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Translation/Proofreading Guidelines - Bengali: Introduction To CTT

The document provides guidelines for translators and proofreaders working on translations for the Care to Translate app. It covers general translation guidelines, guidelines specific to dialogue texts, and additional guidelines for Bengali translations. Translations should sound natural, be clear and unambiguous, avoid gender bias and medical jargon, and follow standard terminology.

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Rahul
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219 views

Translation/Proofreading Guidelines - Bengali: Introduction To CTT

The document provides guidelines for translators and proofreaders working on translations for the Care to Translate app. It covers general translation guidelines, guidelines specific to dialogue texts, and additional guidelines for Bengali translations. Translations should sound natural, be clear and unambiguous, avoid gender bias and medical jargon, and follow standard terminology.

Uploaded by

Rahul
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Translation/Proofreading Guidelines – Bengali

This guide is for translators and proofreaders working on translations for the app Care to
Translate (CTT). Our aim is that the translations should sound like they are originally
written in the target language, to optimize our users’ experience and the usability of the
app. If you have any questions about the guidelines or the translation process, please
contact your Translation Manager.

Introduction to CTT
The CTT applications are aimed at providing communication assistance between
healthcare professionals and patients who do not speak the same language. The apps can
be downloaded from the Apple App store and the Google Play store, and can be used on
all types of smart devices. More information can be found on our website:
www.caretotranslate.com.

General guidelines
The CTT apps target a broad range of users, from healthcare professionals to patients
from different backgrounds. It is particularly important to take this diverse audience into
account while translating/proofreading, and to consider the needs of the user as well as
the intention of the text. The “voice” we want in our product is polite, clear and without
cultural misunderstandings.

There are 3 types of text in our products:

• Language names: the languages that are available in our apps.


• App texts: the texts used in the application interface, to guide the user through
using the app. This also includes the category names which are used to organize
content in the app.
• Dialogue-related texts: these are the phrases or words which make up the
conversations between the healthcare professionals and the patients.

Language names and app texts should be translated using standard terminology
recommended by the language authorities of your specific language, Microsoft, and
Apple.

• Product names “CTT” and “CTT Clinic” should be kept in English.


• URLs should be kept in English.
• Variables, which are placed between %-symbols, are kept in English (e.g.
%playlist_name%).

For dialogue-related texts, please refer to the guidelines below.

Updated 2020-07-06
Guidelines for dialogue-related texts
Please keep in mind that most of these translations will be recorded, and often played in
noisy and/or stressful environments. It is therefore essential that they are as clear and
unambiguous as possible. They also need to be adapted to spoken language. If your
language has a big difference between spoken and written language, please take extra
care to use words and phrasing adapted to speaking.

To keep in mind while translating/proofreading:

• There are two roles in the app: healthcare professionals and patients. The
phrases/words therefore need to be adapted so that both roles can understand
them.
• The questions are designed so that patients can answer by saying Yes/No or using
simple body language.
• Users can be male or female. If this affects your language, please try to avoid
gendered translations if at all possible. Otherwise, contact your Translation
Manager so that we can prepare a file where you can write both versions of the
translations.
o Example: I am diabetic may be different if the speaker is male or female.
Consider changing it to I have diabetes if this form is gender neutral.
• The phrases and words are intended for use in conversations, therefore please
avoid giving multiple alternative translations for a word or phrase (unless this is
required because of gender).

Word choice and phrasing


The translation should be as close to the meaning of the original phrase as possible. This
obviously does not mean that the translation should be done by translating word-to-word,
but that the phrase should be understood in the same way as the original phrase.

• Write short and easy-to-read translations and avoid ambiguity.


• The style is spoken but also friendly and polite, the type of language you would
use when going to the doctor for a medical check-up.
• If possible, choose words and grammatical structures with the same style as the
English source text.
• Make sure that the translations are adapted to a healthcare setting, however: it is
important that the language used does not contain too much medical jargon or
words that can only be understood if you have a long university education or have
traveled a lot.
• People without extensive medical knowledge also need to be able to understand
the questions asked by the healthcare staff.
• Avoid using slang and be careful with colloquial language which may not be
understood by everyone.
• Texts within [ ] should be translated. They are explanatory texts that provide extra
information to the user.
o Example: There is my medication [point]. “Point” here means that the user
should use their body language to show where their medication is.

Updated 2020-07-06
IMPORTANT:
Questions for patients or others must be possible to answer with “yes”, “no”, numbers or
body language. The source phrases are worded a certain way for a reason, even though it
might feel strange to not use open questions. If a question is answered with “yes” or “no”,
the translated question must be phrased so that the answer means the same thing.

Example: Do you have trouble swallowing? may not be translated to Are you able to
swallow?, since the answer “yes” to one question corresponds to the answer “no” for the
other question. This can complicate understanding and cause big problems.

A note on forms of address and gender


The style we are aiming for is politely neutral. As an example, this often affects which
pronoun is used to address a person (if your language uses titles instead of pronouns to
indicate politeness: use titles). A politely neutral phrase in one language, should
correspond to a politely neutral phrase in the other language, even if this means that it is
not a “word-to-word” translation. It’s important that there is no possibility of
misunderstanding who the phrase is directed to, and it’s important to not use a form of
address which can be perceived as vulgar or extremely rude.

If your language uses different forms of address for men and women, please write both
translations of the phrase and indicate which is masculine and which is feminine.

Guidelines for Bengali translation


• The translation should be made into Standard Colloquial Bengali (cholitobhasha),
the variety used in Bangladesh.
• Do not use shadhubhasha (formal Bengali) in the translations since it may not be
well understood by most users.
• Make sure that the translation is consistent in word choices, and that you use words
from Bangladesh if there are multiple possible translations. If necessary, please
follow the recommendations from the Bangla Academy.
• In the English source texts, full stops are missing from the ends of full sentences.
Please translate with full stops in Bengali, using the appropriate punctuation (“৷” at
the end of declarative sentences and other statements which make up full
sentences).
o Example: “This might feel uncomfortable” should be translated with a full
stop at the end “This might feel uncomfortable.”

Finally…
If something is unclear or if you are not sure how to translate it, please contact your
Translation Manager and we will discuss the issue together. Thank you!

Updated 2020-07-06

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