Medical Translation Insight

If you're in a technical field, such as chemistry, engineering or software development, you're likely often faced with having to describe technical information to a diverse audience. While many people are comfortable with technical information, many are not. And in this case, you wind up facing the dreaded "glazed eye" syndrome, in which you struggle to keep your listeners engaged.

The first thing any communicator needs to do is to think about who his or her audience will be. Technical subject matter experts may need to communicate with three types of audiences. The first is a technically oriented audience, but one that doesn't necessarily include specialists in the same field. Examples include technical review boards and institutional review boards.

The second audience type includes managers who may have some technical knowledge, but who are really focused on the bottom line. The members of this group are business people at heart who are concerned about profit and loss.

The third type of audience is the general public, laypeople with little or no technical expertise, who can be easily overwhelmed if the speaker goes into too much detail.

Even though these audiences are quite different, the biggest barrier to clear communication is the same for all three: the deep knowledge of the expert. This knowledge can manifest itself in different ways. For example, when speaking to a technically oriented, but non-specialist audience, speakers often focus too much on process. Speakers may miss the mark with the second type of audience -- the managers -- by not getting to the bottom line. In the third case, they frequently overwhelm the audience with hard-to-understand technical details.

However, such barriers can be overcome by following five key principles:

1. Creating an effective strategy
2. Formulating a compelling introduction
3. Sequencing ideas for communication flow
4. Using story-telling techniques
5. Employing metaphors to convey complex ideas

If you'd like to read more about how to employ these methods, and avoid the glazed-eye syndrome once and for all, download a helpful white paper on the subject.


For expert medical translations of technical content in 40 languages, request a detailed proposal from ForeignExchange Translations.
 
 

Saying that everyone in Spain speaks Spanish would be a statement as simple as saying that all Spaniards do siesta, eat paella and drink sangría. While this may be true for many Spaniards, it is not accurate for all of them.

Even though Spain is a very small country, it is culturally and linguistically diverse. There are many differences between North, South, East, and West, and official languages play an important role in highlighting these regional differences.

The most prominent of the languages in Spain is Spanish, which nearly everyone in Spain can speak as either their first or second language. However, Spain has recognized five "official languages": Castilian (also called Spanish), Catalan, Basque, Galician, and Aranese. Part of the Spanish population is bilingual and in some areas even trilingual.

Throughout its history, Spain was invaded by several different civilizations (Celts, Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Visigoths and Moors) and, as a result, each distinct region of Spain developed its own dialect. Many of these dialects went on to become official languages.

Galician is the language spoken in Galicia, an autonomous community located in northwestern Spain. Galician is derived from Vulgar Latin. Galician and Portuguese were, in medieval times, a single language and they still share many common grammatical features. Galician is spoken by about 3 million people.

Catalan is also a Roman language. It is spoken in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, and in the Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian. Approximately 9 million people in Spain speak Catalan.

Basque or Euskara is the ancestral language spoken in the Basque Country, an autonomous community in Northern Spain. Though geographically surrounded by Indo-European Romance languages, Basque is classified as a language isolate. It is the last remaining pre-Indo-European language in Western Europe. About 1 million people speak this language.

Aranese is a variety of the Occitan language spoken in the Aran Valley, which is located in northwestern Catalonia on the border between Spain and France. There, it is one of three official languages along with Catalan and Spanish.

The following table demonstrates the regional differences of Spanish by showing how four common phrases would be translated in each of the unique regions:

English	Spanish	Galician	Catalan	Basque
Do you speak English?	¿Hablas inglés?	Falas inglés?	Parles anglès?	Ingelesez hitz egiten al duzu?
Two beers, please	Dos cervezas, por favor	Dúas cervexas, por favor	Dues cerveses, si us plau	Bi garagardo, mesedez
Excuse me	Disculpe	Desculpe	Dispensi	Aizu
Translator	Traductor	Traductor	Traductor	Itzultzaile

The survival and development of these languages in Spain was not always easy. Francisco Franco, the head of state of Spain from the late 1930s until his death in 1975, used language in politics in an attempt to establish national homogeneity. He promoted the use of Spanish and suppressed other languages such as Catalan, Galician, and Basque. The legal usage of languages other than Spanish was forbidden. A transition to democracy began in the last quarter of the 20th century, after Franco’s death.

All official languages and the identities associated with them began a process of recovery and recognition. They now play an important role in the cultural and political life of each region. Culture, language, and politics are closely related in Spain. Each of the regions that has its own official language tries to promote its identity and a feeling of unique regionalism using their language as the foundation on which to build this sense of self. It is importance that we recognize and pay tribute to these distinctive dialects so they continue to thrive and contribute to the world’s linguistic diversity.

[Thanks to Rocío Abelleira for writing this article.]


For expert medical translations of regulatory, clinical, and marketing content in 40 languages - including Spanish - request a detailed proposal from ForeignExchange Translations.
 
 

We've been writing a lot about social media lately (here, here and here) and for good reason. It's a hot topic inside and outside the life sciences and translation industry. The explosion of social media outlets has enabled an unprecedented level of information to flood the market. The same technology that drives this growth represents a challenge to companies trying to maintain control of their corporate messaging.

Those in regulated sectors, such as life sciences, face a more daunting challenge as they balance the need to leverage social media to promote their brand, generate sales and engage their stakeholders, and not run afoul of the agencies that monitor and regulate them.

Tough questions need to be asked: Is the full marketing potential of social media being leveraged? Is employees' use of social media undermining the company's success or even putting it in jeopardy? Should a company have an official policy for social media use?

We thought it was high time to find some answers and have prepared a white paper that asks the tough questions and tries to find some solutions. Check it out here.


For a detailed proposal on your next clinical, regulatory, or marketing medical translation assignment, contact ForeignExchange Translations.
 
 

This guest post is contributed by Tisha Dotson, who writes on the topics of medical coding certification. She welcomes your comments at: tishadotson86 [at] gmail [dot] com.


A new question that many cognitive scientists have recently delved into is whether or not the language we speak affects the way we perceive the world. One way that neuroscientists have attempted to establish this link is through color perception. A Science Daily article reported on the findings by a research team out of State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences of The University of Hong Kong. The team found for the first time, through the analysis of brain activation patterns, that there does indeed exist a relationship between language and color perception.

Although this was the first time that substantive evidence has been found supporting the link, the idea is a relatively old one. Benjamin Lee Whorf but forth his "Whorfian Hypothesis in his book called "Language, Thought, and Reality" in 1956. Whorf hypothesized that a person's worldview is partially or completely determined by the language they speak. Much of Whorf's ideas were very speculative although linguists and cognitive scientists alike have returned to the question time and again.

For example, in her lecture/essay, Dr. Lera Boroditsky, an assistant professor of psychology, neuroscience, and symbolic systems at Stanford University, outlines the basic studies that have been carried out in the past few years that explore the language-perception link. In one case, Boroditsky studied the Kuuk Thaayorre, a small Aboriginal community in Australia because of the way that they talk about space.

Boroditsky explained how in English we define space as it relates to the speaker. But the aboriginal group always defines space using cardinal-directional terms in almost every instance. For example, in response to a question like "Where are you going?" the Kuuk Thaayorre would say "Southeast, in the middle distance" instead "over there" or "left" or "forward."

Bordotisky then concluded:

"The result is a profound difference in navigational ability and spatial knowledge between speakers of languages that rely primarily on absolute reference frames (like Kuuk Thaayorre) and languages that rely on relative reference frames (like English).2 Simply put, speakers of languages like Kuuk Thaayorre are much better than English speakers at staying oriented and keeping track of where they are, even in unfamiliar landscapes or inside unfamiliar buildings. What enables them ― in fact, forces them ― to do this is their language."

Another Globe and Mail news article recently explained why Russians may seem inordinately glum to non-native Russian speakers. A recent study found that while Russians do have a tendency to brood, they get over bad experiences with other people more quickly and don't hold grudges when compared to Americans. Igor Grossman, a doctoral candidate in psychology co-authored the report on the study. Grossman, a native Russian speaker surmised:

"Past research also shows that the meanings of positive words often have negative connotations for Russians, and the meanings of negative words often have positive connotations for Russians. There is some kind of dialectical thinking going on there, where they see the other side.

A book entitled "Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Different Languages" will be released in the United States at the end of the month. The book will further delve into the connection between language and perception, especially through the lens of color.

As medical translators, it is important to take into account the possible language-perception connection. When using a word that denotes some sort of emotion especially, consider what words are used in the original. Perhaps we can better approximate an emotion when translating not through a direct, dictionary translation but through a careful consideration of how native speakers may see and interact with their world. Seen through this light, it may be useful to check out the research available on cognitive processes and language.


ForeignExchange's METRiQ quality system provides medical device and pharmaceutical companies with known translation quality - on every technical translation assignment.
 
 

Earlier this year, ForeignExchange was selected by the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society to do the Japanese-to-English translation of their Fundamentals of Japanese Regulatory Affairs book. Well, just this week, RAPS announced that the English edition has been published and is available for pre-order at their online bookstore.

The original Japanese version of Fundamentals of Japanese Regulatory Affairs was released in January 2010. In order to provide an English edition, RAPS set out to find a suitable translation provider who could not only handle the language requirements but also the specific subject matter of drug and device regulatory affairs. After screening several translation companies through an RFI process and test translations, RAPS selected ForeignExchange. We worked on the project for several weeks, translating and laying out the English language book. Our linguists and internal project team have done many regulatory translation projects over the years and this experience was a great help.

Now the book is available to English readers who want to learn more about getting products approved in Japan. The book, according to RAPS, "is a comprehensive source of information on submissions, licensing and distribution requirements and postmarket obligations for drugs, biologics, medical devices and in vitro diagnostic products including, including notifications from MHLW and PMDA."

RAPS publishes books that help regulatory professionals navigate the complex labyrinth of international drug and device approvals. The books are also used as study guides for the Regulatory Affairs Certification (RAC) exams. RAC is the only professional certification available in the healthcare sector. RAPS provides RAC for US, European Union, Canadian and General Scope regulatory affairs. The forthcoming Japanese regulatory affairs book will further enhance its offerings.

You can pre-order a copy of the book on the RAPS web site.

For more on Japan, take a look at the following articles:

• Best practices for Japan regulatory submissions
• Japanese "device lag" disappearing?
• Software localization requirements in Japan
• Working with Japanese affiliates

ForeignExchange Translations provides specialized medical translations for regulatory submissions, labeling, and safety reports - in Japanese and dozens of other languages. Contact us to find out more.
 
 

Whether it is a medical device UI or an international training program, it can be daunting for medical device and pharmaceutical companies to figure out how to best internationalize the source code. Do it poorly and you're stuck in an expensive cycle of delays, sub-par localization results, and unhappy users with potentially far worse complications.

If you don't know what "internationalization" is and why you need it, allow us (via Lingoport's excellent Internationalization Library) to give you some background:

Basics
Internationalization is the design and development of a product, application or document content that enables easy localization for target audiences that vary in culture, region, or language. Internationalization typically entails:

• Designing and developing in a way that removes barriers to localization or international deployment. This includes such things as enabling the use of Unicode, or ensuring the proper handling of legacy character encodings where appropriate, taking care over the concatenation of strings, avoiding dependence in code of user-interface string values, etc.
• Providing support for features that may not be used until localization occurs. For example, adding markup in your DTD to support bidirectional text, or for identifying language. Or adding to CSS support for vertical text or other non-Latin typographic features.
• Enabling code to support local, regional, language, or culturally related preferences. Typically this involves incorporating predefined localization data and features derived from existing libraries or user preferences. Examples include date and time formats, local calendars, number formats and numeral systems, sorting and presentation of lists, handling of personal names and forms of address, etc.
• Separating localizable elements from source code or content, such that localized alternatives can be loaded or selected based on the user's international preferences as needed. Notice that these items do not necessarily include the localization of the content, application, or product into another language; they are design and development practices which allow such a migration to take place easily in the future but which may have significant utility even if no localization ever takes place.

Getting specific: The real work of internationalization
So, in short, internationalization prepares your applications for more efficient, timely localization, which in turn prepares your application for a locale. But still, what’s really entailed in an internationalization project?

Simply put, internationalization is all of the planning and execution that needs to be included in the development of software that lets the software support languages and locale formatting (like numerical formats, dates, times, currencies, postal addresses and more). Applications not only have to be capable of displaying any language, they have to correctly allow the input, storage, processing and retrieval of that multilingual/multi-locale data.

It mostly breaks down to engineering for a few categories of issues, which include:

• Character encoding: Every character you see on the screen corresponds to a set of zeros and ones that get “interpreted” into what you read on the screen. How an application supports character encoding determines whether it will actually work in Chinese, Japanese, French, German, etc. This is where terms like Unicode or ISO-Latin apply. The right character encoding strategy isn’t always obvious and will depend on a balance of marketing requirements, technical requirements and development budget, especially if the code already exists rather than starting from scratch.
• String, Images and Resource Management: Every message presented and ultimately translated in an application is referred to in software terms as a string. An important and time consuming part of internationalization involves finding all the user-facing messages (but can also include things like interface sizing), extracting them from the source code, and placing them in some kind of repository files (or database) appropriate to the software architecture. That way you can work on translating the words without breaking the source code. With the right engineering those words can be replaced with any language that the application is supporting. Additionally, string management includes issues like sorting, string concatenation and the like. You’ll also want to identify and manage any images that are embedded in the code (just like strings) so that they may be localized as necessary.
• Locale-limiting functions: Each programming language has its own set of functions or methods that do things like limit the way a date is interpreted, or how many bytes a character can contain. There are hundreds of these sneaky little things in C/C++ and there are dependencies based on your character encoding choice (e.g. Unicode UTF-8). Other programming languages such as Java and C# have less of these issues, but still have their own possible pitfalls. These functions need to be found and replaced with others that support the locale requirements that will be needed.
• Locale-limiting programming patterns: Programmers may do many of the right things in terms of extracting strings, using functions that support “wide” characters and the like, but it’s still easy to get in trouble. Think of programming patterns as logic created for a specific application, which doesn’t work once you include issues around multiple locales. Programmatic sorting logic is a good example; a typical developer would sort by alphabetical order rather than by character brush stroke. Programming patterns can be a big nasty area to re-engineer, and it takes experienced examination and planning to manage.
• Locale operators: Simply determine how the software will detect what locale it needs to support and how it will behave under the circumstances. For instance, does the user manually choose the locale, or does the application check the operating system setting?
• Third-party product limitations: Most software makes use of other application components. These can include databases, reporting mechanisms (i.e. Crystal Reports), email generators and more. Often these components have their own internationalization support issues, which can create their own challenges to the software developer.

Client requirements: who needs what, when?
No two globalization challenges are the same, but obvious similarities in client requirements are worth examining. In general, a few familiar business events and issues lead to an often frenzied, time-critical push for combined localization and internationalization efforts. According to Lingoport’s Asnes3, these include:

1. Somebody sold something that requires multi-locale support... A classic example is that the company gains a business contract that will necessitate supporting Japanese or another language. In some cases we’ve seen new license deals for entire countries, such as in health care or education. It’s a big hurry up to meet the customer demands.
2. Localization is realized as a competitive necessity. Perhaps the company has already invested in global sales efforts and finds growth is limited given a poor competitive position without internationalization.
3. A global company has just purchased another company or intellectual property and wants to make the new product useful for its worldwide sales efforts and product line.
4. The CEO is mandating a new global initiative. This is an important new step for the company’s evolution. You can’t go to a management conference these days without hearing about globalizing revenue opportunities and for good reason.

How best to approach the problem becomes the pressing issue. The answer rests in the resources and experience available within the firm. Assuming that localization tasks are outsource (a nearly universal approach, since even the largest firms can’t justify in-house translation teams), the difficult decisions revolve around the very different resources required for internationalization, a specialty that’s seldom supported in-house.

Specifically, engineering and top management must analyze a) if there are idle engineering resource available to tackle internationalization code remediation tasks, and b) if there are, whether those resources have the requisite experience to do the job in a timely, effective manner. Generally, the answer is no.

It’s a matter of time (to market)
Another challenge is that internationalization requirements are often misunderstood and underestimated. How should a globally inclined firm evaluate the merits of combining internationalization with their localization plans?

In brief, the promise of internationalization is that it simplifies, shortens the duration, and reduces the risk of every localization project. But the greatest impact lies in the potential for increasing top and bottom line results by enabling businesses to achieve their international goals sooner, with higher quality and lower support costs. In this light, internationalization becomes a strategic component of every globalization effort.


ForeignExchange localizes software applications and training programs for medical device and pharmaceutical companies. For specialized medical software localization services, contact us today!
 
 

Welcome to the dog days of summer... It's hot and sunny outside and educational inside. During the past month, we have seen some of our best-attended audio conferences ever. In case you missed them, here are the top five events from July:

1. The Future of Clinical Trial Site and Patient Recruitment Is Here
2. The FDA's New Emphasis on Supplier Controls – What Device Manufacturers Need to Know
3. Using Practical Statistics to Interpret Stability Results
4. Stopping Workplace Absenteeism and FMLA Abuse
5. Logistical Considerations for Clinical Trials in India

If you would like to become an FXConferences speaker, send us a note!

Interested in other popular educational events? Take a look at the web pages for June, May, and April.


For a detailed proposal on your next clinical, regulatory, or marketing medical translation project, contact ForeignExchange Translations.

While it is clear that printed case report forms are going the way of the dinosaurs [PDF link], there in a debate going on: What should the replacement technology be called?

EDC Today had an interesting article on this topic, noting that the "terms EDC and eCRF seem to be used interchangeably in the clinical workspace".

A couple of years ago, T. J. Kuhn pointed out that:

What many people are calling eDC is actually eCRF (electonic Case Report Form). A CRF is the standardized form on which the Clinical site (Lay People can think doctor’s office) transcribes relevant data from the medical chart (also called the source) of a clinical trial subject. This form is sent to the sponsor (typically a pharmaceutical company) who enters this data into a computer system and analyzes it to see if their treatment is safe and effective.

An eCRF is an electronic form that does the same thing. The clinical site types the data into an electronic form that gets electronically submitted to the sponsor. Essentially, the sponsor is removing a (paper based) step and pushing the data entry from their internal (Data Management) group to the clinical site. That's eCRF.

The distinction is an important one but in the end, it seems like EDC is winning out as a catch-all phrase. (At least according to Google, where edc clinical beats out ecrf clinical and similar search terms.)

From a medical translation perspective, it matters less what you call it and more that it is electronic. As clinical trials expand all over the world, a properly internationalized and localized EDC application will provide for faster and less expensive translations.


For your next clinical translation and software localization assignment, request a detailed proposal from ForeignExchange.
 
 

This guest post is contributed by Paul Hench, who writes on the topic of master in public health programs. He welcomes your comments at his email: paul.23hench ~at~ gmail.com.


How often have you found that the text you're reading has been "lost in translation"? You know that things are not as they should be because you're fluent in the language you're reading, and it's obvious to you that the translator has made more than a few mistakes.

Translation errors are so common because it's difficult to find the right people for the job who are equally fluent in both the source and the target language. For translation to be perfect and error-free, the person doing the job must:

• Understand the usage of words in the source language: Certain languages use the same word to mean different things depending on the context in which they are used. For example, in English, the word "left" can be used in so many ways, as can many other words in the language. Unless the translator is fluent in the source language and understands the meaning of the words in the context they're used, there's going to be a whole lot of mistakes.
• Know the difference in syntax between both languages: It's not just enough to know the meanings of words in both the source and target languages, you have to be familiar with and fluent in the syntactical structure of sentences as well. Most people may know the language colloquially, but when they're asked to write, they stumble with the right syntax. And if the two languages have vastly different syntax structure, the translation is even more difficult unless you're able read the source, understand the meaning, think out the sentences in the target language, and then put them down in the right syntax.
• Read the source text carefully: Many translators make mistakes because they're in too much of a hurry to read the source text carefully. They misread certain words which have different meanings when a letter is either removed or added – like reading the word friend as fried or vice versa – and end up making mistakes in the translation as well.
• Understand the source text completely before attempting to translate: Although some texts can be translated sentence by sentence, most translations must be done paragraph by paragraph. It's up to the translator to fully understand what has been said in the paragraph and then translate it into the target language. The sentences in the translated text may be completely different from that in the source text, but they must convey the same meaning.

Translation errors can be minimized by getting the right person for the job, someone who is not only fluent and well-versed in both languages, but who is also careful and precise when doing the job.


ForeignExchange's METRiQ quality system provides medical device and pharmaceutical companies with known translation quality - on every technical translation assignment.
 
 

When it comes to the global web, many U.S. device and drug companies are like young children playing hide and seek in the park: They are the toddler who thinks he is effectively camouflaged by a tree only 6 inches in diameter. Yet, for the seeker it is readily apparent where the hider is located because he really is in relatively full public view. The "build it and they will come" philosophy is alive and well - but false.

Making the situation even worse is the fact that a significant proportion of web sites are essentially unusable. Think about all those web sites in English that are slow, confusing, and in many cases broken. Translating these sites does not make a "globalized" or sticky site. It only means that the previously unusable English site is now unusable in additional languages.

So what are medical device and pharmaceutical companies to do about this? Web localization is a process requiring extensive preparation and visioning, in combination with usability and cultural research and strategy. Every user interface needs to be developed and validated with research and testing.

Here are six resources to help companies build effective and sticky global web pages:

1. Creating usable, engaging web sites
2. The best global device and pharma web sites
3. Why international web sites fail
4. Talk about "usability", not "quality"
5. Overcoming cultural barriers to global marketing
6. All you need to know about web usability

Translating web pages? Get more details about ForeignExchange's expertise in translating pharmaceutical and medical device web sites.
 
 

Speaking of India, the New York Times reported that Indian rupee joined the U.S. dollar, the British pound, the euro, and the Japanese yen when it got its very own symbol last month.

The new design was selected from among 3,000, after a year-long competition. The Indian Ministry of Finance was enthusiastic about how the symbol will "lend a distinctive character and identity to the currency and further highlight the strength and robustness of the Indian economy".

But, of course, the new symbol has its detractors as well. Competing designers are quick to dismiss the winning symbol and praise their own designs. According to CNNGo, one keen observer pointed out the symbol's similarity to Roger Federer's logo.

Notwithstanding these questions, the next steps after government approval include submission to the Unicode Consortium, asking ask software developers to include the symbol in new products, and for Indian keyboard manufacturers to include it in future designs. Within 18 to 24 months, we will all wonder who we ever lived without the new Rupee symbol.

Here a few related articles to enjoy:

• Richard Ishida's Unicode converter is a handy tool
• XE maintain a list of currency symbols around the world
• ISO 4217 is the standard for currency names and codes

ForeignExchange supports the medical translation needs of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. From R&D to clinical research to submissions and marketing, ForeignExchange's service, quality, and pricing stand alone.
 
 

It's not often that two translation industry veterans get together to share ideas and experiences. It was cool that Kirti Vashee and Renato Beninatto decided to do so - and to record their chat for all of us to see.



So, what do you think?

Do you agree that true innovation in the translation space will come from outsiders? That established translation service providers are too worried about cannibalization? And that innovation is like teenage sex?

Do you tweet? Follow us on Twitter at @fxtrans.
 
 

The cost of filing European patents in as many as 27 language has long been a source of frustration and expense for engineers and intellectual property types. In fact, translations have been a key reason that many have viewed the European patent system as broken.

But after a lot of delays and hand-wringing, it now looks like the EU is set to break the patent translation deadlock. At the heart of the new rules being considered is a proposal for European patents to be issued one of just three languages - English, French, or German.

Combined with a new machine translation system that's currently being developed at the European Patent Office (EPO), the simplified language requirements are designed to make translation costs 20 times cheaper.

But it's not all about money. In Europe, this kind of move is being seen as giving preferential treatment to English, French, and German. Despite the fact that these are the official languages of the EPO, Spain and Italy, in particular, have resisted the moves to develop a Community patent.

Next up are an informal EU summit to give feedback on the Commissions translation plan and a meeting of the Competitiveness Council to discuss patents. Meanwhile, translators enjoy their work while the going is good.

[Tip of the hat to Imelda McLaren!]


ForeignExchange translates patents and other IP for medical device and pharmaceutical companies. Ask us for a detailed proposal on your next translation project.
 
 

By and large, the life science industries are struggling to market to Hispanics - if they are not altogether ignoring that market.

With that in mind, it is interesting to note that medical blog Medgadget is bucking the trend. Medgadget Español maintains a Spanish-language web site, Facebook page, and Twitter feed.

Even more impressive? The news feed appears to be translated by a professional translator - no Google Translate here!

Who knew that Medgadget would be at the leading edge of Hispanic social media? Good luck to the site - and here is to hoping that many other companies and associations will follow Medgadget.


For expert medical translations of regulatory, clinical, and marketing content in 40 languages - including Spanish - request a detailed proposal from ForeignExchange Translations.
 
 

Friday's Wall Street Journal has an interesting article, "English Gets the Last Word in Japan". Apparently large Japanese companies are joining European ones in making English their official language.

The WSJ article highlights Rakuten, Japan's largest online retailer. The company expects to make English its standard language by 2012. Rakuten has gone so far as printing English cafeteria menus and says the English-only policy is crucial to becoming a global company.

What's interesting is that Rakuten isn't the only Japanese company which has embraced English. According to the article:

It is widely used at some multinationals, including Sony Corp. and Nissan Motor Co., which both have non-Japanese CEOs. Fast Retailing Co., which operates Uniqlo, Japan's largest clothing chain, with stores in New York, London, Paris and Beijing, recently said it plans to hold meetings in English by 2012 if they include non-Japanese participants.

But as elsewhere, there is plenty of resistance to forcing Japanese speakers to converse in English. Yet as Rakuten's CEO points out in the article:

Japan is the only country with all these well-educated people who can't speak English

English as the lingua franca of business is a double-edged sword. Could it be that the hegemony of English has taught U.S. businesses a tacit "my way or the highway" mentality? This would make non-U.S. companies better at adapting to local conditions, thus hurting the competitiveness of U.S. corporations.

For more on the use (and abuse) of English, take a look at some of our past articles:

• 6 reasons NOT to translate your web site
• Can you read this? English is toughest (European) language to read
• Sometimes English is not sexy but stupid

ForeignExchange Translations provides specialized medical translation services to biopharma and medical device companies - in Japanese and dozens of other languages. Contact us to learn more.
 
 

It's summer and the going is easy.

That means medical translation professionals and clients have better things to do then read our blog. But because we know you wouldn't want to miss the good stuff, here are the five most-read articles from July:

1. Refusing translations on ethical, moral, political, or religious grounds? - Our latest poll was the most-read page ever ... by a long, long shot
2. Using the web as a multilingual glossary - Linguee and MyMemory are new research tools for linguists
3. When politics and translation collide - The comments and feedback to this article caused us to launch the "ethics poll"
4. Eye charts from around the globe - Light and interesting, this one
5. Why are there DTP numbers on my quote? - "Document reconstruction", anyone?

Looking for more great content? Take a look at our top articles for June, May, and April. Happy reading and happy weekend!

According to a recent article in The New York Times, India is set to leave behind its image as clinical research site and producer of knockoff drugs.

India's drug industry — on track to grow about 13 percent this year, to just over $24 billion ... as a result of recent strengthening of patent law here and cost pressures on name-brand drug makers in the West.

And the recent news out of India does seem to support this. From new and clearer regulations to industry making new investments to the above-mentioned progress with drug patents, India is taking on a more mainstream role in the global pharma industry.

But as often seems to be the case in news concerning India, there are plenty of doubts too. For example, one commentator opined that the prospect of Indian pharmaceutical/drug researchers being ripe to take on a major role was "doubtful", what with universities that are geared to produce run of the mill graduates.

Sour grapes or smart insight? Time will tell. But when the likes of Abbott tout their move to become the "No. 1 Pharmaceutical Company in India", it's likely that something big is going on.


ForeignExchange supports the medical translation needs of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. From R&D to clinical research to submissions and marketing, ForeignExchange's service, quality, and pricing stand alone.
 
 

Everybody wants good translation quality - suppliers, tool makers, clients, and end-users. But few people have figured out how to reliably and consistently achieve that.

One of the big challenges that faces buyers and providers alike is how to go about improving translation quality. Do you attempt a "big bang" innovation or embark on a process of many small, incremental improvements?

An article in the New Yorker about Toyota's approach clearly argues in favor of the latter:

...defining innovation as an incremental process, in which the goal is not to make huge, sudden leaps but, rather, to make things better on a daily basis. (The principle is often known by its Japanese name, kaizen—continuous improvement.) Instead of trying to throw long touchdown passes, as it were, Toyota moves down the field by means of short and steady gains. And so it rejects the idea that innovation is the province of an elect few; instead, it's taken to be an everyday task for which everyone is responsible.

As Toyota's recent problems have highlighted, it's not that this system can 100% guarantee that there are no quality issues. But over the long term, the results speak for themselves.

And that brings us back to translation. ForeignExchange's methodology of measurable translation quality takes a similar approach - continuous improvement rather than attempting a "big bang". Easy to understand, for sure, but difficult to do.

If you want to know more of our "secret sauce", attend some of our quality-related audio conferences:

• How to Measure Translation Quality
• EN 15038:2006 - A Tool for Assessing Translation Providers
• How to Measurably Improve Translation Quality
• ASTM F 2575-06: A Practical Guide for Achieving Translation Quality

ForeignExchange is the only company that provides clients with measurable translation quality. Our METRiQ quality system provides medical device and pharmaceutical companies with known translation quality - on every assignment. Find out more!
 
 

Translation service providers often struggle to make a convincing case to justify translation costs. If a translation company cannot demonstrate real and strong value-add, that spells trouble. Actually, it spells "commoditization".

But it's not like the translation industry isn't trying. There are presentation on the ROI of software internationalization, tools to determine the ROI of XML, and studies that "prove" that overseas buyers really, really would buy a lot more if only the marketing collateral, packaging, instructions, and support were translated.

All of these efforts share a common problem: They feel forced, theoretical, and self-serving.

So it was interesting and refreshing to read on the Localization Industry 411 blog how a Brazilian newspaper reported on the fact that sales of translated video games are sky-rocketing in the country. Here is an excerpt from Renato's article (bolding his):

Julio Vieitez, director of a LUG, a game distributor in Brazil, states that "When comparing the revenues of a good game in Portuguese and in English, the former is 15 times higher than the latter. Localizing is important because people want to play with their friends." Let me repeat that: The revenue of the localized version is 15 times higher than the English version! How about that for ROI?

That's the kind of ROI that any company could wrap there head around. And that's the kind of PR that the translation business needs more of.

Head on over to Localization Industry 411 for the full scoop.


In contrast to most other translation companies, ForeignExchange does not do "all things for all people".

We support the world's leading medical device and pharmaceutical companies with specialized medical translation services for regulatory, clinical, and marketing efforts. Contact us today for more details.
 
 

Localization World is returning to Seattle. From October 6 to 8, the industry's premier conference will again be held at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center, overlooking beautiful Puget Sound.

The program is now online and registration is open as well.

The program looks particularly interesting for this event. And everybody who participated in our ethics poll should plan on attending session D4!

Chief instigator Renato Beninatto will lead a discussion of how companies and individuals handle questions of conscience and ethics in the translation business. Get ready for a lively debate!


Do you tweet? Follow ForeignExchange on Twitter at @fxtrans.