Final Mini-Portfolio for Intro to CAT
1. Introduction
In this project, our team, MIISion, localized the official website of Venmo, an uprising mobile payment service owned by PayPal, into a simplified Chinese version (zh-CN). The target audience of the localized website is the general public in China, young netizens in particular. This project aims to introduce Venmo to the vast Chinese market with fluent and culturally localized expression.
Pages translated include:
● Front page: https://venmo.com/
● How Venmo works (also called ‘how it works’/ ‘product’): https://venmo.com/about/product/
● Business: https://venmo.com/business
● Card: https://venmo.com/card/
● Purchases: https://venmo.com/purchases
● Security: https://venmo.com/about/security/
● Contact Us (also called ‘support’): https://venmo.com/contact-us/
● Sign in: https://venmo.com/account/sign-in
To localize this website, we used Trados, the CAT (Computer-Assisted Translation) tool, introduced in our Intro to CAT class. Trados is also the CAT tool we practice using the most in this class. In addition to using the CAT tool, Trados, we also resorted to the assisted apps, such as AntCont and SegmentAnt, to analyze the terms and segments in our source files.
Moreover, we combined what we have learned in the Intro to CAT, LPM (Localization Project Management), and Website Localization classes together. We localized the official website of Venmo according to the preparation phase, production phase (translating, editing, and proofreading), as well as finalization phase we learned and practiced in the LPM class. We also used the knowledge and methods we learned in website localization class to analyze, test, and evaluate both the original website and the Chinese version which is our deliverable.
For this specific project, we focused on the production phase. That is, using the CAT tool, Trados, we practiced in our Intro to CAT class to analyze, translate, edit, and proofread the files we localize. Meanwhile, Translation Memory (TM) and Term Base (TB) are created in the production phase by using Trados.
We believe that this project will not only meet our client’s current expectation but also establish a high-quality system for our future services.
2. CAT Team Project Files
(1) Proposal/SOW
In the preparation phase, we met and communicated with our client to reach a mutual consent about what to localize (the deliverables), how to localize (the procedures), and when to localize (the timeline). During our meeting, certain problems and unclear parts were discussed, such as whether to carry out the desktop publishing (DTP) which would be costly and time-consuming.
In addition, we prepared a proposal for our project, including our project goal, timeline, costs, resources required, and all the procedures. The proposal is for our client to fully understand the project and for our team to follow the correct processes.
(For the complete project proposal, take a look at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-8x8mW9FSZGl8xMnkVCujC9tc9a7gCl6?fbclid=IwAR0lxxJs6HN1MgDtP5i3izhiMiX_871CByNPQ0R6O1GxD4XiyQ3OIt_58yY.)
(2) Deliverables
As mentioned above, our deliverables include the HTML pages of the official Venmo website in Simplified Chinese.
For our final deliverables, we adopted Trados to carry out our source files analyses, translating, editing, and proofreading steps. Because there are multiple translators in our team, we also ran a marathon relay for our translating and reviewing work. This is also a way for our team to optimize and to make the most of our TM and TB.
(For the complete deliverables, including target HTML files, TB, and TM, take a look at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1iXpfrDatFddiGIkjV3H3dEvm-UnwzbNi?fbclid=IwAR0lxxJs6HN1MgDtP5i3izhiMiX_871CByNPQ0R6O1GxD4XiyQ3OIt_58yY.)
(3) Presentation on Lessons Learned
To evaluate our final deliverables and the whole procedures of our project, our team met after finalizing the project to discuss the problems we encountered, to analyze our project and deliverables, and to reflect on all the phases during the whole procedures, including our work as well as our communication with our teammates and client.
(To know more about our lesson learned, watch our video and take a look at the slides provided at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1MviVA059xLPypdhzvXw0YQM9H8F3ucHo?fbclid=IwAR0lxxJs6HN1MgDtP5i3izhiMiX_871CByNPQ0R6O1GxD4XiyQ3OIt_58yY.)
3. Further Readings
● If you are interested in a JavaScript web game internationalization project I had participated in, read Internationalizing a JavaScript Web Game (TapTapTap).
● If you are interested in a state-of-the-art technology in translation services, read API: A Win-Win-Win for Translation Services.