Common Questions

QUESTION: Why should I pay somebody so much money just to have my document translated? Can't I just give it to the cute foreign student who moved in next door? Or my bi-lingual secretary?

ANSWER: Would you rather be operated on by somebody who knows a lot about medicine or a board-certified surgeon? Keep in mind that only an accredited professional has:

QUESTION: Aren't computers able to do all the work already? Don't you have a special program that you feed the source document into to get the translated document from?

ANSWER: No, thankfully we still haven't been replaced by computers. Machine translation programs and free translation web sites are used by certain companies for very rudimentary and repetitive translations (VERY RUDIMENTARY). I personally own a program referred to as Computer Assisted Translation Software (C.A.T.).

I have a vast library of documents I've already translated and this program will show me how I used the same term in the past when a new document is submitted to the program. It also ensures that the same term or phrase will be used throughout the final document. It does make my life easier, but it certainly doesn't do the work for me.

QUESTION: Since there is no state or national licensing of interpreters or translators in the US, what credentials should I look for when I need to hire a translator for a written document or an interpreter for a meeting or deposition?

ANSWER: Translators should ideally be accredited by the American Translators Association in the language combination you are seeking. For example, do not hire someone accredited in Italian into English when you need a document translated into French. You can access their directory at: www.atanet.org

For an interpreter at a legal deposition or trial, your local Federal Courthouse will have a list of interpreters who have passed the rigorous certification examination administered by the Administrative Office of the Courts. Less than 10% of the interpreters sitting for this test actually pass it. For languages not covered by this test, the clerk of court will have names of interpreters they consider qualified for legal matters.

If you are organizing a conference requiring the specialized services of a simultaneous conference interpreter, the best thing to do is look up the AIIC web site (www.aiic.net) and click on the world-wide directory of interpreters in dozens of languages. AIIC is the acronym for the International Association of Conference Interpreters.

QUESTION: Why do simultaneous interpreters at conferences take turns every twenty minutes? What do I need two interpreters for when there's only one person at the conference who doesn't speak English?

* Encoding their understanding into another cultural and grammatical system (the target language); and

It would be impossible to concentrate to that degree and render anything coherent over the microphone for any period longer than twenty minutes. Plus, whether there's one person listening or thousands, the work load is exactly the same.

QUESTION: What's it like to be in a booth simultaneously interpreting speaker after speaker, each with a different accent and speech pattern and usually without the benefit of a copy of the speech?

ANSWER: To get an idea, watch CNN for half an hour tonight and repeat - in English - everything the different reporters say. You must understand everything. You must use synonyms to get the same concept across: i.e.: "The violence on the streets has abated" instead of "the violent uprising in the city has calmed down."