“la parole exportée”

I mentioned in an earlier post the challenges encountered with a monthly translation project I have with a client.

Space limits.

Good news. For the last two months or so, the space limits have been eased up. Whether this was because of translators’ complaints (I can’t begin to imagine how the German or Russian translators were able to accommodate these rules without dropping much of the source copy, writing in telegraphic style or using lots of abbreviations - in marketing-style copy???), or simply because the client needed more breathing space, but that’s the happy fact.

Translation Completeness.

One of my main areas of discomfort was that I frequently had to drop model descriptions from the translations, keeping only model numbers. Although my choice wasn’t taking anything away from the message itself, I didn’t like the idea of making choices on the client’s behalf.

Translation Style.

Now, not only the translators have more room to breathe/work, but translation quality should also be improved considerably by availing of this extra space. Correct translation into French, even with minimum stylistic rendering, still involves a higher word count; for instance, although the simplest forms of the verbs ‘to be’ or ‘to do’ do exist in French, translating them by richer, yet NOT literary verbal phrases provides a simple and inexpensive way in terms of brain cells, of adding a true French ‘ring’ to a copy. This is something French natives normally absorb in their younger years. And the idea of this translation project is, after all, to guide end-customers to more of the marketing material. This in itself should be an incentive to make sure that these chunks of information delivered to them are meaningful and attractive. Too many space restrictions ended up in so-so copy.

What next?

Now hoping that the US copywriters don’t take advantage of the new rules to expand their own copy! Or we’d be back to square one…

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I recently received a PO for a project from a multinational company with which I have a long-standing relation. In short, they respond to Request For Proposals that go through an extremely lengthy examination process, and if they are successful, the order for the translation is sent out, usually months after I’ve done the estimate.

The fact that the PO specified an unrealistic deadline was a sure sign that no deadline had been specified by the client, or the Indian BPO wouldn’t have entered something like tomorrow for a translation of 9,000 words… That didn’t sound like my client at all. Either they need it by a certain date, and they kindly ask me if I think I can do it by then, and of course I say Yes, or I have about 4 weeks to do it.

So I set off in order to get it out of the way. What experience has taught me, is to NEVER procrastinate on a project with an unspecified deadline, because you end up being… in a rush.

photo credit: gruntzooki

Then I realized that I needed some input from the client, so I sent out an e-mail and instantly received an automatic ‘Away on vacation’ response. I must admit that the temptation was sooooo great to drop the whole thing until closer to the date when my client would be back, even though the sensible half of me was telling me to just get on with it, as the required info could be taken care of at any time. I really toyed with the idea of shelving it, but about 6 hours later, the reply arrived around midnight. (Contrary to popular and unjustified belief, French employees can be officially on vacation AND work. Most of them don’t really have a choice.)

So, back to square one. No excuse to procrastinate, I must do this project now, not later…

The way the world is going, there’s going to be less and less need for words. There are pictograms at airports, railway stations, stores, where else? They are usually easy to understand. More difficult are road signs, at least in the beginning, when you are learning them. And have you seen Ikea’s instruction sheets? You know what I’m talking about.

Another example: my car was having its annual wash in a suburb of a French provincial town and as I was waiting, I looked around. I can understand/decode five out of these six signs, not sure what the bottom right one is supposed to tell me, cars can’t go on fire as they are being washed, I suppose.

Are words going out of fashion?

And, would you know this picture was taken in France, if I didn’t tell you?

PS. Thanks to Teeg Bramhall for a little help with the photo.

photo credit: Keith Bacongco

I was reading this very interesting article on Google’s new Translation Center, when my eye was drawn to the last comment:

Machine translation is still far from being perfect, and regular translators are very expensive. In a flat world this service should cost next to nothing.

I’m always amazed to see how people will easily discount other professions, simply because they stand in the way of money. As if translators were making indecent heaps of it, anyway.

I have a much simpler answer to their problem. In the flat world of wishful thinking, I’d like money to grow on trees. Alternatively, medicine should be a free service, er… no, better still, nobody would need medication or surgery, bread should appear in bread baskets and nobody would have to buy it, neither would we have to pay for water, electricity, and cars would run on air, instead of insanely expensive fuel.

Let me be extra-adventurous, I’m dreaming of a really flat world, that would be rid of psychopaths, dictators and idiots. It doesn’t cost anything to ask, anyway.