"proper words in proper places“ translating for the localisation industry LRC Summer School Limerick 16 June 2005

Please translate the following into your mother tongue or second language and take a note of your translation: Reject Sample List

Introduction con[text] is a localisation vendor offering customised localisation solutions for medical device manufacturers, electronics and telecoms manufacturers. The con[text] team consists of project managers, programmers and localisation engineers committed to developing and implementing generic localisation processes, individual workflows, and a proprietary project management tool suite to seamlessly schedule and track each phase of the localisation projects.

Agenda  what is translating  translating a User Interface  components of a localisation project  workflow design  tools and processes  questions

Goals of this presentation  differentiate translation for the localisaton industry from other translation tasks  explore the challenges for the translator in this industry  dispel the mystique about localisation

What is translating?  what is translating?  what is the most difficult translation you have been asked to do?

What is software?

Translating the User Inteface  show code  Identify localisable text

Translating the User Inteface  Software code

Translating the User Inteface  software code  parsing  presenting UI strings for translation

Project Components user interface  DLLs  message files  hard coded strings help files  compiled help files documentation  user guide  service manual  quick reference guide  packaging glossary

Workflow  sequence of translation of the project components  review process  signoff cycle  post prodcution checks

Translating in an existing linguistic environment  style and `feel´  consistency across prodcuts  consistency across prodcut releases  guidelines

Questions & Answers  linguistic challenges  tools and processes  other

Summary  First Law of Translation: The smaller the semantical unit, the greater the potential to get it wrong.  workflow discipline  big ship

proper words in proper places are the true definition of style Jonathan Swift

thank you for your attention! contact: Martin Beuster