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Submitting proposals in more than one language: a survival guide. Considering language and translation as a key component of your value proposition. Your presenter. Karine Besson Global Proposal Content and Project Lead Certified translator
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Submitting proposals in more than one language: a survival guide Considering language and translation as a key component of your value proposition
Your presenter Karine BessonGlobal Proposal Content and Project Lead Certified translator Background in proposal management, translation, editing and technical writing Based in Montreal, Quebec
Real-world examples Where submitting a proposal in several languages is a constraint
Real-world examples Where submitting a proposal in several languages is a choice
Rule #1 Thou shall qualify the deal … twice.
Sample rates Sample rates for translation: US$0.21/word for English to French US$0.24/word for English to German US$0.11/word for English to Simplified Chinese US$0.15/word for English to Latin American Spanish Rule of thumb: 200-250 words/hour Sample rates for desktop publishing US$0.08/word for French US$0.10/word for German US$0.04/word for Simplified Chinese US$0.06/word for Latin American Spanish
Rule #2 Thou shall not trust Google Translate.
Judge for yourself The APMP is the worldwide authority for professionals specialized in the proposals, bids , offers and other presentations for contracting. The APMP supports the professional growth of its members by advancing the art , science and technology in this discipline. APMP members are professional commercial , government and academic fields involved in any stage of the proposal process and business development . With an annual fee of US $ 150, joining the APMP offers an economical way to improve themselves professionally .
Rule #3 Thou shall hire a good translation firm.
A few definitions • Translation memory (TM)From Wikipedia: a database that stores "segments", which can be sentences, paragraphs or sentence-like units (headings, titles or elements in a list) that have previously been translated, in order to aid human translators. The translation memory stores the source text and its corresponding translation in language pairs called “translation units”. Individual words are handled by terminology bases and are not within the domain of TM. • Machine translation (MT)From Wikipedia: a a sub-field of computational linguistics that investigates the use of software to translate text or speech from one language to another. On a basic level, MT performs simple substitution of words in one language for words in another, but that alone usually cannot produce a good translation of a text because recognition of whole phrases and their closest counterparts in the target language is needed. Computer-assisted translation or computer-aided translation (CAT)From Wikipedia: a form of language translation in which a human translator uses computer software to support and facilitate the translation process.
Rule #4 Thou shall request an extension.
Rule #5 Thou shall ask to submit appendices in one language only.
Rule #6 Thou shall not wait for the proposal to be complete to have it translated.
Rule #7 Thou shall author in one language only.
Rule #8 Thou shall mark the source documents with a disclaimer.
Rule #9 Thou shall team up your SMEs.
Other rules Thou shall update your process. Thou shall build a terminology base. Thou shall define writing guidelines. Thou shall educate your team. Thou shall hire bilingual proposal staff.