Professional translation

There are some disturbing trends in the sphere of professional translation that is the growing willingness of translation service providers, business and private clients to hire non-native speakers to produce “professional” translations from/into their second non-native language. At the same time, we face a ridiculous phenomenon – an impressive number of individuals identifying themselves as qualified translators penetrate onto the market and offer unsophisticated public written translations into a non-native language!

Written translation is the art of reproduction of a source text in one language and rendering it into another by means of the target language. It is not only the matter of studying or generally speaking the language. It is much more in-depth and wiser.

If we speak about English as the target language of written translation, these phenomena could been seen everywhere.

Does every bilingual person consider him/herself as a translator? The millions of people all over the world are bilingual, but there are variations in what it means to "speak a language". While a tourist can handle a simple conversation with a salesman, this does not make him a translator. Translation is a written art, the way of living, thinking, working, and simply expressing yourself through the means of non-native language is not sufficient to be a translator.

You can study foreign languages, may become highly proficient in non-native language, but still this is not the reason to qualify one to work as a professional translator. What do you think a professional translation is? It is not solely a technical, linguistic or transmitting operation. We consider professional translation=personal background+ language skills+ cognitive ability+ receptive skills.

This means that professional translation requires a wide personal experience in each of the main social realities: linguistic, cultural, historical, political, technological, and material which a target language has developed and is used and modified by native speakers in.

Professional written translation is the linguistic reflection of the target language and cultural background that experienced, qualified, native-speaking translators only are in a position to provide.

It is not our purpose to discredit speakers of a language as a second, students of English, or other people who live bilingual or multilingual life.

The purpose of this article is to define qualified, professional native -speaking translators who translate into English and other individuals who translate into second or other-languages.

As for us we follow the next rules:

• The professional translator provides written translation services exclusively into her/his native language;
• Students providing freelance translation and other non-native speakers accepting or providing written translation services into a second or other language are not included in the white list of professional translators;
• Regardless of the level of competence in the language professional translators only can claim advanced or upper-intermediate level, especially representing their credentials and experience;
• Translation services providers should exclusively recruit professional, qualified translators who are native speakers of the requested target language;