Dog cage and Execute

The Chinese B2B giant Alibaba goes global financially, not so much linguistically

 

In the famous folk tale Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, two words, Open Sesame, open the doors to a secret cave hollowed by the hand of man and full of rich bales of merchandise, including silk, gold and silver. Last week, the homonymous B2B giant opened its doors through one of the most anticipated IPOs of the year; however, to the surprise of its international users, the cave of wonders was full of trinkets.

 
The words Sesam Öffne Dich! granted German users access to the fascinating world of “hair from virgins”, “wearable audios with the loud noise”,  cocktail dresses for “thick women”, and even “medical” products such as the essential “Christmas gift needs bong bongs and glass pipe”, which will last you from 800 to 1,000 puffs or “brothels”.

Likewise, the words Ábrete sésamo introduced Spanish-speaking users to the marvels of “shit lingerie”, “dog cage and execute”, “glasses for butterfly child”, and even “monkey rider suits” for riding your “motorcycle moto of the filth”. Their “French” is not better, either.

Jokes aside, these are very sad times for our industry.

Translation is often debated as being a commodity. We are now a very laughable one. Are we letting companies that outsource to untrained translators, cheap labor or use bad machine translation engines, take over the world? If that’s the case, the future looks bleak. Imagine years of misspelled nightmares where, to quote Alibaba, “virgins with wooden paste are wearing plumbing through your neck dresses.”

If a company valued at US$ 215 billion cannot be bothered to care about proper web localization and the quality of its multilingual content, where does that leave our profession? Is it time for a real shake-up in our industry? Can we seriously accept - and not condemn - such horrible cut-throat practices that shame our profession?

Who is the real culprit behind this? The debate is open.

Tell us what you think,

The BeatBabel Vigilante

Dog cage and Execute

It’s 2012 and you are still using Trados 2007?

The translation process dates back to ancient times but technology has changed our jobs and working methods quite a bit. CAT (Computer-assisted translation) tools make our jobs easier, more accurate and more efficient. Nowadays, in order to provide the client with a quote, the files first need to be analyzed, and based on word repetitions and matches against a TM (Translation Memory) or a previously translated document, the rates can be more competitive. For the sake of exemplifying how a CAT tool can save you a lot of grief, we’ll refer to one of our most recent upgrades: SDL Trados Studio 2011.

Since the launch of its previous version in 2009, we’ve been aware of the mixed reactions in regards to this software. We’d grown attached to Trados 2007 and also, we’d grown attached to our translators, who handled the same software as we did. Studio 2009 had come and gone, and only a few had dared to venture into its somewhat unknown territory. Also, translators can be tough cookies. The idea amongst a considerable amount of people was, and still is: If a tool works, why replace it? Why spend money on an upgrade you’re not sure you need?

I’m a baby compared to other people and their experience in this industry. When I started working full-time in translation, I was introduced to both Trados 2007 and Studio 2009. As I got to know both versions in an unbiased manner, I soon became baffled on how people continued working on a version that is now 5 years old. At this point in the history of technology, 5 years is a huge amount of time!

So, for all of you out there, still dancing around with the idea of upgrading from a 2007 version, (or older…or none of all!) here is a list of what are my whole-hearted honest opinions, experiences and discoveries about Studio 2009 and 2011, in contrast with Trados 2007. I am in no way the expert and truly welcome all the more knowledgeable people on the subject to speak out!

• Fully Integrated Interface: nothing made more sense to me but to have everything on one same platform. With Studio you can roam around like the master of the castle: all your projects, files, reports, TMs in one same place and easy to handle.
• In Trados 2007 I soon discovered that a false move can be devastating. Big accidents can happen. (And I mean big!) Studio is far from being accident-free but at least it blocks your path every time something wrongs pops up. However, discovering the error can be a hassle. I remember going ballistic on a project that I had gone back to edit after 6 months of having it marked as completed. I attempted to create new target translations but the options where grayed out. It had been a long day, the deadline was imminent and the minutes that I struggled not knowing what to do, were horrible. What was the problem? I had forgotten to “Reactivate” the project. Just a click.
• Tags could be a great problem when cleaning files in Trados 2007. In Studio, there is no way you can mess with them. You can even take them out from your sight if you don’t want to see them (Format>Tag Display Mode.) And if you want to input them into the target text, you can either copy the source to target or use the “QuickPlace” function, which applies formatting just by highlighting what you want where you want it.
• Much less DTP work with Studio! No more nightmares about tables, text boxes or bullet points.
• Need to make sure that you use a consistent translation? In Studio, you can filter segments out in either the source or the target text, in order to see every instance where a word or words are used.
• Use several TMs at the same time.
• Get leverage not only with the TM, but at the paragraph and document level.
• You can easily upgrade your old TMS to Studio based TMS (.sdltm)
• Pretranslate segments and lock them so that nothing that was reviewed and approved once is reviewed again.
• The concept of packages allows you to send out and return translation or review projects. It creates a folder structure, a package per target language, lets the user define tasks for individual packages and it allows to recompute word count or analysis for cross-file repetitions.
• Once your heart is set on something, override translations easily and maintain a clean TM.
• Multilingual projects.
• Track changes. This feature is only available in Studio 2011. It allows reviewers to mark their changes that can later be accepted or rejected.

I realize I may have spoken more about the positive attributes than the negative aspects. Not everything is sugar and cotton candy with Studio; there is still a lot of room for improvement. For example, I cannot speak for the increased functionality between Studio 2009 and 2011, as nothing has impressed me just yet. For some reason, my 2011 version is much slower than its predecessor. The project set up process seems a little more convoluted than it needs to be, especially for translators. And obtaining an analysis should be simpler.

Upgrading can be tricky if not everyone is on the same page. We are not going to dismiss all the translators whom we like and who deliver quality work, just because they haven’t upgraded. Sometimes, everyone on the translation team will have Studio, but not on the editing team. For these cases for example, there is such a thing called the SDL XLIFF Converter for Microsoft Office. The “user is then able to use MS Word application to review/edit the exported document and use the tool to import these changes back to the original SDL XLIFF file.” Pretty cool!

Like for a lot of translators out there, our company’s transition into Studio has been difficult. It has been slow, challenging, surprising, happy, frustrating and a million other things. It’s been complicated, but we have learnt to love the tool and we now wonder how we ever lived without it. A piece of advice, don’t be afraid to give it a try…


Tania Varela and the BeatBabel Team

It’s 2012 and you are still using Trados 2007?

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday!

On native languages and hometowns...

Spanish is my native language. That is the language my parents spoke to each other when they fell in love, the language in which I said my first word, the language I learnt to love. It is the epicenter of my identity. However, identity is a complicated matter, especially if you come from a complicated place…

I was probably not even a year old the first time I traveled to a country other than the one where I was born. In those days, it wasn’t much of a hassle to cross the border to San Diego, and so we did it all the time. Sunday mornings meant ten people cramped in my Great Grandmother’s tiny apartment in the corner of California, eating the traditional Mexican breakfast she would cook for us.

McDonalds was a natural element of my geography before McDonalds actually spread to every hole in the world. On Sundays, I would get five dollars for my “Domingo” (my allowance: I came to know about exchange rates at a very young age)…and probably the first hundred movies and books that I came to know were in English.

My family is a combination of people who came from the center of the Mexican Republic and people who were native inhabitants of California, before California actually belonged to the United States, 163 years ago. For that reason, I was born with the right to a dual citizenship in a place where I am still to discover the culture I belong to. The languages for these two countries (or at least the languages de facto for these two countries) came naturally to me.

I have had the opportunity to live in and adapt to different places. I grew up bilingual and bicultural in a territory of Mexico’s political division, even though I’ve always said that Tijuana (my hometown) is an in-between place that doesn’t quite know where it belongs.

If you were to plan day trips to each of the opposite borderline communities, you would indeed catch a glimpse of the differences sustained by the imaginary line that divides them. We share the same weather, the same flora and the same fauna. We can even use the same currency. You could say that the fundamental divergence is the economic level of each region, but of course, it goes much further than that.

True, I know San Diego like I was born here. I love how there’s always a new place to discover a delicious meal, the feeling of driving on a well known freeway at 80mph (Oops…I meant 65,) and thinking that it will take you anywhere you want. I love the open spaces, the beaches, the tall buildings, the shopping centers (a true San Diegan will call them malls,) Balboa Park, getting the munchies at four in the morning and knowing something will be open, leaving the house in my pjs, and how people don’t understand what cold really feels like. But for me, San Diego wouldn’t be as lovely it if I couldn’t escape from it every once in a while.

I love my Tijuana, because ironically, there’s no place I feel safer. I love the feeling of freedom, not the kind of freedom you read about in books and treaties, but the one that you can actually identify in real life. I love that the city possesses a beauty that is hard to understand, one that you must look for and keep like a priceless gem; a gem so special that will only expose itself to those willing to look for it. I love the people, the constant struggle to define existence, the contrasts.

One thing I am certain of: it was the combination of elements, the historical disposition of events and my love for the undefined, heterogeneous, and ever-growing existence that persists in this area, that which made me end up here, in a profession of multiculturalism and languages.

Maybe I am spoiled. Because I can go back and forth, because I am a wanderer and I feel, precisely, that San Diego is a city where wanderers like to settle down every once in a while. But to tell the truth, one of my favorite things about living here is that I am able to adopt contrasting cultural roles and meet in between every so often. All in the same geographic space. And then I’ll go to work, and cheat time and space by working alongside colleagues in France, Portugal, Germany, Russia, Argentina… you name it.

Spanish is my native language and English comes very close after it. I was born in one city, but I grew up in two. My geographic locations, as my languages, have been a trampoline to the world.

I am sure that there is certain warmth in belonging to a specific place with a specific culture, language and traditions…

But to be honest, I like jumping on this crazy trampoline. I just love it....

Tania Varela - BeatBabel

On native languages and hometowns...

Think Latin America, Silicon Valley

A diverse array of localization industry professionals from all over the world were brought together last Friday at The Mountain Winery in Silicon Valley. And for what purpose?... to spotlight Latin America and discuss the region’s booming market, business opportunities and uniqueness for the second edition of the “Think Latin America” conference, organized by the “Women in Localization” group , IMTT and Ccaps Translation. BeatBabel drove all the way up with 4 team members and the event was well worth the drive!

Latin America, the region of the world spanning from the northernmost tip of Mexico to the southernmost tip of Chile and Argentina, comprised of 21 countries with 2 dominant languages, has experienced an economic boom; “Could it be because of the more stable economic policies, or the technology transformation that is underway there? Or is it because of the vibrant emerging middle class that is boosting the demand for goods?” asked Think Latin America’s website, and on Friday afternoon, through knowledgeable guest speakers and a panel discussion of seasoned professionals, these questions were answered with an affirmative yes.

“Think Latin America” provided insightful knowledge into the cultural particularities of the region and its changing social and economic landscape, and was all about highlighting the region as the perfect place for investment and outsourcing. Both foreign and native Latin American speakers from global brands and companies such as comScore, Apple, Coca-Cola, Xerox and Buck Consultants led discussions on the state of the internet in Latin America, targeting your messages to Latin American audiences, successful business sustainability pilots implemented in Latin America and insider perspectives on the economy and business practices in Latin American countries. Renato Beninatto closed the program with some insights and some laughs as he swore that the 3rd iPad to be sold, was sold to a Brazilian!

A wealth of information was revealed; for instance, did you know that dominant Latin America values when conducting business are personalism and particularism and that communication is more personal? That online usage in Latin America is driven by a young demographic and has registered a 15% growth with social networks reaching 88% of Latin American users? Or that Latin America is the top sales region for the Coca-Cola Company and that Brazil is a model recycling nation where also, in the past 5 years, 37 million people have come out of poverty? The provided data and statistics such as these along with the insider perspectives helped illustrate Latin America as the powerhouse it is becoming in the global economy.

To complement the program afterwards was the networking dinner at the perfect venue; The Mountain Winery, with beautiful mountaintop views of Saratoga and Silicon Valley, perhaps even rivaling last year’s “Think Latin America” location in Búzios, Brazil. And wherever the next conference will be held, here’s to hoping it will be full of people who are very proud of their respective Latin American countries’ emerging success and people eager to learn about them and welcome the “new” Latin America. And no matter where, BeatBabel will be there!

“People in Latin America are used to struggle, we are all wired as fighters and we never give up” said Liliana Rojas of Apple during the panel discussion, essentially providing the perfect conclusion to Think Latin America’s program. See you next year!

Larisa Casillas - BeatBabel

Think Latin America, Silicon Valley

A Different Perspective on Thanksgiving

It’s Thanksgiving again and I remember the year when my sister exclaimed at the table that she didn’t even like turkey. I then realized that if it was any other day other than Thanksgiving, I wouldn’t be eating the macaroni and cheese, gravy, turkey stuffing, etcetera. These are all dishes that millions of Americans eat on this day, and they are also dishes I could do without. So why did I find myself mechanically eating this food while vacantly wishing people a “Happy Thanksgiving,” when in reality I didn’t quite understand what Thanksgiving was about.

Food preferences aside, the bigger point is that Thanksgiving is not just a holiday; it is also a big cliché that is hard to escape from if you live in the United States. When you take into account its commercialization, with the extravagant Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, excessive football games on television, people camping outside of Wal-Mart for “Black Friday” specials, and the massacre of millions of turkeys, it also becomes somewhat of a farce and it makes you wonder if there’s anything of true value in the holiday.

Furthermore, it becomes hypocritical when you think of the traditionally considered, first Thanksgiving dinner between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians in 1621. The Wampanoag people had taught the Pilgrims, who were starving, how to survive in the new territory they were trying to inhabit -Wampanoag territory. The dinner between the Wampanoag people and the Pilgrims symbolized a gesture of friendship and good faith. Therefore, it’s sad that the ultimate fate and treatment by Anglo settlers of the Wampanoag Indians and Native Americans in general, lacked that kindness and good faith which the Wampanoag Indians demonstrated.

This is why I believe Thanksgiving should be re-examined both socially and historically in public discourse. It should also be more culturally inclusive. Thanksgiving is a specifically American holiday, yet, if you’re not a direct descendant of the Mayflower ship, it becomes hard to get excited about or connect with the holiday. The fact is that in the US today, there are many different ethnic groups, and we’ve all had a role in shaping the country. Thus, Thanksgiving should be “localized,” or adapted to the different cultural, religious and linguistic groups that exist in the country.

In its purest sense, a holiday like Thanksgiving provides a day of leisure and gives people an opportunity to spend time with family and to reflect on what they’re thankful for, things that many of us don’t do as often. If we do away with the stereotypes, norms and superficial aspects of the holiday, and attempt to emulate the Wampanoag Indians with acts of kindness, then many more of us will have a better time and I would believe in the purpose of a Thanksgiving holiday - worldwide.

Happy "Localized" Thanksgiving from all the team at BeatBabel!
Larisa Casillas

A Different Perspective on Thanksgiving

Vendor Management Best Practices: why less is more...

In light of our presentation this Saturday at the Vendor Management Seminar in Las Vegas (organized by our friends from IMTT and VMS), we have decided to talk about vendor/client relationships and what makes them successful over time. We are looking at the relationship from different angles:
- the perspective of our translation and localization vendors and our own experience since some of us started as vendors
- the perspective of Project and Vendor Managers
- the company's perspective, since we are after all also vendors to our customers.

Since there are a few days left before the conference, we wanted to open the discussion to vendors who might not be able to attend the seminar and ask for their input. What in your opinion makes successful client-vendor relationships?

The floor is yours... Please use the comments section below or email us at info @ beatbabel.com if you want to share your thoughts and have your ideas included in the seminar. Looking forward to hearing from you!

PS: BeatBabel will be tweeting from the Vendor Management Seminar so that you can follow it "live". Just look out for the Twitter keyword #imtt_vms. We will also post our presentation on our website after the event: http://www.beatbabel.com/Articles/Pages/Default.aspx

The BeatBabel Team

Vendor Management Best Practices: why less is more...