Quality In Professional Translation

Assessment and Improvement

Joanna Drugan

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781441194510
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Translating & Interpreting
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

How do translation companies, multilingual international organizations and individual translators measure and improve the quality of their translations? This book reports on the range of approaches to quality assurance across the translation industry, from Norway to China, from the individual freelance working in a home office to the largest translation supplier in the world. Best practice is outlined for a range of translation scenarios, enabling readers to learn from others' experience - and mistakes. The author also draws on over a decade's experience to outline the potential to improve quality by exploiting modern technological support tools such as translation memory software. New and experienced translators will gain understanding of what employers expect (and reward); translation companies can learn how their peers and rivals manage this sensitive area of their work; clients will find out what levels of quality they can expect; and academics are provided with an illuminating insight into how quality is assessed and guaranteed in the profession today.

CHAPTER ONE

Today’s translation profession

1.0 Introduction: A revolution in communication

In 1991, only 2 per cent of those living in developing countries had any telephone access at all, fixed or mobile. A decade later, 31 per cent of the same population had such access.¹ By 2007, the International Telecommunication Union estimated that 45 per cent of people in developing countries had a mobile.² The story of phone access encapsulates how the world has changed dramatically in a very short period. A highly technical product, with no place in the lives of most people in recent memory, has become commonplace. User demand has soared in existing markets and in new ones with little prior experience of easy communication. The phones themselves are significantly more complex and powerful; new features and frequent upgrades are expected; yet their cost has plummeted: early ‘bricks’ cost several thousand US dollars. They are used in unanticipated ways (e.g. spawning new industries such as money transfer by phone and roadside charging stalls, transforming lives in regions with no banking infrastructure and restricted access to electricity). Such changes can naturally reinforce disadvantage or discrimination as well as improving lives. Even if far more inhabitants of developing countries have mobiles, overall figures disguise the patchy nature of access across different regions and groups due to corruption, war, monopolies, import tariffs, state control, poverty and gender inequalities. The story looks very different to an urban Egyptian male and a rural Zimbabwean female.

There are strong parallels between what has happened in telecoms and translation in recent decades. Accessing translation is now commonplace, not the preserve of specialist sectors or relatively wealthy clients. Use of online MT engines and multilingual websites means more people than ever before are aware of translation. The corollary is increasing awareness of the lack of translated material (e.g. when users click on links and find their language is not supported). Demand has thus soared for translation as for phones: much of the traffic on MT user groups consists of calls for the service to be provided in hitherto neglected yet widely spoken languages.³

Just as phones have become more complex and powerful, translation tasks are now more technically complicated and the impact of translation more extensive, with huge increases in content. Rapid spikes in demand for a service would normally lead to prices going up, yet client pressure, new ways of working and translation technologies have instead led to downward pressure on rates. Translations are therefore being commissioned, produced and used in new ways, with resulting uncertainty and shockwaves across the industry. As Vashee sympathetically notes, the ‘poor translator’ is caught in major shifts, yet has little influence on their development.⁴

The story of mobile phone access illuminates how translation has changed because of parallel developments in the two industries, but the telecoms revolution has also had a direct impact on translation. Global demand for such fast-changing products and services means that the need for translation has rocketed. Translation is now required throughout the phone production cycle. In the past, companies producing fixed-line telephones rarely sold their products in multiple regions or languages and users kept the same model for decades. Today, R&D, engineering, manufacturing, staff training, sales and marketing, user information and after-sales support all involve translation, across more languages and for new users who face particular challenges (e.g. low literacy levels or the need to understand material not in their native tongue). Translation jobs could traditionally be considered complete (‘signed off’) when returned to the client, but telecoms products and services are continuously updated, necessitating new kinds of rolling translation service and collaborative working. Time-to-market and simship⁵ pressures in competitive commercial sectors like telecoms mean that translation deadlines have been forced down. Outsourcing to low-cost countries, usually China and India, has had an impact on translation like other industries.

This changed – and still-changing – paradigm has implications for translation quality. This chapter looks in more depth at how economic, social and technological changes are transforming the translation industry, and why it has increasingly focused on quality.

1.0.1 Translation: Industry or profession?

Industry:		a particular branch of economic or commercial activity.
Profession:		a paid occupation, especially one involving training and a formal qualification.

(CONCISE OED, 11TH EDN, 2009)

The terms translation industry and profession are used interchangeably in this book; this requires explanation. Even discounting the view of translation as an art or craft, there is debate over which term to use. A prominent topic of discussion since the 1950s, one established definition of a profession is that of a ‘vocation whose practice is founded upon an understanding of the theoretical structure of some department of learning or science, and upon the abilities accompanying such understanding’ (Cogan, 1953: 33). Some translators demonstrated a marked preference for the term profession. Others favoured industry, perhaps recognizing skilled translators who learned ‘on the job’ rather than studying for qualifications. Most, however, accepted both terms.

Translation clearly fulfils certain criteria of dictionary definitions for industry and profession. Both terms are used in most written accounts. Chriss (2006) switches without ado between the two, for instance, though his work is specifically directed at Translation as a Profession. Where the term profession is preferred, it can indicate regret regarding recent developments in translation, seen as a shift from a high-quality ‘artisanal’ tradition to one of mass production. Gouadec deems that ‘translation now bears all the hallmarks of an industrial activity’ (2007: 297) and later analyses the effects of this ‘industrialization’ (2009: 217–32), comparing translators’ current fate to the earlier ruinous mechanization of French lace-making. Like Chriss, Gouadec refers to both industry and profession, but where Chriss uses them interchangeably, Gouadec often implies criticism, differentiating between two distinct approaches to translation.

Those who favour the term profession often allude to translation quality issues. They typically want to regulate the sector, believing that increasing professionalization is needed to improve quality. While entry to professions such as law, medicine or engineering is controlled, translation is unregulated in most countries, notwithstanding the explosion in training programmes (Caminade and Pym, 1995; Drugan and Rothwell, 2011), intermittent attempts to establish certification (sworn translators, chartered linguists), and calls for ‘kitemarks’ or periodic re-examination (Picken, 1994: 197).⁶ Daunting accounts of professional translators’ qualities are provided to indicate who might qualify. For example, in addition to the merely desirable ‘good grounding in marketing, management and accountancy’, Gouadec’s professional paragon demonstrates:

absolute linguistic proficiency, [. . .] perfect knowledge of the relevant cultural, technical, legal, commercial backgrounds, [. . .] full understanding of the subject matter involved, a gift for writing, an insatiable thirst for knowledge, [. . .] the stamina, thoroughness and sense of initiative needed to find any information (or informant) that might be required to fully understand that subject matter, [. . .] the ability to relate both effectively and smoothly – both professionally and personally – with numerous partners. (2007: xiii)

Some who favour the term profession are crusading to raise the sector’s status, visibility or remuneration levels. Venuti’s ‘call to action’ on the translator’s invisibility increased awareness of these issues (1995/2008: 265–77). Robinson uses the term faithfully, stating his aim as ‘raising the status of the profession’ (1997: 39). Cronin recognizes that ‘the professional and the political are inextricably linked’, calling for a ‘more engaged, activist notion’ of translators’ responsibilities, both to defend professional interests and ‘[get] societies and cultures to realize how important translation is to comparative self-understanding and future development’ (2003: 134). A few dislike either term, with Pym arguing (2006: 8) that, in the era of localization, ‘there is no such thing as a “translation industry”, in the singular’. What, though, do we then refer to? Pym himself notes that acronyms like GILT (Globalization, Internationalization, Localization, Translation) have failed to catch on. Despite its limits, he reverts to the convenient shorthand of ‘industry’ (singular) then to the ‘translation and interpreting professions’ a few lines later.

Both terms are used in the present book. They help distinguish between student translation, translation studies/theory and the kind of translation under discussion here: (usually) paid, for a client, to a deadline, with an intended end use and some sort of translation specification. As noted, most industry discussions use both terms. Finally, recent developments, particularly increasing integration of the ‘gifted amateur or keen bilingual subject specialist’, may herald dramatic change for the industry, even the ‘closure of the cycle which began when translation became an “independent” profession’ (García, 2009a: 199). Some of these developments are considered in relation to translation quality in this book, so it is helpful to be able to distinguish between the profession and newer approaches.

1.1 Changes affecting the translation industry

Strong growth has been accompanied by other significant changes: a huge increase in demand (volume) into a wider range of languages (reach), and a corresponding increase in awareness of translation. Translation is needed more quickly and to different kinds of deadline. Source content is more complex. The tools used to translate are more efficient, reliable and accessible, and cheaper than in the 1990s. These economic, societal and technological changes affecting translation in recent decades, and their implications for translation quality, are now examined in more depth.

1.1.1 Market growth

In the course of the 50 years between 1950 and 2004, international trade enjoyed average annual growth of 4%, whereas the translation industry grew by a minimum of 5% each year. Clearly, the development in international trade generated a need for translation and will continue to ensure the almost parallel growth of the translation sector. (Boucau, 2006: 3)

Industry growth figures are difficult to establish and compare, given the sector’s diversity, global spread, shifting exchange rates, varying conceptions of what should be measured and the fact that leading companies are privately held and not obliged to share data on performance. All surveys in the past two decades have nonetheless identified growth outstripping that of trade in general. Specialist industry research provider, Common Sense Advisory (CSA), made the staggering estimate that, from US $9 billion in 2006, the market for ‘outsourced language services’ grew by one-third in a single year, reaching US $12 billion by 2007, and further predicted a compound annual growth rate of 14.6 per cent between 2008 and 2012 (Beninatto and De Palma, 2008: 1). The largest recent European study estimated annual compound growth rate at 10 per cent minimum from 2009–15, giving a European language industry valued at a ‘conservative’ 16.5 billion € by 2015, with the ‘real value’ likely to be above 20 billion € (Rinsche and Portera-Zanotti, 2009: ii). These large-scale studies concur that economic downturns do not stop growth:

The language industry seems to be less affected by the financial crisis than other industry sectors. Where turnovers from multilingual business activities have been negatively impacted, this has been mainly in the case of individuals and micro-companies dependant on a small number of clients, a quick recovery and continued steady growth of the market is forecasted. (ibid.)

The first survey following the global downturn supports this analysis, claiming a 2009 growth rate of 13.15 per cent for translation and interpreting and estimating the global market at US $26 billion in 2010 (Kelly and Stewart, 2010: 3).

Why should the translation market have grown more than international trade in recent decades and continue to flourish even in troubled times? In short, globalization.⁷ The recent penetration of free- or mixed-market economies across the globe has driven more translation, particularly since the opening of huge new markets in Eastern Europe and China from the early 1990s. The scale of this change is striking: ‘10–15 per cent of the world’s population were part of a market system at the beginning of the twentieth century, 40 per cent in 1970 and approximately 90 per cent at the century’s end’ (Mulgan, 1998: 54–5, cited in Cronin, 2003: 47). Huge new demand, particularly in the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China), means that even in recession, companies need more translation, as they seek to drive sales beyond traditional declining markets. ‘Producing a localized version of a product means that new markets are opened up for an existing or potential product. While a domestic market may be stagnant or in decline, international markets may be buoyant and may also support a higher price level’ (Cronin, 2003: 14). Newer market economies also need translation to reach outwards. Translation has thus benefited not only from lowered trade barriers but also from factors such as the increasing ease of marketing to new regions online, and growing disposable incomes to access translated products and services.

Another feature of globalization explaining translation market growth in the last two decades is the ‘Internet Age’ – the digital and ICT revolutions (Lallana and Uy, 2003: 4–7). ‘The Internet Age has led to insatiable demand for translation services that cannot be met with existing proprietary business models and the capacity of around 300,000 professional translators worldwide’.⁸ Key features of these revolutions (personal computers, mobiles, the Internet) have meant both new products (software, games, apps) and growing need for internationalization,⁹ localization and translation. Sprung points out that, as early as 1998, Microsoft gained over 60 per cent of revenues outside the United States of America and earned more than US $5 billion from translated products (2000b: ix). Wider availability of complex products has meant an increase in technical documentation, which is estimated to comprise 90 per cent of total translation output (Kingscott, cited in Byrne, 2006: 2). Translation volumes have also grown due to the way international business is conducted (e.g. securities and exchange traders must stay informed of developments in global markets so require translated information quickly round the clock).

Even this is only a partial picture. The market reflects growth in demand, but there is further demand that currently goes unmet. Increased demand for translation can be considered under two headings: volume (the amount required) and reach (range of languages/locales).

1.1.2 Growth in demand – volume

Globalization has led to increasing volumes of translation. A rise in migratory flows of people and growing number of international organizations¹⁰ in recent decades has influenced demand. Increasing international cooperation (e.g. on peacekeeping, immigration, drug or people trafficking) is information-heavy and depends on translation. In particular, the growth of international organizations has created demand for translation, because ‘it is discursively that most organizations of this nature have an effect on the world’ (Cronin, 2003: 110):

The vast majority of international organizations are heavily dependent on information both to inform and to give effect to their decisions. Any decisions which are taken that lead to the signing of international agreements and/or to the incorporation of appropriate measures into national law require the preliminary information-intensive activities of meetings, conferences, discussion documents, reports, media handling and so on. In addition, information in the form of data on the operations and decisions of the organizations must be provided to members, and as these supra-national entities function in a multilingual world of increasing complexity, they must perforce manage projects and activities across many different languages and cultures.

International organizations stimulate demand in other ways. For example, the flow of data is not only from organizations to members; those members also send huge volumes of data inwards, to be translated for discussion, comparison and dissemination, often into multiple languages. A case in point is the EU, where the Commission’s Directorate-General for Translation (DGT) has for some time been the biggest single provider of human translation in the world (Brace, 2000: 219). By 2004, continual increases in content sent for translation led to a mounting backlog and the DGT adopted a ‘Demand Management Strategy’ (Drugan, 2007a: 136), limiting the number of source pages accepted for translation.

Increasingly, there is a legal obligation to translate certain materials (e.g. since 2010, EU citizens facing criminal proceedings in another member state are entitled to translation into their mother tongue¹¹). Around the world, laws, directives and regulations ‘require the provision of comprehensive, accurate and effective technical documentation in a variety of languages’ (Byrne, 2006: 2). The legal imperative has driven growth in translation volume for materials such as contracts, copyright, patents and trademarks, required in ever more languages in the globalized context. In many countries, legal rights for migrants and minority language communities to use their own language in some domains (e.g. healthcare, justice) have driven growth. Since 2000, for instance, US institutions must provide services in users’ mother tongues to qualify for federal aid; the American Translators Association (ATA) believes that this has had a significant effect on demand.¹² Finally, recognition of co-existing language communities have imposed translation obligat...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Introduction
• 1 Today’s translation profession
• 2 Translation quality: Importance and definitions
• 3 Tools, workflow and quality
• 4 Top-down translation quality models
• 5 Bottom-up translation quality models
• 6 Conclusion: Lessons from industry
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index