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Subject:Re: Bad translation...et je suis bilingue From:Andres Heuberger <andresh -at- FXTRANS -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 20 Jan 1999 10:51:49 -0500
Lisa is absolutely correct -- be aware of "native speakers". The
localization/translation industry throws this concept around as if it were
the end to everybody's quality concerns. Not so fast there.
The U.S. has approx. 200 million native speakers of English. How many of
them are qualified to write technical documentation in English? A small
percentage. How many of them are further qualified to write about
specialized subject matters, such as minimally invasive surgical devices.
The groups get smaller still.
The point is this: using "native speakers" as translators must be the
beginning of the qualification process, not the end. Unfortunately, in the
U.S. and elsewhere in the world, there is a lack of professional testing
and certification for translators. Anybody with a year of High-School
Spanish can call themselves a translator. In response to this, professional
translation companies have introduced their own translator certification
programs (at our company it's called "Compliance Translation Certification").
Look for a vendor with such a translator testing program and, at least,
you're assured that you have properly qualified linguists performing the
linguistic tasks involved.
Regards,
Andres
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Andres Heuberger
ForeignExchange Translations, Inc.
Multilingual Compliance Management
888.454.0787 http://www.fxtrans.com
