Thorough Management System for Translators

Human Science's translators are experts in each field who have passed their own translation trials (tests). The pass rate for trials in Japanese translation and localization is a narrow 8 percent.

In addition, when assigning translators to projects, we carefully select the most suitable translator based on our extensive data and expertise accumulated in the past, after thoroughly hearing the work and quality requirements from our clients beforehand.

Even if it is in a similar field,

• Is the translation target "manual", "catalog", or "technical document"?
• Is the target audience "general users" or "technicians"?
• Is what the customer is looking for "natural translation" or "literal translation"?

This is because the translator to be selected will vary depending on the situation.

Translator Recruitment and Management
Process

At Human Science, we implement the hiring of translators and management within projects as a consistent process.

Trial Procedure

• 1. Trials are conducted with original problem statements from Human Science. Although it is a small translation test of a few hundred words, we take time to carefully craft the problems in order to assess the translator's abilities within a small amount of text. Additionally, we regularly change the problem statements to see if the translator's knowledge is up-to-date with current trends.
  Trial categories: "IT", "Marketing", "Business Documents", "Contract Documents", "Video"


• 2. The team of in-house Technical Reviewers and Linguistic Reviewers will check the project using the same criteria and perspectives as a regular translation project, and the pass or fail will be determined by the reviewer team's deliberation (pass rate: 8%).
  >>Quality Control 3 (Full review and use of checking tools by dedicated reviewers)


• 3. All scores, trends, and areas of expertise of registered translators are being stored in a database.

Evaluation Items during Trial

5 Trial Evaluation Items

①Translation Quality	・Check for mistranslations ・Check for unnatural expressions - Are appropriate styles and terminology being used?
② Notation	- Check for spelling errors and missing translations ・Check for double-byte and double-space characters ・Is the value correct? ・Is the designated term being used? ・Are the correct symbols (quotation marks, parentheses, etc.) being used? - Check for spelling errors and missing translations
③Expertise	Do you have background knowledge in the trial subject area?
④Ability to respond	- Is communication via email appropriate? - Are there any missing items in the delivery data or submission materials? ・Are there any inquiries or reports regarding unclear points or exception handling?
⑤Achievements	Is there enough translation experience?

Project Start

• ①Confirm work requirements and quality requirements with customers
• ②Select translators who match the following criteria from the database:
  Specialties
  Work History
  
• ③ Assign translators with high past evaluations to projects
  ※Based on past performance, we manage translators on a 4-level evaluation criteria: "Rank AA", "A", "B", and "No evaluation".

Project Completion

• ①Summarize error detection status and customer requests, and provide feedback to translators.
• ②Register error detection status in the translator database on the web and accumulate it as shared information

Information Management

Management of confidential information (ISMS, education, entry and exit, security room) can be found here.

Glossary and Style Guide for Achieving High Quality

One of the key factors that affects the quality of translation is the consistency of terminology and style. Even if the translated text is well-written, if the terminology and style are inconsistent, the intended meaning may not be conveyed correctly, leading to misunderstandings and various other issues.
In particular, when translating a large amount of documents, it is common for multiple translators to work together, making it important to ensure consistency of terminology and style throughout the project.

At Human Science Co., Ltd., as needed, we review the original document to be translated and create a glossary and style guide to ensure all necessary terms and styles are identified and unified before translation.

Glossary

This is a list of translation terms to be used for translation. Before translating, create a glossary that defines terms that should be unified, such as product names and technical terms, so that translation can be done using consistent terms throughout the document.

(Example) Without a glossary, the translation terms will become inconsistent and cause confusion.

In particular, when translating a large amount of text by multiple translators, if there is no glossary, the translated terms may vary among translators, resulting in inconsistent terminology.
At Human Science, we identify and create a glossary of terms to be unified before translation, preventing inconsistent or erroneous translations.
If you have specified terms, please provide them before translation so that we can include them in our glossary.

Target to be included in the glossary (example)

• ● Glossary of Terms (Terms with specified translations such as parts, company names, product names, function names, etc.)
• ●Terms not included in the provided glossary
  ・Terms related to newly installed features and technologies
  ・Unnecessary translation phrases (file extensions, program codes, etc.)
• ●Verb
• ●Unit Symbol
• ●Other Frequently Used Terms
• etc.

What is a style guide?

This is a list of rules for the style (expression, notation, grammar, etc.) used in translation.
Similar to a glossary, by establishing rules for style before translation, it is possible to unify the style throughout the document and improve the quality of translation.

(Example) Without a style guide, the notation and expression will become inconsistent.

At Human Science Co., Ltd., we create style guides for each client and project before translation, providing our customers with high-quality, consistent translations throughout the entire document. As the notation of symbols and numbers varies by language, we create style guides based on the rules of each language.

Contents to include in the style guide (example)

• ●Customer-specified rules

• ●Rules for each language

  ・Capitalization and lowercase usage

  ・Number format (digit grouping, decimal point)

  ・Representation of symbols and signs (quotation marks, apostrophes, parentheses, etc.)

  ・Style of the text

  ・Style of warning and caution messages

  ・Reference Document Style