All about Technical Translation
Basic language skills fall short in technical translation
because it requires translating complex documentation in varied domains of
finance, science, software, healthcare, and engineering.
A technical translator also needs to be well-versed with the
right set of terminology in both the target language and the source language so
as to deliver the exact meaning of the documentation/communication as described
or iterated by the respective organization. But in most cases, it is seen that
technical terms have a common meaning between languages, which makes the job
easier when taken professionally.
Key challenges of
technical language translation
There are certain challenges in technical language
translation and most of the language service providers try to address those
challenges from the forefront.
The first one would be in terms of domain knowledge.
Professional technical translation
services in India incorporate a domain expert in their team, wherein the
concerned personnel would translate the exact subjective meaning of the source
language that needs to be translated into a secondary language. Secondly, the
translation team also needs to understand the entire document that they are
working on, otherwise, the resulting document would fail to match the meaning
of the source.
In technical translation, word-to-word basis translation
doesn’t happen. This is because each language has its bandwidth to describe a
certain word, and that word may be a noun, preposition, adjective, etc. For
example, if we look at any English-Chinese
technical translation work by a professional translation service in India
or the USA, we would see that it has taken less space to explain the same words
that have been described in English. This is because Chinese has fewer
syllables than English language. On the other hand, if we compare the same
documentation but English-Japanese
technical translation, then we would see that it has taken more space than
the Mandarin-Chinese document. This is because the Japanese language has more
syllables than Mandarin.
It also becomes a tough job when translating a sensitive
domain technical document as the translator needs to interpret the information,
curated to the target audience in terms of medical prescriptions/papers or
safety instruction manuals. Think about an English-Korean
technical translation job, where the translator needs to interpret an
English instruction manual for a native Korean speaker. Here, the real
challenge lies in the pronunciation of the Korean language because overcoming
the language translation part is easy.
Types of Technical
Language Translation
Given below are some of the generally utilized types of
technical language translation-
●
User manual
translation
This requires some specialized
skills and knowledge of the domain. Technical
translation services in India normally cover this service because, as we
all know that user manual is a very form of selling a product. With the rise of Made-in-India products, manufacturing
companies in India seek this service where they would find a domain expert
relative to their product lineup.
This goes without saying that
user manual translation incorporates the utilization of plain text, rendering
it a good translation material of automated translation tools wherein an
accuracy check is stationed right after post-editing by a human translator.
●
Translation of Patents
This is another area of
technical translation where one needs to have a thorough understanding of
structuring and filing patents as well as subjective expertise. This is because
any patent document has both legal and practical aspects to it. For example, a
Japanese company that has a patent filed in Japan needs to furnish the document
in English; hence a stakeholder of the company would seek the best English-Japanese technical translation
service so as to secure their innovation in non-native Japanese-speaking
countries.
Subsequently, the translation
team should have a certain level of artistry parallel with the right scientific
and technical knowledge to prove them an effective patent translator.
●
CAD/CAM drawing
translation
This also falls under the
jurisdiction of technical translation services, because CAD/CAM drawings are
full of technical notions such as dimensions, labels, visual elements, etc. In
some cases, this translation resembles the translation of software strings.
●
Translation of
Software strings- This is another hardcore technical domain where the
translation services have to be offered by a domain expert of the particular
software itself. While the user interface may seem effortless and easy to
comprehend, the translation experts working on the project should be
well-versed with software strings to pull this off. They should also know the
expectations for both the source and destination languages in the region.
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