Re: How do you ensure the quality of translations?

["Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>]

People need to learn to use the delay in global workplaces to their 
advantage. Once you hammer it into your local management and SMEs that 
any "last-minute" changes they want to make will require several days to 
incorporate into documentation in all languages and republish, you may 
see the quality of reviews improve.  Especially if you're in an industry 
like mine, where you don't get to manufacture, much less ship, product 
without all the document ducks lining up in the right order.

Your problem with your overseas colleagues not being good English 
speakers is because they're trying to translate documents into English. 
They shouldn't be.  Chinese-to-English translations should be done by 
people who are native *English* speakers.  Especially if the documents 
are being fed through machine translation.

Gene Kim-Eng


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <poshedly -at- bellsouth -dot- net>
> You're correct -- it's been a long day with me trying to make sense of 
> the stuff going across my desk and I completely messed up and 
> interpereted Gene's e-mail erroneously.
>
> Another downside of having translations done abroad is the time 
> difference. By the time I get files from China, it's 12 hours later 
> over there. So they see my reply the next morning (for them),  and I 
> reply once more (after they're home), and so it goes.
>
> Plus, none of the Chinese folks I work with are truly good English 
> speakers. They're GREAT folks, but their English language skills are 
> just not there.

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