Translation Facts

 

The definition of translation

trans·la·tion/transˈlāSHən/
Noun: The process of translating words or text from one language into another: “Constantine’s translation of Arabic texts into Latin”.
A written or spoken rendering of the meaning of a word, speech, book, or other text, in another language.

 
  • I need a translation of a document that involves artwork, can you work with this?

Yes, and we are confident to work in any format that you need. We are well versed in Desktop Publishing (DTP/Typesetting) and we can work with your design files, inputting the translated material directly into the artwork. We work regularly with languages that are not read in the same direction as English nor use the same alphabet, for example, Chinese and Arabic – these languages require the original documents to be significantly re-formatted by a native speaker to avoid any corruption of the characters or loss of text.

  • Do I really need a translator when there is someone in our office who speaks that language?

When deciding if you are going to use a professional language services provider think about the document itself – how important is it? Are you confident in your colleague’s ability to carry out an accurate translation? Professional translators train for years to produce the most accurate and high quality translation they can and even after the training it takes years of experience to develop this skill.

Further to the practical skills involved in translating a document, each translator will have their area of specialism (legal, pharmaceuticals etc) within which they will have extensive practical or academic experience – for instance often our legal translators have been, or indeed still are, practising lawyers. The ability to speak another language is not a guarantee of an ability to translate – language constantly evolves and ,especially technical terminology, is always updating and shifting.

  • What exactly are these service levels that I have seen advertised when looking for a translation?

Many UK agencies will vary the amount that they charge for a translation based on the requirements of a customer. From ‘gist’ translation up to full scale copywriting for a foreign market, service levels are an excellent way of making the decision for what best suits your requirements as easy and clear as possible.

  • Why is the translation longer or shorter than the original?

Ways of expressing certain ideas vary from language to language. How ‘wordy’ a language is could therefore affect the length of a translation in respect of the original. This is something to bear in mind if you are looking for the translation of a leaflet, or marketing brochure in that it may affect the layout.

  • I’d like a few changes to be made to my text when it is translated, can you do this?

If you find that you wish to make small changes to a text after translation we are happy to accommodate any tweaks – they can normally be easily incorporated into the translation.

If you have any other questions, or would like further information on something touched upon here then do not hesitate to get in touch with our friendly staff on +44 (0) 8458 878487

Veritas can provide a professional translation of any general or technical document, no matter how large or small or to which time scale. If you would like more information on our professional language translation, contact us today for a free consultation or use our language translation quotation or interpreting quotation apps.