Oregon Translation Services

Oregon Translation aims to customize our service offering to suit your unique needs. Please check off the services you are requesting for this project:

TRANSLATION:

Our experienced translators render an original document into a second language.  To generate the best quality translations, our translator is a native speaker of the target language and fluent in the source language. Our Project Manager custom-matches translators to each project because of her background knowledge in the specific subject matter at hand.

EDITING:

Our fully bilingual editors review the translation against your source document to compare the tenor and content of both languages and to adapt the writing style of the translation to suit normal patterns in the target language while maintaining the integrity of the original message. Our editor also checks for missing words or phrases, mistranslations, and grammatical errors.

DESKTOP PUBLISHING:

The purpose of DTP is to establish a high-quality, print- or Web- ready artwork for the customer and to give the translation the same polished look as the original files.  This usually includes integrating the translation into the original design layout and re-formatting as necessary to accommodate the longer translated text and to update tables of contents or indices. Our graphic designers hold B.A. degrees in Art from the University of Oregon and have formal training on using specialty graphics software like Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, Captivate, Flash, and Photoshop, as well as print pre-press and Web design.

PROOFREADING:

The translation is reviewed once again – without reference to the source text, focusing particularly on grammar, typographical, and formatting issues. Our proofreader discusses changes with the rest of the translation team and project manager until all are satisfied with the final document. It is particularly valuable to proofread a translation after it undergoes graphic design for publication in a print or Web layout to verify the proper use of fonts, hyphenation, capitalization and word placement in the target language.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT:

Our Project Manager is the single point of contact for a given project or Customer. Our PM gathers requirements from Customer, custom-matches and schedules the translation team, instructs each team member on their role and duties, fields questions from Customer and translation team, assists with terminology research, and reviews the completed translation to check for completeness and compliance with special instructions.

 

A sworn statement, signed before a notary, in which the translator attests that the translation is true and accurate to the best of his/her information, knowledge, and belief. The Customer should provide the original, hardcopy document to be affixed to this certificate and the translation.

 

Our bilingual professional reads documentation in one language and provides a summary or report in another language. Completely customizable service based on your specific project needs.

 

A professional translator -- who was not involved in earlier stages of translation -- is asked to evaluate and revise the completed translation for quality or end-user suitability. This is called in-country review when performed by a reviewer operating in the target country. Completely customizable service based on your specific needs.

 

We can create a termbase or translation memory just for your company to ensure that your authors and our translators use consistent wording across multiple projects or multiple languages for all your documentation.

 

Termbase is a multilingual glossary of individual terms. This entails a collaborative process with the customer to research, define, and translate your proprietary, technical, or industry-specific terms to ensure consistency throughout all of your projects, as well as maintaining and updating an electronic database of these terms.

 

Translation memory is a database of translated whole sentences or segments. When similar sentences are found in future documents, the database suggests the pre-existing translation, which the human translator can then adapt to suit the new context.

 

Services to suit customers’ needs related to transcribing and translating audio recordings or producing audiovisual media in a foreign language (voice over or subtitles).

 

The transcriptionist listens to an audio or video recording and makes a written record of the conversation. The transcript is divided into logical segments of 1–3 minutes in length. Accurate start- and end-times for each segment are included within the transcript. Additional details such as visuals and sound effects may be included in the transcript as per customer’s instructions. Transcript may be translated or used as subtitles.

 

A spoken recording of the translated script is made using voice talent (Customer specifies gender, accent, and age range). The service includes voice talent, studio, sound engineer, and audio QA review by a native-speaker. We offer you a choice between recordings done by professional or non-professional voice talent. We recommend using professional voice talents and have a set of voice talents who have done many previous recordings for similar projects. Oregon Translation shall provide voice samples so the Customer can select her two favorite voices.

 

A native speaker of the language (different from the voice talent) listens to the audio to make sure the spoken words match the translated text, are easy to understand, and are free of errors, inadvertent pauses, or stammers.

 

Linguist listens to the foreign language audio to identify and report the time stamps for the different segments vis-à-vis different frames of the video. This report is given to the Customer for A/V post-production work in Final Cut. Customer provides final video to Oregon Translation as an Adobe Flash format for a final QA pass to ensure that audio and visual elements are properly synchronized.

 

Services to suit customers’ needs related to producing Web sites, software, or online training in a foreign language.

 

The dual purposes are to establish a high-quality Web- ready file for the customer and to give the translation the same polished look as the original files.  This usually includes integrating the translation into the original HTML or XML template and reformatting to suit the longer translated language. Our Web engineers have formal training in both Web design and Web programming (esp. HTML, XML, CFM, PHP, and JavaScript).

 

Quality assurance testing shall be performed by language professionals fluent in the locale’s language and culture and with near perfect fluency in English. In order to adhere to industry standards for quality, all testing is performed by separate, technical localization professionals distinct from the translators involved in earlier stages of this project. Localization QA shall cover: a) correct display of non-Western fonts, encoding, and text direction; b) contextual and cultural suitability of the translation and imagery; c) cultural acceptance of colors, symbols, and gestures; d) synchronized timing between screen elements, display text, subtitles, and audio; e) proper display, placement, and word-wrapping of translated text; f) properly sized dialog boxes and buttons; g) no truncated or concatenated strings; h) data formatting: numerals, date, time, calendar, address, currency; i) a second pass to re-check bugs reported as a result of the first pass of testing.