RACI, also known as ARCI, is an acronym for a business technique for defining roles in which the letters stand - in English for: Responsible Accountable Consulted Informed The idea is that in any project each person involved will fall into one of these categories. The...
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Numbers: What about American units?
Strange as it may seem, there is no standard for the use of the non-SI units used in the USA (as far as I know!).
Traditionally, the symbols are considered to be abbreviations of English (or Latin) words and so are written with a dot after them, and often have the letter s to indicate the plural. Some of them special symbols as well.
Dates: what’s the right format
America write dates as mm/dd/yy. Europe writes them as dd/mm/yy. East Asia uses yy/mm/dd. This gives rise to all sorts of confusion. It was bad enough in the late 20th century, where it was easy to confuse months and days but at least the years were easy, since they...
How to find the ideal translation supplier
With this series of entries (18 in total), I will offer a "quick" breakdown of the key factors involved in the translation of business documentation. It should be particularly relevant for managers in multinational companies, especially those who may not know any...
Translation: into or from native language?
Some people will wonder why I have asked this question. Isn't it pretty much given that translations should always be done by native speakers translating into their own language? Yes, but... The orthodox view is that only a native speaker can find just the right...
Chinese – one language or many?
I'm often asked what I mean when I refer to the Chinese language. Which Chinese? Do you mean Mandarin?, they say. Well, yes, the standard language of the People's Republic of China is what has been referred to in the west for centuries as "Mandarin". These days...
Numbers: Is the inch a metric unit?
Yes it is. The inch is defined as 25.4 millimeters. That's right; this is not a mere metric equivalent, but the definition of the inch (long gone are the days when it was defined as 1/36 of a the standard golden yard held in London). Many people think that "imperial"...
ISO 9001 Certification – The Differentiating Factor Part 2
The fundamental difficulty in qualifying translations is that it is a very subjective field. Certain aspects of a translation - such as industry-specific terminology – are often just plain wrong. However, it is generally true that if you provide ten translators with a...
ISO 9001 Certification – The Differentiating Factor Part 1
The first and toughest decision companies have to make when seeking translations is “Who do I turn to?”. For most companies, taking this step is like entering into the unknown. It is a sector they are not familiar with and, since it is not part of their core business,...
Numbers: Should translators get them right?
There is an unwritten consensus in the business translation community that you should, wherever possible, "improve" the original when it is unclear or inconsistent. (You can argue that you have some responsibility for pointing out factual errors too, if you happen to...