A little while ago, we were told about a letter one of our customers had received from one of their readers, thanking them for providing their publication in German. The letter said that the reader didn’t really need a translation, as he knew English quite well, but that the fact that they had gone to the effort to provide one showed that they cared about their target audience. Now, while it’s great to hear things like this about the work we produce, it also raises an important point.

Some companies will read the part that says that the reader would have got by fine without the translation, and think “what a waste of money, paying business translators when most people speak English anyway!” Others, like our customer, will think that providing good customer care is paramount, and that offering literature and services in their target markets’ own languages fits naturally into this.

So, when deciding whether you need commercial translation, you really have to ask yourself which type of business you run. Although, if your main priority is the bottom line, it may be worth pointing out that only an estimated 25-30% of web users actually speak English, so by foregoing business translations, you may be missing out on more of the market than you think.

If you would like more information about how our business translation services can help you to expand, please get in touch.

Every year, the Welsh celebrate St. David’s Day on March 1st. All over the country, children dress in traditional attire to celebrate, and take part in eisteddfodau. An eisteddfod is a Welsh festival of culture, celebrating literature, music, and performance. People often wear symbols of Wales for the day, such as a a leek or daffodil, to show their pride. Parades are also held, the largest of which takes place in the capital city, Cardiff.

Naturally, Welsh is the official language of the Eisteddfod, but translation services are provided for people who don’t speak the language. If you know a little Welsh, this would be the perfect opportunity to practise! There is even a section of the festival dedicated to Welsh learners, called the Maes D, where language translation and learning resources and advice are shared, and events and competitions are held.

If you would like to know more about our Welsh translation services, please contact us.

Nowadays, the translation of legal documents, including certified translations, is one of the most requested forms of translation, as there are plenty of situations when a certified translation might be necessary:

In the event that you are planning to move abroad, either for study or work. When applying to schools, universities and colleges in another country, they will probably request a certified translation of any legal documents, such as your diplomas or academic transcripts.
Perhaps you married your Portuguese sweetheart in his country, then returned to your country. In this case, your marriage certificate will need to be registered and processed by your local court, obviously in your language.
If you want to apply for a visa or residence permit in a foreign country, you will be asked to submit official documentation, such as a copy of your birth certificate, among other files. All documents will be required to be submitted in the country’s official language, and translations to be certified.

A certified translation of legal documents must meet certain legal specific requirements (they can vary depending on the country where the document is going to be used). In general terms, certified translations are always accompanied by a signed statement from the legal translator or/and translation company, which attests that you have been provided with an accurate and complete translation of the original document. Sometimes, a document may need also need to be notarised, that is, signed and sealed by a Notary Public, or it may include Apostille, which is a certificate that confirms the authenticity of a signature, seal and/or stamp, legalising the document for foreign use.

Your certified translations may be more important than what you think. Bear in mind that these will be the documents which represent you, and that make your first impression, and they reflect to an extent the reliability of both their content, and the applicant. Consequently, they may greatly influence the outcome of an application.
Take the submission of a marriage certificate for the immigration process as an example. A poorly-done, inaccurate translation, containing misspellings of names or the wrong date format (which is surprisingly a very common mistake), would be reason enough for a delay in your application process, which may lead to legal consequences, or even to your case being denied.

The above are just a few examples when a certified translation may be needed. Other documents include patents, sale contracts, trade agreements, court orders, affidavits, divorce decrees, wills, adoption papers, medical reports, and so on.

All of these documents represent important and valuable events in your life, so you’d better take care of them!

For more information about the translation of legal documents, visit our website.

MONDAY

What does it take to offer a professional legal interpreting service?

Megan muses on what exactly makes a truly professional legal interpreting service.

TUESDAY

Post-editing and document translation services.

We talk about the rising popularity of post-edited machine translations, and why we don’t provide this type of translation.

WEDNESDAY

The ease of telephone interpreting.

Estrella explains some of the benefits of telephone interpreting as opposed to traditional face-to-face methods.

THURSDAY

Award winners!

Veritas became the winner of the Welsh regional heat of the Lloyds TSB Best Enterprise Award this week. Wish us luck for the finals!

FRIDAY

About sign language interpretation.

Here, we share some interesting facts about sign language interpreting. How much do you know about it?

Although there is an International Sign Language, known as Gestuno, it is not commonly known within the deaf community, and is used only at international Deaf events and meetings. In reality, hundreds of different sign languages are in use around the world. But not only are there different sign languages from one country to another, but there are even different dialects within the same country or linguistic community. For example, American Sign Language (ASL) differs notably from British Sign Language (BSL) – to a greater extent than both languages differ at speaking level.

The Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) estimates that there are between 50,000 and 70,000 people in the UK who use sign language.

Taking the above figures into account, the role of sign language interpretation becomes essential. Yet the development of sign language interpretation has only taken place relatively recently. In the sixteenth and seventeenth century, sign interpretation was not a recognised professional practice. Interpreters received no compensation for their work, and normally the children or relatives of deaf people were the ones who fulfilled the role of interpreter.

Sign language interpretation emerged as a response to the social demand made by deaf or hard of hearing people: the need to break communication barriers that isolate them from society, and the right to participate in it on equal terms.

It took a long time for sign language interpretation to be to be recognised and treated as a profession, and for legal dispositions concerning sign language to be set up by Governments, different Associations to be formed, specific courses to be made available for people who aim to work as a sign language interpreter, etc.
Nowadays, a professional sign language interpreter is required to have many important skills. They must not only know each sign perfectly, but also note and properly transfer the facial expressions and body language elements that accompany the message (hand shape, body position and movement, gestures, facial expressions)

Veritas offers several types of sign language interpretation services which are specialised to cater for different professional areas. To find out more visit our website.

We’re proud to announce that Veritas was yesterday crowned the Welsh Winner of the 2012 Lloyds TSB Enterprise Awards, winning a £5,000 prize. We’ve also now earned ourselves a place in the National Finals where we will be competing against the best of business from across the UK. The Awards celebrate successful graduate entrepreneurs who have been identified as the next generation of business talent.

In particular, the Lloyds TSB Enterprise Awards recognise the challenges overcome when setting up a business fresh from university. Veritas was set up when, whilst studying for a degree in translation, Rachel and Sharon realised that the translation industry had become a hotbed for malpractice and low standards. They saw an opportunity to make it more quality-driven and provide an intelligent and more accurate service.

Veritas has been shortlisted as Best Enterprise, a category which is open to businesses with demonstrable growth and innovation. Having launched Veritas globally in 2009, and helped offer language services to numerous major international companies, Sharon and Rachel are confident they have what it takes to walk away with the overall £50,000 prize.

With the final judging process taking place early next month, Sharon says “We are delighted to have been recognised for our achievements in providing language services across the globe, and we’re excited about proceeding to the next stage of the judging!”

Sharon and Rachel will now be attending the Grand Final where they will present to a panel of national judges. Winners in each category will then be announced at a Gala Awards Dinner in Liverpool in March.

Visit our dedicated Awards Page for information about all the awards we’ve won.

Advances in communication technology have given rise to many new translation and interpreting tools, some of which are ultimately proved to be unreliable or useless. Others, however, make the translator or interpreter’s work much easier, and give clients a sense of convenience and security. Telephone interpreting is definitely one of them.
Also called “over-the-phone interpreting,” “telephonic interpreting,” and “tele-interpreting,” nowadays telephone interpreting is being used by more and more companies, organizations and businesses, and is gaining momentum in many countries. It’s quickly becoming a new area of work for professional interpreters. Let’s look at the main advantages that this service provides its users.

To start with, the obvious ease and convenience of the process: all you have to do is call a phone number, select the languages you need, and in a few seconds you will have a professional interpreter on the line, who will assist you in your conversation. The service is particularly useful in many situations, for example, during an important business meeting with foreign delegates, or when making an application for insurance in a foreign country you just moved to, among plenty of other situations.

Telephone interpreting is not only easy to use, but this service normally costs much less than traditional interpreting, which is probably its main advantage. Hiring a phone interpreting service is cheaper than hiring permanent staff or a face-to-face interpreting service, since the travel costs and insurance associated with face-to-face interpretation services are avoided. Besides, phone interpreting services are usually charged per minute, whereas face-to-face interpreting services are charged by the hour.

Another very important point is that phone interpreting can save you a lot of time. To find an interpreter for a minority language can prove difficult, especially if you need the service immediately, which could be the case for example, in a hospital that needs to communicate with a foreign patient due to a medical emergency. In an emergency situation, there may not be time to wait for an interpreter to arrive.

Also, it is worth mentioning the confidentiality and impartiality benefits that telephone interpreting gives the customer. Some people feel more comfortable with telephone interpreting because of the relative anonymity afforded to them by the interpreter not being able to see them. Following the example of an appointment at a hospital, some patients may feel uncomfortable talking about their personal health problems in the presence of an stranger.

There is no doubt that telephone interpreting services can get you or your company out of a tricky situation, when you don’t have time to arrange an interpreter, but what do you think? We’d love to hear your opinions, especially if you have used our telephone interpreting services in the past.

Veritas provides a telephone interpreting service covering all languages, 24 hours a day. Find out more information about our telephone interpreting on our website.

What is post-editing?
Post-editing describes the act of editing, or in some cases, rewriting the translation of documents that has been produced by a translation programme. There are several companies that provide this service, such as SYSTRAN, Google Translate, Babel Fish and Worldlingo, and the process is used by many providers of document translation services, but there has always been an issue surrounding just how much post-editing needs to be done.

Isn’t MT just as good as a human translator?
MT is most certainly not as ‘good’ as a human translator, as no machine exhibiting complete grammatical perfection can recognise the subtleties and connotations attached to certain contexts. This is illustrated perfectly in Grice’s idea of conversational implicature, discussed in his work Studies in the Way of Words.
The principle here is that a listener would pick up ‘hidden’ meaning in what the speaker had said. For example, if my boyfriend was an hour late getting home for dinner, and I said “do you know what time it is?!” his reply would most likely not be “yes”. This is because, unless he was being sarcastic (not advised!), he would recognise that the question was inferring that an explanation, or indeed apology, is required!

Although document translation services are no doubt carried out by companies who use MT and post-editing, the levels of required time and effort are arguably too high at this time for the process to be efficient.

Are there any MT advocates out there? Are there certain situations where you find it easier to post-edit? Please do give us an insight into how and why it works (or doesn’t work) for you.

For more information about how Veritas can help your business, take a look at our document translation services page.

In order to provide a professional, and ultimately successful, legal interpreting service, you will need to have an extensive skill set far beyond simply knowing and speaking another language. The following guidelines are taken from the Code of Professional Conduct which is produced by the National Register of Public Service Interpreters:

Linguistic and Cultural Competence: The competence to carry out a particular assignment shall include: a sufficiently advanced and idiomatic command of the languages concerned, with awareness of dialects and other linguistic variations that may be relevant to a particular commission of work; the particular specialist skills required; and, where appropriate, an adequate level of awareness of relevant cultural and political realities in relation to the country or countries concerned.

Confidentiality: Practitioners shall respect confidentiality at all times and shall not seek to take advantage of information acquired during or as a result of their work. The duty of confidentiality shall not terminate on the completion of a commission of work and shall persist, where appropriate, beyond the cessation of registration.

Impartiality: Practitioners carrying out work as Public Service Interpreters, or in other contexts where the requirement for neutrality between parties is absolute, shall not enter into discussion, give advice or express opinions or reactions to any of the parties that exceed their duties as interpreters.

Do any legal interpreters out there have any tips and advice for aspiring interpreters? To find out more about the service offered by Veritas, please visit our legal interpreting service page.

MONDAY

Some Misconceptions about Technical Translations

Estrella discusses some of the many aspects of what constitutes a “technical” text, and why so many fields seem to come under this umbrella term.

TUESDAY

Medical Translation Services; Research, Accuracy and Professionalism

We talk about the importance of research and experience in medical translation.

WEDNESDAY

Website Translation Services: How to Specialise

How do you go about specialising in website translation? Well, there are a few things you should know before you start.

THURSDAY

Conference Interpreting on the Small Screen

What is the difference between conference interpreting, and televised conference interpreting? There are a few considerations which must be taken into account when televising conference interpreting.

FRIDAY

Financial Translations: A Guide to Global Currencies

When dealing with Financial translations, it’s really important to get the basics right. This guide to global currencies should prove useful to anyone looking to become a financial translator.