The challenge
The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) is one of my longest-standing and most loyal customers. DAAD’s headquarters in Bonn and its regional office in Warsaw have been entrusting me with their translations since 2005.
So it is no wonder I love working with them on any project, be it a video translation for a YouTube campaign or transcreations of their newsletters, booklets and brochures.
The main task is always the same: to adapt the original German-language content to the needs and preferences of the Polish-language audience.
The newly revamped and redesigned DAAD homepage had already been launched in German, English and several other languages, and now the client wanted to present it to the Polish-speaking audience. She contacted me by phone, hoping to have an accurate and natural-sounding Polish translation of the website’s content completed within the shortest possible time.
With a view to getting the Polish version of the site live as soon as possible, the remit was to transcreate the website’s main pages first, then to adapt the navigation structure, and only after that, at the very end of the project, to translate the legal notice together with the privacy and cookie policies.
I got to work immediately, mindful of the project’s short time frame.
After extracting the *.html and *.docx source files from the archives received from the client I loaded them into SDL Trados Studio.
Working in SDL Trados
I created a new project with a translation memory containing all the translation units from previous work done for that particular client.
By maintaining such a database, I can ensure terminological and phraseological consistency across all related documents. When working on a new text, the software automatically suggests previously translated fragments of texts to be reused and helps me keep my translations consistent and accurate.
I worked methodically through the site’s content, ensuring that each section perfectly mirrored the original German version.
Well-timed delivery in batches
In line with the client’s requirement, each section was sent to her as soon as it was completed, so that she could keep the project moving forward in a timely manner. Thus, the designers could proceed with coding while the translation of the next batch of content was already in progress.
Bilingual editing—ensuring that each section perfectly mirrored the original German version.
Creating SEO-friendly titles, meta descriptions and headings for the translated articles.
The result
The client was delighted to find how quickly Studio De was able to meet her needs. My background in the academic sector meant that I was familiar with the language and lingo of higher education.
Also, during the project I worked closely with the client’s web team to ensure that the translation was precisely what she needed in order to engage with her target audience in Poland.
It was a lengthy project, but I could established a good pace and workflow, tackling the job as quickly as possible while still maintaining quality standards.
For various elements of the website, I was able to provide localization services as well as translation services. The whole site was translated in good time and to a superb quality, leaving the client satisfied. Another job well done.
→ daad.pl/impressum
(scroll down to the end of page for the reference)
Website translation can be complex, time-consuming, and costly. A full-scale website localisation project may encompass a wide range of tasks:
—transcreation, i.e. reconstructing the entire advertising (visual and verbal) content of the website and adapting it for the target audience,
—specialist translation, e.g. technical or medical translations, depending on the business sector the client is operating in,
—legal translation (for terms and conditions pages and legal disclaimers),
—SEO localisation: providing SEO-friendly titles and headings for articles, adapting keywords and creating well-written meta descriptions that would drive traffic and conversions to the website.
If you have a website that needs translating into Polish—or, indeed, any other kind of document or file—then it’s time to get in touch with me and see how I can help you out.
I am looking forward to hearing from you.
Content matters.
Give it every chance to succeed.