A Question of Style
At Lingo24 we pride ourselves on producing translations which are not only linguistically correct (the bare minimum for us) but which also reflect as closely as possible the ‘style’ which your company wishes to project. To ensure that we fully understand your style requirements for each particular project (or series of projects), we have developed a questionnaire which will be helpful to our translation team; this is something you may see a lot more of in the coming months when ordering translations from us. Your answers will form the basis of a tailor-made ‘style guide’ issued to all staff handling your company’s projects, ensuring an even higher level of consistency in your translated documents. We thought you might appreciate a look at the thinking that went into this innovation…
Presenting…the new style guide
It is extremely important that the translation we provide you with fulfils your expectations in every sense, including presentation. It is therefore useful to know, before we start, if you have any special requirements in terms of fonts or formatting. For example, you may have a text that requires Ariel font 16 for main headers; 14 for sub-headings and 12 for all other text. Perhaps the headers need to appear in italics or the sub-headers need to be in bold. This is no problem, but the key is to let us know beforehand. Our new ‘style guide questionnaire’ will simplify this process.
Go figure
Countries differ slightly in the way they set out even the simplest of figures. For example, where the UK numerical system uses a decimal point to indicate ‘decimal places’, in some countries a comma is used instead e.g. 8.65 (UK) versus 8,65 (Continental Europe). On the other hand, whereas the British system uses a comma to separate the thousands from the hundreds, tens and units, in the rest of Europe a ‘point’ is often used (or sometimes a space is left), for example, 1,314 versus 5.406 or even 5 406. There are similar potential pitfalls when dealing with dates, currencies and telephone numbers. As there are clearly grounds for confusion in these areas, our translators will automatically use the correct format for the target language/country, unless otherwise specified by you in the questionnaire.
Picture perfect
Illustrations can take many different shapes and forms (charts, tables, graphs, diagrams etc.), and fortunately in some cases the information can be edited and translated within the diagram itself. However, in pdf files, for example, it is not possible to overtype the headings or captions. In such cases, we will ask you the in our questionnaire to specify whether the text in the diagrams/graphics does not need translating, whether it does need translating, or whether you would like us to provide a table showing the original term and its translation, due to the diagrams/graphics being uneditable.
The name game
As a general rule names of people, streets and towns are retained in the original source language – with the exception of names of towns with an equivalent in the target language e.g. Edimbourg in French, or Marseilles (which has an ‘s’ in English, but not in French). However, job titles are not quite so straightforward – sometimes English titles such as Managing Director etc. are retained in English because the target language has accepted them into its common parlance (e.g. in Germany, where titles are often kept in English).
Pun fun
Smart slogans and cunning catchphrases often rely on alliterations, puns, and suchlike to catch the eye of the copywriter’s target audience. Unfortunately puns are sometimes difficult to ‘adapt’ to another language, so the translator might be obliged to seek a different but similarly effective phrase in the target language. If you suspect that your text contains ‘buzz words’ which may well be tricky to translate, please draw these to our attention in advance. In such cases, our translators can suggest several alternatives in the target language, giving explanations of their precise meaning and their likely impact in the target language. This will enable you to select the option which you prefer.
FYI
Abbreviations and acronyms seem to crop up all over the place these days, so it’s helpful for Lingo24 translators to have as much information as possible in this respect. If you have a key to any acronyms used in the source text (e.g. O.E.R. for Operations Excellence Review, etc.) or any abbreviations (e.g. Oct. for October), this would be most helpful.
Style council
Finally, If you can provide Lingo24 with any form of reference material (e.g. website addresses, company brochures etc.), either in the source or the target language, please do send us this information before translation work begins. Likewise, if you have an in-house glossary of terms in the source or target language or even an official style guide issued by your organisation, please let us know. This sort of background material will help ensure that the final translated document remains as close to your in-house terminology and style as possible. And that is, of course, the ultimate goal.