The Internet has rapidly turned the vast international business arena into a local playing field. With multiple company sites in different geographical locations and staff working onsite and overseas, the need for professional translation services has increased tremendously. It’s no wonder that companies seek the services of a professional business partner that offers translation into multiple languages. These companies specialize in bridging the language and cultural barriers. But with increasing ...
[read more]
From an 08/04 report by the Interpreting Services program of the Ohio Supreme Court:
Cases requiring language interpreters increased by as much as 200% over the preceding four years.
Top five interpreting languages used in Ohio courts: Spanish (81%), American Sign Language (7%), Somali (3%), Russian (2.7%), Arabic (1.1%). All other languages combined represent only 5.2% of the total.
Ohio court records show about 60 languages were interpreted over the last year, versus ...
[read more]
First of all, generous amounts of professionalism, enthusiasm, ruthless attention to detail, and promptness are required. But you knew that!
However, we want you to know a little more about our method for producing top quality translations of your documents, especially because from time to time you will hear us mention the production roles and project phases that form part of our process.
1. In conjunction with your Account Executive, a Project ...
[read more]
ASIST is often called upon to translate PowerPoint presentations.
Here are some tips that make the process easier.
1. As much as possible, always create titles (and other text in the “sub-levels”) in the Outline—rather than creating and editing text in the slides themselves.
2. Foreign language text is typically longer than the English original! If you're already pushing the size limits of a slide with English text, consider breaking it up ...
[read more]
Spanish is the first language of at least 364 million people (including 28 million in the USA, according to the 2000 census) and spoken as a second language by another 60 million or so.
Spanish (español) is also called Castilian (castellano)—particularly within Spain itself, where several other major languages are also spoken, including Catalán, Basque and Galician.
In the western hemisphere, many people colloquially refer to “good” Spanish (i.e., without ...
[read more]
As part of our language services in any media you require, ASIST provides audio recording services for the spoken word. In addition to translating your script and casting voice talent for your project, our professional-quality digital audio recording facilities provide the perfect solution for creating audio content in any language.
Recording sessions are supervised by our language professionals, to ensure natural-sounding delivery and authentic phrasing. We understand the requirements of ...
[read more]
Language is our profession. As in any other technical field, some terms assume specific meanings within this context. Here are some key concepts you will encounter when communicating across multiple languages and cultures:
INTERPRETER: a professional who transforms VERBAL communication from one language to another. Interpretation can either be “simultaneous” (in real-time, as it is spoken) or “consecutive” (after each sentence or group of ideas, the speaker pauses while an interpreter ...
[read more]
Previous editions of our newsletter have provided tips for the translation process, to facilitate your experience when creating alternate-language versions of your videos, PowerPoint, web, print and interactive communications. Here are a few more things to keep in mind!
In many (but not all) languages, the usage of points and commas to separate decimals and thousands within numbers is reversed compared to US English. That is, instead of 1,000.01, they write ...
[read more]
First, let’s get our terminology straight—it’s confusing for many people!
Dubbing: Substitution of existing dialog or narration by a new recording in another language. If the audio track for dialog isn’t available separately from the music or sound effects, we can either retain the original soundtrack at a lower volume, or reconstruct the music back-ground (which requires additional time).
Voice-Over (“VO”): Narration by an unseen speaker. This is simpler to replace than ...
[read more]
We can handle almost anything you throw at us—but consulting this list may help you avoid the most common pitfalls.
1. Identify the target audience for your translation, so that appropriate language dialect and weights & measures are used.
2. Translations are longer than the original by as much as 30%. Remember to provide sufficient “white space” for the extra room needed for the translation.
3. To facilitate a smoother translation, try to ...
[read more]