Monterey Language Services will be at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies’ annual Translation, Interpretation, and Localization Management Career Fair, which kicks off at 9:00 AM on Friday March 3 and finishes up at 12:30 PM.

This year we’re doing it a little differently!

Of course we’ll be collecting resumes, talking to students, and describing our exciting internship opportunities, but we also want to make it a fun event and help students shed some stress – that’s why we’ve decided to really put the “fair” in “career fair!” We’ll be giving out raffle tickets at the Monterey Language Services booth, with a $25 gift card prize for each of our three winners!

Nervous about talking to us as employers? Don’t be, relax, and come on up! We’re serious about our work, but easy-going in person. We want students to feel comfortable and relaxed at our booth: that’s the best way to meet and get to know new people, and we want to meet you and hear about your unique skills and experience. It may be business as usual at the other booths, but with Monterey Language Services it should be an unforgettable time for everyone who steps up.

Come by our booth, tell us about yourself, and we’ll do the same. Don’t forget to take one of Monterey Language Services’ raffle tickets, you may be the lucky winner of a $25 gift card! And don’t forget to tell your friends and fellow classmates!

Translators and interpreters are synonyms in some ways: both need to have a good command of at least two languages in order to do their job. Both decode what’s in the source language and then encode it in the target language. Both are cross-cultural communicators, whose final goal is to tear down language barriers and facilitate communication.

However, by industry standards, they also have their own distinct professional traits. What do interpreters do that translators don’t? What does a translator need that an interpreter can do without? How different are they really on the job? Here are just a few of the things that set translators and interpreters apart from each other.

1. Work Mode
Professional translators and interpreters sometimes forget that many people outside of the industry often don’t even realize that these are two different professions. To put it as simply as possible, translators write while interpreters speak. A translator takes a text in one language and rewrites it in another language. Interpreters, on the other hand, listen to what someone says in one language and then convey it by speaking in another language.

The fundamental difference in their respective lines of work is this: a translator usually does not speak at a job, but must have excellent writing skills, with all the things this implies: perfect punctuation, spelling, grammar. A successful interpreter needs all the skills required of a good public speaker, delivering messages clearly by speaking.

Translators in general enjoy the luxury of having more time, but that also means they have to be skilled at personal time management and able to focus deeply on one thing for an extended period, whereas interpreters must be quicker on their feet, able to tune out distractions, and have strong multi-tasking skills.

2. Working Environment
Translators and interpreters have different tools in their arsenals, and work in different environments.

A modern translator is computer savvy and skilled with the leading translation software (MemoQ, Trados, Wordfast, Déjà Vu, etc). Translators often have more freedom in terms of where they can do their work, and since translation requires a great deal of focus and time, this means a comfortable space free from distraction, whether it be a home office or a space at the agency or company a translator works for.

Interpreters, by contrast, have much less personalized work areas, since they generally work in spaces that are not their own, although there are interpreters who work over the phone or through video calls from home. Interpreters in many cases also don’t own the equipment they work with: simultaneous interpretation requires microphones, audio transmission equipment, receivers, and headphones, but these are generally provided by the translation company or the client. Interpreters working in the consecutive mode have a more modest toolbox which usually includes just a pen and a notebook. Recently, tablets and digital pens with special features have been making their way into consecutive interpreters’ kits, but are not yet widespread.

3. Dealing With Pressure
Interpreters work under great pressure because what’s being said needs to be interpreted immediately, which doesn’t leave much time to think. For interpreters, time is very precious. If they spend too much time on a certain sentence or word, they run the risk of missing important information that follows.

By comparison, translators are not under immediate pressure but incremental pressure. They spend a long time refining their work and even invite others to edit and proofread it in order to ensure that the final product is as flawless as possible.

Translators are language and culture communicators who can bridge gaps and open up a whole new world for people from different cultures who speak different languages. Have you ever wondered what it is that sets translators apart, or what makes a great translator? How are they different from interpreters, localizers and other linguists? This blog will unveil the mystery by offering some tips for people who aspire to be excellent translators.

1. Read extensively

If you are a book lover, then you are half way there to being a good translator. Reading extensively is useful in that it helps to hone your writing skills and make you more sensitive to the subtle differences between similar words. As a translator in a specialized field (e.g. law, finance, medicine, etc.), reading parallel texts is even more crucial. Parallel texts make you familiarized with terms in a particular field and allow you to familiarize yourself with the field. As a result, your translation won’t look like it’s written by an outsider with no knowledge of the subject. For example, let’s say you’re translating a warranty from Chinese into English. If you find an English-language warranty and compare it with the original text, you’ll see how a warranty is formulated in English and you can use that reference as a guide for your own translation.

2. Write well

Being an excellent writer is essential to success in translation. Writing well means writing clearly, which is as necessary for communicating the source message in a translation as it is for making sense in any kind of written work. Don’t get confused – translation may be an art in its own right, but here writing well doesn’t refer to being a good creative writer; many translators may write impeccably, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they have the creativity to write the next great novel from scratch. Writing is also a largely mechanical skill that can be learned. It means, in part, being familiar with the conventions and preferences of the often very different writing styles that are used in various fields – something which the previous tip can help you with.

3. Be patient and pay attention to detail

Unlike interpretation which is done within seconds, translation is an extended process and your finished texts will be there for all to see long after your work is done. Of course, there are both pros and cons to this: one good thing is that translators don’t have to work under quite the same pressure as interpreters, and they can afford to spend time choosing the most suitable word for any given context. One of the negative sides is that your work will likely be subject to greater scrutiny than many interpretations, since, especially in the digital age, a document can essentially exist indefinitely, whereas the average interpretation is gone forever after it’s been completed. In general, translation demands patience and extreme attention to detail. Translators need to be very careful in editing and proofreading their work in order to avoid mistakes before it is published or presented to others.

4. Learn how to do research

As a translator, you’re bound at some point to encounter a word or phrase you don’t know. Be it an idiom, the name of an organization, someone’s title, or even their name, translators need to have the ability to do extensive research using whatever tools are at their disposal. A translator’s research isn’t limited to looking for difficult to render words, either: they should know how and where to look for reference material – those parallel texts that were mentioned before, and other materials that will make translation much easier. Thanks to modern technology, translators today have incredible access to potential sources of research, starting with everyone’s favorite, Google, which can let you quickly check whether or not your translation is idiomatic in the target language. Frequently translators have to go much deeper than just a Google search, though, accessing various corpora, specialized dictionaries, trade publications, and so on. The internet even makes it possible to reach out to the author of a text to ask for clarification or explanation when a translator encounters difficulty understanding the source. As wonderful as the internet is, a translator shouldn’t rely on it to the total exclusion of good old-fashioned books and other printed material. You never know when you’ll be without internet access, and the sheer volume of information on the Web can make it difficult to know what’s correct, whereas a specialized Spanish-English medical dictionary has been compiled by an expert.

5. Use CAT tools

Recent years have witnessed the nearly universal application and rapid development of computer assisted translation tools, such as Trados, MemoQ, Wordfast, etc. These CAT tools have effectively become the industry standard and can help improve translation efficiency and save time and energy. CAT tools can cut down your time spent and simplify any number of situations, for example handling a large translation project that involves multiple languages. While some of these tools are both powerful and fairly user-friendly, it can be difficult to intuitively navigate and manage some CAT programs with all their features and options. Fortunately, there is no shortage of online tutorials and other CAT tool guides available, but whether you decide to make use of them or explore your CAT tool of choice independently, one thing is for sure: the sooner you learn how to use CAT tools effectively, the better.

These are just a few tips to help you become a better translator. There is one other thing which shouldn’t be overlooked: be passionate about translation! Great translators are “doing their job” all the time, always translating (at least mentally) whatever they see and hear around themselves, be it a sign at the park or an advertising slogan on TV. Enjoying what you do and making it into an everyday, fun activity may be the most important key to becoming a better translator.

Monterey Language Services is committed to bridging the world’s languages by providing quality, professional and efficient translation & interpretation services in over 175 languages.

There are many important factors that need to be considered while doing any translation. This blog focuses on three of them: terminology, context and long sentences.

Terminology
When translating any document, it’s important to compile a glossary first (or read an existing glossary carefully if there already is one). Translation of terminology in a document should be consistent; specialized vocabulary, including titles and field-specific terms – things like, for example: spirit beings, supernatural other being, invisible other – should be rendered clearly and identically throughout the translation.

When dealing with pronouns, translators usually translate word by word. But if this approach results in an awkward translation, translators need to add, delete or replace words in order to make it sound natural in the target language.

Context
It’s important to refer to context, as this may give some clues as to how to translate, and which translation strategy should be adopted. Translators need to not only retain the meaning of the original text, but also the tone of the source.

Take this sentence, for example: “in very limited circumstances, it may be acceptable to pay for travel and lodging expenses.” “In very limited circumstances” and “it may be acceptable” are two key parts in this sentence. These two elements have certain tonal implications, and translators should highlight these two parts accordingly in the translation in order to stress the tone.

Long Sentences
Documents with very long sentences require translators to recreate the meaning of the original and write in a way that is concise and easy to follow. The solution is to identify the appropriate target-language sentence structure first, and then add the different necessary elements in it. Also, translators, of course, need to repeat what’s been said in the source text in order to avoid meaning shifts or mistranslations.

Here’s an example of a long sentence where we can use this strategy: “No employee, subcontractor, or joint venture partner is authorized to provide payment in any form, or to agree to provide payment in any form, for such expenses without the prior written approval of the Company’s legal counsel for the region within which such payment would be made.”
This is a very long sentence, and a very important one. The first thing to do is to set the sentence structure in our target language (in this case, Chinese), which is “……如果没有……，无权……。” Also, while frequent repetition of the same word or words is sometimes thought to be bad style, it may be necessary in serious legal or other specialized documents which uses standardized language.

Monterey Language Services is committed to bridging the world’s languages by providing quality, professional and efficient translation & interpretation services in over 175 languages.

As another year passes behind us and a new one begins, may nature’s beauty surround you and may your life be filled with all the blessings the universe has to offer.

The universe is filled with wonders big and small, from a single grain of sand to the sun in the sky. Nature’s beauty is all around us – the endless blue horizon, an ancient rock, palm trees rising from the sand.

Other miracles of life are invisible: do we see the wind, or just feel its warm breeze? The clouds in the sky are too high to touch, but we feel their rain. Everything is connected and part of the same wonder, even us.

If at first you don’t see life’s blessings, don’t be discouraged: remember that like the wind they are all around, and you feel their cool breeze! Yes, it’s important to be at peace with our environment and the people we are with. Let’s be patient, communicative, considerate, and think of others – because everything is part of the same harmony.

As interpreters, it’s our mission to bridge the gap of different ideas, backgrounds, languages, and cultures. Being an interpreter is a noble calling, we are blessed by those we have served!

In the same spirit, let’s all once again remind ourselves: to be communicative to bring people closer together and let them see that we were never that far apart to begin with.

From the team of Monterey Language Services, happy holidays and may 2017 bring you peace and prosperity.

We’ve been receiving a lot of great responses to our Mood Booster playlist (see previous blog post below) since it was published at Thanksgiving! One interpreter was asking if the songs had been vetted for their lyrics. What a great question? It gives us an opportunity to share the inside scoop on our mental processing of information.

When the request to our colleagues for their favorite songs went out, we knew the result was going to be a collection of music of all genres and a variety of lyrics. Instead of filtering them, we decided to present all the lyrical viewpoints in a balanced way that takes the listener on a musical journey.

Yes, you could say our translator/interpreter’s sense of loyalty and organizational skills kicked in. When arranging these songs, we were doing it in the same way that translators and interpreters arrange information: listening, organizing, and presenting it in a balanced way without leaving out information or anyone’s perspective.

The songs in the playlist create a dialog with one another, complimenting and balancing each other by offering opposite points of view. The sentiment of The Talking Heads’ “This Must Be the Place,” demonstrated by its title and lines like “home is where I want to be,” is contrasted by the singer of “Gooey,” who just needs to go where he can get some space.

The next two songs seem to be having a conversation with each other, Blue Lagoon’s singer insisting that nothing will break her stride or keep her from moving forward, and Pharrell encouraging her to do it “if you feel like that’s what you wanna do.”

Havalina comes as a brief interlude, standing alone like an island – fitting for its breezy sound that makes you almost feel the tropical surf and sun.

“Insane” and “Police On My Back” return to the previous dialogue and once again present opposing lyrical points of view. The singer of “Insane” warns the listener that following the safe, routine path you run the risk of going insane, whereas The Clash show what can happen if you stray from what’s accepted, lamenting “what have I done?” as they are forced on the run.

The Lumineers and James Vincent McMorrow continue the theme of giving both sides of the story with the next two songs. “Cleopatra” and “Get Low” tell stories of love from first a woman’s and then a man’s perspective.

The next pair again seems to echo each other, this time showing a cause and effect relationship: if you work “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger,” eventually you’ll end up in the “Hall of Fame” and the world will know your name.

“Treasure” and “Can’t Stop the Feeling” are an uplifting finale – two happy songs that provide a positive climax and make you want to move! That’s not the end, though – Van Morrison’s “Domino” actually closes the playlist out, not as an afterthought but as a perfect coda, urging the listener with its last line to start the whole playlist over and enjoy it “one more time!”

The narrators of these songs may be male at times and female at others, the lyrics may seem to oppose one another, and the mood may change now and then, that’s exactly what we wanted: to create a discourse between the songs that represents rather than marginalizes all the diverse viewpoints they express, organizing them along the way in a logical fashion. That’s what interpreters are good for!

From the team at Monterey Language Services, Happy holidays and may you have remarkable blessings in 2017!  

Monterey Language Services presents a very special holiday group project – our Holiday Mood Booster Playlist:

We asked all of our colleagues to choose some of their favorite songs to be added to a playlist. They made some great choices!

The result is a Mood Booster playlist which shares our positive energy and happy mood, and give others something very special for the holiday season. We had a wonderful experience making this playlist and cherish the energy it brings to us and others!

This has been a process in the making, which started last summer when working with John. Mei-Ling had a chance to learn John’s work rhythm and energy, and it gave her the idea that all of us have an energy to share, and music is a great medium to present that. Emma helped the idea evolve: she made a wonderful start in putting together the video idea and it was completed by Mike, who is a professional music video producer.

Thanks to all our colleagues for their contributions to this project! The playlist really reflects Monterey Language Service’s work together as a team, and all the different energy everyone brings to the team and to others. We hope you will enjoy listening to it as much as we did making it!

From the team here at Monterey Language Services, happy holidays and may you and your loved ones have a blessed Thanksgiving!

Running virtually any business today requires producing more and more content. The companies now actively use digital sales aids, which include electronic newsletters, websites and blogs, product datasheets, audio, video, and multimedia sources, as well as conventional marketing collateral, such as flyers and product brochures, to support sales of their products.

Let’s look at a global software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that uses translation services as an example. For such a company, consistency and accuracy in software strings become more important than ever: a single confusion in a software string can be quickly multiplied by the combinations of strings, leading to a lack of clarity in software. Therefore, terminology management is particularly relevant in software localization.

In this new reality, terminology management becomes an invaluable tool for ensuring that the word or a term you use – from industry-specific jargon to marketing tag lines – are clear, consistent, and do not have competing definitions.

Terminology management simply means adopting a systematic approach to the words and phrases you frequently use. It often requires providing clear definitions for the relevant terms and categorizing them in order to create a standardized vocabulary.

There are numerous advantages to systematically managing terminology.

First, it allows ensuring linguistic consistency and accuracy by referring translators and content-producers alike to a single, standardized vocabulary of terms.

Second, terminology management is a great way to save time and resources as it helps minimize errors, reduce revision times, and streamline the translation process, thus allowing for greater re-use of previous translations.

Finally, with many user-friendly options readily available today, ranging from off-the-shelf tools to custom-built platforms, managing terminology becomes an easy process whose benefits multiply as your translation projects grow in scale.

In short, terminology management offers many benefits that are within easy reach and extend well beyond the initial investment. It helps keep your written output clear and consistent, so that everybody is on the same page!

Monterey Language Services strives to provide the highest quality of translation and interpretation services. Please feel free to request a quote from us.

Let’s say your company has a great product or service and wants to start selling it to new markets. You learn that customers are more likely to buy your product if you make the information available in their native languages.

While calling a translation company and requesting a quote might seem to be the next logical step, it is useful to consider the benefits of transcreation when it comes to creative content, such as marketing materials.

First, let’s look at what transcreation is.

Although the term entered the professional jargon of marketing and language experts some time ago, its precise definition remains evasive.

In fact, a myriad of other terms are often used interchangeably depending on the context, such as “cultural adaptation,” “marketing translation,” “internationalization,” “multilingual copywriting,” or “free-style translation.”

According to Wikipedia, transcreation is the process of adapting a message from one language to another, while maintaining its style, tone, context, and, most importantly, intent.

In the simplest terms, transcreation means creative translation. It involves taking the message, stripping down the words, and recreating its essence often using different words while preserving the creative and emotional intent of the original.

You might ask how transcreation differs from traditional translation.

The key difference is the desired outcome.

A professional translator strives to be accurate and faithful to the original, as well as stylistically and grammatically correct. This is the gold standard for translation.

Yet, when it comes to advertising content, even the best translation might not elicit the intended reaction in your new audience because of cultural differences.

Below are some examples of why transcreation matters.

• The Scandinavian vacuum maker Electrolux launched its U.S. marketing campaign with the tagline translated into English as “Nothing sucks like an Electrolux.”  The Swedish company belatedly realized that, instead of highlighting the vacuum’s high power, the tagline turned off shoppers and damaged its brand in the U.S.
• The German sportswear retailer Puma had to promptly withdraw a limited line of shoes produced in the colors of the United Arab Emirates’ flag after receiving negative feedback from Emiratis who believed the product trivialized their flag. The negative reaction was intensified by the fact that, in many Arab cultures, the shoe is considered dirty as it touches both the ground and the foot.
• When Intel decided to bring its successful “Intel: Sponsors of Tomorrow” campaign to Brazilian markets, it had to change the message in Portuguese to “Intel: In love with the future.” This was done after research showed that “Sponsors of Tomorrow”, rendered in Portuguese, implied that Intel did not fulfill its promises promptly.(Samples were summarized from the sources: Wikipedia and Business News Daily.)

Transcreation helps avoid some of the pitfalls related to word usage, cultural context, and global vs. local marketing that come up in the process of cross-cultural advertising.

A professional transcreation expert is creative, culturally sensitive, and marketing-aware. He cares about preserving the “feel” of the original content and strives to evoke the same sensations using culturally appropriate linguistic means.

Therefore, when contacting a translation company about translating your marketing content, we hope you inquire about transcreation. It may prove a worthwhile investment as it helps to make your product more competitive internationally and allows you to reach your sales goals more quickly.

Monterey Language Services strives to provide the highest quality of translation and interpretation services. Please feel free to request a quote from us.

The team here at Monterey Language Services wishes you a fabulous 2016! You deserve it!

We are so very proud and grateful that you remain our friends and continue to support us.

The scenery on the postcard is taken from a beautiful vista point near Monterey. We wish you joy and renewal in 2016!