Translation with Colour®: The reason behind our name

One of the things I get asked most often about Translation with Colour® is the reason behind this name (which is, by the way, a registered trademark…). “Why should translation have colour?”, “what do you mean with this?”, “are you a translator who does design?”, and others alike are the typical mind-bogging questions quizzing colleagues, visitors, and clients on the first contact either online or on meetings.

I can’t even forget the episode in Saint Petersburg, Russia, at the famous Frikadel’ki restaurant, when an Israeli lady was puzzled with what she was trying to read on my Translation with Colour® t-shirt. After tilting her head left and right it didn’t take long till she addressed me. I explained Translation with Colour®’s was my translation venture and contrary to what she thought I was not a designer (despite I had made the design).

“But why Translation with Colour®?”

There is a language called Geez (some give it as extinct), which developed in what is nowadays Eritrea and northern Ethiopia in the Horn of Africa. This was the language of the Ethiopian Imperial Court and Kingdom of Aksum. This language is still used in by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Ethiopian Catholic Church, and also the Beta Israel Jewish community.


One of the less described and known features of the Geez language is that its writing, especially what on what concerns official letters and religious writings, was ciphered or protected using colours which altered meaning of texts, offering different possibilities for understanding the true message. Only the initiated would plunge into the different layers of a given text. To make the matters more complicated Geez makes use of an alphasyllabary aka abugida (a Geez word itself) writing system based on consonants, developed for this language alone, but afterwards adopted by other languages in the region.


Now it’s clear how translation might get a colourful shade from an original text. In any case, ciphered texts are word of the day and a sign of the times we live in. In any case, languages, texts and ideas are charged in such a way with diverse and intense layers of meaning, offering no other solution than Translation with Colour®.

How to improve translation time? An how-to guide containing 7 easy steps. [Part 3/3]

Step #5 :: Do not cut on communication expenses. What I mean is that one must keep all communication gates open: it will allow better and faster communication with fellow translators, specialists, and customers. This will not only cater for a faster translation process, but also more efficient marketing, while assuring an image of credibility and availability for future projects.

Step #6 :: Discipline. Translation is “many things”. Some say it’s an art, others to it as a craft, others defend one must have a vocation for it, and so on. When we are talking about fast and optimal quality translation services we finally understand it is a job to be made by professionals who are target-focused people who make all efforts to deliver an output which makes no compromise with quality. This requires discipline. There is no other explanation but discipline for the Herculean efforts translators go through to deliver documents in the different working languages (also known as procedural languages) in international organizations (such as the United Nations, the African Union, or the World Trade Organization) or summits (for instance, minutes and final declarations issued in multilateral meetings). The translator is often the person who turns off the light at the office, even when the day is breaking...

Step #7 :: This tour-de-force on faster translation could not be finished without mentioning the working environment. This is especially true for those who work at home, as it is more easily controlled. The environment should fit your needs for space, light and noise level. On a very special personal note, I can’t forget the time I was working on a construction project as both translator and interpreter: the batches of documents I had to work on didn’t care about the scorching temperatures, and the concrete mixers and jumping jacks working close-by. Always do your best to guarantee the best working conditions, maximise the questions about safety, comfort and ergonomics. If the neighbor is testing your patience with renovation works, consider relocating those hours to the public library, most offer free broadband access, better than average dictionaries and source books, and at campus you may even find cabinets where you may work alone.

These tips are guidance for the professional translator who wishes to offer the best and fastest translation service. Some of these ideas will make you score big with clients, because deadlines are a real issue in the translation business and they can put one ahead of the competition. We hope you don’t have any excuses to postpone. If you have a work to do, just do it!

How to improve translation time? An how-to guide containing 7 easy steps. [Part 2/3]

Step #2 :: Saving time by process automation technology is another speed booster in productivity; therefore the best solution is to increase your skills and tools in translation assets management. No matter what the size of your business the way you manage simple and routine tasks in fundamental to become more competitive as you and your associates/partners save time for what’s really important and your core business: professional quality translation services. Proper management of translation assets allows the user to gain control and get value from huge amounts of translated or localized data in an unsurpassable way. Translation memories, terminology databases, glossaries, localized mixed media (intricate contents, such as, graphics, video, sound, and other), and even style books become an added value for your operations and projects completion deadlines.

Step #3 :: Team work is a basic skill in a globalised marketplace. Every translator offering conscious professional service knows and recognises his/her limits in every subject area, therefore a faster service will only be possible if special difficulties or text idiosyncrasies are dealt with in a streamlined fashion by contacting fellow translators or specialists. In any case don’t think twice if either the circumstances allow you to keep a close contact with the author of the source text or you can work in-house for the duration of the project which will be crucial for highly specialized texts with a short deadline.

Step #4 :: There was a time when training in translation and related areas was an on-going process, which is still true though, but nowadays the variants in professional service are manifold. The true translator takes the challenge and not only trains himself/herself but also looks for the best sources of information and know-how. An example will illustrate better: how can you cope with the details of high-end computer-assisted translation software without any previous background? A fairly good computer user will be able to master it after some time, but again: do you have time to waste with the trial and error method? Taking a planned training program will certainly open the doors to new knowledge and know-how, while at the same allowing one to create better networking opportunities with translation and technology-wise peers.

Step #5 :: ...
(Continues on next post...)

Media covers Field Guide about the "Pateira de Fermentelos"

Our most recent publication has caught the attention of both the local and regional media and the online buzzing stations. As you can see below, the echoes about the book's release have reached different locations, which means the edition has met a wide audience. Please don't hesitate in reaching us if you have any other clipping about this edition or if either you or your organisation are interested in receiving more details about either this book, its author or translator. Simply write to translationwithcolour@gmail.com

How to improve translation time? An how-to guide containing 7 easy steps. [Part 1/3]

Time is one of the most precious assets a translator has. The professional translator knows what time means in his daily trade at the wordsmith workshop. The translator is in fact always fighting time as he/she knows that the deadline must be met at any cost. Time is one of the key factors either for many clients choosing their translators or for translation agencies assigning projects.

Translation agencies often have to coordinate projects dealing with different target languages which will certainly mean talking with language professionals in different time-zones. Also, translation is repeatedly not one of the first priorities to be addressed while preparing an internationalization strategy, therefore translation and proofreading of marketing materials and technical data are often relegated to the last stages of the project.

So what can be done in order to improve the speed of premium-quality translations? The best way to gain time for the translation process itself is the combination of a number of factors, which once properly concatenated will allow the trained professional translator to reap the fruits of his/her training, work and intellectual assets.


Step #1 :: Computer-Assisted Translation or Computer-Aided Translation (CAT) tools have been around for roughly a quarter of a century (TRADOS company was created in 1984). Despite the fact that major developments in related computer hardware and software came after the mid-1990’s, it doesn’t mean most professional translators are taking all the benefits from the technology. Nowadays, the advantages of such an investment are incommensurable as the time factor becomes a pre-requisite for most contracts. The state-of-the-art of most CAT tools nowadays allows time savings due to their extensive support to the translation process with tools, such as, translation memories, multilingual corpora, text alignment methods, and terminology management systems.

Step #2 :: ...
(Continues on next post...)

Bilingualism in Russian Karelia: paving the road to official status?

Rising Demand in Certified Translators and Translation Service Providers

The Austrian Standards Institute (ON) is one of the most important bodies practicing audits and certification of companies in the field of translation in accordance with the European standards.

As international communication is continually on the rise, there is an ever greater demand for good translation services. In regard to the quality of these services, one inevitably comes across the European Standard EN 15038, which is a certificate awarded to translation agencies which complete their work according to this norm (for details see en15038.blogspot.com/).

Becoming certified allows agencies to be listed amongst those translation service providers (TSP) worldwide, which fulfil the quality standard set by the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN). This proves that the agency is able to provide translations of constantly high quality, as well as confirming that projects are comprehensively documented from start to finish, in a transparent and sound fashion.

The institute in charge of these certifications is the Language Industry Certification System® (LICS) with their headquarters in Vienna, Austria, and their global network of partners carrying out the actual certification process. Advantages of being amongst these exclusive TSPs are:

>>Getting ahead of competitors: Conforming to LICS® EN 15038 is a quality label, showing that the agency is competent and committed to the client; they will be allowed to use the logos of the certification institute.

>>Being in demand when it comes to public procurement: Contracting and public bodies opt for certified service providers rather than non-certified ones when considering translations in their tenders

>>Greater appeal to clients overall: Certification shows that translation agencies meet set standards in compliance with the norm, which appears more trustworthy to business clients

The LICS® certification (www.lics-certification.org/) process involves systematic support from the auditing side and is particularly applicable to small and medium-sized companies, as the time spent by the auditor on site and the amount of paperwork is kept to a minimum. The Austrian Standards Institute also provides continual updates of how to improve agencies’ potential in the future and carry out annual re-audits to ensure that translation services are certified.
More information on this globally recognised EN 15038 third-party certificate can be found on the mentioned websites or by getting in touch directly with the Lead Auditor & Trainer EN 15038 & ISO 9001:2000, Mohamed-Ali Ibrahim (certification-services@german-arabic-center.de).

Finished my most recent book translation project: Field Guide about the "Pateira de Fermentelos"

I've promised to keep you all updated about the translation of a book on the Pateira de Fermentelos and here I am with fresh news from Translation with Colour workshop.

It had been given as finished about a week ago but minor editing required further translation services. This is the first book in the English language about the lagoon and it is being put in print by the Águeda Municipal Authority [www.cm-agueda.pt] and is authored by Célia Laranjeira. The edition coming out in paper in two weeks has a sister-edition in the Portuguese language entitled Pateira de Fermentelos: Paisagem a Proteger - Guia de Apresentação, which was released in February 2008.

The translation was interesting, especially some realia and wildlife names, for example, among other interesting details I've discovered the term spadefoot toad refers to three different families of toads: the American Scaphiopodidae, the European Pelobates; and the Australian Notaden.

You can always check the complete translated book right here or above. The Portuguese original is over here.

Below you can find a video program about this lake and the environmental intervention of the Municipal Authority of Águeda.


Open publication - Free publishing - More trails

Crowdsourced Translations of TED conferences turn them global

TED is turning to the crowd for help in opening its popular talks to a broader audience.

The Technology, Entertainment and Design conference, which turned a Swedish academic into a rock star and introduced the world to Jill Bolte Taylor’s stroke of insight, has launched a new project to translate its celebrated video talks. And it wants your help.

The $6,000 invitation-only conference for the elite digerati set began posting free videos of its talks online a few years ago. Since then the videos have been viewed more than 100 million times. But until now they’ve only been available in English.

After receiving repeated pleas to translate the talks, the organization is doing just that.

The Open Translation Project, launched Wednesday, combines crowd sourcing with smart language markup to provide translated and transcribed videos in multiple languages that can be indexed and searched by key words. The cool part is that users can click on any phrase in the transcript of a talk, and jump to that point in the video.

Some 300 translations have already been completed in 40 languages — from Arabic to Urdu. A handful of talks were translated into 20 languages by professional translators. But most were done by more than 200 volunteers around the world. Another 450 translations are in the works. A drop-down menu on the main TED Talks page allows you to sort videos by available languages.

“The entire goal and inspiration of the project is to be truly global and spread talks beyond the English world,” said June Cohen, executive producer of TED Media.

The videos are all in English with subtitles. A drop-down menu lists subtitle languages from which to choose. Next to the video a window displays a full transcript of the video to allow viewers to follow along with the talk or find the most salient points and skip ahead. Click a phrase in the transcript — such as the point where director JJ Abrams discusses his grandfather’s mystery box — and the video immediately jumps to that spot. Users can search for key words in a specific video or among all of the translated videos.

The transcripts also mean that key words in each video can now be indexed by outside search engines. Type the term “green rooftops” into Google, and among the links in your results page will probably be one that takes you directly to the point in Majora Carter’s talk where she discusses a green roof project in the Bronx.

Anyone can sign up to translate a video. But at least two fluent translators are required to work on each video for quality control and to discourage mischief-makers who might want to introduce inappropriate material into the translation.

“The second translator’s role is the editor’s role,” Cohen says. “Proofreading, checking for typos and questions of style to prevent the use of regional terms that won’t be widely understood.”

TED matches translators to work with one another, or groups can volunteer to work together. All translators are credited on the site.

TED provides guidelines and a professionally generated English transcript of the talk to each translator to ensure that translators don’t misinterpret a speaker’s words and that every translation starts from the same master transcript.

Nokia has sponsored the subtitle project, and dotSUB provided the platform that translators use to create the marked up transcripts.

Cohen says they’ve had interest from other groups and web sites that are interested in launching similar translation projects.

“Our hope is to pave the way and to provide an example a proof of concept for where we think the web is heading – in terms of the accessibility of video content through subtitling and through interactive transcripts to make online video documents radically more accessible,” says Cohen. “There’s a lot of ways it can go wrong. So we’re hoping to provide the proof that this can actually work and it can work beautifully and on a really large scale.”

from TED Crowdsources Translation of Its Talks

The way it looks...

Spasibíssima / спасибиссимо: Russian-Portuguese crossover or how to make things a bit more "simple"

I've married on the first Sunday of May this year and for a very special particular we had guests coming in from Russia... To make a long story short it happens that they (three lively girls) found the Portuguese adjective Obrigadíssima [Thank you very much] rather amusing. Explaining in English what it meant I had to say it meant the same as Thank you very much or the Russian Bol´shoe spasibo [Большое спасибо].

As a final note I said it was the same as "spasibíssima / спасибиссимо", the reaction was a loud laugh and comments the rest of the trip. Afterwards it became a nice tag expression for group insiders and more than a week later it still pushes into conversation!!! And the fad is alive... at least over here...

Do know about any other linguistic pearls like this?

My Bajan "Days" as Translator/Interpreter

"Juvenes Translatores 2008" - National winners have received their awards

Twenty-seven "young translators" (one from each EU Member State) travelled to Brussels to receive the prizes of the first ever European translation contest for schools. The prizes for the "Juvenes Translatores" contest were handed in a special ceremony by Leonard Orban, Member of the EC in charge of Mulitilingualism.

The contest was organised by the Translation Directorate-General of the European Commission and took place simultaneously in all Member States under the supervision of the schools involved. Participants were given two hours to translate one of the 23 different original texts into any other official language of the EU.

Below we offer a scan from a local Portuguese newspaper about the national winner, Luís Costa.

Another good reason for choosing a professional translator...

... and then we can stop at 404 Server Error for a nice cup of tea! ;)

Investing in something else than machine translation is really the best option...

Translation Gag at Classic Comedy TV Show "I Love Lucy"

Will Lucy survive the French guillotine? An hilarious sketch from a classic American comedy TV show.

2006 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship - Entertainment programme in Águeda in three languages (Portuguese, English and Ukrainian)

Leaflet about the European Association for Terminology (English and Portuguese)

Because one of the objectives of the European Association for Terminology is to promote plurilingualism, I've translated its official institutional leaflet into Portuguese. Until the appearance of the translated leaflet there was no Portuguese-language material about the association... Lets just put this matter into perspective: Portuguese is the seventh most spoken language in the world and an official working language in different international organisations.

The importance of terminology is increasing as it is proven by the growing demands posed by the multilingual information society we live in. A sound terminology policy is becoming all the more necessary for any public or private organisation interested in maintaining efficient internal and external communication. Implementing standards making clear the reference/referent relation will make it easier to create up-to-date, well-structured documents through an efficient and well-managed process, while avoiding unnecessary delays and customer dissatisfaction.

About the European Association for Terminology
The European Association for Terminology was founded in Denmark in 1996, as a non-profit professional organization for the terminology sector in Europe. It is designed to provide a European platform for promoting and professionalising terminological activities and raising public awareness in this regard. Furthermore, the EAFT is committed to liaising and cooperating actively with other relevant organizations, associations and institutions at all levels and to furthering plurilingualism through terminology.


Strangely enough, and despite having been founded in Denmark, the official website features no information in the Danish language.

English for Specific Purposes - Issues in English for tourism and hospitality

Get your own - Open publication

This is an extended paper I prepared on my last year at University (it was a five-year diploma). I choose this theme because this particular area of English-language teaching needs a strong impulse in Portugal (and elsewhere, for my own experience... even in English-speaking countries).

The first impression set on the minds of tourists and potential investors is made by those who deal closely with them at the hospitality industry.

We can not afford to have "Manuels" jeopardising hotel receptions! (You'll need to read the beginning to grasp this...)

Are you interested in computer-assisted language learning (CALL)? How about needs analysis? Yes?!!! Then I recommend reading the last chapter.

A tourist information project "kindly brought to you by the paying advertisers"!

Get your own - Open publication

Sometimes I get requests for material about Águeda including the translation into English. Control over final product sometimes is little if any, however this example is not so bad as one might think because the company even accepted to include credits for the translation (and the original material was mine too...). In any case the final print turned out fairly OK with high-glossy paper. The only drawback was the impossibility to fit the map of the municipality which I had put into English. Soon I'll be able to bring you another set of high-quality tourist material so then you'll get a nice overview of this map and nice local oddities, such as the roasted piglet and the egg and almond sweet pastry! EhEhEhEh!!!

The company who produced the brochure is available here.

European Comission has selected the Best Young Portuguese Translator

The winner was Luís Filipe Machado Costa.

You can check his work right here.

Go here to know more about this initiative by the European Commission.

Anycount 7.0 will be available in the Portuguese language

It's "almost" official! The Advanced International Translations (AIT) crew is about to release the seventh remake of AnyCount, the best word, line, character and page count software there is.

AnyCount produces automatic word, character, line, and page counts for all common file formats. It supports .RTF, .DOC, .WPD, .XLS, .PPT, .PPS, .PDF, .CSV, .HTM, .HTML, .XML, .MIF, .TXT, .ZIP, .ODT, .SDW, .SXW, .ODS, .SDC, .SXC, .ODP, .SDD, .SXI, .HLP, .CHM formats, counting characters with or without spaces.

Release 6.0 of AnyCount included 23 languages: Albanian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish and Ukrainian versions.

AnyCount 7.0 will introduce a number of enhancements... which will be known pretty soon though...

I've been cooperating with AIT since 4.0 version and it's been impressive how far this piece of software has been taken: the improvements seem unstoppable. Even the way localisation is being managed is great as it has been "workflowed" with Sisulizer, so the translator can always tell the status of every code-line before him/her.

For the moment fully-functional 30-day evaluation copies of AnyCount 6.0 are available for download at http://www.anycount.com


Also, these are some other localisation projects I was involved in:
http://www.quickim.com/pt/
http://www.mironto.sk/localization/

Localisation ventures in Portugal target the African market (and elsewhere!)

Diversify! That's the word of order and that means new market, and new markets often mean adapting to reality and local needs. This Portuguese software house has a growing presence in foreign markets, especially in Portuguese-speaking African countries, such as Angola. From the position they have in the regional market they can target new countries with the established partners. It doesn't take long to understand localisation is part of the process. In this case the software was worked into the French language so the French-speaking Sub-Saharan countries could be approached successfully.

Generally speaking the user prefers to deal with software in his/her native language, and quite frankly no one can blame people for escaping the intellectual exercise of living in-between languages, homeless in a off-the-hook lifestyle. Who has the time to endure academia and semantic discussions when the boss is waiting the monthly report?

So, whether you believe or not that your software solution is the best just localise it or no one will be there to let you know about the ups and downs of... the help file. How many times will have I have to say that help files are vital for the user? Don't be lame; do the help file or get the blame!

Water-Hyacinth infestion control at Pateira de Fermentelos / Processo de controlo do jacinto-de-água na Pateira de Fermentelos (Águeda, Portugal)

Get your own - Open publication

I've been having some publications "on the streets", and this leaflet is one of them. It's about the intervention for the control of the water-hyacinth infestation we have here in a beautiful lake named "Pateira de Fermentelos". "Pateira" derives from the Portuguese word "pato" for duck, and the lake received this name for the abundance of this type of water fowl. Also, I've made a number of translations and other linguistic chores related with this environmental project, which involved bringing an aquatic harvester from Canada.

But now about the leaflet, I really enjoyed this project as it made me recollect many things related with the object of the leaflet and my grassroots involvement in its implementation and success. I honestly hope the leaflet becomes a great vehicle for information and action against this aquatic infestation. In terms of translation-specific issues I simply had to establish some criteria about keeping the colourfulness of the text so that the idiosyncrasies of the specific environment were maintained on the English output.

I'm working in the English translation of a book related with the lake "Pateira de Fermentelos". I'll keep you updated about this...

Presentation about the Municipality of Águeda, Portugal (Portuguese and English texts)

Get your own - Open publication

A small translation project into English; nevertheless, the final purpose was important and the translation was obviously crucial...