempted to forego the hard work of professional translation for the short-cut afforded by machine translation.

How times change!

This article proudly declares in the future “Human and Machine Translation Cloud Helps Overcome Language Boundaries”¹. Folks, that future is at hand -- Consumers of professional translation services should be left in no doubt that machine translation is already an integral part of the translation cloud!

Origins of the translation cloud
Let’s backup here a moment and take a look at translation clouds. The cloud is a recent development in the translation industry, which:

• Is a technique enabled by advances in cloud computing technology that allows project participants to simultaneously collaborate through shared resources, the purpose of which is to enhance efficiency and communication while eliminating costly managerial tasks.
  
  Quality translation is NOT, nor ever was, a stated objective of translation clouds.


• Was born out of the business necessity to compete with cut-throat competitors originating in China and India etc., who employed a simple translation model:
  
  Cheap Translation: Machine Translation + Post-editing by Novice Translators

Professional translators shunned this formula due to the sweat-shop rates of US$0.01~0.03 per word; as a result, these Asian companies were forced to rely on novice translators, in other words unqualified and inexperienced bilinguals. (In fact, many translation directories where these jobs are advertised banned the posting of jobs below a certain rate, commonly set at US$0.05 per word.)

Separating the wheat from the chaff: Clarity in the Cloud
A few translation cloud vendors commendably advertise their products and services as what you see is what you get.

However, many more couch use of machine translation in vague terms and slick marketing jargon that confuses customers, while essentially adopting the same translation model as their Asian competitors. Here’s a quintessential example, where the article’s author acknowledges the limitations of computer translation (machine translation & computer assisted translation)², then proceeds to artfully champion its role in translation clouds:

“Think of computer translation as a child learning to write.”

By drawing on the analogy of a child learning, the author implies computer translation, be it machine translation or computer assisted translation, is capable of intelligent translation through learning -- Let’s be crystal clear here, IT IS NOT. Computer translation is software that can only do what it’s programmed to do. Fact is, science doesn’t even understand yet how children learn languages!

(Further, the most optimistic estimates by artificial intelligence experts put the kind of intelligence capable of human quality translation in computers at least a generation away.)

Translation cloud chokes on Baskin-Robbins
The article goes on to claim an accuracy rate of 65% for computer translation, with only 35% of the translation requiring “the help of professional and novice translators”.

This claim is beyond ridiculous! Here’s the essence of the problem:

• Simply matching up text segments from previous translations stored in database, which is how computer translation works, without regard for context knocks that accuracy rate right down to 30%, if not lower.

Let me introduce a real-world example to illustrate this point. The other day my pre-school daughter barfed on a Baskin-Robbins Mint Chocolate Chip cone, declaring it was so sweet “it made me sick”. Now, this is a phrase she bandies around whenever she experiences discomfort, like the time she related how a bunch of kids trashed her favourite playground. Explaining her feelings, she fumed “It made me sick!” I’m sure you can see the phrase (text segment) is the same; however, the context is completely different thus producing the completely different meanings of:

physical discomfort and mental discomfort.

That's merely the kids' stuff; however, it brings into sharp relief the fatal flaws of the popular implementation of the translation cloud.

And, we’re only just getting to the 35% part -- This is where the cloud really starts looking more and more like that simple translation model out of Asia. I just love the way the author saddles “professional and novice translators” in the same sentence: the acceptance through association sales technique, like in commercials! The real question, though, is why are novice translators being introduced into what translation cloud operators are billing as professional translation services? There’s actually a logical explanation for this: Crowdsourcing of novice translators.

Machine translation is still a dirty word
The Wall Street Journal noted way back in 2002 "I definitely would not use machine translation (MT) for business or anything remotely requiring accuracy." The same holds true today! That is, there haven’t been any breakthroughs, or even noteworthy advances, in computer translation technology that supports the quality claims of translation cloud companies. Further, there won’t be for at least another 30 years or so…

The efficiency and cost benefits you think you’re reaping with the translation cloud are simply NOT there. Your actual costs will be lower, and you may be able to get your hands on that project a bit sooner; however, in terms of quality you can expect, the true translation cost is in the clouds -- Sky high! An influential industry survey shows 80% of international businesses lose money to poor quality translation…Machines translation is still a dirty word where it matters most -- Amongst the professional Japanese translators that ensure you don’t lose money to translation errors.

References

1. http://daa.ec.europa.eu/content/human-and-machine-translation-cloud-helps-overcome-language-boundaries
2. http://www.cmswire.com/cms/customer-experience/translation-in-the-cloud-017437.php

About the Author
Ivan Vandermerwe is the CEO of SAECULII YK, owner of the Translation Services Japan, Tokyo Visit SAECULII for the latest articles and news on Professional Japanese Translation

Copyright (C) SAECULII YK. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this article is permitted with inclusion of the "About the Author" reference as is (including text links, japan-translators.saeculii.com/english/services/japanese-translation-guarantee.cfm), and this copyright information.

For small businesses, which have limited resources, accurate translation ranks pretty low on the priority list.

Coupled with a DIY mentality, this is a recipe for disaster! The image below is a web landing page marketing the wares of a small business in Japan.

Do you feel motivated to click and find out more?

I could slip in a catchy one liner here, but I won’t. There are many websites dedicated to this genre of hilarious translation bloopers. Try engrish.com - copy & paste the URL in your browser for some light-hearted entertainment from the otherwise staid translation industry. Go ahead, you’ll enjoy!

Funny, isn’t it? Of course, if you’re the owner there certainly wouldn’t be much to laugh about. Which begs the question:

How does poor quality Japanese translation make it to market?

This happens when businesses use:

• Anyone and everyone for on translation projects, but professional translators
• Machine translation
• Translation crowd-sourcing
• Translation clouds

The common thread in these translation strategies is a desire to save money, with little regard to quality.

In researching the concept of COPQ (Cost of Poor Quality) for a previous article, I happened across an extremely interesting case study. A company with 250 million dollars in annual sales realized the need to improve quality by doing the job right first time round after analysis showed the company losing USD100,000 a day to poor quality!

Now, let’s assume a small company with 250,000 dollars in annual sales is forced to dispose of 40,000 dollars of perishable seafood because of a mistranslation in the package labeling (true story!). As a small business professional, I’m sure you understand no-one will be writing a case study for you -- Your company may get an obituary, though…

So, what is a small company with few resources to do? Contact professional Japanese translators and negotiate; there’s always a deal to be had! At the very least solicit opinions from professionals in the translation industry, which is often freely given.

If you believe you have the best translation blooper ever, then share it! Let our readers put it to the vote to find out if you really have the best translation error of all time! Simply contact us with the details, and we’ll post your blooper on our translation &DISCUSS blog.

About the Author
Ivan Vandermerwe is the CEO of SAECULII YK, owner of Tokyo based Translation Company Japan Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news on Japanese Translation Service

Copyright (C) SAECULII YK. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this article is permitted with inclusion of the "About the Author" reference as is (including text links, japan-translators.saeculii.com/english/info/contact.cfm), and this copyright information. Articles may not be altered without written permission from SAECULII YK.

According to the Polish Foreign Ministry, and as reported by the Polish News Bulletin (January 2005), the Polish translation of the EU Constitutional Treaty contained close to 100 translation errors.

That got me thinking.

Treaties, being the domain of politicians and legal scholars, generally come into being in the corridors of power, behind closed doors. As such, translation bloopers in treaties don’t have the “shock and awe” effect, of say, the bombing of Hiroshima (See Is This The World's Most Tragic Translation?). Yet, the implications from a historical perspective may be far more profound resulting in wars (The Battle of Adwa), and even spanning multiple generations!

Take, for example, the Treaty of Waitangi.

Signed between Britain and the Maori of New Zealand on February 6, 1840, at Waitangi in the Bay of Islands, the treaty was drafted in English then translated into Maori. Due to mistranslations, the Maori believe they were simply giving permission for the British to use their land; however, Britain believed the treaty gave it complete sovereignty over the Maori.

A series of land disputes cumulated in war, resulting in land confiscations by the victorious British. Eventually, most of New Zealand fell under the Crown. Although the Waitangi Tribunal set up in 1975 has provided compensation to Maori, disagreements over the treaty continue to this day.

Think this translation blooper has had the most dramatic impact on history? Register your vote!

Here's how it works. Simply leave a comment, or click your favourite social media widget below, to register your vote. The translation blooper with the combined highest response will be declared to have the most dramatic impact on history.

About the Author
Ivan Vandermerwe is the CEO of SAECULII YK, owner of the Tokyo based Japanese Translation Agency Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news on Japanese Translation Services

Copyright (C) SAECULII YK. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this article is permitted with inclusion of the "About the Author" reference as is (including text links, japan-translators.saeculii.com/), and this copyright information. Articles may not be altered without written permission from SAECULII YK.

The Soviet Union (USSR) has been consigned to the rubbish dump of history.

Indeed, a whole generation has been born since, with little or no knowledge of the “Evil Empire,” as the USSR was famously referred to by president Ronald Reagan. Few still have heard of Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader in the 50s and 60s.

However, in 1956 Nikita Khrushchev supposedly declared to western ambassadors at a reception in Moscow

“We will bury you (My vas pokhoronim)!”

There is a lot of controversy and misinformation surrounding this quote.

It is controversial because the quote could mean “We will outlast you.” Khrushchev himself said in a later interview "I once said, 'We will bury you,' and I got into trouble with it. Of course we will not bury you with a shovel. Your own working class will bury you."

(The quote is incorrectly reported to have been uttered at Khrushchev’s shoe thumping tirade at the United Nations General Assembly on October 12, 1960.)

For those old enough to remember, this quote is indelible in the collective memory of the West, which was interpreted as a nuclear threat. Put into perspective, the Soviets Union had just developed the hydrogen bomb, and Sputnik was launched the following year as was the world’s first ICBM (R-7).

And the implications? Would there have been an arms race or a race to the moon but for this mistranslation?

Think this translation blooper has had the most dramatic impact on history? Register your vote!

Here's how it works. Simply leave a comment, or click your favourite social media widget below, to register your vote. The translation blooper with the combined highest response will be declared to have the most dramatic impact on history.

About the Author
Ivan Vandermerwe is the CEO of SAECULII YK, owner of the Tokyo based Japanese Translation Services Visit SAECULII for the latest case studies, articles and news on Professional Translation Services

Copyright (C) SAECULII YK. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this article is permitted with inclusion of the "About the Author" reference as is (including text links, japan-translators.saeculii.com/english/services/japanese-translation-services.cfm), and this copyright information. Articles may not be altered without written permission from SAECULII YK.

Hiroshima has become synonymous with the first ever theater deployment of nuclear weapons and the horrors of nuclear war.

What most folks don’t realize, though, is that the decision to field “Little Boy”, as that weapon was called, was, well, lost in translation!

That’s right -- A translation blooper! There may never have been, nor will there probably ever be, another mistranslation that changes the world as much.

All it took is one word - mokusatsu. Here is the dictionary definition of mokusatsu:

v. take no notice of; treat (anything) with silent contempt; ignore [by keeping silence]; remain in a wise and masterly inactivity.

Let’s back up here a moment and put this into context. The victorious allied leaders (Truman, Churchill, Stalin, and Chiang Kai-Shek) in July 1945 at Potsdam called on Japan to unconditionally surrender. The hope was to avoid unnecessary causalities and the complete destruction of the Japanese homeland. (Truman had already received en route to Potsdam a message that the weapon had tested “husky”.)

After initially refusing to comment on the allies’ demand as no official decision had been reached, Japanese Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki told reporters that he was withholding comment - mokusatsu.

This was an unfortunate choice of words in reaching for the politician’s fallback response of “no comment.” The translation “not worthy of comment” (see definition above) was promptly picked up by media agencies the world over. Angered, American officials felt a stern response would be appropriate. Little Boy did its job, Hiroshima was flattened, and the rest is, as they say, history.

Few, if any, would disagree that this truly is the “world’s most tragic translation,” as dubbed by the Quinto Lingo magazine (January 1968).

But, what about the implications of this mistranslation, though? Would Japan be the model of democracy it is today, bearing in mind a surrender absent the threat of total nuclear annihilation would have left Japan in a slightly stronger bargaining position at the end of the war? Would Japan be the steadfast US ally, and the U.S.-Japan alliance the bulwark of regional stability, it is today? Did the awesome power of the A-bomb demonstrated at Hiroshima provide the impetus for other nations to develop nuclear weapons?

Think this translation blooper has had the most dramatic impact on history? Register your vote!

Here's how it works. Simply leave a comment, or click your favourite social media widget below, to register your vote. The translation blooper with the combined highest response will be declared to have the most dramatic impact on history.

About the Author
Ivan Vandermerwe is the CEO of SAECULII YK, owner of the Tokyo based Japanese Translation Company Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news on Japanese Translation Services

Copyright (C) SAECULII YK. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this article is permitted with inclusion of the "About the Author" reference as is (including text links, japan-translators.saeculii.com/english/info/contact.cfm), and this copyright information. Articles may not be altered without written permission from SAECULII YK.

Like most translators, I obviously started out in the industry translating, which I've always enjoyed.

Once word gets out and business starts to take off, one project tends to run into another, leaving little time for reflection. As SAECULII (Professional Translation Service Japan, Tokyo) grew, most of my time was consumed with management and marketing solidifying separation from the “nut n’ bolts” of the task of actually translating.

Recently, though, I had the opportunity to work on an English Japanese translation project. Sound and Vision by Professor Maurice Jamall, et al., has now been published in hardcover. (Click here to get the Japanese edition of Sound and Vision)

Seeing the efforts of one’s endeavors -no matter how small a part one plays, and not to upstage the real work done by the authors, translators, proof-checkers, editors publishers, printers, marketers and all the people that make such a huge undertaking possible- in print definitely makes a career in translation rewarding. However, the simple words of appreciation from a satisfied client has done wonders to rekindle my love affair with language and translation.

About the Author
Ivan Vandermerwe is the CEO of SAECULII YK, the Tokyo based Japanese Translation Services Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news on Japanese Translation Service

Copyright (C) SAECULII YK. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this article is permitted with inclusion of the "About the Author" reference as is (including text links, japan-translators.saeculii.com/english/services/japanese-translation-services.cfm), and this copyright information. Articles may not be altered without written permission from SAECULII YK.

Part 1 of the article series Translation: Are You Costing Your Company Money?

Drawing on my own experience working in the Translation Company Japan agency in dealing with global firms, deadlines -the fear of slipped of deadlines (usually tied to product launches)- is one of the primary drivers of projects. If clients don't demand an unreasonable delivery date as a condition for awarding a project, they almost always press for ASAP.

Naturally, deadlines are an essential tool in business; however, the nearly ubiquitous demand of ASAP generally is indicative of a much larger problem. That is, lack of an effective strategy (or lack of a strategy altogether) specifically for translation which is considered almost an afterthought of a larger process such as a product launch.

The next section provides a real-world example to illustrate how failure to develop an effective strategy is a primary cause of translation errors that may be costing your company money.

Real World Example

The due date for the English Japanese translation project below was a mere 3 days from receipt of the job notification email.

Okay, let's jump right in here with a project breakdown analysis:

• Specialized knowledge required: 5-6 sets of expertise
  Because of the broad range of specialized knowledge required, there are relatively few qualified translators available for the project.


• Specialized skill required: SDLX Translation Suite
  This is a translation memory software that, being quite expensive, not many translators can afford. That pool of qualified translators just got a whole lot smaller.


• Number of translators required: 67-111
  Japanese translators required is a function of project volume (500,000 words) divided by project duration (3 days) divided by daily capacity per translator (1,500 words per day) equals 111.
  
  Many translators claim daily capacity of 2,500 words or more -- After more than 10 years of hiring translators, I still have to see one that can maintain quality standards above the 1,500-word threshold. However, I will cede the point for illustration purposes: 500,000 words divided by 3 days divided by 2,500 words per day equals 67.
  
  Not very many agencies have a full-time translation staff this large. And, I guarantee you 100% NO translation service company on the planet has a full-time translation staff this large on hand with the right knowledge and skills for this particular project. Qualified translators need to be recruited.


• Number of proof-checkers required: 17-28
  Proof-checking requires an additional 25% of resources, or 17-28 different translators.
  
  Proof-checking eliminates translation errors, which even the best human translators are prone to. Without proof-checking, you can never be quite sure of the quality that you get!


• Project setup time required: 3 days +
  This means assembling the team of translators, proof-checkers, project managers, disseminating project instructions and (SDLX) translation memory databases, etc.
  
  On a project this large, 3 days setup is wishful thinking! For example, each translator recruited needs to be evaluated to ensure that they are qualified for the job (i.e. this means reviewing resumes, references, sample translations, and/or trial translations, concluding NDAs, and finalizing contracts, etc).

If you followed the analysis above, I am sure you can see how this project can never be completed within 3 days, according to your quality expectations.

Indeed, companies that have a strategy in place never launch these kinds of projects; they understand not only the tremendous importance of translation in today's global market place, but also that translation errors can and do seriously impact their bottom line.

However, let's read on and find out how you're on a slippery slope of lost revenue.

No Strategy...What could possibly go wrong?

The pressure is on! Delivery on this project is ASAP, so you're pushing ahead regardless. You have secured an ironclad guarantee for your deadline from a service provider, so, hey, what could possibly go wrong?

Translation agencies respond well to pressure. As with all mature industries, the competition is incredibly tough. The agency you contracted knows that if it does not deliver, it will lose a client, so it promises the sky. Here are just some of the many "tricks of the trade" agencies can employ to meet your unrealistic deadline:

1. Cut corners during the translator evaluation process resulting in unqualified translators on the project.
2. Bring non-native translators onto the team producing unnatural, or stilted, translation.
3. Pressure translators to increase their daily capacity resulting in countless translation errors.
4. Employ machine translation (MT) that more often than not produces gibberish.
5. Cut back, or skip altogether, the proof-checking process allowing errors to go to print undetected.

Now, let's step back a moment and consider what just happened. You have taken possession of a translation project that could not possibly be completed according to your quality expectations. This project contains more errors than a high school essay!

If your project is tied to a product launch, a delayed launch is the better option here (although painful and probably quite expensive). In today's competitive market place, a product launch under this scenario would be akin to the kiss of death!

But these do not need to be the only outcomes. Read on.

Develop an effective strategy

The following strategy will reduce revenue lost to translation errors (and maintain product launches):

1. Develop a set of quality standards for all projects.
2. Implement a project management system to ensure professional steward of projects.
3. Employ a professional project manager.
4. Establish a single point-of-contact role (usually project manager) for all stakeholders.
5. Create a guideline for identifying the right external service providers for each project.

Projects shepherded to completion with an effective translation strategy boost the bottom line.

Reduce and eliminate errors -- Strategy + Alpha

If you are guilty of operating without a translation strategy, apply the lessons you take away from this article today, and ensure your company no longer loses revenue through avoidable translation errors.

Common sense must also prevail.

An industry professional once joked that clients expect translators to wield a magical translation wand, referring to unreasonable project delivery requirements (the ASAP syndrome). If this were true, clients would be buying the wand, not the service! In a high-pressure culture where everything is "get this done like yesterday already," it is quite easy to lose perspective even with a strategy in place.

However, consider this. It takes months, sometimes even years of research, analysis and testing to develop effective material that achieves its intended purpose. Is it really possible to capture the essence of your materials nuances and all, in such a way that it is effective in the translated language, in a mere 3 day project?

About the Author
Ivan Vandermerwe is the CEO of SAECULII YK, the owner of the Tokyo based Japanese Translation Company Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news on Japanese Translation Services

Copyright (C) SAECULII YK. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this article is permitted with inclusion of the "About the Author" reference as is (including text links, japan-translators.saeculii.com/english/info/contact.cfm), and this copyright information. Articles may not be altered without written permission from SAECULII YK.

This is the introduction article to a series of articles the purpose of which is to provide business with helpful pointers for their translation processes.

We start with a headline that makes professionals in the translation industry cringe:

Translation errors cause lost revenue in 80% of global firms

(Source: SDL International Survey)

The obvious question that jumps right to mind is: How is this possible? Global firms are generally staffed with exceptional bright, skilled and experienced people, right? And, yet…

Having been a professional Japanese-to-English translator for close to two decades, more than 10 years as the CEO of a Japanese Translation Agency based in Tokyo (Japan), I have some ideas that I would like to share with you.

The aforementioned survey squarely attributes the causes of lost revenue to translation errors. Lost revenue, as a result of these errors, ranges from delayed product launches to fines for non-compliance. What is less clear, though, is the root cause of these translation errors.

To simply warn “businesses that they need to improve their translation and localization processes,” as the survey concludes, is as obvious as it is vague! Companies are already well aware of the need to do a better job -- What companies really need to know is how to go about improving their processes.

Drawing on my own experience over the years in dealing with global firms on translation and localization projects, I have created a short list published as a series of articles, which will, I hope, provide companies with a few useful pointers:

• Project strategy - Part 1
• Project management - Part 2
• Project cost - Part 3
• Project personnel - Part 4

Read these articles complete with real world examples showing not only what the root causes of most translation errors are, but how companies can reduce or even eliminate loses due to translation errors.

About the Author
Ivan Vandermerwe is the CEO of SAECULII YK, owner of the Tokyo based Translation Agency Japan Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news on Japanese Translation Services

Copyright (C) SAECULII YK. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this article is permitted with inclusion of the "About the Author" reference as is (including text links, japan-translators.saeculii.com), and this copyright information. Articles may not be altered without written permission from SAECULII YK.

The obvious questions is: What is crowdsourcing? Here is the Wikipedia definition:

“Crowdsourcing starts with decentralization, by sourcing tasks traditionally performed by specific individuals to a group of people or community (crowd) through an open call.”

The Duolingo project aims through a new business model to offer free language lessons in exchange for translating the Web. Yes, anyone that wants to learn a language can sign up for free. Then, based on a language skill evaluation, people will be assigned translation tasks matching their language skill level. As people progress with the help of language lessons, they will be assigned increasing complicated material to translate.

The folks at Duolingo claim their system produces accurate translations. Take a look at the results below.

Indeed, the difference between the Duolingo translation and the professional translation is so insignificant in this news article translation it could almost be attributed to translation style difference (between 2 professional translators).

So, who’s the brains behind Duolingo? Actually, although you probably don’t know him, you‘ve almost certainly run into his work on the web. Luis von Ahn is the creator of CAPTCHA, those security widgets where you read text on an image and then enter it in a text box to prove you are human. Mr von Ahn believes that, since translation by a specific group of individuals, namely professional translators, is too expensive, crowdsourcing using the Duolongo business model of free language lessons in exchange for free translation is an elegant solution to unlocking the vast knowledge locked up in 8 billion webpages, 50% of which is in English.

Is this doable, you ask? After all, 8 billion pages is, well, 8 billion pages. Mr von Ahn believes with 1,000,000 users it will take just 80 hours to translate the entire English edition of Wikipedia. As of this writing there are already 100, 000 users signed up. Indeed, if you think about it, it's simply a numbers game with solid organization. Kind of like a 30-story building built in 15 days, really.

The concept is unique. And it does not get more altruistic than unlocking the vast majority of the humankind’s knowledge for the vast majority of the planet's inhabitants, for free. However, of all the press material available, and admittedly there is not much at this stage, I see no critical thinking with regard to this concept. One of the first questions that popped into my head was:

Has anyone at Duolingo worked in a professional translation services company for any meaningful amount of time in order to understand what really goes into (web) translation?

But, more about that, and other questions, in a future post. Let me leave you with a question of my own. Is the Duolingo approach really a viable alternative to professional translation?

About the Author
Ivan Vandermerwe is the CEO of SAECULII YK, the owner Japan based Translation Agency Tokyo Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news on Japanese Translation Service

Copyright (c) SAECULII YK. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this article is permitted with inclusion of the "About the Author" reference as is (including text links, japan-translators.saeculii.com), and this copyright information. Articles may not be altered without written permission from SAECULII YK.

Integrated translation solutions are the broad range of Japanese language skill sets, across multiple disciplines, which we bring to bear on your translation projects.

Case Study Details

Case Study Summary
Sakkam Press Limited contacted Tokyo Translation Services Japan for the English to Japanese translation of Memoires of Japan 1946 (A People Bowed But Not Broken) by Bernard T. Smith.

UPDATE: 2015-04-30
The Japanese edition of Memoires of Japan 1946 has now been deposited with Japan’s National Diet Library

Click the links below for more information:

• National Diet Library (in English)
• National Diet Library (in Japanese)

(The National Diet Library is similar in purpose and scope to the U.S. Library of Congress.)

Read the complete Translation Case Study: Contextual and Cultural Cohesion for Depth, Nuances and Sensitivities as Intended

About
SAECULII YK is the owner of the Tokyo based Japanese Translation Company Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news on Japanese Translation Services

Copyright (C) SAECULII YK. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this case study is permitted with inclusion of the "About" reference as is (including text links, japan-translators.saeculii.com/english/info/contact.cfm), and this copyright information. Case studies may not be altered without written permission from SAECULII YK.

We often get asked by clients about the difference between all the kinds of translation options out there.

Plenty of translation industry folks get confused, too. So, let’s jump right in.

Professional translation
As the name implies, this is translation services provided by professional human translators who work for an organization (translation agency, company, firm etc) or who work for themselves freelance. Regardless of how translators choose to deliver their translation services, professional Japanese translators are:

• Bilingual (being fluent in a learnt language they translate from into their mother tongue)
• University educated (although not an absolute requirement)
• Trained and experienced in translation
• Skilled in the use of various translation tools
• Experts in their subject matter of choice (such as law, technology, finance etc.)

As you can see from the definition above, being bilingual by itself does not qualify a person as a translator. More importantly, professional translators only translate into their mother tongue (never the other way around).

Professional translation produces the highest quality translation. Contact the professional Translation Agency Japan for professional Japanese translation

Computer translation
This term is cause for no small amount of confusion!

“Computer translation” is a generic term that actually refers to 2 completely different types of translation using computers. These are namely Machine Translation (MT) and Computer Assisted Translation (CAT).

In machine translation, a human translator supports the machine. In other words, a computer program (software) translates the source text, with the resultant translated text then being edited by the human translator, if it is edited at all.

In terms of quality possible, machine translation is a thoroughly discredited technology with limited utility.

In computer assisted translation, a machine supports the human translator. That is, a professional human translator translates the source text with the aid of a computer program (software). The heart of this technology is what’s called:

• Terminology base (database store of preferred translated single words)
• Translation memory, or TM (database store of previously translated short sentence or "segments")

Used appropriately by experienced professionals, computer assisted translation has potential to improve efficiency, although quality is somewhat shy of the level of professional translation. In addition, the benefits of CAT vary according to the type of source language.

The Hybrid - Post Editing Machine Translation (PEMT)
Euphemistically termed Post Editing Translation, this is where a qualified human translator edits and corrects machine translated text. The thinking behind this type of hybrid translation is an attempt to combine the best of both worlds: the speed and low cost of machine translation coupled with the accuracy of professional human translators.

In theory, PEMT sounds like a good idea. In practice, however, the results are questionable, not least because the human component of this formula -professional human translators- tend to shy away from this kind of translation work. Here’s an excellent article by a professional translator that explains why PEMT may not be the right option for your project

Translation crowdsourcing
Most people are familiar with crowdsourcing, although they may not necessary know it. Ever used Wikipedia? This is the same approach used in translation crowdsourcing, where many human translators work on the translation of a source text. Translators respond to an “open call” with each participant being assigned a different section to translate.

Much the same as Wikipedia, since many people -a crowd, essentially- do the translation, quality issues, such as quality of contributors and final product, are to be expected. In addition, crowdsoucing is notoriously plagued by “Editor Wars” where numerous editors continuously override others’ editing. The benefit of translation crowdsourcing is its ability to speed up the translation process.

Translation cloud
The translation cloud is a collaborative translation technique that has been enabled by advances in cloud computing technology, and, as such, is a fairly recent development in the translation industry. In cloud translation, multiple human translators collaborate in real time simultaneously in the same workspace with shared resources. (This should not be confused with translation crowdsourcing, which is not a collaborative technique.)

The purpose of translation clouds is to realize improvements in efficiency, communications between translation project participants, and to reduce or eliminate the managerial tasks associate with projects. The introduction into shared resources of computer translation (i.e. machine translation), along with the practice in some translation companies of using novice translators (to cut costs and thereby enhance profit), has brought into question the quality achievable with translation clouds.

About the Author
Ivan Vandermerwe is the CEO of SAECULII YK, the owner of Tokyo based Japanese Translation Agency Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news on Japanese Translation Services

Copyright (C) SAECULII YK. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this article is permitted with inclusion of the "About the Author" reference as is (including text links, japan-translators.saeculii.com), and this copyright information. Articles may not be altered without written permission from SAECULII YK.

Need professional translation?

Quality-cost equation of translation

Then it'll come as a relief to know that the world is your oyster!

There’s no shortage of options in translation types - Computer Translation (machine translation, computer assisted translation), Post Editing Machine Translation (PEMT), Translation Crowdsourcing, Translation Clouds, and Professional Translation (freelance translation, translation service companies) - or in translation providers.

Click here to beef up on the different types of translation

While knowing your translation types will definitely give you a leg up when it comes time to determine which translation provider is right for your project, you’ll still find yourself in a veritable minefield that could sink an important translation project, any project really, in short order!

That is, there’s a lot of misleading information about the translation industry, such as methodologies, tools and services etc., out there, much of it propagated by tech (illiterate) journalists operating out of their depth. For example, so-called industry leaders will try to convince you that machine translation is perfectly acceptable for the business domain. Others will push machine translation software as a service. Some even claim a translator’s pool of tens of thousands of translators potentially making them some of the largest employers in the world, which is obviously quite ridiculous. And, many translation providers will despite the nature of their offerings -i.e. being crowdsourcing operations relying on volunteers- and in spite of the semantics involved, present themselves as professional, a service, or a combination thereof.

The list goes on; however, I’m sure you get the message.

In this free-for-all that is the translation industry, how do you protect yourself against all the marketing hype, exaggerations, false promises and blatant lies?

The solution to that seemingly impossible conundrum is relatively easy and straight forward:

• It depends on your project requirements, which will determine
• The translation type best suited for your project

As a professional Japanese-to-English translator with over 20 years of experience there are certain types of translation, such as machine translation (MT), that I would never ever use; however, this does not mean that machine translation does not have utility. A case in point would be if you got an unsolicited email in a foreign language (and who hasn’t?). Drop it into a free machine translation software and you’ll discover through the crude translation returned that it’s SPAM -- No action required!

Now suppose you require certified Japanese translation (with a Statement of Certification issued by the translating entity attesting to translation accuracy) of, for example, a koseki tohon (Japanese family register), for an immigration application. In a situation where you can’t afford rejected documents because of poor quality translation, would you be looking to save a few pennies by going with a translation crowdsourcing outfit of volunteers? No, of course not -- That would be penny wise and pound foolish. And, you’d still be out of that required Statement of Certification, a Red Flag

How about Japanese business translations, book & script translations, travel & tourism translations, marketing translation, or website translations? Essentially, the issue is the same for most kinds of translation:

As the potential cost to you of poor-quality translation increases (i.e. rejected documents, economic loses, cost of litigation, penalties and fees of regulatory violations, etc), the quality you should expect in your translation must increase. In most cases, certainly those described above, professional translation should be your preferred choice of translation type.

(Click here for the comprehensive guide to professional Japanese translation)

Visualizing this relation in a graph will help put things into perspective. Think of required quality as the x axis, and cost as the y axis. The further out you get along the axes the higher the quality and cost. Obviously, movement along one axis without corresponding movement along the other axis will produced skewed results, either free professional translation (not possible) or expensive, poor quality translation (very possible).

In summary, essentially, you get what you pay for. But, know that there is no such thing as a free lunch: You pay upfront for quality translation, or you pay later for poor quality translation. Choose your poison wisely!

About the Author
Ivan Vandermerwe is the CEO of SAECULII YK, the owner of Tokyo based Japanese Translation Company Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news on Japanese Translation Services

Copyright (C) SAECULII YK. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this article is permitted with inclusion of the "About the Author" reference as is (including text links, japan-translators.saeculii.com/english/info/contact.cfm), and this copyright information. Articles may not be altered without written permission from SAECULII YK.

MT is, of course, Machine Translation.

Start Trek Universal Translator

That’s the software program employed by free online translation providers such as Bing Translator, Babylon, iTranslate and Google Translate to instantly translate anything from simple text strings to whole websites.

Here’s an example of machine translation in action.

Gibberish. Obviously, machine translation (MT) has quite some way to go -- At least a generation, or 30 years, by some experts’ account. Why can’t computers software programs produce human quality translations? There are a number of reasons:

• We don’t really understand how the brain functions, and therefore are incapable of replicating its functions, including language learning, in artificial environments


• We still don’t understand many of the basics of language yet, such as how children learn languages; therefore, we simply don’t know how to program machines to learn languages

Does this mean that we will never have a Start Trek Universal Translator? Quite the contrary -- Human ingenuity will ultimately triumph, it’s simply a matter of time.

However, I do believe the current approach in our quest for a Universal Translator will need to be re-thought. According to this article:

Remarkably, there’s not one linguist on Google’s core team: they’re all engineers or statisticians...

This is understandable because Google Translate is statistical machine translation -- That is, at its core, Google Translate is nothing more than simply

a statistical probability of accuracy.

Still, the absence of language experts, such as professional linguists and translators, really is quite remarkable since translation is about, well, languages and translation! One would think professional linguists and translators on the Google team would be able to provide valuable insights on language and translation to speed along realization of a Universal Translator…

In a practical sense, including language experts in the development process may well produce considerably more perfect translations than that most ridiculous of catch phrases misleadingly suggests:

Not All Translation Will Be Perfect

Do you think a true Universal Translator will ever become a reality? Weigh in, our readers want to hear from you!

About the Author
Ivan Vandermerwe is the CEO of SAECULII YK, owner of the Tokyo based Japanese Translation Company Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news on Japanese Translation Service

Copyright (C) SAECULII YK. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this article is permitted with inclusion of the "About the Author" reference as is (including text links, japan-translators.saeculii.com/english/info/contact.cfm), and this copyright information. Articles may not be altered without written permission from SAECULII YK.

A couple of years ago -three and half years- we at SAECULII YK (Japan, Tokyo) ran an experiment on machine translation accuracy.

The experiment was fairly straight forward. We took a sentence from an English news article and ran it through the Babel Fish Translation Service for a Japanese translation. The article is As Kindle Fire Faces Critics, Remedies Are Promised with the sentence:

The Kindle Fire, Amazon’s heavily promoted tablet, is less than a blazing success with many of its early users.

You can read more about the experiment here Feedback has varied, ranging from interesting demonstration of the (poor) accuracy of machine translation to claims of unfairness for singling out one machine translation vendor, and the technology is still in its infancy so it’s to be expected.

Overwhelmingly, though, most wanted to know where machine translation accuracy stands today. Many folks reason that since the demand for machine translation -the global machine translation market is expected grow 23.19% to USD6.9 billion by 2019- is increasing, accuracy must also be increasing (otherwise there would be no demand, right?). These are all valid points.

We decided to re-run this experiment using Google Translate.

Here’s how the original experiment works, which is replicated below:

• English to Japanese translation
  Run the article sentence through Google’s machine translation software.
  
  
• Japanese-to-English translation
  Why do we need to reverse the translation? If you don’t understand Japanese, there’s no way to verify the accuracy of the translated text. Therefore, translating the outputted Japanese text back into English will give you an accurate indication of what native Japanese speakers see.
  
  

The verdict of our original experiment is gibberish. In the intervening three and half years, not much has changed in terms machine translation accuracy...

Machine translation vendors regularly make claims of 70, 80 and even 85% accuracy. I’m sure you can see from the result above that that is simply not the case. And, therefore, by extension the accuracy of translation methodologies, such as translation clouds, translation crowdsourcing and post-editing machine translation (PEMT), which are all underpinned by machine translation is also called into question.

Do you think there will be a significant improvement in accuracy by the time 2019 comes around? Let us know what you think in the comments section below!

(Oh, and we’ll keep you posted when we re-run our experiment…in 2019.)

About the Author
Ivan Vandermerwe is the CEO of SAECULII YK, the owner of Tokyo based Translation Agency Japan Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news on Japanese Translation Services

Copyright (C) SAECULII YK. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this article is permitted with inclusion of the "About the Author" reference as is (including text links, japan-translators.saeculii.com/), and this copyright information. Articles may not be altered without written permission from SAECULII YK.

Integrated translation solutions are the broad range of Japanese language skill sets, across multiple disciplines, which we bring to bear on your marketing translation projects.

Case Study Details

Case Study Summary
ATEX contacted the Japan, Tokyo based Japanese Translation Agency to translate, localize, design and print marketing materials (brochures, posters, flyers and name cards) for its Japan debut, an international industry trade show in Tokyo.

Read complete Marketing Translation Case Study: Down to the Wire

About
SAECULII YK is the owner of Tokyo based Translation Agency Japan Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news on Japanese Translation Services

Copyright (C) SAECULII YK. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this case study is permitted with inclusion of the "About" reference as is (including text links, japan-translators.saeculii.com), and this copyright information. Case studies may not be altered without written permission from SAECULII YK.

This is an update on an article we’ve been covering for a couple of years titled Throwing the Afghan interpreters under the bus - What’s up with the Brits?

Britain has finally joined Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA in establishing a special asylum program for the Afghan interpreters embedded with their troops.

We should recognize the service given by those who have regularly put themselves in real danger while working for us

- Downing Street

Read the full article here on the BBC.

The article talks of a “climbdown” -- Quite the opposite! This is a very astute decision that ensures the safety of British forces in future conflicts where local interpreters are necessary. More importantly, though, it is the right decision from a moral perspective.

You’ve got to love the Brits!

UPDATE (2016-05-30)
As indicated above, a host of countries have programs to settle their Afghan interpreters; however, there seems to be, according to this New York Times article, some back-tracking - An Unpaid Debt to Afghan Interpreters

About the Author
Ivan Vandermerwe is the CEO of SAECULII YK, owner of the Tokyo based Translation Services Japan Visit SAECULII for the latest professional articles and news on Japanese Translation Services

Copyright (C) SAECULII YK. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this article is permitted with inclusion of the "About the Author" reference as is (including text links, japan-translators.saeculii.com/english/services/japanese-translation-services.cfm), and this copyright information. Articles may not be altered without written permission from SAECULII YK.

Sound project management is crucial for taking possession of a quality, error free project.

Failure to implement a project management system leads to a cascade of translation errors, or worse.

Read complete article: Winging it -- No project management for translation or localization

Real World Example

My company, the Tokyo based Translation Company Japan, was approached to handle the English Japanese translation and localization of a global marketing brochure for a world-renowned marketing firm some years back. Right from the go get it became apparent this project was sorely lacking project management:

• Already translated text needed to be re-translated as new revisions constantly kept rolling in.
• The English materials contained text from other language versions of the brochure.
• The text contained historically inaccurate facts which the client was not even aware of.
• Regional branch managers from around the world were phoning us asking for specific revisions, which were then being over ridden by other regional managers, and then again by the head office.
• Our role morphed from that of a Japanese translation/localization provider to consulting as the person steering the project had no clue how to implement and manage a global translation project.

Effective Project Management

Implementation of a translation project management system would have:

1. Ensured adequate planning
   In an undertaking as complex as translation and localization (especially on a global level), adequate planning is essential for achieving successful project completion. (Surprised? That’s right -- Without trying to aggrandize my profession, translation and localization is NOT a trivial matter, or an afterthought to more “important” processes if you will.)
2. Ensured appropriate resources
   While “resources” can apply to just about anything required for successful project completion, here I specifically refer to personnel. Qualified personnel are the linchpin in any project because they can keep, or even bring back, a project on track. A project management system is essential to assign the right personnel to the right task.
3. Ensured accurate communication
   Tracking communications with a project management system would have eliminated miscommunications and the resulting problems of mistrust between the various project stakeholders that ensued.
4. Ensured quality control
   This was essentially the root cause of all problems in this project. Applying in-house quality controls via a project management system would have ensured that service providers received the finalized copy of materials for translation, thus completely eliminating the need for endless revisions that eventually lead to project melt down.
5. Minimized project costs
   No matter how you rationalize it, a 2-week project that runs for nearly 6 months is going to cost a whole lot more than budgeted for. More importantly, and what is often not recognized, are the hidden costs of a project that runs off track. For example, since your staff is tied up with the current project, they are unable to continue with other more pressing projects -- A contagion effect of slipped deadlines develops leading to costs piling up.

Not enough can be said about the importance of sound project management!

Reduce and eliminate translation errors -- Project management doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg

The cost as measured by lost revenue due to translation errors of NOT implementing a project management solution is far, far greater than implementing even a basic solution…

Read complete article: Winging it -- No project management for translation or localization

About the Author
Ivan Vandermerwe is the CEO of SAECULII YK, owner of the Tokyo based Japanese Translation Company Visit SAECULII for the latest professional articles and news on Japanese Translation Services

Copyright (C) SAECULII YK. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this article is permitted with inclusion of the "About the Author" reference as is (including text links, japan-translators.saeculii.com/english/info/contact.cfm), and this copyright information. Articles may not be altered without written permission from SAECULII YK.