What do you do if you encounter translation challenges that require critical thinking skills?

Official legal translators are expert in legal terminology and the legal systems of their working languages. For example, the legal systems in the UK and Spain are very different. These differences are very clear in their legal documents. On most occasions, official translators have to translate legal terms in the source language with no equivalence in the target language. Thanks to their training as qualified translators and linguists and their experience as researchers, official translator can do accurate and precise official translations. This can be achieved by using the closest equivalence between the terms or by adding an explanatory note about the meaning of the term, for example.

Understanding the area that you are translating is one of the most important aspects of translation. Knowing specific terminologies helps you comprehend the text easier and makes your translations more cohesive.

The most significant distinction between AI-based translations and human translations lies in their ability to analyze nuances within the text. While AI excels at translating individual words, it still struggles to incorporate context effectively into its translations. Being able to understand nuances and not just the word-for-word translation is a very important skill for a translator.

Being a translator doesn't guarantee that you know 100% of the language's grammar. Because of that, it is very crucial that a translator to consistently seek answers from additional resources. Especially in this area, it is very important to know that we have plenty of tools to help our understanding.

During my assignments as Arabic <> English interpeter for a continental court of justice, I often find myself grappling 1) with differences between legal systems inspired either from Anglo-Saxon law or from Roman law, and 2) with latinates galore. Apart from reading widely about the systems, in preparation for a court session, one needs to listen actively to the debate during the boothmates' turns, at least for the first few sessions. This is quite demanding, but it cannot be done without. While latinates may be kept unchanged in translation, one still has to understand their meaning. One way of addressing this hurdle is to systematically jot down the term encountered, in the heat of the moment, for a subsequent search at leisure.

One thing I have found helpful is the suggestion to avoid the word-for-word translation as long as you can when you face critical aspects in your work.