Blogs

With all of the recent technological advances in machine (or computer) translation, it’s easy to wonder if your Language Service Provider (LSP) is just plugging your copy into some software before they send it back. At Avantpage, the short answer is no—we definitely don't do that. Here’s a brief overview of common language technologies and how they’re used. Machine or Computer Translation can be grouped into these main categories: The problem with pure machine translation is that when a user inputs one document and gets a translation back, the result is extremely rough. An audience will spot errors instantly. That’s where a human translation service can take over. Common language technologies used for machine translation are best used as part of a quality-focused process in which people control and monitor the output of the machine translation all the way to the final translation product. At Avantpage, we use glossaries and translation memory to save our clients time and money while maintaining consistency within a translated document and among other translated documents. Custom glossaries are built for each client to record their preferences for future use. For example, if a client prefers the word "team member" instead of "employee," that's the word that will always be used. By using glossaries, any of our translators will be able to pick up material related to the same client and have fewer questions about the way certain terms should be translated. Translation Memory software helps us build on the previous work of our translators to save time. Once a document has been completed and reviewed for quality assurance, it is converted to a TM file. When it’s time to complete a new translation for the same client, we can analyze the new document against previously translated documents. The application helps decipher which words and phrases have been repeated and indicates how they were previously translated. This allows us to maintain consistency and translate similar phrases the same way, controlling your voicing and brand consistency. For clients that direct their communications to many users one document at a time, this method helps you treat all your recipients fairly and equally. Even with all the technologies available, we believe the best translations pair those tools with an educated human translator, which is how we build every project’s translation process. At Avantpage our experienced team can help guide you through the translation process and make it fast and easy. To find out more about our services call us at 530-750-2040 x11, or request a free quote.

There are many important loving relationships in each person’s life, be it romantic, familiar or friendly. We think there’s one big relationship you should consider during this month of love: the one you have with your language services provider. Think about it, how much would you love to love working with your LSP on each and every project? It's possible if you look for these qualities when selecting a translation agency. At the heart of any successful LSP relationship is the group of people with whom you work. Here are some key roles a capable team will have. On a day-to-day basis, the project manager is who you’ll work with the most. This person is intricately involved in all the details of your project, from understanding the content to spotting confidentiality issues to selecting the best translators and designers for the job. Your account manager gets involved when your needs go beyond an existing translation project. For example, if you want a different service that’s not in your contract, your AM will be the person who asks some questions about your needs to develop pricing. Your AM can also work in tandem with your PM to help resolve specific problems. Every project is a bit different when it comes to geography, field, and language, and finding the right linguists who fit those specifications is important. Your PM should match qualified translators with your specific project's needs and languages to ensure success. The proofer is the quality control person on your project. This person focuses on the last step of the translation project and ensures the quality of the layout and the non-linguistic requirements. These people focus on details and understand how to work with style guides and specifications. It's important that every person involved in your translation project understand the message of the source file, the target audience, and the field. For areas such as medical translation or legal translation, a Language Services Provider experienced in these domains will know the specific domain-specific terminology and legal regulations involved. While LSPs in other parts of the world must receive a certification from the International Organization for Standardization, this is not required in the United States. What is important is finding an LSP that lives up to the high standards presented in the ISO guidelines as well as the ATA standards in the U.S. and the NAFTI standards in Australia. Look for companies with a multi-step process where multiple people look at each project. A qualified LSP will also employ people with many years of experience and competency in many areas of translation. Protect your heart, and your business, by only working with LSPs with specific confidentiality protocols. Translation often deals with a person’s most sensitive information such as passports, vital records, transcripts, medical records and more. To protect that private data, an LSP should actively train its employees and contractors and use several safeguards to maintain confidentiality. Just like finding the right partner is key to falling in love, finding the right LSP is key to building a strong relationship. Look for a company that fits your needs. For example, if you primarily translate healthcare documents in the state of California, look for an LSP that specializes in that work. Whatever your needs are, look for a translation agency that can fulfill them. By looking for these aspects in an LSP, you can find the kind of relationship that supports you through every translation project. At Avantpage our experienced team can help guide you through the translation process and make it fast and easy. To find out more about our services call us at 530-750-2040 x11, or request a free quote.

Almost one in 10 working-age adults in the United States are considered Limited English Proficient, so it's safe to say that many companies have some LEP employees on their team. But, this LEP designation is not a uniform, across-the-board description of each employee’s English proficiency. LEP can encompass a wide variety of proficiency levels based on how individuals respond to the U.S. Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey. The survey asks recipients if they speak a language other than English at home. If the answer is “Yes,” the next question is what language, and then “How well does this person speak English?” Any answer other than “Very well” defines the respondent as Limited English Proficient. With this variety of English-speaking abilities and the number of LEP employees in the U.S., it's even more important that companies translate vital documents into the languages their team members understand best. Of course, there are laws in each state that require translation into threshold languages for specific types of documents. But beyond complying with legal requirements, organizations can see significant financial and people benefits by translating common company documents. If employees don’t understand the policies and procedures intended to keep them safe, then they can’t follow those rules. Studies indicate that for every $1 invested in workplace safety, employers realize $3 to $6 in cost savings via direct and indirect costs. Another study shows that close to 43 percent of workers' compensation claims can be reduced or eliminated if language is not an issue. Given these numbers, the cost of translating safety documents can be easily recouped by the potential savings. Translating documents into an LEP employee’s native language is a way of saying, “We speak your language. You belong here.” Next to physical safety, ‘belonging’ is a basic human necessity, according to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. In the workplace, when an employee feels as if they belong, they are more likely to be engaged and connected to the organization’s mission. What’s the bottom line? Your bottom line. Engaged employees are 21% more productive, and companies with engaged employees outperform those without by 202%. While individual state laws require different documents be translated, it’s up to your organization to decide which important company documents to translate to see the benefits. Here are some examples of documents other Avantpage clients have translated: When employees feel valued by their employer, then their loyalty to the company increases. They want to stay, and they want to do better, and they want to perform their job as best they can. By translating important company documents, you can better communicate with your LEP workforce and help them connect to your mission and goals. Special thanks to Joan Weber at English In The Workplace for sharing her insights for this post. At Avantpage our experienced team can help guide you through the translation process and make it fast and easy. To find out more about our services call us at 530-750-2040 x11, or request a free quote.

For the past few months, I’ve been updating Avantpage’s employee handbooks for our team members in our offices in the United States, Poland, and Mexico. Because of Avantpage's commitment to clear communication, it's essential that our company materials reflect our mission and values—no matter what language in which they are written. The process has been time-consuming, but worth it. I know that employee handbooks, when written correctly and conveyed correctly, can create the type of boundaries people need to feel freer in the workplace. If you’re in the same boat as me and are now looking to translate your employee handbook, your next step and choices are just as crucial as putting together the document in the first place. It's crucial that the meaning of your company’s policies is translated clearly into the handbooks you provide to employees who speak another language. When you do this, you can increase employee engagement and commitment to your company. One of the problems with employee handbooks is that they're policy heavy and can be very dry—but you need employees to read every line. This can become even more difficult if you're presenting employees with a document that's not written in their primary language. Using an online translation tool, such as Google Translate, to translate an employee handbook can introduce errors and confusion. For example, in some languages the word "terminate" can mean "kill." So if you're writing a policy about terminating an employee, the sentence can become very deadly very quickly if mistranslated. A professional Language Services Provider, such as Avantpage, can help you avoid embarrassing errors and create a document that is cohesive and understandable. Your employee handbook is your company's bible and reflects directly on your organization. If a translated version sounds disjointed or sloppy or has amateur mistakes, then you are communicating with your employees that you don't care about them. It's important to ensure that your intended message gets across to your employees, and the best way to do that is with an LSP that can provide quality and accuracy. While updating Avantpage's employee handbooks, I've had to keep track of many different laws and regulations for each of our locations. For example, Poland has 26 vacation days that are mandated by the government. So, I can't write one lump employee handbook for all our employees, because our U.S. accrual-based PTO policy would violate Polish laws. Another example is that the process of requesting a vacation in Mexico is incredibly extensive and requires reporting to the government, which is different than the procedure for our U.S. offices. Even for U.S. companies, different local jurisdictions will have different requirements that need to be included in your handbook. Custom content for your handbook at each location can help, but to take this geographic focus to the next level, consider localization. With localization, an LSP can adapt your content so that it looks, feels and functions as if it were produced within the target country. The process may involve creating new, culturally relevant content, revising graphic design, color schemes, symbols and other visual elements, and modifying currency, time, weights and measures, and other numerical elements to reflect local usage and standards. This additional step can further communicate your commitment to your employees, no matter what language they speak. At Avantpage, we have some policies that are fun and meant to foster engagement with our team. These types of practices non-verbally communicate our company's mission and values. But, more fun policies could get lost in a dry document that’s crammed with rules and regulations. If your organization has a similar situation, consider creating a company culture guide that can cover these types of policies. This will help your employees understand that it's a part of your cultural makeup of the company. Culture guides are also a good way to address different offices in different countries. You can have one employee handbook for the rules you’re legally required to have, and another that outlines the culture you’re trying to have. Each can be edited to fit different locations and translated and localized into the appropriate languages. Most HR departments are moving away from the old, stark presence of being the policy police and embracing employee engagement. HR professionals are looking for ways to empower and increase employee engagement, and language has a lot to do with that goal. At Avantpage, we work with many LEP individuals and what robs them of their power is not feeling like they can communicate. By translating your employee-facing documents and policies, you empower all your team members to understand and increase employee engagement within your company. At Avantpage our experienced team can help guide you through the translation process and make it fast and easy. To find out more about our services call us at 530-750-2040 x11, or request a free quote.

The more you know about the translation process and how it works, the easier it is to create efficiencies and take advantage of savings opportunities for your healthcare translation project. We’ve put together this guide to help you get the best from your translation agency and to make the process as straightforward as possible. Once you’ve chosen a healthcare translation agency and met with your key contact, you'll provide the documents that need to be translated. Before the translation begins, you may be asked to provide a glossary of standard terms or common names. If you have an English glossary, your LSP can help to translate this into your target languages to ensure accuracy and consistency across documents. If you have never used a glossary, consider creating one before getting started. If you’re working with Avantpage, next we upload your original text into the translation memory tool, which breaks it up into segments. Our native-speaking linguistic team then translates and edits each text segment, and their work is saved in what we call a Translation Memory (TM). The next time you have new text for translation, your text is likewise uploaded into the tool. If the new text is the same or similar to what was previously translated, the TM recognizes this and classifies the matches by degree of repetition (e.g. 100% repetitions vs. similar segments that require some edits). The TM provides the 100% and fuzzy matching text, and the linguistic team makes the appropriate adjustments to quickly render the most precise and consistent translation for all your documents. The next steps vary depending on your needs, but can include one or more of the following elements: Written translation is most commonly charged by the word. Medical translation rates vary based on word count, complexity, and scope. The source language word count is generally used as a basis for the translation because the target languages can differ by varying degrees from the source. The target language may be longer or more compact than your source language. While there is no universal rule, it is interesting to note that text in Spanish, for example, can take up 20% more space than English. Other elements that can increase or decrease the price of your medical translation project include language combination, formatting needs, urgency, and subject matter. Like rates, the time a medical translation project takes depends on the project itself. A larger, more complex project will take longer than a simple one. Additional time is required for text that requires heavy formatting (DTP - Desktop Publishing) after translation. In one case, an LSP such as Avantpage can translate a 600-page, 205,000-word document in a month. But, the time a project takes is always dependent on the complexity of it. For projects of all sizes, you can ensure quick and efficient completion by compiling all the documents and data your LSP will need in advance. The more organized you can be, the more quickly the process will go. Each project is different and its timeline, process, and cost will vary. While there are many more intricacies to a medical translation project, this should give you a high-level understanding of what it’s like to work with an LSP. At Avantpage our experienced team can help guide you through the translation process and make it fast and easy. To find out more about our services call us at 530-750-2040 x11, or request a free quote.

DTP, GILT, LSP, NMT … IDK! That last acronym stands for “I don’t know” and the rest represent some common translation terms. If you feel like you’re swimming in a bowl of alphabet soup after reading that list and you’re in charge of finding translation services for your organization, keep reading. Understanding some key terms and ideas can help you find the right Language Services Provider or LSP. Here is a glossary of some commonly used translation terms for your reference: 100% Match is when a previously translated sentence is automatically pulled up with Translation Memory. This is called a 100% match because the new sentence matches 100% with another sentence that has been previously translated. Back Translation is a translation of a translated text back into the language of the original text, made without reference to the original. This is frequently done to ensure the quality of the original translation, as well as for legal liability protection. Desktop Publishing (DTP) is the design and production of publications and is a major component of linguistic services. The right firm will be able to format and recreate foreign language layouts with extensive knowledge of the intricacies of each language and an awareness of cultural issues that may need to be considered in design. Familiar with a wide variety of software applications, a DTP team supervises the process from start to printing. Avantpage can do all this in over 150 languages. Fuzzy Match is when a sentence matches only a portion of a sentence that has been previously translated and stored within a Translation Memory. Fuzzy Matches are useful because during the translation process the translator can see how the similar sentence from a previous document was translated and base the new translation on that. This assures an added level of consistency across documents and preserves the client’s style and tone. GILT stands for Globalization, Internationalization, Localization, and Translation. This term is used to refer to all of the linguistic and cultural related processes involved in global business. Globalization refers to the processes that a company goes through to enter the global marketplace. It encompasses the internationalization process of intelligent, culturally aware planning and design, as well as the multifaceted localization process that occurs when the product is adapted for the new market. Sometimes, the abbreviation “G11N” is used for Globalization. This abbreviation is derived from the first and last letters of the word, while the 11 refers to the number of letters between the G and the N. Healthcare Interpreting refers to oral interpretation that takes place in a medical or healthcare setting. Hybrid Machine Translation is a type of Machine Translation that ideally uses the best features of both statistical and rule-based translation. SYSTRAN, which powers Babel Fish, claims that it introduced the first hybrid translation engine in 2009. Internationalization is the process of ensuring that a product can be easily localized. This is an especially important concern when a new website, software application, or service line is created. Are there any untranslatable phrases? Are the cultural idioms going to be too difficult to understand? Can the date and money formats be easily understood? The abbreviation I18N stands for Internationalization, derived in the same manner as G11N. Interpreting refers to the facilitation of communication between people who are not speaking or signing the same language. It refers to oral or signed communication, whereas translation relates to written communication. Localization is the process of modifying a product to accommodate differences in distinct markets. This can include structure, graphic design, copywriting, transcreation, and anything else that needs to be changed for the market. A second definition, also widely used, is that localization is the adaptation of software, websites, and applications to meet the languages, technical requirements, and regional differences of the target market. The abbreviation for Localization is L10N, derived in the same way as G11N. Neural Machine Translation (NMT) is an approach to machine translation that uses a large neural network, which is a computing system inspired by the biological neural networks of animal brains. Neural networks learn to do tasks by considering examples, generally without task-specific programming. Google and Microsoft translation services now use NMT. Machine Translation is the process of using computer software to translate between languages. Repetitions are phrases and sentences that are repeated and occur more than once throughout the document. A Translation Memory system will remember the way the first instance of the phrase or sentence is translated and automatically suggest this translation on all further occurrences. The translators will review all instances of these phrases and sentences to make sure that they are appropriate given the context. Rule-Based Translation is Machine Translation produced using existing grammar rules and dictionary entries. Statistical Machine Translation is a type of Machine Translation that uses data from a large amount of existing bilingual material, known as a corpus, to translate commonly used words and phrases. Examples of multilingual data include the records of the European Parliament, which is produced in 23 languages. Google Translate has been using this type of software since 2007. Style Guides provide translators with a list of standardized elements that must be handled the same way every time. These can include capitalization, grammar, measurements, acronyms, dates and numerals, text never to be translated, company trademarks, formatting (bold, italic, font use, etc.) currencies, and formal versus informal “voice” and tone of language. Style guides are unique for each target language, and larger organizations may maintain style guides in numerous languages. Transcreation is the creative adaptation of copy in the target language. It adapts your health care message in a way that makes sense to your audience, not just technically, but emotionally and culturally as well. Transcreation is a necessary part of any good translation because some words and phrases do not have a direct translation in another language. One example of this is idiomatic usage, such as, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” This statement would sound like utter nonsense, and new copy would have to be written in the target language. The second meaning of transcreation is to explain when a word or concept in the source language does not exist in the target language. For example, there is no “filibuster” in Spanish or Tagalog. Translation is the act of producing a text that communicates the same message in another language. This seems like the most basic of services, but in unprofessional hands, translation can do your company a world of damage. Just like you work with professional health care providers, you need professional translators. Trust a translation firm like Avantpage to avoid disaster! Translation Glossary is a client-specific list of terms created to be used across all projects generated by a particular client. For instance, a glossary for a healthcare client might contain items such as agency names, health plan names, program names, job titles, and keywords. All of these items need to be translated the same way no matter where in the document they are. Transliteration is writing a text in a different language so it “sounds” like the word in the source language. An example of transliteration would be writing the Russian word for thanks, “cпасибо” as “spasibo” in English script. Translation Memory (TM) is a database of all previous translations that were created specifically for a client. Think of a TM as a long list of A = B, where A is a sentence from the source document and B is the same sentence translated into the target language. When you submit a new document, the document is uploaded into the Avantpage online translation system and is analyzed against the TM. There is no part of our process in which Avantpage submits text into a computer program and then receives a fully translated document – every document is translated by qualified human linguists. Untranslated Segments are sentences that have never been translated before and will be translated “from scratch.” As you move through the process of your translation project, keep this glossary handy to help define key terms. At Avantpage our experienced team can help guide you through the translation process and make it fast and easy. To find out more about our services call us at 1-530-750-2040 x11, or request a free quote.

When you choose to accommodate your multilingual audience (either because the law requires it or you realize what a good idea it is for your business), there are some medical industry best practices you should know. Here’s a step-by-step guide to medical translation. Before you find a qualified and professional Language Services Provider (LSP) for your healthcare translation needs, ask some critical questions, including: While some medical plan providers may have a cultural and linguistics department or coordinator, others may not have staff devoted to this process. No matter the organization's internal structure, it's essential to allocate an appropriate budget to hire a professional LSP. When it comes to selecting a Language Services Provider, get well-acquainted with their translation process and quality assurance procedures, as well as the costs. Make a list of questions you should ask a potential translation company. Any serious LSP will be excited to partner with you and to walk you through the initial and ongoing steps, which is the best way to learn about translation and to create a lasting partnership. Using bilingual employees to perform translations puts you at risk. At best, you might end up with inaccurate translations; at worst, you'd be breaking the law. Also, adding that extra responsibility to a bilingual employee takes them away from other vital projects. A professional medical translation company is the smart choice and can help ensure accuracy and consistency. A quality healthcare translation agency may not be the cheapest, but it will be able to find ways to save you money. For example, a professional medical translation agency will use translation memory software and offer year-over-year savings and volume discounts. Work with your Language Services Provider to determine your process, what steps will take place each time a document is translated, and how your specific needs will be met. Establishing a clear and detailed timeline from the beginning helps both sides move through the process smoothly. By involving the head of the Cultural and Linguistics department at the beginning of your medical translation project, you can save time and frustration in the long run. Get this person involved in your process from the very beginning and keep them informed throughout the project. This will ensure consistency throughout all documents and make for a smoother project. Style guides and glossaries will increase the overall quality and consistency of your documents. These reference files are usually compiled manually. A glossary contains important terms with their preferred translations, and the style guide tells translators about linguistic and stylistic preferences, such as the audience and tone of the document. The glossary includes recurrent words/phrases that need to be translated the same way to make sense in the target language. At Avantpage we provide all healthcare clients with customizable style guides and glossaries at the start of our relationship. Vital documents contain information that is critical for accessing the provider or agency services and/or benefits. Some examples include letters or notices that require a response from the customer or documents that inform customers of free language assistance. Vital documents can also include applications, consent forms and letters, or other template-based correspondence. A non-standard document might contain information specific to one person, to an event, or any other evolving subject matter. If you need to have documents such as these translated, first standardize the English versions of these forms. Then, you can submit these documents for translations early. Assuming your audience may only read at the elementary school level, keep information written for the consumer as simple and clear as possible. This will also help you when it comes time to have documents translated. Documents that require certain wording for legal purposes can still be written in words everyone can understand—it may just take a little extra effort. It is important to remember that if a translation is required to be at a certain grade level, the English text should also be provided at that same level. Avantpage can lower the reading level as an additional service. To ensure that you get the greatest value out of your translation services, be an active part of the process. If you have a primary LSP, consider having a backup available in case of emergencies. Work closely with them at all times. Join professional organizations that will help you stay on top of changes to the law. When you anticipate regulatory changes, it will be easier to comply. Use common standards to evaluate quality. The Standard Guide for Quality Assurance in Translation by the American Society for Testing and Materials is mainly used in the United States and will give you a good starting point to discuss the quality assurance process with your LSP. If your company works in Europe, you may need to use EN 15038 as a standard instead. After you’ve completed your healthcare translation project, it will become clear how translation is more than just compliance. It’s a tool to reach new markets. Quality translations can be part of an investment strategy that will eventually have a major payoff. By following this process, you can ensure a successful medical translation project. At Avantpage our experienced team can help guide you through the translation process and make it fast and easy. To find out more about our services or to get a free quote, Email us at [email protected] or call us at 1-530-750-2040, extension 6.

This time of year, our Avantpage team is getting ready to spend time with their families, partaking in favorite traditions and rituals. Because we have offices in Davis, California, Mexico City and Warsaw, these celebrations are diverse and rich in culture, and we want to share them with you! Here's how our team celebrates the holidays. For the Miguel Musi family, Christmas has been a double and most-special holiday. Double as we celebrate both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with huge get-togethers and meals. Huge as we are 11 siblings and more than 30 nieces and nephews. My mother and sisters always organize a “Pastorela" on Christmas Eve, a re-enactment of the biblical account of the birth of Jesus. What makes it so special is that the youngest baby in the family (this year it is Olivia, first great-grand-child) plays the baby Jesus, and the Virgin, St. Joseph, the Maggi, etc. are all among the youngest members of the family. I look forward to it every year! My family opens gifts on Christmas morning because that's the morning after Santa comes! But, on Christmas Eve we are allowed to open up one gift. The catch is that my mom always picks out the gift that we are allowed to open. Every year the gift she picks is matching pajamas for my sisters and me, but every year we act surprised like we had no idea that they would be PJs, again. Even though we know they're PJs, it's still really special to my family and me to do this tradition. In my family we commonly exchange gifts for everyone, and sometimes, to make it funnier, we first open a joke gift (something the person doesn't like, something embarrassing or something stupidly cheap) and after laughing out loud, we give the good gifts. We commonly have tamales for dinner and enjoy talking, singing, dancing and playing the guitar all night. I really enjoy those days with my family. One tradition that I have with my mom is that she makes me send a letter to Santa every year with my Christmas list. This year Santa went electronic (not sure if all of you were aware!) and is routing his letters through my mom's e-mail address. So, if you haven't already, please send your lists to my mother! Also, Santa wants you to add links, which is very helpful for him. You should hear the story my mom told me to explain all of this; I was cracking up. I love that my mom tries, even now, to preserve the magic of the holidays. A text exchange with "Santa." My favorite tradition has always been that on Christmas Eve, my brother and I prepare a tray for Santa and Rudolph to enjoy when they stop by in the night. Rudolph gets a carrot, and Santa is treated to a mince pie and glass of sherry (which coincidentally was my Grandma's drink of choice). This is left outside our back door and long gone by the morning. In exchange, Rudolph leaves a board game for us under the tree—a sneaky way to keep us occupied until we are allowed to open our other gifts. In our house, the other tradition was to wait until after Christmas lunch (which ends up being late afternoon) before opening any gifts. This would be unbearable without the new game to pass the time! One year we marked deep "X" in the carrot with a knife and photographed it when it appeared in the steamed veggie dish the next day.

Translating Gender-Specific Words Since the 1970s, numerous sociolinguistic studies have demonstrated the effect of grammatical gender on the assumptions a listener makes.  In English, this is illustrated in the famous test in which a father and child are injured in a traffic accident, and the surgeon at the hospital says, “I can’t operate on this child; he’s my son.” The narrative elicits a response from the listener that reveals the underlying assumption about the gender of the surgeon. If the listener is confused, the surgeon was assumed male. If there was no confusion, the surgeon was assumed female. And if it is worth pointing out that the surgeon is the boy’s mother, the female gender of the surgeon was assumed special, or marked. This test of social value assumptions is possible, of course, because English nouns do not carry grammatical gender as many languages do. However, what happens when a language requires gender on a word such as “surgeon” or “nurse”? As of 2015, 90 percent of nurses in the United States were female, according to Becker’s Hospital Review. Since the nursing profession tends to be female-dominant, one approach to using a gendered word for “nurse” would be to use the female form of the word in languages that have gender and which use a different form for female and male nurses. In many nations, the female to male ratio in the nursing profession is even more skewed, and the use of the masculine for nurse would call attention to the social environment instead of fading to the background. Avantpage’s U.S. clients tend to be purposefully linguistically neutral regarding gender identifiers, but we already know that this neutrality is not as easy in all languages. Should we have different criteria for the English and the target text, then? Here we must exercise caution because we don’t want to treat the immigrant population in the U.S. differently than we do the non-immigrant population. Let’s look at the problem of gender inclusiveness using a specific language example: Russian. Russian has two genders, referred to as masculine and feminine, as well as case endings on nouns, so gender pervades an entire phrase and even the level of the sentence or multiple sentences in longer discourse. The word for nurse in Russian is Медсестра (feminine) and Медбрат (masculine), pronounced roughly like “medsestra” and “medbrat,” and they translate very literally like “medical sister” and “medical brother.” (Though, after some Internet research, we found that the feminine form is used much more frequently than the masculine form). Within each gender are six cases: nominative, accusative, dative, prepositional, instrumental, and genitive. This makes for 12 endings on “nurse” that one must know to talk about a nurse in a Russian sentence. This is not even mentioning the fact that we’re still talking only about the singular, so we can double this number to include plural “nurses” to roughly 24 case endings to remember! If we want to speak generally about a nurse, whose gender is unknown and unimportant for the context, we run into a readability problem if we try to write both masculine and feminine forms into the text. Not only would we be doubling the noun itself in the sentence, but all the case endings on adjectives and adjectival phrases would double (i.e., advice nurse, nurse on duty). One way to get around this problem is to avoid mentioning the gender of the practitioner is to say something such as, “person who practices nursing.” In Russian, the nursing profession is уход, (pronounced roughly like “uhed”), but this is a wordy circumlocution and not preferred. One of Avantpage’s clients has a solution to the wordiness problem in its Spanish style guide for consumer marketing documents. Though Spanish does not have case endings like Russian does, Spanish does have a gendered noun for nurse: “enfermero” (masculine) and “enfermera” (feminine). The guide states that the translator should use “enfermera” only when referring to obstetrics and gynecology. Otherwise, the writer should use the masculine form, “enfermero” as there are males and females in this profession. This solution is clever because it takes the “use the masculine for the general” rule that many languages do, but in this case, a male nurse is a marked form. That is, the masculine ending calls attention to the unusual social situation that it is encoding. In this way, the client is both progressive and readable in its approach to the grammatical puzzle the language presents us. While it certainly won’t change the ratio of male to female nurses in the healthcare industry anytime soon, it is a satisfying response to the need to communicate clearly and fairly to a linguistically diverse audience. At Avantpage our experienced team can help guide you through the translation process and make it fast and easy. To find out more about our services or to get a free quote, Email us at [email protected] or call us at 1-530-750-2040, extension 11.

The California Voter's Choice Act (VCA) has every county election official in the state thinking about how this new law will apply and change longstanding processes. While Madera, Napa, Nevada, Sacramento, and San Mateo counties will be the first to implement the law for the 2018 elections, the other 53 counties in the state are already thinking about how to adopt this new model that aims to provide greater flexibility and convenience for voters. If you’re in that group of counties trying to figure out how to implement the VCA for 2020, we at Avantpage want to make sure that you're thinking about how these changes will impact Limited English Proficient (LEP) communities and how translation plays into that. Here are three questions we think you should be asking as an organization as you prepare for this change. The VCA requires that every registered voter in participating counties receive a ballot 28 days prior to election day. In the past, this requirement was six days or less prior to an election. That’s an almost three-week acceleration of the production, printing and distribution process for these ballots. Now, even though translation is always on my mind, I realize it may not be for those of you who work at many of the registrar of voters, county clerk and county recorder offices around California. If I could recommend one thing, it would be to keep in mind that while the VCA accelerates the deadline for ballot distribution, many LSPs are still working with the same set of resources and therefore need the same or similar timeframes in which to complete translations. Elections turnaround times for translation are always tight, and this change could make them even more so. To make this change easier for everyone involved, reach out to your LSP now to start talking about what kind of timelines make sense for everyone involved in the election process. More robust advance planning is required to make this process smooth for everyone involved. And if you don't have a preferred LSP, give me a call to have Avantpage help get you ready for the VCA. The VCA allows voters to choose how, when, and where to cast their ballot by mailing every voter a ballot, expanding in-person early voting and allowing voters to cast a ballot at any Vote Center within their county. It’s crucial to our democracy that every voter understand these new opportunities to vote, no matter what language he or she speaks. As your county considers a VCA roll-out plan, think about how you will communicate with LEP individuals about these changes. Will you put posters in community centers? Have an outreach campaign that involves text messages, emails, and phone calls? It’s a good idea to set up a Language Accessibility Committee to address these questions and to work with local stakeholders and community groups. No matter which of these tactics you choose, it will require some degree of translation into the languages most common in your area. So, be sure to involve your LSP in your planning process early. And if you can, try not to rely on GoogleTranslate add-ons to translate webpages or downloads! As your county gets closer to election time, more people will be calling with questions and concerns — and not only in English. The VCA requires Vote Centers for every 50,000 registered voters, and that these centers be open for 10 days before the election. These Vote Centers will be a place where people can vote in person, drop off their ballot, get a replacement ballot, vote using an accessible voting machine, get help and voting materials in multiple languages, and register to vote or update their voter registration. In other words, a multitude of opportunities for conversations with voters. At Avantpage, we can help you prepare by brainstorming options, including hiring interpreters and bilingual staff, and the implementation of a poll worker certification program that fulfills your requirements. These are exciting times and, luckily, there is still time to prepare properly for the full rollout of the VCA in 2020. By thinking through these questions, you can better help your county prepare for these changes. At Avantpage, our experienced team can help you navigate new voting requirements and more. To find out more about our services or to get a free quote, Email us at [email protected] or call us at 1-530-750-2040, extension 6.

It may seem counterintuitive for a language service provider such as Avantpage to write a post about how to break up with your translation company. But, after more than 20 years in the business, we've seen it all, and we know how hard it can be to transition to a new LSP. So, if you don't tell your current LSP that you're reading this article, we won't either. That said, we will tell you the best way to leave your present translation company and move to another. Of course, if you’re reading this article because you’re thinking of breaking up with us, call me first! At Avantpage, we always want the opportunity to earn your business and make things right. Before you terminate a contract, ask yourself, "Is this really the end?" Is there anything to be done to make it work? If you've identified a fundamental problem or issue in your working relationship, give your LSP the chance to fix it. Clearly communicate what's going wrong, what you need to see resolved, and give the company a time frame in which to hit those goals. Sometimes the issue isn’t with the LSP as a whole, but with a particular team member or aspect of a project. If that’s the case for you, reach out to other people you know at the company. There’s a chance that your project manager isn’t communicating your problems broadly enough, and most LSPs will have account managers or client relations departments that will be more than happy to help. If you’ve tried to salvage the relationship and it’s not working, now is the time to walk away. But, this isn’t a time to use the “It's not you, it's me,” excuse. Instead, be honest with your LSP about what the irreconcilable differences are. Address the key reasons for leaving. Was it the quality? The turn-around time? The price? The service? A particular person? It's beneficial for an LSP to know why you're leaving so it can adjust its processes for future customers. Honesty is just as important when it comes to assessing your own organization. Before you move on to a new translation company, get real and really think about what your team could have done better to reach the results you desire. This introspection and organizational awareness will also help you be more satisfied with your new provider. Before you decide to have the breakup conversation, make sure to review your agreement carefully. Some include a provision for 30-days’ or 10-days’ notice, and others will spell out who owns the content. Make sure you understand your legal obligations clearly before you leave. One of the most useful and practical items you can bring to a new LSP is your Translation Memory file. Translation Memory, also known as a TM, is a database of all the translations that were created for you. Think of a TM as a long list of A = B, where A is a sentence from the source document, and B is the same sentence translated into the target language. This file can potentially save time and money with a new provider. While your new LSP won’t use your old TM without review, it could potentially use it to create a new TM for future projects. An editable file is a file that can be edited by your translation team. Think of it as a file where you can insert a cursor and start typing. You want to make sure you get these types of files for every project you’ve done with the LSP that you’re leaving. If all they returned to you is a PDF (essentially an image of your translated file), then your new LSP will need to retranslate and reformat your documents from scratch when you want to update them. This can be more costly and time-consuming. Examples of editable files include InDesign documents (.indd, .imdl) or Microsoft Word documents (.doc, .docx). PDF files (.pdf) are not editable and may need to be rebuilt from scratch. If you do get an InDesign document, make sure that you get the full design package, which should include fonts and images used in the document. Breakups are never easy and nobody looks forward to them, but sometimes they are necessary to move on to bigger and better things. If you can prepare for them thoughtfully, you can make the experience worthwhile for all parties involved. At Avantpage, our experienced team can help you navigate even the trickiest translation situations. To find out more about our services or to get a free quote, Email us at [email protected] or call us at 1-530-750-2040, extension 6.

At Avantpage, we’re a bunch of word nerds. We love language and most anything having to do with it, whether it's books, games or toys. With the holidays coming up, we wanted to share the holiday gifts that we’d love to receive this year. Hopefully, it inspires you and makes it easier to shop for a holiday gift for the language lover in your life. Chatter Bags The creators of Chatter Bags share a common goal with our team: to make conversation and connect and integrate people and communities from all over the world in many ways. That probably explains why we love these 100% cotton, ethically sourced canvas bags that allow you to communicate what language you speak or your interests by marking a square on the bag. They’re great for travelers and students as holiday gifts! The bags are made in England and priced at £6.99 or $9.17. For more info and to shop, visit chatterbags.com/shop. Foreign Language Blocks Teach your baby another language from the beginning with these beautifully made alphabet blocks in Spanish and Mandarin. Each block is embossed to give it a classic look inspired by traditional blocks. They are handcrafted in Michigan of Basswood grown in the Great Lakes area and printed with non-toxic inks. The blocks feature beveled edges for a more comfortable hold. Foreign Language Blocks are $36.95 and available here: uncommongoods.com/product/foreign-language-blocks. Language Learning Notebook This is a great gift for a student! This is a simple and useful notebook has 48 pages of paper that are uniquely lined and designed to help you study languages more efficiently. This is a great notebook to purchase as a holiday gift for anyone studying a new language! Each notebook is $6.95 and they are available here: mochithings.com/products/12683. Lost in Translation: An Illustrated Compendium of Untranslatable Words from Around the World This book brings to life more than 50 words without a direct English translation using charming illustrations of their tender, poignant, and humorous definitions. Often these words provide insight into the cultures they come from, such as the Brazilian Portuguese word for running your fingers through a lover’s hair or the Italian word for being moved to tears by a story. It’s $11.99 for a hardcover copy and available at Amazon.com. The Illustrated Book of Sayings: Curious Expressions from Around the World This book is great to package with “Lost in Translation” or to give as a follow-up holiday gift. Created by the same New York Times bestselling author, “The Illustrated Book of Sayings” is another charmingly illustrated collection of more than 50 expressions from around the globe that explore the nuances of language. It’s $10.86 for a hardcover copy and available at Amazon.com. Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages The debate is ages old: Where does language come from? Is it an artifact of our culture or written in our very DNA? In recent years, leading linguists have seemingly settled the issue: all languages are fundamentally the same and the particular language we speak does not shape our thinking in any significant way. Guy Deutscher, says they're wrong. From Homer to Darwin, from Yale to the Amazon, and through a strange and dazzling history of the color blue, Deutscher argues that our mother tongues do indeed shape our experiences of the world. It’s available in hardcover, paperback or Kindle, and available on Amazon.com. Other-Wordly: Words Both Strange and Lovely From Around the World Discover words to surprise, delight, and enamor. Learn terms for the sunlight that filters through the leaves of trees, for dancing awkwardly but with relish, and for the look shared by two people who each wish the other would speak first. Other-Wordly is an irresistible holiday gift for lovers of words and those lost for words alike. It’s available in paperback or Kindle, and available on Amazon.com. A Dictionary of Obscenities No, we’re not kidding. A dictionary of these, ahem, colorful phrases can help bring life to reading literature in a foreign language and can increase understanding. For a list of books in various languages, check out Amazon.com. A proud t-shirt Wear your linguistic skills proudly with a shirt that proclaims your abilities. Check out this version, which says “I speak Polish. What’s your superpower?” here. The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature In The Stuff of Thought, Bestselling author Steven Pinker presents a fascinating look at how our words explain our nature. Considering scientific questions with examples from everyday life, The Stuff of Thought is a brilliantly crafted and highly readable work that will appeal to fans of everything from The Selfish Gene and Blink to Eats, Shoots & Leaves. It’s available in hardcover, paperback, Kindle or audiobook on Amazon.com.