| Your company has decided to go ahead with a | | | | Differences exist in the grammatical structure and |
| collaborative venture with an established German | | | | etymologies of any pair of languages, and |
| firm, and you are charged with the onerous task | | | | idiomatic phrases are unique to a language. Also, in |
| of getting the paperwork in order right from the | | | | any given language, most words have more than |
| word go. You are perhaps a bit nonplussed as to | | | | one meaning, with usage depending on the |
| how to go about finding a reliable service provider | | | | context. Thus providing translation services is by |
| who will do a good job of providing English | | | | no means an exact science so one does not |
| translations of the German documents sent by | | | | often come across any consistent one-to-one |
| your overseas counterpart. Identifying a | | | | correlations between phrases of different |
| translation service provider can be both | | | | languages. So any attempt at literal translation of |
| extraordinarily simple as well as complicated, for | | | | texts would be a meaningless exercise and fall far |
| the simple reason that it is not easy to judge the | | | | short of the mark, especially when the issue at |
| quality of the final product delivered to you unless | | | | hand is of a serious nature and you want every |
| you happen to be a linguist yourself. You may at | | | | nuance of the original text captured in the most |
| best be able to hazard a guess as to how well | | | | authentic manner possible. |
| the task has been performed. | | | | Another common misconception is that anyone |
| One of the common misconceptions that many | | | | who speaks fluently in two languages will be a |
| people have about translation services is that | | | | good fit for undertaking translation services work. |
| there always exists a word-for-word or | | | | In one instance, even a professor of French |
| phrase-for-phrase equivalent between any two | | | | teaching college-level students where the medium |
| given languages, and that translation is merely a | | | | of instruction was English, found herself at a loss |
| mechanical process. If this were to be true, | | | | when confronted with a technical document in |
| machine translations can suit your requirement | | | | French. Knowledge of a language per se does not |
| and can be had for the asking at the click of your | | | | equip an individual to get fully conversant with the |
| mouse! In actual fact, any language is a | | | | different terminologies and forms of expression |
| self-contained system in itself that has evolved | | | | used in a business or specialized industry context. |
| over time in a unique manner. There can be no | | | | Translation service agencies are now getting wind |
| parallel in the way any two languages may have | | | | of this problem, and are making it a point to have |
| evolved over time. | | | | on their rolls, translation experts who have |
| Andreas Udbye, Executive Director of the World | | | | expertise in different fields such as medicine, |
| Trade Center Tacoma, on a trip to China a few | | | | pharmacy, engineering industries, finance, |
| years ago with Sam Reed (Secretary of State | | | | agriculture, and so on. Linguists who have subject |
| from Washington) came across a banner that | | | | matter expertise should be the preferred choice |
| read: "Welcome the Ordinary Sam Reed." It's real | | | | when it comes to translations of contractual |
| intent was to say: "Welcome the Honorable Sam | | | | documents, scientific treatises and other |
| Reed." | | | | important documents. |