European Climate Foundation (ECF) – Translation Case Study
Overview of Requirements
ECF approached TW Languages on behalf of a research partner with a requirement to translate country-specific climate change reports into 14 languages in preparation for the upcoming G20 Meeting that took place at the end of October 2021 in Rome, and in advance of COP 26 being held in Glasgow immediately following G20.
Challenges
The challenge was to translate large amounts of data within a very short period of time, with a high degree of accuracy given the critical scientific nature of the text, as well as having different source data for each language. It was also agreed that to ensure accuracy, draft translations would be supplied to ECF to allow independent experts engaged in the project to review and edit the drafts prior to final publication. In addition to the report itself, there would be a social media campaign running alongside to promote its findings.
Change of scope:
Original Scope – Average of 3,000 words per language – Total 42,000 words
Final Scope – Average of 9,200 words per language – Total 138,000 words
Upon receipt of the final source files, it quickly became apparent that the reports produced by the research partner were significantly larger than anticipated, as well as the source files requiring additional Desktop Publishing that was not anticipated in the original scoping and that this would compress the time available to complete all steps without compromising quality. The final files received by ECF from the research partner engaged to prepare the reports had more than doubled in size from the original specifications, however due to the G20 meeting, it was not possible to extend the deadline, this was a hard deadline.
Alternative Source File Formats:
Due to the nature of the source files being Illustrator PDF files created from an Excel database, our PM team were put under additional pressure to provide a solution in order to prepare the ‘translatable assets’ for linguists for all languages required. Our expert in-house Desktop Publishing team was able to step in and provide an effective solution for this challenge.
Ongoing update of Reports Content:
A further challenge was introduced as it became apparent that some of the source content required additional editing to ensure the content was clear and concise for the translators, with the final source copy being available only a few days prior to the final deadline.
Message from the client
TW Languages joined us on a project that required 14 different language translations in a very short period of time – they were efficient, professional and brought great positivity and drive to what, at times, was a very challenging project. Both their translators and design team went beyond the call of duty to deliver to a tough deadline and were a pleasure to work with throughout. We would highly recommend their services.
