Here at Veritas. we’re often approached by linguists looking to set foot into the language translation industry. As we often hear ourselves saying, knowing a second language by no means makes you a translator, and making your mark in the translation industry can certainly be hard work at times. This article aims to give some handy hints and tips to anyone looking to move into the industry, and the best steps to take to make a name for yourself in the world of translation.

First of all, you should be aware that most translation agencies will have fairly stringent vetting procedures, and approaching them without experience in the industry will unfortunately almost always lead to disappointment. Many translation agencies will also require applicants to hold a degree. Holding a university degree shows that you have a high level of linguistic competence, alongside writing skills and the ability to keep to deadlines; all essential skills for a translator.

With regard to experience, a great place to start is by completing translations for charities or individuals. Although these may be poorly paid (or completely unpaid), they will give you an invaluable insight into the industry, and will give you the experience you need to allow you to apply to work within larger translation agencies, which can secure a steady flow of paid work in the future.

Another great place to start would be the Institute of Translators and Interpreters (ITI), or ...

The realm of legal interpreting has been marred with controversy over the past several weeks following the privatisation of court interpreting services under a new contract signed between Applied Language Solutions and the Ministry of Justice. In the latest of setbacks, a story was brought to our attention regarding an error in an interpreter’s pronunciation which led to the dismissal of a court case. So just how important is clear enunciation in providing a legal interpreting service, and how much attention to interpreters need to pay to not only what they say, but also how they say it?

There are many extra-linguistic features that interpreters need to pay attention to in order to provide a successful legal interpreting service. The tone, register, prosody, and of course the meaning of the original speaker’s message needs to be accurately conveyed in the target language for an interpretation to be successful. If any of these factors are missed in a court case for example, then the interpreter risks misinterpreting what has been said, which can have drastic effects on the outcome of the hearing.

In general, interpreters will work into their native language, which should rule out any chance of mispronunciation or problems in understanding the interpreter. In some cases, however, it may be necessary for an interpreter to work out of their native language. In these cases, it is to be expected that interpreters will retain some aspects ...

Here at Veritas we aim to provide professional translation services for the myriad of languages the world has to offer. We’re passionate about minority languages, and we’re always excited to hear about steps being made towards their preservation and documentation.

This week’s minority language news comes from the publication of the first ever Andaman Dictionary by linguist Dr Anivita Abbi. Dr Abbi compiled her data and made recordings over a number of years from the tribesmen and women living on the Andaman Islands. These are a small group of islands around 700 miles to the East of India and are home to one of the most ancient cultures on Earth. Dr Abbi’s published research is also interactive, and contains details on, and recordings from the four Andamanese languages: Bo, Khora, Jeru and Sare.

Here’s the sad news: The Khora language has actually been extinct since November 2009, and Bo also became extinct when its last remaining speaker, Boa Sr, died last year at the age of 85. Jeru and Sare now have only a handful of speakers left on the island, and Dr Abbi hopes that her dictionary will help preserve these languages for as long as humanly possible.

So what caused these languages to disappear in the first place? The main factor in their downfall was British colonisation in the 19th Century. This, followed by death and disease brought by the settlers led to an ever-shrinking ...

If you work within the translation industry, or have been keeping up-to-date with recent language news, you will no doubt be aware of the controversy surrounding the contract signed recently between translation and interpreting agency Applied Language Solutions and The Ministry of Justice. The reported £300M contract signed last year was introduced as a money-saving arrangement, allowing the private firm ALS to source linguists for the courts, and ousting the legal interpreting service previously supplied within the public sector. The contract was intended to save the courts £18M a year in interpreter costs, but everything has not been running as smoothly as both parties might have envisaged.

As the new contract is intended to save money, there have of course been new conditions introduced for the interpreters. These include drastically reduced payment rates for an interpreter (by up to 50% in some cases) which has angered among many of the interpreters, who are now refusing to work for ALS. This in turn has meant that the ALS pool of linguistic talent is shrinking by the hour, and now it is alleged many under qualified and inexperienced interpreters have been turning up to court hearings across the country. The Daily Telegraph has also reported that court staff have had to resort to using machine translation software like Google Translate to aid communication when interpreters have either been late or haven’t turned up at all.

Our concern at Veritas ...

Here at Veritas, we’re always excited to read about languages in the news. A story which we’ve been following recently however, left us with a more sickly feeling in our stomachs. Last month, two British journalists were arrested in Libya and held for a number of weeks by militia forces. Initially the pair were detained on the grounds of having entered the country illegally, but a few days into their capture they were accused of being Isreali spies after some medical supplies with Welsh-language writing was discovered in their possession. Here’s how their ordeal played out:

The two journalists, Nicholas Davies-Jones and Gareth Montgomery-Johnson (from Carmarthen, South Wales) were working for Iran’s state-owned English language Press TV in Tripoli. One night in February, they were arrested at a party by The Swelhi Brigade; a Libyan militant group. When they asked their captors why they were taken, they were told that they did not have Libyan entry visas in their passports, and had therefore entered the country illegally. After 5 days under arrest, things turned darker for the two journalists when they were accused of spying after Welsh-Language documents in their possession were mistaken for Hebrew.

Speaking in an interview with BBC radio 5 live, Mr Montgomery-Johnson explained that his father was a nurse in a Welsh hospital and that the pair “were mistaken for Israeli spies when the militia men confused Welsh with Hebrew when they found dressings with ...