Guides & Tips

The Language of Typesetting: A Short Glossary

January 16, 2017/0 Comments/in Guides & Tips, Inside Track, Studio /by Agnieszka Animucka

Multilingual typesetting can sound like a daunting prospect, especially if you are not familiar with the industry lingo. While you don’t have to be an expert to get your publication on the shelves (physical or digital), it would be beneficial to have a working understanding of the terms you are likely to hear when discussing your project with industry specialists. You are likely to encounter many of these terms in design software and when talking to designers, printers and typesetters.

To avoid some of the confusion that may occur while discussing typesetting foreign languages, make sure you understand the whole process and the terminology that’s often involved. Let us get you started with 50 words that will help you navigate the journey to publishing your documents in any language. Read more

Get the Best Return from Your Technical Language Partner

November 25, 2016/0 Comments/in Guides & Tips, Inside Track /by Surinder Singh

A Guide to Technical Translation for Manufacturers: Part 3.

Once you’ve settled on an LSP for your technical translation project, all that remains is the translation itself. That’s not to say that you can just sit back and wait for the completed texts to be returned to you; if the best outcomes are to be reached then you need to be proactive in your efforts to keep track of progress every step of the way. Unlike the previous section, the tips on offer here are by no means unique to translation services – specifics of the translation process aside, an LSP is no different from any other service supplier that you may have dealings with, whether they provide you with raw materials for manufacturing, stationery for those working in your offices, or even the snacks that fill your on-site vending machines. As such, best practice when dealing with those suppliers also applies here. Read more

6 Tips for Finding a Technical Language Partner

October 26, 2016/0 Comments/in Guides & Tips, Inside Track /by Surinder Singh

A Guide to Technical Translation for Manufacturers: Part 2.

As a quality-conscious business, it is natural that you would want to find a language service partner, or LSP, who is able to produce quality translations capable of meeting the rigorously high standards demanded by the manufacturing industry. With the large number of LSPs setting out their stalls in an increasingly competitive marketplace, choosing the right partner for your project is no mean feat. Even narrowing the scope to include only providers that offer a specific technical translation service does little to thin the herd. There is no one quality that sets an LSP apart from their competitors as the ‘best’ choice, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make an informed decision. Here, we have listed a number of criteria that you might want to give consideration to when choosing an LSP for your technical translation. Read more

What is Technical Translation?

October 20, 2016/in Guides & Tips, Inside Track /by Surinder Singh

A Guide to Technical Translation for Manufacturers: Part 1.

It’s impossible to ignore the global nature of successful contemporary business and technology, the role translation has played in contributing to these sucess stories cannot be underestimated either. Taking steps to guarantee that your message and brand identity are communicable to a worldwide audience is a vital part of expanding your reach and client base, increasing your recognition and ensuring that your business is able to reach a position amongst the market leaders in your sector. One of the key growth sectors around the world is manufacturing and translation again has a key role in supporting its international development.

When working within the manufacturing industry, it is not at all uncommon for publications to contain a great deal of specialised language, this typically means technical writers are employed to ensure the highly nuanced concepts and technical terms are communicated as concisely as possible. In doing so, this significantly reduces the likelihood of critical misunderstanding of important documents (safety and compliance information is of particular note here) and the subsequent risks associated with such misunderstandings. The complications surrounding technical communication are amplified further when information is required to be understood by a diverse workforce that may not speak the same native language. So what is technical translation? Read more

Infographic: How Translators Can Market Themselves Online

August 19, 2016/2 Comments/in Business Guide, Guides & Tips, Inside Track, Language Blog /by Agnieszka Animucka

In our field we work with literally 1000’s of translators, sometimes they come to us directly, but often we need to go looking for specialists with linguistic skills in specific areas like document localisation or website translation. It’s here where we noticed a problem, a great many translators aren’t making themselves visible to potential online customers anywhere near as much as they could. Some of the very best translators we have on our books don’t have any kind of online presence, which made us think, maybe we can help.

Being a freelance translator is a competitive business, even more so if you are just starting out. To make sure you have the best chance of getting work in from clients, you absolutely must make sure those clients can find you. More and more people are using the internet to research and buy translation services and you really don’t want to be left behind as this trend shows no sign of slowing. It’s not enough to set up a profile on Proz.com and wait for the jobs to roll in, thousands are already doing exactly that… you need to start taking a proactive approach and make sure potential clients have the best chance of finding you vs. your competition, how do you do that? Well besides being great at what you do, marketing yourself effectively online can help enormously. Read more

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<div style="clear:both"><a href=""><img src="https://www.k-international.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Online-Marketing-tips-for-Translators-infographic.jpg" title="How Translators can Market Themselves Online" alt="How Translators can Market Themselves Online" border="0" /></a></div><div>Courtesy of: <a href="https://www.k-international.com/blog/infographic-how-translators-can-market-themselves-online/">K International Translation Services</a></div>

Keep Calm and Regex

May 23, 2016/0 Comments/in Guides & Tips, Inside Track /by Agnieszka Animucka

“Keep Calm and Regex” was presented by Angela Madrid at memoQ fest 2016 on 20^th May. The main goal of the talk was to present regular expressions in a friendly way and encourage the audience to try their hand at using them.

We have produced a complete a guide to using Regex with memoQ which you can download or view below.

This guide is free for you to distribute with the proviso that proper credit is given to the authour and K International (https://www.k-international.com/translation/) Read more

How to Choose a Translation Company

January 24, 2016/0 Comments/in Guides & Tips, Language Blog /by Alison Kroulek

Choosing a translation company is an important decision, and it’s important to get it right. The right translation company allows your business to clearly communicate with customers and stakeholders in other languages. Choose poorly, and you could face a number of unhappy consequences, including embarrassment, lost customers and even regulatory compliance issues. What to do? Learn how to choose a translation company with our detailed guide! Here’s what to look for:

How to Choose a Translation Company: Learn More About The Translators

A translation company is only as good as its translators. So, the first step in evaluating a translation company is to learn more about the people who will be translating your content. How many languages can the company source translators for? Are all the translators native speakers of the language they’ll be translating? How much experience do they have?

How to Choose a Translation Company: Experience and Reputation

While there’s certainly nothing wrong with choosing a newer company, using a well-established provider with years of experience gives you one more level of security. Different industries have their own terminology and translation requirements. So, in addition to general experience, you should look for a company with experience in your industry.

For example, medical translation and legal translation are specialised disciplines that require subject matter expertise in addition to fluency in both languages.

While experience is important, we all know age is just a number. You want a translation company that is not just experienced, but also has a reputation for quality, integrity and good customer service. Any translation agency you work with should be able to provide you with case studies, testimonials and references from previous clients. Read more

International Expansion: 5 Lessons You Can Learn From the World’s Biggest Businesses

November 26, 2015/0 Comments/in Business Guide, Guides & Tips, Inside Track /by Agnieszka Animucka

Sometimes it can seem like the world is smaller than ever – that we live in a global village where international borders mean little.

However, when it comes to international business expansion, the importance of cultural differences cannot be underestimated. Indeed, many businesses have found out the hard way that what works at home can go down very differently in a foreign market.

Here, we present five lessons you can learn from some of the world’s biggest businesses’ most notable successes and failures. Read more

Website translation – person typing on a laptop

The Multi-Lingual Digital World: Why You Need to Translate Your Site

November 2, 2015/0 Comments/in Business Guide, Guides & Tips /by Agnieszka Animucka

Image by Pixabay

The internet is an incredibly powerful tool for businesses. Since it first became available to the public in the late 1980s, it’s transformed the commercial landscape, allowing companies to easily market their products to consumers all over the world.

However, while the internet started out as an almost entirely English-language based resource, the volume of foreign language content, as well as foreign language users, has dramatically increased.

And with around 42% of consumers saying they would never purchase products or services in other languages, targeting these users, in their own tongue, clearly makes sense for businesses.

Here’s why you need to translate your site to compete in the global marketplace. Read more

How to Get International Expansion Right: Advice from 7 Entrepreneurs & Experts

September 23, 2015/0 Comments/in Business Guide, Guides & Tips, Inside Track /by Agnieszka Animucka

Once you’ve established a successful business, it’s natural to want to expand into different markets. Particularly as nearly all of the world’s biggest companies – from Tesco to Google – operate on an international scale.

However, much the same as setting up a business in the first place, successfully targeting international audiences is far from easy. From local customs and colloquialisms to superstitions and humour, every region is entirely unique, making a ‘one size fits’ all approach sure to fail. Read more