FUNDEU and RAE: Two Essential Sites for the Good Use of Spanish
Spanish, like most modern languages, is suffering from a lack of care and a candid disregard for the correct use of grammar, punctuation, spelling and tense. Indeed, it is particularly concerning when members of the press, media and communications also fail to possess a clear understanding of how the language is correctly constructed. Fortunately, Fundéu […]
How do you find the perfect Spanish translator?
Finding someone to translate from or to Spanish won’t be a difficult task. There are plenty of people willing to offer their services in this area. However, finding the perfect Spanish translator, finding someone who is actually going to do a good job, is not so easy and there are many pitfalls that the inexperienced […]
Seal the Deal: Presenting and Following up on Translation Quotes
If you’re a freelance translator, you probably send out translation quotes several times a week. Chances are that you never hear back from some of those potential clients. What do you do in those situations? Do you contact the client, or do you let that project just slip away? Here are some tips to help […]
The Value of Professional Translators
Ever since the advent of machine translation, naysayers have been predicting the extinction of the human translator. In their opinion, it’s only a matter of time before this new technology renders professional translators completely obsolete. However, it’s not as easy to replace a human translator as some would have you think. Trained professional translators possess […]
The Field of Translation Ranks among Top Recession-Proof Industries
With the global economy still feeling the effects of the recession, some industries are holding their own while others are floundering. Fortunately, the prospects for the field of translation look extremely promising, with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projecting industry growth of 42% during this decade, a figure that exceeds growth estimates for […]
English Words that Take on Alter Egos in Spanish
As a non-native speaker of Spanish, it’s a given that certain words will occasionally throw me for a loop during the course of a conversation. What I don’t generally expect is that those words will be from my own language! A number of words such as chequear (to check) and frizar (to freeze) have passed […]
The Ethics of Translation
Just as professionals such as doctors and lawyers occasionally grapple with ethics, translators and interpreters will likely face a range of ethical dilemmas in the practice of their profession. Certain countries have established codes of conduct that set out guidelines for issues such as quality standards, impartiality, and confidentiality; however, the truly difficult decisions arise […]
The Absence of Certified Translators in the U.S. and Implications for Translation Buyers
Unlike most European and Latin American countries, licensure or certification for translators does not exist within the United States, neither at the federal nor the state level. In the case of interpreters, a program does exist to certify individuals so that they may work within the federal court system; however, interpreters in other fields are […]
Should Translation Apps Be Used by Emergency Personnel?
Every second counts in an emergency. In everyday life, a language barrier can produce frustrating or even comical results, but in critical situations, first responders can’t rely on pantomime or guessing games to determine crucial information about non-English speaking patients’ status or medical history. Doctors at clinics and hospitals frequently use staff medical interpreters, telephone […]
The Importance of Quality Translations to the Pharmaceutical Industry
In a global economy dominated by the English language—the world’s current lingua franca—obstacles to the clear communication of scientific information abound. With an increasing amount of clinical research and pharmaceutical manufacturing taking place around the world in numerous languages, quality Medical translation services can break down these barriers, expediting the process to bring a drug […]
