Sylang News

We are likely to find on the web dictionaries and glossaries about even the most specific topic. For example, typing "french wine dictionary" or "french wine dictionary grand cru" in Google will reveal several glossaries of wine-related terms.

We need however to pay special attention to the quality of web resources. Institutions such as the EU, governmental agencies, or universities can usually be trusted in their areas of competency: for administrative terms, diplomas equivalence, legal terms, etc.
For other sources, it is always necessary to check whether the term found is used in the expected context in the target language. Again a web search will do. If the search returns very few relevant documents containing the proposed term, this term is probably not correct. Incidently, this is how Google detects spelling mistakes.

You can also search past translations.

Posted by Sylang Support at 05:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The feature allowing a translator to bounce a translation request has been updated. You may now optionally include a personal message that will be sent to the user in the notification email. You could for example use this to specify in a few words that the context in not clear, or that (s)he has chosen the wrong translation direction.

Posted by Sylang Support at 02:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sylang's translation dispatch system only accepts as many translations as we can handle. Because of this, we can assure the person who asked for the translation that he or she will receive a timely response. So whatever happens, you need to somehow reply to each and every request. In general, you'll simply reply with your translation. Here is how to handle the few special cases.

• incorrect source language selected (you are getting a French-English translation job because the person chose the wrong language option): use the refuse link at the bottom of the message


• the source language is incorrect English or French and can't be translated reliably: use the refuse link at the bottom of the message, and maybe also email the person about this


• the source language is in Dutch, German, etc.: use the refuse link at the bottom of the message, and maybe also email the person about this


• songs: use the refuse link at the bottom of the message (we are not allowed to translate copyrighted material and it would be a lost of your time since there are sites offering translations of many popular songs)


• other abusive requests (list of frequent cases) : use the refuse link at the bottom of the message

Please do not use the Refuse Link in other cases! Users will be confused if they receive a message saying their request was refused.

If you experience difficulties with a translations (specialized vocabulary, etc.), please do not hesitate to forward it to us.

Posted by Sylang Support at 05:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As translators, we sometimes take a few days to reply to translations. Unfortunately, a translation becomes useless for many users only after twelve hours. So, when you know you will be unable to reply the same day, it's best to suspend your account.
For example, if you can't access your email during week-ends, suspend your account on Friday night and reactivate it on Monday morning.

Posted by Sylang Support at 09:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)