On Sonja Tomašković’s Translator’s Blog, there is an interesting entry on quality assurance for translators.

In Germany, we usually associate that with the DIN norm for translators, DIN 2345. (There are two Austrian norms too). It’s possible not only to buy the norm – there’s an English translation too – but even to register and put little stickers on your work to say it’s DIN certified. This just defines process. I don’t seem to have mentioned it before – perhaps because it’s one of those religious war topics for translators, like Word versus WordPerfect, Trados versus Déjà Vu, or whether you should translate into a language that isn’t your mother tongue. Some translators believe that the very existence of quality control norms has a detrimental effect, but I’ve forgotten the argument.

Anyway, what is much more interesting is how we check our own and others’ work, which has as much to do with content as with process. DIN 2345 lists six points the translator is to check before delivering, stating that the extent to which each of these points is checked will depend on the purpose of the translation as agreed with the client. I find the DIN norm quite intresting to read.

The entry discusses an article in the ATA Chronicle, which unfortunately I haven’t seen (would anyone like my fax number?), referring to SAE standards:

bq. The article is by Don Sirena who works as a language translation manager for General Motors, and who has implemented the SAE J2450 quality assurance process for the translation department of GM.

bq. He points out that proofreading as we know it, i.e. simply going through a translation to observe errors, omissions or parts that we would do “differently” can lead to extremely high costs. Furthermore, the old picture of QA is that either you sacrifice quality for the sake of turnaround time and cost, or you have to live with higher costs when attaching importance to comprehensive QA processes.

The article apparently defines seven types of errors that can be checked for, each of which can be major or minor. This is reminiscent of the discussion of grading translation tests. Apparently time can be saved by doing this, since the final ‘proofreading’ is no longer necessary. (Proofreading and editing are often misused words, not necessarily here, but it’s necessary to be careful how they are used).

Not having read the article, I can’t see how this would save time.

I’ve recently changed my own self-revision process after reading Brian Mossop’s Editing and Revision for Translators. I’ve already mentioned the series Translation Practices Explained from St. Jerome Publishing. It’s a long treatment and very down-to-earth, and I took the author’s advice on what to read first for a self-revision workshop. Chapter 10, The Revision Parameters, sets out the types of error, in four classes and twelve subclasses. What is interesting is the later discussion, in Chapter 11, on how far to check these twelve matters, since there will scarcely be time to go through the text twelve times. Chapter 12, Revision Procedures, deals with the sequence of checking, and this helped me. It suggests that many translators check completeness and accuracy as they go along. In my case, I usually work in STAR Transit, and it’s easy for me to check every few sentences. The next step is now reading the translation alone, for which Mossop presents good arguments.

I’ve started using this procedure with longer texts. Previously I went through the whole in Transit, then did a comparative check either in Transit (onscreen or printed out) or Word, and this was lethally boring – the more boring a process is, the more slapdash I probably am. The reading through the whole translation in English is not the last stage, but it’s more fruitful than it used to be. I think my results have become more readable and probably more accurate. That may be just the novelty factor!

Brian Mossop has worked as a translator, reviser and trainer for the Canadian Government for 27 years and has taught translation at Toronto University for 22 years, and the book shows his experience.

Die Süddeutsche Zeitung bietet “Das Spiel zum Oktoberfest“. Bekannte Figuren können niedergestreckt werden.

The Süddeutsche Zeitung has a game where you shoot down moving figures – the game extends on both sides of the stage too. Hit the figures, the bears/beer steins/ hearts only when they blink, and you can get on the list of high scores if you hit enough (with the mouse cursor).

According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, via Alexander Hartmann’s jurabilis, there are plans of merging the Ludwig-Maximilian Universität München and the Technische Universität München and calling the result the University of Munich. Not, you understand, die Universität München.

Deutsche Welle hat ab 13. September als 31. Sprache Klingonisch hinzugefügt. Hier die Startseite. Es gibt einige weitere Links zum Erlernen der Sprache und auch ein Quiz.

Deutsche Welle’s Klingon pages have links to German and ‘English’ versions (‘How do the Klingons call themselves?’)

If you highlight a word in the text, Mr Klingon will translate it into English or German for you. It’s difficult to decide which word to click on, as they’re all unfamiliar. A guide to Germany for Klingons:

bq. Germany is a country located in sector 001 of the planet Earth. Its traditions, stunning landscape and international flair make it an attractive holiday destination for Klingons and other extraterrestrial life forms.

bq. About 82 million people live in the country that calls itself the land of the “poets and philosophers.” [US punctuation. Btw, who do they mean – Biermann and Sloterdyk?] The natives speak German, but with more than 7 million people from other countries living in the Federal Republic of Germany, a variety of other languages are also spoken.

Incidentally, Deutsche Welle is holding a weblog competition at the moment, or possibly from September 17th: in seven languages and eleven categories, a worldwide competition.

Thanks to Trevor, who got it from Ananova. I didn’t manage to find the audio clips Ananova referred to. And Ananova talks about DW ‘broadcasting’ in Klingon, says the ‘show’ is popular, but that seems to be a misconception – these are just webpages in Klingon.

I would comment in Language Log’s comments feature if it had one, but it doesn’t, so here goes:

Geoffrey K. Pullum writes:

There’s a punctuation rule that American publishers follow rather strictly though British publishers do not: when an expression contained in quotation marks falls at the end of

a sentence, a following comma or period (though not a colon, semicolon, exclamation point, or question mark) should be moved leftward to fall inside the quoted string. [The entry goes on to discuss automating this on the computer.]

But this is arsy-versy. In fact it’s the British rule, not the American one. Ritter’s Oxford Guide to Style confirms: British practice is according to the sense when placing punctuation relative to quotation marks (German practice is similar), whereas the US practice is that commas and full points (full stops, periods) are always set inside the closing quotation mark.

The Chicago Style Manual confirms this, although it recommends that there should be exceptions to the American rule. The Americans do treat exclamation and question marks in the way the British treat full stops.

LATER NOTE: My mistake – in fact Geoffrey Pullum describes the American rule correctly, as language hat points out in his comment. However, I am not convinced that there is one rule for both BE and AmE, which American publishers follow strictly and British publishers don’t. There are two rules!

Ein Artikel in Stern online berichtet von der Jahrestagung der deutschen Literaturübersetzer, macht aber den Eindruck, alle anderen Übersetzer wären auch so schlecht bezahlt. “Unsichtbarer Beruf” – wenn die Literaturübersetzer unsichtbar sind, wie verhält es sich mit den nicht-literatischen Übersetzer?

Stern online has an article about literary translators – the Verband deutschsprachiger Übersetzer (VdÜ) has just had its annual conference. Its website is useful for information on contracts with publishers and other matters.

I hope readers don’t assume these statements apply to all translators:

Unsichtbarer Beruf kämpft um Anerkennung
Invisible profession fights for recognition

Ein Übersetzer muss derzeit von rund 1.000 Euro im Monat leben.
At present, a translator has to live on about 1,000 euros a month.

[Is that after paying health insurance and something towards a pension? It can’’t be. But of course, they have the possibility of support if they use the Künstlerkrankenkasse.]

“Viele arbeiten deshalb noch nebenher oder bis zu 70 Stunden die Woche. Manche leben einfach auf einem sehr studentischen Niveau weiter”, sagt [eine] Münchner Übersetzerin.

[It’’s OK to live a minimalist life, but perhaps not if it means working 70 hours a week.]

Seit 1988 können junge Menschen in Düsseldorf das professionelle Übersetzen in den Sprachen Englisch, Französisch, Italienisch und Spanisch lernen, rund 200 Studenten seien derzeit eingeschrieben. Der Düsseldorfer Studiengang ist laut Mona Wodsak der einzige Vollstudiengang in Deutschland.

Since 1988, young people in Düsseldorf have been able to study professional translation in English, French, Italian and Spanish; about 200 students are registered. The Düsseldorf course of studies, according to Mona Wodsak, is the only full-time university course in Germany.

[The only course for literary translators. There are courses for non-literary translators at university level in various languages at the universities of Mainz (at Germersheim), Heidelberg and Saarbrücken.]

Ob Übersetzer in Zukunft mehr Anerkennung bekommen, scheint jedoch zumindest fraglich: Der Studiengang Übersetzen an der FH München wurde zum Sommersemester 2004 geschlossen – die Fachhochschule hat dafür kein Geld mehr.

Whether translators will earn more recognition in future is at least doubtful. The translation course at the Fachhochschule (~ polytechnic) in Munich was closed down in the 2004 summer semester – the Fachhochschule has no money left for it.

[But this was a particular course that was still going through teething problems.]

Has this journalist not heard of the Fachhochschule in Cologne? The last paragraph plunges into non-literary translation, and then we want to hear about technology translation courses at Hildesheim and Flensburg. To say nothing of the Fachakademien in Bavaria, five in number, which were supposed to ‘feed’ the Munich Fachhochschule.

On top of all this, the article claims that translators’ names are often obscured by authors’ names – certainly true. But it is illustrated by a photograph of someone half-hidden by the Duden for spelling and style – a photograph presumably taken for a different article.

Meanwhile, things look better in India. An article in the Deccan Herald in Bangalore, ‘Foreign tongue translates into oodles of cash’, recommends learning French and German as a good way to make money.

If languages such as Java and C++ are too complex for you, don’t despair. Just learn French or German. For, translators and foreign language degree and diploma-holders are getting about as heavy pay packets as software engineers today.

With several business process outsourcing (BPO) companies garnering clients from countries such as France, Germany and Japan, demand for both translators and trainers of these languages has grown in recent months. Companies like Oracle even hire translators of Hebrew.

(Thanks to Noel for the last)

LATER NOTE: I see that the Stern article appeared earlier in the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung (reported by Richard Schneider at the Übersetzerportal).