The Translator Guide
The Translator Guide
The Translator Guide
By Adriana Tassini
Sponsored by:
The Translator Guide was created to provide translation professionals and students with a free source of career advice, business building tips, and translation best practices. Throughout this guide you will find articles on these three areas, and this resource will be updated twice a year with more advice, interviews, tools and links to additional resources.
because everyone wants to be assured that they have taken the time to study and become certified as holding a high level of specialized knowledge within their area of work, earning a translator designation is similar to this, employers want to know they are hiring someone who is a specialist, not a generalist. Who completes translator designation programs? Translator designation programs are completed by professionals around the world as developing markets mature and economies turn from mostly manufacturing based jobs to knowledge worker type jobs the demand for translator experts greatly increases. Some professionals who we know have completed translator designations in the past include: New Translators Students & Professors Experienced professional translators How much in tuition should I expect to pay for a translator designation program? Our survey of the industry shows that most translator positions pay between $250 and $500 for translator designations. This is relatively inexpensive as this is about the same cost or slightly more than a single University course providing the skills needed to be a translator . In addition to expenses you may also need to incur testing or technology fees if your testing is done within a physical testing center. Books for most translator designation programs cost $100-$200 total. Why should I complete a translator designation? First off, if everything else is held equal and you are competing against someone else with your same educational background and work experience than it will most likely help you give you an edge if you have completed a translator designation. These programs help potential employers know that you: Have re-invested in your own training and self-improvement Hold specialized knowledge within this niche area, potentially much more so than others competing for this job who do not hold a designation Are pro-active, goal-oriented and serious about your own career development How do I determine which translator designation offers the most value? When you evaluate designations designed for translators consider whether that organization will allow you to complete the training while working or going to school full time. Almost all of us must earn these types of designations within already full schedules so it is critical that all video training, testing, and interaction may be completed 100% online without any hidden testing or technology fees that most Universities sneak into the fine print. Typically this will be clear on the organization's website but if it already clear email the team and ask them about whether there are any additional fees in addition to the tuition payment and purchasing of required texts. What is the Certified Translation Professional (CTP) Program? The Certified Translation Professional (CTP) Program is a 100% online designation program for a translator professional
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who is looking to work within the industry. This program was built by experienced translator experts to help train and verify the knowledge of other aspiring translator professionals. Who is this program not for? This program is not for those looking to simply get a quick boost to their resume without doing any work. Like anything in life you get out what you invest into the program and our program is not something you can join and pass with flying colors by winging it or just using an online translator cheat sheet of some sort. If you are looking to build your credentials by paying for a designation in this space we are not the program for you. If on the other hand you are looking to complete an online translator training program and designation to greatly improve the depth of your knowledge within this industry while also verifying this knowledge than this program could be of huge value to you and your career.
Why is it important to submit a Privacy Agreement to a client? Your clients will trust you and your personal and professional ethics. It ensures the protection of the documents translated and presented by you. Make it a serious commitment providing your clients not only the regular terms of service for a translation job but including a confidentiality agreement that will effectively determine its importance by being signed and dated by both; translator and client. This will be a much appreciated way to perform your work and an appropriate factor to follow.
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1. Having the ability to write well is very important. You have to know a second language just as well as you know your first so that you can converse with those who so speak the language natively. A degree is not necessary, but holding a university degree or qualification in translation such as a certificate in translation can be very important when looking for jobs or working as a freelance translator. Be confident in your target language and within the specific industries you serve clients in such as finance and banking or sports marketing. Be familiar with the subject matter of what is to be translated before accepting assignments or full time positions. Practicing your second or third languages daily or participating in exchange program or work abroad is highly recommended.
Instead, it appeals to no one! Are you a medical translator? Simultaneous Interpreter? Both? Recent graduate trying to get your foot in the door as an intern? I either need you right now or I don't. Remember: People at translation agencies are busy. Make it easy for me to figure out if you fit. If you are mysterious, I may just file you away on the basis that I don't have time for a puzzle right now. 2. Tell me what you've achieved, compared to whom. For instance, too often resumes say: "I have worked in many translation agencies in the past". When they could say this: "I have translated over 100 documents in the past 1-3 weeks, which was 2nd best out of 8 people". If you don't have other people in the department to compare yourself to, try the market. For instance: "I have worked for a well known translation company for the past 2 years, and I have translated over 1000 documents". The bottom line is to give me some context, a basis of comparison. I don't just want to know that you did well. I want to know that you did better than the guy or gal next to you! 3. Leave out fluff and lists of buzzwords. So many resumes are headlined by a huge paragraph of buzzwords like this: Strategic, Leader, Execution-Oriented, Results-Focused, Ethical, Teamwork Oriented, Quantitative Ninja, blah, blah, blah. It is an annoying waste of time. The way I'll decide if you're able to execute is by reviewing your career history and finding out whether you executed. If you were in a job where you had to formulate strategy and your strategy worked, then I'll give you strategic. But you don't get credit for being strategic by typing it in a list at the top of your resume. Your resume should contain contact info, a brief paragraph telling what box you fit in and what job you're looking for, a list of each position you've held with quantified achievements, and your education. That's it. Less is more. I heard a wit was once asked why he wrote a long book and he replied that he wrote a long book because he didn't have time to write a short one. That is very true. Put more time into your resume so it can say more with fewer words. Quantify your achievements, use comparisons and context, and rewrite anything that is vague and general. Translation companies are looking for people who get stuff done and that includes great communicators who can convey all the relevant info with conciseness and context.
Immersion Consider the possibility of living or working abroad for at least 6-12 months. Translation Courses Find yourself a good course or program; read books in foreign languages, if you are too busy working full time, look for an online training program. Become Certified Pursuing a certification in translation or interpretation would help you succeed in your career. You will gain the ability to apply for more positions which are highly competitive and require specific designations or set levels of experience in the translation industry. Getting to Know a Second Language very well Knowing more than just one language isnt enough to guarantee a successful career as a translator. You must have a solid foundation in the foreign language you will be working with. Many Times, to get experience within a new area you must accept projects that are on the edge of what you are comfortable completing. This is natural and the only way in which your abilities will grow. Many times however translators who have worked on just 2-3 projects will stretch the truth and claim expertise in areas they have never worked in or in industries they have never researched. We hope these simple tips can be a helpful to your decision on considering the translation working field. Dont hesitate to email us if you have questions or concerns.
in time, let your client be aware of that ahead of time, and help them find another translator to have the job completed. After all a clients work needs to be done even if youre not available to accomplish it. Ask for Feedback Asking for a constructive criticism is all part of the process of a well done translation. If a client asks you to make changes or corrections in your translation, do it respectfully and instantly. Remember to always ask a client what is really important for them and what best meet their needs. Show appreciation to your clients They are the ones that keep you making your flexible and self-sustained life style. Remember to demonstrate your gratitude to them by sending holiday cards for example. They will certainly think of that as a respectful way of being thankful for their partnership with you. Earn what youre worth Dont bargain your rates with clients, instead prove to them that they will get a high level of service for the money they have paid for. By following these tips the CTP team believes that you can find and maintain respectable clients and develop a long-term and honest partnership with them.
Ability to write well and being familiar with the subject matter of what is to be translated. Knowing a target language as much as you know the source language and being able to speak and communicate as a native speaker.
Having a degree is not necessary, but pursuing a specific qualification is important when searching for a job, especially if you would like to work as a freelance translator. The more qualifications, the better.
Here is what we consider crucial for someone who intends to expand their language skills and start out a career as a successful translator:
Consider the possibility of engaging into an immersion program of living or studying abroad for at least 6-12 months. Find a good translation course or apply for an online translation certification program to become certified. Pursue a translation certification can help succeed in your career as a translator.
Wondering how to become a certified translator? You can find a number of translation training programs that will allow you to expand your language skills and meet the requirements to become a translator. The CTP Designation Program is one option available for translators who would like to improve their translation career prospects by completing a 100% on-line certification program. The CTP Program is the only professional certification for those who work in the translation industry or who would like to work within the industry. Remember that being certified can give you credibility when approaching new clients or applying for new projects. If youre looking for a governmental recognized license you should find out what the government requirements are to become a certified translator. Each government has unique and ever-changing requirements that translators must fulfill; some of which may vary based on your specific location. There are several benefits of becoming a certified translator , and we have listed some of the most important ones:
Personal enjoyment you have the freedom to choose which translation field youd be interested in working with. The field of translation is vast. One may become a legal/medical translator, while others may want to become specialized in other fields such as business, marketing etc. A translator that works with numerous fields is more likely to have clients at all times. Self-sufficiency here you have a great opportunity to start out your own translation business and set up your translation rates. The rate depends on the project, length of the project, your expertise in that field, timeline of the project, and other variables that any translator should consider. Work as a freelance translator creating and establishing your working style, making your schedule to accommodate as many hours as you wish to work.
How much to charge for a translation project. Knowing how much to charge can help you grow your client list or improve the profitability of your freelance translation business. When starting a career as a translator the rates can vary from $0.01 per word to $0.30 per word. Here are some things you should consider before setting up your rates:
Language some languages are particularly in demand by employers at different times. But If you want to work with a language that has a large number of speakers and which is spoken in many countries, the ones to choose in order of 'usefulness' are: English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), German, Japanese, Portuguese and Hindi/Urdu. Deadline how soon the job needs to be completed, text length and how flexible your schedule is to make sure you will deliver the job on time. Skills are you handling a specific job for the first time? Are you familiar with the subject to be translated? Localization Prices may vary from place to place, find out about the rates that are being charged within your city/country.
While it is essential to produce fast translations for your clients, you must not compromise on the integrity of your documents. In summary, to become a good translator, you will need to have good intentions in order to become a great one. You also need to believe in your work and potentials, listen careful to your clients and understand their needs, and enjoy every moment of your translating work process. In the end you have the results and the expectations that you were hoping for.
important email/mail messages. It may look unprofessional. Write a good explanation on why you would like to become part of the company. Internship programs are not always paid so being prepared for an unpaid internship is also part of the process. However, many companies will gladly invest their money on training and supporting their interns that are doing a good job. Remember to make a list of things you would like to know about the company/agency you intend to work for. You should learn about the company just as much as they want to know about you. It is important to find out about what they have to offer you in terms of benefits, working conditions and working hours. The CTP team would like to wish you good luck in your future internship, and remember, you can always get in touch with us if you have any questions.
Translator Internships
There are many ways to gain initial experience as a translator; a popular one is volunteering to work for free for a translation company. It is always better to do this with a local firm or sometimes this work can be done remotely over the web as well. But if you chose to not work for free, dont forget that the salary will depend on how many years of experience you have working as a translator. If you are starting up your career as a translator you may have to accept very low pay for your first few projects so that you will be able to build a portfolio of past work to show to potential clients.
Charge By the word this is the most common way used by translators today. On top of that, you could also add a minimum fee. For instance, you could charge $0.10 per word and have a minimum fee of $25. (You can control the minimum fee by decreasing or increasing it at anytime). It gives you liability in the amount of work, and you are not "stuck" with very small projects. By the hour often charged for those types of translation job where charging by the words wouldnt result in a reasonable payment (estimate how many hours it is going to take to translate). If the project will take too much of your time, the best way to get compensated in this case, is by charging your client by the hour. By the Page usually for official and legal documents (ex. Birth Certificates, Marriage Licenses and other legal docs). Flat Fee for small projects where you translate a minimum amount of words such as 250 words. Geographic location Where you should live should not affect how much to charge your clients.
By working for a translation company, your salary should be determined by the agency. So it is up to you whether you want to work for yourself and set up your own rating, or work for an agency where the fee is established by them.
Working as a Freelance ability of creating your working style and work as many hours a day as you desire; Job Promotion Chances to increase your salary; possibilities of working abroad; Personal Satisfaction you get to choose which Translation area you would like to work with. To find out about how to become a CTP certified translator professional and the benefits of our online course please read the CTP Program Overview or take our Video Tour. For additional information and to join the program please click here. You can also contact us sending your messages and/or concerns at [email protected]
force you to sit through 2 hours straight of lecture, video or audio resources can be broken up into concise, focused 5-20 minute segments which help you learn about one idea at a time or skip over supplemental videos if they cover an area which you are already familiar with. This is just one of the ways in which completing your translator training online can provide you with more value while typically paying 30-70% less in tuition. Adaptive and Dynamic: Online translator training programs are typically built based on industry best practices, industry demands, and participant requests. This is in contrast to more traditional school-based programs which are provided on-campus and are typically structured around theory, a textbook, or a single professor's knowledge. While most on campus translator training programs completely change their course matter and subjects as professors come and go within departments online training programs typically are constantly building our their coverage of the niche area, always adapting, evolving, and improving. This is possible because knowledge is passed through digital media such as video and audio resources instead of being held in someone's mind and class notes of what "should be taught." Time is Money: Everyone's time is worth something whether that is $6/hour or $60/hour you need to calculate what this number is in your case and calculate commuting costs to complete an in-person course or examination vs. an online training program. I believe if you take moderate estimates of this wasted time into account you will see that your commuting time is costing you almost as much if not more than the tuition. For example, if your time is worth $27 an hour and you spend just 40 minutes commuting each way to campus every week for 16 weeks that total cost of your time is $576. What is the real cost of not getting trained online? Superior Alumni Benefits: Since online translator training programs must develop video and audio based resources it is much easier to then offer these same resources or related online training modules to alumni for little or no extra cost. The result is that alumni are actually treated like valuable members of a community instead of just someone that a more traditional school may contact for a donation to their foundation after a few years. Traditional universities and campuses must pay for their buildings, land, and overhead so in the end you are either paying an online training organization to develop great resources or you are paying more for a campus to keep up maintenance on their buildings and land. Which is more valuable to you and your career? A good example of how this is unfolding in other industries can be found in the movie rental business. In this industry everyone is asking themselves: Why pay $5 per movie rental to pay for someone's building, electricity and overhead when you can pay $10 or less a month and rent several movies through Netflix? I hope these benefits of online translator training help you decide whether these types of
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programs are right for you. If you have some follow up questions feel free to contact our team or read more about our Certified Translation Professional (CTP) program on TranslationCertification.org
We get emails from undergraduates, graduate school students, and recent graduates every day who mistakenly believe that translator certifications are only for those with 3, 5 or 7 years worth of experience. 4. Not taking certification in translator serious enough: Everyone is busy and with several commitments to attend to each day it can be easy to put off reading, watching videos, or listening to audio resources for a certification program. It can help if you take a slow and steady approach and invest just 45 minutes a day each business day to covering the required reading and video-based materials for the program. Take notes while you study and start to put together a list of key ideas and pages to review in the future before your test. 5. Believing it is "too late" to complete a translator certification: It is common for professionals with 10, 15, or 20 years of previous work experience or small business ownership to want to retrain themselves to enter the translator industry either at an entry-level or mid-level position. This is natural and more common than you would think. Don't be discouraged by the fact that you have 0 experience in the industry and no training, everyone starts from scratch at some point and your real life experience will pay off while on the job as you hopefully come off as a more respectful, mature, pro-active, and responsible employee who will be able to handle the politics of the work environment much better than many younger professionals. These translator certification mistakes are taken out of the over 3,000 emails our team at the Global Translation Institute every month. We hope that by sharing these we can add value to your first while you evaluate whether to join a professional translator certification program.
A widely recognized icon for the practice and historic role of translation is the Rosetta Stone, which in the United States is incorporated into the crest of the Defense Language Institute.
What is Translation?
Translation is the interpreting of the meaning of a text and the subsequent production of an equivalent text, likewise called a "translation," that communicates the same message in another language. The text to be translated is called the source text, and the language that it is to be translated into is called the target language; the final product is sometimes called the target text. Translation must take into account constraints that include context, the rules of grammar of the two languages, their writing conventions, and their idioms. A common misconception is that there exists a simple word-for-word correspondence between any two languages, and that translation is a straightforward mechanical process; such a word-for-word translation, however, cannot take into account context, grammar, conventions, and idioms. Translation, when practiced by relatively bilingual individuals but especially when by persons with limited proficiency in one or both languages, involves a risk of spilling-over of idioms and usages from the source language into the target language. On the other hand, inter-linguistic spillages have also served the useful purpose of importing calques and loanwords from a source language into a target language that had previously lacked a concept or a convenient expression for the concept. Translators and interpreters, professional as well as amateur, have thus played an important role in the evolution of languages and cultures. The art of translation is as old as written literature. Parts of the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, among the oldest known literary works, have been found in translations into several Asiatic languages of the second millennium BCE. The Epic of Gilgamesh may have been read, in their own languages, by early authors of the Bible and of the Iliad. With the advent of computers, attempts have been made to computerize or otherwise automate the translation of natural-language texts (machine translation) or to use computers as an aid to translation (computer-assisted translation).
Translation Certificate
Below is a brief interview regarding the translation certificate program offered through the Global Translation Institute (GTI). Why do professionals complete translation certificate programs? Our team has identified three main groups of professionals who typically complete translation certificates, these include: 1) Students & Recent Graduates: Many professionals who have completed a two or four year degree find themselves without a job because their knowledge is not specialized enough. Everyone wants a job but companies generally want to hire professionals with every specific abilities, skills, training, and experience. The $100,000 question is how do you get these skills and abilities if nobody will give you a chance to work for them as a translation in the first place? One way to improve what you can offer is completing a translation certificate, as note below these programs can help you position yourself within this competitive industry. 2) Entry or Mid Level translation professionals: The largest groups of translation certificate participants are those which are 1-5 years into their career as a translation and have identified the need for further training. The translation industry is so large that your responsibilities within the first few years of your career in this space may change drastically as you are trusted with more responsibility. As opportunities to be promoted or hired away into a better job arise you will want to be there with the specialized experience and training that employers value to give yourself the best shot at making that leap forward. 3) Experienced Professionals: The last type of professional we see commonly completing certificates in translation are those which have 5, 10, or 20+ years of experience within another field and now want to transfer their career over to being a translation position. In our experience these professionals are highly motivated to succeed but are hesitant about "starting over" or they question whether it is "too late" to make the move. Our advice to everyone is that if you know in your gut that you should make a move than trust yourself and write out a 3-5 year plan for making it happen. Most important things in business and life take hard work and sacrifice and it will likely never by easy to make this adjustment. How can I complete a certificate in translation? What is involved? Most translation certificate programs will require you to read 300-800 pages worth of books on translation. In addition to the reading most will include video modules, lectures, expert audio interviews with industry experts, and practice examinations. The goal of most of these programs is to help you master the necessary skills to do well within at least an entry level translation job. All certificate
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programs that we have reviewed end with some sort of test or examination, and the best programs will also examine your practical application of the material as well. How much does a online translation a certificate program cost to complete? During our last survey of the translation industry we saw that programs typically cost $700 to $3,500 to complete. In addition to the costs of tuition and acquiring the required readings watch out for hidden technology, testing, or commuting costs which are often added in when completing programs at Universities or community colleges. Are these certificates complete online or on-campus somewhere in-person? While many programs are offer on-campus a few of the most popular are now offered 100% online as most participants who complete translation certificates are already working or studying full time. Make sure whichever program you join that it requires a practical application of knowledge, career coaching, resume feedback, and some sort of online training component. What are the benefits of earning a certificate in translation? The benefits of completing a program are diverse and go beyond what may be immediately obvious if you are considering completing a translation certificate. Some of the benefits of completing such a program include: Third party verification of your translation knowledge, skills, and abilities In depth training and specialized knowledge within the translation niche Career coaching, resume feedback, and support systems for alumni
I am interested. How Can I Complete a Translation Certificate Program? To complete your translation certificate you will need to first identify which program you would like to complete. While there are many options available on the market, one which our team offers is the Certified Translation Professional (CTP) program. After identifying which certificate program to complete you will typically need to acquire some required readings (books), and then study for 3-6 months to prepare for the examination. Typically 75-100+ hours are needed to complete certificates within this field. I hope these interview questions and answers help you evaluate whether you should be planning to complete a translation certificate. If you have any further questions about completing certificates in this area please email our team or read our FAQ on TranslationCertification.org Register or learn more about our Certified Translation Professional (CTP) certificate program.
Translation Techniques
Within this post we present you some translating techniques to help you achieve a better way to handle your translation tasks and we hope to answer some of the questions you may have before accepting a translation job. There are a few things you should consider when committing yourself to any translation job, which can be very important for your personal gratification and development of the work, such as how familiar you are with the subject to be engaged. Are you familiar enough with the topic being translated? Do you have the right resources to do it and are you able to finish the job on time as agreed upon between you and your client? What would be a good reason for doing it? (E.g. gratification, financially, gain knowledge). Knowing the exactly answers to these questions will help you find good ways to approach a translation work and become even more qualified to more specific subject matter. Before you get started, lets take a quick look at these important topics:
Necessary equipment to work with - Having a good computer you can rely on is extremely important: it allows a fast word processing; consistent text storage space; easy way to get in touch with clients and to research specific topics and terms when necessary. Qualification to translate any subject matter Being confident about the text contents to be translated, provides adequate results and increases your chances to be hired again by the same clients for future translation assignments.
Review the translation job before getting started by following these tips:
How long does the document take to be translated? Past experience may help you estimate how much time you will need to complete a translation project. What references are needed to get it done? Make sure you have a reliable source of information you may need to complete the project. Using good and updated dictionaries are always very helpful. Preliminary prior steps before proceeding with translation make a little checklist of the things you will need during the translation process. Quality of the original document The quality of a document can affect in its translation context so be sure youre able to read it and understand clearly. Is there any other language in the translation textual context? - Are you familiar with this second language to be translated along with the actual target language?
Once youre done taking these prior steps to your translation process gets started you will be ready to continue with the actual translation job. You can either start translating the document from this point or highlight the words and expressions that you are not familiar with, and do a
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little research before the translation process begins. Remember to revise your work using this simple checklist:
Look for any word or sentence you may have had difficulty while translating; Check the originality of the documents format; Any mistranslated words or phrases? Are there any grammatical mistake? Does the document make sense? Make sure the reading is clear and understandable. Is the overall context of the document consistent? Look for words you may have translated differently without any specific reason.
This could be an arduous process but it sure makes a lot of a difference in the translators performance and work presentation. The CTP team hopes you find these tips useful and do not hesitate to email us with any questions you might have.
So, if youre finished with your basic school and wish to follow a translation study program you can definitely become a translator in short time and start building your work reputation as well as gaining experience while engaging in the amazing world of translation. Good luck and I hope these tips help you move forward.
You have had over 12 months of experience either working or studying a language other than your native language; You have lived abroad and you have the knowledge of both, the source and target languages; You are familiar with the language and also with the culture of the language being used; You have the facility to speak and write a foreigner language correctly.
So far these are the most important steps you can take to be eligible to get a professional translator certification. If you have these skills and you personally enjoy translating and intend to make this your full or part-time job, then you should take the first step and enroll in a certified translation program today.
Translation Dictionaries
Although it is one of the most useful resources in the translation industry, it is not the best resource to rely on when translating. We know that the dictionary is a great tool to be used when looking for a term or a sought explanation. But you need to be aware that dictionaries become quickly outdated and yours may be too old to use. Otherwise, it can give you problems in the translation and can cause the use of misleading words.
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Dictionaries do not have all the words and terms a translator needs, nor do they contain all the information which specialized references may have.
1. You can find a lot of translation agencies in the Yellow Pages or in the internet, when it can be much harder for you to find clients through Yellow Pages or in the internet. 2. You can send your resume with your qualifications to translation agencies while also looking for potential clients of your own at the same time as these often take some time to develop. 3. By working for a translation company you know exactly how much you will get paid at the end of the week. It can be very different from working directly with clients where you have to establish a different price for different projects and most of the time the client will renegotiate the price.
Translators of legal texts often consult law dictionaries, especially bilingual law dictionaries. Care should be taken, as some bilingual law dictionaries are of poor quality and their use may lead to mistranslation.
You have had over 12 months of experience either working or studying a language other than your native language; You have lived abroad and you have the knowledge of both, the source and target languages; You are familiar with the language and also with the culture of the language being used; You have the facility to speak and write a foreigner language correctly.
So far these are the most important steps you can take to be eligible to get a professional translator certification. If you have these skills and you personally enjoy translating and intend to make this your full or part-time job, then you should take the first step and enroll in a certified translation program today.
A very common, layman's misconception of interpretation is that it is rendered verbatim, that is, as a word-for-word syntactic translation of an utterance. That is impractical, because a literal, verbatim interpretation of a source-language message would be unintelligible to the target-language listener. For example, the Spanish phrase: Est de viaje, rendered verbatim to English translates as: Is of voyage (senseless in English), yet its faithful, true, and accurate denotational and connotational interpretations in context are: He/She/You is/are traveling or He/She/You is/are out of town. That is, the overall meaning, tone, and style in the target language are what matter, rather than the source-language syntax. Interpretation is also held to a different standard of accuracy than translation. Translators have time to consider and revise each word and sentence before delivering their product to the client. While interpreters try to achieve total accuracy at all times, details of the original (source) speech can be omitted from the interpretation into the target language, especially if the source speaker talks very quickly, or recites long lists of figures without a pause.
In Mexico, some local instances, such as the Superior Court of Justice, establish that a written and oral examination shall be passed for a translator to be recognized as an expert or "sworn" translator (this kind of translator does not swear before the court to be authorized). The U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics states: "There is currently no universal form of certification required of interpreters and translators in the United States, but there are a variety of different tests that workers can take to demonstrate proficiency."
5. Fast return on investment the sooner you enroll at an online program the faster are your chances to start working as professional translator. To learn more about our Program Details, and how to register for the program, please click here.
Translation Evolution
Translation as an activity exists at least since mankind started developing trade millennia ago; so, if we include interpreting, it is no exaggeration to say that the origins of language industry are older than those of written language. Modern language industry has developed rapidly following availability of the internet. Achievements of the industry include the ability to quickly translate long texts into many languages. This has created new challenges as compared with the traditional activity of translators, such as that of quality assurance. There are some quality standards such as EN 15038 in Europe and ASTM F2575-06 in the USA. There are language industry companies of different sizes; none of them is dominant in the world market so far. There are human resources in translation of very different levels; internet has gathered professional translators, students, language teachers and professionals from other disciplines, all of them offering translation services. Apart from this, phenomenons such as crowd sourcing are every day more frequent to find in big-scale translations, which has given place to several polemics. One field of research in the industry includes the possibility of machine translation fully replacing human translation.
Translation Theories
A good translation is not necessarily a fast translation. It is required that you have a good knowledge of translation so extreme changes to the meaning wont happen to the text being translated. You always have to make sure that your translated text is keeping the same meaning as the original and be careful not to add new information. To become a good translator, it is necessary to understand the internal system of a language and the context of the entire text being translated. Thus, the translator will be able to produce the same effect in both languages.
Tertiary sources are compilations based upon primary and secondary sources. These are sources which, on average, do not fall into the above two levels. They consist of generalized research of a specific subject under consideration. Tertiary sources are analyzed, assimilated, evaluated, interpreted, and/or synthesized from secondary sources, also. These are not authoritative and are just supplemental documents concerning the subject under consideration. These are often meant to present known information in a convenient form with no claim to originality. Common examples are encyclopedias and textbooks. The distinction between primary source and secondary source is standard in historiography, while the distinction between these sources and tertiary sources is more peripheral, and is more relevant to the scholarly research work than to the published content itself.
Translation Idiom
An idiom is a phrase whose meaning cannot be determined by the literal definition of the phrase itself, but refers instead to a figurative meaning that is known only through common use. In linguistics, idioms are widely assumed to be figures of speech that contradict the principle of compositionality; however, this has shown to be a subject of debate. John Saeed defines an idiom as words collocated together happen to become fossilized, becoming fixed over time. This collocation -- words commonly used in a group -- changes the definition of each of the words that exist. As an expression, the wordgroup becomes a team, so to speak. That is, the collocated words develop a specialized meaning as a whole and an idiom is born. An idiom is a word or phrase that means something different than the words imply if interpreted literally. When a person uses an idiom, the listener might take the actual meaning wrong if he or she has not heard this figure of speech before. Idioms don't usually cross language boundaries. In some cases, when an idiom is translated into another language, the meaning of the idiom is changed or does not make any sense as it once did in another language. Idioms are probably the hardest thing for a person to learn in the process of learning a new language.[citation needed] This is because most people grow up using idioms as if their true meanings actually make sense.
web pages published in other languages. Whole-page translation tools are of limited utility, however, since they offer only a limited potential understanding of the original author's intent and context; translated pages tend to be more humorous and confusing than enlightening. Interactive translations with pop-up windows are becoming more popular. These tools show several possible translations of each word or phrase. Human operators merely need to select the correct translation as the mouse glides over the foreign-language text. Possible definitions can be grouped by pronunciation.
the Bible into local European languages, a development that greatly affected Western Christianity's split into Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, due to disparities between Catholic and Protestant versions of crucial words and passages. Martin Luther's Bible in German, Jakub Wujek's in Polish, and the King James Bible in English had lasting effects on the religions, cultures and languages of those countries. See also: Bible translations and Translation of the Qur'an.
speech articulatory movements) as determined from context. In general, translators have sought to preserve the context itself by reproducing the original order of sameness, and hence word order when necessary, reinterpreting the actual grammatical structure. The grammatical differences between "fixed-word-order" languages (e.g., English, French, and German) and "free-word-order" languages (e.g., Greek, Latin, Polish, and Russian) have been no impediment in this regard. When a target language has lacked terms that are found in a source language, translators have borrowed them, thereby enriching the target language. Thanks in great measure to the exchange of calques and loanwords between languages, and to their importation from other languages, there are few concepts that are "untranslatable" among the modern European languages. Samuel Johnson In general, the greater the contact and exchange that has existed between two languages, or between both and a third one, the greater is the ratio of metaphrase to paraphrase that may be used in translating between them. However, due to shifts in "ecological niches" of words, a common etymology is sometimes misleading as a guide to current meaning in one or the other language. The English actual, for example, should not be confused with the cognate French actuel (meaning "present", "current") or the Polish aktualny ("present", "current") or Russian ("urgent, topical").
The translator's role as a bridge for "carrying across" values between cultures has been discussed at least since Terence, Roman adapter of Greek comedies, in the second century BCE. The translator's role is, however, by no means a passive and mechanical one, and so has also been compared to that of an artist. The main ground seems to be the concept of parallel creation found in critics as early as Cicero. Dryden observed that "Translation is a type of drawing after life..." Comparison of the translator with a musician or actor goes back at least to Samuel Johnson's remark about Alexander Pope playing Homer on a flageolet, while Homer himself used a bassoon. Roger Bacon If translation be an art, it is no easy one. In the 13th century, Roger Bacon wrote that if a translation is to be true, the translator must know both languages, as well as the science that he is to translate; and finding that few translators did, he wanted to do away with translation and translators altogether. Martin Luther
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The first European to assume that one translates satisfactorily only toward his own language may have been Martin Luther, translator of the Bible into German. According to L.G. Kelly, since Johann Gottfried Herder in the 18th century, "it has been axiomatic" that one works only toward his own language. Compounding these demands upon the translator is the fact that not even the most complete dictionary or thesaurus can ever be a fully adequate guide in translation. Alexander Tytler, in his Essay on the Principles of Translation (1790), emphasized that assiduous reading is a more comprehensive guide to a language than are dictionaries. The same point, but also including listening to the spoken language, had earlier been made in 1783 by Onufry Andrzej Kopczyoski, member of Poland's Society for Elementary Books, who was called "the last Latin poet". Herder Krasicki The special role of the translator in society was well described in an essay, published posthumously in 1803, by Ignacy Krasicki "Poland's La Fontaine", Primate of Poland, poet, encyclopedist, author of the first Polish novel, and translator from French and Greek: *T+ranslation... is in fact an art both estimable and very difficult, and therefore is not the labor and portion of common minds; [it] should be [practiced] by those who are themselves capable of being actors, when they see greater use in translating the works of others than in their own works, and hold higher than their own glory the service that they render to their country.
translation, but the assignment of syllables to specific notes in the original musical setting places great challenges on the translator. There is the option in prose sung texts, less so in verse, of adding or deleting a syllable here and there by subdividing or combining notes, respectively, but even with prose the process is almost like strict verse translation because of the need to stick as closely as possible to the original prosody of the sung melodic line. Other considerations in writing a singing translation include repetition of words and phrases, the placement of rests and/or punctuation, the quality of vowels sung on high notes, and rhythmic features of the vocal line that may be more natural to the original language than to the target language. A sung translation may be considerably or completely different from the original, thus resulting in a contrafactum. Translations of sung texts whether of the above type meant to be sung or of a more or less literal type meant to be read are also used as aids to audiences, singers and conductors, when a work is being sung in a language not known to them. The most familiar types are translations presented as subtitles projected during opera performances, those inserted into concert programs, and those that accompany commercial audio CDs of vocal music. In addition, professional and amateur singers often sing works in languages they do not know (or do not know well), and translations are then used to enable them to understand the meaning of the words they are singing.
Target Language
A target language is a language that is the focus or end result of certain processes. * In applied linguistics and second-language pedagogy, the term "target language" refers to any language that learners are trying to learn in addition to their native language. The same concept is often expressed as "second language" or "L2." * In translation, the term "target language" is applied to the language that a source text is being translated into. * In computer science, a "target language" is the computer language that a compiler translates source code into.
Literary Translation
Translation of literary works (novels, short stories, plays, poems, etc.) is considered a literary pursuit in its own right. Notable in Canadian literature specifically as translators are figures such as Sheila Fischman, Robert Dickson and Linda Gaboriau, and the Governor General's Awards annually present prizes for the best English-to-French and French-to-English literary translations. Other writers, among many who have made a name for themselves as literary translators, include Vasily Zhukovsky, Tadeusz Boy-eleoski, Vladimir Nabokov, Jorge Luis Borges, Robert Stiller and Haruki Murakami.
Back-Translation
A back-translation is a translation of a translated text back into the language of the original text, made without reference to the original text. In the context of machine translation, this is also called a round-trip translation. It is analogous to reversing a mathematical operation; but even in mathematics such a reversal frequently does not produce a value that is precisely identical with the original.
Comparison of a back-translation to the original text is sometimes used as a quality check on the original translation. But while useful as an approximate check, it is far from infallible. Humorously telling evidence for this was provided by Mark Twain when he issued his own backtranslation of a French version of his famous short story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County". In cases when a historic document survives only in translation, the original having been lost, researchers sometimes undertake back-translation in an effort to reconstruct the original text. An example involves the novel The Saragossa Manuscript by the Polish aristocrat Jan Potocki (17611815). The polymath polyglot composed the book entirely in French and published fragments anonymously in 1804 and 181314. Portions of the original French-language manuscripts were subsequently lost; the missing fragments survived, however, in a Polish translation that was made by Edmund Chojecki in 1847 from a complete French copy, now lost. French-language versions of the complete Saragossa Manuscript have since been produced, based on extant French-language fragments and on French-language versions that have been back-translated from Chojecki's Polish version. Similarly, when historians suspect that a document is actually a translation from another language, back-translation into that hypothetical original language can provide supporting evidence by showing that such characteristics as idioms, puns, peculiar grammatical structures, etc., are in fact derived from the original language. For example, the known text of the Till Eulenspiegel folk tales is in High German but contains many puns which only work if back-translated into Low German. This seems clear evidence that these tales (or at least large portions of them) were originally composed in Low German and rendered into High German by an over-metaphrastic translator. Similarly, supporters of Aramaic primacyi.e., of the view that the Christian New Testament or its sources were originally written in the Aramaic languageseek to prove their case by showing that difficult passages in the existing Greek text of the New Testament make much better sense if back-translated into Aramaicthat, for example, some incomprehensible references are in fact Aramaic puns which do not work in Greek
Mistranslations
Literal translation of idioms is a source of numerous translators' jokes and apocrypha. The following famous example has often been told both in the context of newbie translators and that of machine translation: When the sentence "The spirit is strong, but the flesh is weak" (an allusion to Mark 14:38) was translated into Russian and then back to English, the result was "The vodka is good, but the meat is rotten." This is generally believed to be simply an amusing story, and not a factual reference to an actual machine translation error. Literal translation can also denote a translation that represents the precise meaning of the original text but does not attempt to convey its style, beauty, or poetry. Charles Singleton's translation of The Divine Comedy (1975) is regarded as a literal translation.
Literal Translation
Literal translation, also known as direct translation, is the rendering of text from one language to another "word-forword" (Latin: "verbum pro verbo") rather than conveying the sense of the original. Literal translations thus commonly mistranslate idioms. Also, in the context of translating an analytic language to a synthetic language, it renders even the grammar unintelligible. A literal English translation of the German word "Kindergarten" would be "children garden," but in English the expression refers to the school year between pre-school and first grade. Literal translations in which individual components within words or compounds are translated to create new lexical items in the target language (a process also known as loan translation) ar e called calques, e.g., beer garden from German Biergarten. Literal translation of the Italian sentence, "So che questa non va bene" ("I know that this is not good"), produces "Know(I) that this not go(it) well," which has English words and Italian grammar.
Machine Translation
Early machine translations were notorious for this type of translation as they simply employed a database of words and their translations. Later attempts utilized common phrases which resulted in better grammatical structure and capture of idioms but with many words left in the original language. For translating synthetic languages, a morphosyntactic analyzer and synthesizer is required. The best systems today use a combination of the above technologies and apply algorithms to correct the "natural" sound of the translation. In the end though, professional translation firms that employ machine translation use it as a tool to create a rough translation that is then tweaked by a human, professional translator. Machine Translation is a procedure whereby a computer program analyzes a source text and produces a target text without further human intervention. In reality, however, machine translation typically does involve human intervention, in the form of pre-editing and postediting. An exception to that rule might be, e.g., the translation of technical specifications (strings of technical terms and adjectives), using a dictionary-based machine-translation system. To date, machine translationa major goal of natural-language processinghas met with limited success. A November 6, 2007, example illustrates the hazards of uncritical reliance on
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machine translation. Machine translation has been brought to a large public by tools available on the Internet, such as Yahoo!'s Babel Fish, Babylon, and StarDict. These tools produce a "gisting translation" a rough translation that, with luck, "gives the gist" of the source text. With proper terminology work, with preparation of the source text for machine translation (pre-editing), and with re-working of the machine translation by a professional human translator (post-editing), commercial machine-translation tools can produce useful results, especially if the machine-translation system is integrated with a translation-memory or globalization-management system. Claude Piron In regard to texts with limited ranges of vocabulary and simple sentence structure (e.g., weather reports), machine translation can deliver results that do not require much human intervention to be useful. Also, the use of a controlled language, combined with a machinetranslation tool, will typically generate largely comprehensible translations. Relying exclusively on unedited machine translation ignores the fact that communication in human language is context-embedded and that it takes a person to comprehend the context of the original text with a reasonable degree of probability. It is certainly true that even purely human-generated translations are prone to error. Therefore, to ensure that a machinegenerated translation will be useful to a human being and that publishable-quality translation is achieved, such translations must be reviewed and edited by a human. The late Claude Piron wrote that machine translation, at its best, automates the easier part of a translator's job; the harder and more time-consuming part usually involves doing extensive research to resolve ambiguities in the source text, which the grammatical and lexical exigencies of the target language require to be resolved. Such research is a necessary prelude to the pre-editing necessary in order to provide input for machine-translation software such that the output will not be meaningless.
Translation Misconceptions
Newcomers to translation sometimes proceed as if translation were an exact science as if consistent, one-to-one correlations existed between the words and phrases of different languages, rendering translations fixed and identically reproducible, much as in cryptography. Such novices may assume that all that is needed to translate a text is to encode and decode equivalents between the two languages, using a translation dictionary as the "codebook". On the contrary, such a fixed relationship would only exist were a new language synthesized and simultaneously matched to a pre-existing language's scopes of meaning, etymologies, and lexical ecological niches. If the new language were subsequently to take on a life apart from such cryptographic use, each word would spontaneously begin to assume new shades of meaning and cast off previous associations, thereby vitiating any such artificial synchronization. Henceforth translation would require the disciplines described in this article. Another common misconception is that anyone who can speak a second language will make a good translator. In the translation community, it is generally accepted that the best translations are produced by persons who are translating into their own native languages, as it is rare for someone who has learned a second language to have total fluency in that language. A good translator understands the source language well, has specific experience in the subject matter of the text, and is a good writer in the target language. Moreover, he is not only bilingual but bicultural. It has been debated whether translation is art or craft. Literary translators, such as Gregory Rabassa in If This Be Treason, argue that translation is an art a teachable one. Other translators, mostly technical, commercial, and legal, regard their mtier as a craft again, a teachable one, subject to linguistic analysis, that benefits from academic study. As with other human activities, the distinction between art and craft may be largely a matter of degree. Even a document which appears simple, e.g. a product brochure, requires a certain level of linguistic skill that goes beyond mere technical terminology. Any material used for marketing purposes reflects on the company that produces the product and the brochure. The best translations are obtained through the combined application of good technical-terminology skills and good writing skills. Translation has served as a writing school for many prominent writers. Translators, including
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monks who spread Buddhist texts in East Asia and the early modern European translators of the Bible, in the course of their work have shaped the very languages into which they have translated. They have acted as bridges for conveying knowledge and ideas between cultures and civilizations. Along with ideas, they have imported, into their own languages, loanwords and calques of grammatical structures, idioms and vocabulary from the source languages.
Website Translators
Most website translators do not translate languages correctly. This usually happens when symbolic languages are translated into letter languages (for instance: Chinese to English). Ineffective website translators will also lose the language's sense and flow when they translate from a language like German to English. Believe it or not, there are many translators that have this type of weakness and some of them don't have all of the languages.
Some website translators don't work on certain platforms such as PHP. Before buying a translator you need to check out that the website translator works on a platform that is available at your web hosting company. There are a few website translators that will work on every kind of platform or at least the most common platforms. However, these website translators are the very expensive. There is also another problem, which is probably the worse one. Some translators are not designed to work on certain templates such as word press. Most website translators will usually work only on standard HTML sites. Therefore, you must check to see if your website translator will work on the template you have available before applying it to your website. If an HTML website translator is installed on a word press site, it may malfunction and turn your whole site into one big mess. Again, this will end up in loss of traffic to your site.
Translation Jobs - Top 10 resources for those looking for translation jobs.
1. Company: AE Inc.-Translations. Website http://www.aetrans.com. 2. Company: Academy of Languages Translation and Interpretation Services (AOLTI). Website http://www.aolti.com/. 3. Company: Accurapid the Language Service. Website http://www.accurapid.com. 4. Company: Advanced Language Translation. Website http://www.advancedlanguage.com. 5. Company: American Translation Partners (ATP). Website http://americantranslationpartners.com. 6. Company: Bruce International, Inc. Website http://bruceinternational.com. 7. Company: Asian Translation Service. Website http://asiantranslation.com. 8. Company: DTS Language Services, Inc. Website http://www.dtstrans.com. 9. Company: Certified Translation Services. Website http://www.certifiedtranslationservices.com. 10. Company: Global Language Solutions. Website http://globallanguages.com.
The criteria used to judge the faithfulness of a translation vary according to the subject, the precision of the original contents, the type, function and use of the text, its literary qualities, its social or historical context, and so forth. The criteria for judging the transparency of a translation appear more straightforward: an unidiomatic translation "sounds wrong", and in the extreme case of word-for-word translations generated by many machine-translation systems, often results in patent nonsense with only a humorous value (see Round-trip translation). Nevertheless, in certain contexts a translator may consciously strive to produce a literal translation. Literary translators and translators of religious or historic texts often adhere as closely as possible to the source text. In doing so, they often deliberately stretch the boundaries of the target language to produce an unidiomatic text. Similarly, a literary translator may wish to adopt words or expressions from the source language in order to provide "local color" in the translation. In recent decades, prominent advocates of such "non-transparent" translation have included the French scholar Antoine Berman, who identified twelve deforming tendencies inherent in most prose translations,[13] and the American theorist Lawrence Venuti, who has called upon translators to apply "foreignizing" translation strategies instead of domesticating ones. Many non-transparent-translation theories draw on concepts from German Romanticism, the most obvious influence on latter-day theories of "foreignization" being the German theologian and philosopher Friedrich Schleiermacher. In his seminal lecture "On the Different Methods of Translation" (1813) he distinguished between translation methods that move "the writer toward [the reader]", i.e., transparency, and those that move the "reader toward [the author]", i.e., an extreme fidelity to the foreignness of the source text. Schleiermacher clearly favored the latter approach. His preference was motivated, however, not so much by a desire to embrace the foreign, as by a nationalist desire to oppose France's cultural domination and to promote German literature. For the most part, current Western practices in translation are dominated by the concepts of "fidelity" and "transparency". This has not always been the case. There have been periods, especially in pre-Classical Rome and in the 18th century, when many translators stepped beyond the bounds of translation proper into the realm of ''adaptation''. Adapted translation retains currency in some non-Western traditions. Thus the Indian epic, the Ramayana, appears in many versions in the various Indian languages, and the stories are
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different in each. Anyone considering the words used for translating into the Indian languages, whether those be Aryan or Dravidian languages, will be struck by the freedom that is granted to the translators. This may relate to devotion to prophetic passages that strike a deep religious chord, or to a vocation to instruct unbelievers. Similar examples are to be found in medieval Christian literature, which adjusted the text to the customs and values of the audience.
Interpretation Resources
What is Interpreting?
Interpreting, or interpretation, is the intellectual activity that consists of facilitating oral or sign-language communication, either simultaneously or consecutively, between two or among three or more speakers who are not speaking, or signing, the same language. The words interpreting and interpretation both can be used to refer to this activity; the word interpreting is commonly used in the profession and in the translation-studies field to avoid confusion with other meanings of the word interpretation. Not all languages employ, as English does, two separate words to denote the activities of written and live-communication (oral or sign-language) translators. Even English does not always make the distinction, frequently using translation as a synonym of interpreting, especially in nontechnical usage.
The United Nations employs interpreters at almost all its sites throughout the world. Because it has only six official languages, however, it is a smaller employer than the European Union. Interpreters may also work as freelance operators in their local, regional and national communities, or may take on contract work under an interpreting business or service. They would typically take on work as described above. The U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan employ hundreds of interpreters to assist with its communications with the local population.
Simultaneous Interpreting
In simultaneous interpretation (SI), the interpreter renders the message in the target-language as quickly as he or she can formulate it from the source language, while the source-language speaker continuously speaks; sitting in a sound-proof booth, the SI interpreter speaks into a microphone, while clearly seeing and hearing the source-language speaker via earphones. The simultaneous interpretation is rendered to the target-language listeners via their earphones. Moreover, SI is the common mode used by sign language interpreters. NOTE: Laymen often incorrectly describe SI and the SI interpreter as 'simultaneous translation' and as the 'simultaneous translator', ignoring the definite distinction between interpretation and translation.
Consecutive Interpreting
In consecutive interpreting (CI), the interpreter speaks after the source-language speaker has finished speaking. The speech is divided into segments, and the interpreter sits or stands beside the source-language speaker, listening and taking notes as the speaker progresses through the message. When the speaker pauses or finishes speaking, the interpreter then renders the entire message in the target language. Consecutive interpretation is rendered as "short CI" or "long CI". In short CI, the interpreter relies on memory; each message segment being brief enough to memorize. In long CI, the interpreter takes notes of the message to aid rendering long passages. These informal divisions are established with the client before the interpretation is effected, depending upon the
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subject, its complexity, and the purpose of the interpretation. On occasion, document sight translation is required of the interpreter during consecutive interpretation work. Sight translation combines interpretation and translation; the interpreter must read aloud the source-language document to the target-language as if it were written in the target language. Sight translation occurs usually, but not exclusively, in judicial and medical work. The CI interpreter Patricia Stcklin renders Klaus Bednarz's speech to Garry Kasparov. The CI interpreter Patricia Stcklin takes notes Garry Kasparov's speech. The CI interpreter Patricia Stcklin renders Garry Kasparov's speech to the audience. Consecutively-interpreted speeches, or segments of them, tend to be short. Fifty years ago, the CI interpreter would render speeches of 20 or 30 minutes; today, 10 or 15 minutes is considered too long, particularly since audiences don't like to sit through 20 minutes of speech they cannot understand. Often, if not previously advised, the source-language speaker is unaware that he or she may speak more than a single sentence before the CI interpretation is rendered and might stop after each sentence to await its target-language rendering. Sometimes, however, depending upon the setting or subject matter, and upon the interpreter's capacity to memorize, the interpreter may ask the speaker to pause after each sentence or after each clause. Sentence-by-sentence interpreting requires less memorization and therefore lower likelihood for omissions, yet its disadvantage is in the interpreter's not having heard the entire speech or its gist, and the overall message is sometimes harder to render both because of lack of context and because of interrupted delivery (for example, imagine a joke told in bits and pieces, with breaks for translation in between). This method is often used in rendering speeches, depositions, recorded statements, court witness testimony, and medical and job interviews, but it is usually best to complete a whole idea before it is interpreted. Full (i.e., unbroken) consecutive interpreting of whole thoughts allows for the full meaning of the source-language message to be understood before the interpreter renders it in the target language. This affords a truer, more accurate, and more accessible interpretation than does simultaneous interpretation.
Video interpreting With video interpreting, interpreters work remotely with a video camera and audio feed, so that the interpreter can hear and see the other parties, and vice versa. Much like telephone interpreting, video interpreting can be used for situations in which no on-site interpreters are available. However, video interpreting cannot be used for situations in which all parties are speaking via telephone only. Video interpreting requires all parties to have the necessary equipment. Some equipment enables interpreters to control the camera, in order to zoom in and out and to move the camera toward the parties that are speaking.
Escort Interpreting
In escort interpreting, an interpreter accompanies a person or a delegation on a tour, on a visit, or to a meeting or interview. An interpreter in this role is called an escort interpreter or an escorting interpreter. This is liaison interpreting.
surroundings, its created stress, the power relationships among participants, and the interpreter's degree of responsibility in many cases more than extreme; in some cases, even the life of the other person depends upon the interpreter's work.
Medical Interpreting
Medical interpreting is a subset of public service interpreting, consisting of communication, among medical personnel and the patient and his or her family, facilitated by an interpreter, usually formally certified and qualified to provide such interpretation services. In some situations medical employees who are multilingual may participate part-time as members of internal language banks. The medical interpreter must have a strong knowledge of medicine, common medical procedures, the patient interview, the medical examination processes, and the daily workings of the hospital or clinic where he or she works, in order to effectively serve both the patient and the medical personnel. Moreover, and very important, medical interpreters often are cultural liaisons for people (regardless of language) who are unfamiliar with or uncomfortable in hospital, clinical, or medical settings.
The right to a competent interpreter for anyone who does not understand the language of the court (especially for the accused in a criminal trial) is usually considered a fundamental rule of justice. Therefore, this right is often guaranteed in national constitutions, declarations of rights, fundamental laws establishing the justice system or by precedents set by the highest courts. Depending upon the regulations and standards adhered to per state and venue, court interpreters usually work alone when interpreting consecutively, or as a team, when interpreting simultaneously. In addition to practical mastery of the source and target languages, thorough knowledge of law and legal and court procedures is required of court interpreters. They often are required to have formal authorization from the State to work in the Courts and then are called certified court interpreters. In many jurisdictions, the interpretation is considered an essential part of the evidence. Incompetent interpretation, or simply failure to swear in the interpreter, can lead to a mistrial.
Conference Interpreting
Conference interpreting is the interpretation of a conference, either simultaneously or consecutively, although the advent of multi-lingual meetings has consequently reduced the consecutive interpretation in the last 20 years. Conference interpretation is divided between two markets: the institutional and private. International institutions (EU, UN, EPO, et cetera), holding multi-lingual meetings, often favor interpreting several foreign languages to the interpreters' mother tongues. Local private markets tend to bi-lingual meetings (the local language plus another) and the interpreters work both into and out of their mother tongues; the markets are not mutually exclusive. The International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC) is the only worldwide association of conference interpreters. Founded in 1953, it assembles more than 2,800 professional conference interpreters in more than 90 countries.
Learn More
Interested in learning more about translation and improving your translation skills and reputation? Please see http://TranslationCertification.org for more information.
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