technical translations
News
Welcome to our UK TechTrans news and information page where we will be bringing you all the latest developments with us as well as keeping you up to date on the complex world of translation.
New International Sales Manager - 29-01-2009
We are looking forward to our new International Sales Manager David Southwell joining us in February. He has been working within the translation industry for the last 15 years. David will be based in Norway so will be taking a close interest in our Norwegian clients but will also be taking care.....
New Brazilian Portuguese Spelling in Effect - 06-01-2009
The Global Watchtower online news site reports on the Brazilian adoption of the Orthographic Agreement, signed by eight countries in 1990.
The agreement was designed to unify the differing orthographical varieties between the Portuguese speaking world. Brazil is the first country.....
Translation/Interpreting - Is it necessary?
We often talk about the United States and the UK being "divided by a common language." This is without adding the rest of the globe into the linguistic cauldron, with the many different cultures and languages that make the world such a colourful place. English is generally known as the most.....
UK TechTrans is an EU Supplier
UK TechTrans is now an official supplier to the EU following a successful tender bid.
Client Testimonials
"Please pass on our thanks to you and the team for the high level of translation service provided."
"Thank you for doing a great job with the translation of our operation manuals into French. The page layout and DTP looked fine, with everything where it should be. I simply had to.....
Lost in Translation
Lost in translation seems a bit of a cliché in this day and age of global markets. The world is becoming smaller and smaller as communication becomes faster and faster and even the biggest companies make some potentially costly language blunders from time to time. Take Colgate who introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, which was the name of a local porn magazine or when some time ago the Scandinavian manufacturer Electrolux used the slogan "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux" in an American ad campaign. KFC's "Finger Lickin Good" slogan translated into Chinese as "Eat Your Fingers Off." The list of translation gaffes is endless and can only lead to one conclusion. Something that works in English does not always translate well in other languages. Given that the world comprises of more than 6000 languages, good translation is vital to ensure the right messages reach the right people.
Machine translation can help if you want a quick translation to get the gist of something, but any of us who have used Alta Vista's Babelfish or similar tools will know that the results are often a far cry from the content of the original document. That is why there is a growing demand for professional translation services where quality can be better assured and the translation can be tailored to individual needs. It would be a disaster if the instruction manual for a power tool or a piece of machinery on a factory line was incorrectly translated. In this case, inaccurate translation could cost lives if something was operated incorrectly due to a misunderstanding in language.
Nothing beats a well done human translation completed by a native speaker with the correct background for the subject matter, with proven experience and preferably a professional translation qualification. Word for word translation, as we have seen above, is not always possible and a professional linguist will help to ensure the right message is conveyed to the audience for whom the translation, whatever it might be, is intended. However, good translation can be costly and as the saying goes "there is no such thing a free lunch." With translation, as with so many things, you get what you pay for. It could be an expensive mistake to try to find a cheap alternative to a dedicated translation service rather than bite the bullet and have the translations done professionally. I know Babelfish and the like will not disappear anytime soon, but if you require an accurate and understandable translation, then engaging the services of a good translation company /translator could avoid costly errors and turn out to be a much more cost effective solution in the long term.
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