Categoría: Industry Topics

Making Progress for Women in the Language Industry
08/03/2023

Making Progress for Women in the Language Industry

Posted on | by Jacqueline De Marco | Leave a Comment on Making Progress for Women in the Language Industry

At Terra, we’re proud to be a women-owned company and to have 72% of all leadership positions occupied by women and non-binary individuals and throughout our company. Overall, we have a 73% representation of women. Which is why celebrating International Women’s Day is so important to us, as is working towards gender equality and women empowerment in the translation industry and beyond.

Some of the Challenges Women Faced and Continue to Face

The UN has defined one of their main Sustainable Development goals as striving to “Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic, and public life.”

While you may think numbers in the localization industry are better because the vast majority of translators are women, we still see that leadership positions are mostly held by men. According to Nimdzi, only 17% of the companies featured in the Nimdzi 100 ranking are women-owned or women-run.

Knowing the challenges women historically faced and still face today is an essential step towards awareness, which is necessary to fuel action. In particular, there is still a lot of work to be done in regard to:

  • Gender gap in salaries
  • Gender-based discrimination (being a mother for example, can lead to less fair career opportunities for women)
  • Lack of women representation in leadership positions

Improvement has been made in these areas, but there’s still a lot to do if we want to work towards true equality. According to BoardEx data, only 5% of CEOs are women and 19.2% of corporate leadership team members are female. About 28.2% of board members are female, the study found. However, many of these women were appointed to non-executive roles, which are often centered on board oversight rather than real decision-making power.

What Can We Do to Support Fellow Women?

We’ve come a long way. But the truth is that the progress we’ve seen throughout history is thanks to the contributions that other women have made through the years. So, we encourage fellow women in the language industry to look for local organizations, so they can learn more about the different initiatives and how they can help them reach their goals.

These are a few of the organizations Terra supports:

  • Women in Localization: This nonprofit organization has a mission to foster a global community for the advancement of women and the localization industry by providing networking, education, career advancement, and mentoring opportunities to women in the localization industry.
  • Women in Games: Women in Games aims to build a fair, equal and safe environment that empowers girls and women to join and thrive in the global gaming ecosystem.
  • Chicas en Tecnología: This non-profit organization in Argentina works to reduce the gender gap in technology in that region by motivating and training the next generation of women leaders in technology.
  • Enterprising Women Magazine: A national and global magazine for female entrepreneurs that celebrates achievements by women and provides valuable resources.

These organizations are ones we are proud to support, but there are many others doing good work in this space. Spend some time researching where your volunteer efforts can make the most impact.

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4 BRAND BLUNDERS THAT TRANSCREATION COULD HAVE AVOIDED
28/02/2023

4 Brand Blunders that Transcreation could have Avoided

Posted on | by Jacqueline De Marco | Leave a Comment on 4 Brand Blunders that Transcreation could have Avoided

Entering a foreign market can be a great move if your goal is to grow your business by reaching new audiences. However, this goal welcomes a unique set of challenges. When it comes to translating content into different languages, brands can make major blunders that impact their success in a new market—especially if they don’t take the target country’s culture into account.

To better understand how mistakes can occur, we’re going to look at four real-life examples of brands who had major blunders occur after entering new markets. Blunders which could have been easily avoided with market research and transcreation.

Puma—2011

To celebrate the 40th National Day in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), PUMA launched a new shoe design using the country’s flag colors. This seemed like a great marketing initiative at first glance. The problem? The shoe included a respected symbol on an item that is considered very dirty in Arab culture. Puma didn’t intend to cause offense, but by not taking the cultural sensitivity surrounding this symbol into account, they caused mass offense, had to issue an apology, and needed to remove the shoes from stores.

Hiring a target market specialist who is familiar with the local culture and what is considered offensive could have helped avoid this disastrous launch.

P&G for Pampers–1970s

In the 1970’s P&G for Pampers ran a campaign in Japan that seemed really charming at first glance from an American perspective. The ad included a stork delivering diapers to a mom. Storks are frequently associated with delivering new babies to their parents in America, but in Japan folklore tells stories of newborns arriving via a giant peach floating down the river. While the inclusion of a stork didn’t cause offense, it didn’t strike a chord either and consumers simply ignored the commercial which wasn’t an effective use of marketing dollars. A skilled transcreator may have known that the commercial wouldn’t resonate and would be a bit of a flop. They could have helped create a high-quality final product.

Pepsi—1960s

Pepsi entered China using a slogan that they intended to translate to “Pepsi Brings You Back to Life.” What the phrase actually translated to? “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave.” Ancestor worship is an important part of Chinese culture, so this slogan did not have the effect it intended. Not only could a transcreator with proper knowledge of the local language and culture have translated the phrase properly, but they could have ensured no major culture faux pas occurred.

Braniff Airlines—1987

In the late 1980’s Braniff Airlines ran ads on televisions, radios, and in newspapers to let everyone know that their jets had luxe all-leather seats. In the Florida market, they ran ads on Spanish-language radio stations. The result? Accidentally revealing an unintended double entendre. Their slogan for the campaign was “fly in leather”. In Spanish, this translates to fly “en cuero” which sounds like Spanish slang for “fly naked”. While some suspected this scandalous move was intended, the executive who created the ad confirmed the double entendre was in fact an accident.

Again—this could have been an easy mistake for a transcreator to catch.

We all make mistakes and that’s okay, but whenever possible, it’s very helpful to learn from the mistakes of others! Especially when you’re spending a lot of time and resources to launch in a new target market.

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6 Skills Every Localization Project Manager Needs to Have
21/02/2023

6 Skills Every Localization Project Manager Needs to Have

Posted on | by Marisol Pérez Laglaive | Leave a Comment on 6 Skills Every Localization Project Manager Needs to Have

An effective localization project manager is someone who has a unique skill set that combines planning, organization, people management, communication, and other valuable skills. This role often involves taking on the responsibility of getting localized products to market and the global success of the company can be greatly impacted by the outcome of localization efforts. It’s understandable that it takes a lot of experience to manage such a large responsibility.  

The following skills are ones all strong localization project managers need in order to efficiently and effectively execute their responsibilities.

Planning

One way to meet deadlines and to keep the whole localization process moving along is to have strong planning skills. The better a localization project manager plans out a project from the get go, the more likely they are to oversee a smooth localization process. Taking the planning stage seriously can result in less stress for the localization team and better results for the clients. One thing all good localization project managers plan for is risk management, which involves managing intentionally and systematically the uncertainties that may occur during the course of a project.

Organization

To keep a good plan running as it should, organization is key. Localization project managers need to oversee a lot of details regarding linguistic, technical, cultural, and administrative choices. Keeping a localization team updated and on the same page, as well as coordinating work efforts with other departments, requires excellent organizational skills. Adopting tech resources like TMS and CAT tools can really come in handy here.

People Management

Localization project managers oversee a team and interact with many different departments within the client’s organization. There will also be times when the localization project manager needs to work with other localization specialists and their team which may include linguists, engineers, testers, and desktop publishers. Logistics can get extremely complicated on localization projects as many of the collaborators may be scattered across the globe, in different time zones and may be part of different cultures. All this adds to the challenge when it comes to managing people.

Being able to delegate, help solve conflicts, and generally interact well with both internal and external collaborators is important. 

Communication

Speaking of working well with others, knowing how to communicate properly can be really helpful when working as a localization project manager. Being able to communicate clearly and concisely is ideal, especially when defining project protocols, deliverables, and deadlines. The last thing you want is for a misunderstanding or a lack of communication to derail a localization project. This is especially important considering localization project managers frequently speak English while interacting with people around the world whose mother tongue is other than English. Making sure everything is absolutely clear and understood is vital.

Technologically Savvy

Localization projects can involve emerging and cutting-edge technologies that may be new to the localization team, which can lead to quite a learning curve. Being technologically savvy and willing to learn and adapt can make it easier to understand new technology that is the focus of your localization project. Identifying and selecting the technological tools that will help initiate a smooth workflow is an important part of what localization project managers do. 

Flexibility

Last, but certainly not least, a localization project manager can benefit greatly from being flexible as localization projects tend to involve a great number of variables. It’s often necessary to shift priorities without much warning in order to redirect a localization project and to keep things moving along. Working out solutions quickly and creatively is something all localization project managers need to do from time to time and being flexible can be a very valuable asset. 

The localization project manager is an extremely important player in a localization project. Localization project managers guide all parties involved in the project so that it goes smoothly from start to finish and its success is not compromised.

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07/02/2023

How to Find a Potential Target Audience

Posted on | by Jacqueline De Marco | Leave a Comment on How to Find a Potential Target Audience

In business, it is tempting to try to reach as many potential customers as possible. While broadening your company’s reach is an important goal to pursue, doing so strategically and effectively is important. How can you do this? You can start by finding and focusing on your target audience. Catering to your target audience can make it easier to connect with them and to build lasting customer relationships.

Keep reading for insight into how to find a potential target audience. 

Embrace Analytics

One major perk of living in a digital world is that researching your target audience is easier than ever before. Thanks to technology we now have access to valuable analytics that can provide us with insight into our target audience. 

To start, take a look at your website and social media channels analytics to see who is spending time on your website or looking at your content. You might find that people in your region or country make up the majority of the traffic, but you may also find people in foreign countries are visiting your site and that there might be an opportunity to expand to a new target market.

For websites, Google Analytics offers a free and very powerful suite of data analytic tools you can utilize. You can see where your website visitors are coming from, where they live, which pages they visit most frequently, how long they’re spending on your site, and what their demographics are—amongst other important data. When it comes to social media, most platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn all offer free analytic tools that give you insight into who your followers are and how they’re interacting with your social media profiles. 

Tapping into the data surrounding where your audience is coming from can help you find what regions your business appeals to. Then you can create a localization strategy that allows you to better service that specific audience. For example, if your website is getting a ton of traffic from a region or country that speaks a different language than your website is displayed in, you may want to invest in localization and international SEO to attract even more visitors from that region. 

Do Market Research

Once you have an idea of where a target audience is located, you can do market research to determine if these markets are truly viable and a good fit for your product or service. You can do this by researching how a new target market differs from one you’re currently serving successfully. 

When researching a new target audience, try to dig up the following data points about that specific audience:

  • Market conditions
  • In-demand products or services
  • Average purchasing power and income
  • Barriers to entry
  • Local laws and regulations
  • Cultural norms
  • How your business stands out from competitors servicing that audience

Determine Whether Translation, Localization, or Transcreation is Needed

If a new target market you want to tap into speaks a different language, you need to determine whether you need to pursue translation, localization, or transcreation to ensure that your products and customer communications better resonate with this new audience. Even if the new audience is in the same region as another one of your existing audiences, you’ll need to confirm whether or not the new audience speaks a different variant of the language your existing audience speaks and adjust your communications accordingly.

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Localization Management: Browser-Based Translations Tools
31/01/2023

Localization Management: Browser-Based Translations Tools

Posted on | by Jacqueline De Marco | Leave a Comment on Localization Management: Browser-Based Translations Tools

Moving translation management tools into the cloud seems like an inevitable call for IT development in localization. Browser-based solutions offer ease of use, lower prices, accessibility (sometimes even from mobile devices), and versatility. All of this while providing the basic functionalities of Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) tools, like translation memories (TM), terminology management, translation management for project managers (PMs), reporting and statistics, and quality assurance (QA) tools.

There are a lot of browser-based options in the market. Some offer comprehensive solutions for translation and localization workflows, while others specialize in supporting product development teams or website and app localization, like Transifex or Lokalise. Here we’ll offer insight on four of the most popular web-based tools: Memsource, Smartling, Smartcat, and XTM.

Localization from the Browser: Smartling and Smartcat

Smartling and Smartcat are entirely browser-based solutions. On the one hand, Smartling’s strength is website localization, since it offers an in-context preview and in-context translation and review mode. With these features, linguists can check how text displays on web pages. In addition, users don’t need a license to work on the platform, so it’s ideal for managing projects with freelance translators and multiple providers. However, it needs an optimal configuration in order to properly detect new content to translate, which is pushed automatically for translation. This issue may cause redundant costs and idle work.

On the other hand, Smartcat offers a browser-based comprehensive CAT tool, with TMs, term bases (TB) and QA features, as Smartling does too. But Smartcat’s distinctive added value is its marketplace, which offers the possibility to connect with available freelancers and automate payments. It also offers a built-in OCR solution to digitize non-editable documents.

Exhaustive Online Translation Management: Memsource and XTM

Memsource is an exhaustive translation management system and CAT tool with a lightweight editor and portal. It offers the core functions (TMs, TBs, and quality management) and a preview mode for some formats, like Word documents. Its salient feature may be its mobile and desktop integration, with a mobile app and editor for translators and for project managers. Additionally, it has a very user-friendly user interface (UI) that makes the software intuitive for both vendors and managers. Memsource allows exporting MXLIFF files, a native file of the software, that integrates with Memsource Editor, the desktop app. However, this file is not supported by Trados or memoQ, so linguists need to install plugins or extensions.

On another note, XTM is a robust online translation management system that enables language service providers to organize simple and more complex workflows. From this perspective, it offers reporting features, progress and time tracking options, a mobile app for PMs, and automation rules for workflow management. From a vendors’ point of view, one disadvantage may be that its slow performance depends on the quality of the internet connection, but it has the advantage of saving progress in cache for restoring.

***

Such variety and versatility within software solutions imply that there is always a best-suited tool for the types of projects and workflows linguists or Language Service Providers manage on a regular basis. Thorough research on the options and the support of your localization partner will always help make the best-informed choice available for your needs.

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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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4 Tips to Localize Your Mobile App into Brazilian Portuguese
20/12/2022

4 Tips to Localize Your Mobile App into Brazilian Portuguese

Posted on | by Jacqueline De Marco | Leave a Comment on 4 Tips to Localize Your Mobile App into Brazilian Portuguese

Mobile apps are very popular in Brazil and the most popular apps in this country are those relating to social media, entertainment, and social networking. There’s a lot of potential app users in Brazil that app creators should try to appeal to. For those interested in localizing their apps for this market, this is what they need to know.

Take String Length Into Account

When translating text from English, Brazilian Portuguese requires 25% to 30% more space, so it’s very important to take string length into account. This means it takes more time for users to read any text dialogue or subtitles features in an app, so it’s essential to keep this length difference in mind during the development process. It’s also vital not to forget to use a font that supports the full library of Portuguese punctuation and accents, as not including the proper characters can change the meaning of a word and cause comprehension issues. 

Remember the Differences Between Brazilian and European Portuguese

If you think you can localize your app once to cover all Portuguese speaking users, think again. There are major differences between Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese that must be recognized. Spelling, pronunciation, and the meaning of words can differ between these two variants. For example, in Brazil, a bathroom is referred to as a “banheiro”, but in Portugal it is called a “sala de banhos”. Most Brazilians reject European Portuguese, so if you want to appeal to the Brazilian market, you need to localize to their specific variant. 

Localize Metrics

Speaking of localization, language is not the only element that must be adapted. Metrics such as units of measure, temperatures (ºC vs ºF), distance, weight, currency, and how dates are formatted can differ greatly across different languages. 

When it comes to Brazilian Portuguese, you’ll want to use the following metrics.

  • 24h clock format
  • DD/MM/YYYY date format
  • Brazilian Real (R$) instead of the American Dollar ($)

Don’t Forget About Culturalization 

When it comes to making a mobile app successful in a new market, you need to keep more than just the local language in mind. Translating the language of an app is a great start, but to really thrive you need to keep culture in mind. This is where culturalization comes in. If your app includes cultural elements (such as film, religious, or historical references), adapt those to the target market. When it comes to seasonal events, you need to consider the season it is in the hemisphere the target market is located in, not what season it is where you’re located. 

There are apps for literally everything, so depending on what your app does, be mindful of sensitive topics such as politics and religion. Hiring a translation partner who has a deep knowledge of the culture you’ll be translating into will help ensure you don’t accidentally cause offense or isolate your new target market. 

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13/12/2022

What does the transcreation process look like?

Posted on | by Jacqueline De Marco | Leave a Comment on What does the transcreation process look like?

Transcreation takes the translation process a step further. Oftentimes a direct translation simply doesn’t do the trick. With transcreation the translator takes extra steps to ensure the nuance of the language translation is clear. Humor, culture, and literary devices are examples of when transcreation can do the job much better than a simple translation. As the name implies, transcreation is a creative process and is a process that can’t be rushed.

Let’s take a closer look at what the transcreation process looks like.

Before

To start the transcreation process, the transcreator analyzes the client request and makes sure they understand the scope and requirements of the project thoroughly. They will analyze the transcreation brief to understand the content that needs transcreation and if there isn’t a creative brief, they will try to gather all the information necessary that would normally be in one. They will also do preliminary research on things such as the industry, product, and client.

The transcreator should not take anything for granted. If there’s something that is not clear in a transcreation brief or because of a lack of one, they should ask the client for clarification.

During

Once they are confident they have all of the information and context they need, the transcreator will read the source copy again and again. At this point they will identify which are the challenges ahead. For example, does the content have a rhyme in it? Does it use wordplay? Is there an image tied to the text?

Once the challenges are identified, the transcreator will start brainstorming potential ways to overcome them. They will produce several drafts and play around with different ideas. All ideas are okay to float at the beginning and shouldn’t be discarded without taking the time to think them through.

They will continue doing research, looking for inspiration, editing, and polishing what they have, and then they will come up with new options for the copy. At times, they will have to stop, let it sink in and come back to it later with a fresh mind.

Oftentimes, the transcreator will read the copy out loud to test the effect it has. The goal is to catch the consumer’s attention and captivate them. By the end of this process, the transcreator will have two or three good options he or she feels confident about, but the ultimate choice will be the client’s.

After

Once the transcreator comes up with a few options that would achieve the intended goal in the target language, they will have to submit their work to the client for approval. This is generally done through a sheet where the transcreator presents the different options in the target language, provides a back translation for each option so that the client understands what is actually being said in the target language, provides an explanation for each option, and states why they work for the target market. If the transcreator prefers one option over the others, they can express this as well as the reason why they chose that specific option so the client can understand their thought process.

The Takeaway

Transcreation is a complex process that takes time to get right. Giving a transcreator a long enough timeline to do ample research and to not rush the creative process is key. It’s always best to leave a little wiggle room to overcome challenges and to work together to fine tune the final copy.

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