Month: January 2023

Why the Education Sector Should Embrace Digital Transformation
24/01/2023

Why the Education Sector Should Embrace Digital Transformation

Posted on | by Jacqueline De Marco | Leave a Comment on Why the Education Sector Should Embrace Digital Transformation

The pandemic pushed many traditional educational organizations to enter the online world of digital education. They all dipped their toes into the water by moving classes to Zoom and Google Meet, but the truth is that it takes a lot more than that to meet the demands of a digital generation.

There’s no time like the present for education to catch up with technological advancements to better serve and engage their users—aka learners. There is also a high percentage of teachers leaving traditional education institutions to work in the eLearning industry as of late, which is another factor the education system needs to take into account as they look to the future. Let’s take a closer look at why the education sector should embrace digital transformation.

What Does a Digital Transformation Look Like?

A digital transformation greatly surpasses typical software or hardware upgrades. A true digital transformation is just as philosophical as it is physical. For education institutions, a digital transformation may look like creating a learning environment that connects in-person education resources to digital ones so that students can belong to a robust ecosystem that combines security, technology, and education services.

A digital transformation can help create a more personalized, collaborative, and interactive learning experience.

How to Digitally Transform Education

So, how exactly can the education sector undergo a digital transformation? Let’s look at a few paths education institutions can take to enhance their digital presence in a meaningful way.

  • Multimedia digital textbooks. Heavy textbooks will soon be a thing of the past, as students can now access source materials from their digital devices wherever they are whether that be at home, the library, or in the classroom.
  • Bring your own device (BYOD). Enabling students to use the digital device they work on best in the classroom to take notes and work on their assignments can help foster engagement and retainment.
  • Personalized curriculum. With artificial intelligence, it’s now possible to create customized learning experiences for students by using artificial intelligence.
  • Game-based learning. Not only does game-based learning help encourage students to study, but it can actually help them better retain the information they’re being taught. This is a concept known as gamification and it’s very commonly used in e-learning materials.

The Benefits of Digital Transformation on Education

Why would education systems invest ample time and money in a digital transformation? To start, doing so actually increases access to education from students because the education experience becomes less reliant on one specific geographical location. This accessibility just adds to the convenience associated with a digital transformation. From being able to access source materials from any device, to collaborating and sharing notes digitally, to more spaces for interaction between teachers, students, and peers with their instructors and fellow students, there are tons of valuable benefits of a digital transformation for students.

The Takeaway

Through a digital transformation, educators can help enhance students’ learning experiences by fostering better communication and connecting them to more educational resources and materials.

Digital transformation in education is bringing down geographical barriers, allowing learners worldwide to choose what they want to learn regardless of location. Localization can help expand the target audience of whatever educational program that is already online. In addition, students can benefit greatly from localization as learning in their native language can greatly boost their engagement with the education materials, how they understand it, and how they retain the information.

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17/01/2023

What Spanish Language Dialect Do I Need to Translate Into?

Posted on | by Jacqueline De Marco | Leave a Comment on What Spanish Language Dialect Do I Need to Translate Into?

When you think about translating your documents or content into different languages, it’s logical to think about Spanish as one of the first languages you’ll want to tackle. Spanish is the second most spoken Language after Chinese. Over 500 million people speak Spanish and these Spanish speakers are spread throughout 25 different countries across the globe. 

While at first glance it may seem like these 500 million people speak the same exact language, each of these countries (and sometimes smaller regions within them) speaks the Spanish language a little differently. They often share the same grammar structure, but can have major differences when it comes to vocabulary or pronunciation.

In order to determine which Spanish variant is the one that would best suit your audience, you should think beyond the language and focus on the target audience you want to address. 

Ask Yourself the Right Questions

It’s time to interview yourself on how well you know your audience. Before you choose a Spanish language variant to translate your content into, ask yourself the following questions to gain some much needed insight into which Spanish variant they speak. 

  • Where is my audience based? Once you determine where the base of your audience lives, it’s easier to identify the Spanish variants you need to use. If it’s a specific country, like the United States, then you need to translate into the US Spanish variant. There are as many variants as countries that speak Spanish, so it’s important to nail down the correct variant before you begin the process of translation.
  • Am I trying to target a broader audience? If you want to target people in Colombia, Perú and Chile, por example, LATAM Spanish may be more suitable as it’s a more neutral variant that everyone will understand. It’s all about identifying that unique audience you want to target.

If you’re still not sure who your audience is yet or where they live, take some time to do some research so you can narrow your focus. Between conducting market research and looking at your web analytics, you should be able to gather enough information about your target audience to determine where they live and what Spanish language variant they speak. 

How to Navigate the Different Spanish Variants

Despite the many different Spanish variants that exist, translating content for Spanish speakers does not have to be a daunting task. Here are some key pieces of advice to keep in mind when it comes time to translate your content into Spanish.

  • Be natural. Always aim to make your message sound natural to the people living in your target locale.
  • Keep things neutral. When you must reach a wide audience of Spanish speakers originating in different locales, a non-localized, neutral variant is the most practical choice.
  • Get nuanced. While it’s great to keep your language neutral when serving a wider audience, when targeting a highly specific audience, consider a localized message that includes regional nuance.
  • Find the right translation partners. Work closely with your translation company, and discuss your audience and intent. A good translation agency will help you pinpoint the right form of Spanish for your audience.

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10/01/2023

Why Your Business Should Have a Monolingual Company Glossary

Posted on | by Jacqueline De Marco | Leave a Comment on Why Your Business Should Have a Monolingual Company Glossary

In the translation industry, you hear a lot of talk about the benefits of glossaries and term bases. As useful as these tools are, they are typically bilingual or multilingual and only contain approved translations for a set of key terms, phrases, or trademark terms. This is where a monolingual glossary can really come in handy. 

A monolingual company glossary can be an extremely valuable asset to translation teams, internally within companies, and for their customers.  

What is a monolingual company glossary?

Your typical monolingual company glossary will provide a set of definitions for commonly used business terms. A monolingual glossary functions similarly to a translation glossary, but explains the meaning of a word in the same language. 

A monolingual company glossary can step in to increase understanding around the specific business terms a company uses and encounters frequently. When these terms are misinterpreted, employees risk making unnecessary mistakes or uninformed decisions that can be costly and time-consuming for a company to fix. 

What are the key benefits? 

The neat thing about a monolingual company glossary, is that all parties benefit when one is in place.

  1. Benefits for the company itself. Companies will find a monolingual glossary helps their employees improve communication, increase understanding, and get up to speed on workplace training quicker. With this type of resource at hand, less mistakes will be made, trust in your product and processes will increase, and everything will run just a little bit smoother, which can save a company a lot of money. 
  2. Benefits for translation teams. On the translation side, one of the benefits is that translators don’t have to spend hours researching online to find out more about a specific process or product. Also, they save time by not having to send queries to the client and wait for a reply. Having all the information already compiled helps the translation team quickly answer the questions that arise during the translation process that are not answered in the materials themselves. 
  3. Benefits for customers. Because a business glossary can help provide much needed clarity to workers, they’ll have the tools they need to provide better products and services for customers. Your employees will always use consistent terminology and can provide a clear customer experience, as customers will encounter the same terms when they visit the website, interact with you through social media, or when they call your customer service. 

Misunderstandings can lead to mistakes and subpar work products, neither of which you want to expose your customer to. 

How to maintain a monolingual company glossary

Over time, you’ll want your monolingual company glossary to grow and evolve. To ensure accuracy in your monolingual glossary, you’ll need to have someone in your staff who has a high-level knowledge of the company operation and who can proofread new additions to the company glossary and rewrite any terms or definitions as needed. It’s important that the person in charge of this has professional linguistic knowledge, as the last thing you want is to introduce mistakes to the document everyone will use as a reference. Also, make sure you share this document to all parties when it’s been updated and every time you need to have content translated into a different language.

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03/01/2023

What Is Continuous Localization And Why Is It Beneficial?

Posted on | by Jacqueline De Marco | Leave a Comment on What Is Continuous Localization And Why Is It Beneficial?

Most major companies have their eyes set on global expansion these days and who can blame them? Expanding their reach to new locales can help their business thrive by exposing them to new audiences. To excel at expanding into new markets, the localization of products and content is necessary. That being said, localization is a major undertaking that can be very complex and time-consuming. This is where continuous localization comes in.  

Incorporating continuous localization into their workflow can help localization teams work faster, communicate better, and make less mistakes.  

Keep reading for more insight into what continuous localization is and what the benefits are.  

What Is Continuous Localization? 

Continuous localization is a type of translation workflow. With this specific workflow, you integrate translation workflows into the agile software development process. 

Under continuous localization, the translation team localizes the content in small batches which makes continuous integration easier. The localization manager and the translation team will have visibility into the development process during continuous localization. Because of this they are then able to easily discuss any translation issues that arise with developers. This allows the localization process to happen in lockstep with the development cycle.  

Throughout continuous localization, developers are encouraged to exchange ideas with the localization team—which they are able to do because continuous localization makes them more aware of localization issues and makes it possible for them to take the proactive steps necessary to minimize risks. 

What are the Benefits of Continuous Localization? 

Overall, the streamlined workflows between translation and development teams that occur because of continuous localization can lead to a lot less frustration for the team, less reworks, a higher quality final product, and a faster delivery. Let’s look at a few advantages associated with continuous localization.  

  • Simultaneous release. Continuous localization makes it possible for development teams to work on products for different locales and in different languages at the same time. Working parallel can speed up the multilingual development process and can shorten time to market, which is especially helpful if a business wants to launch a product simultaneously in multiple countries. 
  • Seamless collaboration. The localization team is able to work closely with developers to better understand the constraints of the user interface. This makes it easier to ask questions about the context and create accurate and high-quality translations while avoiding reworks.  
  • Shorter development cycles. Because continuous localization can make workflow faster by leading to less back-and-forth between developers and the localization team, it’s more obtainable to stay focused and on track which leads to shorter development cycles.  

How Is Continuous Localization Relevant Today? 

To thrive in today’s increasingly global society, companies need to expand their global reach while balancing scaling needs. Trying to launch their products in multiple new markets leads to a lot of localization needs and can create a major bottleneck problem.  

High quality localization is a time-consuming process and is quite complex. Introducing continuous localization into their localization process can make it easier for their team to communicate, to streamline their workflow, and to complete projects faster and with fewer errors made.  

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