Translation – what is it?
Translation is rendering the content of a written document from its original language, called the source language, into another language called the target language. Usually, the target language is the native language or mother tongue of the translator.
Why would you need a translator?
Although there are a few translation tools available on-line (such as Google Translate or Babylon) that could help you navigate from one language to another, these applications can never replace a translator for a few reasons.
They provide equivalences of words or expressions in various languages without context ;
even if these tools are useful to understand words in other languages, they do not always translate accurately expressions or sentences, let alone a technical text such as a court order, a technical guide explaining how to use a device, etc.
Example: if you type the English word “canopy” in Google Translate, you will be prompted with various translations of this word in French: “baldaquin, auvent, dais, marquise, voûte, toit, canopée”. If you do not possess an extensive knowledge of French, you will not be able to tell whether the translation is accurate based on the context of your document.
This is when the need for a qualified person, a Translator, arises. Indeed, the translator has in-depth knowledge of the source language (for example, English) as well as the target language (for example, French), into which a particular document or text needs to be translated. By reading the source text, the translator is able to understand the context and tone of the written document; therefore, rendering a faithful and an exact translation of the original text.
If you browse through a text in a foreign language, and want a rough idea of the subject of the document, on-line translation tools can be helpful. However, they can be very misleading if you attempt to translate accurately a text into a language you do not master without a Translator’s service.
Moreover, if you are a native speaker of English and can understand French well, it does not mean you possess the ability to understand French from different regions and parts of the world: for example, French expressions from Switzerland, Quebec, Burkina Faso, etc. Each country has its own idioms which only an expert in the language of the country can decipher.
a) For instance, let’s try to translate the French word (des) mitaines into English:
If you are translating a text from France, the accurate English translation would be fingerless gloves; however, if you’re translating a document from Quebec, the word mitaines means mitten.
b) Let’s try now to translate the number seventy into French:
If you’re working for a client from French-speaking Belgium or Switzerland, you will want to translate seventy by septante to them; however, if your client is from France, seventy means soixante-dix to them.
Besides, Translators are not only experts in languages, but they are also avid learners and readers who constantly deepen their knowledge of various fields such as Ecology, Economy, Finance, Legal, Computer Science, and so on, in an effort to be ready for any kind of document that needs to be translated.
ACCULINGUAL specializes in translation from English into French but can also accept translations from German into French or Spanish into French.
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