5 tips for translating e-learning

Many companies have to deal with it and we see it a lot in the food industry as well: not all employees are born and raised in the Netherlands and not everyone speaks (good) Dutch. This is a problem when organizing training. Will everyone learn how to do it properly?

With classroom training, it is of course impossible to require a trainer to explain topics in other languages during the training. Fortunately, with e-learning this is a lot easier to organize. But how do you do it?

Most e-learning programs have the ability to export a translation file with the texts from the training, which can then be translated and imported again. So you then have the training in another language in one go. Sounds simple right? Indeed, it can work that simple, but you have to take some things into account beforehand to avoid problems.

Quality of translation

Always make sure that a translation is done by a professional translator. If you have a lot of technical terms in the text, make sure the translator also knows these words. Preferably also have the translation checked by a native speaker. This way you avoid texts in the final training that are not well understood.

Length of text

Keep in mind that the length of a text in a translation can be different. If you are translating a text from Dutch into German or French, you need more space. Sometimes as much as 25% more. If you translate it into English, then the text length often becomes shorter. So make sure the text boxes in the e-learning module are spacious enough to accommodate these differences, so you don't have to manually adjust the entire training.

Images with text

You can export texts from the training, but not text in images. So if there are texts in the image, you have to translate these images, modify them and put them back into the training. So it is most convenient if you avoid this by not putting texts in images.

Languages with a different alphabet

If you translate a training course into languages such as Russian, Bulgarian, Arabic or Persian, suddenly you are working with a different alphabet. Not all fonts support the use of other characters. So make sure you use a font in training that also works well in other languages. Otherwise, you'll suddenly get dÎt sΦΦrt ЂÉkstΣИ in training, and you won't be happy about that.

From left to right or vice versa

If you translate to languages that do not read from left to right, but from right to left such as Arabic, Ivrite or Persian, keep this in mind when building your training. Although the buttons or arrows with 'back' or 'further' are usually well understood, this is not the case, for example, for a step-by-step plan or a flow chart that is displayed from left to right. It is then more convenient to display this from top to bottom, or to create an animation that shows each step separately on screen. This way you prevent employees from performing something in the wrong order.

In conclusion

There is quite a bit involved in providing e-learning modules in other languages. We recommend that you take this into account during the design phase. That way you can avoid surprises later on. If necessary, call in an agency with extensive experience in this field, they can advise and assist you. And good to know: Précon e-learning has a lot of experience with e-learning in other languages. Not only in languages such as English, French, German and Polish, but also in Persian. So, you can always call us for advice. And, many of our training courses are available in multiple languages anyway. That makes it completely easy!