Comments on: “Instant” translation service? http://ginstrom.com/scribbles/2008/05/29/instant-translation-service/ Random scribbling about programming, translation, and Japan Thu, 10 May 2012 05:41:14 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Ryan Ginstrom http://ginstrom.com/scribbles/2008/05/29/instant-translation-service/comment-page-1/#comment-212 Ryan Ginstrom Thu, 29 May 2008 02:09:25 +0000 http://ginstrom.com/scribbles/2008/05/29/instant-translation-service/#comment-212 Thanks for commenting, Amir! I think that for a lot of small businesses, the choice is to use your service or not localize. So in that sense it can be good for the industry as a whole by increasing the market size. That idea of translator-as-interpreter -- serving as an intermediary in support emails and such -- is also very intriguing. I've worked through agencies on such "correspondence" jobs before, and I must say they tend to be somewhat unsatisfactory for all parties. Maybe your service could change that. Good luck with it! Thanks for commenting, Amir!

I think that for a lot of small businesses, the choice is to use your service or not localize. So in that sense it can be good for the industry as a whole by increasing the market size. That idea of translator-as-interpreter — serving as an intermediary in support emails and such — is also very intriguing. I’ve worked through agencies on such “correspondence” jobs before, and I must say they tend to be somewhat unsatisfactory for all parties. Maybe your service could change that.

Good luck with it!

]]> By: Amir http://ginstrom.com/scribbles/2008/05/29/instant-translation-service/comment-page-1/#comment-211 Amir Thu, 29 May 2008 02:03:57 +0000 http://ginstrom.com/scribbles/2008/05/29/instant-translation-service/#comment-211 Being the founder of the interesting service, I want to ask any translator, who has ideas on how to improve it (from either the translator's or client's point of view) contact me. You can use the contact form on our website to leave a message. I do believe in keeping everyone happy, along with making a decent living myself. We charge a 20% fee from completed projects. That also includes all money transfer fees (translators get exactly 80% deposited to their PayPal account). The instant translation work is primary translation of customer support communication (back and forth between my clients and their visitors in foreign languages). If it doesn't get translated really fast, it's no good. So, we built a desktop client, which pops up an alert when there's a message to translate. Translation itself is done within this client, which spell checks and sends back the translation. I don't see this becoming a career for anyone, but it can make a nice addition - and helps make the entire service much more appealing. Since the infrastructure is already there, clients can also post small text projects and get them done in 15 minutes. It works pretty nice actually :-) The bulk of the work is website translation. It's not instant work. For this, translators bid on projects, show their CVs and chat with clients. These two pieces make it attractive for small businesses, where you can get your website translated by a pro and then, communicate with your visitors (in real time) in their language. IBM can set up an office anywhere. Small businesses have to operate at a much more modest budget. Cheers, Amir Being the founder of the interesting service, I want to ask any translator, who has ideas on how to improve it (from either the translator’s or client’s point of view) contact me. You can use the contact form on our website to leave a message.

I do believe in keeping everyone happy, along with making a decent living myself. We charge a 20% fee from completed projects. That also includes all money transfer fees (translators get exactly 80% deposited to their PayPal account).

The instant translation work is primary translation of customer support communication (back and forth between my clients and their visitors in foreign languages). If it doesn’t get translated really fast, it’s no good. So, we built a desktop client, which pops up an alert when there’s a message to translate. Translation itself is done within this client, which spell checks and sends back the translation. I don’t see this becoming a career for anyone, but it can make a nice addition – and helps make the entire service much more appealing.

Since the infrastructure is already there, clients can also post small text projects and get them done in 15 minutes. It works pretty nice actually :-)

The bulk of the work is website translation. It’s not instant work. For this, translators bid on projects, show their CVs and chat with clients.

These two pieces make it attractive for small businesses, where you can get your website translated by a pro and then, communicate with your visitors (in real time) in their language. IBM can set up an office anywhere. Small businesses have to operate at a much more modest budget.

Cheers,
Amir

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