So Many Translators!
If you search the word translation in word tracker, one of the top results that the engine will spit out is website translation with a rate of 990 searches per month; and this only in English. But why it is as such? More and more businesses invest in their online presence with the aim to enter new markets around the world. When it comes to purchasing goods online, international customers want to make sure that they understand what they’re paying for.
Generally, what many people understand by the term ‘translation’ is that it’s a mere job which involves passing on of a text from one language into another. And this notion fuels people to use machines (and CAT software) to do the job, with minor ‘proofreading’, and that’s the precise reason we see nowadays so many ‘translators’. Actually, it seems, everybody nowadays is a translator, and they vie for their share of the pie at the over-crowded online translation marketplace. But translation is neither the job actually mentioned above nor the process mentioned is intended.
Translation considers the audience of the translated document, the nuances of both languages as well as the culture of the country of the target language. In the process of finishing the translation, the translated text goes through rigorous review, with an editor (neither copy editor nor a mere proofreader) checking the document for errors to ensure its accuracy. Although this is one of the final steps of translation prior to client submission, there are cases when accuracy needs to be rechecked. This is called back translation in the discipline, and it’s crucial.
The process behind the term ‘back translation’ is simple yet efficient. In brief, back translation can be defined as a process according to which translators interpret a text previously translated into the target language back to the original language. The first translation and the back translation are then compared and reconciled to test the quality and the accuracy of the original translation. Here, the fact that a back translation cannot be expected to reproduce the exact wording of the original text should be kept in mind as there are a lot of words and notions that exist only in one particular language and have no analogs in other languages.
Back translation is usually performed when translating, or to be more concrete, trans-creating, sensitive texts where there are potential literary issues arising between cultures or languages that need to be considered and thoroughly checked before publication. Back translation serves as an editing ‘filter’ through which inaccuracies will not readily pass. It can be invaluable in the discipline where impeccable levels of accuracy and detail are required, such as, in legal translation, medical translation, and financial translation. Back translation can also be invaluable when used in line with international market research. For example, in translated questionnaires, inaccuracies could potentially affect consumer’s understanding of the questions and therefore negatively impact on results of researches.
To sum up, everybody involves in translation nowadays should keep it in their mind because most of the clients of translation jobs are looking for cheap rates, faster process of submission of the final output and so on. They are afraid of high cost of translation, and as such, good translation with back translation tagged with, is, of course, not among the most frequently requested services for the purchaser of normal translation services nowadays. And so the demand for qualified and complaint translators are diminishing, and we’re seeing so many translators!