A medical translation company ensures precision through specialized workflows, expert translators, and compliance with local regulations.
In the 1990s, interdependency among countries all over the world increased, changing the way business was carried out before. The term globalization took precedence in business terminology as interrelationships of the worlds’ economies, cultures and populations brought on a global exchange of trade in goods, services, technology, and flows of investment, people, and information.
This was further simplified by the rise of the Internet during that period. Since then, countries across the world have been dealing a lot more with each other, and despite all the infrastructures being in place to facilitate this exchange, there is still the barrier of language to carry out a smooth exchange of information. This gave rise to the need for translations at a much higher volume than previously experienced.
As information is being exchanged from one country to the other to maximize business possibilities, it must be translated.
“Translation” is, etymologically, a “carrying across” or “bringing across”: the Latin translatio derives from transferre (trans, “across” + ferre, “to carry” or “to bring”).
Translation is the activity of interpreting a text in one language, i.e., the source text, and producing a new text in a different language, i.e., the target text, which must be equivalent to the source. The goal of translation is to make sure that the source and target texts communicate the same message, while taking into account a number of constraints, such as context, rules of grammar of both languages, their writing conventions, etc.
Technical translation specifically deals with the translation of technical texts, such as manuals, instructions, specifications, etc. These consist of texts that relate to a technological subject, which contain a high volume of terminology, that is, words or expressions that are used almost only within a specific field.
Technical translations are carried out by technical translators who must have good knowledge in the subject matter and, since technical translations also require specific terminology related to the subject matter, the translators must possess good knowledge of the terminology in both the source and target languages of the field, to be able to perform the translation properly.
A large variety of materials require technical translations. Content from the scientific, engineering, medical and technical fields may require the translator to hold a degree in the field or possess professional translation skills. Then we have content such as product specifications sheets, software specifications, user manuals, etc. which may not require the translator to have a degree in the field, but the translator must have good working knowledge of the terminology used in the field.
WordPar is a leading translation and localization company situated in India, specializing in technical translation services for Indian and foreign languages, to clients in India, Europe and America.
User Manuals
This is what most people generally think of, when they think of technical translations. This is because user manuals are usually created by technical writers. Translation of user manuals requires specialized knowledge and skills by the translator on the subject matter.
Patent translations require the translator to possess expertise in the art of writing patents, as well as legal knowledge.
The translation and localization of software strings for user interfaces require special treatment. While the language of the user interfaces may seem simple, the translator needs to know how to handle strings that are being interpreted by the program. Translators also need to know the terminology that the client may want to use to convey their message.
Scientific translations deal with documents in the domain of science: articles, theses, papers, study reports, etc. Engineering related translations deal with documents from different types of engineering fields, such as mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, civil engineering, environmental engineering, architectural engineering, and so on. The translators working in these fields generally must have a degree in the subject matter as well as professional translation skills.
Deals with documentation relating to finances, banking and stock exchange activity. The translators working in such a field must have good knowledge of the terminology used in the finance sector.
Legal translation covers a wide range of different documents. These may include summons and warrants; administrative texts such as registration certificates, corporate statutes and remittance drafts; technical documents such as expert opinions and texts for judicial purposes. A number of other texts such as leases, contracts, etc. The translators working in such a field must have good knowledge of legal terminology.
Legal translation is by far one of the more difficult and taxing forms of technical translation. Legal language is technical and different from regular written and spoken language. Concepts and jargon of legalese requires legal education. Translators who offer technical translation services for legal documents must have studied law either formally or as part of their work in order to be able to deliver quality in text and translation.
Translation tools help facilitate the task of the translator. A technical translator will frequently translate similar documents, over a large period of time. These tools help the translator to develop his or her own glossary of terminology and even help provide a rough translation of the text, which the translator can later refine. Here are some of the translation tools that translators may use:
CAT tools are probably the most commonly used translation tools. CAT tools are software that are installed in the translators’ systems. CAT tools usually organize the text into smaller, translatable segments, which can be recalled later on, during the translation process, thanks to the CAT tool’s translation memory. A couple of the well-known CAT tools are: MemoQ and SDL Trados Studio.
These are tools available online, which are similar to CAT tools, they may offer fewer features, but there is no need to install them in your system. A couple of interesting tools in this category are: Crowdwin, Poedit and WPML.
There are countless dictionaries available online. A few online sites also provide tools to carry out translations automatically, the most famous among which is Google Translate. However, these sites must be used with care, and rather as dictionaries than to carry out the entire translation, because more often than not, they fail to take into account the context of the translation, and translations can sometimes be very literal. Good examples of such tools are: Linguee, Proz.com terms and Systran.
WordPar being a reputed language translation company, is equipped to handle translations in all CAT tools. We are up-to-date with our tools and technology.
Language distancing has been predominantly shrinking as a result of the prevalence of globalization. Several languages have won the title of globalization, namely, English, French, German and Spanish. English, in particular, has gained prominence. It is a well-known fact that any person who would like to expand its business globally, must have some knowledge of English. Will English become a global language? Has it already become the unofficial global language? If English becomes the common language for the entire world, would we have a lesser need for translators?
Then, there’s the advent of technology which is developing at a pace faster than ever in history. It’s not unfathomable to think that every phone in the future will be installed with a machine translation App. It’s also not unfathomable to think that machine translation will become close to perfect. There are already machine translation tools which offer automatic translations for specific fields. The more language is fed into the language servers, the more the servers will have the tools to return a near perfect translation.
Whether people support or oppose it, it is clear that with the advances of the Internet and social medias, our world will shrink even further and become closer, and that the volume of information shared among countries across the world will continue to increase. And as long as there is a disparity in the language that the information is shared, and machine translation is still average, we, the translators, are here to serve!
Need professional translation, localization, or language solutions tailored to your industry? We’re here to help you communicate seamlessly across borders. Connect with us today to discuss your project requirements.
Vikram Malhotra is the Founder and CEO of Wordpar International.
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