Blog entries

Lorena Velázquez Joins Avantpage as Business Development Director

Julianne — Tue, 08 May 2012 17:55:27 +0100

We are pleased and excited to welcome Lorena Velázquez as the newest member of the Avantpage executive team. She is Avantpage’s Business Development Director, working closely with CEO Luis Miguel as well as with the Avantpage sales and marketing teams.

As Business Development Director, Lorena is responsible for the development and performance of all sales and marketing activi...

What Is a Translation Glossary? Why Is It Important to Create One?

Julianne — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:34:33 +0100

As defined by the translation industry, glossaries are client-specific guidelines created to be used across all projects generated by a particular client. For instance, a glossary for a health care client might contain such items as: agency names, health plan names, program names, job titles and key words. All of these items need to be translated the exact same way no matter where in the document they are. It becomes even more important if we are talking about a website and the translation of...

Case Study: 2012 Elections Process

Julianne — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 16:10:59 +0100

Avantpage is often called upon to translate a variety of government documents, and during election years, those translation requirements ramp up substantially. 2012 is an election year, and Avantpage will be handling English/Spanish translation projects for six counties, as well as for a communication services company that oversees the requests of several other counties. Each election project Avantpage handles usually runs for two to three months and represents a tota...

DTP services: Design Files in Your Target Language

Julianne — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 18:09:19 +0100

Desktop Publishing (DTP) is an important component of Avantpage’s linguistic suite of services. Through DTP, we format and re-create foreign language page design/layouts both for print and Internet use, without compromising the message and feel of the original material. We support more than 150 languages and a wide variety of software applications. We handle every nuance of the process, thoroughly detailing documents and online materials to reflect...

Our new video series on YouTube

Julianne — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:11:57 +0100

In an effort to bring a CEO’s personal perspective to Avantpage’s clients, prospects, partners and alliances, we are presenting a series of short video interviews on YouTube with Avantpage CEO, Dr. Luis Miguel.

WATCH VIDEOS HERE

In these quick vignettes, Dr. Miguel reveals why he chose to work in the linguistics field, offers his take on quality, integrity and trust as they relate to client/business relations, and describes how Avantpage embraces...

Meet Vera Hooijdonk, Avantpage’s Lead Project Manager

Julianne — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:06:08 +0100

As Lead Project Manager for Avantpage, Vera Hooijdonk is a master at juggling projects, time, and people. Her job requires an incredible amount of attention to detail, quick thinking, and highly-developed communication skills as she guides Avantpage’s translation and production teams to accomplish their tasks, meet deadlines, and deliver the quali...

U.S. Census Data Determines New Mandates for Chinese Ballot Translation in Sacramento County

Julianne — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:47:18 +0100

Recently, the federal government indicated that Sacramento County must print ballots and other voting materials in Chinese in time for the next election. Only 15 other counties throughout America are required to print ballots in Chinese. New census data has shown that there are about 39,000 Chinese (all ages) living in Sacramento County, and of those, about 15,500 speak English “less than very well.” The U.S. Voting Rights Act requires ballots to be translated into a f...

Language Spotlight: Russian

Julianne — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 17:27:47 +0100

Russian is a language with a long and varied history, and today, approximately 147 million people speak Russian as their first language, and 113 million speak it as a secondary language. In the United States, large concentrations of Russian speakers make their homes in Alaska, New York, California, Pennsylvania, and Illinois. Russian is the official lang...

Happy Holidays from Avantpage!

Julianne — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 21:55:02 +0100

Asian Fashionistas Are Fans of American Denim

Julianne — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 19:51:59 +0100

As the U.S. economy struggles, companies like The Gap and Levis are expanding their presence within lucrative Asian markets. Chinese consumers in particular are snapping up slim-cut, distressed, edgy denim designed specifically for slender Asian figures, and sold by Levis and The Gap exclusively in China.

Both The Gap and Levis now have a presence in China, and The Gap opened its first franchise in Vietnam in September of this year. Asian consumers love Western brands, their disposable...

Case Study: California Department of Education

Julianne — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 16:46:09 +0100

How Avantpage provided translation services in 25 languages –– accurately, quickly and with exceptional attention to detail and quality

The Task

The California Department of Education (CDE) needed a translation project completed within seven days. This project was a survey piece intended for parents, entitled “A School Climate Survey for Parents and Guardians.” This piece would be used by the CDE to determine how parents felt about a particular schoo...

English Immersion in Schools

Julianne — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 08:00:00 +0100

Recently, on their blog forum Room for Debate, The New York Times invited contributors to discuss strategies for educating immigrant children and helping them to meet rising academic standards. The conversation stemmed from a report on Cecil D. Hylton High School, a school in Virginia that is separating immigrant children from the general student population in an effort to teach them English. The practice had mixed results: many of the children did master English, as well as American histor...

The Lighter Side of Language

Julianne — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 07:00:00 +0100

As you know, at Avantpage we take translation seriously, and pride ourselves on our unfailing attention to detail, our absolute dedication to our clients and their projects, and the incredible work ethic practiced by every member of our team.

The flip side of that? We love the lighter side of language as well, and we'd love to share a book that recently came to the a...

Our Project Managers: The “driving force” behind the successful completion of all our projects!

Julianne — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 07:00:00 +0100

At Avantpage, our project management team is indispensible. We thought we'd take a moment to reveal just what our PMs are responsible for and why they're so critical to our success.

At Avantpage, our project managers are the liaison between our clients and translators. They are responsible for ensuring that projects progress smoothly, that everyone is on the same page when it comes to expectations, and that communication between all project team members and client representatives is flo...

Avantpage Translation and Quality Assurance Process

Julianne — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 07:00:00 +0100

At Avantpage, each translation project is closely aligned with our quality assurance process. Each translation request goes through several quality assurance stages:

Editing
The editor checks the translation for accuracy and compliance with the client's specifications; looks for typos, grammatical mistakes; and checks style, consistency, and more.

Terminology Control
The translated text is processed with a QA tool to make sure all the terms match the terms on the ...

Is Your Language Assistance Program In Need of an Upgrade?

Julianne — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 07:00:00 +0100

As a health care provider, you know that clear, open communication with your clients is critical. If your LEP (Limited English Proficient) clients don't fully understand discharge instructions, insurance information, consent forms, applications, and other written materials, you may be putting them - as well as yourself and your organization - at risk.

When you make an effort to communicate with your clients in their primary language, the benefits are enormous. You will improve un...

Have you considered AvantFlow lately?

Julianne — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 07:00:00 +0100

If not, maybe it's time to take another look! Our clients who use it, love it and here's why: AvantFlow--our signature online translation management system--is a free-of-charge, easy, systematic way to request quotes and projects from us. It also serves as a secure online central repository to store and retrieve all your translation project files.

In addition, you can also use AvantFlow to instantly check project status, give detailed project instructions, upload source files, assign d...

A Look at the Avantpage Translator Selection Process

Julianne — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 07:00:00 +0100

Pre-Qualification
Translators can apply for work via our Careers page on our website or they can be referred by translators who already work with Avantpage. Translators must submit their Request for Qualifications form to qualify; they must perform sample tests in their areas of expertise; and they must send a sample of their work along with the original source document, and a valid Certification of Membership to ATA, a Court Certification, or a Certification from an equivalent Professi...

10 Best Practices for Hiring a Translation Company

Julianne — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 07:00:00 +0100

In response to the current regulatory climate, many companies are in need of translation services for the first time.

Avantpage has responded with a report on 10 industry "best practices" that will help any business navigate the process of obtaining, coordinating, and evaluating translation services. These best practices are especially relevant for companies in the healthcare industry.

Because Avantpage realizes how important it is to get things right from the beginnin...

Blog checkpoint--How are we doing?

Julianne — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 07:00:00 +0100

Greetings from the Avantpage blogosphere! We'd like to take just a moment to "blog about our blog" and touch base with you, our readers. We created the Avantpage blog as a forum for translation news, events, trends, commentary and more. We have found it is a wonderful method for getting information out quickly to our readers, focusing on certain topics we feel would be of interest, and giving our team members a way to connect with clients, prospects, and anyone interested in t...