Dragoman Transcreation

Copy-editing on Nubuto demands basic knowledge on CAT tools. One of them is the meaning of letters and colors next to each segment. Letters show the status of segments, i.e. untranslated, matched, ICE or N. And colors refer to approved, non-approved and approved via repetitions. How to effectively use Nubuto for copy-editing purposes? Use segment filters to display a groups of segments, i.e.non-tr...

Proofreading is the reading of a galley proof or computer monitor to detect and correct production-errors of text or art. Proofreaders are expected to be consistently accurate by default because they occupy the last stage of typographic production before publication. Proofreading of a copy or a translated texts is a kind of light copy-editing combined with facts checking. Many people assume that p...

Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique where a voice—that is not part of the narrative—is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentations. The voice-over may be spoken by someone who appears elsewhere in the production or by a specialist voice actor. It is pre-recorded and placed over the top of a film or video an...

This long post is a good opportunity for our new colleagues to understand what type of changes are needed for Turkish to English translations. Below example is a good translation. I’ve seen worse ones. Yet still, there is a room for improvement.  Important changes are highlighted in red color.    ID Source Target 2 WORLD’ÜN TARİHÇESİ : after translation:   HISTORY OF WORLD CARD: after correction:...

These trials mark the end of World War II and birthplace of simultaneous interpreting.  The Bavarian city of Nuremberg was chosen as the location for the trial of leading Nazi criminals after the end of World War II. The Nuremberg (Nürnberg in German) trials required instant communication in four languages: English, French and Russian – languages of the victors, and German. This communication was...

If you are referring to talent and aptitude, best interpreters are born. We all need to encourage young talents to enroll interpreting courses in the university and educate them well to secure the future of our industry. It takes years to train a qualified interpreter. Unless best students do not choose translation & interpreting over law, medicine, arts or engineering, we cannot meet the talent g...

Turkish subtitling community was caught off-guard when Netflix launched its video-on-demand services.  Local video market was already vibrant and soaring, yet Netflix and to a certain extent HBO were the last two bags of straw on the camel’s back. Now, Turkish is spoken by 100 million people. 80 million people live in Turkey and broadband internet penetration rate is close to 95%. Turkish TV shows...

Dragoman translators know that using “-tion of” endings will only result in clunky sentences. It also violates EU Guidelines on Clear Writing. The acquisition of a new language will help you improve your job prospects. Better: Acquiring a new language will help you improve your job prospects. You can further explore how you can avoid nominalizations and cast more active sentences here. Nominalizat...

British English (or BrEn, BrE, BE, en-UK or en-GB) is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, etc. from forms used elsewhere. The Oxford English Dictionary applies the term to English “as spoken or written in the British Isles; especially the forms of English usual in Great Britain”, reserving “Hiberno-English” for the “En...

If you are building a bullet list in English, you also need to build a parallel construction in your bullet list. Now the source text may not always have it. This means you are expect to be a little creative to change the sentence structure. You do not have to delete or omit any part of the message. Check out this example: Incorrect: Our state-of-the-art hotel offers: Unparalleled location Matchle...

American English and British English may have quite odd differences. Learning diferences is spelling and punctuation is hard work and requires a lof of reading and practise. One of these differences is about using punctuation with quotation marks. Here is a comparison. Dragoman translators know that in American English, punctuation goes inside the quotation marks, regardless of whether it is part...

Turkish source texts often end with “vardır, sahiptir, olmaktadır, bulunmaktadır, bulunur” etc. Some translators tend to start their translations with “There is…” which is usually unnecessary. We expect Dragoman translators to not to use “there” as a subject in order to avoid verbosity. The word “there” in the beginning of a sentence, almost always makes our sentences sloppy and wordy. Wordy:    ...

When translating into English, we want Dragoman translators to check which English spelling style will be used in the translation. Your NUBUTO inbox shows UK or US English, so please pay attention to the target variety of English. English has many varieties, the most common being British English and American English. Although prefers American English in most of its Turkish to English translations,...

Auditors are tasked to identify non-conformances and share their findings and observations in a clear and understandble report. Writing an impactful report is a challenge. Translating a poorly written report into English is sometimes a bigger challenge. Converting passive sentence forms to active sentences is an important skill for Turkish to English translators. This skill plays a critical role w...

Passive voice is a grammatical voice common in many of the world’s languages. In a clause with passive voice, the grammatical subject expresses the theme or patient of the main verb – that is, the person or thing that undergoes the action or has its state changed. This contrasts with active voice, in which the subject has the agent role. For example, in the passive sentence “The tree was pulled do...

Turkish lira is losing value agaist major currencies including US dollar and Euro. Which is the correct verb to use when translating into English: Devaluation (because the currency is losing value) or Depreciation? The correct answer is ‘depreciation’. Devaluation happens in fixed currency regimes when a government voluntarily reduces the value of its currency. It is their decision. Depreciation h...

Transcreation is a hot topic and there are different translations of it. Some assume it is only for creative content, while some use this term as a synonym to localization. Others claim that translation is more verbatim, literal and closer to the source text as oppose to transcreation focuses more on the message, meaning and the audience. Old schools argue that all of the above are 50 shades of tr...

Interpreter is a person who interprets a speech from one language into another. An interpreter is not a translator unlike what many people thinks. Translators translate written documents, interpreters interpret speeches. Common interpreting modes are as follows: Consecutive interpreting: Consecutive interpreter listens to the speaker, takes notes and delivers interpretation when the speaker pauses...

Cross-cultural communication (also frequently referred to as intercultural communication, which is also used in a different sense, though) is a field of study that looks at how people from differing cultural backgrounds communicate, in similar and different ways among themselves, and how they endeavour to communicate across cultures. Translators and interpreters play a vital role in bridging cross...

Documentation is a term with many meanings, the most common of which are: A set of documents provided on paper, or online, or on digital or analog media, such as audio tape or CDs. The process of documenting knowledge, as in scientific articles. The process of providing evidence. The writing of product documentation, such as software documentation. A synonym for the term document. A synonym for th...

Internet users have been in the cloud for a very long time; Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, Google, Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram are all cloud based services. Cloud is easy, instant and collaborative, and if professionals measures are taken it is very secure. We use and resell NUBUTO secure cloud technologies for corporate localization needs. Among others, here are the key reasons for using secur...

Representing the interests of translation companies for more than 40 years As the language sector’s leading professional body, ATC prides itself on a forward-thinking stance dedicated to maintaining the highest possible industry standards while supporting its members to thrive and grow in the competitive global economy. From its beginnings as a small group of leading British translation companies...

It is always a pleasure to join ATC Conferences and 2016’s event was no exception. Geoffrey, Jesper, Levent and the entire council did a marvellous job. This article was originally published on Linkedin two years ago and I wanted to add it to our blog page to give extra publicity to the ATC. QEII Conference Center was a very good choice; easy to commute, modern, fresh and comfortable; all perfect...

There is no golden standard for learning objectives of an interpreting class, because it depends on the level of your students, their previous courses, class size, available equipment and last but not the least trainer’s (your) professional background not only as an interpreter but also as a trainer. Being a great interpreter does not mean that you can teach well. And I am here to help. As usual,...

Active voice is a grammatical voice common in many of the world’s languages. It is the unmarked voice for clauses featuring a transitive verb in nominative–accusative languages, including English and most other Indo-European languages. Active voice is used in a clause whose subject expresses the agent of the main verb. That is, the subject does the action designated by the verb. A sentence whose a...