Feliz Navidad y Venturoso Año Nuevo 2009

¡TRADPROF le desea bendiciones de Nuestro Señor para esta Navidad, el año 2009 y siempre!

"Que busques a Cristo, que encuentres a Cristo, que ames a Cristo. Son tres etapas clarísimas. ¿Has intentado por lo menos, vivir la primera?"
(San Josemaría Escrivá)

Saving money on translators and interpreters.

Saving money on translators and interpreters

In the latest issue of The Linguist, the journal of the Chartered Institute of Linguists, there is a snippet from an article that appeared in the Daily Mirror a few weeks ago concerning the interpreter appointed by Wigan Athletic for their star Egyptian striker, currently with them on loan, Amr Zaki. The football club discovered that the interpreter wasn't up to the job. Not surprising really, as they had appointed him after finding him selling pies on a stall and being told that he was fluent in Arabic.

Wigan Athletic is in the top football league, and players of this calibre earn several hundred thousand pounds a year. Manager Steve Bruce moved to Wigan last year for a reported salary of £3m a year including bonuses, according to an article at the time. The club's hospitality packages start at £1250 per person, and there is a package that costs twice as much (see here). Yet the club didn't see fit to shell out the going rate for a professional interpreter. Incredible!


Stories like this are all too common. Companies that spend a fortune on entertaining clients, and that wouldn't dream of appointing trainee or unqualified accountants or medical staff, think it's perfectly ok to get translations done by someone's daughter, brother-in-law or other willing volunteer. In a document produced by the Institute of Translation and Interpreting, there are some translation horror stories. A US manufacturer of radiation equipment didn't bother to translate instructions into French, assuming that technicians would all be fluent in English; they weren't and some patients died of radiation overdoses. In April 2007 the prime ministers of France and Canada held a memorial service to honour Canadian soldiers who had died in France during the First World War. Journalists spotted that historical plaques put up nearby were riddled with grammar and spelling errors, and it turned out that they had been translated by well-meaning but unqualified volunteers.

Legal terminology "integrated"

integrated

(adjective) to make a whole by bringing parts together, to unify.
"After some time, the new procedures were fully integrated into the work routine."
Synonyms
incorporated: "The new guidelines incorporated the changes in reporting routines."
assimilated: "New reporting procedures assimilated legislative changes into current practices."
Word combinations
integrated agreement - an agreement adopted as a final and complete expression of that which is agreed between 2 parties. "The seller argued that the buyer could not rely on promises not contained in the integrated agreement."
Other use
We also use integrate in the sense of opening something to people of all races or ethnic groups without restriction - to desegregate. "To comply with law, the company took steps to to diversify and integrate the workplace."

Legal terminology "violate"

Violate
(verb) to contravene or go against.
"His actions clearly violate the express terms of the agreement."

Synonyms
breach: "The manufacturer breached the warranty by refusing to repair the car."
contravene: "The company's failure to provide a certified translation of the articles of association contravened the provisions of the Companies Act."

Antonyms
comply: "The company's attorneys carefully reviewed the proposed tender offer to ensure that the company complied with the Securities Act."
obey: "It is vital that you obey the court's order to produce the documents."

Other forms of the word
violation (noun) offence, breach, infringement. "Any violation of the general prohibition against insider trading may lead to a prison sentence of up to six years."

Related words and concepts
infringe (noun) to violate a right. Used especially in the context of a violation of a copyright, patent or trade mark. "The claimant argued that the defendant infringed its copyright by using the software without its consent."

Diferencia y similitud entre "supuesto" y "presunto".

Hi Julio

Thanks for this message.

Can you explain the difference between 'supuesto' and 'presunto'? (En
cualquier idioma.). I recently had to interpret for a meeting to
establish who was the father of a certain child, and the man made a
distinction between 'supuesto' and 'presunto' padre which I could not
understand.

Me ayudaría mucho si pudieras aclararme esto.

Gracias otra vez.

Joe Tein
Friday Harbor, WA USA

Legal terminology "challenge"

Challenge
(verb) to object to; to question the legality of something or the legal qualifications of someone.
"The defendant challenged the qualifications of the expert witness."
Synonym
object: "The plaintiff objected to the witness' testimony on the grounds that it was hearsay."
Other forms of the word
challenge (noun) - objection or question. "The international treaty was not open to challenge in the Supreme Court."
Common phrases
legal challenge - an adversarial proceeding. "The statute was subject to a legal challenge in the district court."
to challenge the law - to bring legal action to have a law repealed. "The Association of Nurses challenged the law which required them to report the immigration status of patients."

Comentario recibido sobre Glosario Jurídico

Estimado Julio César:

desde hace algún tiempo usted me regala sus sugerencias terminológicas por correo electrónico. Le agradezco este gesto amable de compartir conocimientos; creo que se basa en una buena filosofía de colaboración y sentido comunitario y como tal la veo muy positiva.

Sin embargo, desde el punto de vista de la terminología como disciplina que forma parte del trabajo del traductor, creo que se podría optimizar su metodología. Para evaluar bien si un término me sirve o no, como traductor necesito saber de qué fuente, contexto etc. usted lo tiene. Usted lo ha documentado con algunos ejemplos, pero creo que se podría completar este dato para que se pueda usar en la realidad.

Un término bien investigado normalmente lleva
- la fuente (dónde lo encontró? Normalmente alguna base de datos o algún diccionario - se pone la referencia bibliográfica)
- la definición en ambos idiomas (sólo si ambas definiciones tienen exactamente el mismo contenido el término se puede considerar equivalente en ambos idiomas)
- la fuente de la definición (diccionario, código legal, base de datos de terminología, ... - se pone la referencia bibliográfica.)
- el contexto (usted cita algunos ejemplos de contexto abajo)
- otra información adicional, por ej., sobre registros variacionales (por ej., coloquial, rebuscado, técnico, etc.), en qué área se usa (por ej. derecho penal), información gramatical, etc.

Si trabaja con MultiTerm puede ver que el machote para una base de datos de terminología le ofrece todos estos campos para llenarlos con la información. Si compara con bases de datos de terminología como IATE ve que es esa la forma en que documentan los términos; es un buen ejemplo (aunque es una base de datos que contiene sus errores, así que no todos los términos son fiables).

Le quisiera mandar esta nota como sugerencia, no sólo para usted, sino para invitar a toda la comunidad de traductores de aportar y completar esta documentación. Aportando entre todos, tal vez logremos crear una base de datos de terminología que se convierta en herramienta útil.

Siempre le agradezco su amable atención y su disposición a compartir. No dude a contactarme si tiene alguna pregunta también.

Saludos cordiales,
Uta

Dr. Uta Lausberg de Morales
Linguistic Services