TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Our company has decided to start translating our Programmer's guides to
Japanese. They are not written using Standard English, and it's a case where
part of the document will remain untouched (code examples, with the
exception of comments, will remain as they are). The manager in charge is
going to send the documents to a generic translation company, but I know
that companies exist which specialize in translating technical content (for
example, using developers who are familiar with the content and context of
the docs to be translated). But I've been told something like that would
cost 3-4 times more than the generic translation company. I was also
wondering if perhaps an alternate route would be to hire someone (possibly
a technical writer who speaks Japanese) to do the translations in-house, on
a contract basis? I'm worried about what will be lost/changed through the
translation if the person translating the documents does not have a rough
understanding of the content (like my mother's German -- I cringe at the
thought of what would happen if I asked her to translate them).
I'm going through the document right now highlighting what should NOT be
translated, but I'm running into difficulties with technology-specific
concepts like cache manager, cipher suites, classes, etc. Do I assume
there's an acceptable Japanese translation for everything? Industry terms
such as SSL, HTML, TLS, etc. -- do they remain as they are, they're not
translated?
Does anyone have any experience with this type of situation? If so, your
input would be greatly appreciated.
regards,
Susie P
PS -- thank-you all for your input on where documentation fits into your
development process, it was very useful (well, most of it, *grin*).
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Collect Royalties, Not Rejection Letters! Tell us your rejection story when you
submit your manuscript to iUniverse Nov. 6 -Dec. 15 and get five free copies of
your book. What are you waiting for? http://www.iuniverse.com/media/techwr
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
