Keeping track of your localization work
Glossaries: don't work more, work smarter
From the bottom of my heart mind
Fresh stories from a Spanish Copywriter.
Hola from México!
I landed here 2 days ago, moving from a pretty cold winter in New York into the all year around summer of Cancún.
Although the weather is not looking great (24º, but cloudy), I’m planning to spend a lot of time relaxing at the beach.
Aaaaaaaaand… this brings me to the topic of today: working smarter instead of working extra hours (so you can go to the beach, watch that Netflix show you have on hold or do whatever you want.
There are a lot of areas where we can optimize our localization work and today I want to touch base in one of them.
Glossaries
A glossary should be a document with the most usual terms and their corresponding equivalents in different languages. The goal is to ensure consistency and accuracy around all the different translations, saving you time as well.
It can be as specific as you need. For example, I’ve worked with glossaries where some words had 2 o 3 different translations depending on the context. Some with couple of pages and some in documents with dozens of pages.
When you start working with a new client, 2 things can happen:
They already have a glossary (or a style guide with a glossary in it).
They don’t have it.
In the first case, this is usually a green flag for a client: they know the deal, have been there for a while and have/had linguistics on the team before. I always like to go over it in detail, compare with my own personal glossaries and ask as many questions as I may have.
Also, the existence of a glossary doesn’t mean the work is done: I always keep it open for new words and suggestions.
If you find yourself in the second scenario, don’t panic: this is actually very normal and you can actually see it as a great opportunity.
How? Tell the client about it, start creating your own glossary (I always like to do it over 2-3 months, to get the tone and all the relevant information) and add it as an extra service. They will get a glossary that can be used over the years (and even be applied to other languages) and you’ll be saving yourself a lot of time in the future.
Extra tip: keep those glossaries. You may work for the same industry in the future and some of the information you already have will definitly work.
Market-in
Resources to reach your peak level.
💡 I’ve taken some courses from Translastars and they are top in the industry. This week they talk about the concept of “culturalization”.
Outside the desk
Where the magic really happens.
🏖️ Today there will be a flight New York-Barcelona with an empty site: mine. I’ll be spending some time in Mexico (Yucatán area) and Costa Rica before coming back to Spain. Any recommendation is welcome.
🎬 I’m not a big fan of VPNs, so every time I change the country the content available in Netflix or Prime change. So I have couple of TV shows now that will have to put on hold until I’m back in Spain.
🌮I’m staying in a hotel with no kitchen and, as someone who likes taking care of what I eat, this is not ideal. Good thing this is Mexico and no U.S., so there are more healthy options (and specially cheaper!).
Make it global, baby
If you want to work with me, this is the way.
🚀 Want to take your brand to the next Spanish level? Hit the “reply” bottom and let’s talk.
📬 Want to appear in one of the next issues? Let’s see how we can work it out.
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All the best for the rest of your week,
💙 Ricky from Textonality.com 💙