English is a Hard Language - Ask Medical Translation Professionals

It’s not a secret that English is a hard language for a non-native English speaker trying to translate a medical translation, legal translation or technical translation. What is now widely known is just how crucial it is to use a professional translation service because of the trickiness of English translations.

English has a strange way of putting a verb and adverb together like “turn on” or “turn off.” This can be used to describe turning on a light or turning on a person. Wouldn’t want to mess up that translation. In English you can split an infinitive, where other languages do not allow for this. Also, English is tricky to translate because of its very strict sentence structure. Other languages are much more flexible. We English speakers have to use our pronouns otherwise anyone listening to us would be confused. Languages like Spanish or even Polish don’t need to use a pronoun since the verb clearly defines feminine or masculine.

English is hardly phonetic. Try spelling benign, pneumonia, or anesthesia, for a medical translation if you weren’t trained and proficient in English. The list goes on and on. Because of other peculiarities of English like the meaning of ‘to do’ and ‘to make’, same in most languages or just the grammar rules of English relative to other languages, it should be clear that one should use only professional medical translation companies. Contact us for more information about our medical translation services.

Medical Translation for FIFA Website

October, 2009 FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) proudly launched a web-based service promoting better public health through playing soccer. This site will include news about FIFA as well as medical techniques as it applies to soccer.

As we all know, FIFA has an international following, which means, their website must be presented in numerous languages. With the launch of this new site, professional medical translation is a must. This site will have information written for physicians, physiotherapist and other medical professionals. Therefore, this site must have accurate medical translations keeping in mind proper dialect, cultural nuances, and accurate translation of medical terminology.

Medical translation for content on a FIFA website or a patient in-take form, cannot be left to non-professional, non-trained language interpreters. Contact a professional language translator for your next medical translation. Interpreters Unlimited™ is offering a free iPad for a medical translation or any other translation that is at least 50 pages. Contact us today.

Choose a Professional Medical Translation Company

Over one-fourth of medical translations are performed by freelance translators. Although it’s a growing industry, many of these medical translators work in their field sporadically. Hence, it is prudent to work with a professional translation service that will ensure the quality and accuracy of the medical translation.

IU has access to over 7,000 language interpreters nationwide. Among this pool of language interpreters is a long list of qualified, experienced, and timely medical translators. Since IU provides medical translation all over the nation and for a wide range of size and type of medical facilities, IU has the luxury of being quite selective with the translators we choose to trust with our medical translations.

IU selects only translators who have proficiency in medical and colloquial terminology in both languages as well as sensitivity to cultural practices.

Do not rely on just someone you know is bilingual. There is no room for error in medical translations. Contact IU today to learn more about our medical translation division.

¿Tienes leche?

Many companies are allocating a large portion of their marketing budget toward online marketing. This is an obvious decision as so many consumers turn to the Internet for product research. With this comes the decision to extend toward global online marketing. This would mean that any given website would need to be translated into multiple languages. As some websites are hundreds of pages, the question at hand would be whether to hire a professional translation service or use one of many translating software available. The answer is obvious right? [A: Use a professional translation service.] Still perplexed on why the answer is so obvious. Take the following example:

"A similar cross-cultural faux pas was averted before the "Got Milk?" campaign was launched in Hispanic markets," said Ms. Ballance. "As it turns out, the phrase translates as "¿Tienes leche?", which can mean "Are you lactating?"

Disaster avoided. It is only the human factor that can catch such a mistake. Translation software does not account for cultural transcreation where factors such as dialect and cultural nuances are taken into account. This skill can only come from a professional translation service that has language translators with various skills sets above and beyond proficiency of a target language.

The Hispanic market is sizable and a focus for many corporations today. This is why using a Spanish translation service, not some free online translating tool is your only solution. Why spend millions on branding when that image can easily be ruined just by asking "¿Tienes leche?"

My Baby: A Sign Language Interpreter?

Is it possible to teach my baby Sign Language as she is starting to learn muscle movement? Of course it is, in fact, it’s encourage. Some studies have shown that babies that learn Sign Language have a larger vocabulary at an earlier age. It’s quite fun to watch too.

But how do I go about teaching my kids to Sign? You have several options. First, look out for classes that are specifically for teaching babies Sign Language. There are many Sign Language classes available, however, many are for people who want to become language interpreters or work for a professional translation service. There may even be classes that are quite inexpensive and taught by a language interpreter as a volunteer.

Second, look for flash cards for Sign Language. Again, these cards may be quite sophisticated and geared toward someone wanting to be a language interpreter. Find flash cards that are colorful and very simple. Babies have an aptitude to learn many words and/or phrases in Sign Language, but you want to make sure the flash cards are easy for them to understand; that they have drawings that they can interpret.

Third, work with someone who already knows Sign Language, like a Sign Language translator. If you find someone who would be willing to teach a class, talk with your local library to see if they will help promote a series of classes for those wanting to teach their children Sign Language.

Learning any new language at an early age is quite beneficial. Many professional language interpreters IU works with have been submerged in the language they interpret since early childhood. Teaching your children a new language could put them on a path toward being a professional language interpreter.

Tips on Learning a New Language

To have the ability to speak more than one language is priceless. After all, the world is getting smaller right? Language translators are in demand more than they have been in years. Nowadays even the smallest businesses have some connection to countries thousands of miles away. A housewife in San Diego, California can’t afford to start her home-based business selling children books and toys without utilizing labor from China. How hard is it for her to communicate with her business associates without a language translator? How hard would it be for her to learn Chinese or any other second language. It’s difficult, but not impossible. The following are some tips for those of you on a quest to learn another language. You may not be pursuing a career as a language translator, but these tips should help.

Be realistic with your expectations. Being in a language class may be uncomfortable at first, but it’ll get easier if you relax and keep in mind why you are here. You will make mistakes, not sound that good, have a crummy accent, and so on…but expect that and know that these are just steps needed to learn the language. Expect that you will be lost and overwhelmed. Keep in mind that it takes time and although you don’t feel like you are progressing that fast, you’ll be amazed of how much you are actually picking up.

Focus on Vocabulary. The more words you know the better. It is very empowering to be able to enter a living room and know the name of each furniture piece in the language you are learning. Learn the basics first, but expand into the everyday phrases that will come in handy. Remember, the goal isn’t to be a language translator, but to at least be able to carry on a conversation.

Practice, practice, practice. If you are able to find someone who speaks the language you are learning, ask them to only speak that language to you. Immersion is one of the best ways to learn another language. In fact, many professional translation services give preference to those language translators that have been immersed in a language by living in that country for an extended period of time. The closest to immersion may be your class, so make the most of it. Practice with your classmates and instructor.

Microsoft Translating Telephone

Technology is amazing. Microsoft is amazing. TechFair2010 held in Silicon Valley featured the latest and greatest innovations including Microsoft’s Translating Telephone. This machines acts as a language translator. With two people wearing headphones, the computer will listen and provide consecutive interpretation. We viewed a demonstration of this language translator telephone and were not surprised by the results. It proved again that a machine cannot replace a human language translator. Don’t get me wrong, the translating telephone is a very cool tool that does give each person the gist of what the other is saying, but it was evident that this machine could not be relied upon in cases where errors in a translation service can be detrimental or even fatal.

In the demo we could see that simple questions like “Do you like football or basketball?” or “What is your favorite type of food?” were easily translated by the language translator tool. However, a question like “How long have you been working on this program?” lead the technician to describe what the functions of the program were instead.

There will always be language translator tools that try to perfect the art of accurate and reliable professional translation services. It will truly be amazing when someone develops a language interpreter tool that matches dialect, idioms, culture influences, and regional accents as a professional human language translator does daily and with ease.