Ccaps Blog

The translator always has to keep his/her eyes wide open and maintain a sharp sixth sense. In the case of subtitles, where translation errors are right there for the entire audience to see, the situation is even more delicate.

One of these errors, which has become quite famous, appeared on the successful movie “What Women Really Want.” Mel Gibson’s character watches a basketball game on TV and, when the player is about to shoot the ball, he says: “Miss, miss, miss!” The translation? “Senhorita, senhorita, senhorita”! (or “Lady, lady, lady!”).

We, the devout spectators, start to look for the invisible lady! Obviously, the translation should have been something like: “Erra, erra, erra!” or “Perde, perde, perde!”

For the more understanding of us, perhaps this was not even a good example of a faulty “doubter meter”. It could enter into the category of “lack of context”, another dilemma we face in the translation business. It is very hard to define a translation with no context, without knowing to what it refers or where it will be used. In this case, it is not fair to the translator! Unfortunately, this is never the attitude adopted by the public or the critics.

For them, it’s always the translator’s fault! Or the reviewer’s… But this is discussion for yet another post.

Nevertheless, the lack of context or a “doubter meter” also has its positive side: The mistakes are funny! For a good laugh then, click here (sorry, only in English).

What about you? Do any of you have any other example?

Natália Botelho

To learn more about Natália, please visit her previous post.

Many people fail to understand what the job of a localization engineer is. I often talk to them people about it and explain what my work involves to hear things like “Oh, so you speak all these languages?”

I most certainly don’t. Engineers do not need to understand (let alone, speak) the languages with which they work. However, with time and practice, we become capable of distinguishing Japanese from Korean and Chinese and of learning that, in certain languages, “strange things” are supposed to be that way (in French, for instance, people separate the punctuation with a space at the end of a sentence).

What then does an engineer do? We are in charge of all the work involved in the analysis, preparation and verification of the files before and after translation. A translator’s job is to translate only (which is quite a lot, when we take into account how much they are paid for this nowadays…) The engineer receives the files from the client and converts them into a format that can be analyzed with the translation memory (many times, we have to make up a way of doing that). Then, the files are converted into a translatable format and the non-translatable parts are blocked — or deleted, depending on the case.

What is most interesting about the job is the lack of routine. The client sends the files in the most diverse formats, such as software, help files, web pages, Word documents, images, and others. We even receive printed documents and hard copies from time to time!

The engineer has to come up with a way of turning the batch received into a translatable format and, after the files have been translated, change everything back to the format requested by the client. Check whether everything is in order before the handback to the client, while finding and correcting occasional bugs created during the process. Not to mention that we have to answer the technical questions translators might have… All this under extremely tight deadlines, as it is common in our industry.

Therefore, next time you hear of localization engineering, do not think that we have some sort of extensive language capabilities, only because we work with several languages. This is actually your job!

Marcelo Moraes, Localization Engineer, worked at Ccaps from 2006 until 2008. With a degree in Free Software Environment Management from Estácio de Sá University, he assisted with project preparation and analysis and translation memory and localization tool management. At his free time, Marcelo enjoys being in contact with nature, surfing, rock climbing and spending time with his daughter, Ana Maria.

The idea for this blog post occurred to me when I was accessing the recently created milengo intranet. milengo Inc. is a company formed by Ccaps and 15 other partner companies worldwide. The goal of the intranet is to allow the people who are part of the milengo family to be at the same place, at least in the virtual space.

The idea behind the company is rather interesting: “milengo is an alliance of leading localization companies situated in the most important global IT markets.” Each member brings in a great deal of experience to the group and follows both a unified and proven quality-assurance methodology and a centralized project management system.

It is clear that, despite the uniform methodology of this “single” company, it is actually comprised of 16 different companies, with their own particular structure and working habits. How then can these “branches” embrace milengo’s identity and work as one company?

Bearing this in mind, I created the following list:

Cons
Different Metrics – Because each language has its own particularities, sometimes it is hard to have a single metric for all languages offered by milengo, making it more difficult for the GPM to elaborate quotes.
Working Methodology – Each company has their working methods established, and these are often different from the unified methodology of the corporation.
Cultural Differences – Since the 16 companies are located throughout Asia, the Americas and Europe, we are in the middle of a genuine Babel Tower.
Long Distance Relationships – Personal contacts are invariably done in the virtual space, contributing for potentially superficial relationships.

Pros
Response Time – despite the variety of time zones involved in the process, the response time of a global company is undoubtedly shorter, when compared to that of independent companies.
Working Methodology – These various methods are acknowledged and often times incorporated into milengo’s unified methodology
Cultural Differences – As GPMs, we have to work exclusively with the partners, which allows us to learn how to deal with such differences and benefit the most from them.
Long Distance Relationships – The impossibility of communicating live with your colleagues is rather challenging, yet when properly conducted can result in long lasting friendships.

Apparently, the pros have been more powerful than the cons as milengo is gaining momentum by the day and has helped me grow both as person and a professional.

People can say whatever they want. Yup, I’m guilty as charged and in no position to deny it. Indeed I am a romantic at heart and love smooth-tongued songs and silly movies with a happy ending. I’ve seen movies like Pretty Woman, Someone like you, Bridget Jones and others thousands of times. And, in many cases, I’m capable of saying the characters’ lines with astounding accuracy. My iPod couldn’t be different – it is stashed with these songs that talk about all kinds of love (whether it’s mutual, lost, wished, stolen, imagined…), which I choose to hear according to my mood at the time. In one of them, called Cinco discos (Five Records), Brazilian singer Pedro Mariano sings:

So many times Have I wondered without knowing Whether there was something wrong Backing away from you The silent reply failed And tricked me I’ve read 200 books And 5 records have I listened to I’ve searched 1,000 dictionaries To know what I did wrong So much time just thinking ‘bout it If I could have another chance You know how much I try To deserve you once again Was it something I did Or said I don’t get it When I came to it You were no longer here    (Translation by Miguel Lopes)

For some reason, when I listened to this song today, the word dictionary stood out and reminded me of our work. Then, I started to imagine a situation that I’m sure Pedro Mariano didn’t have mind when he recorded the song. Here it goes:

A translator completes the first assignment for a company. The project manager confirms receipt with appreciation, pays for the job and simply disappears. Not hearing from the client after that, the translator decides to review the work he delivered to see whether there was something wrong. The translator ends up doing more research and looking terms in “1,000 dictionaries.” The delivered files are read incessantly in an attempt to understand what went wrong. The translator thinks about calling the project manager asking for a second chance. But it is really not worth it.

If I were to follow the author, at the end of my story the translator would be looking for other clients, as that particular one is history now. Yet since this is my story, I get to choose the end that I want. So, I would rather have a happier ending. I tried to write one, but unfortunately writing poems and music is beyond my capabilities. Suggestions are really appreciated, though.

As an English-speaking person, you probably haven’t heard this much, or haven’t even heard it at all. But Brazilians have always wondered when the diaeresis* would be eliminated from our language. I’ve been hearing for centuries that it was bound to be extinguished, but this never actually happened… Now it is official though. According to the new Ortographic Agreement of the Portuguese Language, which has recently been approved by the Portuguese Parliament, one of the changes to be implemented in Brazilian Portuguese is the elimination of the diaeresis.

The second protocol of changes of the Ortographic Agreement puts an end to all the discussion on the unification of the official Portuguese spelling. On January 1st, 2009 the Agreement will be effective in Brazil, which will have three years to adapt to the new writing. Portugal, on the other hand, will have six years to adapt, since the changes there will be in a larger number. The Portuguese dictionary will have to have 1.42% of its words modified, while in the Brazilian dictionary only 0.43% of the terms will be changed.

With the Agreement, the Portuguese alphabet will now have 26 letters, including once again the k, w, y. In the Brazilian Grammar, there will be the following eliminations: the (illustrious) diaeresis; the stress marker for open diphtongs in “ei” and “oi” of paroxytone words (such as “idéia” and “heróico”); the stress marker on “oo” hiatus (appearing in “enjôo” and “vôo”) and verbal forms such as “crêem,” “lêem,” “dêem.”

As for Portugal, mute consonants, such as the “c” in “acção” or in “director” and the first “h” in words such as “húmido” will be suppressed. The differences regarding stress markers between Brazil and Portugal will be maintained: “econômico”, as we pronounce it here, will remain in Portugal as “económico.”

What I enjoyed the most was what José Saramago had to say about the Agreement: “I’ll keep on writing the same way. Now it is up to the reviewers.”

Answering the email from the GPM – do I have to do it right away?

The answer is ‘yes.’ As soon as possible!

In a five-language project, apart from the internal resource (localization engineer), the Global Project Manager (GPM) deals with at least five different contacts in the respective offices. This is because the person who responds to the initial email might not be the one who will communicate with the GPM after the project has been approved.

I have managed projects in which I received emails from three different people in the same office who were in charge of a single language. Moreover, the GPM exchanges messages with the client, sometimes with the client’s developer, and often with the translators, who should communicate only with the LPMs. Here is a rough calculation: if there is only one translator per language, we will have 12 people writing compulsively and only one, poor GPM to answer them all.

Therefore, my dearest LPM, whenever you receive a heads up or handoff email from your GPM, make sure you answer it asap. It may seem a trivial matter, but your answer can make a whole lot of a difference in the success of a project planning, especially if there are 25 languages involved and a list of additional activities and resources that you had no idea they existed.