MemoQ: Best way to choose languages for termbases
Thread poster: Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 06:53
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Dec 2, 2009

Dear colleagues,

We are users of the LSP (server) version of MemoQ with Online Documents. I wanted to ask you whether you have any suggestions about the best strategy choosing languages for termbases and translation memories.

We translate from English, German, and Portuguese, all languages that have several flavours. In the case of German and Portuguese we translate mostly from a single flavour (Germany and Brasil, respectively), so the matter of my question corresponds
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Dear colleagues,

We are users of the LSP (server) version of MemoQ with Online Documents. I wanted to ask you whether you have any suggestions about the best strategy choosing languages for termbases and translation memories.

We translate from English, German, and Portuguese, all languages that have several flavours. In the case of German and Portuguese we translate mostly from a single flavour (Germany and Brasil, respectively), so the matter of my question corresponds to English.

Our customers have memories (mostly in Trados) that have US or UK as locales. We have used the same locales in our MemoQ memories, and have created termbases according to the locales. Now, today we experience a "problem", which is that we cannot use termbases of different locales in a project, i.e. if we are translating a document with a UK locale, we cannot use termbases with a US locale. Or so it looks.

Also, as soon as we create a main termbase for all customers (a "corpus") to feed it as we translate more documents, new entries will have the English locale of the job we are working on, so they will not be reused in similar documents with another English locale. Creating just "English" with no locale results in that we cannot use the termbase with documents that do have a locale.

I hope I have described the situation well. Please do not hesitate to ask in case I have not.

So quite obviously, the question is: Is there any way we can setup MemoQ to be able to reuse termbase contents of different locales within a language? If there is no way to do that, should we simply create "English" termbases and memories with no locale to solve these issues?

PS.: We don't really need to have locales in our English termbases and TMs (all could be simply "English" with no locale), but I wonder whether I can spare me the work of recreating all memories and termbases..
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Grzegorz Gryc
Grzegorz Gryc  Identity Verified
Local time: 06:53
French to Polish
+ ...
MQ vs Trados and other... Dec 2, 2009

Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote:

Our customers have memories (mostly in Trados) that have US or UK as locales. We have used the same locales in our MemoQ memories, and have created termbases according to the locales. Now, today we experience a "problem", which is that we cannot use termbases of different locales in a project, i.e. if we are translating a document with a UK locale, we cannot use termbases with a US locale. Or so it looks.

Trados behaves in the same way.
IMHO it's extremely annoying.
In some cases, this "feature"and their lack of imagination create funny situations
E.g.:
http://www.proz.com/forum/sdl_trados_support/151954-attempting_to_use_the_free_bpm_dictionaries.html

Also, as soon as we create a main termbase for all customers (a "corpus") to feed it as we translate more documents, new entries will have the English locale of the job we are working on, so they will not be reused in similar documents with another English locale. Creating just "English" with no locale results in that we cannot use the termbase with documents that do have a locale.

Here Trados is better i.e. the terms without locale are recognized in all the locales.
Then you can specify an attribute for the locale and manage 'em in a effective way, if necessary.
E.g. see:
http://www.proz.com/forum/sdl_trados_support/150089-setting_up_new_termbases.html

So quite obviously, the question is: Is there any way we can setup MemoQ to be able to reuse termbase contents of different locales within a language? If there is no way to do that, should we simply create "English" termbases and memories with no locale to solve these issues?

You can export the termbase, duplicate the English column, then create a termbase with EN-GB and EN-US (the MQ termbases are multilingual).
IT's not very clean as solution but it works.

PS.: We don't really need to have locales in our English termbases and TMs (all could be simply "English" with no locale), but I wonder whether I can spare me the work of recreating all memories and termbases..

IMO no.

In my opinion, it should be possible to leverage data from different sublanguages (if necessary, a penalty should be applied for TMs).

Passolo does.
As Kilgray guys created a lot of procedures for Passolo, it's a chance they already know how to implement it in MemoQ

Cheers
GG

[Edited at 2009-12-02 10:03 GMT]


 
Gergely Vandor
Gergely Vandor
Hungary
Local time: 06:53
English to Hungarian
actually, memoQ already does everything you are asking for here... Dec 2, 2009

Hello Tomás, Grzegorz,

A termbase with a different locale can be added to and used in a memoQ project. Terms that bear a different locale will be presented as suggestions while translating. Apparently, we are dealing with a series of misunderstandings and/or wrong assumptions. I don't know how both of you came to the conclusions above. Please just take a closer look.

If the exact project locale doesn't e
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Hello Tomás, Grzegorz,

A termbase with a different locale can be added to and used in a memoQ project. Terms that bear a different locale will be presented as suggestions while translating. Apparently, we are dealing with a series of misunderstandings and/or wrong assumptions. I don't know how both of you came to the conclusions above. Please just take a closer look.

If the exact project locale doesn't exist in the termbase you are using, you simply need to add it to the termbase to be able to enter terms while translating. It's a few clicks. If you have sufficient rights for the termbase, or if it is a local one, memoQ will even do this for you automatically when you try to add a term.

I think it's quite reasonable that the terms you are adding will bear the locale of the project. If you ended up in a locale mess, I suggest that you use the export and import functions to get out of it. And if you don't need locales, just don't use them.

Best regards,
Gergely




[Edited at 2009-12-02 23:53 GMT]
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Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 06:53
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Probably getting rid of locales Dec 3, 2009

Gergely Vandor wrote:
I think it's quite reasonable that the terms you are adding will bear the locale of the project. If you ended up in a locale mess, I suggest that you use the export and import functions to get out of it. And if you don't need locales, just don't use them.

Hello Gergely! Thanks a lot for your contribution to this. Indeed, the locales thing might create extra work and we have decided to remove the locales and go back to just English, Spanish, etc.


 
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 06:53
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks a million! Dec 3, 2009

Grzegorz Gryc wrote:
In my opinion, it should be possible to leverage data from different sublanguages (if necessary, a penalty should be applied for TMs).

Thanks a lot for the very detailed opinion Grzegorz! Indeed making use from information from other locales of the same language should be easier. I reckon that today we should probably avoid using locales if we don't need them!


 
Grzegorz Gryc
Grzegorz Gryc  Identity Verified
Local time: 06:53
French to Polish
+ ...
Huh... huh... Dec 3, 2009

Gergely Vandor wrote:

A termbase with a different locale can be added to and used in a memoQ project. Terms that bear a different locale will be presented as suggestions while translating. Apparently, we are dealing with a series of misunderstandings and/or wrong assumptions. I don't know how both of you came to the conclusions above. Please just take a closer look.

I see now.
As I'm a bad guy and I store all my stuff over the LAN (yes, I know, it's not recommanded... aaargh... ), sometimes I experience strange problems with MQ.
So, during my initial tests PL-EN worked as expected but EN-PL didn't.

Nevertheless, you have a bug, methinks.
When the termbase edition window is open, the terminology recognition doesn't work and no warning is displayed.
I.e. the termbase is opened in exclusive mode.
IMHO it's an error in the design.

Probably it's the reason why we came both to these conclusions.

Cheers
GG

[Edited at 2009-12-03 15:12 GMT]


 


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MemoQ: Best way to choose languages for termbases






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