Doc. Translation Company Exposes Unreported Revenues
LOS ANGELES, June 14, 2005 /PR Newswire/ – ASTA-USA (Audit Services Translation Assistance – www.ASTA-USA.com) reported today that in the process of performing the highly specialized translation of foreign financial and legal documents – for public corporations in support of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance and SEC filing requirements – their expert translators have been able to provide clients with unexpected additional benefits.
One particularly useful benefit that ASTA’s corporate clients are receiving from their translation work is that once the documentation is presented in plain English, clauses involving performance criteria and options (representing potential unrecognized and previously unreported earnings and assets) are easily identified by revenue-recognition and audit team members.
Elucidating on this point, Mr. Alain J Roy, president of ASTA-USA Translation Services, Inc. (Legal Translation Solutions’ parent company), explained, “I would hesitate to suggest that the management team of a foreign subsidiary operation of a US public company would intentionally keep such information from being reported, therefore, I prefer to use the word ‘overlooked’. But – intentional or unintentional – it is irrefutably true that nearly half the Sarbanes-Oxley rules require tracking text, not just numbers, and consequently, a clear understanding and the correct interpretation of foreign language terminology is critical to the absolute transparency and accuracy of both textual and numerical contents.”
The discovery of unreported, overlooked, and/or overstated earnings and assets is especially valuable in the current atmosphere where – driven by a host of recent corporate accounting scandals – government watchdog agencies are rigorously scrutinizing all corporate reporting, particularly that of large global corporations with worldwide interests.
Additionally, Mr. Roy told reporters, “In a great many cases, ASTA-USA diligence has enabled clients not only to fulfill the demanding internal control requirements under Sarbanes-Oxley and to identify and recover overseas revenues that were heretofore overlooked or hidden, but also to identify foreign operations not in compliance with other accounting or legal expectations.”
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ASTA-USA, Parent Company of Legal Translation Solutions (www.legaltranslationsolutions.com), is a highly specialized legal and financial document translation services company created specifically to aid companies with international operations to perfect and accelerate their audits processes, and thereby considerably enhance their continued compliance with stringent SEC requirements.
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http://www.translatingdocuments.com/
Software Translation Tools vs. Accredited Human Translators
Using accredited Document Translation Professionals is the best way to guarantee accuracy for translation of your critical business and legal documents.
Legal Translation Solutions and its parent company, ASTA-USA Translation Services, Inc., have made it part of their standard operations policy not to use software translation tools as a primary document translation instrument. In fact, while allowing its professional document translators to utilize software translation tools, standard procedures call for real human professional translators to perform translation review and proofread process on all its critical document translation projects.
Following is a News release issued by the American Translators Association recently urging the US White House to recognize the inherent risk of using software or “automatic” translation tools.
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American Translators Association Cautions White House on Future Language Policy
11,000-member Association’s Letter to Obama: Technology alone is not the answer
(Alexandria, VA) October 19, 2009 — The American Translators Association (ATA), the largest association of professional translators and interpreters in North America, issued a pointed response to a call for “automatic, highly accurate and real-time translation between the major languages of the world” in the White House’s recent Strategy for Innovation policy paper.
In a letter dated October 2nd, ATA President Jiri Stejskal urged the Obama Administration to “take a long-term approach to language security by investing in human skills and promoting greater awareness of and expertise in foreign languages.” “Are we against technology? Certainly not,” continued Stejskal. “Most translators use computer tools to speed up their work.” However, “both translation software and qualified human translators are vital to language security,” he noted. “Today all the leading proponents of computer translation recognize that human beings will always be essential, no matter how sophisticated translation programs become.”
The stakes are high: from diplomatic embarrassments to potentially lethal mistranslations in medical device instructions, translation errors create unnecessary hazards, cause misunderstandings, and diminish prestige and good will in international relations, national security and global commerce.
Press coverage of the Obama initiative has confused the issue by creating a false conflict between humans and technology. “This approach misses the point entirely,” noted Kevin Hendzel, national media spokesman for the Association. “Translation software and human translators simply have different capabilities,” he said. “Software is indispensable for ‘gisting’ – translating large volumes of information in cases where immediate access is more important than accuracy – but only an experienced human translator has the skill and cultural awareness to convey every nuance when you absolutely have to get it right.”
“The challenge for translation consumers lies in understanding the proper application of each,” Hendzel noted. “Translation software is like a chain saw. It’s an invaluable tool when you need to chop a lot of wood in a hurry – but you need skill to use it safely, and it’s not recommended for surgery. When you need precision and sensitivity, you need a human translator.”
Automated vs. Human Translation Services
The Pitfalls of Automated Translation vs. Human Translation Services
We have all seen it before in our respective line of business. Due to the fact that they use them everyday, and that everybody has mastered at least one, people tend to believe that working with languages require no special skills or expertise. This is painfully evident when it comes to translations. Everybody is a translator… Few understand what a professional translator really is. Often the results leave much to be desired unless a professional translation services approach is applied. But sometimes you notice instances that perhaps take things a bit too far.
Due to legal requirements to be able to access the Mexican and Latin American markets, or simply to make their products more appealing to a Spanish speaking clientele, many companies are forced to include Spanish translations in their product packaging. Sometimes, most likely to try to cut costs, some of them resort to some sort of automated translation instead of taking the wise approach and using a professional translation services company. Who cares, a Spanish phrase is as good as any other, right? Wrong!
Let me give you an example. Some time ago, I saw the following product made in China in a well-known retailer: High Pressure Jet Washer.
The product description in the box was translated into French and Spanish – in that order. The Spanish translation was as follows: Presión Alta de la Arandela del Chorro.
To the Spanish speakers reading this, let me be clear that I am not joking… To non Spanish speakers, the translation makes no sense whatsoever and is obviously the result of automated translation – not from a professional “human” translation services provider (or a very Spanish-challenged human translator). Somebody typed the English phrase in a free Internet translation service engine and used the resulting translation without having it reviewed by a professional translation services agency that uses accredited human translators.
The English term “washer” has at least two translations according to context. In this particular case, the correct translation would be “lavadora” or “lavador”, feminine and masculine respectively. Instead, they used “arandela”, the translation for “washer” as in “nuts, screws and washers”.
Even if they had used the correct translation, word order renders this phrase utterly meaningless. The correct Spanish translation would have been something along the lines of “Lavadora de alta presión”.
With translations, as with anything else, we get what we pay for. And cheaper is very seldom – if ever – the way to go if you are looking for correct, accurate and appropriate translation. It can be extremely costly – especially for critical business or legal applications – to avoid using a professional translation services company in order to save a few dollars.
