Have you ever found yourself wishing you had a translation service to help you comprehend the utterances of an Englishman from the north, a Scot or an Irishman? You know that the person speaking is very intelligent and highly accomplished (say, for example, Sir Alex Ferguson). You know they’re speaking English because every five seconds or so, you recognize a word. You don’t have any issues about your accent being better or purer, so you know it’s not your ego impeding your understanding. And yet there you are, not understanding English, your native language. What you need to understand Sir Alex is a Scot who’s lived in America for the last 10 years. A Scottish English to American English linguist, if you will.
As translation specialists, we’re always conscious of the source country of the source document (pardon the redundancy), and the country of the intended audience. We were recently asked to transcribe and translate a video interview of a Moroccan gentleman, from French to English. The finished product was to be presented to an American audience. We assigned the principal translation to a Moroccan; he utilized his intimate knowledge of French as it’s spoken in Morocco, and the English he learned studying and living in the United States to create the initial draft translation. We assigned the language review and quality control to an American fluent in French. His principal responsibility was to make the document fully comprehensible to the intended audience, which was Americans in the United States. We do this to ensure that the original work is translated as accurately as possible.
French is the official language in 29 countries. Spanish is the principal language in 20 countries and several territories. Given that our home base is Miami, a global crossroads, we have a front-row seat to see how “different” the same language can be.
You can learn more about us at www.transformaonline.com. If you need translation services, please email us at request@transformaonline.com, or call us at 305-722-3827.
