Archive for 'technical translation'

Varieties of French

Belgian French is the variety of French spoken in Belgium. The language spoken in Congo, Rwanda and Borundi, that were formal Belgian colonies, may also be considered a variety of Belgian French. Belgian French and the French spoken in France, are almost identical with minor lexical differences. One obvious difference between the Belgian and Swiss French on one hand and standard French on the other hand is the use of the word ‘septante’ to denote the number seventy instead soixante-dix (literally meaning “sixty-ten ‘), and ‘nonante’ for ninety instead of quatre-vingt-dix ( literally meaning ‘four- twenty-ten’). Unlike in the Swiss French people in Belgium do not use the word “huitante” for the number eighty but the standard quatre-vingt (‘four-twenty “). Another interesting difference is the meaning of the words déjeuner and dîner (” lunch “and” dinner “in the standard French Translation). Déjeuner means “a breakfast that is eaten in the morning”. However, the French King Louis XIV was in the habit to get up at noon and therefore breakfast replaced lunch, both in life as well as in the dictionary (similarly dîner “lunch”, shifted in the evening). As servants of the king still had to get up early, they had “little breakfast” – petit déjeuner. French nobles quickly embraced the change, spreading the new use of the word déjeuner. However, the Belgium French Translation of the word déjeuner is still breakfast, and dîner  is still used for “lunch” for today’s Belgium, which is not part of France, kept the original meaning of both words. Another difference often found surprising or funny to speakers of other variants of French is the use of the verb savoir instead of pouvoir to express ability. In other versions of French savoir means only “know”.

There are some differences in pronunciation between the two Legal translation versions of the language, but they are not particularly significant. The most important of these is that the letter “w” in the Belgian version is almost always pronounced as “u” while in standard French it is usually pronounced as “v”.

Words which are unique to Belgian French are called “belgicisms” (the French Translation of the term is belgicismes). Although most belgicisms have similar meanings in all Francophone countries, there are some of different meanings. Such are, for example the word ‘sofa” the standard French Translation of which is “canapé” while the belgicism is “divan”or the word “mobile” the standard Language Translation of which is téléphone portable while the belgicism is “GSM”.

The Role of The Family In Society

The Chinese translators that I work with have a common saying: “When you know the family of a person, you do not need to know the person.” Hebrew Translators are known to say: “Jehovah could not be in all places, that’s why he created mothers.”  One of our Russian translators, indicates that the following expression is popular in Ukraine: “A man or woman with children will live forever.” And if you are from North America, you are probably familiar with this popular saying: “The apple will never fall far from the tree.” While each of these sayings is slightly different, each of these relates to the need for loved ones and the importance of the family unit.

The Family

A person’s family represents the oldest and most essential of all legal institutions.  Additionally it is a common element found in every civilization. A renowned Legal Translation worker, endorsed this idea when he noted, “The family is the fundamental unit of society and it is at the middle of its survival.” Individuals frequently observe governments growing, and even vanishing, in locations like Libya, Syria, and Portugal, and a number of countries in Africa, however in each of these nations the family unit pulls through. Mainly because it has made it for millennia, the spouse and child system is a efficient way of supplying societal management. Hamilton even suggested that devoid of household, the world would not exist.

The Birth Certificate Translation worker, Michael Thomas, provided an outstanding summary of the need for the household when he wrote, “The family is the most rudimentary system of governance.” As the foremost community to which a person is linked and the very first council under which a person discovers how to exist, the family unit establishes humanity’s most rudimentary beliefs. He is saying that the individual, the family unit, and the society work together to educate others on the fundamentals of the civilization.

Howard Bernard, a Marriage Certificate Translation worker underscored this point whenever they create, “The family unit is the most well known community group that exists. The family preps its members for the various functions that they will conduct in the community.”  The explanation why the household is a major social institution is highlighted by Smith and Brown: “We are positioned in a family unit, mature in a family unit, make our own family units, and abandon them when we die.” Most likely the value and effectiveness of this association is entirely expressed in the thought that the family is held responsible for with shaping an organic living thing into a man or woman who is forced to dedicate the remainder of his or her existence near other individuals. The simple fact is that it is the family unit that meets you when you abandon the comfort of the uterus. So basically, the family unit is the earliest and principal interpersonal representative.

World’s First Copyright Laws Were Influenced By Legal Translation Workers

Throughout the modern industrial world, the rules related to copyright law protection are similar in their message.  Much of this is due to the ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.  Under this treaty, all ratifying nations, now in excess of 100 and comprising all industrialized countries, have agreed to give copyright protection to the creators as long as they are a citizen of a member nation.

The governments involved in the development of this legislation endorsed the idea of legal translation professionals that intellectual property protection must exceed the life of the author by 50 years.  In addition to the International Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, the GATT treaty offered various provisions to defend intellectual property among the participating governments. Together, the Berne Copyright Convention and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade allow U.S writers to protect their intellectual property in most industrialized nations.  In return, it lets the people of those nations enforce their intellectual endeavors in America.

When can I use some intellectual property without the copyriter’s agreement?

The answer is when the work of the copyright owner, in any language becomes public domain.  According to German Translation workers, A good number of novels enter the public domain each year because their protection has expired. To ascertain if a recording is in the public sector and readily available for use without the author’s permission, you will need to determine when it was released.

If the producer did not renew the intellectual property protection, the property falls into the public realm and the public may use it. The Intellectual Property Office will verify renewal information for a fee of $75. In certain instances, you may have the qualifications to undertake a renewal query on your own. The renewal files for a recording circulated from 1950 to the present-day are accessible online at www.copyright.gov. Renewal searches for older stories can be performed at the Intellectual Property Department in Washington.

Never forget, you must imagine that every novel (in any language) is safeguarded by intellectual property regulations except in cases where an individual can determine that it is not.  French Translation workers remind all of us that we can’t rely on the occurrence or lack of an intellectual property mark, since they became obsolete after March 1, 1989.  Additionally, for books published before 1989, the shortage of an intellectual property notice does not mean the copyright isn’t legal.

Making Use of Food to Learn German Translation

Since every human being needs food to exist, it is natural students in translation studies programs to be interested in the subject.The reason is that people from all nationalities and cultures have an opinion on it. Regardless of the language that a person speaks, everyone involved in translation, from beginning students to highly skilled professionals, have a set of beliefs that pertain to it. The reason is that food involves people emotionally. An indispensable part of our lives, good food also is a material component of various events such as national holidays, religious celebrations, birthday parties, wedding receptions, and gatherings with friends and neighbors.

All translation students and professionals have opinions about food and just about everything related to it. While Russian Translation Professionals enjoy talking about their blini, German Translation workers boast about their sausage, while Medical Translation workers just tell us to consume healthy food. In addition, all translation workers prefer one particular style of food or other such as fast food, junk food, cafeteria food, ethnic food, restaurant food, and the snacks and popcorn you munch at a movie theater. In addition, we all have different thoughts about what we like to put on our food like salt, ketchup, red pepper, barbeque sauce, steak sauce, sauerkraut and so on.

Our series of articles titled, Hungry For Russian Translation, focuses on food. The topic of the series is food, however, we offer a wide variety of language-related instructional activities. In one article we might be providing a quick lesson on verbs, the next for something on vocabulary, and the next for a writing topic. Some days, we will add only a word game or some task that will focus students’ attention on the languages they study.

A large part of the activities in our series of writings include games and encourage creativity. The reason is that in my opinion language games have a crucial role in building language skills. Students need to get interested in words and their quirkiness, changeability and power. English teachers have to do their best to turn kids on to language. Play is a powerful tool to do so.

Althought the idea to write this series of articles was mine, I was not the only one to contribute to it. What I did was only a small part of the effort that went into making it possible. Sarah Von Seggern, a German Translation worker and Michael Antipov, a Russian Translation professional, contributed to it and assisted me in various ways – writing, proofreading, checking facts and other.   I also have to thank to Sandra Hernandez, a Spanish Translation professional, who also cooperated with me in the development of this series. I hope you enjoy The Translation Is Ready and find it useful in your translation teachings.

What do you and your students share when talking about food in class? Do you discuss a time when you were unsuccessful in preparing a special meal? Do you enjoy thinking about the memories of your great-grandmother making homemade ravioli? Did a humorous event take place to a family member in a restaurant? Do you have your little jokes about how you all hated to eat the food, prepared by a relative because it tasted terrible?

In the first task, we encourage you to write a story about food. If you need some help thinking of one you may ask your classmates, friends and instructors to make suggestions. If you still find it difficult, share any kind of memory you have relating to food – maybe a special meal, or a special occasion.

Globalization and its Effects on Language Translation

The idea of globalization has different meanings to different people.  However, many people believe the idea rests on the integration of economic, political, and cultural systems across the globe. The process that drives globalization is based on a combination of economic, technological, sociocultural and political forces.  This purpose of this article is to discuss the impact of globalization on language translation services and how it has gained increasing important and has created several critically important focuses that include medical translation, legal translation and standard professional translation.

By definition, globalization concerns the development of a single society but that is probably a huge exaggeration.  Further, the pace at which internationalization takes place today is still limited by the same things that created limited when the term was first introduced.  This includes it the trade sanctions, unfair trade deals, quotas, and wars.  Similarly to good and services, people are also prevented from traveling past borders with approval and specific documentation that often includes notarized divorce decree translation, marriage certificate translation and birth certificate translation documentation.

But while the growth of internationalization may have encountered some obstacles, it has still made a tremendous impact in our lives over the past 20 years.  For instance, in the field of law, the globalization refers to Legal Translation Services workers and attorneys begin their day early by translating and securing international patents, trademarks, copyrights, and contracts into dozens of different languages ranging from Chinese and Korean to Russian.   The legal profession is not alone in the change that it has experienced from globalization.  For instance, securities and exchange traders now follow global trends in trading throughout the day and invest in international markets.  Even outside of our professional lives, we see the effects of globalization in multilingual broadcasts of sporting events like soccer championships.  Each of these situations illustrate the dependence that the world has for accurate language translation services in globalization.

It’s important to point out too that while multinational-ism as a subject has only been discussed or the past twenty years in the United States, the concept has been a subject of discussion in Asia for more than 50-years. Just to prove how young the concept is, it is interesting to note that Word Perfect still believes that I must have made a mistake in my spelling.  However, I have ignored their suggestion for correction and have instead written an article about how globalization is changing the world of translation workers. In America, the origins of the term can be traced back social scientists, economists and historians. Despite how old the definition of globalization turns out to be, its effects have created ripples in every segment of our lives, including medical care, where Medical Translation Services workers are common in hospitals and work to translate all sorts of medical reports.

Although concerns are still high about the impact that multinationalism will have on the economy, the vast majority of professional translation workers believe that they have benefited.  Thomas Friedman, for example, an articulate popularized of the globalization idea, came up with the dramatic statement that no two countries that have McDonald’s restaurants have ever gone to war with each other –meaning that societies that successfully participate in global consumerism will become much more cautious about belligerence, because they will have other pleasures they seek to protect and a lot to lose.

Keep and Eye Out For German Medical Translation and Legal Translation Errors

Nearly all professional translators, whether they live in Europe or America, understand that the English and German languages are close relatives and share many terms. German Language students usually find this to be a blessing and a curse.   English-speakers who are learning to become German Translation Services workers need to be aware of this. However, unfortunately, many early learners of German or English don’t understand that things are not always what they may seem. What experts call “false friends,” or “false cognates” are words that sound like a similar word in one language but mean something completely different.  In the translation profession translators should be just as wary of false language friends as they would be of false human friends.

As stated before, these words look like a familiar word but actually have nothing in common with it.  Incorrectly using false cognates can cause embarrassment at best and lawsuits in the worst case scenario.

When comparing German and English, you will find countless numbers of false cognates because the two languages have the same origins.  German and English linguists will tell you that the two languages share many words that sound and appear alike.  Brother / Bruder, auto / Auto, house / Haus, glass / Glas, etc. are just a few examples of the numerous true cognates that exist between the two languages.  There are literally hundreds of words like these that are truly similar in meaning and appearance in the English and German languages, but be careful.

Whether you are an English-native speaker translating from German or a German language native translating from English, the use of true cognates makes texts more readable and makes the translation process go much faster.  But false cognates are just a fact of life for a translator, whether you are providing German to English or English to German Translation.  Regardless of what you call them:  “falsche Freunde,” “false friends,” or false cognatesby any name can present problems if translation service providers are not careful.

The objective (Objektiv) act (Akt) of translation should be done after (After) review of the document.  This sentence shows how the German words in parentheses can be misinterpreted because of their nature as false cognates.  The German words, “After,” “Akt” and “Objectiv” actually mean “rectum,” “nude,” and “lens” respectively in English.  Many such false cognates also exist in medical translations.  These include words like “Weh” which really means pain.  True professional medical translators are wary of false cognates like “kosten”, which means to taste.

Similar difficulties are found in legal translation, which false cognates popping up frequently.  These often include words like “Rathaus,” which means “City Hall,” and not a home for a rodent.  Poor German Medical Translation usually includes many words that are  full of words like “Akt” (see above for meaning) and “absolvieren,” which means to successfully finish a course.  But these are only a few of the numerous false cognates between the German and English languages.  A “Drogerei” is like a drugstore, but lacks the drugs.  It is actually a shop that sells personal items like deodorant, shampoo and candy.  You need to go to the “Apotheke” if you need medications.    In addition, you will need a “Rezept” (prescription) if you go to the pharmacy, but don’t ask the cashier for a “Rezept”, because she will think you are asking for a prescription or a recipe.In summary, this all just underlines the importance of remaining attentive to the complexities involved in professional translation, with particular attention to ensuring you understand that false cognates can ruin a translation.  Mistakenly using false cognates always results in gross errors that reflect poorly on the German translator, the German translation and on the organization or person who uses the translation for official purposes.

Inadequate Medical Translation Services Translate to Medical Malpractice

Medical Translation and Medical Malpractice from German Translation and Korean Transltion mistakes.

Medical Translation Negligence

With the amount of publicity that medical error has received in the news, it is easy to see why the public now views it as something very serious in terms of avoidable patient injury, achieving effective treatment, and controlling health care costs. The prevention of medical errors may seem to be a relatively simple task, and with heightened awareness, some improvements have been reported. While some of these methods are already in place, healthcare administrators are continuously working on new practical, reasonable, and effective approaches.  Unfortunately, most new cases of medical negligence could have easily been avoided.  For instance, research shows that the majority of healthcare slip-ups are due to subpar communiqué often from inexperienced medical translation workers.  Through this editorial, we will shine light on an important oversight so that safer, better and less expensive medical treatment can be offered.

Problems in medical translation and interpretation occur throughout the world.   No country is safe. There are still treatment centers throughout the world that are unqualified to accommodate people needing Japanese, Portuguese or even Korean Translation services.  To help explain the scale of this predicament, our medical translation team has documented a case that will give you a general idea of the issues we face today.

Textbooks on workplace communication detail the encoding, transmission and decoding that takes place in all forms of workplace.  Each message is designed to produce some sort of stimuli when interpreted by the intended party. There are a wide range of methods that allow messages to transmitted and received in an organization that consist of vocal, printed and other non-verbal processes.  For illustration, communication can be facilitated frankly or through an intermediary by means of a vocal message, cell phone, text message, letter, etc.. In addition, the message can take on a wide range of tones that may seem offensive, peaceful, hurried, panicked, advisory, vendictive.  It might also be in a foreign language, special code or another means of expression. Communication might have a hidden agenda too.  In other words, it can full of ambiguity, shun responsibility, and be misleading.

With the previous background information, we now feel comfortable sharing the findings from a medical care study that examined the results of inadequate medical translation..  A worldwide report written by a major medical association found large instances of medical translation error in the medical systems of the U.S., Canada and several European Union nations.  In nearly one in five cases that required the involvement of a medical translator, a serious error was reported. The primary cause was contributed to insufficient experience of the medical translator that contributed to a breakdown in overall communication. The problem implicated the German Translation workers who were shown to lack the medical and interpretation skills needed to adequately communicate the doctor’s orders.    This resulted in patients who were too confused about the instructions provided by the interpreter or patients who didn’t agree with something that the interpreter said. According to available intelligence sources, the health of patients was often in jeopardy because the translator was unqualified to accurately communicate knowledge, beliefs, concerns, questions and answers to the medical staff. Often, doctors were unable not make clear the specific goals for treatment. Translators also overlooked other information that pertained to side-effects of medication and emotional burdons. As a result, many patients grew tired of the side effects and completely stopped taking their prescriptions.  The researchers also found countless examples of poor translations that led to duplicate appointments, incorrect appointment times and large errors in the translation of patient medical records.

University Programs Teach Students Proven Translation Skills

Language Translation Studies for German Translation, Legal Translation and Medical TranslationIn order to give readers a clear understanding about the difficulties associated with language translation, we have prepared this article.  This article will also provide useful information to college students seeking careers in the translation field.  The art of translation and interpretation is subject to error at all stages of the process that includes the process of receiving and handling requests to doing specific translations, assigning the right translator to the job, conducting research, networking, translating words, phrases, and registers, editing the translation, delivering the finished text to the employer or client, billing the client for work completed, and getting paid.  Due to the large number of errors found in translations of literature works, leading universities began to develop translation programs of study.  Eventually, complete degrees began to be offered in universities that had the objective to teaching the skills necessary to deliver quality translations that are equivalent to source documents.

Over the past two decades, German Translation Programs have become an increasingly popular offering on the campuses of leading universities. Typically, these programs will include coursework in the history of translation theory and will then progress forward into modern times.  Eventually, students would move on to take courses that address common problems in literary translation, medical translation and other forms of legal and scientific translation.

Most programs are designed so that students start out with a brief introduction to the types of problems that they will face in the areas of Legal Translation, legal translation, certified translation or any of the other types of translation projects.   Students also learn the downfalls of word for word substitution. A common example of word for word translation is the methodology used by internet translation products.  However, there are times when translators sometimes must use this type of translation.  This is particularly true when the subject matter is highly technical like Medical Translation.  For your insight, the author of this article has written a real life story to help you better understand the challenges that the translation field is presented with.

Several months ago, a major healthcare provider sought the assistance of a German Translation worker in the United States.  Consequently, the project required some travel to Dresden, Germany.  The candidate was a fairly good choice because he had a medical background, native language proficiency in English and had spent over year in a German university.  As you might imagine, the person had excellent English language skills but his German skills were somewhat limited.   In one example, a company representative asked if he was comfortable.  He knew the answer to the question, how he might respond in English and the corresponding words in German.  Since he was nearly keeling over from heat exhaustion, a gasped and said he was very hot.  Like most people from the English-speaking world, he didn’t realize that in German he should have replied by saying “It seems very hot to me.” instead of “I am really warm.”  While they seem similar in English they are drastically different in German.  Unfortunately, the service worker looked befuddled and amused which suggested that the reply was incorrect for the occasion.  What the American had done was made a sexual remark instead of indicating something about the temperature of the air.   You can be assured that the American will think twice the next time he thinks about how he might respond in German.

Medical Translation Service Reveals Illness In Workplace

Medical Translation: Medical Records - Spanish French German Russian Portuguese Japanese Korean Chinese Translation Cleveland

Medical Translation: Medical Records - Spanish French German Russian Portuguese Japanese Korean Chinese Translation Cleveland

Many women experience feeling cold at work on a frequent basis. This is usually because men set the thermostat in office places. The typical professional offices throughout Europe and the USA average 72 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature more suited to men wearing several layers including undershirt, shirt, tie and suit jacket than to women wearing a silk blouse, for example.

A Medical translation of a recent workplace productivity study found that women would be much more productive if the office temperatures were raised a few degrees. A button-down shirt and tie as well as a jacket, lace-up shoes and socks, which women typically do not wear, can make you up to 3 degrees warmer, explains University of Leipzig ergonomics professor Achim Guenther who studies workplace productivity. In a 2008 study of workplace temperatures and productivity, conducted by Guenther and his associates, women made 44 percent fewer typos and increased their words per minute by over 100 percent if the ambient temperature was raised to 77 degrees. In addition, absences due to illness associated with working in cold temperatures declined by over 50 percent when the thermostat was turned up to a comfortable level for women.

Selecting A Chicago Translation Service

Chicago Translation Service: Legal, Medical, Marketing and More

Chicago Translation Service: Legal, Medical, Marketing and More

The opportunities of international trade come with a host of challenges for today’s corporations, healthcare facilities and law firms.  One challenge is correctly communicating your message to foreign audiences.  Unfortunately, the quality of language translation service can vary widely from translation service to translation service.    In addition, some translation firms make promises that they can’t keep about project completion dates, accuracy and add-on services like desktop publishing and proofing.

At THE MARKETING ANALYSTS, we know that selecting a Chicago Translation firm can be difficult.  This is particularly true when your project demand high accuracy and tight deadlines.  When you choose THE MARKETING ANALYSTS, you eliminate the risk of getting poor translation service and enjoy the benefits of clear, concise and accurate translations.  That’s because we have two decades of experience in servicing the needs of Fortune 500 companies, leading law firms and established healthcare services.  It’s our excperience that sets us apart from our competition and sets the foundation for your company to move confidently into new markets.

“We offers specialized services for Legal Translation, Medical Translation and  Marketing Translation and more.”

For additional information about our translation services, please visit our website.  We look forward to the opportunity to provide you with a free quote for your next translation project.