Bialetti Translation and Localization Simulation Project
In this project simulation I worked with my colleagues Eunji Hamnet and Nektaria Notaridou to provide end-to-end translation and localization services for our global client Bialetti through our mock company LOCALE LAB. In this post I will share the steps we followed and lessons learned in providing translation and localization services for a multilingual request.
First, we prepared a project proposal and quote based on the specific translation and localization needs of our client. Our quote, which you can see below, included detailed information on the project goal, specifications, resources that would be provided, project process and timeline, as well as the deliverables and project cost and agreement. Our client requested translation and localization into Korean, Greek and Spanish (Mexico) for an article that is currently published online. LOCALE LAB’s goal was to provide high-quality and efficient translation and localization services that would ultimately increase the client’s reach and target market in Korea, Mexico and Greece.
LOCALE LAB TEAM
Bialetti Proposal & Quote
We worked with our client to use any existing linguistic resources. However, since our client did not have any of these materials we offered, as part of our services, to create a glossary and termbase, style guide and a translation memory. Although the translation memory is not something that the client would immediately need, it would be useful for future projects if the client decides to translate and localize further materials whether its through LOCALE LAB or another company.
The article that we worked with was a two page document with 1009 words. Based on this information we provided a detailed quote that included the cost for each of the services and deliverables that would be provided.
Before we launched our project, we had a meeting with our client where we presented all the information above and answered all of his the questions. At the end of this meeting we were able to secure the project and we kicked off the project with the preparation stage.
For more detail you can download the proposal by clicking here!
How We Met Our Objective
Our ultimate goal was to provide high-quality transcreation services to our client. To achieve this we had a language manager for each of the requested languages. My colleague Euji was the Korean language manager, Nektaria the Greek language manager, and I served as the Spanish for Mexico translation manager.
During the preparation stage, we copyedited the source article, we looked through important terminology to create the glossary and termbase we created the style guide. Once our source content was ready, we performed pseudotranslation for all three target languages. The purpose of pseudotranslation is to catch any potential translation issues before you start with the translation process. Luckily, our content showed no issues in this stage and we were able to proceed to translation smoothly.
Working With Trados
My colleague Nektaria was in charge of preparing the packages in Trados. She also created a translation memory and a termbase in Trados for each of the target languages. Once this was prepared she sent the Trados packages to Eunji and to me with our respective target languages.
This is where we encountered some issues. Trados translation packages can include different resources and in our case we were expecting to open the package and have all these resources ready to use. However, when we opened the package there was no translation memory and no termbase attached to. Luckily, this was not a critical issue. We quickly troubleshooted as a team and decided that the easiest way to solve this was to manually upload the translation memory and termbase that Nektaria had originally created. Once this was done we were able to quickly and efficiently translate and post-edit our article using Trados. Once we finished doing our respective parts, we confirmed that all our deliverables were according to the requested specifications.
Project Post-Mortem Meeting
Below is our project post-mortem meeting where we share our experience throughout the whole project and our lessons learned and tech and management recommendations.
Lessons Learned
Overall, our experience with this project simulation went great. We were able to troubleshoot and determine the best course of action without any delays or issues with our final project deliverables.
Furthermore, thanks to our effective team communication and support no further issues were encountered and our client was happy with the deliverables provided.
Here are some of the key points to remember for future translation and localization projects:
- Make time to check new methods used
- Have additional resources standing by
- Leave room in your budget- it is better to overestimate than to go over budget
- Use a tested file exchange method
- Take advantage of pseudotranslation
- Always be ready to troubleshoot
- The client is always the priorities, and
- Teamwork is the key to success!