The case for making your L&D programs multilingual is clear:
- Studies show that we’re more likely to remember information communicated in our native language (Gallup)
- It boosts learner engagement by 46% (Rosetta Stone)
- Organisations offering multilingual learning content are 1.67 times more likely to be a leader in their industry (CSA Research)
So whether you’re already adapting your L&D content or this is your first time translating something from English to another language, this guide is designed to help you do that in the most efficient and ROI-boosting way.
Striking a balance between speedy turnaround times and high-quality translations continues to be a top wish for our L&D clients.
Here at Comtec, we recently helped one of our largest L&D clients transition from doing translations in-house to using us as their localisation partner. What drove that change for them?
- Limited professional experience in translation led to inefficiencies and low engagement with the translated content.
- Using employees who speak the language to do translations for them made their process leaky, and there were no standardised ways of working or managing sign-off.
- Ultimately, they were seeing poorer results from their non-English learners, both in terms of engagement and learning outcomes.
We’re very glad they came to us for help, as the translations we completed allowed their content to reach more people and got their best ever completion rates. Based on this experience we’ve prepared our top five recommendations to help others navigate the same hurdles.
Tip 1: Create translation-friendly content
Preparing your eLearning content for translation is an essential step that can often be overlooked. There are two ways to do it:
Option 1: Avoid culturally specific references.
If speed is the priority, avoid content that is too culturally specific or doesn’t readily translate into another language. Tricky translation content includes idioms and puns, references to local public figures, holidays and landmarks, and popular culture references.
Option 2: Build in a pre-translation localisation step.
Before your content is shared for translation, ask your translation partner or in-market colleagues to review the English master, highlighting and replacing any culturally specific references with more appropriate local equivalents. This helps ensure the translated content is equally engaging for the learner, regardless of the language.
Tip 2: Avoid text-based images or videos
It’s true; images and videos can add life and colour to your learning content.
However, they can also add time to your translation project schedule, as additional services such as desktop publishing or video editing are required to insert the translations.
If time isn’t on your side and you need a quick fix, you can try swapping an image with text for an image with captions underneath (or using subtitles/transcripts), as this isolates the text, meaning it can be translated much more quickly.
Tip 3: Get your local market review teams on board in advance
Having the right people on your local market review teams makes such a difference to the time it takes to get translations approved and the quality of the final translations.
Here are some of our favourite Dos and Don’ts
DO use native speakers who work in the market
DON’T use someone who is unaware or unfamiliar with the objectives of the training content. Just because someone speaks the language doesn’t mean they’ll be able to translate well.
DO involve everyone from the start so that the original content is clearly understood. You can even create style guides and glossaries to help speed up the translation stage.
DO agree on review guidelines. What does “good” look like? This way, everyone can share their input and give the translation team all the information they need to do a great job.
DON’T allow in-market teams to “go rogue”. All content should go through a centralised process (however light-touch) so you can be sure the look and feel doesn’t vary wildly market-to-market.
And the biggest DO of them all?
Get your local market reviewers on board earlier in the process. It reduces review cycles and saves you a huge amount of time later in the project.
Tip 4: Consider hybrid solutions using AI
If you have an urgent deadline, a large project that needs to be delivered quickly, or you’re just looking for a more cost-effective solution, machine translation (MT) could be the answer.
Machine translation is the process of using AI to enable automated translation. It is especially well-suited for learning content, given that it tends to be written in simple language.
But beware!
An MT engine’s output can rarely be used alone and is more often post-edited by a human linguist for optimal quality.
The post-editor’s role is to refine the automated translation, not only for accuracy (mistranslations, typos, inconsistencies, spelling and grammar mistakes) but also to improve the style and fluency and ensure the translation is culturally localised and appropriate for the target audience.
AI solutions don’t just stop at the text – synthetic voiceover platforms provide instant audio enhancements to learning courses, and the output can easily be tweaked at the click of a button.
Tip 5: Work with an eLearning translation partner who supports you
The processes you establish are crucial for fast and efficient translations; ideally, you want to arrive at a process that everyone understands and adheres to so that things run smoothly for each project.
Speak to your existing translation partner about how you work and how they can support you. Ask them to review your internal process and see if they can spot any ways to help you save time. They should also be able to help you with the tech side of things, from authoring tools and how they work, both in terms of handling export files and the technical quality of their rebuild services.
Bonus tip: Consider cultural barriers
Culture plays a huge role in how people learn and interact with training programs, and we pay close attention to it with our clients.
Check out our webinar, Cultural Awareness: Ensuring your learning is truly inclusive, to see how different cultural groups learn differently and how improving your cultural competence can improve learning outcomes.