HT Localization Presents Language Translations for Real Life: In the Name of Quality

Segment 43 – In the Name of Quality

Quality is a very intriguing concept. Everyone has a perception or understanding of what quality is or should be.

A quick Google search for quality brings up these descriptions...

From Wikipedia: Quality in business, engineering and manufacturing has a pragmatic interpretation as the non-inferiority or superiority of something; it is also defined as fitness for purpose. Quality is a perceptual, conditional, and somewhat subjective attribute and may be understood differently by different people.

From Merriam-Webster Dictionary: How good or bad something is; a characteristic or feature that someone or something has; a high level of value or excellence.

From Oxford English Dictionary: The standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind; the degree of excellence of something; General excellence of standard or level.

When we speak with translation buyers in search of localization services, 3 key attributes often surface as critical: Quality, Service, and Pricing 

• “We are looking for a good value”
• “We want high quality”
• “We want responsiveness and fast turn-around”
• “We need a reliable partner who we can trust”

Value pricing is where quality and service come in, and often where we can move the needle for many clients.  I would like to share 3 quality pitfalls that translation buyers are often tempted with when the discussion moves towards quality.

Three Quality Pitfalls to Avoid:

1.  "Having various translators at our disposal will result in better quality for our projects."

On the surface that may seem right, vendor managers and purchasing departments like to have a pool of suppliers to select from.  If widget X is also available from supplier A and B, then I can purchase either of them.  This doesn’t apply to people. Translators are people. People are not interchangeable. Over time a translator will learn your style and voice, providing consistency to your projects.  By constantly jumping to different translators, you will not only have inconsistency, but you won’t allow the relationship to gel. A dedicated translation team who becomes highly familiar with your content and style will result in better quality, in the long run.

2. "To keep quality in check, use one provider to translate and a second provider to review."

Having two translation suppliers on board is common to help with work load and balance; however making one lead translator and the other reviewer is a set-up bound for conflict and contention. The reviewing agency is asked to find errors, will be compelled to prove their value, and may even highlight items that are preferential rather than linguistic.  The reward is that maybe if there are enough items or “issues” highlighted, the lead translation role (which is more lucrative) may be awarded.  In the end, the client ends up mediating between the two, and many "issues" actually boil down to differences in “expert” opinions, and the client has to ultimately decide. The entire process becomes negative instead of collaborative in nature - quality is no longer the primary focus.

3. "Use 'back translations' to help assess quality."

Again, having two suppliers on board to essentially work on the same project in the name of “quality control” is the idea behind “back translating”.  Have you ever played the telephone game? You set a line of people together, give them a message to repeat down the line, and then listen to the message at the end of the line. It’s never the same message!  Conducting back translation is just like the telephone game but with more than one language.  The source is given to one translation agency; then the output (in the target language) is given to another agency to translate back into the original source language.  Then the two docs are compared by the client to see where the “errors” are.    Just like in the telephone game, you can’t figure out where the error was introduced!  Was the error introduced in the first translation, or the back translation? Not exactly the best way to ensure quality.

How can we ensure quality?

So that is the million dollar question.  Our response: Move upstream and focus on quality improvement – get it right from the start.  Nothing is perfect when humans are involved, because people are not perfect. People will provide consistent quality work giving the right expertise, experience, and resources.

Style Guide and glossaries are the key to quality consistency across projects.  How one adapts an idea can be very subjective and might vary from person to person.  Take the example: “That’s a smart outfit you are wearing.”  What does it mean?  If a translator were to translate the world “smart”, and translate it using synonyms, you might  get “That’s an intelligent outfit”, or “That’s a brilliant outfit” or “That’s a sharp outfit”… each phrase means something slightly different. 

Of course, there are quantitative standards to measure quality; quality control metrics are designed to handle issues after the fact - a “find the issues” discussion rather than a “quality improvement” conversation.  Like I said earlier, we want to focus the discussion on delivering a quality job the first time, and each time.

At the end of the day, quality can be measured by the results that it enables – broader brand awareness, more customers, more sales,  client referrals, etc.

So watch out for these pitfalls! And don’t be tempted to engage in a reactive quality control debate, but rather a proactive quality improvement strategy.  

… Stay tuned for the next Segment of HT Localization Presents Language Translations for Real Life Series, where we’ll continue … with more stuff.

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This article was written by Rachanee Thevenet, Co-Founder of HT Localization.  Rachanee is an Asian-American expat living in Spain with her family.  She loves all things international including food, art, literature, culture, languages and people.  She has years of professional product marketing expertise and global expansion experience.

HT Localization, LLC. is a worldwide translation & localization agency providing a full range of professional language translation services, including social media localization, marketing translations, website translations, software localization, eLearning materials, documentation translations, etc.  With locations in the US, Spain, France, Zambia & Thailand, and coverage across all languages and most industries, HT Localization is well positioned to provide around the globe services for all translation needs.  

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