Ccaps Blog

The mouse is not a very productive working interface when we use computers. That is a fact; yet to make computer usage more efficient and productive, we should all remember that we can use a super powerful interface in the keypad.

Think of a user typing some text. To insert a word in bold format, he/she takes the hand off the keyboard, clicks the bold icon on the toolbar of the word processor, places the hand back on the keyboard and resumes typing. This could be simplified by pressing Ctrl+B (or the relevant combination of keys). This is just one example, and numerous others can be created. What really matters is the idea behind it all: Why take your hands off the keyboard and use the mouse in ordinary situations when this could be avoided?

Sure, there are certain tasks that prevent the use of the keyboard as an interface (while editing graphics, for instance). However, in most cases the keypad is enough to perform all kinds of tasks and reach maximum productivity without having to drag the mouse around.

Think about it the next time you take your hands off the keyboard. Do some research and find out what is the key combination that could be used for the same activity.

Frequently asked question: where can one find good translators? Even better, what makes a translator a GOOD one? I have been working with localization for some time now, and what I have noticed is that testing a new, unknown translator is like a shoot in the dark. Contrary to what most people think, merely knowing a foreign language does not make someone a translator. Brazilian universities may offer translation courses, but they do not necessarily form good translators.

Experience and knowledge are key here, but how can anyone acquire experience if they are not given the opportunity to start with? From the corporate point of view, it is hard for us to work with inexperienced professionals due to quality and turnaround. We do not always have the time to redo a task that did not meet the expectations nor can we take such a risk, for quality always comes first.

In the resumes we receive, there are always specialties and personal tastes: orchids, jogging, ice skating! I once attended a lecture by Isa Mara Lando during a conference organized by the Brazilian Translators Association (ABRATES) and learned that, according to some researches, HR teams take, in average, 8 seconds to read each CV they receive. Therefore, the good old recipe of being objective when writing your resume still applies, right?

Good translators, do come forward! We wait for you with open arms!

Client: - Could you please translate this document into Portuguese so that it is fit for Brazilian and European audiences?

Client: - I translated this document for Iberian Portuguese and I need to publish it in Brazil. Could you do this for me? All you have to do is give it a quick review.

I am sure I am not the only person to receive such requests. And I am also sure that the person who makes these suggestions doesn’t quite realize the differences between these two “languages”.

In 1990, Brazil and so other Portuguese speaking countries signed the Acordo Ortográfico da Língua Portuguesa (Orthographic Agreement of the Portuguese Language), whose goal is to create of a unified set of spelling rules for the Portuguese language. This unification would bring Brazil closer to the rest of the other Portuguese speaking countries, among which the linguistic differences are considerably smaller. It would also give Portuguese more global influence, raising its position to compete with English and Spanish.

The agreement was signed in 1990 but its implementation has been postponed time and time again. This is because Portugal, whose participation is crucial – for it is the country in which the language was originated – failed to meet all the necessary requirements, and shows no sign of doing so in the near future.

What consequences would an agreement like this bring to our market? Would the unification of the language do any good to translators who work with Portuguese? It would definitely bring more work and revenue for reviewers who would be in charge of updating the texts according to the new rules. We could also say that Portuguese teachers and all other professionals who are capable of “recycling” the rest of the population could definitely make more profit out of it. However, when it comes to translators, I believe it would take long before a text could be converted in a way that any Portuguese speaker could understand. In addition to grammar, the most striking difference between the two languages relies in the vocabulary.

I have recently read a novel written in Portugal and I must confess that some parts were really hard to understand. It was merely a contemporary novel whose story revolved around a woman, her job and personal relationships. What if it were a text filled with technical jargon, in which the complete understanding of what is being said is really important?

I can’t possibly imagine how can it be possible to unify Brazilian and European Portuguese.

Languages reflect the cultures they embody. Changing a language to the point of unifying it with a considerably different one would be like unifying two cultures whose roots may have been the same, but have gone a long way since they split up, and now work in an independent way. There are two different worlds, two different realities, and thus have different ways to express. The Portuguese language has included in its dictionary a great deal of words that were created or borrowed from other languages, but this was only possible because the lives and cultures of its speakers allowed for such integration. Adding such words is not a top-to-bottom process; it is something completely spontaneous. The contact with other cultures is what makes us acquire new habits, and even a new vocabulary.

The day of the unification may come. For now, I only tell our clients that what they are asking cannot be done. Then I recommend the link for an article written by Fabiano for the Ccaps Newsletter, which gives further details on the differences between the variants of Portuguese. If you haven’t read it yet, click here and take a look.

Until some time ago, it was said that, in order to be a salesperson, one had to have talent. Today however it is impossible to be a salesperson with only talent. The art of selling has gone through many changes and has followed the development of markets, thus demanding further skills, training and learning. Knowing how to sell is no longer enough.

A business relationship no longer ceases to exist when a product or service is sold – on the contrary, it only begins there. Creating customized sales strategies, gaining the client and keeping business relationships — all this turns the new salesperson an agent of exchange. The other day I heard at ProfMarinsPod a message about how to make a client sell our own services, without even having to pay him or her a salary. Wanna know how? Click here, listen to the message and send us your comments.
Note: recording in Portuguese, sorry no English version available =(

It is a program that helps translating documents with similar content.

It usually works like this: the program itself breaks the text to be translated into parts, which are called “segments.” These segments form pairs of sentences, one in the original language, which must remain intact, and the other appearing at first in the original language, but that will be edited by the translator and replaced with the translated text. The pair is now formed by text in the original and target language and the translation memory ™ will take charge of “recording” everything in its software.

Should any future translations have equal or similar sentences to what has already been translated, the TM will identify these passages and present them as suggested translations. That way, and depending on the context, the translator decides whether to maintain the suggestion, use only a part of it, or translate the whole sentence again. This saves time and costs and also allows for terminology consistency.

However, it is important to highlight that translation memory is merely a helping tool for the translator, it will never be a replacement!

I was invited to write an article for GALAxy, the Globalization and Localization Association (GALA) electronic newsletter and it was published today. In the article, I discuss the idea of how a project manager can have a canine or feline attitude towards the client and the projects in hand.

If I teased your curiosity, you can read it at the GALA website.

Laura Brandon, who is doing a wonderful work in the Association, loved the article and decided to ask catoonist/translator/interpreter Tony Beckwith (http://www.tonybeckwith.com/) to create a cartoon inspired by the article and he did a most amazing job. Go check it out!

However, I also decided to take a risk and created my own “cartoons.” As of today, we will publishing some of these for your enjoyment. Here comes the first of the Dog X Cat PM series:

“Guess what vendors I chose for you today?”

And do let me know in which category you will find yourself. Auf! ;)

“What does that mean — ‘tame’?”
“It is an act too often neglected,” said the fox. “It means to establish ties.”
“To establish ties?”
“Just that,” said the fox. “To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world…”
(…)
“We only know well the things we tamed,” said the fox. (…) “You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.”

This small piece was extracted from The Little Prince, by Saint-Exupéry.

The book was written in 1940, when the world was experiencing the horrors of World War II. Yet then they had no idea of what would be like to compete in a globalized world in the following century.

We often speak of ‘captivating a client.’ Would that be much different from what the Fox said? I wouldn’t say so.

We are all clients and vendors at some moment of our lives as we are constantly buying and selling things. Therefore, we all have potential to tame and to be tamed, or likely to be tamed.

Taming a client is much more than delivering the requested product or service in the set date and previously established way.

You can only tame when you insert a human relationship clause in this contract. Clients and vendors think of one another as individuals and the treatment between them is based on this. Only then a tie can be created.

As the Fox would say (in a lecture for which a little fortune was charged), only then the client would need the other party and the vendor would become unique to the client.

This is the first time that I have worked in a translation office and I have made several discoveries around here.

I have learned that translation is not only the process of converting a written text into other languages (there are lots of tools behind this process) and that being a translator means much more than mastering a foreign language. I have also learned the “language” of my coworkers here at Ccaps and now I understand when they say:

- Bruno, can you do the DTP?
- Does Mary Jane do SAP?
- This will need to be QAed!
- Upload the file to the FTP site

If would like some help translating these terms, send me a message. I will be glad to help you with them =)