MAGAZINE

#199 – January

Tucker Johnson

Tucker Johnson shares thoughts on the future of QA and responds to the feedback he’s received after his xLQA article earlier this year.

Read on!

POSTEDITING

T

he world is changing. Every passing year, we see the signs of an increaingly globalized world. It’s a reality that raises challenges as the professional world races to make sense of it all. It brings opportunities as new markets open up to enterprising business leaders. And it gives us all a chance — a chance to learn, grow, and flourish as human beings. 

As we begin 2022, MultiLingual’s aim is to stand at that crossroads and understand the globalized future, both inside and outside the language industry. To that end, we’re making some big changes at this magazine. 

Perhaps the most dramatic of these changes is the transition from six to 12 issues a year. The expanded production output means we can continue the industry-oriented content our readers already know and love. But it’s also a chance to explore more stories at the intersection of language and business, entertainment, geopolitics, technology, culture, and more. 

I suppose I, too, am one of those big changes, and that warrants an introduction. My name is Cameron Rasmusson, and as the new editor in chief of MultiLingual magazine, I’m as excited as anyone to see what the new year holds. Although new to the language industry, I’ve been learning and growing over the past few months. I come from a journalistic and editorial background, having worked in several newsrooms as a reporter and editor over the years. While localization is a new frontier for me, I come from international roots, having traveled eastern Europe and worked in English-learning camps with my parents during my youth. 

It’s been a strange journey that led me to the MultiLingual family, but I’m excited to make the most of it. To all of our readers, I wish a happy and healthy new year.

Cheers!. 

Katie Botkin signature

COVER PROFILE

Tucker Johnson: Envisioning the Future of QA

Interview by Cameron Rasmusson. Photos: Adonis Photography
I started my career in localization just like everybody else in localization started their career, which is to say, completely by accident. I kind of fell into it, got pulled into it. And once I was here, I just loved it and I haven’t left since then.
I started at a small startup and moved to bigger companies, ending up at Moravia. And that’s where I met Renato and worked around him. I never really worked with him — just kind of knew him. We didn’t work on the same projects but made the same enemies. [Laughter.]

COMMENTARY

A New Approach to Linguistic QA, the Keystone to Faster & Better Software Globalization

by Adam Asnes

I’m going to share a vision of software localization that some will resist or refute. This vision changes enterprise translation workflows, internal globalization departments, and vendor landscapes. All this from the humble QA practice, which is often overlooked, late, or piling up backlogs.
Linguistic and functional QA for software is important in delivering a quality experience for global users. But the typical software QA process is clumsy and slow compared to most other software development practices. Localization QA is a late waterfall process, despite whatever continuous label the industry uses.

Linguistic Quality Assurance is Dead. Long live LQA!

by Vassilis Korkas

In these times of global brands and localized marketing, what exactly is translation quality? Like many other concepts where translation is involved, it depends on the context. Quality assurance (QA) was once considered equally important to the translation itself. After every translation was completed, it was expected that at least one reviser or proofreader would go over it before publication. Quality managers simply didn’t exist. Instead, any project manager found the more glaring errors in formatting, layout, or even branding that might have slipped through.

FEATURE

Learning to speak a new language? Just use it!

By Matteo Talotta
A perfected accent: It’s one of the things that hold people back in learning and ultimately speaking a new language.

The main reason for this is something called foreign language anxiety, more formally known as xenoglossophobia. This is the feeling of unease or inadequacy you might get when speaking a foreign language.

Foreign language anxiety stems from the perception that we will be judged for not communicating with as much ease or precision as we would in our native language.

Writing the Playbook on Globalization Strategy

By Mimi Hills
What do you do if you have a robust career in localization, have an insightful, valued group of industry colleagues, and want to share what you know and while you’re at it, learn more from your colleagues? According to a group of 12 client-side localization leaders, you write a book and give it away for free. The chosen topic was globalization strategy.

Lyena Solomon of ServiceNow pulled together a task force of Globalization leaders in spring of 2021 to help client-side leaders think about collecting data for strategic uses. I joined the group, and upon completion of the book, I spoke to the other members about our work. In this article, I let them speak for themselves about their work and the collaboration.

ISO Standards and What They Mean for LSPs

By Andrew Warner
If you’re a newcomer to the language services industry — or even if you’re not — you may find it tricky to sort through all the weeds of ISO standards and certifications. After all, the names of each certification can sound like a somewhat cryptic mishmash of numbers and letters.

When clients search for a language service provider, they’ll likely want to check that a given company is qualified to complete the job they need done — ISO standards provide an objective way to measure a given company’s capacity to complete a job while complying with any relevant regulations.

COLUMNS

The Rise and Fall of D. R. Wilton; or, Handwriting versus Digitization

by Tim Brookes
When I was at high school, I had a friend named Dixie Wilton who was famous for, among other achievements, his signature.
This was back in the days of fountain pens, when people still actually signed things. He had some responsibilities that required him to put up signed notices around the school, so he put a lot of effort into his signature.
It was a remarkable signature, especially for a 17-year-old boy, combining gravitas with elegance. The D extended a long way to the right, then returned and curled under; the tail of the R had a calligraphic swoop; and the W stroke finished in an upward flourish that curled back over the first two initials like a quiff of hair, or a small fair-weather cloud.

It’s a Talent Market

by Sophie Solomon

The future of talent is here. Between the great resignation, COVID, BLM, and many other factors, the talent supply chain is upended. Employers are rethinking ways to retain and attract talent. Talent is going through an existential reconfiguration as well. Salary alone is no longer a key driver. Trends indicate that work-life balance, purpose-driven work in purpose-driven organizations, a sense of belonging, and overall mental health are some of the new key drivers in attracting and retaining talent.

RESEARCH AND REPORT

2020 ALC Report Indicates Resilience and Active Outreach Among Respondents

by Elena Langdon
The last two years have been life-changing for everyone around the globe, and the American Language Companies (ALC) 2021 Survey Report reflects this in multiple ways. Perhaps not unsurprisingly, the response rate from language service companies (LSC) decreased by a third (from 175 to 117 companies). Its design was different, too: In 2020 a new section was added to the survey about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and for the 2021 survey a new section focused on recovery and impact.

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