What is a translation memory about?

What is a translation memory?

A translation memory is a linguistic database that continually captures your translations as you work for future use.

All previous translations are accumulated within the translation memory (in source and target language pairs called translation units) and reused so that you never have to translate the same sentence twice. The more you build up your translation memory, the faster you can translate subsequent translations, enabling you to take on more projects and increase your revenue.

How does  a translation memory work?

A translation memory tool stores segments of text as translation units (in source and target pairs). A segment can consist of a sentence or paragraph. Translation memories should be used by anyone who localizes content from one language into another. They are most effective when translating documents with a high level of repetition.

What is the difference between a translation memory and a machine translation?

Machine translation automatically translates a document without any human input. These kinds of tools are fast, but result in a poor quality translation as a machine cannot understand the subtleties or contexts of language. As a result, quality and accuracy tend to be around 50% - 70%. In addition, machine translation can only be used for a limited number of supported languages.

Translation memories are typically used in conjunction with a dedicated computer aided translation (CAT) tool, word processing program, terminology management systems, multilingual dictionary, or even raw machine translation output.

In this case it is of importance to mention the vital role of the CAT tools such as: Déjà Vu,  Global Sight, SDL Trados, Omega T, or Wordfast.

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Associations for Translators and Interpreters

Here you will find a list of the most common Associations for Translators and Interpreters in English-speaking countries.

United Kingdom:

APCI - Association of Police & Court Interpreters

CIOL - Chartered Institute of Linguists

CROESO - The Association of Welsh Translators and Interpreters

ITI - Institute of Translation & Interpreting

Ireland:

The Irish Translators' and Interpretres' Association

NRPSI Ltd - National Register of Public Service Interpreters

NUPIT - National Union of Professional Interpreters and Translators

 SUBTLE - The Subtitlers' Association

The Society of Authors - Translation Association

United States:

AAIT - Atlanta Association of Interpreters and Translators

AATIA - Austin Area Translators and Interpreters Association

ALTA - American Literary Translators Association

AMTA - Association for Machine Translation in the Americas

ASL - American Sign Language Interpreter Network

ATA - American Translators Association

ATA ID - Interpreters Division of the American Translators Association

ATISA - American Translation Studies Association

CAPI - Colorado Association of Professional Interpreters

CAT - Center for Art in Translation

CATI - Carolina Association of Translators & Interpreters

CCIA - The California Court Interpreters Association

CCIO - Community and Court Interpreters of the Ohio Valley

CHIA - California Healthcare Interpreting Association

CTA - Colorado Translators Association

EPITA - El Paso Interpreters and Translators Association

FLATA - Florida Chapter of ATA

HITA - Hawaii Interpreters & Translators' Association

NAJIT - The National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators

NAJIT - The National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators

NYCT - New York Circle of Translators

WITS - Washington State Court Interpreters and Translators Society

Australia:

AALITRA - Australian Association for Literary Translation

AUSIT - Australian Institute of Interpreters and Translators

NAATI - National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters

South Africa: SATI - South African Translators' Institutee

New Zealand:

NZSTI - New Zealand Society of Translators and Interpreters

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Why am I so confused with the Translation Terminology?

The translation industry is really huge and involves quite a lot of fields, it leads to many technical and confusing terms. The most common are:

Copy writing or transcreation:  While transcreators strive to actually copy write into a target language, the primary responsibility of a translator is to accurately translate the source content into a target language. Transcreation refers to the process of adapting a message from one language to another, while maintaining its intent, style, tone and context. A successfully transcreated message evokes the same emotions and carries the same implications in the target language as it does in the source language. Increasingly, transcreation is used in global marketing and advertising campaigns as advertisers seek to transcend the boundaries of culture and language. It also takes account of images which are used within a creative message, ensuring that they are suitable for the target local market.

Localization : Localization involves taking a product and making it linguistically and culturally appropriate to the target locale (country/region and language) where it will be used and sold." Localization must take the locale into consideration, for instant Castilian language (Spain) vs. Latin American Spanish. So Language localization differs from translation activity because it involves a comprehensive study of the target culture in order to correctly adapt the product to local needs. The localization process is most generally related to the cultural adaptation and translation of software,videogames and websites and less frequently to any written translation (which may also involve cultural adaptation processes)

Internationalization: Internationalization is a process which generalizes a software product (or website) so that redesign will not be necessary to enable it to handle multiple languages and cultural conventions. Internationalization takes place at the beginning of the program design and documentation development process. Separation of text from software source code is a critical aspect of internationalization. Moving translatable text, (the text that is visible to the user), into separate resource files prevents translators from changing or breaking the program code.

Globalization: The Localization Industry Standards Association (LISA) defines globalization as: "Globalization addresses the business issues associated with taking a product global. In the globalization of high-tech products this involves integrating localization throughout a company, after proper internationalization and product design, as well as marketing, sales and support in the world market." Globalization involves both internationalization and localization. The concept of globalization is frequently used in a sales or marketing concept, defining when a company moves beyond home/domestic markets and globalizes websites for ecommerce to pursue consumers and sales in targeted locales.

Website Translation: Website translation is also known as "Website Globalization". In order to truly "translate" a website into other languages you may need both Internationalization and Localization services.

Translation Memory: Translation memory (TM) technology allows translation teams to store and reuse both source and target language content for any translation project. Translators usually use translation memory tools in order to create and maintain multilingual glossaries and translation memories for clients.

Machine Translation: Machine translation (MT) is software that produces very raw, draft translations automatically. Machine translation software requires extensive upfront glossary development, strict adherence to controlled source language authoring and qualified translators to post-edit the raw translations that are produced in order to achieve acceptable quality.

Human Translation: is the translation process carried out by a human translator vs. a machine translator.

Translators vs. Interpreters

 For a  start,  I would like to make clear some differences between Interpreters and Translators. Both deal with explicit information and implicit concepts from one language into another. They must speak, read and write fluently in at least two languages. 

But apart from relaying language, interpreters and translators must convey the tone and style of the original. They aim for the target audience to have the same experience that the source language audience had. They must be articulate and be able to render complicated, vague concepts into a clear, concise wording for their clients.Although interpreters and translators have many things in common, their jobs are in fact very different. Translators deal with written words and interpreters deal with spoken words.

TranslatorsTranslators convert a written document from a foreign language into their mother tongue.The aim of a translator is for the audience to think his or her translation is an original piece of work. Therefore, a translator must be, above all, a very good writer in his or her own language.Translators have to deal with tone, register, cultural references, style, as well as many other aspects when they are translating a document. Some words or phrases may not have equivalents and some others have specific meanings that are difficult, if not impossible, to render into the target language. In addition, translators are increasingly being asked to translate highly specialized scientific or technical texts that require either a previous expertise in the subject field or a significant amount of research. A translator’s goal is to attain the perfect balance of a translation that is accurate and faithful to the original but sounds completely natural in the target language.Translators mostly work on the computer. They receive the document via email and will often reply with a quote. Once given the go ahead, the translator will start the assignment. Translators can often complete 1,000- 2,000 words a day depending on the language combination, difficulty of the text, and other factors. Some translators use CAT tools/translation memory software. This allows them to compile their own glossaries. All translators research technical and specialist terms to ensure quality and accuracy. Once they have completed their translation they will proceed  with the proofreading of  their own work. This ensures quality and accuracy in the final translation.
InterpreterInterpreters convert spoken information into another language.There are two main modes of interpreting: consecutive and simultaneous.In consecutive interpreting, the interpreter waits for the speaker to finish his/her section of speech and then conveys what has been said into the target language. Interpreters often take notes to help them remember everything that was said.
In simultaneous interpreting, the interpreter usually works in a soundproof booth and  he speaks while simultaneously listening to the speaker. To do this the interpreter  often  works with the aid of special interpreting equipment, headphones and microphones. The simultaneous interpreter has to show a lot of endurance and high levels of concentration and understanding. The tasks  involves listening to the entire idea and then reformulate it accordingly in the target language doing three things at the same time: the interpreter is listening, remembering what the speaker said just a few moments earlier and also speaking at the same time. And every single tasks must be natural and fluent!!!

Apart from these two main modes of interpreting there are also some other types of interpreting such as:

·         Whispering interpreting, also called chuchotage, where the interpreter  whispers the information to     their client, court interpreting.

·       Telephone interpreting is carried out over the phone and connects different clients at the same time via telephone. The telephone interpreter converts the spoken language from one language to another, enabling listeners and speakers to understand each other. Interpretation over the telephone most often takes place in consecutive mode, which means that the interpreter waits until the speaker finishes an utterance before rendering the interpretation into the other language.

·      Court interpreting involves interpreting during legal proceedings, whether these take place in a court room, tribunal or conference hall