Hiring the wrong one can doom your event before it even starts.
Communicating to attendees in multiple languages can be tricky. This brief guide will make hiring a translator a little easier.
Translators mainly translate into their native language.
A translator needs to have intimate knowledge of the language they are translating into. For this reason, the best translations will be those produced by native speakers. Words are meant to make you feel something, take action, and inform. The writer needs to be able to use nuance, tone and idioms, to name just a few things, to make sure they get the balance right and create a sharp text fitting the client’s brief.
Translators specialize in particular sectors, so they are experts in that particular field e.g., health & safety, medical or legal.
Most of the time it’s because if they translate some text in a field they are unfamiliar with, they just don’t translate it in the right way: they don’t use the right vocabulary for the industry and can’t explain the process properly. This is why translators specialize. They can translate content about their chosen sector with confidence, knowing someone from the industry will know exactly what they’re talking about. You can’t be an expert in everything can you? Translators are continuously honing their skills, from reading up on the subject to immersing themselves in their chosen field.
There is a difference between ‘translator’ and ‘interpreter’.
They’re not the same. An interpreter deals with the spoken word, so translates orally. They’re those impressive people you see at conferences switching from one language to another, in the blink of an eye, like it’s nothing. A translator deals with the written word, not the spoken word. “I found that people outside the event industry didn’t know our terminology, which meant that translations I received as an organizer were unfit for purpose more often than not,” said Julia Danmeri, founder of TranslateAble.
Any thoughts, opinions, or news? Please share them with me at vince@meetingsevents.com.
Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash
