National museums in Canada are required to have signage/labels in English and
French.

1. Our corporate headquarters negotiates standing offers from a number of local
translation firms and, because of our specialized subject matter, our museum
has a separate list of translators who specialize in military subjects. There
are MANY translators in the region and it's a matter of selecting those who
give you the best service. One of the problems with many English to French
translators is that they try to give you the most elegant French possible.
While this is nice, of course, it frequently is the last thing you want in an
exhibit label or, even more so, a visitor survey. I deal with one lady who
specializes in taking common or garden-variety English and translating it into
its everyday French equivalent. It's not "joual", but at the same time, it's
also not aimed at "L'Academie"!

2. We periodically survey our visitors in both languages and labels and signage
figure in most of our 63 CMC/CWM visitor studies conducted over the past 4
years. Given the large Francophone component of our visitor population, the
French texts are a necessity, not a nice add-on.

3. Absolute everything is translated. However, the translation is not always
word for word; there are cases where a "free" translation is more effective in
conveying the message. Hence, you need editing capability in both languages..

4. I think consistency in layout throughout the institution is the most
important design consideration. The visitor has to be able to find the label of
the language of choice without hunting. At the Canadian Museum of Civilization,
the French is always on the left and the English on the right (a legal
requirement for any institution in Quebec); here at CWM, we place them the
other way. One could also use reverse colours, or different colours, but I
think this makes the labels unduly distracting. We use pictographs wherever
possible, as I think anything that reduces text is desirable and this practice
also helps out the folks whose language is Spanish or Mandarin, etc.

5. Add a minimum of 60% - and this assumes that a good supply of translators
and editors in the second language is present, to keep prices down!

Talk to the people at Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand; they're
grappling with a similar design problem. From the signage I saw when I visited
their design centre in November, their signage will be very bilingual - and
very classy, at the same time!

Harry Needham
Canadian War Museum