Translation Agency Word File
Work Repetitions Translator Project

wanna compare our two programs whenever you have time? I'd like to find out the advantages of both, and if you'd be interested in me giving you mine and giving you a training session, at least you'll know if it has its own advantages, which you can use for certain projects. I basically just finished my first translation (me translating) in Transit PE, although one other person helped me, and these are some of the things I discovered: - when I select some words in the targe and the source windows and added those words to the dictionary, whenever I wanted I could select Insert All Terms from Dictionary, which would basically go to all the Untranslated Segments and automatically translate those words for me (like a search and replace) - as soon as I translated something it would remember it and start using for following cases, which the PE version does not do Well, I guess that's it. Then there is this think called concordance, but I haven't figured out that yet. I think I'm going to try and use it for all my projects and build up a massive translation memory in all the languages, so that maybe one day most of it will be already translated. The good thing about Transit it is it converts from many programs, so it can use and add to the translation memory whether the original is an Excel file, a big website, or any type of file. Probably better for project management, and better than Trados, because the translator doesn't have to pay for anything. laterman

Dear Magda Leginski

concerning the Panasonic project and other possible work, Panasonic said they’d like to start end of January with some of the languages. They are basically trying to find another vendor for their translations, because their present one is too expensive. The first year or two they could give us work mostly from their Malaysian plant (about 300,000 words a year, all languages combined), with 10 times that volume from their Japanese plants after that. But they are negotiating with a lot of translating agencies and no agreement has yet been reached. Otherwise, right now I am entering a major marketing campaign. My last marketing push was about 7 years ago, but since then I was too busy dealing with large projects to have time to do anything else. When I did find some time I would focus on improving things to increase my capacity. The last two years I have focused heavily in this area, and now I am ready for a major expansion, so hopefully it will not be too long until I will be able to start to send you some work. I will use the Panasonic tender to test translators in

general.

I imported your file and it did indeed seem that you did not translate much. Nor could I find any entries added to the dictionary, so it does not really make sense to export anything for you again. If you manage to add some words to the dictionary (select the word(s) in the source and target window and then go to Edit > Transfer Marked Terms to Dictionary) over the weekend, we can try it again on Monday if you like. I think I also need to open each file and do it separately, so it would be better if you explained to me which files you translated, so that I do not have to do it for each one unnecessarily. Just experimenting if procedures like this can save you a lot of time.

writing this letter this morning before I get to the internet cafe. How are all the translations going? I won't be at the internet cafe, so if you want me to import/export some files for you, there is a small window of opportunity today, and then it will have to wait until Monday. I might also need help with my own part of the translation. How is your capacity over the next few days? How are you fairing with the construction part in general? One of the reasons why I wanted to import your translations was so that I could learn from them. I'm really not that good in this area. When I import your translation, it does not have to be a final proofread version from you, because if I import updated versions of those files later, it just writes overtop and no problem.

writing this letter this morning before I get to the internet cafe. How are all the translations going? I won't be at the internet cafe, so if you want me to import/export some files for you, there is a small window of opportunity today, and then it will have to wait until Monday. I might also need help with my own part of the translation. How is your capacity over the next few days?

I read your email on my mobile that you were hoping the translation would be completed yesterday, so I am responding offline now and will send this off tomorrow/today Saturday. I'd like to point out that you never gave me a deadline. We also lost a good week communicating through Yuri. I can do express jobs too, but that can often cost more, because I have to rely on translators who are available at that particular moment. But I do not recommend this for translations you want quality for. If you want to have your website on the web for a long time, I assume that waiting another week or whatever is worth it, to get a better quality, and the better price. After you confirmed to me that you accept my price, I emailed certain translators, and it takes a little time to get word back from them, etc. Then there is the proofreading process, and then the vetting process, to make sure nothing is missing. So if you are not in a big rush for this, I'd rather just go through the usual translation process and give you good quality at a good price. If you are in a rush, then you need to tell me and I have to react accordingly, but this could result in a higher price, and possibly reduced quality (depending on how fast you want it).

in most languages I do not need to pay more than 0.05 USD/word, and sometimes I can even find, for example, Dutch translators willing to work for 0.03. We are both agencies trying to find quality and inexpensive translators. Anyway, as I said, sometimes I get large projects and don't have enough of my own people, and have to start paying more to get other people on board to get the job done. I think this is where our cooperation would lie on a practical level.

Dear Alexandra

a friend of mine uploaded some cracked version of Trados, so I'll try to make it available for you to test out soon.

Dear Alexandra,

checked out your analysis and Repetitions file and they seem similar enough to mine. Don't know why you were having those problems, but perhaps it is because of the new word you have. Anyway, it seems you figured it out and I might ask you to do this with future jobs. The repetitions for this job was 25%, which is about average. This means that it might be worthwhile to do this every time. I think the translator could make more, we could make more (if the customer does not know we are using it), and I would be adding to my translation memory, meaning that I could save even more on future projects. I'll try to give you access to the server at some point so you'd be able to do that work for me.

Maybe you do not know exactly how it works. The repetitions are of segments, not particular words. You can set it how it defines a segment, but usually it is by certain characters, such as tabs, ENTER, semicolons, and periods (meaning sentences). It does not distinguish individual words within sentences and these must be translated manually by the translator into Transit's dictionary. After all, how is the program supposed to know which words were translated which way within a sentence? Because the word order within sentences changes with every language. But the sentences mean the same. The problem is when it sounds better to break up a sentence or combine them. Then we get problems with these TM tools.

This would probably be necessary with future jobs, because it might screw up the TM.

Cau dude,

to English job is already taken care of and glad you are getting lots of work. Perhaps Transit is good from a project manager's end, but I'd like to know more about Wordfast. You have the full paid version or something? I use it to analyse repetitions and prepare the repetitions file, which I then modify and pump into Transit. I am curious how well it works for large projects with many translators, and a central database and all that. Also, how about importing from other formats? Perhaps that is one of the greater strengths of Transit. For example, it can import an entire website, or from Excel, or InDesign etc., exporting it to the same format once completed. Maybe you might like it if a customer ever asked you to localise a website.

Cau dude,

to English job is already taken care of and glad you are getting lots of work. Perhaps Transit is good from a project manager's end, but I'd like to know more about Wordfast. You have the full paid version or something? I use it to analyse repetitions and prepare the repetitions file, which I then modify and pump into Transit. I am curious how well it works for large projects with many translators, and a central database and all that.

Dear Ieva Kupruka

actually, still negotiating with Panasonic on this and they may start end of January with some of the languages. A big company like this doesn't rush into things and they are looking to replace their existing vendor. Anyway, I am starting a big marketing push for other customers, so hopefully I'll be able to start giving you work soon enough. Hope you had nice holidays.

it just occurred to me concerning the translation, if your friend is just a little bitty bo who can't afford such a large translation, I could suggest to him/her where they can post an ad for free etc. and look for someone themselves. Obviously though they'd have to test the people with a small translation sample etc, which I can also help with. A big thing about translating is finding good translators, as I'd say 85% of people can't articulate. Let alone translate. It's a skill like anything else. I think they might be able to find someone as cheap as a 100Kc/page.

Dear Jochen

okay, here are the prepared files (I also uploaded it to the server), and a report of the word counts. I will prepare that in Excel for you later, so we can see the final computation. While translating, note that you can add terms to the dictionaries, if you feel they can become handy. You can then send me everything with instructions to import it. I can import what you have accomplished so far, and then autotranslate all the words you have put into the dictionary (only into the segments which you have left marked as Untranslated). I would then resend you all the files, like I have now, and it would be the same as when you sent it to me, except all remaining files will be partially translated with the dictionary words you added, saving you lots of typing. You can do this at the end of your day and I can have it prepared for you by the time you start the next day. Good luck, and I think you will be able to make more money on this. Let's see!