In the crippling agency model in translation project management (see here, here, and here), the role of reviewers (sometimes called editors, or QA Officers) requires some serious rethinking.

During my 10 years of experience in training and learning, and specially while developing my Arabic as a Second Language course over the past three years, my primary goal was to apply Accelerated Learning (AL) methods to all my training programs. However, language learning has its own special requirements that makes creating a special version of AL techniques specific for Language training a necessity. This is where the MAP Technique (Motivate-Anchor-Personalize) fills the gap.

This is the first post in a series of posts dedicated to casting some light on the most important challenges that face the Arabic localization industry. There is no doubt that the Arabic translation sector requires an overhaul, both in quality measures and the business model itself, as manifested by seeing huge multinational corporations who spend millions on communications and PR settle with less-than-mediocre Arabic versions of their documentations, including giant automobile manufacturers, iconic technology companies, huge retailers, and even highly esteemed PR agencies.

In this post, I will discuss the challenge of talent drainage and experience retention. This will be the second post in a series of posts about challenges facing Arabic Translation and Localization.

The Arabic translation industry suffers high “bounce rates”. By this, I mean the tendency linguists have to think of translation and localization as a source of extra income, not a career, as well as the high rates of linguists leaving the industry when offered a chance. On the other hand, practices adopted by many localization companies does not allow for proper experience building and continuous learning. This situation, that has been hindering the industry for decades, is the result of the accumulation of many different factors, namely: