Ccaps Blog

I have just completed my MBA course in Project Management and I must say that, although much of what was said in class does not apply to the localization field, I managed to learn a lot on the best practices of risk and time management, human resources, acquisitions, communications etc.

But since we spend 90% of our time dealing with people (clients, vendors, in-house colleagues and others), it is crucial to understand exactly what your client is asking from you, thus measuring the “quality” of your final work. Quality is not what you believe to be good; quality is what your client asked for.

Take a look at the picture below:

In the first part, we see what the client asked for, and in the last one, what he really wanted.

Lack of adequate communication, perhaps?

Very often in my day-to-day work are vendors who do not read instructions. Or perhaps read them so quickly that they fail to grasp what is being asked for that particular project. I know everybody has a busy life, with lots of things to do, and that we have tight deadlines and short timeframes. But if the instructions are not read, one cannot know what is being asked. The potential consequence is the delivery of work below the expected quality standards.

And nobody wants that, right?

Last year we helped the Children’s Institute by translating part of their website into English. The development of this English version was crucial for the institution, as it is now looking for resources to set their projects in motion outside Brazil through the NY-based Brazil Foundation.

At that time, we could not translate the whole website, for it was being reformulated and did only the part of the main content that was ready to go. Now they need to continue the development of the English version, which also includes monthly updates with the latest events of each project they carry out.

Ccaps has taken up the costs involved in the initial translation process, but we would like to count on the help of translators and reviewers who could volunteer to make this happen.

I cordially invite you to learn more about the work that the Institute has been developing for the past 10 years and in case you connect to their work, send an email to cgomes@ccaps.net with your contact information and availability. We are interested in Portuguese into English and Spanish translators or reviewers for the three languages.

If you keep saying you want to help but do not know how, here is a great opportunity to do something from the comfort of your own house. All we need is a bit of your time and knowledge. =)

Looking forward to your contact!

In Brazil there is a major problem of public money being used for wrong purposes, such as embezzlement, over-invoicing and political corruption in general. Should all this capital be used in a better way, we would certainly have less people living in dreadful conditions, there would be healthcare for everyone, and good education would not be a luxury reserved for just a few.

In many other countries there are quite similar situations and one could honestly argue that waiting for the government to solve all the problems would be naive. Betinho was a Brazilian human rights activist, who was HIV positive and fought against social injustice. He used to say that “people with hunger are people with hurry.” Therefore, each one of us should get down and dirty to help those who need.

Did you know that translators could do a lot to help?

In Brazil, numerous NGOs would love to have their websites translated into a foreign language to share their work with the rest of the world. This would provide them with better chances of getting the funds they need to keep up the good work.

Maybe you cannot translate to a foreign language. Why not volunteering to review the website text, improve its content, or create a press release? There is plenty to do. You are the one who does the quality writing. Their business is something else.

Would you rather help an international NGO that needs translation/reviewing services for Portuguese? Okay, then! Go to Google, our everyday companion, search for translation volunteer Portuguese (and its variations) and you could be surprised with how many hits your search would yield.

MultiLingual magazine has recently published an article entitled “Changing the world one word at a time” on how translators and translation companies are helping make a better world.

Here at Ccaps, among other actions in the past few years, we recently translated part of the Children’s Institute website into English but we are always seeking other ways to help our neighbor.

So, next time you see yourself without work (which unfortunately does happen), a quick research would make you see how many people could benefit from your skills, and how you could change the lives of many, right from your chair, in front of your PC monitor.

The world will thank you.

The new edition of the Ccaps Newsletter is about SEO.

The coolest cover Andrés Bouzas created for this edition

Do you think that we messed up and are confusing CEO and SEO? Could be… Why don’t you check it out online?

http://www.ccaps.net/newsletter/05-08/newsletteren.htm

And let us know what you thought about it…

The act of translation is not a simple transformation of one set of words to another. It is a whole lot more than that.

Working as a translator and reviewer for Ccaps, I come across all kinds of translations and I have decided that what separates the “good” from the “great” is the translator’s level of “absorption” of the text – a key aspect of final translation quality.

A great translator reads and absorbs the meaning of each sentence before translating it. He or she makes an effort to understand what is being said and how to best convert this idea into the target language. It is not a matter of rushing to get it translated as fast as possible, blindly typing away and hardly even stopping to grasp the overall context.

This avoids those trivial mistranslations that should never exist in the first place. A classic example are the false cognates. If the translator does not make an effort to understand the meaning of the source text, he or she is bound to translate “realização” as “realization” and “fábrica” as “fabric.” Ouch! Such mistakes make my blood boil, since they demonstrate a serious lack of attention to the text.

Therefore, a call out to translators and reviewers alike. Make sure you are actually “reading” what you are translating. Become one with the text… Ohmmmmmm

Happy Translating!

Sarah Hyde

To learn more about Sarah, please visit her previous post, Keeping Our Eyes Open