On 1 March 2022, we will open our first office outside Helsinki. And where else but Turku!
Our Turku office is located in the Werstas co-working space in ElectroCity, in the heart of Turku Science Park. Turku Science Park is the undisputed centre of Turku’s business life. ElectroCity is also a nostalgic place for many Delingua employees – at the beginning of the millennium, the University of Turku’s students of languages and translation studied there.
Every organization will have a need for translations at some point. That need may be a one-off, such as translation of one document, or recurring, such as translation of a company’s communications or a frequently updated multilingual online store. When there’s a one-time need for translation, the material is usually translated internally, such as by an employee who speaks the language, or a freelance translator. Internal translation may be a good solution if translating comes naturally to the employee and sufficient time has been reserved for it. In our other blog article you can read why good language skills still won’t necessarily guarantee a fluent translation.
When there’s a frequent need for translations, it’s best to turn to a skilled translation partner. The company can either choose an external Language Service Partner as a translation partner or hire its own internal translator. Below we compare the two options.
Translation topics and terms may be very specialised. Translators usually cope well with this challenge, as they specialise in certain fields and types of text, such as marketing texts or software translations.
An internal translator will usually get to know the company’s subject matter and specialised vocabularies very well. Usually, they will also know the company’s tone better than an external resource, in which case the translations and other materials will be similar in style. If the company has only one translator or one translation team, it is easy to maintain the terminology and style for all texts.
The translator networks of Language Service Partners have many translators who are specialised in different fields, so there is no doubt that there will be translators who are familiar with the customer’s field of expertise. With Language Service Partners, translations are directed to the translators on the basis of their working languages, knowledge, specialisation and experience. Customers may also be assigned one or more translators to be used in all of their translations, as far as is possible. In this way, the tone of the translations remains consistent. In addition, Language Service Partners maintain the customer’s translation memories and term bases, which can help to ensure consistency of style and terminology.
Translation schedules can pose challenges to translation work, whether it involves an internal translator or an external Language Service Partner. On average, a translator translates approximately 250 words per hour and around 2,000 words per day. Translators can’t do the impossible, no matter how urgent the work may be. The schedule should also take into account, for example, reviewing reference material and proofreading, which increase the length of the overall schedule.
The resources of internal translators are limited. If the working day and week are already fully booked with translation assignments, new translation assignments can only be accepted after they are finished. Of course, prioritising translations can make a difference, but it is important to remember that the pace of translation cannot be accelerated indefinitely, and quality suffers easily when work is done in a hurry.
The trump card held by external Language Service Partners is a large pool of translators. If one translator isn’t available to accept the assignment, there will be a large number of other translators ready to take the job. In addition, in the case of urgent orders, a translation can be sped up by dividing the work between several translators.
Nowadays, many translation tools are used to help with translations, such as translation memories, term bases and different integrations. The range of tools is very wide, and choosing the right tools requires expertise.
The company’s internal translator may not be aware of all the tool options available on the market, their pros and cons, or the opportunity to test different tools and their suitability for the company. Sometimes, the company that hired the translator simply doesn’t want to put money into translation tools.
Language Service Partners often have a wide range of tools, as well as the necessary expertise in the selection and use of these tools. The tools are used according to the customer’s needs and the aim is to improve both the quality and the speed of the translation process.
When using an internal translator, it may be a problem if there is no one else in the company who knows the target language of the translation. It is always good for the style and fluency of the translation that the text is read by another person. If there is no other reader, it’s a good idea to contact a Language Service Partner and order proofreading for the text.
Language Service Partners have a wide range of linguistic experts at their disposal, and often have precisely defined the processes related to the quality of translations and customer feedback. Quality and feedback are closely monitored, and poor quality and negative feedback are reacted to quickly. In addition to translation, the range of services may also include various proofreading and copy editing services.
When a company makes a choice between an internal translator and an external partner, it is worth considering what kinds of translation needs the company has and into which languages. An internal translator is an excellent solution if translation is only needed for one language. If the text needs to be translated into many different languages, it might be best to turn to a Language Service Partner. Internal translators’ resources aren’t enough to handle on-going translations for many different languages, but Language Service Partners will quickly supply you with translations for various languages. On the other hand, the best solution for a company could be a combination of the two: an internal translator takes care of regular single-language translations, while the rest are bought from a Language Service Partner.
Delingua offers translation services for all the translation needs of companies of all sizes – big and small. Whether it’s a big localisation project or a one-page translation, we’re here to help. We can also provide you with proofreading for translations that are ready.
One of the most confusing things about learning a new language is a linguistic phenomenon known as “false friends”. “False friends” refers to words in different languages that look the same but have different meanings. False friends can be cognates, that is, words that have a common origin but which have changed in meaning over time. They can also just happen to be similar words. There are also loanwords. These are words which appear in the original language in one sense but which, after being adopted in another language, have continued to develop so that the original meaning has either widened or changed. There are often a lot of false friends between similar sounding languages. For example, many Finns know that there are a lot of funny word pairs like this between Estonian and Finnish. For example, a Finn who does not know Estonian might easily think that the Estonian word “piim” means “piimä” (buttermilk) even though it actually means milk.
Such words can cause frustration or annoyance for language learners, as false friends look misleadingly alike and, in fact, only pretend to be friends. These false friends are particularly problematic in cases where a language learner assumes that a familiar looking word means the same thing as in their mother tongue. Many learners have probably found themselves using a word based on its apparent familiarity. From my own past, I remember a little too well the first few days in my Irish host family, where I ended up using a word that sounded right but, unfortunately, was not. I had trouble using the electric heater in my bedroom and asked the family for help. However, I didn’t know that the Finnish word “(lämpö)patteri” was not “battery” in English. Needless to say, my problem was not understood right away.
False friends are just one of the many interesting aspects about learning a new language, even though they can sometimes lead to misunderstandings. There is absolutely no shame in making a mistake, as it is the best way to learn, and most native speakers find it funny rather than annoying. There may not be as many deceptive word pairs between English and Finnish as in other languages, but some of them have meanings that are surprisingly deceptive. Here you’ll find some of the most common English and Finnish false friends and their meanings. How many of these false friends would catch you out?
The coronavirus pandemic seems to go on and on and remote work continues. Video conferences and meetings are here to stay. Over the past couple of years, Microsoft Teams, Zoom and other video call services have become very familiar to many.
Not all international meetings are cancelled. Instead, they are arranged easily as remote meetings over a video connection. The platforms’ interpreting features make it easy to take speakers of different languages into account: for instance, Zoom offers a real-time simultaneous interpreting feature.
Microsoft Teams is used in numerous organisations and its video calls are familiar to many. If Teams is the platform used by the organisation for daily video calls, arranging interpreting is simple. Teams does not have an actual interpreting feature like Zoom does. However, interpreting in Teams can be arranged easily in two ways: as consecutive interpreting in Teams alone or as simultaneous interpreting with the aid of a plug-in.
In consecutive interpreting, the speaker and the interpreter take turns speaking. This is a common choice for negotiations or individual statements, for instance, and particularly for on-site interpreting. As Teams does not come with a dedicated interpreting feature, interpreting without a plug-in is possible as consecutive interpreting. This kind of interpreting takes twice as long as everything is heard twice, first in the source language and then interpreted into the target language. However, consecutive interpreting is a somewhat old-fashioned way of organising interpreting and it is best suited for community interpreting and other similar meetings. Remote simultaneous interpreting technology has developed a great deal and is now an effective option for many meetings.
In simultaneous interpreting, the interpreter interprets at the same time as the speaker speaks. With the help of interpreting technology, speech is transmitted to the interpreter’s headphones and the interpreter’s speech then to the listener’s headphones. Interpreting technology also makes remote simultaneous interpreting (RSI) possible on video call platforms, such as Teams. The interpreter and the speakers do not need to be in the same room – everything can be done conveniently over a remote connection.
In Teams, remote simultaneous interpreting is possible with a plug-in, such as Zoom, Interprefy or Kudoway. At Delingua, we mainly use the Interprefy RSI plug-in in Teams interpreting. In this case, in addition to the Teams platform, one needs a remote interpreting plug-in or platform, such as one of those mentioned above. The plug-in or the platform should be downloaded to the device or opened in another browser. The plug-in makes it possible to listen to interpreting via another platform even though the meeting itself is held in Teams. In order to use Teams and this integration option, you must have a non-free version of Teams, i.e. Office 365’s E1, E3 or E5 version or Microsoft 365.
Although remote simultaneous interpreting is not supported by Teams, it can be easily arranged with the help of a plug-in, as described above. At Delingua, we have arranged several large meetings and conferences with remote simultaneous interpreting via Teams. At best, we have had meetings with hundreds of participants and up to nine language pairs, all arranged remotely through Interprefy. We recommend interpreting in Teams especially if Teams is already used in your organisation.
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