Translation Services and being a Translator

In addition to having one of the most complex jobs out there in terms of the sheer scope of knowledge and information they have to possess, people who work as translators deal with a vast number of different challenges on a daily basis.

There are strict deadlines to be met, all sorts of clients whose style and requirements have to be satisfied and various types of content to be dealt with. As if all of this was not enough, a recent trend has made this type of work even more difficult – the use of translation machines or online translation software. Of course, computer – assisted translation (or CAT) can be of great help when used by professional translators and in a controlled manner, but we have all been witnesses to the fact that this is not always the case.

One memorable example of an amusing mistranslation which was shared on the social media has to be “suffering from liver”. Obviously, if this had anything to do with a medical condition it would not be funny at all, but this was written on a sign at a restaurant with the intended meaning of “pâté made from liver”. The automated translation tool simply translated the expression word for word and the result is hilarious. It is not so hilarious if you are a translator and a client gives you a document full of grammatical mistakes, incoherent sentences and poor word choices generated by an online translation tool. This is why 100% Human Translation is the best translation.

Surely, you would not want anything like this to happen when something much more important is at stake, for example your application for citizenship or any kind of medical document. Document translation, especially legal document translation is probably one of the riskiest for a translator. Once you get to know the forms and the terminology of, let’s say Birth Certificates or Marriage Certificates then certainly it becomes easier and more routine like, but that is not the case with all legal documents.

When it comes to legal contracts or court rulings, for instance, the importance of accurate and precise translation is crucial. Context is the key tool for any good translator. You must be able to understand the context and interpret the underlying meaning in order to deliver an error – free, meaningful and readable material.

Depending on the language and the context it is being used, the same word or phrase can be interpreted in many different ways. Even within the same language there are different varieties, i.e. British, American, Australian English which have their own nuances and not knowing these subtleties in the use and meaning of some words can lead to devastating results.

More importantly, for a translator to do a good job of translating legal documents, one must have in – depth knowledge of legal systems in various countries and understand how these systems work. The translation, just like the original, is a legally binding document and must therefore be written in compliance with the local laws and regulations if it is intended for use in a different country. The translator must always bear in mind that a single error in translation could lead to the creation of loopholes and inconsistencies which, in the long run could result in lawsuits.

Finally, confidentiality is a big issue in document translation. It goes without saying that while handling such documents as Birth or Marriage Certificates, medical records or financial and business contracts, you deal with sensitive personal information that could easily be compromised and abused. In order to avoid such a scenario, many people prefer to have official documents translated by a certified translator sworn in court to protect privacy and confidential information. Once translated by a certified translator, the translation becomes a legal equivalent of the original document. Whichever the case, translation of official documents should always be done with utmost care and precision.

In conclusion, a translator’s job is not merely to provide a truthful word – by – word translation of a document. There is so much more to it and no machine or computer assisted translation could ever match up to a translator’s experience, education and skill needed to complete such a complex task.

Technical translation Services

Why most translators prefer to stay away from working with technical texts?

Because it is one of the most difficult types of translation. What makes it so hard and what one has to keep in mind while doing the technical translation? Let's have a closer look.

Not a simple text

One of the most distinctive features of technical texts is the abundance of special terminology. An interpreter has a hard job to choose the terms in the target (translated to) language so that they are as precise as in the source (translated from) language and have the only one meaning.

However, it is by far not the only hurdle translators have to overcome. Technical texts are full of formulas and cliches common only for these specific texts. Be it an instruction for engineers or a medical record, these texts are written in a special style: it excludes emotionality and personality, is 100% accurate and unambiguous.

A person who performs the translation of a technical text should not only be competent in translating but also proficient in the subject he or she is working with. If an interpreter does not fully understand the subject, he or she cannot guarantee the high quality of the result, as even slight misunderstanding in such text may lead to distortions of meaning. As a result, the whole translation may look unprofessional and even restrict the normal flow of the user's working process.

Technical descriptions: where the figures come in

We all understand that technical description is something very specific and difficult to comprehend for the unprepared user. But what it really is? In fact, technical descriptions are detailed discussions of the physical aspects of a thing (machinery, appliance or procedure). Often they go with lots of numbers, measurements, qualities etc. Indeed, such descriptions rarely are big – most often they are parts of other texts, like manuals or guidebooks, but they require much more efforts than other translation types.

Additionally, the translator has to always keep in mind the target audience of the text. For example, translation for an advanced engineering textbook will be full of highly technical terms, while the same description for a user's manual will consist mainly of common words familiar to laymen.

Manuals: complication and simplicity combined

Manuals are the most common forms of technical texts, and almost always have to be translated to other languages. They range from the household appliance manuals for homeowners to the factory equipment manuals for machinery operators. All manuals prompt a user to fulfill some actions, and any inaccuracy of the translation may end up provoking serious consequences, up to the fatal outcome. That's why translating agencies often hire an experienced engineer to proofread and edit the resulting text.

The trick to manual translation which come with technical appliances and medical equipment for the market is that while being technical texts, they are intended for every adult reader, regardless of their education and knowledge. For that reason the language of the translated manual should be easily comprehensible without the loss of meaning.

The most difficult part

To err is human, but translators don't have the right to make mistakes. While doing technical translation, they have to be especially alert when dealing with polysemy, as well as highly specialized terminology. At the same time, around 50% of technical translation mistakes are caused by the difference in grammar structures of source and target languages. That's why competence and attention are two main virtues of any translator.

 

Further Reading

Medical Translation: Brief Description and Challenges Involved

Technical Translation and its Challenges

 

Technical translation Services

Medical translation Services and Pitfalls

Medical translation Services

For the last decades, the demand for medical translation services has significantly risen, but the number of qualified specialists is catastrophically small – and here is why. Medical translation is especially important as it directly concerns the life and health of a person. One small mistake – and the therapy course may get into the wrong direction. Translators not only are afraid of taking this responsibility, but also do not have enough knowledge and skills to work with medical documents.

To make the high quality medical translation, a translator has to be highly proficient in the medical sphere. Ideally, to fully understand the contents of the source language document and translate it correctly into the target language, he or she should major in both medicine and linguistics.

Medical record translation: why people need it?

Not everyone needs their medical history translated. However, if somebody is going to receive treatment or any other kind of medical help abroad, this issue becomes very important. The medical record may also be required while buying insurance in foreign or international companies. Actually, it is the most laborious and difficult process in the medical translation sphere, as it implies translating the whole medical history, including procedural records, test and examination results, such as X-rays, MRI, CT scan etc.

Sometimes translators also have to deal with applications to foreign clinics, e.g. translating inquiries about the possibility to do a certain surgery or type of specific treatment. In this case, the clinics may require only some parts of medical record which concern just the specified problem or disease.

Pitfalls of procedural translation

There are many kinds of procedural documents, from test results to surgery reports, and all of them have lots of traps for translators. First, a person who deals with such documents has to remember that they are frequently created according to strict rules, and sometimes the layout and contents of such documents are defined by laws – and in different countries they may differ.

Then, various countries may use different units to present the test results, and this is not just about the metric and imperial systems, but also about the local medical traditions in each country. There are still debates between scholars whether translators have to convert the units or just leave them as they are. However, the practice shows that patients ask about converting the units so that foreign doctors can figure out the test results. That means that to make correct conversions, medical translators also need to be proficient in chemistry and physics.

Terms and abbreviations: worst enemies

Documents from the medical sphere have the biggest density of terms which can even gather into long synonymic groups. A translator has to understand all the terms in the source text and find their correct correspondences in the target language. In addition, proficiency in terms of Latin and Greek origin is essential for a person performing the medical translation.

Another factor that creates difficulties is constant development of medicine and, eventually, the steady arising of new terms. For example, the number of oncology terms up to date is around 35,000 and growing, marking the development of this branch of medicine.

Next, the already mentioned differences in medical traditions of different countries may be quite problematic for the translator, as classification of human organs and body systems may differ. For example, what is considered one organ in one language may be two different organs in another, or completely not be specified as an organ.

Translating abbreviations is also a hard game. Doctors use thousands of abbreviations to denote medical procedures, diseases, pathogens or medications. What is worse, same abbreviations may have different meanings in different medical spheres. A good translator has to make out the meaning of the abbreviation from the context and give its full form in the translated text.

Document Translation Process and Services

Document Translation Process and Services

Document translators are like old-school barbers, one wrong move – and you can create lots of problems for your client. Wrong translation in documents may lead to the person starting the whole bureaucratic process from the beginning, or even having lawsuits and losing money. At the same time, a translator has to make the language of the translated document look and sound natural, especially if the two languages differ much. That is often the biggest dilemma of linguists who work with documents.

Translation of personal documents

Birth certificates, driver's licenses or marriage certificates are the most frequently translated personal documents. They may be required for citizenship or residence permit applications, work applications, requests for new documents after the surname change, and even, in some cases, for visa applications. In these cases, people need professional translators to help them.

The main rule of working with such documents is translating every piece of text you see, including even the small print and stamps. Another important issue is to correctly put in all the personal data: people's names, company names, place-names, as well as names of legal bodies and governmental organizations which issued the documents. Sometimes it may be hard to transfer the names from the non-Latin languages to English. For this, translators may ask the clients to additionally give their names as written in their foreign passports.

Traps of legal documents

Other legal documents, like contracts (including real estate contracts of buying and renting) non-disclosure agreements, medical documents and even commercial invoices are much more difficult to translate. This is because such documents feature extended amounts of text which is not that much institutionalized as in birth or marriage certificates.

The main requirement to a legal document is preciseness. A person doing the translation should put the target language text in the way to eschew ambiguities in meaning. To do this, he or she has to choose most words with only one meaning, or at least use them only in their direct meaning. While in literary translation omission and addition (sense development) methods are used, in document translation one cannot add or remove anything from the document in order to preserve the meaning.

In addition, a document translation specialist has to be proficient in legal terms and abbreviations, which can be international (including those of Latin origin) or local. Concerning the internationalisms, he or she should always be aware of the so-called 'false friends of a translator' which are words that look or sound similarly in different languages, but have significant differences in their meaning.

Cultural differences: explain the unexplainable

Frequently document translators are asked to do the verbatim translation of a document. In the view of laymen, this is the most precise way to translate a text, as nothing is added or omitted, even accidentally. However, they can hardly understand that the resulting documents will sound and look very odd in the target language. That's why a skilled professional will always stick to special interpreting standards to ensure the faithful and fluent translation.

The thing is that various countries may have differences in many aspects. For example, differences between two languages can be grammatic (e.g., usage of active or passive tense), stylistic (usage of phrasal verbs, idioms or colloquialisms in the document) or structural (the way the sentences are built).

There can also be differences between legal systems, which means a translator has to know how to create and structure the document as well as how to present its contents in the target language. Finally, he or she has to keep in mind all the cultural subtleties and differences existing in both languages, even concerning the usage of common words.