Anne Chevalier is a language translation specialist at Saffron Interactive, a London-based online and mobile learning provider. Here are her five top tips to help prevent your e-learning projects from getting lost in translation!

As one of the most experienced language translation specialists at Saffron Interactive, Anne Chevalier offers the following translation management tips for your consideration. These first five tips comprise Part 1. Stay tuned for Part 2 in tomorrow’s blog post.

1. Hire a native speaker

Never assume that simply because someone speaks a foreign language they can translate everything into anything. Only native speakers of a language will know the local customs and habits that subtly affect and impact on a language.

2. Ensure the translator matches your requirements

How can you know your translator’s efficacy if you don’t speak the language(s) they’ll be translating into? The material you’ll be sending will probably be in English, so even if they’re a native English speaker, it’s crucial that you test their English reading and writing ability. If your translators don’t understand the material, there’s no way they’ll be able to properly translate it!

3. Train the translator

Every company has an induction program for their new employees, so why not use that material to train the translator? This will give them a great insight on your company’s standards and will help them assess and adopt your company’s writing style.

4. Translate from A to B, not B to C

Never translate from another translation. If you have a version of the material in the original language, send that version to the translator. The best example for this is the Bible. It’s been translated from Aramaic to Greek to Latin to the current versions. Studies of the Bible in the 1990s and 2000s indicate that quite a bit has been lost in translation!

5. Distrust automated translation

Living in an age in which automation has become pervasive, we tend to forget what technology is for. This is especially true with the language service industry. If your translators use automated translation make sure it’s only used to assist their translations, and not to fully automate the process. Otherwise you might as well use Google Translate; the result will be the same and you will save yourself money in the process! Keep in mind that language is fundamentally about people and emotions, not machines.

Join us again tomorrow for Anne Chevalier’s next five tips for managing language translation, part 2.

By Alex Dupont
Marketing Communications Specialist
Language Translation Inc.

See Also

• Translation is the act of rewriting a document, changing it into another language.
  It?s a common mistake to assume that just because someone speaks a foreign language that they can translate everything into anything.
• Automated translation is fast and quite inexpensive and can be useful for communicating via social networks, or for getting the gist of a foreign language website.
  Make sure your translators use technology only to assist their translations, rather than using it to fully automate the entire process.
• Top tips for managing translations (part 1)
  It can be quite difficult to know your translator?s efficacy when you don?t speak the language(s) they?ll be translating into.