Sommaire

1. The EUROLOGOS Group
2. The translation market: the positioning of suppliers on the market
3. Globalisation: production where the languages are spoken
4. The three quality levels (translation, adaptation and editing)
5. Terminology: the future of translation
   • MultiTerm Ô95
   • WinAlign
   • Translator's Workbench
6. Openings offered to graduates
   • Translator
   • Copywriter
   • Interpreter

1. The EUROLOGOS Group

Over the last few years we have witnessed an irreversible acceleration of the globalisation of economies, and this has meant that companies in all countries have needed to export their products and services to an even greater extent. Advertising and technical communication has therefore increased, and the need for quality multilingual services is already greatly in evidence.

To meet this new demand in terms of quantity as well as quality, the EUROLOGOS Group has structured itself so as to be one of these rare multilingual and multinational companies which, through their development of new applied technology in the field of translation, are the leaders in these international markets.

The Eurologos Group was founded in Brussels in 1977. Like every other agency already in place at this time, Eurologos was satisfied with only supplying a linguistic service of translation and interpretation. In spite of its growing ambition, Eurologos strongly resembled what we would today call a "letter-box" agency: a small, local company which uses freelance work.

Rapidly, and with the help of the market, Eurologos realised that such a structure was not really very strategic. And for good reason. Conscious of the fact that linguistic quality cannot be promised without the means to produce it, Eurologos' group of directors quickly opted for another policy.

This is why, in addition to translation and interpretation services, Eurologos created the company Littera Graphis in 1989, which manages the pre-press, layout and printing services. 1994 saw the launch of TELOS Advertising and Marketing, a subsidiary company of the Eurologos Group which specialises in multilingual copywriting.

To complete the advantages of this new policy, after pre-press production and creative writing, it was necessary to internationalise.
In fact, with continental Europe fast approaching, Eurologos decided to open six other offices: Antwerp, Athens, Cologne, Milan, Rome and an office in Tokyo. The strategic question, in terms of marketing, was simple: was it necessary to delocalise the market? In reality it was not a case of delocalising, but relocating, or at least relocating the languages. In fact, any self-respecting, multilingual company must be able to guarantee impeccable linguistic quality. To achieve this, the ideal scenario is to produce translations where the languages are spoken.
Globalisation requires this: that is why our company started to scour the world with the aim of setting up new branches. We will shortly be opening subsidiaries in major cities such as Casablanca, Luxembourg, London, Madrid and Montreal. We are sure that Saint Jerome - Doctor of the Church but also a great polyglot in society and political life - will not confuse professional ambition and Human Vanity: although, like all good translators, we are megalophobes, we are condemned to carrying out an intrinsically megalomaniac project: the tower of Babel in reverse. Let's consider this for a minute: it is necessary to open at least forty or so offices. In fact, although Unesco has identified 6,500 languages (including Welsh, Gaelic, and Breton), only - if we dare say it - about forty of them are economically important. And I am not talking about geostylistically determined languages: English compared to international American or Portuguese compared to Brazilian.

2. The translation market: the positioning of suppliers on the market

So how does the linguistic services market look today?

The translation market can be divided up into three main segments: the legions of independent translators, the small, exclusively local companies (even microbusinesses) and the large, truly international companies.
 

• The first segment is independent translators, who supply work as much for translation bureaux as they do for large companies directly. They only translate into one or two languages and do not generally have translation memory systems and structured terminology glossaries at their disposal.
   

• The second segment, that of local companies, is made up of the category of companies known as "letter-box" agencies. They claim to be able to translate everything, into any language... and perfectly. However, this is obviously a case of overclaim: if you see a misleading slogan such as "Over 100 translators, all specialised", you can be sure that you have come across one of these agencies. In reality, they end up delivering texts to clients which they - almost certainly - do not know how to read or write: in fact, they do not have internal, mother-tongue translators to revise the texts which they receive by post from freelancers. These "letter-box" agencies must - as you know - inevitably hide their freelancers from their customers and vice versa. Not to mention the fact that these "letter-box" agencies cannot supply publishing or multimedia services.
   

• The third segment is made up of what are known as the Three Ms companies. They are Multinational and truly Multilingual companies which have significant Multimedia departments.

3. Globalisation: production where the languages are spoken

Perfect mastery of your own language is a crucial element in the production of linguistic quality - hence the need to have texts translated and revised by native speakers. This the reason behind our branches abroad and our plan to open even more. Only native speakers are able to judge whether a translation conforms to the original text. They alone are capable of taking into consideration and measuring the stylistic differences and the sociolinguistic conformity of a text. All self-respecting translation agencies which claim to offer multilingual services cannot be satisfied with having only one national office.

The translation process of the Eurologos Group follows a very simple pattern. The project manager is responsible for creating a timetable which is as precise as possible. The general rule is that you take the time a translator needs to translate, and multiply it by two to obtain the approximate delivery deadline. In fact, the translator cannot be aware of the difficulties which the text may present.
Our translators always work into their mother tongue and in pairs, one translates and the other revises. Revisers must make changes to the text which they think are necessary from a semantic, orthographic and syntactic point of view - you could not deliver a text riddled with spelling and grammatical mistakes and inaccuracies. The first translator confirms or rejects the corrections that their colleague has made: even revisers can make mistakes.
Once the checking procedure and the homogenisation work is completed, the project manager is responsible for sending the work to the client.

4. The three quality levels

The EUROLOGOS Group has drawn up a quality contract which identifies three levels:

• The "translation quality" level: this level involves a translation which is a faithful, semantic reproduction of the source text as well as being correct as far as spelling and grammar are concerned.
   

• The "adaptation quality" level: this level involves the terminological preparation of texts to be translated. The customer informs the Project Manager of the thematic, morphological and sociolinguistic requirements. The translator/reviser duo then create a text which will be revised and improved from a terminological point of view before being delivered.
   

• The "editing quality" level: in this case, EUROLOGOS must not only carry out the translation, but also the layout (and sometimes printing) work through our pre-press subsidiary, Littera Graphis. The delivered texts thus conform to the reference layout, which saves a lot of time for the customers, who only have to approach one supplier for their product.

As always, once youÕve mastered complexity, everything becomes simple, efficient and economical!

5. Terminology: the future of translation

In order to offer a higher quality service, the EUROLOGOS Group decided, as long as ten years ago, to invest considerably in terminology. Terminology and information technology have come together - as you know - to create terminotics; in other words the management of databases through information technology. Multilingual documents are becoming increasingly numerous and technical and it is thanks to the use of linguistic engineering that the process of translating can be made easier.
The aim of the terminology department is to produce and manage glossaries and translation memories, not only to improve linguistic quality but also to increase productivity. The clients for whom we create databases are in this way assured that their translations will conform with the technolect of their company - that is to say in harmony with the specific vocabulary used by the business in its publications. In order to guarantee this linguistic precision, our Group has chosen to use Trados systems which combine three main applications: a database (MultiTerm), an alignment program (WinAlign) and a translation memory manager (Translator's Workbench).

• Multiterm'95
  
  The MultiTerm '95 software package enables the production and maintenance of databases with the object of building up glossaries or multilingual dictionaries. It is in these databases that the technolects of our clients are stored with the utmost care.
  The first step is to take old translations and extract terms from them: the technical terms are taken from the two texts in parallel.
  
  Once the process of extraction has taken place, the building of the database can begin with the creation of files; each file contains a single concept and its translation into the different languages used by the client. This software also makes it possible to insert additional information, for example grammatical information, definitions, synonyms, contexts, sources and whether or not the term has been approved by the client. When the glossaries have reached a considerable size, it is advisable to monitor them continually so that the risk of recurring terms can be avoided.
   

• WinAlign
  This software package can be used to align a source text and a target text once the translations have been made. However, if the texts are not available in PC format, the hard copies can be digitised using a scanner. The next stage is to save the texts in RTF format so that they can be aligned with WinAlign. The two texts are then set in opposition and the software goes on to align them according to several recognition criteria: figures, punctuation marks, the number of characters, etc.
  When the alignment is complete, the terminologist must check that the source segments have in fact been aligned with the target segments, because it is possible that for punctuation reasons the segments have been modified.
  For example, according to WinAlign a sentence always ends with a full stop. This is not always so, however, as is often the case in German, e.g. 12. Januar, and also if full stops are used in abbreviations.
   

• Translator's Workbench
  This program - if it is to be used in an efficient and profitable way - must be constantly monitored. The terminologist must also see to it that the translation memory is continuously supplied with terms, so that the translators are provided with the best tools and the latest updates. There are two ways of using Translator's Workbench; either for pre-translation or for interactive translation.
   

• Pre-translation
  After the software has been parameterised, notably by indicating the minimum match value, the source text is submitted to the software, which goes on to draw the target segments into the translation memory. The result is as follows:
  
  TX BROCHURE - REF. 81003 - S99 REWORK
  
  Le modèle TX63 est propulsé par un moteur New Holland peu polluant, avec une puissance brute de 168 kW (226 ch). La Discovery Cab est le nec plus ultra en matière de confort et de contrôle de l'opérateur, et la vitre courbée offre une vue dégagée de la barre de coupe et de la surface d'alimentation de la récolte. Un inverseur d'alimentation hydraulique permet de dégager tout blocage rapidement et aisément. La TX63 possède une trémie d'une capacité de 7200 litres.
  
  The first segment corresponds to the source segment and the segment which directly follows it represents the proposal for translation. The small figure between the brackets indicates the match value, which here is 73%. This means that the translation is 73% reliable. It is possible that the translation is 100% reliable, but because of the different punctuation the software does not consider this to be the case.
  As for the third and fourth segments, they have a match value of 100% and therefore they correspond perfectly.
  
  When the match is not found, the software rewrites the source segment. To make everything easier to spot, TranslatorÕs Workbench uses four colours on the screen; blue is used for source segments, black shows that there is no match, red indicates a fuzzy match (between 70 and 99%) and green indicates perfect equivalency.
  
  The last stage consists of cleaning up the file: the software removes all of the source segments, leaving only the translation.
   

• Interactive translation
  This method is particularly effective when it comes to updating commercial brochures.
  In fact, very few pieces of text need to be changed because the modifications are generally of a terminological nature. Thanks to an interactive taskbar, the translation can be left to the software once the texts have been handled.
  
  This procedure involves opening the segments one after the other and asking the software if there is a translation in its memory. The program then "fishes" for the segments one after the other. If a segment cannot be found or is below the match value, the translation must be made by the translator.
   

6. Openings for graduates

• Translator
  Newly-graduated students, who have just left university, do not always know what to expect once they have arrived on the market.
  It is, first and foremost, essential for students who have chosen to pursue a career in translation to do a traineeship, if possible in a translation company. You have to understand the market to be able to judge your own ability and your potential. University translations, as good as they are, do not prove that the translator who carried them out is an excellent translator. A whole series of factors must be taken into consideration. These involve deadlines set by customers (and you can't say that we meet them often in the university corridors!), the tools you have available and finally the length of the text. Often, many students are discouraged by seeing that for their first piece of work they will have to translate ten pages on the working of an electric motor for use in water...
  
  At this point I would like to tackle the question of specialisation, which to me seems particularly paradoxical. Some freelancers decide to specialise in a maximum of two or three fields to ensure a regular quantity of work. However, we must not forget that telecommuting is increasingly developing and numerous freelancers are thinking in the long term and are not hesitating to invest in IT equipment such as terminology software, translation memory systems, etc.
  Specialisation is acquired by reading the relevant journals, going to trade fairs, etc. (it would be a mistake for translators specialising in texts relating to the motor industry not to visit car exhibitions in order to glean information).
  In contrast to this, multilingual companies must be specialised in every field and to achieve this they must invest in terminology tools such as databases, alignment programs, and translation memory systems. In fact, a translation agency must invest in order to have programs which enable it to store information relating to the client companyÕs translations and technolects.
  However, before any specialisation, it is crucial to monitor the evolution of your own language. This is all the more important since with the explosion of information technologies, the language creates, adds and even removes vocabulary... which, although it quite suits our dear American neighbours, is most unwelcome amongst Belgian linguists!
  
  It is in the best interest of graduates to carry out traineeships so that they can judge their strengths and weaknesses. Academic circles must enter into contracts with industries: companies must be educated and students must be trained in the world of work. It would be wrong and illusory to believe that graduates, no matter which translation degree they have, will be in a position to produce impeccable translations.
  You would be more easily forgiven for an error in translation than for a grammatical or spelling mistake in your own mother tongue. In fact, mastery of your own language is an absolute priority. Most translation agencies strongly insist on this last point when they are recruiting: linguistic, semantic and sociolinguistic coherence are the very foundations of a good translation and consequently those of a good translator. A true translator must always be up-to-date with new linguistic changes so that they can master all of the subtleties which make a translation not only faithful, but also aesthetic.
  
  Every translator knows perfectly well that their work can always be improved; a frustration which you become hardened to after many years in the profession. Most linguists and translators agree that you can consider a translation to be "good" if no one can tell that it is a translation when reading it. The translation is therefore, on the one hand, in harmony with the original, and on the other hand, in harmony with the sociostyle of the source language.
   

• Copywriter
  Today, many companies such as advertising and marketing agencies are calling upon what are known as "linguistic advisers" or "copywriters". These people are generally graduates in arts and languages and they have a perfect command of their mother tongue.
  This profession is no easier than translations. Of course, you will be asked to do less translations, but your job will be to reread, manipulate or adapt a text which is intended for use in your country. As a result, you must be aware of what is done and what is not done in your country. An advertising concept can appear quite natural in the country of the source language and look out of place in the country of the target language.
  
  The linguistic adviser or copywriter must therefore find a balance between the different languages; this is the profession's most arduous task. On other occasions the job comes down to rereading adverts in order to spot and remove the mistakes which have been able to sneak into a text.
  Copywriters can also work in a marketing department, and this is similar to the jobs they have in advertising agencies. They are asked to think up slogans and "shock phrases"; the aim is to get a reaction from the public by using language and the image they have of the company. This reaction is generally obtained by going against public opinion.
  This profession has good times ahead of it and is perfectly suited to a determined, ingenious person who, above all, loves manipulating language.
   

• Interpreter
  Interpreting is a fascinating profession, but its exhausting and stressful nature is well known.
  Once again, I do not want to alarm you, but there are not many places in interpreting for graduates. There are two crucial reasons for this:
  
  - The majority of interpreters work for European institutions or for large national or international bodies. You must keep in mind that these jobs, which are quite rare, are offered through competitive entrance examinations involving tens of thousands of applicants.
  
  - The sine qua non for an interpreter is that they are perfectly bilingual or that they have spent an minimum of five to ten years abroad. In any case, you will have to perfectly master your two working languages. Interpreters are cultured, spontaneous people who are capable of "juggling" with words and have quite exceptional enthusiasm.
  
  Finally, having spoken to many interpreters, I know that this profession presents many challenges and that it is tiring, but I also know how rewarding it is.
  
  The key to success lies in the combination of translation and interpretation. Moreover, you will be able to specialise in interpreting by starting off by picking up vocabulary through translation. It is worth reminding ourselves at this point, that specialisation means: gathering information, an incredible amount of reading in you own language, visiting fairs and travelling. This all seems obvious, but the common factor is the need to have enough money to start off, and students do not necessarily have this money at the beginning of their careers.

Places are nevertheless available.

To conclude, I would simply remind you that the translation market offers real opportunities for students who would really like to become involved in languages and whose love for words knows no bounds.
This is a market where the competition is tough: at the slightest mistake, the market will soon replace you. In the "always quicker and always better" era, your client will not forgive you for supplying bad quality work.
To better prepare yourselves for this high level of competitivity, don't hesitate to carry out a traineeship. It will highlight your strengths and weaknesses and will enable you to manage your future better. And who knows? Your concern for perfection - a characteristic of translators - might make you a future employee of the company that you work for.