Translation Confidential: Recent Episodes
Peter Argondizzo
Join host Peter Argondizzo and expert guests from around the translation industry to get an inside look at how language translation can benefit your business while bridging the communication gap in today's globalized world.
Join co-hosts Peter Argondizzo and Patrick Daley as they explore the importance of quality assurance (QA) and editing in the translation process. In this episode, they discuss the differences between QA and editing, the significance of each in translation, and how machine translation impacts these processes.
Join co-hosts Peter Argondizzo and Patrick Daley as they discuss the significant potential of AI in translation and interpretation, exploring practical use cases while highlighting the benefits and addressing the risks associated with new AI tools.
Join translation industry experts Peter Argondizzo and Patrick Daley as they discuss the decision between purchasing software or developing it in-house. Explore the advantages and drawbacks, as well as topics such as cost analysis, customization options, and more.
Join Peter, Patrick, and the Argo Translation project management team leads for a discussion on how they got into this career, their most memorable projects, and how AI will affect their jobs and the industry overall.
Join translation industry experts Peter Argondizzo and Patrick Daley to discuss what Language Operations is, the associated risks with adding AI, and how LangOps in a translation workflow benefits customers.
Join co-hosts and translation industry experts Peter Argondizzo and Patrick Daley to discuss instances where AI automation can increase your business' productivity and what concerns you should consider before using an AI tool.
Special guest, integration expert Paul Doherty joins Peter and Patrick to share his first-hand experience with mergers and acquisitions, tips for managing employees through the process, and how to foster a cohesive entity upon completion.
Join Argo Translation Founder and President of nearly 30 years, Peter Argondizzo, and his cohost, Senior Project Manager Patrick Daley, for a broad discussion on business lessons learned in their careers and important suggestions and tips for entrepreneurs.
Join Peter and Patrick as they discuss concerns companies should have about using AI in their translation workflows, privacy concerns with customer content, and some positive use cases of AI in translation.
Join Peter and Patrick as they discuss important considerations before launching a website that will eventually require translation, including choosing your CMS, theme considerations, and workflow accommodations.
Join Peter and Patrick as they discuss a common topic on Translation Confidential: the commoditization of the translation industry. Topics include the factors affecting price, the perceived value of translation, and what the future holds for the industry.
Special guest Lyle Vold, Co-founder and CEO of service management platform Ūsked, joins Peter and Patrick to discuss the company's origins, Lyle’s background, and what the future holds for Ūsked.
Join Peter, Patrick, and special guest, Argo Translation's Director of Sales, Sarah Van Lanen, as they discuss quality concerns in translation for both the buyer and the agency.
Join Peter and Patrick as they discuss Argo Translation's acquisition of ICD Translation at the 12-month mark. Topics will include lessons learned, banking concerns, legal concerns, and financial analysis as part of an acquisition strategy.
Special guest Dr. Lorena Terando from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee joins hosts Peter and Patrick to discuss the impact of AI on education and recommendations for students pursuing an education in translation.
Peter and Patrick discuss the impact of AI and ChatGPT on the translation industry. They explore how AI affects corporate policy, employee screening, and privacy concerns.
Join Peter and Patrick for their discussion with Zin Global founders Angelo Passalacqua and Bryan Montpetit on their translation industry-focused software tools: Zin CRM and Gaby-T, a no-code prompt engineering platform for the language industry.
For the 100th episode, Patrick interviews Peter and guests Jackie Lucarelli, Co-Founder and Director of Employee Wellness, and Kimberly Miller, Director of Operations, about how Argo Translation has grown since its establishment in 1995.
Join Peter, Patrick, and guests Jackie Lucarelli, Director of Employee Wellness, and Kati, Project Management Excellence Lead, for a discussion on Argo Translation's extensive training process and how their company culture fosters continuous improvement and learning.
Peter and Patrick are joined by Argo Translation's Marketing Coordinator, Meghan Furlong, to discuss non-language careers in the language industry.
Join Peter and Patrick as they interview Dr. Joyce Tolliver, Director of the Translation and Interpreting Studies Program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The discussion will include a look at an exciting new research project that involves the TIS and the Illinois State Board of Education.
Translation industry experts Peter and Patrick provide an overview of what drives translation prices, why minimum fees exist, and what drives per-word cost.
The translation industry continues to develop connectors and software that automate the translation process. A rising trend is the sale of complex systems that complicate the process rather than make it simpler. In this episode, Peter and Patrick focus their discussion on the part of the process where files are received and delivered but don’t provide any value to the larger translation process.
Peter and Patrick share their personal holiday traditions and the traditions of several international colleagues. Countries discussed include Argentina, Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Spain, Italy, Germany, China, Israel, and India.
Peter and Patrick discuss the importance of setting and holding proper expectations in a consulting business. Topics include the importance of clarity and communication, setting expectations in the employer/employee relationship, and setting proper expectations for projects The idea of holding proper expectations is extremely important in business and in life.
Peter and Patrick cover 7 things you should never do as part of a translation RFI. Topics include:
- Include pricing models that don't match the industry
- Only ask for per-word pricing
- Ask for profitability and revenue figures
- Consider the number of offices as an indicator of bandwidth and expertise
- Tell your prospective agencies that quality matters when it doesn't (e.g., pricing is your most important topic)
- Invite agencies who you know don't fit your requirements
- Don't use a reverse Dutch Auction, you will get exactly what you bargain for.
Peter and Patrick cover important topics to consider before you start doing any translation work for your organization, including identifying your target markets, choosing a language service provider, creating a glossary of key terminology, establishing ground rules around translation memory ownership, and choosing in-country subject matter experts (if available).
Join Peter and Patrick as they discuss the critical points to consider for using Machine Translation in your organization. It seems like tech companies who pride themselves on tech and promise the stars with Machine Translation and AI don’t actually use it themselves.
Is MT merely a promise to get customers in the door only to substitute plain vanilla MT and human editing? Isn't the goal for the client to save money and time? Is how you get to the goal really important?
As the technology landscape broadens and more companies get purely “digital” with their initiatives - more platforms are used that store content. In a company serving international markets via content from numerous systems, the success of these digital programs to partner with an LSP that can centralize translation of content will drive beneficial cost-savings, time savings, and increase engagement. This is achieved via connectors and integrations and will compound cost savings through a single translation memory. In order to have this discussion, we needed to bring on the CTO at Argo Translation to discuss how technology makes all of this happen.
Join Peter, Patrick, and their special guest Nadia Fischer as they discuss Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, and Language. Nadia is a tech Entrepreneur, CEO, and Co-Founder of Witty Works, and a speaker on bias in language and business.
Join Peter and Patrick as they discuss Remote work in the translation industry. They cover the post-pandemic landscape, including the positive and negative impact of remote work on employers and employees.
In this episode, Peter and Patrick cover the idea of translation and Human Connection. All too often, people forget the impact of their work. Translation has an incredible impact on people's day to to day lives, from the workplace to schools to hospitals.
Join Peter and Patrick as they discuss strategies on how to engage with employees when language is a barrier to engagement. Tools to help eliminate the barriers are telephonic interpretation, written translation, ELL classes, and the most important tool, empathy.
Join Peter and Patrick as they discuss the role of Trade Organizations in the language industry. Topics include the most important advantages of being a member, lobbying efforts, price collusion, and trade shows.
Join Peter and Patrick as they discuss Argo Translation's recent acquisition of a competitor. Topics include lessons learned during the acquisition phase of the purchase, the motivation behind the acquisition, and the important aspects of the selection process.
Join Peter, Patrick, and our special guest Mike Van Norman, Project Manager Team Lead at Argo Translation, for a detailed discussion on how consistency impacts translation. Topics covered include using the same translation team, translation memory, glossaries, and client review.
Join Peter, Patrick, and their special guest Saul Arteaga in a discussion about the post-pandemic challenges and opportunities in the Interpretation Industry. The topics covered include advice to interpreters entering the industry today, the challenges facing Saul and his company and the industry, as well as some information on Saul and his company SWITS.
Peter and Patrick are joined by special guest Jenny Rieck to discuss ASL and Deaf culture. The discussion starts with a discussion on the Oscar-winning movie CODA and the following topics:
- What would you suggest to someone who wants to learn ASL?
- How does someone become an interpreter and have you ever thought about being an interpreter?
- With technology to allow speech-to-text captioning do you think interpreters will become unnecessary or a thing of the past for events other than live in-person presentations?
- What are the challenges that can happen when a person who is deaf or hard of hearing has a meeting with a doctor or a lawyer?
- What is the difference between a video phone and telephonic interpretation or video remote interpreting?
Join Peter and Patrick as they discuss the state of the interpretation market with Kate Accetti, Senior Sales and Marketing Manager for Interprenet. The discussion includes covering how Covid has impacted the industry, some of the new technology impacting the services offered, and the prospects for live events post-Covid.
Join Peter and Patrick and their special guest Nathan Lorum, Director of Marketing at Argo Translation as they continue their discussion about translation and marketing.
This episode covers the following topics:
- Create a plan for the UX of your website
- How will visitors to your website interact with the other languages?
- How will you handle regional websites?
- Will linked documents be translated (e.g. PDF case studies, brochures, manuals, etc.)?
Join Peter and Patrick and their special guest, the Director of Marketing at Argo Translation, Nathan Lorum. This episode focuses on the following topics:
- how to link a business goal to your translation efforts
- determine what resources you need
- the importance of long term thinking
This is part one of a two-part series on translation and marketing.
Join Peter and Patrick as they discuss how companies are looking at the translation of SharePoint content. The topics included in this episode's discussion are the use cases of SharePoint, how the content relates to the translation process, the creation of a connector between SharePoint and a translation memory system, and why SharePoint collaborators should care about process automation for translation.
Join Peter and Patrick as they discuss how to measure the accuracy of your translation projects. Determining translation quality is a very subjective exercise. Learn objective strategies on how to implement a strong client review process and the role the source language plays in the quality of the final translation.
Peter and Patrick discuss the idea of Inclusion and Language. Translation and interpretation are valuable tools in creating inclusion in the workplace. The discussion includes using language to create inclusion across various business functions like:
- Human Resources (Policies, training documents and programs, Benefits information)
- Corporate Communications (Internal knowledgebase, news releases, websites)
- Marketing (Branding documentation, Core values)
Peter and Patrick weigh in on the state of the translation industry as we head into 2022. Topics include:
- Increased reliance on automated workflows
- The increased role of AI in all aspects of translation
- Mergers and Acquisition
- How video and other digital media dominates new growth in the industry
Peter and Patrick discuss their favorite shows of 2021 by highlighting the key takeaways from the following shows:
- EP 71 - People Power
- Ep 60 and 61 - The Argo Way PT 1 and PT2
- EP 70 - Translation Industry Trends
- EP 69 - Hard Truths your LSP won't tell you
- EP 65- WordPress and WPML
- EP 59 - What makes Translation Difficult
With an ever-increasing focus on Machine Power in the translation world, the true multiplier in this business (and others) is people power. Patrick and Peter discuss the impact a strong team has on an organization's overall health and growth.
Topics include:
- The impact of culture
- The idea of hiring the best possible people
- The impact of an economic downturn
- Training and support from your team
Peter and Patrick are joined by Florian Faes, managing director of Slator. Slator is one of the most important news sources in our industry. We discuss positive and negative trends in our industry, the state of conferences in a post-Covid world and the most impactful translation news story in 2021.
Peter and Patrick discuss the hard truths of translation projects. These may be things a buyer does not want to hear, but needs to hear! Find out why translation isn't perfect, why making changes on the fly is draining your budget, and much more!
Peter and Patrick discuss why the formatting (aka DTP or layout) is important. Following some formatting best practices can drive revenue, reduce costs, and improve the translation process. Tune in to learn some best practices about formatting, and how you can never have to worry about formatting again!
Peter and Patrick cover some best practices for new buyers of translation, and how to stretch every penny of the budget. They discuss how web traffic and revenue should drive your target markets, why Translation Memory is so important, and some red flags that should be on your radar as a buyer.
Peter and Patrick talk all things related to translation for Human Resources. At their core, businesses rely on people, and communication in their native language is key. Peter and Patrick discuss various types of HR projects, and some best practices for HR translation.
Joined by WordPress expert developer Kyle Rumble, Peter and Patrick talk through some best practices when developing a website. Tune in for tips and best practices from the web development side as well as the project management side.
Peter and Patrick (and special guests Siri and Patrick's dog) discuss the rights of buyers of translation. They dive into how to review a quote for translation, and things to look for when picking a provider. What is just as important as what the provider is providing, may be equally as important as what they are not providing.
Peter talks with one of the new Argo Business Development Managers, Sarah Van Lanen. They talk about their journey in the language industry, and provide advice for students on how to prepare for the workforce (specifically in translation).
Peter and Patrick discuss why honest communication (or lack thereof) is the most important part of a translation project. They also discuss tips to keep a project on a successful track, and warn against certain things that can derail a project (and quickly!).
Peter and Patrick discuss the second half of the newly rolled out Argo Way. The Argo Way is a group of 26 fundamentals that guide decision making, both personally and professionally. The fundamentals in the second half include: thinking team first, being relentless about improvement, treating each other like family, and many more.
Peter and Patrick discuss the first half of the newly rolled out Argo Way. The Argo Way is a group of 26 fundamentals that guide decision making, both personally and professionally. The fundamentals include: honoring commitments, speaking straight, doing the right thing - always, and many more.
On the flip side of episode 58, Peter and Patrick discuss what can make the process of translation more challenging. Some challenges includes ambiguous source content, unclear communication, unrealistic timelines and more.
Peter and Patrick discuss a number of ways to make the process of translation as simple and streamlined as possible including clear communication, realistic timelines, following appropriate workflows, and more.
Peter and Patrick discuss the EU's MDR requirements taking affect in the near future, what it means for the translation industry, how it helps to increase global business, and the benefits for the average person trying to understand these medical devices.
Peter and Patrick take a look back at the craziness of 2020 before delving into what we can expect to see in the translation industry in 2021 including increased consolidation, changes to project workflows and the continued advancement of machine translation.
Peter and Patrick go over some current events taking place in the translation industry before discussing ISO quality assurance standards, what they actually are, why they matter especially for translation services companies, and how they can help your business.
Peter, Patrick, and special guest Jim Richie discuss their experiences with terminology management in translation projects, the differences between termbases and translation memory, best practices for undertaking a terminology-heavy project, and more.
Peter and Patrick discuss important tips for successfully starting a website translation project including, choosing the right languages, focusing on the right content, how pseudo-translation fits into the process, strategies for launch and ongoing updates, and more.
Peter and Patrick dig deep into translation workflows and discuss why workflows are so important, traditional translation workflow steps, how project management factors into establishing an effective workflow, and why even lower quality jobs should have a clear workflow established.
Special guest Maria Caduto joins Peter and Patrick to discuss how she became a technical writer, how translation fits into the technical writing field, tips for people interested in become technical writers, and more.
Peter and Patrick celebrate their 50th episode by looking back at some of the most important topics they've discussed so far including Argo's 25 years of translation, connecting universities with translation agencies, the deprecation of the Google Translate website widget, and much more.
Peter and Patrick discuss the sunsetting of the free Google Translation website widget, why it was so popular, why Google is deprecating it, what other options are available for translating a website, and strategies for implementing those options.
Guest Jim Richie joins Peter and Patrick to discuss his journey in the language industry, the process of managing translations, differences in how LSPs operate, what a typical day looks like in the life of an in-house project manager, and advice for others looking to go down the project management path.
Peter and Patrick discuss the dangers of paying lip-service to translation instead of making it an important part of your business, why companies invest in the service in the first place, the effects a halfhearted strategy can have, and how the machine translation trend fits into this debate.
Peter and Patrick are joined by Christina Green, President of Green Linguistics and Translation Project Manager for Milwaukee Public Schools, to discuss what schools have done and can do to accommodate remote learning, especially for ELL students, how remote learning effects students, budgeting for safety when it comes to translation, and how teachers are handling this new education landscape.
Peter and Patrick discuss the societal move towards remote work during the pandemic, how remote work differs from a standard in-office setting, steps management should take to prepare for an extended or permanent work-from-home scenario, and ways to keep your company's culture alive even when no one is in the office.
Peter and Patrick discuss the fixation on per-word pricing for translation projects, why it isn't the best indicator for success, other costs that can be hiding in your project quote, and strategies for figuring out which translation provider will give you the best result without focusing on the per-word price.
Peter and Patrick discuss the fundamental differences between narration and subtitles, best use cases for each, why you should consider translating video content for your next project, and how costs break down when undertaking a narration or subtitling project.
Peter and Patrick continue their conversation on breaking down language barriers in business with a closer look at how to communicate with customers. They cover tools for communicating in different languages, strategies for multilingual website translation, when it's appropriate to use machine translation, and more.
Peter and Patrick discuss how to effectively communicate with employees who speak different languages in the workplace. They cover communication mediums that are regularly used, methods to quickly translate or interpret across languages, potential trainings that can help bridge the cultural divide, and tips for HR professionals who are responsible for multilingual or international employees.
Peter and Patrick discuss the diverse language make-up of the U.S., historical calls for English to become the national official language, current actions undertaken by individual states on official languages, and examples of language suppression in the past.
Peter and Patrick are joined by expert ISO consultant, Sherri Gallagher, to discuss ISO standards, how to approach creating an internal quality program, what the audit process looks like, and what having ISO registrations can do for your business.
Peter and Patrick discuss the differences between translation, transcreation and localization, how they're implemented by translation providers and which is the right choice based on your project needs.
Peter and Patrick talk about their experiences with learning a different language, what kind of education was involved in the process and what they enjoy about the individual languages they ended up mastering.
Peter and Patrick are joined by original Translation Confidential cohost, Patrick Moseley, to discuss the origins of the term "pandemic", Patrick's experience in the language industry, and his current position working with Jiveworld and their flagship language learning app, Lupa.
Visit lupa.app for more info.
Valentina Volpi, Argo's Vendor Manager, joins Peter and Patrick to discuss her journey in becoming a translation vendor manager, what she looks for in a new vendor, what potential candidates can do to make themselves better prospects, and what companies can do to differentiate themselves from the competition in terms of vendor communication.
Peter and Patrick discuss how translation factors into positively affecting internal employee communication, what it means when all of your employees have access to the same information, and the importance of providing information across languages during a crisis.
Peter and Patrick discuss how translation memory can become inaccurate and unreliable in certain circumstances, how to avoid those mistakes, and why it should matter to clients.
Peter and Patrick are joined by professional translator Gerhard Preisser to discuss what life is like for a freelancer in the translation industry, how to arrange your day to day activities, and best practices for being successful.
Peter and Patrick discuss why a company's core values are vital to business success, how Argo's core values guide the company, and putting those values into practical use.
With Covid-19 dominating public discussion, Peter and Patrick go over Argo's efforts to help during the crisis, how telephonic/video interpretation and translation are vital in emergency situations and scenarios where those services are most beneficial, especially for LEP segments of society.
Peter and Patrick go over common misconceptions about translation including that it's merely a conversion from one language to another, that it's the equivalent of interpretation, that it can be instant, and that it is purely focused on document translation.
Peter and Patrick delve into the details of translating a website including pros and cons of different methods of translation, using a plugin instead of copying and pasting content, pricing for website projects, what a rough project quote actually provides, and why scraping websites is a terrible idea.
Peter and Patrick are joined by Kate Scholz and Amy Olen from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Translation Studies program to discuss the basic of what the school's Translation program offers, why university/agency partnerships are so beneficial to students, and what sets UWM apart from other programs.
Peter, Patrick and special guest Mike VanNorman check in on the AB5 bill debate in California before discussing what it takes to successfully translate eLearning material including a typical workflow, quirks of the process and why these projects are often the most fun.
Peter and Patrick go over how schools and educational institutions in general can benefit from translation services as well as potential levels of service that take budget into account, types of documents that can and should be translated, the usefulness of telephonic interpretation, cost-saving tips and legal ramifications of not having translation services available.
Peter and Patrick discuss the benefits of organizations partnering with translation agencies including increased transparency in the translation process, avoiding lost revenue, expanded service offerings and much more.
Peter and Patrick close out 2019 with a look back at some important topics covered in previous episodes as well as what the new year holds for Argo and the podcast.
Peter and Patrick discuss why LSPs often have minimum fees for projects, how project managers factor into the fee structure, understanding levels of service for different translation methods, and the time and effort that goes into developing an accurate project quote.
Peter and Patrick are joined by the team from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Center for Translation Studies. They discuss potential coursework in the CTS program, the benefits of pursuing an MA or certificate in translation, and the importance of universities partnering with potential employers for their graduates.
Peter and Patrick are joined by Argo Translation Co-founder, Jackie Lucarelli, to discuss Argo being in business for 25 years, how they got their start in the industry and how the field of translation has changed over time.
Peter and Patrick discuss the intricacies of acquiring companies or being acquired in the translation industry including culture fit, financial due diligence, different approaches to the process, revenue v. profit, and more.
Peter and Patrick discuss common software tools used in the translation process, the benefits of each and ways to find more information on how use them effectively.
Peter and Patrick are joined by Bailey Mitchell to discuss the process of entering the translation field as a student, types of potential positions, do's and dont's in applying for jobs, what to expect as a new project manager, and important skills you should hone.
Peter and Patrick are joined by the team at Flikli to discuss the process of translating and subtitling video content and its importance in garnering the attention of global audiences. They go over the use of subtitling and narration, recommendations of when to use each type, what translating video does for exposure, the proper way to set up a translation workflow, what to expect from project timelines, and useful case studies.
Visit flikli.com to plan your next video project!
Peter and Patrick discuss starting a career as a freelance translator, best practices for finding a job, how to gain experience, becoming familiar with industry specific tools, finding a specialization, and establishing long-term work relationships.
Peter and Patrick are joined by Morgan Reyes, Project Manager at Argo Translation to discuss what corporate translation buying programs are, the benefits for large organizations, potential drawbacks of this streamlined process, and the basics of setting up such a program.
Peter and Patrick are joined by Kimberly Miller, Production Manager at Argo Translation, to discuss the ins and outs of MadCap Flare, one of the premier technical authoring and publishing platforms available. They delve into the basics of what Flare is, how it works, primary benefits, translating content with MadCap Lingo, handling content updates, and optimizing Flare projects for translation.
Peter and Patrick discuss what actually constitutes a "source file" and why translation service providers absolutely need them to complete a project successfully. They also go over what can be done with PDF files, what website crawlers do (or don't do) for the translation process, sending text in an email, older/less effective publishing programs, why you can get different quotes when you don't provide a source file and trying to hit a translation "home run" with the wrong equipment.
Peter and Patrick discuss the three main factors that make up every translation project (price, turnaround time and quality) and how changing one inevitably alters the other two while ideal balances for different types of projects are provided.
Peter and Patrick discuss the finer points of what goes into Requests for Proposals for translation projects, what elements should be included and common mistakes companies should avoid when looking for the right language services provider.
Peter and guest Patrick Daley discuss Google Translate for websites going away for good, the limitations of machine translation currently and solutions you can potentially use in place of pure machine translation.
Peter and Patrick go over Patrick's recent trip across Europe and discuss language norms outside of the U.S.
Peter and Patrick discuss why potential customers choose larger language service provider firms and whether or not that corresponds to a difference in product quality.
Peter and Patrick go over the history of translating for the web, effective ways to get your web content translated and ways to make the translation process easier.
Peter and Patrick discuss translation services used by educational institutions, legal requirements and ways to help bridge the gap between school districts and limited English proficiency families.
Peter and Patrick discuss the common practice of clients reviewing translations internally and how it alters the translation process for the LSP (for better or worse).
Peter and Patrick give a crash course in the basics of machine translation and how it's currently being used in the translation industry.