In the translation business, terminology is crucial. Specifically, the ability to choose the right word or term for use in a given context is a key skill that all translators, regardless of the type of document they are working on, must have. Both general and specialized translators must use terminology correctly because context is everything in this industry.
Inspired by a recent article in the New York Times in which the author confused the task of translation with that of interpretation, I thought I’d offer a short primer on some of the differences between some common terms that translators use on a regular basis.
Translation versus Interpretation
While both translation and interpretation cover the process of communicating and conveying meaning from one language to another, translation relates exclusively to the written word, while interpretation relates to oral speech. Translators write the information, while interpreters speak it. Interpretation also comes in two colours: consecutive and simultaneous.
Source versus Target
Translators use source text to refer to the original document they are translating, and use target text to refer to the translation of this text. In the same way, the source language reflects the language that the document was originally written in, while the target language reflects the language of translation.
Localization
Localization is a process of modifying or reworking a product or service to the specific linguistic and cultural audience of a given country, region or locale. Translation is one of the key tasks involved in the localization process, which may also include desktop publishing, testing, engineering, other formatting, etc. Software programs and websites commonly undergo localization to make them suitable for end-users in other areas of the world.
Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) tool versus Machine Translation
Computer-assisted or computer-aided translation (CAT) tools are software programs that can help translators perform their work more quickly and efficiently. CAT tools can include Translation Memory (TM), terminology management, glossaries, and other language programs. Each tool serves a specific purpose, but the ultimate goal of each is to ensure consistent style and terminology use throughout a document.
In contrast to professional “human” translation, Machine Translation (MT) is an option for someone seeking a free translation. It is an automated computer process that gives the recipient the “gist” of a text, or a very rough sense of its overall meaning. The quality of this process is never sufficient for publication purposes; however, it is quick, cheap and can give recipients an overview of the content, allowing them to determine whether the information is important enough to require a proper translation by a professional translation company or translator. Machine Translation is never a suitable alternative to professional translation because the computer-directed process will invariably fail to capture the nuances and subtleties of the original language.
