English speakers who first begin to learn a second language are often met with a perplexing challenge–the use of gender-specific nouns. While English assigns gender to people and animals (for example, “she drove her car to work” or “my dog refused to eat his breakfast”), inanimate objects like “car” and “breakfast” are gender-neutral. Whether you’re […]
Business Translation
USA Immigration Laws Geared to Advance STEM Fields
In January 2022, the Biden-Harris Administration announced several changes to enhance the ability of STEM students and professionals to obtain entry and residency in the United States. STEM includes science, technology, engineering, and mathematics–all fields the administration feels are critical to the prosperity, security, and health of our country. Changes to the USA Immigration laws […]
Translating Rhetoric in Advertising
One doesn’t have to search far on the internet to find an abundance of articles regarding the many mistakes that can and have been made in advertising related to poor translations. For example, when KFC took their slogan of “finger lickin’ good” to China, they inadvertently promoted their product to be as good as “eat […]
Aligning Text with Context: Evaluating Accuracy of Legal Translations
Language translation begins with a relatively simple premise–to convert the words used in one language into another. For inexperienced translators, the work is precisely that. Using little more than a computerized translation system, it’s common for translators to transcribe the text written in the source language (SL) to the target language (TL) with less than […]
Ukrainian Crisis Increases Needs for Qualified Legal Translators
As of March 1, the United Nations reported that 660,000 Ukrainian refugees have successfully escaped into Poland, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, and other countries since the Russians began their invasion into Ukraine less than a week ago. Most of these people were only to take a few items with them and will be building a life […]
Are Potential Immigrants Provided Language Accessibility Rights?
The laws surrounding immigration applications, paperwork, and supporting documents are complicated–starting with whether or not the potential immigrant is afforded the same language accessibility rights as United States citizens. Depending on the situation, the reality can vary greatly. Here is just a brief overview to illustrate the complexity of these laws. Are interpretation and translation […]
Why Your Financial Institution Needs Professional Translation Services
A recent report by BIS shows increasing activity for international banking worldwide. For example, during the third quarter of 2021, banks’ cross-border claims increased by $228 billion–resulting in a year-over-year increase of 3%. Additionally, non-US banks with affiliates in the United States continue to expand. With results like these, it’s clear that the global financial […]
Are Your Legal Documents Getting the Dual Translation Attention They Deserve?
Not all translation work is the same. According to a leading linguist and noted expert in the field of translation, Roman Jakobson, translation is “the interpretation of verbal signs by means of some other language.” Translation professionals and service providers are called upon to convert various written documents from one language to another, from literary […]
How Language Translation was Responsible for U.S. Advances in Science
In today’s world, it’s hard to imagine how language barriers may have restrained the expansion of knowledge, but indeed, that was the case at one time. Without computer technology that can translate texts almost automatically and communication tools to allow people around the world to converse in real-time and with translated “subtitles” on screen, there […]
What are the Differences between a Translator and a Linguist?
Conduct a little research online about translation services for legal documents such as international contracts, and you’re likely to find advice about the importance of working with professional linguists. What is a linguist, and how is that different from hiring a translator? Linguist Recommendations like this are quite confusing. A linguist, by definition, is a […]