Abstract
This article gives an overview of localisation in The
Netherlands, both in education and industry. The discussion
on education is further narrowed down to the area of training
institutes that offer courses on the translation aspects
of software localisation; the discussion on industry comprises
the whole spectrum. On the education side, the article
gives an overview of localisation courses offered in The
Netherlands and the tools used in such courses. On the
industry side the article gives an overview of the localisation
market in The Netherlands, i.e. its players, the systems
used and produced, etc. The discussion also focuses on
the participation of industry in training. Finally, one
of the authors, who is a graduate himself, briefly discusses
his expectations and experiences.
Keywords
localisation, translation, The Netherlands, education,
training, industry
1. Activities Involved in Localisation
According to Esselink (2000:3) the following activities
are involved in a localisation project: "(1) project management,
(2) translation and engineering of software, (3) translation,
engineering, and testing of online help or web content,
(4) translation and desktop publishing (DTP) of documentation,
(5) translation and assembling of multimedia or computerbased
training components, and (6) functionality testing of
localised software or web applications." These activities
show that there are two distinct major roles to be played:
engineering and translating. Each of these roles has a
number of sub-roles. What these are can be derived from
the more useful survey of the various aspects of localisation
in Esselink (1998:6) where the people involved in a typical
localisation project are given: "(1) Project Manager,
(2) Translator, (3) Localisation Specialist/Senior Translator,
(4), Proofreader/QA Specialist, (5) Localization Engineer,
(6) Testing Engineer, and (7) Desktop Publisher."
For the education side of this article, the role of translating
is understood to include - next to translating proper
- project management and proofreading, and desktop publishing
to a marginal extent only.
2. Education
2.1 Translation Training Institutes Offering Localisation
Courses
The Netherlands has six major translation training institutes,
one of which is the Department of Translation and Interpreting,
Maastricht School of International Communication, Zuyd
University in Maastricht. Of these six institutes, the
Department of Translation and Interpreting in Zuyd University
is the oldest (founded in 1981 by HM Queen Beatrix) and
is the only one offering courses on localisation (i.e.
both translation with the help of CAT tools and localisation
in the strict sense). The objective of these courses is
not only to give students an introduction to the various
aspects of localisation, but also to serve as the basis
for actual work using a wide range of localisation and
translation tools; in particular the courses strive to
train the students to become skilled users of localisation
tools and novice translation professionals (see [2.2]).
2.2 Courses Offered
The Department offers a four-year course in translation
and interpreting at BA level. In Year Two of this course,
there are four modules on translation that serve to introduce
and instruct students in the use of CAT (Computer Assisted
Translation) tools, namely Trados/SDLX. Almost all translation
work to be done after the introductory modules has to
be done with the help of these CAT tools. At the end of
the second year, students work as junior translators and
revisors (for three-and-a-half weeks full-time) for an
inhouse simulated translation bureau that is staffed and
run by fourth year students under the supervision of a
senior lecturer. During this period of working for the
in-house translation bureau the students benefit greatly
from using CAT tools (the use of CAT tools is made compulsory
so that the students' work in the simulated translation
bureau mirrors as closely as possible that of a real-life
translation bureau). As for the regular exercises and
assignments throughout the second year, CAT tools are
becoming household tools more and more. The same holds
for the third and fourth years of the course.
In Year Three, there is an introductory module
on localisation proper, i.e. an introduction to localisation
tools and working with these tools. Although culture and
institutions are already part of the regular language
programmes, culture also plays an important part in this
introductory module on localisation - focusing on the
aspects of culture that are present in localisation and
in particular the technical side of these aspects.
The bulk of the work on localisation takes place in
Year Four, where there is a further specialisation
in localisation, which takes the form of a project. This
project can be practical (i.e. on the actual
localisation of help files, software and documentation/manuals)
or more theoretical (i.e. on the comparison of various
localisation tools, the evaluation of a particular tool,
etc.).
As can be seen, by the time of their graduation all
students are skilled users of CAT tools and have enough
knowledge to work with localisation tools, with a number
of them even specialising further in localisation. What
counts is that both groups are prepared and ready to work
in translation bureaus (or start one themselves) and have
the skills needed to work with CAT tools and localisation
tools.
2.3 Tools Used
During the second, third and fourth years of the course,
a number of tools are taught and used. In Year Two, the
CAT tools that are used are WordSmith, Trados MultiTerm,
Trados Translator's Workbench (including the translation
memory) and MultiTerm, TagEditor and WinAlign. There is
also a course on HTML, albeit a basic course which reflects
the ease with which students grasp this markup language.
PASSOLO is covered in the introductory module on localisation
in this year. The module contains a number of exercises
on the use of this tool.
No further tools are introduced in the fourth year, but
this may well change in the near future.
2.4 Input From Industry
Input from industry takes a number of forms. Currently
these are:
Participation in the in-house simulated
translation bureau entails sending translation and localisation
jobs for further processing and giving feedback on the
products delivered.
The "learning company" is a new phenomenon
where the Department of Translating and Interpreting actively
searches the market for (innovating, if possible) real-life
projects of varying durations for students to work on.
On successful completion of such projects, students will
earn credits. The idea behind this is knowledge circulation:
industry gains from the work that is done by the students
for the Department and the Department will be able to
enhance its knowledge by closely cooperating with the
industry experts.
2.5 Cooperation With Industry
The Department of Translation and Interpreting
actively seeks to cooperate closely with industry. The
type of training given at the Department is vocational
by nature. Therefore, it is one of the main objectives
of the Department to cooperate with industry in the areas
of the curriculum and placements - both for students and
lecturers. As already described in Section 2.4, the Department
is already rather successful in this respect (with plans
in place to further expand industry input in the near
future). See also Section 2.6 for further discussion on
this cooperation. The Department already liaises with
both localisation producers and localisation translation
companies in The Netherlands and abroad. One of the objectives
for the future is to give industry a greater role in the
area of assessment.
2.6 Employability of Graduates
The Department of Translation and Interpreting
has a number of instruments to measure the employability
of its graduates.
Firstly, the third-year and fourth-year
placements are very important factors in the employability
of students. It happens very often that students doing
their third-year placement are offered a job that will
commence after their graduation, especially when doing
their placement at a translation bureau. As for the fourth-year
placements, it is a regular occurrence that placements
lead directly to employment, with many placements being
continued in the form of regular jobs. The Department
works very closely with a number of renowned companies
that offer such placements: SDL, Microsoft Ireland, Trados,
various "ordinary" translation bureaus in The Netherlands
and abroad (mainly the UK), Lionbridge, Eclipse, RWS,
and Philips Eindhoven. Also Medtronic (the world leader
in medical technology) offers jobs to graduates at its
translation and communication division in The Netherlands.
A second important instrument is the Department
alumni scheme, central to which is an alumni website.
More and more companies submit their vacancies for publication
on this website and more and more graduates find jobs
through this very same website.
It is noteworthy that one of the former
graduates from the Department of Translation and Interpreting,
Maastricht School of International Communication, Zuyd
University in Maastricht has now become one of the world's
leading localisation authors, namely Bert Esselink.
3. The Localisation Industry
The localisation industry has been growing
rapidly and continuously in The Netherlands since the
1980s when the world witnessed the first personal computer,
for which various types of content needed translation.
The localisation industry received a boost a few years
later when the first translation memories appeared, making
translation much cheaper, faster and more consistent.
The third boost came from the emergence of the Internet.
Suddenly, data was accessible anytime, to anyone, anywhere.
This opened up the international market for literally
everyone, creating a huge growth on the translation demand
side. And the market is still growing. It is a market
that is growing for every area of the industry; and one
that is growing constantly for all areas (notwithstanding
seasonal peaks, e.g. higher sale of electronic goods at
Christmas).
Over the past two years, various factors
have contributed further to this growth. On the IT and
multimedia side, we have the upcoming Microsoft Office
2007 suite and Microsoft Windows Vista operating system,
plus the rise in sales of home networking products, gaming
products and domestic appliances. On the automotive/mechanical
engineering side, new EU environmental directives have
led to the development of new engines and vehicles, and
more localisation work as a consequence. Another factor
is that companies realise more and more that they will
lose out on sales if they do not continue or start localising
their products.
And let us not forget the joining of the
most recent EU member states, which has led to an even
greater demand for localisation, on top of the growing
list of European directives which necessitate the localisation
of all sorts of content. Lastly, within some agencies,
the Dutch language has been added to the so-called FIGS
list (French, Italian, German, Spanish), forming the tier
1 of languages for all localisation work that has priority
for most clients of localisation companies. Officially,
however, Dutch is still a B-language though it is coming
closer to the FIGS list. This move augurs very positively
for the localisation industry in The Netherlands as it
indicates that the demand for localisation into Dutch
is growing.
3.1 The Market Players
Since the acquisition of Trados by SDL
and the acquisition of Bowne Global Solutions by Lionbridge
(both in mid- 2005), SDL and Lionbridge really are the
two main localisation players in The Netherlands. These
two market leaders make use of freelance translators and
translation agencies of all sizes for their outsourcing
needs. Many enterprises in various industries also run
their own in-house translation departments, but regularly
call on freelance translators and translation agencies
when their internal resources are fully booked. There
is a great shortage of translators in The Netherlands
- in particular in the localisation industry, thereby
putting pressure on everyone at the supply end of the
global information management chain. This shortage may
be due to the growing demand for translation into Dutch
(see the decision some agencies made to put Dutch on the
FIGS list). The problem is that in a total population
of 22 million Dutch-speaking citizens (Flemish included),
there are not enough qualified translators. The shortage
is also felt outside The Netherlands, e.g. at Microsoft
in Dublin, Ireland where there is also a great need for
native Dutch-speaking employees.
3.2 Expectations and Experiences
of a Graduate
In this section, one of the authors, Anne
Klarenbeek - who is a graduate himself - discusses briefly
the expectations he had when he graduated and his experiences
since then.
"Having graduated only four weeks earlier,
I started working as an English-to-Dutch translator in
August 2003. I quickly discovered that the pace was a
lot higher than what we were used to at university. As
I am working in a team that is specialised in the localisation
of IT and multimedia content, I also noticed that, even
though I had a greater than average knowledge of computer
and networking hardware and software, I had a lot to catch
up with. Personally, I found a great challenge (but also
enjoyment and fulfilment) in jobs which require translators
who are more skilled in "transcreation" than translation
- typically required for marketing pieces - and I noticed
the same applies to newcomers who have joined the localisation
industry over the past three years (albeit not everyone
likes marketing pieces as much as others do). This area
wasn't covered at university so I had to revert to my
talents and the assistance of my co-workers.
My daily tasks also include file handling
and resourcing. You could call it account management to
some extent. My translation/review to account management
ratio is around 70%-30%. This makes for a nicely varied
pattern and a welcome change after a number of hours of
concentrating on a piece of Help material or a user guide.
The daily life of a localiser takes a lot of concentration
and discipline and is often dynamic in the sense that
one moment you are playing with words trying to sell a
body groomer, and two hours later you are fixing the length
of a handful of software strings, having just spent half
an hour in-between outsourcing work, issuing purchase
orders and answering translators' questions on the work
they are helping you out with. There is never a dull moment
if you like this kind of work."
4. The Future
The prospects for localisation look promising
in The Netherlands. Gradually, more training institutions
are including localisation as a subject in their curricula,
and in particular the Department of Translation and Interpreting
of the Maastricht School of International Communication
goes even further in that it is adjusting its curriculum
to make it possible for industry to actually take part
in the training of prospective localisers (see Section
2.4). In addition to this, The Netherlands can boast to
have the world leader in localisation, namely Lionbridge,
and the world number two, SDL. Lionbridge once started
as a small Amsterdam-based localisation company named
INK that gradually developed and expanded, changing its
name once in a while until 1996 when the company became
Lionbridge. Now the corporate headquarters are in Waltham,
Massachusetts in the USA. The Amsterdam office is now
a Lionbridge subsidiary. SDL is originally a UK-based
localisation company, with its headquarters in Maidenhead.
Over the past years SDL expanded and took over other companies,
among them Alpnet in 2001. Since then SDL has a subsidiary
in The Netherlands (Hengelo). Both Lionbridge and SDL
attract the world's greatest companies for localisation
work: Lionbridge has the job of localising Microsoft's
Vista and SDL has the job of localising Microsoft's Office
2007. Both companies are determined to strengthen their
world position. All of these factors give the localisation
industry an even stronger position in The Netherlands.
References
Esselink, B. (1998) A
Practical guide to Software Localization, John Benjamins
Publishing Company, Amsterdam, The Netherlands/Philadelphia,
USA.
Esselink, B. (2000) A
Practical guide to Software Localization, John Benjamins
Publishing Company, Amsterdam, The Netherlands/Philadelphia,
USA.
Marcel
Thelen has been a senior lecturer in
translation and interpreting at the Department of Translation
and Interpreting of the Maastrucht School of International
Communication of Hogeschool Zuyd for the last 21 years.
He is the director of the in-house simulated translation
bureau and responsible for external relations. In addition,
he is a placement supervisor. He can be reached at m.m.g.j.thelen@hszuyd.nl.
Han
van de Staaij has been a member of staff of the
Department of Translation and Interpreting of the Maastrucht
School of International Communication of Hogeschool Zuyd
since its foundation in 1981. In 1981 he developed together
with a colleague a terminological databank for eduactional
purposes, which was later taken over by Elsevier. He introduced
tools such as Trados, PASSOLO and WordSmith in the curriculum.
He can be reached at j.m.vandestaay@hszuyd.nl
Anne
Klarenbeek has been a Dutch Translator at SDL
International in Hengelo, The Netherlands since August
2003. He has a degree in English and French translation
into Dutch from the Maastricht School of International
Communication of Zuyd University, where he specialised
in localisation and where he was the manager of the in-house
simulated translation bureau, which formed his final project.
He can be reached at aklarenbeek@sdl.com.
Republished from the Localisation Focus
Localisation Research Centre (LRC)
University of Limerick, Castletroy, Co.
Limerick
Ireland
www.localisation.ie
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