Over the course of several weeks, I worked with a team to complete a full translation process using CAT tools, from proposal to delivery. The client my team selected was YouTuber Chase Crossing. We selected his let’s play video, “12 Useful Things I Wish I Knew Sooner in ACNH” to provide translated subtitles for.
Statement of Work
We began by preparing a statement of work (SOW). Our team was made up of people who spoke Japanese, German, and Chinese, so we selected those languages to work with. 3/5 of the content was translated into Japanese because there were 3 Japanese speakers on the team. Our SOW can be seen below, or downloaded by clicking the link at the bottom of the page.
We submitted this SOW to our (simulated) client for approval, and for use in the client kick-off meeting. Translation rates were based off standard rates we found for each language on ProZ.com. The processes outlined in this document were used for the remainder of our project.
Deliverables
Our final deliverables slightly differed from the original list in the proposal. We changed our style guide to be delivered in .docx form, and added a translated on screen text (OST) deliverable in .xlsx form. Our team also agreed that is was not necessary to submit the pseudo-translation files to the client. The source content was originally split into 5 different files for each translator to work with individually, then the target text was recompiled to make a single deliverable. Many of the deliverable files are available for download at the bottom of the page.
Project Reflections
After completing the project, the team reflected on what had gone well, what we had struggled with, and our overall impressions of the process. We agreed that for a team with three members having zero professional translation experience, we thought that we had executed our processes will, used CAT tools efficiently, and delivered a satisfactory product. Of course, there was room for improvement. Some of the areas that we all agreed we needed more experience in were troubleshooting issues in Trados Studio 2021, and project management workflows.
