TSM Translation Blog

Following the boom of globalisation, translation services are being more and more in demand by companies who want to relocate their business to new areas or want to propose their products to a wider public. Technical translation is, in its narrower sense, a specialised field of translation dealing with any texts related to technological areas. Such documents contain very specialised key terminologies. One could think that this type of translation would be the simplest one of all, arguing that each term is factual and represents exclusively one specific object or action invented by humans themselves. But actually, w hen I encountered the opportunity to translate technical documents and interpret manufacturing processes in a chocolate factory, with hardly any knowledge on technical translation, I though the same along with my boss. I was aware this would be a tough task, yet I agreed on this project. We did not know how wrong we were. Where do the problems of technical tran...

Translating, editing and proofreading: the process for a ‘good’ translation Have you ever wondered if translating a text was as easy as just translating it? Well, as it turns out, many professionals argue that that is just not enough. As a matter of fact, there are three steps in the process of translating a text that need to be followed in order to achieve a high-quality translation: translating, editing – or copyediting – and proofreading. So, if you are ready, let’s talk about this ‘simple’ process. §    Translating: the obvious first step The first and most obvious step is translating. However, this is a complex process that needs some effort and time in order to properly do it. At its core, it can be basically defined as carrying a message from one language – the source language – into a target language. Many theorists have argued this idea for centuries and the discussion is still going on through the several waves of translation studies that keep evol...

The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about the job of a translator is a person working alone in their tiny office surrounded by shelves filled with a variety of books, monolingual and multilingual dictionaries, sitting in an uncomfortable chair behind their desk, furiously typing on their computer as their eyebrows furrow in concentration and they huff and puff in frustration. And although this arduous task is indeed part of a translator’s life, translating is much more than that . The translator's career is quickly evolving, developing and spreading to different new fields. In the modern world where communication is key, the demand for translation and interpretation services in various sectors is growing. One of the fields that is currently undergoing significant change is medical translation, and more specifically translation and interpretation in hospitals and emergency departments (EDs). A civil rights issue  Today, it is more and more expected of ...

Picture credits: www.adme.ru                Game of translators Translations are a series of choices that can cost life, money, relationships and reputation. That is what today’s recruiters forget while paying a layman instead of a professional translator or interpreter.  There is a tendency to take translators for granted, assuming they only need to know how to use CAT-tools in our age of technology or, even worse, treating a good command of two languages enough for a good translation or interpreting. This approach can only be acceptable in regards to love letters where the only danger is two broken hearts. However, when such matters as safety, politics or religion are concerned, the degree of translators’ responsibility is much higher. Here are a few examples that illustrate how prudent the choice of a translator should be and how strict the rules in the game of words are.  1. It’s not personal - strictly interpreting ...

Picture credits: topbots.com Machine translation (MT) is getting more and more effective everyday. Some online translation tools, such as Google Translate, are developed on a daily basis thanks to their users, who can correct wrong translations or add new ones to the system. The more data these translation tools get, the better they become at translating texts from one language to another. Other mobile apps and softwares, seemingly not related to translation at first glance, use translation as a part of their marketing strategy. Skype, for example, promises its users to translate 10 languages in real time during calls, and more than 60 languages for text messages. With the expansion of these machine translation softwares and services, any person who is unfamiliar with the world of translation could wonder if translators are really necessary, when a machine translation tool can translate long texts in just a second, free of charge. Companies would then be right t...

Calm down, you're not unemployed yet! The title may sound alarmist, but progress can't be stopped! The article I read 2 days ago actually talks about a find that, in theory, remains an extraordinary breakthrough! In theory... Okay, I'll stop beating about the bush: Vuzix Corporation, an American multinational and a leading supplier of Smart Glasses and Augmented Reality (AR) technology products along with Zoi Meet, a global provider of communication platforms, have announced the creation of a pair of glasses that provide a real-time transcription service of 12 languages. Impressive, isn't it ? How does it work ? What future for the translator ? So many questions that I will try to answer throughout this article. What's all about ? This pair of glasses is called Vuzix Blade and has been on the market since this month. As mentioned above, this service supports up to 12 languages, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Italian, Dutch...

Getting to translate the words of a world leader is probably the highest place a translator or interpreter can reach in terms of their career. But what if the leader in question seems to have a hard time staying politically and linguistically correct?  This is precisely what many translators around the world struggle with when faced with current US President Donald Trump. With his unique way of speaking (and tweeting!) Donald Trump has been at the heart of many interesting discussions in the field of translation – from online jokes and light broadcasts on television , to actual academic essays and studies on the subject.  As students of translation, let’s consider this case as an opportunity to question the role of political translation.  Why Trump’s speech?  Linguistical problems Leaving any political concerns aside – it is usually agreed that President Trump’s use of grammar and his lexical choices could be better to say the least. As ...

It may surprise you but even we - translators- have our international day! It takes place on 30 September and takes root in Saint Jerome’s life. . https://www.un.org/en/events/translationday/ Saint Jerome's life and its importance for translators    Jerome was born around 347AD in the village of Stridon (now in Slovenia or Croatia). Baptized around 365, he became a Christian priest a decade later and was afterwards appointed Pope Damasus I’s, personal secretary. Damasus made Jerome responsible for creating a new Latin version of the Bible after the saint noticed many errors in the existing version translated from Greek.    Jerome produced – after more than 40 years– what was viewed as a better "error-free" Latin version named Vulgate. He used the Bible’s Hebrew text that he considered the closest to Jesus’ original message. Vulgate means common text as the priest used a poor in quality Latin to make the Bible understandable by everyon...