The cost of a poor translation
In 2009, HSBC had to pay $10 million to correct a mistranslation of the slogan “Assume Nothing” into “Do Nothing” in many countries. While not all translation errors result in significant losses, this case demonstrates the significance of ensuring and improving translation quality.
Quality assurance (QA) is a crucial aspect of the translation process, as it is in many other businesses. To achieve good outcomes, you must first have a thorough understanding of the definition of translation quality, followed by a seamless process, a team of skilled experts, and the necessary support resources.
What is translation quality assurance?
Translation quality is the degree to which a translation meets pre-specified standards or specifications. A quality translation must convey as faithfully as possible the style and message of the original material. Translations also need to take into account the reader’s regional and cultural variables. But that’s not all.
Here are some key aspects to consider when evaluating translation quality:
- There are no spelling or grammar errors.
- Translators use terminology accurately and consistently.
- Translation accurately conveys the meaning of the source text.
- The style is true to the source material.
- Translated text reads as smoothly as the original text.
- Has been precisely adjusted for cultural factors.
- The format of details, such as dates, is appropriate to the target culture.
- Translation follows customer instructions and requirements.
Even if you are an experienced translator, this is a time-consuming process. When working on a project for an extended period of time or under time constraints, it is common for a translator to lose judgment, neglect formatting difficulties, or believe the sentence is sufficient despite the fact that the writing is still strong. Still battling. It is a frequent human limitation, hence specialists are required to oversee translation quality.
Effective translation quality control process
The translation process may differ depending on the language service provider (LSP) and the project type. Before that, you should consider:
#1. The visible value of a project —translating an e-commerce website, for example, has more commercial value than translating an internal company memo.
#2. Overall project schedule —the more steps the translation process has, the longer the project will take.
#3. Budget —quality equals cost; The more people involved in the translation process, the more expensive the project will be.
Poor translations have direct and disastrous impact on customers’ acceptance of your products and/or services, which are very likely become an embarrassment and/or potentially damage your brand.
Difficulties in translation quality management
Improving translation quality can be challenging in a variety of ways; let’s look at the most difficult ones.
Language quality is a vague concept
Quality management is impossible unless the quality criteria expected in translation are clearly defined and a reporting process is established, because criteria beyond the scope of measurement cannot be managed. In this circumstance, discovering quality issues in processes like translation and proofreading becomes considerably more difficult. Furthermore, while working with many languages, complexity grows.
Creating a quality control system from start is a difficulty. Where do I start? How will I know I’m on the correct track? Of course, both LSPs and consumers encounter this issue. However, as a consumer, if you agree to pay for premium services, how do you know that the results would be adequate?
What must an LSP do to demonstrate that it provides the high-quality service it claims? Marketers and salespeople believe that explicit assertions are more persuasive to new customers than ambiguous ones. As a result, the best course of action is to develop a mechanism for proving translation quality using actual data.
Potential translation risks
If any quality concerns develop on a project, it may just be a temporary mistake. However, without a sophisticated quality assurance system, how do you know whether your translator’s quality has declined? And more importantly, how to address the problem?
Difficulty sharing quality feedback with translators
Feedback is an essential stage in helping translators grow and understand customer preferences. That is also the key to preparing simple translators.
Vague general reviews are ineffective for translators since they do not specify what action should be made, and thus will not benefit future projects on which your organization collaborates. On the other side, offering a clear list of areas for improvement, maybe using a scoring system, can allow translators to assess their performance and improve in the future assignment.
Practices to improve translation quality
#1. Make the most of Translation Memory (TM)
Translation memory is a fundamental element of all translation support systems (CAT tools) today. The translation memory allows translators to rapidly access similar translated portions accepted in past projects.
#2. Set up and manage term sheets (Termbase – TB)
The glossary, like translation memory, is a valuable asset for any translation project and one of the top priorities for any customer. Correct terminology will help express the translation’s correct content as well as the customer’s desired style. Effective glossary management for each translation project and customer is a crucial aspect in ensuring high-quality translations.
#3. Manage customer requests (Client request/preferences)
Customers and stakeholders have varied quality standards and philosophies. Whether the consumer is requesting assistance for the first time or is a repeat customer, accurately fulfilling the input requirements is essential and a basic expectation of the customer. Customers, especially loyal ones, want you to understand the needs and comments from prior projects. As a result, adequately documenting and handling customer requests will allow you to avoid unnecessary translation issues.
#4. Separate the translator (translator – TR) and the editor (ED – Editor)
Translating and revising translations are two fundamental processes toward producing a high-quality translation. According to ISO Translation 17100:2015, the translator and proofreader must be two different people. This is also congruent with the 4-eye control approach, which is widely used in modern company quality management procedures. It is still necessary to urge the translator to double-check his or her own translation; however, for the independent editing stage, another person’s participation is required. This will help uncover and repair problems caused by the translator’s subjective difficulties.
#5. Apply QA software (Quality Assurance)
Software QA, often known as automatic QA, is an effective and rapid process to detect basic flaws in translation, such as errors, erroneous proper names, over/under translation, inconsistent translation. Most of all, the translation is not using the correct language… Some translation assistance systems and platforms now feature integrated QA tools, such as Trados (offline & online), Phrase (online), etc. In addition, there is also a Popular and independent QA software named Xbench.
Specialized QA tools will assist in detecting errors in the translation’s target section by comparing it to the equivalent source segment. From there, translators can identify issues and improve the quality of translated materials.
Issues that need improvement often include:
- Linguistic issues such as misspellings, destination text metrics that do not match those in the source text, or destination segments being left blank
- Terminological issues such as when a translator uses a word that the client has asked not to use
- Formatting and tagging (tags in the translation are different from the source text tags or are misplaced)
- Workflow issues: check to see if the translator has acknowledged each segment or if there are no segments with unresolved comments
- Customize test items as agreed with the customer