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Language technologies continue to advance as the translation industry becomes increasingly popular and more organizations look towards translating their documents. While there are many different language technologies, there are a few common ones used by Language Service Providers (LSPs), and a few that are commonly used for other commercial purposes.  Machine translation (MT) is a translation technology that doesn’t involve the use of human translators. All translation work done is completed by machines. This can be grouped into four main categories:  While MT has come a long way, it isn’t ideal for translating legal documents, or documents that you’re using to reach a particular target audience. Frequently, these language technologies will produce translated documents with errors that are easily spotted by your target audience. This can not only create a poor social image of your organization but can also decrease your target audience’s likelihood of engaging with your product or service.  MT can be used by LSPs but is primarily only used to check the accuracy of a translated document in the quality analysis stages. At Avantpage, our QA is done by human linguists to ensure that your document will appropriately reach your target audience with no language errors.  A CAT tool is a “Computer Aided Translation” tool. These tools are designed to help the translation process run more efficiently. A CAT tool essentially functions to create a Translation Memory (TM) for your organization.  A TM is a database of past translations, which are used to increase translation efficiency. When your translation project is completed, the language from the source document is stored with its translation in this database. Over time, your database grows, and any new translation projects you start are run against the database to find matches.  Using a CAT tool to create a TM allows for increased efficiency in translating your documents, as well as increased consistency across your translated documents. If you have words, phrases, or sentences that are repeated across your documents - they’ll always be translated in the same manner. The consistency of your translated documents can also be increased through the use of linguistic assets like style guides and glossaries. These inform your translators of how certain words and phrases should be translated before they begin working on your documents.  At Avantpage, we use a CAT tool to increase the efficiency of your translations and help keep your projects in-budget. If you’d like to get started on your next translation project, or want more information on how language technologies benefit your translation projects, call us at 530-750-2040, or request a free quote today.

The United Nations declared 2019 as the International Year of Indigenous Languages. In this declaration, the UN is hoping to raise awareness of endangered Indigenous Languages, the consequences of these languages disappearing, and the links between language, peace, and development.  Indigenous languages are languages native to a region and spoken by Indigenous people who have been settled in the area for many generations. Many Indigenous Languages are at risk of disappearing because, as generations go by, speakers begin to lose proficiency in their traditional/native languages. That’s why, now as much as ever before, it’s important to continue to share the stories of those who keep Indigenous Languages alive - like our bookkeeper Christopher Rosales. Christopher is a full-blooded Navajo Native American. Growing up, he was taught the Navajo language and has put in considerable effort to keep his language skills. “Storytelling is its own subsection of Native American studies...less is written down and more is shared orally. Language is really big for Native Americans because of this.”  Christopher grew up in Northern Arizona on the Navajo Reservation and moved to California to pursue a college degree. When he first made the move, finding a new community was a significant challenge for him. “It took 6 years to find another full-blooded Native American, which conflicted with my need for community. You can go to Pow Wows here and there, but even then it’s 1-2 days out of the month where you’re surrounded by your people. It’s hard to find a permanent community unless you’re on the Reservation. I didn’t fit into other cultural circles.”  Christopher made a concerted effort to maintain his cultural identity otherwise. He was driven to make the presence of Native American known, and advocate for those who didn’t have the opportunities he did. “I sponsored a Sac State student who was also Native American. A big part of being able to help them was understanding where they came from. We’d have a lot of conversations about what’s different here, and how I succeeded in being thrown into this mix. A big part of [my cultural advocacy] is wanting to help others later.”  Christopher’s advocacy has taken shape as speaking engagements, sponsorship, and language practice. “You can’t hold a class on how to speak. I use [language] as a key point in resisting the urge to let [my] culture die. We’ve been programmed and predisposed to throw away the culture, and any retainment of that culture is done out of resistance.” Christopher practices the Navajo language daily, even just with himself - translating daily conversations and words into his native language in his head. “Retain as much of your language as you can, but don’t feel pressure to remember anything. Big or small, take whatever steps you can to anchor your culture. Learn the language, go to Pow Wows, stuff like that...Retain as much as you can, and at least attempt to give back to the community that needs help.”

Since 2014, the organization I Am An Immigrant has encouraged the celebration of immigrants and culture sharing through the celebration of Immigrant Heritage Month. Every June, Immigrant Heritage Month reminds us to celebrate immigrants and their contributions to America and American culture. Immigrant Heritage Month encourages all Americans to celebrate the contributions immigrants make to our society. It creates new avenues for individuals, communities, organizations, and leaders to support the immigrants around them. In this month, we come together to celebrate immigrants for who they are and work to increase our ability to support them. At Avantpage, our mission is simple: to empower immigrants to achieve their American dream through trusted language translation. We work tirelessly to provide opportunity to all people by ensuring they can understand the new world they’ve entered into. This mission is deeply seated in our organization for many reasons. At our core, we are an immigrant-founded language service provider. Luis Miguel, our CEO, came to the United States as a teen in 1973 for a summer camp and set his mind to emigrate and chase his own American dream. When he started as a college freshman in January 1978, he was faced with the very real need for language support and access to connect with the people around him. Many of our employees have seen first-hand how language services and support can improve the lives of immigrants because many of our employees are immigrants. Regardless of where they’ve come from, what country they’ve chosen to move to, the common thread among their stories is decreased access or accessibility in language. Language is one of the many ways we connect with other people; in fact, it’s likely the most common way we connect with others. Immigrants who have imperfect control of the language in their new country can face discrimination, isolation, and other adaptation challenges. At the same time, immigrants have done incredible things to support the countries they are now a part of. We celebrate the immigrants that work with us to create greater language access, the immigrants that had to fight to escape persecution and bring their culture to their new home, and every immigrant in between. To celebrate immigrants is to celebrate the contributions they make, both tangible and intangible, to their new country. Without immigrants in the United States, our melting pot culture would not exist, nor would some of the most incredible achievements we’ve seen in our history. If you support immigrants, and you value creating opportunity for all in the way that we do as an organization, action is necessary. No action is too small, especially in our current political climate, to show your direct support to the immigrants that mean so much to our nation. Reach out to your elected officials and tell them how important it is that the United States remain an open and welcoming place to all. Thank those officials in your local area that are supporting and standing up for immigrants. Offer monetary donations to organizations that are directly taking action to ensure immigrants are safe and cared for before, during, and after they cross our border. If nothing else, start talking. Host a supper club in your community where all are welcome. Write about the positive impact immigration has had on your community; change the narrative. Living under a “zero-tolerance” policy should mean zero-tolerance for hate, discrimination, and prejudice - not zero-tolerance for the immigrants who need our support. Join us this month, and every month, in celebrating the immigrants around us. Do what you can, no matter how small it seems, to support the United States as a land of the free, where anyone can chase their American dream.

As our population continues to diversify, it becomes even more important to ensure that all people in the United States have equal access to participating in the democratic process. The next election continues to draw near, and planning your translation projects to create multilingual ballots should be top-of-mind. Offering these ballots provides your Limited English Proficient (LEP) constituents with many benefits including, but not limited to, access to the democratic process. To maintain your regulatory compliance, it is necessary that you provide minority language ballots in addition to English language ballots. The language from the Voting Rights Act states that: “all election information that is available in English must also be available in the minority language so that all citizens will have an effective opportunity to register, learn the details of the elections, and cast a free and effective ballot.” The Voting Rights Act is in place to ensure that all LEP constituents in your area can effectively partake in the democratic process. While it only requires translation of your documents into specific threshold languages, many counties choose to expand the number of languages they translate their elections documents into. If you have growing language communities in your county, you may want to translate your documents into those languages as well to increase voting accessibility and voter turnout. Beyond the regulations put in place by the Voting Rights Act, there are many other benefits to multilingual ballots and other translated elections documents. If you’ve been looking for a way to increase voter turnout among your LEP populations, translating the signage at your polling center, voter information guides, and other polling information can support that goal. Additionally, employing bilingual workers at your polling place can help your LEP constituents to feel more comfortable asking questions and participating in the democratic process. Language in an of itself is a tie to community and culture. Translating your elections documents allows LEP constituents in your area to feel more connected to the government that serves them, increasing participation rates in the election. Above all else, translating your election materials creates opportunity. The hallmark of a democratic process is that it allows all to participate in an open and free election, regardless of their conditions and as long as they are above the legal voting age. Providing multilingual ballots and other translated election materials supports this opportunity and can create a feeling of acceptance in your district and across the country. We can help you get started on your next election translation project. Give us a call at 530-750-2040, or request a free quote today.

There are many different resources you need to keep track of when it comes to your translation projects. One of the vital aspect to track is your translation budget. If you want all of the benefits of your translation projects at the most affordable rates possible, these 10 tips for lowering your language access costs will benefit your healthcare organization. Save time and effort by submitting your changes electronically and avoiding handwritten notes or scans. These requests are difficult to implement, which adds time and expense to the project, not to mention the possibility of introducing human error into the process. Instead, make the changes within the files, and you’ll be more likely to stay within your translation budget. Finally, one absolute way to increase the cost of your medical translation is to ask someone who is not qualified to do it in the first place. A bilingual employee is not a professional translator and may make mistakes regarding the accuracy and consistency of the document. By hiring a professional language service provider like Avantpage your staff stays focused on their assigned tasks while we accurately and consistently translate your message within your translation budget. If you’d like to get started on your healthcare translation projects, call us at 530-750-2040 or request a free quote.

One of the best parts of my job as Head of Client Services at Avantpage is the opportunity to sit down, in real life, with our clients. In a world full of email, instant messaging, and CRMs, to sit around a table with a handful of Avantpage partners is a rare treat. Even rarer is the opportunity to step away from the conference room, sit down to lunch, and talk about things other than translation workflows, style guide updates, and budget management. One such occasion came back in August of 2018. Our Account Manager Eduardo Diaz and I were the lucky recipients of an invitation to lunch at a local Mexican restaurant by WA Department of Licensing (DOL) Forms and Records Analyst, Marge Mink. (And just to be clear from the start: as an LSP with many government partners, it’s important to note that we always pay our own bills!) Marge is our go-to expert at DOL for everything layout and design, and so, over an early lunch of flautas and tamales, we asked how she got into this field. She described an initial position in the early 80s with Valley Press, a printing company in Puyallup, WA. She walked us through a career path that led to the beginning of her tenure at DOL in the late-1980s. It’s interesting to imagine how much the field of DTP and accessibility (Marge’s areas of expertise) has changed over the decades, but not as interesting as the story she told us next, or her dedication to language access. While Marge was working with the print shop Valley Press, the owners began producing bible study materials for an Assembly of God missionary program they were involved in. Missionaries would send text via Kaypro computers, which would, in turn, be produced into a set of printed booklets. Once the printing work was complete, one French-speaking and one English-speaking missionary (the latter from Marge’s hometown of Erie, PA) set off with a set of 16 booklets in Lingala, the language spoken by the local tribe with whom they would be working. Marge was delighted to take part in this opportunity to provide greater language access to the tribe and the results were incredible - not just due to the content of the brochures themselves, but to the fact that this was the first time the tribe had seen or received a printed document in their language. So fascinated was the local population with the material, the translations for which came partly from previously-printed ICI (Institut par Correpsondence International) booklets, that they asked to see a photograph of the person had produced such a treasure. So began the connection between the tribe’s Chief and Marge, who was working away back in rainy Puyallup. Marge described how moved she was by the impact her work was having on a community so far from her own, and her ensuing motivation to create a dictionary of Lingala vocabulary as a gift for the village: “When I found out they had never had a printed word previously, I asked my boss if we could run the booklets through the computer and search for all unlike words to create a dictionary. And we did!” Lingala is a Bantu language spoken by over 70 million people across the DRC, Republic of Congo, Angola, and the Central African Republic. Literacy rates are low and it is considered a primarily spoken language. Its various dialects borrow English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese words from colonial rulers of the past. Unfortunately, Marge’s copy of the dictionary no longer exists, but the knowledge of what this customized printed document meant to the tribe and their language access is still very real. In her home in Olympia hangs a painting, created by the Chief to thank her for the care she took in producing this gift for his community. Cobbled together from white paint and natural colorings, the painting shows the Chief himself, sitting in the shade of his hut. A quick online search reveals a few dictionaries for sale, as well as various online sites dedicated to translating Lingala into English and French. Bamonimambo (The Witnesses), a book by Norbert X Mbu-Mputu, Deo Katya Kasereka, and AlainFranque Monzelo, dates the first official Lingala dictionary to 2001 - almost 20 years after Marge’s creation. I hope that the dictionary still exists somewhere and that it is as treasured and preserved in the Chief’s village as his painting is in Marge’s home. Whether it does or not, Eduardo and I were delighted to step out of our work shoes for a few minutes and to hear such an inspiring and personal story. We work hard to promote language access at Avantpage, and the thought that we help create cultural bridges is why we do what we do. It’s a wonderful thing when we see our clients striving for the same goal, and in such fascinating and unexpected ways.

The role of a translator may seem straightforward: the translator converts text from the source language to the target language. But while this is technically accurate, the role of a skilled translator is much more complex and goes far beyond this simple definition. The translator plays a direct role in communicating with your target audience. The main role of the translator is to ensure that your original message comes across to the reader exactly as it was intended, without any distortion. When a translator receives a document, they go through a series of steps to create an accurate depiction of what was said in the original message. This means not only looking at the words of that message, but also faithfully delivering the context to the target person(s) in a manner which they can understand. Another role of the translator is to understand the target audience’s culture and to ensure that this understanding is portrayed in the written translation. This allows your message to come across more effectively and more accurately. Wherever possible, working with a translation team that shares the culture of your audience will create more trust, higher levels of accuracy, and an unspoken relationship. The translator you work with should be a subject matter expert in what they are translating. When you work with a Language Service Provider (LSP) like Avantpage, your translators have proven experience in the subject that they are translating. This creates a more nuanced end product and helps to ensure that industry terminology is translated in an accurate manner. Finally, the translator plays a role in helping to increase the rate of growth of your organization. Translating your documents has benefits far beyond regulatory compliance. Pursuing translation projects can increase the social image and reputation of your organization, which in turn leads to customer/member loyalty and helps you to attract new business. The translator supports your organization in many different ways. Working with an LSP like Avantpage means that you can rest assured that translators fit the above criteria. But that’s not all: an LSP also provides a multi-step editing process, quality control, account management, and so much more. We can help you get started on your next translation project; give us a call 530-750-2040 or request a free quote.

Health plans have a lot to keep in mind when starting new translation projects. While the process of translating your documents keeps you in regulatory compliance, there are other benefits to health plan translation projects as well. The regulations that dictate what a health plan can translate come from a variety of different sources including the ACA, CMS, and Title VI. At the least, you need to translate the following documents to remain in regulatory compliance: The languages which you translate these documents into are the threshold languages in your area. These regulations all help to increase language access to your health plan services. Outside of maintaining regulatory compliance, there are many benefits to health plan translation projects. One benefit of your translation projects is increased understanding from your member base. This can create a positive brand image and social discussion surrounding your health plan, potentially driving more business. Additionally, health plan translation projects increase the overall satisfaction of your Limited English Proficient (LEP) members. This increase in satisfaction creates a more loyal member base which, in turn, creates more business and generates more revenue for your health plan. Above all else, providing translated health plan documents allows for your members to better understand their healthcare coverage, and have increased access to healthcare services in general. We can help you get started on your next health plan translation project. If you have questions about health plan translation, give us a call at 530-750-2040. If you’re ready to start your next translation project, request a free quote today.

As an educator or an education professional, you know how vital it is to engage students and parents in your school and district. Meeting the needs of each individual student when you have tens, hundreds, or even thousands in your care can be particularly challenging, but taking care to do so can increase your overall student success and graduation rates. When it comes to meeting the needs of your Limited English Proficient (LEP) students, there are many great reasons to employ translation services in your school or district. While regulations dictate what you need to translate in your education institution, there are many benefits to translating your documents beyond regulatory compliance. LEP students face a particular set of challenges. Learning how the English language is structured, how to use idioms, and how to verbally engage with other students are just a few examples of the challenges that LEP students need to overcome. LEP students also face social challenges when they enter school. They may depend on body language, have limited school experiences, or remain silent in class settings. Providing translated documents at the appropriate reading level can help these students to feel more confident in their English abilities, which in turn supports higher levels of student success. Beyond that, these translations can support a more welcoming environment in school, supporting these students’ personal growth as well. Parent engagement is simply when teachers and parents share a responsibility to help their children learn and meet their educational goals. This kind of engagement happens at school meetings and events, with parental volunteering, and with documents sent home to communicate important education-related information. It is particularly important to establish two-way communication from home to school and back when looking at increasing LEP student success. There are many ways to establish this communication and to ensure your staff can support it: Parent engagement, in all cases - not just with LEP students, is the most important predictor of student success. If you successfully engage the parents of your LEP students, these students will have more support at home and be more inclined to finish their assignments. If you want to start seeing higher levels of student success and graduation, no matter the grade level of your students, translation services can help. Engaging both the LEP students and parents in your school or district helps promote an inclusive atmosphere where LEP students can thrive. We can help you get started on your education translation projects; give us a call at 530-750-2040, or request a free quote today.

We know the language service industry can be complicated. There’s a wide variety of services offered, terms to learn, and people involved. We want you to go into your next language project fully informed and with a firm grasp on what the process of document translation is. A quick review of our translation FAQ will provide you with key information that you need to confidently begin your next translation project. What language services do you offer?
At Avantpage, we specialize in translation, localization, and formatting of print and digital media. We also offer a variety of additional services, such as ADA document remediation, transcription, and alternative formatting. What languages do you translate?
We offer translation services in over 150 languages, both from English and into English. Our list of available languages grows and changes. If you don’t see the language you’re looking for, let us know. We’re constantly recruiting new linguists to better serve our clients. How long will my translation project take?
The variables that go into determining how long a translation or localization project can take include word count, complexity, formatting requirements, review processes, and other factors. Each effort is unique, and we at Avantpage tailor our efforts to match your requirements on every job. At the time your project is assessed for a quote, you'll also be given an expected due date. What industries do you specialize in?
We specialize in the healthcare, government, elections, and education fields. If you’re outside of these industries, we’re still available to complete your translation projects. Our linguists have varying specializations, and we can find the right person for your translation project. What file formats do you translate?
While we can translate any document format, the easiest file formats for us to work with are those that are directly editable. If you can click in your document and add/change text, that’s an editable file format. Do you employ machine translation?
We never use machine translation at Avantpage. All of your translation projects will be translated by a qualified and certified human linguist to ensure accuracy and quality. What translation technologies do you use?
We encourage the use of, and can help create, style guides and glossaries for all translation projects. Additionally, we use Translation Memory software to build a database of your previous translations; this helps to ensure consistency across your documents. Even those phrases identified by your TM, though, are reviewed in context by human eyes to ensure correct usage and style. Who will translate my document?
Our linguists are primarily US-based, though we source outside of the US for qualified linguists as well. All PHI translation is handled strictly by our US-based linguists to ensure confidentiality and security, and allow Avantpage to closely manage the network security supporting each PHI project. How do you qualify your linguists?
Our linguists have to meet a set of qualification standards before we choose to move forward with the testing process. If they meet these qualifications, we administer a language translation test based on the ISO 17100 standards. After receiving and reviewing their efforts, if accepted, our linguists are trained on our internal procedures and work closely with our project management team to ensure success. How do you find new linguists to work with?
We have a dedicated team working on recruitment to ensure we have enough linguists to meet your translation needs. Using our global network of existing linguists, membership rolls of professional organizations, direct referrals, and other sources, Avantpage is constantly expanding our team of qualified linguists. If you’re interested in joining our team as a linguist, let us know here. How do you handle confidential information?
Data safety is one of our top priorities. If your document contains PHI or PII, we only have our US-based team work on the translation. All of our in-house employees and linguists go through the process of HIPAA training and certification. Additionally, we employ multiple methods of encryption, both in our server system and in our online cloud system.   Do you have a question we didn’t answer here? Reach out to us at 530-750-2040 and we’ll be happy to connect you with a team member to answer your questions. If you’re ready to start your next translation project, request a free quote today.

As an elections professional, you have a wide variety of regulations you need to keep in mind as you look towards translating your documents for the next election. Regardless of your goals surrounding language access and voter turnout, understanding what documents are vital for election translation can help to ensure those goals are met. While each county has different threshold languages and may require different language services in addition to translation, having these documents standardized can promote the success of your language goals. Election translation is individualized by county, and dependent on what your threshold languages are. The Voting Rights Act states that, for all of your threshold languages, you need to translate the following documents: The direct language from the Voting Rights Act says, “The requirements of the law are straightforward: all election information that is available in English must also be available in the minority language so that all citizens will have an effective opportunity to register, learn the details of the elections, and cast a free and effective ballot.” With this in mind, determining your threshold languages is your highly important next step. The Secretary of State’s office will provide you with a list, but if you’re interested in how these are decided, these are the qualifying factors that make a language a threshold language: While translating for your threshold languages is legally mandated, many counties choose to expand the number of languages they translate their documents into even further. If there’s a growing language community in your area, it may be worth translating your documents into that language to promote access and increase voter turnout. Additionally, talking to the language communities in your district can help you to understand the efficacy of your translations, and whether they’re providing access in the way you would like them to. If you’re starting a new election translation project, or want to ensure that you’re prepared before the next election, we can help. From determining your threshold languages to which documents you need to translate, we’ve managed a wide variety of election translation projects for over 20 years. Call us at 530-750-2040 or request a free quote today, and start a partnership with a Language Service Provider you can trust.

As you look towards hiring a Language Service Provider (LSP), one key question you need to ask is who will complete your translations, and what their qualifications are. This is of particular importance in healthcare organizations because you need to be sure that your healthcare translators are HIPAA certified and understand how to handle Protected Health Information (PHI). While each LSP will have a different process for testing and qualifying their translators, our process will give you insight into what the qualification of healthcare translators looks like. At Avantpage, we hold high standards for all of our translators, healthcare translators included. The minimum qualification standards of our healthcare translators are as follows: Beyond these minimum qualifications, we maintain a list of core verifiable credentials which informs our translator recruitment process. Those credentials for healthcare translators include: While all of these qualifications and verifiable credentials provide us with excellent candidates for healthcare translators, we want to be absolutely sure they will provide accurate and high-quality translations for your organization. With this in mind, we put all of our translators, regardless of their industry specialization, through competency tests built on the ISO 17100 standards: Our healthcare translators must meet our qualifications and pass our competency test to be offered the opportunity to work with us at Avantpage. Many of the regulations governing the translation process indicate that you need to use qualified healthcare translators rather than merely competent linguists. This is also of particular importance if you provide interpretation in your organization, which is also highly regulated in healthcare organizations. While bilingual employees and family members can serve as interpreters in cases of significant emergency, or when getting a qualified interpreter to the scene isn’t an option, you cannot use them as interpreters or translators in non-emergent situations. For the typical interactions that occur in healthcare organizations, like patient visits and member communications, you will need to hire qualified translators and interpreters under the regulations of the Affordable Care Act. Beyond this, it’s simply best practice to hire qualified translators and interpreters, or engage an LSP, to work with your healthcare organization. An LSP will be able to provide you with culturally and dialectically correct translations and interpretations. Particularly in healthcare interpreting, you want to ensure your interpreter has the same cultural background and gender as the patient, client, or member if possible. Having certified, qualified healthcare translators can help to improve the accuracy, consistency, and overall quality of your translated documents. If you’re interested in starting a new healthcare translation project with our highly qualified translators, give us a call at 530-750-2040, or request a free quote today.