Honyaku Cloud FAQ
We prioritize the onboarding of qualified translators affiliated with a translation body like the ITI, ATA, or JAT or who possess other professional qualifications. However, we consider all applicants on an individual basis.
Even if we cannot assign work to you yet, you are welcome to join the Honyaku Cloud community, where we are building a welcoming community of language professionals who can collaborate and learn from one another via Slack and events.
At Honyaku Cloud, we have a robust, structured process for ensuring the highest quality of translations.
As a lead translator, you will be responsible for creating the initial draft of the translation. Once you have completed this, an expert proofreader from our team will review your work. This review will be conducted inside Phrase, our chosen platform for collaborative translation work.
The proofreader will check your draft for any errors, inaccuracies, or potential improvements, and then send this proofread version back to you, again through Phrase. It's your responsibility to revise your work based on the feedback from the proofreader.
After this revision, your job as the lead translator is done! You are not required to make further revisions. However, your involvement, insights, and feedback at every stage of the translation process are greatly appreciated and contribute to the overall quality of our work.
If you have any questions or need clarification on this process, feel free to contact us at team@honyaku.org or reach out to our team on Slack. We're here to help ensure that the translation process runs smoothly and effectively.
You will receive an email noting that we have assigned you new work and asking you to log in to your Honyaku Cloud Portal to view the job and, if you are available, accept it.
*Note that someone from Honyaku Cloud may contact you personally as well, especially if you are a newer member of the team or if the translation has a tight deadline.
We expect that many of our translators already have Phrase accounts for their personal translation work, and we will confirm this during onboarding. However, in order to connect you to the Honyaku projects (and term bases and translation memories linked to those projects), we will need to either connect your account to the Honyaku Cloud platform via a token using Sharing (TMS) or create a Memsource account for you that is specific to Honyaku.
Please contact us at team@honyaku.org to chat about which method works best for you.
Don’t worry. We’ll make one for you during the onboarding process!
Honyaku Cloud will create an invoice for you that includes the overall payment for you to confirm inside the Translator Portal.
Invoicing inside the Translator Portal
Honyaku Cloud will pay you on the last day of the month after the delivery date of the translation, as long as we receive a payment request before the cut-off time. The cut-off time for payment is 5:00 pm JST on the last day of the month in which the translation was delivered.
Although we expect that many translation memory matches can be used as is, there may be cases where a 100% match in the translation memory from a previous translation should be revised based on context or for other reasons.
It is okay to suggest a change to a matching segment. Please leave a comment in Phrase about why you made the change so that we can understand your rationale.
On the Honyaku Cloud platform, we currently use [Phrase (formerly Memsource)](https://phrase.com/) as our primary CAT tool.
Because our workflows include distributing project- and job-specific Phrase access to our translators, we strongly prefer that our translators utilize Phrase.
We have clear and concise instructional material to get new Phrase users familiar with the system so you can spend less time learning new workflows and more time with the material.
First-Time Guide for Translators
If you are interested in joining the team but have issues with Phrase, please send us a note at team@honyaku.org or on Slack.
The “billable character count” or “billable word count” that is used in your invoice represents the number of new characters you will be translating for the client based on an analysis and net rate scheme of the source file in Phrase, which compares the source file to matches in the translation memories and termbases for that client.
Please note that this number will normally be smaller than the file's total character/word count that you will see inside of the Phrase Editor.
For example, if a client submits a document with 1,000 characters, but half of those characters are an exact match to something we have translated previously, then we are only translating 500 new characters. In this case, we only charge the client for 500 characters and therefore pay the translator for the same 500 characters, i.e., the billable character count.
The 500 translated characters are already stored in our translation memories and termbases, which you will have access to under our non-disclosure agreement. These matches do not need to be changed, but you are allowed to propose changes as appropriate.
Translators are not expected to review 100% and 101% matches. This is the responsibility of an internal proofreader/QA. However, if the translator happens to notice an issue with the 100–101% matches, they may indicate their concern via a comment out of goodwill.
There are cases where the term base may have duplicate matches.
In these cases, we suggest:
- First, looking at the term that has been added/updated most recently and prioritizing the use of that term.
- Second, confirming that the term being shown to you by Phrase is a term from this client. For instance, we may show you terms from both University A and University B for context, but you would use the term for whichever university has requested the translation.
In cases where the correct term is still not clear or seems incorrect, please leave a comment in Phrase for the rest of the translation team to consider.
Once you have submitted your translator registration and filled out your profile on Honyaku Cloud, we may ask to meet with you online to learn more about your expertise, experience, and expectations. If you are an amateur translator or have yet to be certified, we may reach out regarding a short test before offering any actual work.
If you need further information from a client while working on a project, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. We understand the importance of clear communication for effective translation. You can contact our team in two ways:
- Email: Send your queries directly to our support team at team@honyaku.org. Please make sure to include the ID for the project and file and the specific information you need in your email.
- Slack: If you prefer real-time communication, you can reach out to us on our Slack team. Please post your question in the appropriate channel or direct message one of our team members.
When you join the Honyaku Cloud Slack, you can:
- Communicate with your fellow translators and the entire Honyaku Cloud team about a specific job. Every translation task is accompanied by a dedicated Slack channel, facilitating real-time discussion about the translation, separate from the comments within Phrase.
- Get to know the Honyaku Cloud translation community. Chat with your fellow translators working on various projects, discussing translation trends, issues specific to Honyaku, and much more!
A termbase, or glossary, is a crucial component of a computer assisted translation (CAT) tool, serving a slightly different purpose from a translation memory.
A termbase is a structured database of approved, domain-specific terminology in both the source and target languages. The terms stored in a termbase are often associated with metadata, such as their definition, context, part of speech, related terms, and sometimes even images.
When a translator is working on a piece of text within a CAT tool, the software will automatically flag terms that are present in the termbase and suggest the approved translation. This helps ensure that specific jargon, industry terminology, product names, and other key terms are translated consistently throughout the text.
The key difference between a Translation Memory and a termbase is the level of granularity they operate on. A Translation Memory deals with larger units of text (like sentences or paragraphs) that have been previously translated, while a termbase operates on the level of individual words or phrases.
The use of both a Translation Memory and a termbase can greatly improve translation quality, speed, and consistency, making them valuable tools in a translator's toolkit.
A translation memory (TM) is a database that stores "segments", which can be sentences, paragraphs, or sentence-like units (headings, titles, or elements in a list) that have been previously translated. It records both the source text and its corresponding translation in pairs, often referred to as "translation units."
When a new piece of text (source text) needs to be translated, the CAT tool will automatically search the TM for any previously translated segments that match or closely resemble the new text. If a match (exact or fuzzy) is found, the tool will suggest that translation to the translator. This saves time and ensures consistency in the translation of certain phrases, terminology, or expressions.
An additional benefit of a Translation Memory is that it's personal and can be expanded and improved over time. As the translator works on more projects, the TM grows, making it a valuable resource for future translations.
It's important to note that a Translation Memory is not the same as machine translation. Machine translation, like Google Translate, automatically translates an entire text without human intervention. A translation memory, on the other hand, supports human translators like ourselves by suggesting translations based on previous work.
The “Billable character count” or “billable word count” represents the number of new characters we are translating for the client (and therefore getting paid for).
For example, if a client submits a document with 1,000 characters, but half of those characters are an exact match to something we have translated or proofread previously, then we are only translating 500 new characters. In this case, we only charge the client for 500 characters and therefore pay the translator for the same 500 characters, i.e., the billable character count.
The 500 translated characters will have been stored in our translation memories and termbases, which you will have access to under our non-disclosure agreement. These matches do not need to be changed, but you are allowed to propose changes as appropriate. See Is it okay to suggest changes to a segment that is a 100% match to a segment in the translation memory?
You can find some of our past clients on our Testimonials page. We began our work with numerous clients in higher education and in the world of art. However, over the past decade, we have worked with major companies in wide-ranging industries, from energy and manufacturing to food and retail. We use the specialties you have chosen to match you with translation requests that come in through our platform.
You will find the translation deadline both in the email that you receive when a job is assigned as well as on your Honyaku Cloud Dashboard.
If you are the Lead Translator, you will have a “second deadline” as part of your Revision role, which is when you need to finalize responses to any comments or changes made by the Proofreader. This date should also be visible in the email you receive when the job is back to you for review and on your dashboard.
In general, assignments are due by 5:00 PM (JST) on the date indicated.
Once you have submitted your translator registration and filled out your profile on Honyaku Cloud, we may ask to meet with you online to learn more about your expertise, experience, and expectations. In any case, we will need to match you with a translation before you see an active job on the Dashboard.
Before you get started on a translation or a proofread you can:
- Add your payment information to your profile. This allows us to auto-generate an invoice and pay you in a timely manner once you finish a translation.
- Check out the instructional and guidance material available in the “Resources” section.
- Join our Slack community via the link on the dashboard to start getting to know the Honyaku team and translators.
