Translation issues
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In yesterday's meeting, Kathi was asking about how long the site translations would take, so after the meeting I did a little Googling and found the following page, which also bring up some other issues to keep in mind when looking for translators:
- An FAQ by McNeil International
- How many words per day? by translator Anita Karlson Henssler
- FAQs by Language Intelligence
Some key points from these pages:
- Translators seem to average 1,500-6,000 words a day, with 2,000 or maybe 3000 being the apparent average.
- "Adding additional translators to the project can significantly decrease turn-around time, but will present increased challenges in consistency of terminology and style."
- Translations are generally charged per word, but that charge can increase based on certain factors (see next item) if those factors increase the amount of time required by the translator.
- Factors that can affect time include: how technical the text is, whether it includes graphics that need translation, what file format it's in (software format, hard copy or not), whether memory and other CAT (computer-assisted translation) tools can be used, and individual characteristics of the translator (their experience/expertise, their typing speed, their willingness to work overtime or weekends, etc.).
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e.g.: "Consider the following two translations: Translation 1 is a PowerPoint presentation consisting of 1200 words and the text is an environmental report. Translation 2 is a software manual of 3000 words written in Word."
"I would use about six hours for the first job and about seven hours for the second job.... [In the first translation] I am not very familiar with the topic environment. I would have to spend relatively much time researching the terminology and looking up words. In addition, I am not very familiar with PowerPoint either.... A software manual, on the other hand, is right up my street. This is a subject [for which] I am quite familiar with the terminology used. In addition Word would not cause me any problems."
I was also curious to know whether available CAT tools would be able to be used on PO files, and found this Wikipedia article on CAT tools, which lists a few programs that do seem to support it (Okapi Framework, OmegaT(+), Heartsome Translation Suite, and Open Language Tools, and poEdit), though only one of these appears on ProZ's list of their (apparently) top 5 most popular CAT tools.
