Why we can deliver top quality translations

Language is not nature but nurture. It is a part of human culture and must be learned. Language can be used to communicate and to dis-municate, it can be used to tell the truth or lies, it can serve to convey clear ideas or to confuse them. It may cause misunderstanding as much as understanding and it can be a means of unequivocal information or of intended or unintended ambiguity. While it consists of words, it is not just words. Words carry meaning and meaning depends on context.

Any translator worth his or her salt translates not just words but intended meaning within a context. A good translation must adequately mirror content, intended meaning and style of the source text. A good translator must not only be a professional linguist and a subject matter expert. He or she must also be culturally competent.

We make sure that our translations are always performed by translators that are competent in all three areas. We proofread each translation for linguistic conciseness, subject matter correctness, and cultural competence. That is why we can deliver top quality translations.

Why it is important that your documents are translated correctly

The quality of your product or service literature will convey an image of the overall quality of your products or services. If your user manual is written in a strange and faulty manner, full of mistakes and ridiculous language, the user will instinctively fear that the product or service might be of the same shoddy quality. If you wish to project an image of top quality and deference to your foreign language customers, you should make sure that your documents contain well-written foreign language text.

In many areas liability is a key concern. Be sure your legal or medical documents are translated correctly. Incorrect translations of medical records, medical device manuals or legal correspondence can lead to serious mistakes and damages.

Amateurish and incompetent translations can have dramatic consequences. After WWII the Germans needed grain. The German culture is a bread culture. The general term ‘grain’ is the German word ‘Korn’. When Germans say “Korn” they mean wheat, barley and rye, because these are the grains from which most German breads are made. When Germany asked the US to send “Korn” in 1947, the letter was translated into English by an incompetent translator in the German post-war administration. He asked the American government for “corn”, which is, of course, “maize” in American English. For “corn” they asked and “corn” they got. And so the Germans received millions of tons of corn flour and had to eat corn bread and corn pancakes, corn breakfast rolls and corn everything for many years.

Q.: What is worse than not being capable of communicating correctly in a foreign language?
A.: To be unaware of it!

How you can help to make the translation of your document a success

1. Make sure your text is complete and requires no further edits before you consider translating it. Make sure all changes you made are fully implemented prior to sending your text to the translation provider.
   
2. Make sure your text is written in a culturally neutral manner. Metaphors, symbolism and concepts you are using may not exist, may not be understood, or may sound offensive, obscene or ridiculous in other cultures/languages.
   
3. Make sure your layout allows for significant expansion or shrinkage of text volume. Text volume may increase or decrease in other languages by as much as 50%.
   
4. Decide whether or not you want embedded text or text in imported images translated, and give the translation provider clear instructions about it.
   
5. Do not send the translation provider password protected documents or documents that are otherwise not fully accessible and/or editable.
   
6. If you have preferential terms or a company glossary you want the translator to use, please provide them with your source text. If we do not realize that you prefer a certain term, chances are we won’t use it.
   
7. Plan ahead! Great translations are not done in a hurry. Haste makes waste.

If you need help, ask the Adler staff.

What we base our prices on

Adler charges based on the electronically counted words in your source or target documents. If the source document is not electronically countable, we will count the number of words in the target document (i.e. in the translation). Please see our Pricing page to view our current rates.

What turnaround times you can expect

Typically, we can translate your document at the rate of approximately 2,000 words per business day, plus one additional business day for proofreading, for all requested languages concurrently. For small documents (1,000 words or less), such as birth or marriage certificates, the typical turnaround time is one to two business days. For larger documents (10,000 words or more), shorter turnaround times can in many cases be arranged by contacting your project manager.

What formats we can work with

We can translate directly into the following file types, preserving your document's formatting with no additional hourly DTP (desktop publishing) fee:

• .doc
• .xls
• .ppt
• .pub
• .wps
• .wpd
• .html
• .asp
• .txt

We can create translations as a new MS Word document for the following document types:

• .pdf
• .tif, .jpg, .bmp
• .efx
• faxes
• hardcopy documents

For these non-editable document types, the formatting of the target document will approximately resemble the formatting of the source document, but it will not be identical.

How we establish word counts

If at all possible, we use PractiCount word-counting software to establish word counts for common word-processing document formats (.doc, .xls, .ppt, etc.). Word counts for other file types may rely on the word-counting tools available in the files’ native software application.

For some hardcopy documents, we may be able to use OCR technology to create an electronically countable version of your file. However, OCR files often contain a rather chaotic formatting and text structure, so that we do not use OCR files to establish source word counts but to estimate the number of target words for quotation purposes. The billing word count, however, would be based on the number of words in the translation.