Transcreation: The process of adapting a message from one language to another, while maintaining its intent, style, tone and context. If you’re a mobile app developer or have a business with a mobile application, you’ve likely already put hundreds of hours into building, testing, and launching your app(s)…
What would you think if you clicked onto a site and saw this: “Products from us are the most best in the group. We’ve provides services to peoples from around the worlds at the best prices!” While that’s not taken directly from any website I’ve personally come across (that would just be mean of me), I have…
Finding qualified translators is easy when you can use a service like this one. LinguaQuote lets you compare instant translation quotes for free. Everything’s done by choosing the source and target languages, and telling LinguaQuote how many words your document has got. That’ll be it. A quote will be produced right there and then, and you’ll know who to approach in order to get your translation done for the amount of money that you really can afford to spend.
All of the people that you can contact through the site are qualified translators and/or experienced linguists. The company adheres to a strict vetting process that ensures only people who have got the right qualifications and experience are included in its database.
But leaving that aside, registration is actually free for freelancers. If you’re a language professional, you’d might be interested in checking LinguaQuote’s requirements and registration guidelines. And if you run an agency, then you can choose from two paid plans that come with their own cloud workspace and file storage. A free 30-day trial is available.
Still not really convinced? Just think that some of the topics you want to find information about are not really popular and will not be included in the results of the main search engines. Or the subject you want to read about is present more in other language sites and not so much in English, because it has much more to do with a particular culture.
For example, you want to know about the Spanish copla singer Miguel de Molina, about whom all of Spain is really proud. Well, then it seems more probable that you will find this kind of information in some Spanish website or at least one written in that language. But still, you would rather stick to a site written in English if you could. Well then, doing your search in both languages can be a real help to save you some time in your search.
Sobtong’s site is really simple. Like in every other internet search engine, you get a box where you must write the search terms for what you want to find. But below it, two other boxes are included, each one of them with a drop down menu. In those you must enter the main language in which you want your results and the secondary language. Then, go back to the Search button to make the search and that’s pretty much it.
Read more on Sobotong.com – Search The Web In Two Languages…
Crowdin is a collective translation platform. It lets you upload any text that you need to have rendered into a different language, and use a translation memory to get it in shape before asking the members of the Crowdin community to help you translate it. The site comes with a browser-based editor that lets you migrate translations between different versions, and with complete workflow management tools. These will let you ensure that each person who’s collaborating with you is actually working on something different, and avoid the embarrassment of having to apologize to people who actually did the same thing twice. When using this platform, you can have all the individual pieces of any project you’re working on handled by those who could have them translated more naturally than anybody else.
Almost 100 different languages are currently supported, and (as you can imagine) these include everything from English, French and Spanish to Japanese, Afrikaans and Arabic. And in case your language is not supported, then you can place a request on the “Request Language Support” section.
So, Crowdin.net lets you crowdsource any translation that you’ve got to do, and the way the site’s been built simplifies everything for everybody. The fact of having texts pre-translated using previous human translations is something that makes the process easier both for you and the ones you’re asking for help. It means your text will be presented to them in a way that can be understood much quicker. And this alone turns Crowdin into a time and cost-effective alternative for the online translation of texts.
Don’t lose visitors just because your site is on a language that they don’t understand, use a service like GTranslate and ensure just everybody will be able to read your content, the minute they’ve landed on your site. Available both for free and as a paid service, GTranslate is a powerful platform that lets you have your whole website translated into as much as 58 different languages.
Any page that you have translated using GTranslate is hosted on a URL of its very own, and AdSense ads change according to the language that’s being used.
The free version of GTranslate lets you have pages translated using Google’s automatic translation only, whereas the paid version of the service lets you go all the way, and hire the assistance of human translators. And the free version of GTranslate comes without some features such as cache support for translated pages, and the ability to have translations edited manually.
Besides, search engine friendly URLs are only available to those who go for the pro version of GTranslate. But other than that, the free version of GTranslate is powerful-enough to let you see not only what a translated page looks like, but also to track how many new visits you’re getting – both the free and paid versions of GTranslate come with full analytics, letting you know how people are relating to your content.
And GTranslate can effectively translate everything from pages that have been built using general HTML, to WordPress-powered blogs and sites that have been put together using platforms such as Drupal and Magento.
The translation of websites and apps is about to become a lot faster and (what’s even better) a lot more reliable. This new company will let any webmaster or developer who envisions his own site or app becoming renowned in just every corner of the world take down one of the most immediate barriers, namely that of language. On Smartling.com, you can hire the services of professional translators that will get the job done for a price you can afford, and in a timely way. It’s all a matter of creating an account, choosing the languages that apply and then picking the translation method that you think would be more fruitful.
That is, not only can you use human translators to have your texts rendered into the languages of your choice, you can also go for a hybrid approach and combine the work of language professionals with machine translation. If fact, it’s even possible to use your very own crowd of volunteers to get the job done faster. The site is a true management platform, and by choosing the plan that applies when signing up you’ll be able to use Smartling’s services in the way that best suits your needs. Four are provided: “Free”, “Silver”, “Gold” and “Enterprise”. You’ll pick the one that would work out for you based on how many languages you need to work with, and how many people you expect to visit your site or use your app per month.
Good news for developers that are looking into ways of cracking foreign markets. This company provides them with a quality way to have their applications translated into more than forty different languages, and at really affordable prices. On Tethras, they can create localization projects simply by uploading their apps for quotes to be automatically generated. The way everything works here, words are counted and the overall cost of the translation is estimated on the spot. If that is OK, then the developer can green light it.
In all cases, once the translation is underway the developer will be able to preview what the finished text will look like. If anything is shaping up wrong, then they’ll be able to make the necessary corrections before the project goes any further.
Tethras is based in Ireland, and (for the time being) it focuses on iPhone and Android apps. Pricing ranges from $0.10 to $0.28 per word, and all of the translators that make up the Tethras network are actually qualified professionals with proven experience in the industry.
A very ingenious iPhone application, Vocre can be used by people who find themselves in any country whose language is all Greek to them. Well, this iPhone app will let them have phrases translated live, in one of the coolest ways yet devised. By holding the phone vertically users will record what’s been said, and by flipping it horizontally they’ll have it translated and voiced. Users keep on doing that for the duration of the whole conversation.
No other app makes in-voice translation as simple as Vocre. No other app targets conversation so directly, and enables people to communicate this naturally. Users can even set down the gender of the voice that the app is generating, so as to increase the naturalness of the whole experience.
Vocre can be downloaded at no cost whatsoever at the App Store (download link here), and it comes with 10 free translation. Once these have been used up, it’s possible to buy new batches for as little as 99 cents.
Have you ever stopped to think of the fact that people who speak languages other than English are not coming across your site unless you actually spend money on getting your landing page translated? As obvious as that is, many seem to bypass such a fact for the simple reason they are focusing on conquering their local markets first. Having a smash site in other countries is never, ever made an immediate priority at launch date. Their owners simply have more pressing things to do. Or they think they do, at least. The fact remains there is no reason to overlook foreign markets at first when there are applications like this one around.
In a nutshell, Magnet Pages is a service that can take care of promoting any product or service by creating a series of foreign language pages describing it. These are findable by search engines, and can always be accessed on the sites in question too.
There are three plans to choose from. One is free, and the other two come at a cost. One is named Pro, the other is named Executive. Each comes with support for a larger number of languages.
Read more on MagnetPages.com – Automatic Landing Page Translations…
Translators have always been worried about computers taking their jobs away from them. I do recall reading the predictions of some people who claimed it would take decades before computers could equal the cognitive processes that let a human being perform a translation. I read that about 10 years ago. And guess what? The way in which computers can currently handle translations is nothing short of excellent. The ones who said we would have to wait for a good couple of decades before we saw any real developments in the field of translation have been proven absolutely wrong.
And the release of bookmarklets like this one simply accelerates everything. Translet will let you have any text that you come across when browsing the Web rendered into any of 90 languages, at the mere click of a button. (So many languages are supported because Translet is powered by Google Translate, of course.) Translet can detect the language your browser is in automatically, and have any portion of text you highlight translated. And it can also translate whole pages in one click if that is what you want.
Read more on Translet.co – Translate Texts Into 90 Languages…
There are just lots of different ways to have a website that is more engaging to the average visitor, but if we were to think about it both long and hard enough we would agree on the fact that nothing beats having a multilingual website. That ensures the information contained on the site is going to be actually consumed by visitors, and truly understood.
And having a multilingual website is anything but difficult nowadays, thanks to services and applications like the one that is being reviewed right now. GTranslate is a tool for the automatic translation of websites. It basically enables webmasters to make their sites go multilingual at the mere click of a button.
GTranslate is a free application, and just anybody can have it implemented on his site. It supports platforms like WordPress, Joomla and Drupal to the full, and it is powered by Google Translator (something that goes into guaranteeing its accuracy and overall reliability).
The days in which asking our computers to translate a document equaled receiving a jumble of a text in return are nothing but a distant memory. Services like Apertium show us what a long way machine translation has really come.
Apertium is an online translation environment that is free and open to just any person who is willing to give it a try. On this site, it is possible to cut and paste any text you need to have translated and have the job done for you by picking the source and target languages that apply. Lots and lots are already supported, including English, Spanish, Italian and French to name but four that most of you are sure to choose. As a matter of fact, even Esperanto is supported to a certain extent.
And the site is considerably enhanced by the presence of an online dictionary that will pull you out of all the linguistic junctions you might ever find yourself at. Much like the provided translation service, this dictionary can be used absolutely for free.
There are some contexts in which the only way to get something done right is by crowdsourcing it. The translation of software applications is a very representative example, with programmers asking users to lend a hand ever since forums and boards became a commodity. Yet, there are not really that many platforms letting developers and their users connect solely to such purposes, and collaborate without barriers of any kind.
OneSkyApp.com is one of the few sites available which plays out that very same role. Here, any developer can enlist the help of punters and get his application translated into as many languages as he needs.
Features like integration with Facebook fan pages give the whole system a more organic flow. And everything is all the more practical since developers are allowed to execute a preliminary machine translation. That will make things so much easier for users, and the whole translation process will be sped up in the healthiest of ways. And the fact that everything works on the browser is also an upside.
Read more on OneSkyApp.com – Have Users Translate Your Apps…
Viki is an online community for translators that has ties with broadcasters and media producers from all over the world. These producers and broadcasters enlist the help of Viki members in order to have subtitles created for their shows, documentaries and features.
The whole world is mapped by Viki. Subtitles for shows from the US are created at the same pace (and with the same dedication) as subtitles for shows from Europe, Asia and Latin America. Overall, more than 150 languages can be translated by members of this community. These include everything from English, Spanish, French and Italian to Japanese, Korean and even Klingon (!).
The Viki community can be joined at no cost. In addition to submitting all the basic particulars that are always asked when signing up for any online community, people are requested to specify both their first and their second languages. This will let others know exactly whether to approach them for specific jobs or not, without needing to dig that deep for that information at all.
With its ability to turn any mobile into a fast translation device, Text Lang stands as the kind of tool that travelers always ought to keep in mind when they are in countries whose languages are strange to them.
The way Text Lang works is really simple. You (as the one who needs a phrase translated) have to add Text Lang to your list of contacts. From that point onwards, you simply send a message with the phrase to be translated to Text Lang. The message will be duly answered with a voiced translation that you can listen to yourself, or share with any foreigner you are talking to by handing him the phone.
As a service, Text Lang is provided free of charge. That is, standard text message and phone rates apply. But the company itself charges nothing for the service it is providing. You just add it to your list of contacts, send a SMS when you are pitched against any phrase you can not understand and that will be the end of it.
We all have come across the odd tweet here and there that is in a language that lies well beyond our understanding. In some cases, we are even unable to figure out which language we have come in contact with. That is one of the inherent drawbacks of something that becomes a global phenomenon, such as Twitter has become.
And until Twitter offers an official solution for having tweets translated, we will have to rely on services such as Twxlate to get the job done instead.
Twxlate is here to let us have tweets translated from more than 40 languages into English. These include everything from Spanish, German and French to Japanese, Chinese and Greek (IE, languages written in alphabets other than the Roman one).
Obviously, when using Twxlate you are enabled to supply the ID of any user whose tweets you want to have translated, and proceed to have his entire Twitter statuses and public conversations rendered into English.
Get Localization is a new community site that aims to bring developers and translators together, and let the former create applications everyone can understand with the help and assistance of the latter.
If you want to get a little more technical, you could say that is social web-based CAT-tool for software localization with support for crowdsourcing and normal translation projects. But you would essentially be saying the same: it is a site in which developers can get in touch with translators that will assist them in the creation of applications that people the world over can understand.
The translation process itself can be done in two different ways. On the one hand, the developers can choose to crowdsource the whole translation work. On the other hand, it is possible to hire the work of professional translators and arrange everything privately.
The site itself claims to support over 7000 different languages, and while it is impossible for me to say how accurate that number is I can see that the vast majority of popular development environments are fully supported – JAVA, Django, Rails, Symbian, Symfony… Of course, those who are developing applications for iPhones and every other major mobile platform are fully taken into account, too.
Read more on GetLocalization.com – Localize Your Application…
Translators are looking over their shoulders at every step they take, and they have genuine reasons to be concerned. Machine translation has evolved by leaps and bounds. And something like Markerr stands as one of the clearest examples we have of that.
In essence, Markerr is a bookmarklet that you can add to your browser for real-time translation capabilities to be unlocked. You drag and drop the bookmarlet into position, and from that point onwards whenever you come across a text that you want translated then you simply have to highlight it. That portion of text will there and then be rendered into the relevant destination language. The source language is auto-detected by Markerr – you are not required to specify it. Markerr takes care of all the tedious bits.
As you can see, then, this is a practical application par excellence. Just by installing the bookmarklet you will be capable of having texts translated on the fly. That costs absolutely nothing. And the translation itself is powered by Google, so that you know you are getting trustworthy results.
Read more on Markerr.com – Get Any Text You Want Translated…
LangOver is a free application for the ones whose work involves typing documents in alternate languages all through the day. That is, people whose job has them changing the layout of the keyboard time after time after time. You might think that such a thing is no big deal, but believe me when I tell you it is. And it is the kind of operation that one easily forgets doing. Only when a mistake has been made does one realize he did not change the layout.
Well, LangOver puts a stop to that in the easiest way yet devised. When LangOver is running, you can simply press F10 for any text that you have typed to be fixed, and the characters to be replaced with the right ones.
And additional keyboard commands that you can use include one for translating the text in its entirety using Google Translate (Ctrl + G), and also search any portion of it (Ctrl + S).
As a tool, LangOver can be used at just no cost. The application is really lightweight, and you are sure to be able to run it.
Read more on LangOver.com – A Tool For Writing In Multiple Languages…
