In person Interpretation - Document Translation - What is translated
Most of the material people want translated is not high culture. We have translated materials ranging from articles in medical journals on Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD) to a patient’s note to identify him/her as he/she does not speak English. The longest translation project we ever did was a 165,000-word book; the shortest, a two-word phrase.
These said materials to be translated come in all sizes and shapes. Often you have to deal with hand-written material. Someone scrawled out some message to someone else and this twenty-five-word sheet of paper is now Exhibit A in an international patent infringement lawsuit. You probably won’t realize that, but it could happen.
When translating, no problem is too small, no term too minor to be ignored. Our client who reads our translation doesn’t know the source language. If they did, they wouldn’t have hired us. It’s easy to see why an article describing a surgical procedure must be done very accurately. It might be harder to see why the comments of a Russian co-ed on an airline survey would be important, but they could affect future policy of that carrier. We take it all seriously if we want our clients to take us seriously.
