With our world rapidly getting smaller and international relations growing exponentially, accessing and sharing information written in foreign languages has become an everyday necessity. That’s why today, more people and businesses seek the services of professional translators and interpreters to facilitate their routine transactions and to help them grow.
To navigate in this multi-lingual environment, certain facts are required that can help in selecting services from linguistic industry providers. First, become acquainted with the terminology and the differences between translation and interpreting agenzia interpretariato. Translation is written, whereas interpreting is the oral relaying of a message from one language into another. The second thing to know is that the language of the original message is called a source language, while the language into which the message is transmitted is a target language.
One of the most common misconceptions is thinking that translation or interpretation is a “word for word” process. Due to the nuances contained in each language, translating in this manner rarely makes sense. Skilled language professionals are trained to accurately and completely convey your ideas in a different language. A well translated text delivers all the content of the source document without omitting, adding, or changing anything, but it is read as so it was originally well written in a language of your target audience.
Different rules and skill sets are required for clear and efficient communication in written language translations as opposed to spoken language interpretation. This article’s focus is on translation, so let’s explore the commonly asked questions pertaining to written translation services.
What about Computerized Translation?
We are so accustomed to immediate information access that instantaneous translation with a single mouse click seems to be easily attainable. Unfortunately, that is not the case. If you’ve ever tried out this type of online or software service, you know that the results you get are not something that you would want to place in any form of business communication materials.
Without an intricate personal knowledge of the language, translation software generates words, but not phrases that have correct meaning. You might compare this to use of a dictionary that allows you to quickly find words, but without writing skills those words can be used improperly and fail to convey what you want to say.
Machine translations can be counted on for stress relief through a good hearty laugh.
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Can any Bilingual Person be a Translator?
This one is simple. NO. What if a bilingual person is an expert in the specialized field for which the translation text is needed? The answer is still, NO. Accurate translation is a combination of refined linguistic skills, specialized knowledge, and cultural competency, which a non-language professional rarely possesses.
How Do Translation Projects Work?
The best way to handle a translation project is with the guidance of a good translation project manager. On the surface, the project is seemingly simple, but it requires excellent organizational skills, deep knowledge of the industry, and an impeccable “language intuition”.
When a client needs a certain text to be translated into or from one or more languages, the
project manager uses the following steps to ensure that the project proceeds smoothly and are completed on time.
- Determines the purpose of the text in terms of the following:
Area of specialization? (Is it legal, medical, chemical, automotive, etc.?)
Intended recipients? (Are they lay people or experts?)
Purpose of the project? (Will it be used for marketing or is it of a training or educational nature?
- Finds qualified translators, proofreaders and copyeditors with expertise in the given area
- Sets project’s timeline with key milestones to be met
- Monitors project’s progress and uniformity in multiple languages
- Facilitates communication between translators and clients
- Coordinates independent proofreading and editing resources to refine document and arrive at a consensus on any areas where there are differing opinions
- For larger and/or on-going projects: creates and maintains a glossary of terms
- Submits the final product to the client in required format. Gets feedback from the client and arranges for possible corrections and changes.
As a client being aware of the steps that take place behind the scene in the “translation kitchen”, can help you understanding the importance of using professional resources. Doing so, can make your project proceed smoothly to conclusion, rather than developing unnecessary delays.
How to Find a Reliable Language Service Provider?
If you are looking for an individual translator, a good place to start is the American Translators Association at http://www.atanet.org. However, finding a reliable translation agency and using it as a vendor for all of your language needs, is worth the investment, particularly if you will have a large volume of projects and know that you will need to utilize multiple languages.