Episode 15
15: Discussing the Power of Translation- with Trish Stuart
Meet Trish:
After teaching middle school for almost a decade, Trish found the translation and localization industry over a summer hiatus. Thinking it would be just a temporary job, now 22 years later, she is the US director for Terralingua Translations. Who translates content into over 100 different languages for manufacturers and exporters worldwide.
Kris: What is the most important thing that you think they should know when they're going for translation services?
Trish: Well, whenever you're interviewing there are many different ways to do it. So if you decide that you want to enter into a partnership with a translation provider, there are all these great acronyms out there. So you decide to go into a partnership with someone, the most important thing for you to know, and it's sort of like a dating question, right? I would liken it to if you'd be interviewing a photographer, you would say, Do I have ownership of the digital images, right? At that part of the asset, this is what is similar to something called translation memory. So whenever you enter into a partnership, or you invest in translation, my qualifying question would be for anyone would be, do I have ownership of the translation memory? Because if you don't have ownership of the translation memory, whenever you invest in professional translation, you won't be able to repurpose or is going back to digital photography, right? What do we do? So professional translation providers use a tool, it's a CAT tool or a computer-aided translation tool. Now, it is not machine translation. And that's something else important to know, whenever you're comparing apples to apples, you want to make sure, are these humans? Or is it machine translation cleaned up by a human? That's another question you can ask. But what it is, is it's a tool. And I liken it to like a little suitcase. So you say, Okay, I want to take this suitcase to Mexico, right? So they're going to take all of your English content, and one suitcase will open up another suitcase that's packed from Mexico. And they're going to make segments that match all of those. You know, they're called segments, but all of the content, they're going to say, Okay, we have this term here, we're going to match it with this term here. And then they unpack it and put it into a layout. If it's if it's needed. It may not be it may just be text. But what happens then is that these two little suitcases are there, and they're aligned. And you can take that Spanish suitcase, and you could repurpose it later on.
Lori: What if I've already engaged a language service provider? And I didn't know about this translation memory, what would you recommend?
Trish: If you left because of the quality, it's best to leave it behind and start new. So you can gain any of it from a previous provider, we can reuse and repurpose it, we can even check it for you anyone can check it and say, Well, you know, the quality doesn't seem to be so great. Or we can merge. So let's say you didn't know, we've already started one for you. And you say, oh, shoot, I didn't know that we have this already existing one, you can merge your translation memories. And your LSP or language service provider can resolve any conflicts for you and ask. And they can pull out the key terminology. And they can say, here's what we have. We have this in English, and this in French, what terms do you want us to keep? And which ones do you want us to throw out? So it's helpful no matter what stage you're at; if you're able to get it, it's useful information. If it was from a quality provider, you don't just want to leave it in the dustbin. But we can recreate a translation memory, in a sense, where we can align, let's say you have a translated manual, and you know, the matching English, we can create. But oftentimes the cost to do to align all the segments, may not be worth it. But you can always get the quote to see how much it would be if you think that I have many manuals like this one. So maybe if you could align things for me, I'd like to build a translation memory based on this. And sometimes people do that.
And so much more…
Connect with Trish
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Connect with Erin on LinkedIn and visit http://www.earthlinginteractive.com for web-based solutions to your complex business problems!
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Connect with Kris on LinkedIn and visit www.genalpha.com for OEM and aftermarket digital solutions!
Transcript
Hey Lori Highby Chris Harrington and Aaron Courtney, three broads, bringing you stories and strategies exploring manufacturing topics that
Kris:Hello, ladies,
Lori Highby:how are you?
Kris:How's everybody today?
Lori Highby:I'm enjoying the sitting down position. It wasn't a full day video shoot. And that was I always forget how exhausting that is. Because
Kris:Yeah, I heard you had a pretty exciting video shoots, you want to share a little
Lori Highby:snippet of what you did? Yeah. Started at 6am. We've got a client, that's a private air charter company. Oh, and so yeah, I was at the
Kris:fun. I love that. It seems like a great way to pull out a story. I think all of us are still trying to redefine ourselves through great
Erin:You know what today, it's been really good. Thanks for asking. It sounds though. It's funny, because everybody has a story of how busy
Kris:Yes, we have a guest today. Trish Stuart is with us. Let me tell you a little bit about Trish to get us kicked off. So after teaching middle
Kris:for manufacturers and exporters worldwide. How cool is that? Yeah. So Trisha and I met as members of a Yeah. So if you guys who are listening in
Unknown:Well, thank you for inviting me. I'm really excited to connect with your listeners and hopefully help them expand their opportunities in
Kris:Well, I definitely know you can do that. I've heard you speak so I had the first impression, you know just watching you speak to the rest of
Unknown:Oh, goodness, Chris. Well, you know, I've been in this business for a while but probably the most entertaining time I've had was with the
Lori Highby:how cool is that? I love that.
Unknown:So that had to be pretty pretty special. I don't think too many people know about it. Even though it's a very large audience and I still
Erin:So did you you were on the kit this this and then you just you just let it rip.
Unknown:Well, he was giving me a drum lesson in front of many
Kris:fractures, no
Unknown:pressure, no pressure at all to perform my drum if you want to see it, I'll show it to you before the end of the show.
Kris:We got to see that. Yeah.
Erin:We'd love to hear it as well. Wow. Well, we know you know what I love about these kinds of questions, they kind of they tell us a little bit
Erin:excited to learn more about how you go about doing that.
Unknown:Yeah. Wow, there is some magic that happens. Like you see behind the curtain as to what's going on in the fabulous world of Oz here. But we,
Unknown:google translate this, or maybe this salesperson or this distributor who knows how to speak it, let's just have them do it. And, you know, there are
Unknown:it affects your company's reputation, as Chris knows with the ATM, because we both spoke at the the safety and liability seminar, you know, people's
Unknown:you don't just want it to be based on cost. I mean, yes, cost is important. And hopefully with what I can share, you'll know how to leverage that as
Kris:Yeah, I thank you for the background. Because I think it's a great lead in to the to the first question, which is really for our audience,
Unknown:Well, whenever you're interviewing, and so like we talked about, there are many different ways to do it. So if you decide that you want to
Unknown:photographer, and if you'd be interviewing a photographer, and you would say, Do I have ownership of the digital images, right, that at that part of
Unknown:into professional translation, you won't be able to repurpose or is going back to the digital photography, right? So let's say okay, I, all I want is
Unknown:anymore. But if I go on my scanners, I'm thinking it's not going to be the same. Yeah, translation memory allows you what it is. And please, I can I
Unknown:translation. And that's something else important to know, whenever you're comparing apples to apples, you want to make sure, are these humans? Or is
Unknown:they're going to make segments that match all of those. You know, they're called segments, but all of the content, they're going to say, Okay, we
Unknown:there, that text you can compare to future manuals or future content that you might need to have translated. And if there are matches, you get
Erin:Oh, so there's cost savings, there's cost savings,
Unknown:there's consistency, so they don't have to reinvent the wheel every time they translate to say, how do we translate that before? What
Unknown:right? People get bought out by other people, the service isn't the same. If you have your control of your translation memory, you can go somewhere
Unknown:always requested at least once a year so that we have control. And I am so sorry, gals, I will just I will just
Lori Highby:fascinating. This is fascinating. Oh, this
Kris:is you just gave valuable content. Yeah. Everybody listening, because asking for that, you know, once a year or even knowing to ask for something
Kris:things on to a digital platform. How can you repurpose some of the those translations for the different markets that you're trying to do business
Erin:Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, I have to say what I found really interesting about what you were saying that definitely gets overlooked.
Erin:choices, the subtleties, the nuance that makes our message so powerful, is contained within the database already, is it so the team is infected
Unknown:That's a great question. So Oh, my goodness, I like I said, I could go into the
Kris:Go for it. Something that
Unknown:is, you also opened up another little aspect of things is that that database is also it's created by a human professional translator. But
Unknown:translation memory, how do I know that I have it, have what I need? And you don't have the software? You can open it? So how do you know? Number one,
Unknown:haven't established that at the start, they're not obligated return. But if they release it to you, and you get it and you say, well, that file size is
Unknown:well, I'm, you know, I feel like I didn't get the whole thing. But it's also important to know that every suitcase that you pack, so let's say you
Unknown:we're going to Europe, could you use what we have and modify it? That's a possibility, just depending on how large it is, you may just want to start
Erin:extension, let's hear that again. Dot would T m x and I'm sorry, I think we're not you know, that's okay. Dot T MX okay. Okay, so that's,
Unknown:Right? Well, there are many different programs there's todos there's there's many different programs out there that are professional
Erin:Excellent. I feel like this is golden knowledge.
Lori Highby:I'm so fascinated by this, right. Like, right brain is exploding.
Erin:Yeah, because I just think that so many of our listeners probably haven't maybe in like the backburner to be thinking about this stuff. And I
Lori Highby:Yes, so fast, and it
Unknown:is an I should quiet my reminders here. They're very large, loud. It's important also that, like you mentioned, Chris marketing may have a
Unknown:think that just having that, you know, I'm all about knowledge is power. And if you have the power to know to ask for that asset, and that it's
Lori Highby:So Trish, this is great information. And this is as of like, today and going forward. I know how to ask them this question. But what if
Unknown:That's, that's a great question. And, as I mentioned, before, you can ask for it. I've run into varied replies from customers as to Well, I
Unknown:and repurpose it, we can even check it for you anyone can check it and say, Well, you know, the quality doesn't seem to be so great. Or we can merge
Unknown:have. We have this in English, this in French, what terms do you want us to keep? And which ones do you want us to throw out. So it's, it's helpful no
Unknown:to do that to to align all the segments, it may not be worth it. But you can always get the quote to see how much it would be if you think that, oh,
Unknown:lot of their translated content. So they really want that person's brain, oh, that person's leaving, and we're losing all that knowledge, right. But
Unknown:you're also training technology, you know, it's learning what your preferences are. And so you're then building the future, if you're able to
Kris:this was very helpful. I think people will get a lot out of this information. So thank you. I'll use your words. It was powerful. So thanks
Lori Highby:Sure. So I was chatting about my really fun video shoot day yesterday and I wanted to share that experience online. So I did a quick
Lori Highby:Yes.
Kris:That's a lot of video.
Lori Highby:That's a lot of video. Yeah,
Erin:like, yeah, I don't know if I could do that. 100 minutes.
Lori Highby:That's a loving it's like, it's about an hour and a half. I mean, if you think about the chunks of time, you know, you watch a 32nd and
Kris:Yeah. Oh, wow. Okay, and what your job is, I can imagine. Yep. All right. I just learned that.
Erin:Oh, well, this is a total departure. I just learned that. So you know, the Beatles, the band from the 60s. Their famous hair cut the like,
Erin:all know what happened with that haircut. It was like the sensation. So I learned that from this book that I'm reading, and I'll recommend it to
Kris:Okay. Are you listening to it or reading? I'm always curious.
Erin:I'm reading it. But I think it would be really interesting to listen to I don't know if the audio version has been released yet. But it's okay.
Lori Highby:Chris, what about you?
Kris:All right. So we are a Jeep Wrangler family. Anybody have Jeep Wranglers?
Lori Highby:It's my next vehicle.
Kris:Oh, well, we keep talking about how our next vehicle we want an electric vehicle. So we've been saying this for a while now. But we keep
Kris:be the size of a Wrangler.
Erin:Yeah, they're locked the longer Jeep, right? They're like, yeah, the Jeep Yeah,
Kris:and it's gonna compete, like with the Bronco sport. So that's gonna be their fully Eevee one, and then they have what is the other one, it's a
Kris:Europe. So those two I mentioned are for North America, and they have a different one going to Europe next year. I think it's called the Jeep
Erin:oh, I don't know. Great news.
Kris:I don't know if EVs are interesting to everybody else. But I've been exploring them for many years or
Lori Highby:did it? They have a hybrid right now? Right? Jeep? They may? I think they do, because that's what I was looking at.
Kris:Okay, so probably
Erin:the hybrid, that's the plugin. So we're kind of waiting. I hope some kind of a truck comes along. That's a plug in hybrid. So that if you know
Kris:Yeah. I love when we're
Erin:optimistic about the future.
Kris:Yeah. Could you finish the sentence, I just learned that
Unknown:as of the taping of the show, I just learned that the Queen is no longer with us. So I was just thinking about we were talking before the
Unknown:and and the show goes on and just the strength and the just just admiration for
Erin:everyone. And it's mutual. This has been great. I love when our audience has the chance to take away a new skill. And thank you for sharing
Unknown:you for the opportunity. And in the show notes. If any of your listeners would like a free sample of translation, we're happy to do that
Kris:Yeah, where should they go for that Trish, if you just want if people wanted to reach out to you, where do you recommend they go?
Unknown:Well, they could go to our website at Terlingua translations.com. But I know that that's quite a mouthful. So you can find me on LinkedIn at
Kris:Awesome. So thank you. All right. Well, thank you so much. Thanks. That's it. I'll be joining you soon for another show. Thanks, Trish. Sounds
Unknown:Everyone, have a good day. Thank you. Bye bye
Unknown:This wraps up today's broadcast. If you're looking to shake up the status quo at your organization for just want to connect with the brides visit
