Technology-based Translations: Offset Costs and High-Volume Worries
While a professional human translation unequivocally delivers the best results, we know it may not always be a viable option due to a project’s size, short deadline or limited budget. Certain documents – such as internal corporate communications or less critical documents requiring a general understanding rather than a precise usage – can be a good fit for technology-based solutions, including linguist-guided machine translation. For these situations, LATN works with clients to deliver a technology-based solution (e.g., use of machine translation software) combined with hands-on translation by a linguist.
This is how it works: Our translation team first reviews your project to determine which of our software programs best meets your need. This involves upfront discussions with you to fully identify goals and establish project parameters. We then select a qualified linguist to preview the content and adjust the program to identify and translate recurring context-specific terminology, unusual syntax or content-based exceptions to rules. Once the translation is done, our linguist then performs careful post-editing to optimize your content’s accuracy and readability by the target audience.
Advantages of Technology-based Solutions
- Reduces project costs
- Cuts human involvement
- Completes projects in half the time
LATN’s Use of Translation Memory
Due to our long history with many clients, LATN has built databases of terminology and syntax from our translations. This is known as translation memory – and one way we serve repeat clients. “Segments” of previous translations, such as sentences, paragraphs or listed items, for a client are stored and then re-applied as needed in subsequent translations. This is of huge benefit to longstanding clients because it reduces their costs over time and ensures a consistent result. We create client- and language-specific translation memories for each ongoing client relationship we build.
Notably, even when translation memory is used, LATN projects are always subjected to a final review and editing by a human translator to achieve an optimal translation.
Advantages of Translation Memory
- Reduces project costs over time
- Ensures term consistency and accuracy across documents
- Boosts translation efficiency for quicker delivery