Localising your Text

Some texts need more than a straightforward translation; some localisation may also be required. (Yes, “localisation” and “localising” are words in the translation world.) This means that the content needs to be adjusted to the audience – usually the national or regional culture. This is a particularly common practice in marketing translation, but localisation can...

Bilingual Safety Net

If you only need basic proofreading for a translation, you might think that a bilingual specialist is overqualified for the task. But if you are not absolutely sure about the quality of the translation, it is advisable to hire a translator specialising in the subject and send them the original text along with the translation....

Your Checklist for a Translation Quote

If you need a translation quotation, there are 3 things your translator needs to know from the start: what, how much and when. Without answers to these questions, we cannot tell you whether we're interested, available or how much it will cost. What: What is the nature, topic, purpose of the document? Is it a...

My New Favourite Client

A publisher contacted me speculatively before the summer regarding a book project they were hoping to secure with an art gallery to check my availability and interest. The text was challenging, but their excellent communication made working with them a breeze. The budget was somewhat below what I would normally accept but the timeframe was...

What’s YOUR Deadline?

Rather than ask your translator: "when can you translate this for?", it is more helpful if you can plainly tell them when exactly you need it for. It helps them to organise their schedule around their many clients' requirements. Accommodating all our delightful clients implies that the rule "first arrived, first served" cannot always apply....

Tickety-Boo File Names

As you work on your texts, you may end up with several versions of some or all of them. This requires good organisation to minimise the risk of sending the wrong one to your lovely translator and things getting all tangled up. So here are a couple of good-practice tips to spare yourself and the...

Ready When You Are!

When you contact a translator about a project and ask them for a deadline, they will assume that you are ready to start immediately. If you then reply that the decision maker is away for two weeks or that the text has not yet been finalised, it clearly invalidates the proposed deadline and your busy...

Translating Names and Titles

Should you translate the names of institutions and museums and the titles of books, paintings, etc.? As a rule of thumb, no, names should be left in their original language. But of course many of these names are descriptive and the information is lost to those who do not speak the language. So how do...

Imperial or Metric?

If a sculpture weighs 2.5 tons, is that American, imperial or metric tons? In the UK, both imperial and metric systems can be used, but if your text is to be translated, your overseas audience should determine which one you opt for, and your English version should clearly indicate which one you are using. Artwork...

The Boomerang Effect

Multiple problems with an exhibition catalogue I translated earlier this year led to major delays, and the scheduled 6 weeks turned to 6 months. When the publisher emailed the team about the issues this was causing, the leading author of the project sent a dismissive reply, which only highlighted his lack of awareness, preparation and...

Set it in Stone

It should go without saying that the texts you send to a translator must be absolutely final. At this stage, this is no longer work in progress. From a translator’s point of view, you could do little worse than updating them after they have started working on them. Such a spanner thrown in the work...

The Multidisciplinary Challenge

If your text combines several disciplines, do you expect one translator to be familiar with them all? Do you hire a small team of translators with complementary expertise? Or can you help with some of the terminology yourself? Unlike Google, professional translators do not claim to be able to translate just about anything you can...