TRANSLATION SERVICES GUIDE (PART 2)

Translation Memory

This term might cause some confusion among first time clients. A Translation Memory (TM) is 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 re-use them. So, once you have translated a sentence or text string, you should be able to re-use that translation if you encounter a similar text string at a later point. TMs are crucial for translators, because they save you time and aid a consistent translation. As the translation Memory grows it becomes increasingly valuable for cutting translation costs as well as increasing consistency.

Be aware that for increased odds of repeated text strings your source texts have to be consistent as well. If your writer frequently changes his style or if you use many different writers, the value of the translation memory may decrease.

Additionally, translation memories have the great advantage that completed translations can be easily updated. After a translation is completed you may have to replace a crucial and frequently occuring term in a very long document. Thanks to the translation memory this only takes a few minutes. You may have a new manual for a new version of your product which is very similar to the former version. The same rules apply, the TM recognizes automatically what text parts differ from the old version so the translator only needs to implement the updates.

So why is all this important for you as a buyer of translation services? Because it can save you money and improves the quality of your translations. Nearly every translator gives a discount on re-usable text strings and sometimes this can make a huge difference. I have seen texts of 30k words of which 20k were repetitiones.

I know that it is not easy to fully understand translation memories and what they can really do for you. So, should you have further questions about this topic, feel free to drop me a message.