Issue 02 We get tons of complaints about poor quality!

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We get tons of complaints about poor quality!

We get tons of complaints about poor quality!

We're too busy for quality checks, so we have to rely on the translation company.
We worry whether technical terms are being translated correctly.
Local subsidiaries, sales companies, and such often receive feedback from native speakers.

What is the root cause of poor quality?
There are many potential reasons, such as difficult-to-understand source text and low translation level.
For that matter, what even is "good quality"? Let's start by setting quality standards that clearly define the purpose and target audience of the translated material.

Flow of Quality Translation Evaluation

Flow of English Assessment

- ○Contact us via the online form or by phone.
- ○Grasp current needs
- ○Confirm worries and requests
- ○Confirm the scope, perspective, and quality standards of analysis
- ○Conduct translation evaluation
- (Evaluation by native translators and translation directors)
- ○Submission of analysis report
- ○Propose improvements based on evaluation and analysis results
- ○Submit translation examples and samples

1. Hearing

Clarifying the Purpose of the Manual or Other Text – Defining Quality Standards

"This is an internal document, so as long as there are no mistranslations, it's okay."
"As a a manual for home appliances, it must have consistent expressions to prevent confusion during operation."
The required level of translation varies depending on the medium and purpose.
At Human Science, we start by clarifying the purpose of manuals and translated texts.

Example Hearing Topics
・Are the end-users native speakers or non-native?
・Is the target audience technical personnel or general users?
・Will it be read internationally or distributed within Japan?
・Is the medium a website, catalog, or paper manual?
・What are the client's priorities (cost, speed, quality)

2. Evaluation and Analysis

Based on the hearing described above, our qualified translators and translation directors, who have passed the translation trials in their specialized fields, will conduct an evaluation and analysis.

Human Science's Translator Selection and Management Process

Translator Evaluation Sheet

Translator Management Sheet

Translators and translation directors who are selected for their sufficient skill and experience will evaluate the translated text from the following five perspectives.

1. Rule Compliance: Does if follow the instructions and style guides?
2. Expression: Are there any mistranslations, omissions, or hard to read passages?
3. Consistency: Do the terminology, expressions, and translation style fluctuate? Does it match the on-screen UI?
4. Careless Mistakes: Are there any grammar or spelling mistakes?
5. Localization: Is the translation appropriate for the region, in terms of language rules (number format, date format, etc.), currency, units of measurement, laws, regulations, and so on?

In addition, we define and analyze the severity of any errors.
For example, "mistranslations" are considered some of the most serious errors.

	Item	Example	Importance
1	Translation errors	Translation omissions, mistranslations, expressions that can be interpreted differently from the original text	High
2	Inappropriate terms and expressions	Terms and expressions that are not suitable for the type of document	↑
3	Unnatural expressions	Sentences that sound unnatural for the translation language	↑
4	Grammar errors	Grammatical errors, incorrect articles	↓
5	Stylistic errors	Spelling mistakes, punctuation errors, capitalization errors	↓
6	Inconsistency	Inconsistent use of terms and expressions throughout the document	Low

Evaluation Report Sample

3. Improvement Proposal

In the analysis and evaluation report, we will convey specific points of improvement.

Improvement Plan Examples

・Advice on organization and processes
・Glossary ・Style guide development
・Check method ・Proposal to implement check tools
・Consultation on what items to check (Creating a checklist tailored to the customer's needs)
・Review via native check
・English brush-up (including corrections)
* We will propose one of the following services for review and English brush-up, depending on cost and other requirements.
- ・Cost-focused: Proofreading of only the translated English text (checking the spelling, grammar, and English expressions)
- ・Quality-focused: A comparison check between the translated English text and the original text (in addition to checking the spelling, grammar, and English expressions, conducting a full review to eliminate mistranslations and discrepancies with the source text)

Breadth of Translation Accomplishments

IT Field

Core business systems (payroll management, customer management, financial management, etc.)
Web applications
Package software
Communication and internet

Manufacturing Field

Electrical equipment (PCs, printers, copiers, scanners, projectors, multifunction devices, mobile phones, smartphones, etc.)
Optical equipment, video equipment, audio equipment (digital cameras, lenses, video cameras, car navigation systems, etc.)
Measuring instruments, analytical equipment, machine tools
Electronic devices, electronic components, semiconductors, panel displays
Automobiles

Retail, Distribution, and Marketing Field

Education, Human Resource Development, and Training Field

Medical Field

Supported Translation Languages

Japanese
English (US, UK, Australian)
Asian languages	Chinese (simplified/traditional), Korean, Thai, Lao, Malay, Vietnamese, Burmese, Tagalog, Indonesian, Turkish, Hindi, Kazakh
Western languages	French, Italian, German, Spanish, Iberian Portuguese, Dutch, Greek
Eastern European languages	Czech, Polish, Russian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Slovenian, Slovak, Estonian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Belarusian, Georgian, Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, Armenian, Macedonian
Nordic languages	Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish
Middle Eastern languages	Arabic and Hebrew
North American languages	Canadian French
South American languages	Brazilian Portuguese, Latin Spanish, Mexican Spanish

Customer Feedback

"We requested an evaluation of the English version of our manual. Until now, we have simply entrusted the translation to a translation company and have been unsure whether the quality is good or bad. Thanks to the free translation quality assessment service, we were able to identify the current issues with our translation, which was a great help.
"We plan to further request a brush-up of the English text, in order to improve the issues with our current translation."

(Manual production representative for a medical software company)

Machine Translation (Automatic Translation) Implementation Example: Web Manual and FAQ with 25 Language Release 　　　　　　　　　　　　　

"We received objective advice and support on improving the quality of English documents and on introducing machine translation from a machine translation consultant with a neutral perspective on the technology."
(Representative for domestic electrical manufacturer with top listing in the Tokyo Stock Exchange)