Resources / Blog

The Difference Between a Legal Interpreter and a Legal Translator

Jan 30, 2018

Attorneys, courts and case law often conflate the need for legal translators or legal interpreters. While both types of language professionals carry meaning from one language to another, they do it in different contexts, work with different source materials, and require a somewhat different skill set and even a different personality. When handling international disputes, it’s important to understand the distinction between the two to ensure you get the language support you need. If you find yourself asking; “what is the Difference Between a Legal Interpreter and a Legal Translator?” we have summarized what each does and their skillsets below to help.

Legal interpretation

What they do: A legal interpreter works with the spoken word during depositions, in court, over the phone, in video conferences, and in interviews. Interpretation can take place simultaneously, like you might see for speakers at United Nations meetings, or consecutively as you might see in a courtroom where a foreign witness pauses their testimony to allow an interpreter to repeat their words in the local language.

Skillset: An interpreter has to be a quick thinker. He or she needs to be the sort of person comfortable with operating on the spot, in the heat of the moment. The conversion of words from one language to another has to be as close to instantaneous as possible. Therefore, an interpreter must be a strategic thinker who can quickly make judgment calls about the words that best reflect a deponent’s or an interviewee’s meaning. In addition, the linguist has to be aware of the legal implications of one word choice over another. All of this calculus occurs silently, instantly, and invisibly in the interpreter’s thoughts. It’s a high-wire act that requires a personality, not unlike an athlete’s or a performer’s.

Legal translation

What they do: A legal translator works with the written word, including contracts, briefs, discovery and other court documents, patents, medical documents, etc. Where an interpreter’s job is about speed, a translator’s work is about depth. He or she has to produce the most accurate rendering possible of a source document into a different language. To do this, translators typically have more time than interpreters, though the time constraints vary case by case.

Skillset: While poring over contracts, patents, discovery documentation, and transcripts, a legal translator must be a person attuned to subtleties everywhere, gleaning meanings hidden in language differences and identifying nuances that have the potential for moving the legal process forward. In a sense, where the interpreter’s personality resembles the acrobat, the translator’s is more that of the persistent, street-wise detective.

Things interpreters and translators have in common

Obviously, both types of linguists require mastery of the languages involved — for interpreters and translators, accuracy is always priority number one. In order to achieve this, extensive knowledge of the relevant cultures involved is something both types of linguists need. There can be conflicting meanings or contextual shadings lurking in what may, on the surface, seem to be the same word in two languages. In legal contexts, these differences can result in profound consequences and you need to be able to rely on your legal linguist to get it right.

One classic example of translated words gone wrong is the Treaty of Waitangi between Britain and the Maori of New Zealand in 1840. In the Maori translation of the treaty, the British were to provide a turnkey legal system for the Maori’s use in exchange for letting the British use some land; in the English version, England was taking full possession of New Zealand. Over the next few decades, a series of violent disputes – called the New Zealand Land Wars – erupted over land ownership issues.

Another example highlights how even a single mistranslated word can bring down an entire case. In Motion Fitness vs. Changzhou Yingcai Metalwork Fitness Equipment, a 2014 patent infringement dispute that went all the way to the Supreme People’s Court of China, the indefinite article “a” was translated on each instance in the Chinese version of the patent claims to “one” – a specific numerical value. This narrowed the scope of protection in the claims and wound up fatally undermining the plaintiff’s case.

The expert you need

A team effort is always more likely to succeed when each role is assigned to a qualified individual who is personally suited to the work. This is absolutely critical when assembling a legal team to bring a dispute to a favorable conclusion. Morningside’s extensive litigation support services can match your needs to the right type of linguist, providing you with the confidence you need to win your case.

 

Resources / Blog

The Localization Challenges of the Internet of Things

Jan 23, 2018

In the world of the Internet of Things (IoT), products are interconnected, exchanging data about our habits and needs, and have the ability to manage many of the things we now do ourselves. It’s easy to invent examples: Lawn-maintenance systems that track weather data, refrigerators that tell you what food you need to buy, exercise trackers connected to emergency rooms (just in case), intelligent car dashboards, and so on. With nearly $6 trillion invested in infrastructure over the next five years alone, IoT devices are expected to become ubiquitous in virtually every connected location around the world.

IoT industries

IoT already exists to some extent in a manufacturing context — sometimes called the Industrial Internet of Things, or “IIoT” — where sensors automatically track, optimize and automate the performance of connected hardware. Utility companies are in another industry that looks forward to utilizing smart technology. Electrical grids, for example, could be programmed to precisely match power output to momentary needs. In fact, some companies are already leveraging that kind of technology with smart electric metering.

Localizing user interfaces

While much of the information that passes between IoT devices will be computer code, many devices will nonetheless require user interfaces (UIs) — screens — with which customers interact. This leaves some critical areas that need to be translated and localized for each market in which an IoT device is sold, such as:

  • Icon labels
  • Packaging directions
  • Product information
  • On-device Help systems.

Software development and release in the IoT is constant

While new software for desktop computers may be released along an extended product-refresh cycle — with localizations only being required for each release — the programs in IoT devices are likely to be constantly updated. Manufacturers operate in an “agile” environment, where product improvements are made incrementally on a continual basis. No user intervention or indeed, even awareness, is required. If a bug is found, the manufacturer can patch it and push it out to networked devices immediately. Likewise, new functionality can be rolled out as soon as it’s ready. And of course, each time an update changes text that the user sees on a device, that new text should be localized for all of the company’s customers.

How to stay up-to-date

Keeping a product’s UI current in all of one’s markets with a never-ending, continual release schedule presents a new challenge. Here are two solutions you can employ:

  • Think smaller, continual localization projects – For language service providers, adapting to agile product development requires an unusually close working relationship with the vendor. The two need to remain in constant contact, with regular, frequent meetings to ensure that localization stays current with software development. The amount of text to be localized at any given moment is likely to be limited, although of course multiplied by the number of languages in which it’s needed. For an LSP like Morningside with ample local language experts on call, turnaround times can be extremely short without any loss of quality.
  • Machine translation – In cases where budgetary constraints are an issue and standards allow, machine translation (MT) is another way to turn around IoT text updates quickly.

Connecting the IoT

It’s estimated that there will be some 50 billion connected IoT devices in operation by 2020. They’ll be all over the world with interfaces that speak hundreds of languages. Continually evolving and updated remotely, these ubiquitous devices pose a massive challenge for their vendors, and the need for first-rate localization services will never be greater.

 

Resources / Blog

The Importance of Translation in Preventing International Fraud

Jan 16, 2018

In any new business relationship, establishing trust is difficult. It can be hard enough to reliably assess the integrity of an unfamiliar party when you speak the same language. With multilingual communication, it can be nearly impossible to feel confident when you’re dealing with someone new. And you’re right to be wary. According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), organizations around the world lose 5% — or about $3.5 trillion — of their annual revenues to fraud. There are unscrupulous parties out there and without knowledge of the culture and context in which a stranger operates, you may misconstrue innocent behaviors as deceptive actions — or fail to see culturally obvious signs of dishonesty.

No substitute for multilingual due diligence

It makes no sense to turn one’s back in fear on the potential earnings or savings of the international marketplace. What’s required, therefore, is enhanced due diligence in verifying that who you’re dealing with is who they claim to be, and that the products and services they offer are as represented. This is where the assistance of a qualified language service provider becomes invaluable.

It’s important that any business, regardless of size and industry sector, do what it can to mitigate risk when dealing with other entities. Not only is one’s company at risk of being defrauded, but it can also find itself having unknowingly colluded in the criminal activities of a connected individual or entity, and thus be itself vulnerable to prosecution and serious penalties. Nefarious types often engage in carefully-parsed, misleading language that obfuscates important truths, and the danger of being deceived is exponentially increased when you’re unfamiliar with the nuances of that person’s native tongue.

Seeing what isn’t being said

Risk mitigation may be conducted by a number of different departments in your organization (e.g. legal, accounting, HR, etc.) – all of which should be working with professional translators to help them more fully assess and understand the multilingual information they receive. When working internationally in more than one language, this is the only way to ensure that all final risk conclusions are sound.

Without assistance from an LSP, vetting materials in foreign languages will be difficult. The task goes far beyond a simple translation of the words — it must also encompass the contents’ deeper meaning, and expose anything the words are not saying. Vetting a new business partner should include:

  • looking for the telltale signs of fraud and money laundering
  • knowing specifically how fraud and money laundering have manifested in the past within specific types of international business relationships
  • being familiar with behavioral profiles that can signify criminality.

Pinpointing what’s important

Bad actors may attempt to overwhelm a company’s investigators with so much content that a thorough assessment becomes so time-consuming as to be impractical. Working with an LSP, the company’s investigators can identify specific keywords or phrases that need to be examined rather than struggling through a word-by-word translation of all submitted documentation. The LSP can then conduct an in-depth translation of selected texts for the investigator.

Of course, that translated information must also be verified, and a linguist with knowledge of the source language and culture is more likely to be able to identify things that don’t seem quite right in the documentation, or during verbal business communications. If a relationship with the party is ultimately established, the results of this verification process should be retained so they can be periodically compared against subsequent documentation and conversations for consistency.

An ounce of protection

It’s always possible for a company to be defrauded in spite of its best efforts. Still, it’s far more likely that a predator is simply depending on its prey not exercising due diligence, having considered it not worth the bother. Morningside can help make sure that’s not your company.

 

Resources / Blog

The Role of Translation in Fighting Climate Change

Jan 09, 2018

When the world faces a global threat such as climate change, an all-hands-on-deck approach is required. Evidence of the problem can occur anywhere, and any realistic solution must make sense everywhere. So what role does translation play in fighting climate change?

The Paris Agreement

The landmark 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change — called by some “the world’s greatest diplomatic success” — was published in all six official United Nations (UN) languages: English, Spanish, French, Chinese, Arabic and Russian. Its intended reach is clear, as is the importance of translators in implementing its proposals.

Translators were critical to every phase of the project. Before meaningful discussion among international parties could even commence, documentation from around the world describing the evidence and effects of climate change had to be transcribed into numerous languages. Interpreters were vital in negotiations and for translating the many speeches given, and there was a Herculean amount of multilingual transcription required for the work documents, including meeting notes and position papers.

Eyewitness reports in all languages

Global warming’s role in creating the extreme weather behind any single specific disaster can be hard to pin down, but the overall trend is clear, and the reports coming from all over are both heartbreaking and important for everyone to see. It may be the decimation of Caribbean islands from super-hurricanes, epochal flooding in southeast Asia, mudslides in the Andes, or the death of a solitary biker overcome by unusual heat in Australia’s Beerburrum State Forest. Wherever the calamity, witnesses in all languages provide critical first-hand reportage.

Multilingual dissemination of research

While long-term responses are being developed, there is a dire need to learn how to live with the effects of climate change now, and multilingual dissemination of research has become an increasingly critical factor in keeping people alive.

For example, when the Bolivian Mountain Institute NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) completed a study of glacial lakes in the Andes and discovered that 25 of them now pose risks to local populations, the English- and Spanish-speaking researchers made sure their report was produced in both languages. Importantly, it contained transcriptions of eyewitness accounts of glacial-outburst flooding that could help local governments effectively respond should similar catastrophes occur in the future.

Translation benefits

In order to help ensure that their studies are of optimal value to parties working on climate change, NGOs have been utilizing teams of translators who understand the languages they serve as well as their intrinsic cultural perspectives, economics and politics – which are critical for convincing local populations to implement changes.

For example, when the Mountain Partnership submitted research for discussion to the United Nations, it provided carefully translated copies in all six U.N. languages. The investment paid off when the U.N. established three mountain-oriented targets in their 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

A new academic field

There is even an emerging academic field called Ecolinguistics that investigates the role of language in the development and possible solution of ecological and environmental problems. For example, scholar Kjersti Fløttum wrote this paper titled “A linguistic and discursive view on climate change discourse” and, at the University of Bergen, students can now register for a Ph.D. research course titled “Climate Change Narratives: Language Use in the Circulation of Climate Knowledge.”

Subtitled star power

Multilingual dissemination of climate change information is an area that private climate advocates are also taking greater advantage of. The reach of persuasive English-language content such as Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth has significantly expanded its impact thanks to versions subtitled in over 30 languages. Leonardo di Caprio’s English-language Before the Flood is available with subtitles in 12 languages. These Hollywood stars have realized the obvious: engaging people around the world in resolving the climate change challenge requires speaking their language.

Translation is part of the solution

As the conversation about climate change moves from persuasion to action, the international presence of NGOs and other advocacy groups continues to make them invaluable partners in the search for solutions. The information they collect is the foundation upon which climate change strategy must be built, and their innovative thinkers help move the discussion forward. As a result, the need for accurate, timely translation services across many languages has never been more important: They make possible the most global conversation we’ve ever seen.