Alchemy Translations

TRANSLATION SET: depending on the project, the customer will require to provide either 1 or 2 translations for the same source string. Project managers will inform the translation team whether 1 or 2 translations are required in each handoff.
TASKS WITH 2 TRANSLATIONS NEEDED: if 2 translations are required:
• They will be paid individually (if you provide both Translation1 and Translation2 for the same source string, the source string will be paid twice).
• Translation1 needs to be the most common.
• It will be mandatory to provide 2 valid different translations of the same source string. Both translations need to maintain the original intent using different words, structures, and expressions, which means that Translation1 cannot be the same as or very similar to Translation2. Make every attempt to provide a meaningful diversity in Translation2 and not just change the articles or other minor changes.
Example:

o T1: I’m Ralf.
o T2 (valid): My name is Ralf
o T2 (not valid): I am Ralf

• This diversity can come from using a different level of formality, translate into two sentences with different meanings (if the source text is ambiguous), use synonyms in the second translation or rephrase the sentence (syntactic difference). If words with ambiguous gender are present in the source, please be sure to switch the gendered words in the second translations. Please take all these possibilities for providing diversity into account and combine them. Do not always use the same criteria (for example do not always rephrase). Don't try to add a new translation from a different variant such as Swiss German for German (this would be a cheating behavior for wrong target language). Tips on how to provide valid 2nd translations are posted in the below section.
• Centific will conduct checks to detect how similar Translation1 and Translation2 are. If there is an indication that Translation1 and Translation2 are the same or too similar (only minimum variations applied), it will be considered a cheating behavior.
• There are cases where it is not possible to provide a valid Translation2, and in these cases Translation2 should be omitted. For example when the source is made just by:
o a number or a price
o a URL
o an email address
o a proper name
o etc.
• If only Translation1 has been provided, Centific will conduct checks to detect if the lack of Translation2 is justified. If there is an indication that the lack of Translation2 is not justified, the user who missed to translate it will be penalized in the QA.
• If the task requires 2 translations but it is not possible to provide a valid Translation2, click the SECOND TRANSLATION NOT POSSIBLE button. This will indicate to the reviewers that there is only 1 possible translation for the provided source.

TIPS ABOUT 2ND TRANSLATIONS: The 2nd translations should be considerably different. It’s not just a matter of changing the articles or the punctuation. You should really find a different way to say the same (without of course doing mistranslations, omissions, etc.). Please find here some tips about how to reach this diversity in the 2nd translations.
• Different levels of FORMALITY: Due to their nature, some strings should have either an informal or a formal tone. For example, business reports will usually be formal, tweets will usually be informal. Vulgar and offensive contents will more likely have an informal tone too. However, if the source context is ambiguous enough to let you play with different levels of formality, you can use this to vary Translation1 from Translation2. For example:
o Translation1: Votre enfant va impatiemment se rendre sur le site Internet www.loremipsum.com
o Translation2: Ton gamin s’éclatera sur www.loremipsum.com
• Different meaning for AMBIGUOUS sources: Sometimes the source text is ambiguous and can be interpreted in different ways. You can use Translation1 and Translation2 to provide 2 different possible meanings of the same ambiguous source string. For example:
o Source: Fred previously checked on this with the gas desk because Aquila indicated interest in buying out this contract.
Here it is not clear whether “Fred” and “Aquila” are two people or two companies, so you can:
o T1: translate as if they were both people names
o T2: translate as if they were both company names
• Different SINTAXES: Use different syntactic structures in Translation1 and Translation2. This doesn’t only mean change the word order, but literally using different grammar/syntactic structures. For example:
o T1: I wish you all the best on your birthday
o T2: Wishing you a happy birthday
o T1: Quería saber si te gustaría ir a ver “American Beauty” con nosotros un día de estos
o T2: ¿Te apetecería ir a ver con nosotros “American Beauty” algún día?
• Different TERMINOLOGY: Terminology between Translation1 and Translation2 can be changed, but please make sure you don’t change just one word, otherwise they would be too similar. For example:
o Source: Manual coffee crafting competition (Atlanta)
o T1: Gara di preparazione manuale del caffè (Atlanta)
o T2: Competizione di Atlanta su come fare il caffè a mano
• Different GENDERS: If the source language doesn't support a specific gender and it’s ambiguous, please use different genders for Translation1 and Translation2. For example:
o Source: You are really funny.
o T1: Sei molto simpatica. → This is feminine
o T2: Ti trovo davvero simpatico. → This is masculine
UNACCEPTABLE 2ND TRANSLATIONS: Examples of unacceptable 2nd translations, that will be considered cheating behaviors, include (but are not limited to):

AMBIGUOUS/UNCLEAR SOURCE: if the context is clear, keep the same meaning as source. But if the meaning of the source is ambiguous and the context is not clear, try searching the exact snippets in the Web to find a possible context or meaning. If there is no way to clarify the meaning, provide a translation based on your best judgment, even word by word if needed. If the project allows 2 translations for the same source, you can use them to put 2 different interpretations of the source. Do not mark the source as nonsensical if you can apply the phrase into a context where the words make sense. For example, “Rat” can be translated referring to the animal in Translation1 and with the meaning of “traitor” in Translation2.

INCOMPLETE/TRUNCATED STRINGS: if a string is incomplete in source, do not try to complete it in target; translate the part that appears in source with what would be the equivalent part in your language. Do not try to guess what the rest of the string would be.
INCIDENTAL WORDS: when incidental words of cultural/linguistic courtesy or habit are generally used in the source language but not in the target, or generally used in the target language but not in the source, translators may add or delete such words to best convey the same meaning and tone. For example, when translating a string that discusses a future event from Arabic into English, sometimes it may be needed to delete the word “inshallah” rather than literally translating it to more closely convey the meaning and tone.

IDIOMS: in case of idioms, proverbs, and expressions, always retain the meaning of the source string in your translation. A literal word-by-word translation is not acceptable if the meaning of the source string gets lost. Example: “Break a leg” → “In bocca al lupo”.
REPEATED WORDS: if the source text has repeated words that do not seem to serve any purpose in the intended meaning, please do not include the extra words in the translation. Example: “I went I went to the park” → “I went to the park” FILLER WORDS: do not include filler words like “uh”, “hmm”, etc. in your translations. Example: “My weekend was um uh not too bad” → “My weekend was not too bad”. INTERJECTIONS: words like “oups”, “yikes”, “yay”, “gosh”, etc. should be considered part of the text and should be kept in the target language/translated. GRAMMAR AND SPELLING: we expect grammatically correct translations without spelling errors. Spell checker is integrated in Oneforma and available directly in the webapp. To launch the check, click on this button in each string you want to check: