50five

Today, 50five is a Dutch organisation specialising in charging solutions for electric cars, however when I started work with the company in 2020, they were most well-known for their home automation solutions.

Multiple times a year, they published a magazine packed with tips and tricks for smart devices. The magazine was released in the Netherlands and Belgium, and 50five counted on my services for the Dutch and Belgian-French texts. 50five produced the Flemish texts themselves. Once the Flemish texts were complete, my team and I then got to work on the Belgian-French translation. Keep reading to find out how Artois Translations tackled the translation and what we came up with.

Once 50five had produced the content destined for Dutch-speaking Belgium, they sent the texts over to Artois Translations for translation. I assigned two talented French-speaking translators on my team the task of producing these texts in Belgian-French.

I broke the translation process down into five steps:

• Briefing session
• Translation into Belgian-French
• Revision of text by a trusted colleague
• Feedback opportunity
• In-context review

A screenshot of a translation for 50five. The original French text is on the left, the Belgian-French translation by Artois Translations on the right.

• The 50five magazine is packed with technical terms, but also features a really playful tone – this is a unique combination that is not always easy to handle as a translator. I chose a translator duo for this job who I knew had experience with both marketing materials and technical texts.
• Before my team and I started work on the translation, we conducted an in-depth review of 50five’s style and values. We studied previous magazine editions and reviewed focus areas on a video conference call held between the three of us.
• The very nature of magazine texts means that there is a great deal of focus on the layout of these texts, therefore after translation, we conducted an in-context review of each element. We checked that the visual editor had located all parts of the text correctly, that nothing had been omitted, paragraphs were not too long, and images had been positioned perfectly. We also double-checked each text to be sure that no spelling errors or typos had been introduced.
• In addition to the in-context review, we held a feedback session with 50five. This covered aspects such as the legislation for electrical installations and charging points, for example. The legislation for these elements is different in Belgium compared to the Netherlands, and while this had been adjusted in 50five’s Flemish texts, there were still a few points here and there that needed to be updated for the Belgian audience. In addition, we ended up deleting certain paragraphs, and rewriting a few others. These feedback sessions were also the perfect opportunity to discuss next steps and ask any remaining questions.
• For every translation I produce for my clients, I work in a pair. One professional translates, while the other proofreads. This assignment followed the same procedure and my two French-speaking colleagues worked closely together to deliver a translation to be proud of.