How to Find the Right Document Translation Services Company
By: L. Amado – 02/14/2010
Professional document translation service providers have to meet the growing needs and requirements of their clients by providing an increasing number of value-added quality services. But what are some of the aspects to take into account to find the one that is right for you?
In a world where more and more aspects of life and work have become computerized, it is critical that a professional document translation firm bases its services on human translation. What is commonly referred to as “machine translation” produces generally incomprehensive results, and while computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools are useful for large volumes of repetitive texts—as can be the case when translating technical manuals—accurate, high quality document translations can only be created by qualified professionals, i.e. certified human translators experienced in their specific fields. Advanced technology certainly has its place in professional document translation services, but the translation process itself relies on the competence, skill, and knowledge of the professional translator.
Another important factor to consider is that the professional translation services provider of your choice should work with a global network of accredited document translators and can take advantage of their geographic placement. This means that your document translation projects are processed 24/7, independent of your location and/or time zone. In this regard, modern technology is vital to relay materials and make document translation results available on secure web server any time of the day.
One of the most important indicators for a quality document translation services company is a solid reputation for reliability. Longstanding professional translation firms are registered with the American Translators Association and exclusively work with certified document translators accredited either by the latter and/or organizations such as The Institute of Linguists, La Société Française des Traducteurs, Institute of Translation and Interpreting, US National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators, and the United Nations.
The professional document translation service of your choice must also be able to efficiently handle all your specialized translation requirements, using a team of certified translators with the experience and knowledge needed for each individual assignment. It is crucial that the translator team handling your project specializes in the respective field and that all translations are subject to strictest quality control.
Last but not least, the project or account managers—your number 1 contact at the professional document translation company—must be experts in all things translation, able to answer your questions, address your concerns, and assign the right document translation team for every individual project. They also must be able to accommodate special requests, ranging from particular layouts to specific certification and turnaround requirements.
With their specialized teams of professional, certified document translators, their proprietary translation workflow process and proven track record in the industry, Legal Translation Solutions, and its parent company, ASTA-USA Translation Services, are an excellent choice when you are in the market for professional document translation services.
http://www.toptranslationservices.com/
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The Myth Of The “Quick and Easy” Document Translation Job
By: L. Amado – 02/09/2010
Clients unfamiliar with the process of document translation will sometimes ask the translation company to complete a “quick and easy” document translation. It may be because the text seems relatively short or the subject matter pretty straightforward—as in a business letter, for example. When it comes to professional translation services, however, it is important to understand that all document translation jobs, no matter how small or straightforward they seem, can become quite complicated very quickly and need, at the very least, time allotted for activities such as terminology research.
All documents sent for translation must thus be carefully evaluated before translator and translation agency commit to a deadline. A short text dealing with a complicated subject, such as the latest trends in technology, or with extensive use of scientific jargon, can take as much time to research and translate as a much longer text of a different subject matter or in a simpler linguistic style. Translation company and translator will draw from their experience to identify and overcome difficulties when reviewing and completing professional document translation assignments.
While computer-assisted translation tools such as translation memories may seem like they could be a big time-saver, one of the risks of using them—as discussed in an earlier article—is the tendency to recycle translations. Translation memories can be very useful to assure consistency when dealing with larger professional document translation projects, but they basically involve reusing past translations. Due to context considerations, it is almost impossible to use the exact same translated string in a new document, even if it is similar and deals with much the same subject. This does not mean that every phrase necessarily needs to be retranslated, but that the translators have to make sure it is translated in the most accurate way possible.
Although the sheer size of a document in terms of word count adds to the complexity of document translations—and of course, if the volume is greater, there is more room for errors—close attention to details must be paid regardless of the word count, and every text has to go through a 3-step process of translation, editing, and proofreading.
Last but not least, it is crucial to get tone and formality level right in any document translation—particularly in business correspondence, as a matter of fact, even it is just a short letter, but also in fields like marketing and advertising. This cannot be accomplished by a computer program, and it requires thought and in-depth knowledge of source and target culture on the part of the professional document translator.
Professional translators working for top document translation services companies such as Legal Translation Solutions and its parent company, ASTA-USA Translation Services, take every translation assignment equally seriously and complete every project with uncompromised professional dedication.
http://www.astausatranslations.com
Professional Translation Services: Common Misconceptions
By: L. Amado 02/02/2010
Professional Translation Services – Common Misconceptions
It is very common for people who are not closely involved in professional translation services to believe that translating from one language to another is a straightforward and simple endeavor. Any bilingual or multi-lingual individual can do it – seem to be the most obvious and most common misconception. The truth is that the process of translating from one language to another as a professional activity is in fact a very serious business that should be approached with the upmost professionalism in order to execute each translation task in a correct and professional manner.
In order to become a professional language translator one needs a lot more than just familiarity with foreign languages. Command of a foreign language does not qualify anyone to undertake translation work any more than being a fast runner makes somebody a good candidate for an Olympic marathon.
To be considered a professional translator requires in-depth understanding and knowledge of at least two languages. Translating is an acquired skill. Professional translators need formal training to be able to write well and understand the subtleties of language use. Language is a cultural construct and if the professional translator fails to appreciate the culture context underneath a given language it is almost impossible to generate an accurate professional translation.
Professional translation is not a simple endeavor. A professional translator is not the proverbial monkey hitting at the keyboard to eventually come up with a properly translated text. Professional translation is a very time-consuming, intricate, complex and arduous professional activity. It requires simultaneously working with two different texts and can be mentally exhausting. A professional translator moves continuously back and forth between two languages and two mental structures. A professional translator needs to first read and process the information in the source language to be able to reflect it accurately in the target language.
Due to the popularity of some free online translation engines, some people tend to believe that it is perfectly possible nowadays to use a computer program to do translations without human intervention. The truth is that there is no machine translation program in existence able to grasp and accurately transfer the subtleties of human languages. Perhaps it is possible to informally use translation engines or computer programs to translate simple, straightforward phrases, but for the time being they are not able to tackle the complexities of more intricate texts.
It is possible to have a friend who is a native speaker of the target language do a quick and dirty informal translation of a small text. But any context that requires information to be accurately and professionally presented requires a professional translation by a professional translator. There simply is no other way. Inaccurate or unusable translations can cause many problems, including the involuntary presentation of inaccurate or misleading information which may have very serious legal consequences. At the very least, amateurish and incorrect translations reflect poorly on a business or organization. Just as you would go to a professional certified medical doctor if you have a serious medical condition, a professional translation services company who hires only professional translators is the way to go for professional translations.
Professional translation services companies such as ASTA-USA Translation Services (www.asta-usa.com) and its legal division Legal Translation Solutions (www.legaltranslationsolutions.com) are the only option if you are in the market for accurate, high quality professional translations.
http://www.certifieddocumenttransltionservices.com
Future Trends of Professional Translation
Professional Translation Services – Future Trends of Professional Translation
By: L. Amado 01/28/2010
Of the thousands of languages that exist in the world,1 only a few hundred are spoken by at least one million people. The top three languages by the number of native speakers are Mandarin Chinese, English and Spanish. Languages are living, breathing organisms, constantly evolving and, as such, some are expanding and are some contracting. Languages are the bread and butter of professional translation services companies and their language translation experts need to stay as up to date as possible of changes and linguistic tendencies.
Most professional translators try to keep up with the changes in the world of languages, but, as with any other field, predicting the direction of change is an impossible task. Besides being the second language by the number of speakers, English in general and the American or US variety in particular has been the de facto lingua franca for almost a century. Will English manage to maintain its relative importance in the future?
It is very hard to tell. As an old professor at school used to put it, a language is as important as the people who speak it. English owes its status to the importance and extension of the British Empire and later to the ascent of the United States, initially as a world power and later as the sole superpower, and as a scientific, industrial and technological powerhouse.
Few experts doubt that, just as it happened to Latin, the day will come when some other language or group of languages will replace English as the de facto lingua franca. The question is when it will happen and what language or languages will take its place. Predictions are very hard to do. I still remember my university colleagues who decided to specialize in Russian during the 80s to suffer a major letdown after the end of the Cold War. Something similar happened with the Japanese language in the early 90s. Many people were convinced that Japan would soon overtake the United States as the world’s only superpower and Japanese would replace or at least seriously challenge the status of English. Now, due to dynamism of the Chinese society, the major contender seems to be Mandarin Chinese. Time will tell.
In any event, besides the natural decline of the relative importance of English-speaking societies, there are at least two major threats to the supremacy of the English language. One of them is linguistic nationalism, or the desire of many countries and regions in the world to defend and preserve their languages. Many of them have in place very strict language laws to promote the national language. The other major challenge is demographics. Birth rates in English speaking countries are generally lower than those in countries or societies with other languages.
We can now safely say that we are almost living a dual existence: the real world and the virtual world, or the world of Internet. It is interesting to note that to a certain extent the virtual world of Internet replicates the real world, as far as language usage is concerned. Most estimates indicate that English is the most widely used language by Internet users, followed by Chinese and Spanish. Not surprisingly, the ten languages with the most speakers cover more than 80% of the total number of internet users. Far from promoting uniformity, globalization, with its revolution on the availability of faster and cheaper transportation and easier communications, has created the opportunity for many languages to thrive. Easier communications and more readily available transportation mean that interaction between different linguistic groups will definitely grow.
Does the above mean that professional translators need to ditch English studies and start taking Mandarin Chinese classes? Not at all. It simply means that professional translators working for professional translation services companies such as ASTA-USA Translation Services (www.asta-usa.com) and its legal division Legal Translation Solutions (www.legaltranslationsolutions.com) need to stay current with the needs and requirements of the professional translation services market.
1The most extensive catalog of the world’s languages, generally taken to be as authoritative as any, is that of the Ethnologue organization (http://www.ethnologue.com), whose detailed classified list currently includes 6,809 distinct languages.
http://www.document-translation-services.net/
Machine translation vs. Human Translation
Professional Translation Services – Machine vs. Human Translation
By: L. Amado – 01/25/2010
If you are in the market for a translation, there are basically two ways to go. You could either opt for what is known as “machine translation” (sometimes abbreviated as “MT”) or for human translation. Call me a conservative, but I can tell you right away that there is no contest here. Good old-fashioned human translation is simply the only option if you are looking for high quality (correct and accurate) professional translation services.
What does “machine translation” mean? You have probably seen it before. In its more popular versions, it takes the form of online translation engines or computer programs which can be installed on a PC. In either case the result is an automated translation created exclusively with some sort of computer software, with no intervention from a human translator, professional certified or otherwise. Translation software uses algorithms and relies mainly on language usage statistics and word substitution. At its core, automated translation is an attempt to simplify human language and it very seldom, if ever, produces a viable and usable translation.
The main issue with this type of approach is that human languages are very sophisticated and complex constructs. They cannot be reduced to their bare bones without significantly hindering communication. It would take considerable advances in artificial intelligence to develop a software program able to grasp the extremely complex subtleties of human languages. Therefore, for the conceivable future, my favorite Star Trek gadget, the “universal translator”, will remain exclusively in the realm of science fiction.
Professional human translations, on the other hand, are created exclusively by professional certified human translators. They rely on extensive knowledge of both the source and target languages and the ability to naturally recognize and incorporate all the subtleties of human languages, taking into account such considerations as the cultural context, intended market, domain, target audience, etc.
Nowadays, it is common for professional certified human translators to use professional translation tools, such as translation memory management tools, to aid them with their work. They are known as “computer-assisted translation” (sometimes abbreviated as “CAT”) tools.
Just as using a word processor was a huge leap forward in productivity from using a typewriter, the use of computer tools can have a very positive impact on the quality of professional human translations.
“Computer-assisted translation” tools are used by professional human translators in order to have quick access to more accurate glossaries and terminology lists. They also allow professional certified human translators to develop their own glossaries and lexicons according to the requirements of the professional translation process. They are not suitable for all types of professional translation projects, but can have a considerable impact on productivity and consistency, especially in complex professional translation projects with higher word counts.
Truly professional translation services providers such as ASTA-USA Translation Services (www.asta-usa.com) and its legal division Legal Translation Solutions (www.legaltranslationsolutions.com) offer exclusively human translations done by professional certified human translators, assisted by the latest and most productivity-enhancing tools of the trade.
