Chinese to English translation of an acupuncture book

Client Background

The Client, renowned in the field of Acupuncture, is a third generation practitioner and doctor of Medicine. He is an acupuncturist in a reputed hospital and the president of an acupuncture clinic, both located in Colorado. He has earned numerous degrees and accolades over the years and continues to pursue his education. He also teaches students in China, Japan, and Taiwan. He wanted to translate his book on Medicine, “Highlights of Effective Points since 30 years in Clinical Cases”, from Traditional Chinese to English.

Challenges

• Delivering a Final Ready-to-Print Book and an eBook The client shared the physical copy of his book that was originally written in Chinese with an expectation that we create a completely localized English version of the same from scratch. Considering the technical intricacies and complexity of the subject area, the author wanted an assurance that the translation doesn’t vary from the objective and retains the intended meaning of the book.
• Style of Translation should Appeal to the Audience at Large Since style is a very personal choice, translating a client’s style into the translated book is not easy. Also, the biggest challenge faced while translating this book was achieving high-quality and100% accuracy of the technical terms. The client wanted the quality and style of translation to appeal to him and the huge target audience.
• Finding a Linguist who specialized in Acupuncture Finding a translator whose translation style and expertise in Acupuncture match the client’s requirements was a daunting task. For this project, Ulatus was expected to appoint a linguist who has the right qualification and skills to translate the book without compromising on the quality and accuracy of the content.

The Ulatus Solution

• Customized the Conventional Approach to Localization Based on our past experience of working on multiple such projects, we tweaked the traditional linguist selection process, translation workflow, and client interaction process to give the best output.
• Close Co-ordination between the Client and Linguists to be on the Same Page We ensured that the client received a timely report of the process from start to finish. Our delivery was in batches to align the intent and style of the linguist with that of his. Any changes whether style, translation accuracy, or others requested by the client could be incorporated by the linguist or the production team as the project progressed. This helped us to save time and ensure that changes made in the books are in accordance with the client’s expectations.
• A Skilled Translation Team that the Client Approved Multiple linguists were shortlisted based on the language pair, specialization in Acupuncture, their experience, and nativity. We shared translated samples of excerpts from the book by each translator with the client. In accordance with the client's review, we finalized on the linguists who were deemed an ideal fit for the client’s book.
• Put Together a Specialized and Dedicated Production Team Along with the translation process, our production team simultaneously worked on the task of graphic illustration for the book. The production team recreated all images which showed various acupuncture points on the human body and made sure that they match with the original scanned images shared by the client.
• Assembled Templates and Typesetting to Create a Fully-Localized E-Book Based on the nature of the document, we created several templates for the book and provided the client with a list of options to choose from. Once the client was completely satisfied with the translation and template of the book, we started the typesetting process of assembling the text and images in the selected template. These typeset files were shared with the client. At the end of the process, we had a print-ready PDF of the translated book.
• The Final Touch: The Book Cover We created 6 book cover samples for the client to choose from. After implementing the client’s peculiar suggestions, the final design of the book cover was delivered. This finalized print-ready book and cover design were then converted into an eBook, both MOBI and EPUB, which he could use to upload on any of the multiple online publishing platforms available.