The 2023 version of the ASTM Standard Practice for Language Translation has been published! I just updated my work order accordingly. The most significant changes are: It is a practice, not a guide. A practice is a document that indicates the best way to do something based on industry best practices. It is much more [...]
How do we produce a translated document that is culturally and linguistically useful? Fortunately, the US Government has provided guidance on the subject. Gaucha Translations has been following these best practices. First of all, translators and interpreters are covered in government guidance documents by the National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) standards. [...]
I gave this presentation to the Hillsboro Chamber of Commerce on June 5, 2020, in the context of the civil rights protests. In that presentation, I put language access, which includes translation and interpreting, in the context of civil rights. See this blog post for a history of language access on the West Coast. This [...]
Why would an interpreter or translator take language proficiency testing? Though these are not exactly translation tests, we can't interpret or translate what we do not understand or what we can't express accurately. These tests do not include the step of transferring meaning. However, they do cover issues of syntax, clear writing, and understanding the [...]
Interpreters must have oral and reading skills in both languages, and translators must have writing skills in the target language as well. We can’t interpret or translate what we can’t understand or what we can’t say/write. What does it take to be a professional? Translational action, the skill of taking the message from one language [...]
Perceptual scales are exponential. Light, sound and earthquakes follow this pattern. For sound, for example, 20 db is twice as loud as 10 db, and 30 db is twice as loud as 20 db. This is why a scale of how much impact an error has on a translation should also be exponential. The [...]
The ASTM Standard Guide for Quality Assurance in Translation, F2575-14, lists some key considerations when choosing a translation provider. They apply both to hiring a company and an individual translator. Responsibilities need to be assigned for each task. At Gaucha Translations, we have spelled it out in a Work Order. The client needs to be assured [...]
Whether we provide a translation or a transcreation, at Gaucha Translations we always keep the end users of the translation in mind. Will this document be useful to them? Will it be useful to the people they interact with? Will it cause misunderstandings along the way? I, Helen Eby always ask clients questions based on [...]
Certification is key to quality language access. It includes both interpreting and translation. Poor quality translations and interpreting events lead to serious risks. When patients leave a doctor’s office, if they don’t understand the information they took home, they run serious risks. If a parent does not understand the Individualized Educational Plan for a student, [...]
In the Pacific Northwest, there are two translation certification programs available. The details of these programs have been explained in a comparison chart. In the following chart, we will simply go through the comparative pass rates of the two programs.
