TRI QUEBEC

The publication of Kronika Reading gained widespread media attention; making the editor of the paper the centre of many interviews to local and national media. The interest raised by the publication of the Kronika points to a wider need for inclusion by the media, so that the ever diversifying population of the country can access it.

As papers such as The Reading Chronicle take the initiative to produce a foreign language version of their newspaper, there is an indication that others will soon need to follow suit. The important issue that the publication raises is that there is a real requirement for this kind of service within the UK media. With over a quarter of a million Polish people currently working in the UK, it is likely that there will be a greater need for media outlets to engage with Translation Services in the future.

The relatively recent advent of translation service providers enables information media to reach out to communities, regardless of language. With the capability to provide translation in over 200 languages, there is no longer a reason for a community to be left in the dark about issues which directly affect them. In this way translation services encourage diversity, empowering each member of the population with the means to access information that is important to them, whilst at the same time providing an invaluable means to engage directly with the culture around them.

It would not simply be enough to translate an ad campaign into Albanian, Bambara or Chechen without an understanding of the kind of world your message is going to be heard in. Enter the translation services provider.

With the advent of the global economy the role of the translator is an almost indispensable one. The need for businesses to communicate with their client base means that there will always be a requirement for a translator.

This means a lot of work for professional language services: a company setting up a South-East Asian headquarters would need to overhaul the bulk of its commercial as well as training materials without losing any of its corporate timbre. Such an undertaking is costly and important to execute correctly from beginning to end.

Simply translating material would not be sufficient; a translator would need to know what kind of message the company is anxious to convey to their new client base and set the tone for the promotion or corporate identity. Certain symbols or ideas that are seen as the norm to one country may be highly offensive to another. In this manner, cultural sensitivity is extremely important.

So, the role of a translation services provider is not simply to transpose a set of texts or materials from one language to the next, but also to engage with the culture who speaks that language. In partnership with the business or government body, this creates an invaluable link to its population in order that it may speak openly and clearly to all.