In the translation industry, we tend to undervalue the creative aspects of the translation process. We rather focus on objective quality standards and evaluation methods to obtain measurable results about the translation output. We prefer to link translation quality to quantifiable and assessable variables. Our different QA steps are designed to guarantee accuracy, completeness and […]

In our last entry about patents in Europe, we wondered when it would be possible to talk about a unique pan-European patent system. That has already become a reality! European Parliament gave its approval to member states so that they could use the enhanced cooperation procedure in order to establish a unique patent system within […]

“It scares the heck out of me that people are still thinking it is effective,” said Dr. Charles Lee, referring to a commonly used computer software program responsible for translating prescription labels. Studies conducted in 2010 reveal that such push button translation programs are only around 50 percent accurate. This means that if you cannot […]

1. Content Imperial English measurements such as length, temperature, etc. are often found in documentation for medical device translation. Most linguists need to convert these measurements to Metric to localize the translation. In a multiple language project, you may find slight variances of these conversions. Suggestion for source document: provide both Imperial and Metric measurements […]

Consider the following statements from different areas of our world: Health: More than one third of U.S. adults —more than 72 million— people and 17% of U.S. children are obese. From 1980 through 2008, obesity rates for adults have doubled and rates for children have tripled. Science: Nearly 3 million years ago, our ancestors had […]

Is there a difference between European and Brazilian Portuguese? Yes, there are a lot of differences, namely spelling (although this will probably be less obvious in the future with the recent Portuguese Language Orthographic Agreement), grammar (e.g. placement of pronouns, verbal forms, use of gerund vs. infinitive), and specific terminology (e.g. tela vs. ecrã, usuário […]

I was scrolling through my TV channel lineup this past weekend and I realized that there were about 1000 channels to choose from! I remember as a child when 20-30 channels were a lot back when cable television was in its infancy. Still, to my dismay, I couldn’t find a program in which I was […]

In Part 2 of this post we will continue covering some aspects related to PDF conversion and discussing the state-of-the-art in accomplishing the translation task. Click here if you’d like to view part one What’s the big deal with PDF conversion? Why not simply cut and paste, it’s easy to do and doesn’t cost anything. […]

The art of translation is essential to many industries that help save, sustain or enhance human life. The value of translating user manuals for medical equipment, for example, is clearly understood to aid health care, allowing medical professionals to monitor and improve the health of their patients worldwide. The value of translating software used by […]