Technical Translation

Technical Translation

Globalization and Impetus to Translation Activities

In the 1990s, interdependency among countries all over the world increased,
changing the way business was carried out before. The term globalization took
precedence in business terminology as interrelationships of the worlds’ economies,
cultures and populations brought on a global exchange of trade in goods, services,
technology, and flows of investment, people, and information. This was further
simplified by the rise of the Internet during that period. Since then, countries across
the world have been dealing a lot more with each other, and despite all the
infrastructures being in place to facilitate this exchange, there is still the barrier of
language to carry out a smooth exchange of information. This gave rise to the need
for translations at a much higher volume than previously experienced.

As information is being exchanged from one country to the other to maximize

business possibilities, it must be translated.

“Translation” is, etymologically, a “carrying across” or “bringing across”: the Latin

translatio derives from transferre (trans, “across” + ferre, “to carry” or “to bring”).
What is technical translation?

Translation is the activity of interpreting a text in one language, i.e., the source text,
and producing a new text in a different language, i.e., the target text, which must be
equivalent to the source. The goal of translation is to make sure that the source and
target texts communicate the same message, while taking into account a number of
constraints, such as context, rules of grammar of both languages, their writing
conventions, etc.

Technical translation specifically deals with the translation of technical texts, such as
manuals, instructions, specifications, etc. These consist of texts that relate to a
technological subject, which contain a high volume of terminology, that is, words or
expressions that are used almost only within a specific field.

Specialization

Technical translations are carried out by technical translators who must have good
knowledge in the subject matter and, since technical translations also require specific
terminology related to the subject matter, the translators must possess good
knowledge of the terminology in both the source and target languages of the field, to
be able to perform the translation properly.

A large variety of materials require technical translations. Content from the scientific,
engineering, medical and technical fields may require the translator to hold a degree
in the field or possess professional translation skills. Then we have content such as
product specifications sheets, software specifications, user manuals, etc. which may
not require the translator to have a degree in the field, but the translator must have
good working knowledge of the terminology used in the field.
WordPar is a leading translation and localization company situated in India,
specializing in technical translations for Indian and foreign languages, to clients in
India, Europe and America.

Examples of Specialized Translation

Few examples of different types of technical translation:

User manuals

This is what most people generally think of, when they think of technical translations.
This is because user manuals are usually created by technical writers. Translation of
user manuals requires specialized knowledge and skills by the translator on the
subject matter.

Patent translation

Patent translations require the translator to possess expertise in the art of writing
patents, as well as legal knowledge.

Translation and localization for software strings

The translation and localization of software strings for user interfaces require special
treatment. While the language of the user interfaces may seem simple, the translator
needs to know how to handle strings that are being interpreted by the program.
Translators also need to know the terminology that the client may want to use to
convey their message.

Scientific and engineering related translation

Scientific translations deal with documents in the domain of science: articles, theses,
papers, study reports, etc. Engineering related translations deal with documents from
different types of engineering fields, such as mechanical engineering, electrical
engineering, civil engineering, environmental engineering, architectural engineering,
and so on. The translators working in these fields generally must have a degree in
the subject matter as well as professional translation skills.

Financial translation

Deals with documentation relating to finances, banking and stock exchange activity.
The translators working in such a field must have good knowledge of the terminology
used in the finance sector.

Legal translation

Legal translation covers a wide range of different documents. These may include
summons and warrants; administrative texts such as registration certificates,
corporate statutes and remittance drafts; technical documents such as expert
opinions and texts for judicial purposes. A number of other texts such as leases,
contracts, etc. The translators working in such a field must have good knowledge of
legal terminology.

Translation Tools

Translation tools help facilitate the task of the translator. A technical translator will
frequently translate similar documents, over a large period of time. These tools help
the translator to develop his or her own glossary of terminology and even help
provide a rough translation of the text, which the translator can later refine. Here are
some of the translation tools that translators may use:

CAT Tools (Computer-Assisted Translation Tools)

CAT tools are probably the most commonly used translation tools. CAT tools are
software that are installed in the translators’ systems. CAT tools usually organize the
text into smaller, translatable segments, which can be recalled later on, during the
translation process, thanks to the CAT tool’s translation memory. A couple of the
well-known CAT tools are: MemoQ and SDL Trados Studio.

Website Translation Tools

These are tools available online, which are similar to CAT tools, they may offer fewer
features, but there is no need to install them in your system. A couple of interesting
tools in this category are: Poedit and WPML.
Machine-Translation Online Tools and Dictionaries

There are countless dictionaries available online. A few online sites also provide
tools to carry out translations automatically, the most famous among which is Google
Translate. However, these sites must be used with care, and rather as dictionaries
than to carry out the entire translation, because more often than not, they fail to take
into account the context of the translation, and translations can sometimes be very
literal. Good examples of such tools are: Linguee, Proz.com terms and Systran.

WordPar being a reputed language translation company, is equipped to handle

translations in all CAT tools. We are up-to-date with our tools and technology.

The Future of Translation

There is an ongoing debate as to whether globalization is useful to the existence of

humanity in our universe. There are extreme views, from its supporters who insist on
its economical, cultural and political rewards, to those who oppose it, and see the
new world of globalization as a very gloomy image.

Dominant Global Languages

Language distancing has been predominantly shrinking as a result of the prevalence

of globalization. Several languages have won the title of globalization, namely,
English, French, German and Spanish. English, in particular, has gained
prominence. It is a well-known fact that any person who would like to expand its
business globally, must have some knowledge of English. Will English become a
global language? Has it already become the unofficial global language? If English
becomes the common language for the entire world, would we have a lesser need for
translators?

Evolving Technology

Then, there’s the advent of technology which is developing at a pace faster than ever
in history. It’s not unfathomable to think that every phone in the future will be installed
with a machine translation App. It’s also not unfathomable to think that machine
translation will become close to perfect. There are already machine translation tools
which offer automatic translations for specific fields. The more language is fed into
the language servers, the more the servers will have the tools to return a near perfect
translation.

Whether people support or oppose it, it is clear that with the advances of the Internet
and social medias, our world will shrink even further and become closer, and that the
volume of information shared among countries across the world will continue to
increase. And as long as there is a disparity in the language that the information is
shared, and machine translation is still average, we, the translators, are here to
serve!

Credit: Manoj Lakhwani, Chand Lakhwani

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