What were you thinking? Worst Translation Practices

1 Skype/Twitter: @lotusevangelist

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ITA 2016 International Conference

Keith Brooks

What Were You Thinking? Worst

Translation Practices Keith Brooks

Chief Typo Officer


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Keith Brooks

Who am I• Made Aliyah in August 2014 from Florida to Rehovot• Managed translations for William Hill Online in Tel Aviv• Worked with 100+ different organizations over the last

25+ years• Have blogged in English, Spanish, Hebrew, Italian and

“IBMese”• Work in the field of Collaboration and Business

Transformation• Brand Ambassador/Evangelist and Product Marketer


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Keith Brooks

Today’s Goals• Management Cares, But…• Typos• Plagiarized Errors (US/UK English)• Machine Language Translation• I speak English, Hebrew and Klingon• Time Traveling Documents• Management Requests of You


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Keith Brooks

Management Cares, But…• May not have English or Hebrew or

whatever language as our mother tongue• May not have very good grammar or

spelling skills• Need someone to blame• Rely on your expertise• Do the 30-second sniff, if that much• Edit, your edits…and don’t tell you…

sometimes

We


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Keith Brooks

Typos• Mea Culpa – I do this too, it happens, we are not

machines…yet• Make sure Word or whatever program used has a

dictionary with the correct languages inside it• Turn it on…and trust it, but not entirely to do YOUR

job, which is…• Proofread, Proofread, Proofread and when in doubt….PROOFREAD again

http://cdn.pophangover.com/wp-content/uploads/funny-typo-24-300x167.jpg


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Keith Brooks

Plagiarized Errors (US/UK English)

• In our world (High Tech, Pharma, Finance, etc..) we read other blogs and websites and writings• Odd phrasing , specific examples catch our

eye • More common when English is not your

mother tongue language• This will guarantee we never use you

again


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Keith Brooks

Machine Language Translation • Google may be your friend, but not here• We use it to verify other languages but we

don’t pay you to rely on it• It may put you out of a job, how good are

your editing skills?• You will not make a living, with us or anyone

else, using MLT


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Keith Brooks

8

Come One, Come All to the Poorly Translated Spanish Clitoris Festival

“..But when residents clicked onto the Castillian Spanish version of the town’s website - provided by Google Translate - to check the dates for next year’s fest they were shocked at the new turn the festival had apparently taken. "The clitoris is one of the typical products of Galician cuisine," read the description of the festival on the Castillian Spanish version of the town hall’s website, whose original version is written in Galician. ” http://www.thelocal.es/20151102/galicia-celebrates-its-annual-clitoris-festival-thanks-to-google-translate

Don’t embarrass us, nor yourselves,think about what you write!

http://www.thelocal.es/20151102/galicia-celebrates-its-annual-clitoris-festival-thanks-to-google-translate




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Keith Brooks

I speak English, Hebrew and Klingon

• Let us know what other languages you know• We may (often) have other

projects for which we can recommend you for….IF we trust/like you to do our existing work• Be creative; sometimes, we

need ideas and input too

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fXSLcYQHqFQ/maxresdefault.jpg


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Keith Brooks

Time Traveling Documents•We provide deadlines for a reason, not as a request• Always verify dates and formats of dates with us• Past, Present and Future may coexist in Star Trek….BUT

Not on documents you translate


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Keith Brooks

Management Requests of You• Never send us back your work using the same

file name• Make sure you send us the right file or version of

changes• Include the item/code # and your name in the

file name• Bold or underline URLs and linked items• Going on vacation, TELL US• Make yourself contactable, don’t be a

Government office


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Keith Brooks

Today’s Completed GoalsManagement Cares, But…TyposPlagiarized Errors (US/UK

English)Machine Language TranslationI speak English, Hebrew and

KlingonTime Traveling DocumentsManagement Requests of You

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p-9w59bzhaM/UelYRLiGReI/AAAAAAAAGhE/7lUZ5qVR4g4/s1600/thats-all-folks.jpg


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Keith Brooks

רבה Thank You תודהhttp://linkedin.com/in/keithbrooks

Enjoy the Rest of the ConferenceSlides will be posted at

http://slideshare.net/kbmsg

Come to my 16:00 session Grand Ballroom A:

My Dog Ate My Translation Assignment

http://slideshare.net/kbmsg