Tomorrow’s translations need to be faster, more automated and better value for money than ever before. The emergence of AI and the accompanying progress made by machine translation engines have the potential to make translation workflows as agile and fast as possible – but it’s easy to neglect steps in the process which are crucial when it comes to delivering high-quality results.
To help you get your texts translated quickly and cost-effectively without compromising on quality, here are the five biggest risks to look out for in the translation process.
1. Ill-judged use of machine translation
Probably the biggest risk is the careless use of the most commonly used AI in the translation industry: machine translation. Although MT can be helpful for many types of text, you should never treat it as a full-fledged replacement for professional human translation. MT engines aren’t yet capable of understanding cultural nuances or differences between languages and target cultures, so the results they produce can sound unnatural at best and may be completely wrong at worst. You need to establish whether the source text is suitable for machine translation and whether there are specific terminology requirements that need to be met – and of course if you decide to use MT, you then need to check that the engine has taken these requirements into account in its output. Even if your text is suitable for MT, it’s important to get a qualified post-editor to review the output segment by segment to make sure the nuances in meaning are captured, cultural aspects are taken into account and the right specialist jargon is used.Machine translation sometimes produces poor-quality results for safety-critical texts in particular, as are often needed in the medical industry for instance, so we recommend human translation for texts where there are risks or for marketing materials, potentially with a subsequent review to ensure full peace of mind and top quality results. And check that the translation agency using MT is ISO 18587 certified!
2. Choosing the wrong translators
The people working on your texts are one of the most important elements in the translation process. It’s essential to choose translators and reviewers who have the necessary specialist expertise in the relevant subject matter, especially if your project involves documents in areas subject to legal regulations. Specialist translators are familiar with the precise terminology of the field and know how to use terms and abbreviations correctly, which will help avoid misunderstandings. Poor-quality translations can have serious consequences in high-risk areas – specialist translators know all about these risks and work with great care and attention.Likewise, the project managers at the translation agency should take great care and use specific criteria when choosing the translators and reviewers who work on your texts. And ideally, the agency will establish a core team of translators and reviewers who always work on your projects, as this will help them become more familiar with your texts and products over time.
3. Technical problems
Even though technical problems in the translation process can usually be resolved, they still pose a potential risk. For example, different authoring systems use different file formats, which can cause problems when transferring data. An interface between the CAT tool and your authoring system can avoid these issues. Whichever system you use, the agency should offer data compatibility and be able to connect securely to all relevant authoring, PIM and content management systems, sourcing platforms and specific company systems.It’s also important to save the different file versions so that previous versions of documents can be retrieved if files are lost – versioning systems such as GitHub make this possible,and the agency should give you all the advice you need. In short: careful planning, use of suitable tools and regular reviews of workflows can reduce the risk of technical problems.
4. Terminology management and consistency
Everyone knows that effective terminology management isn’t rocket science, but many companies don’t have the resources to do it. Inconsistent terminology poses a considerable risk in the translation process, as using different terms to refer to the same thing within a document can cause major confusion. In medical technology, there’s a chance that even a very minor change to a term in the description of a drug can have far-reaching consequences. So creating and regularly maintaining a central term base is crucial in order keep pace with the ever-evolving specialist terminology. To minimize the risk of inconsistent use of language in your translations, you and your agency need to take terminology management seriously, work with translators who specialize in the respective fields and know the specialist jargon, and carry out thorough quality assurance checks.
5. Lack of communication
At a translation agency, it’s not just the translators who are responsible for translating a text from one language to another: lots of other people play an equally important role. Project managers handle a wide range of tasks including communication with clients, translators and reviewers, the localization engineering team focuses on the technical challenges, and the vendor relations team makes sure you have the right translator for your texts. So good communication with all parties has an important role to play in successful delivery of translation projects and in ensuring that any problems can be resolved quickly.It’s crucial that clients are crystal clear about what they’re looking for from the project in order to reduce the risk of misunderstandings and communication problems, which includes specifying the target audience, the purpose of the translation, and any formatting they’d like to be done on the translated document. The translation agency team should find out all the information they need before the project starts and have a system in place that enables straightforward communication.After all, no matter how much progress has been made in automated technology, human contact and communication are irreplaceable.
Summary
At first glance, there’s a lot that can go wrong in the translation process: the risks include overhasty use of machine translation, choosing the wrong translator, technical problems and miscommunication. To minimize these risks, it’s vital to work with a professional translation agency which has the required expertise and experience. Our top tip: find an agency with ISO certification. ISO 17100 and ISO 9001 are the main standards to look out for, ISO 18587 is strongly recommended if you want to use machine translation, and ISO 13485 is a big plus if you’re a business in the life sciences sector. With this knowledge, you can reduce the potential risks in the translation process, sit back and relax – you can be confident that your projects will run smoothly and result in high-quality translations!
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