The translator must produce an efficient and cost-effective translation. The decisions involved may seem to have little to do with ‘translation’ in the traditional sense. Efficiency and cost-effectiveness may, for instance mean omitting a section of the source document, summarising thirty pages in ten lines or so, adding a section to provide information that is not present in the original document but is known by the translator to be vital for the end-user in the target culture, providing a five-page translation for a two-page source document or vice- versa, translating only such items of information as are relevant to the end-user’s needs or re-organising a whole set of documents, etc. All this, of course, requires professional competence of the highest order.

In purely economic terms, professional translation is a by no means negligible segment of the service sector. Taken as a whole, the translation industry is a multibillion euro business.

Translation also generates business for those who buy that kind of service, both directly, via the sale of translated documents, and indirectly, by helping to boost imports or exports of goods, services and ideas.

Translation may also be viewed as a strategic, economic, ideological and cultural weapon. But it must be emphasized that such a weapon can sometimes backfire. Thus, while good translations help improve market penetration and product acceptance by adding value to the product or process concerned (whether it be a book, a film, a tractor, an extradition request, a catalogue, a computer, flowers, a sales offer, a veneering machine, etc.) inadequate, poor, or disastrous translations can do no end of damage to an export product or process.

A poor translation automatically reflects badly on whatever it is supposed to support and promote, and worse still, on the company, organisation or institution that actually disseminates it, because customers will naturally assume that the company takes no more pride in its products than in the translations it uses to promote them. Considering this remains true even though the company may not necessarily have commissioned the translation itself, it is no surprise that many foreign subsidiaries of multinational companies insist on vetting translations commissioned by the parent company before they are used in the subsidiary’s domestic market.

Good quality translations are also a potential source of value added in that it enhances the image of a company’s products or services, by preventing litigation and by reinforcing consumer protection. Conversely, poor translations mean loss of business and a downgrading of image of the company or organisation concerned (for whatever reason).

On a more general level, translation can have wider intellectual, economic, cultural and linguistic implications for individual nations. Good quality translation can help slow the gradual downgrading of a language and culture under the pernicious influence of “false” values. It can thus become a way of defending and promoting the target language and culture. Poor translations invariably help to hasten the downhill slide.

As already mentioned, translation helps to develop the exporting or importing of products, ideas, concepts or values. Therefore, the volume of translation undertaken in a given country, or better still, the direction in which the translations take place (from or into the native language), are a good indication of that country’s cultural and economic position in the world.

If that country is technologically, economically and/or culturally dominant, the translation flow will be mainly from its native language and culture into other languages and cultures. Conversely, if that country is a technological, economical and/or cultural underdog, the translation flow will be mainly from foreign languages and cultures into its native language and culture. In the first case, the language and culture are ‘export-oriented’; in the second case, they are ‘import-oriented’. Translators may be both exporters and importers in turn, even though it is a generally accepted practice for them to work into their mother tongue and culture, therefore acting in effect as importers and translation may therefore either be a driving force helping to boost and promote intellectual, industrial, economic, political, artistic, scientific and cultural development, or on the contrary, a vector of colonisation in the same areas.

Hence the “Internet effect” which has caused a tremendous increase in demand for translation into English (the lingua franca), because anyone wanting to promote a concept, a product, a process, an educational package or anything else, feels naturally inclined to use the language reaching the greatest number of potential supporters, followers or clients. The target is now global and anything translated into the lingua franca tends to be relevant one way or other in the sense that it is then likely to find an audience somewhere in the world, or rather, that people are likely to ‘hit’ it. This is why most European countries have experienced such massive demand in recent years for translations into English, which are seen as one way of trying to tip the balance the other way.

Find Translation Jobs online. Get the list of translation companies ready to give you Translators Jobs. Receive Translation Work from direct clients.

Looking for translation jobs? Visit http://www.translationjobspro.com – where you\’ll find translation jobs for all language pairs.

Author Bio: Find Translation Jobs online. Get the list of translation companies ready to give you Translators Jobs. Receive Translation Work from direct clients.

Category: Business
Keywords: translation, jobs