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Adding languages is easy. Keeping them aligned is the work.

A multilingual project almost always starts well: budget, attention, every version delivered at once. It goes wrong at the first change, when the Dutch version gets updated and the rest falls behind. From that moment you no longer have five languages but five different trainings.

Ask for an example from your sector

Technical specs

Languages
Unlimited, from one source
Formats
Text, voice-over, subtitles
Quality
Checked by your own specialists
Lead time
A few days per language
01 How it works

The choices that prevent drift are made at the start. Text does not belong burned into an image or a video, because then every change means producing it again. All languages hang off one source, so it is visible which version is behind. And per language there is somebody who checks, rather than translates.

That last point is the heart of it. Machine translation has become good enough to make language six cost the same as language two, and to hold terminology consistent across a whole set. What it cannot do is judge whether the instruction matches your installation, or whether a term is used differently on site.

Often a project with us starts not with translating but with clearing out: laying the existing versions side by side, establishing which ones lag, and deciding what to update and what to retire. That is less work than it looks and it stops you carrying five versions of one problem forward.

How we set it up

  • Text and imagery kept separate, so language is not a production
  • One source with language variants, so a backlog becomes visible
  • A glossary per language for technical terms and brand names
  • Visual instruction wherever possible, because imagery needs no translation
  • A reviewer per language from your own organisation
02 When to use

Needed

Crews with staff from several countries. Service partners or subcontractors abroad. Safety instruction, where understanding must not depend on command of a language.

Handle differently

Where one language is enough but reading level is the problem; there, more visual material helps more than a translation.

Stop letting translation costs decide how many languages you train in. Let the availability of reviewers decide it instead; that is the scarce factor now, and it is a factor you can organise.

04 Specifications

An extra language is text work

No new recording or editing, provided the material was designed for it from the start.

Backlog made visible

One source shows which language is behind, rather than somebody having to keep track.

Quality stays human

A review round of half an hour per change, by somebody who knows the installation.

Do you work with an international crew, or a network across several countries?

M

Milan

Business development, STARK Learning