16 June 2020

UNDERSTANDING THE LANGUAGE OF GERMAN LOANS AND DEBT INSTRUMENTS: KREDIT, DARLEHEN & ANLEIHE

German has an extremely large and systematic legal vocabulary to capture its legal system. Where it gets messy is when law crosses finance. This can make a correct conceptual reading of German financial terms very difficult for the foreign user because the terms can have blurry boundaries with no word-to-word correspondence with the equivalent names in English. In case of confusion, do not worry about the actual German word and simply determine the nature of the instrument concerned.

The guide below maps out the conceptual fields covered by the three German terms Kredit, Anleihe and Darlehen followed by some examples of English translations. Use this resource as a starting point if you are trying to determine what kind of instrument you are dealing with. Contact us for translation support if you are a legal or finance professional in need of further assistance with the translation of financial or legal documentation into English.

11 June 2020

ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE FRENCH BALANCE SHEET

One of the problems of translating a technical text is that the same word can have many different technical meanings depending on the context. Technical texts must be read conceptually rather than word by word but when we read in a foreign language, we tend to depend more on individual words to figure out the meaning and are less free to read conceptually because of a lack of knowledge of the foreign language and its context.

The French balance sheet is one document that can be problematic to read for a foreign user. Below is a basic model French balance sheet with English translations. Please note that a translation is not a substitute for the analysis and advice of a qualified accountant. We generally offer our translation support to legal and finance professionals or to individuals for the use of their advisers.

24 December 2019

THE PROBLEM OF TRANSLATION QUALITY IS NOT A PROBLEM OF TECHNOLOGY

With the disruption of AI and interest in the language industry growing among private equity and venture capitalists, we offer this Linguistic Insight in order to put the role and potential of technology in translation in a wider context. Learn more.

14 December 2019

PROJECT MANAGEMENT DOES NOT ALWAYS MEAN YOU GET TRANSLATION MANAGEMENT

In this Practical Insight for the guidance of translation buyers, we clarify how project management does not always mean that you get translation management, i.e. there may be no one coordinating the integrity of the actual translation across the entire documentation even though there is a complete project management process in place. Learn more

11 December 2019

ENGLISH IS AN EASY LANGUAGE?

Compared to many other languages such as Russian with its six cases or German with its convoluted sentence structures, English seems like an easy language. However, many learners of English as a foreign language find that while English is easy to learn initially, it becomes increasingly difficult to master on a more sophisticated level. In this Linguistic Insight, I explain briefly why this is so and what ‘good style’ in English looks like. Learn more

9 December 2019

BECOMING A MEMBER OF THE RUSSO-BRITISH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE; TRANSLATION FOR NGOs

We are delighted to become a member of the Russo-British Chamber of Commerce this winter of 2019. At our official introduction at the London offices of Osborne Clarke, it was a pleasant surprise to reconnect with the director of the NGO Healthprom, for whom our Director worked as a volunteer translator over 10 years ago while still an undergraduate modern languages student at UCL. Healthprom provides medical assistance to mothers and children in Russia and the CIS.

Working as a volunteer for NGOs is an excellent way for young translators to gain experience in a specific field where their contribution will have an immediate impact. In addition, they will probably have opportunities to contribute to the organisation in other ways beyond translation. Translators Without Borders is probably the most-well known NGO which makes use of volunteer translators. Ashoka, an organisation that supports social entrepreneurs around the world, also has regular volunteer opportunities for French-English.

We also attended our first Winter Forum of the RBCC, held at the Royal Society of Chemistry, where a distinguished panel of female speakers shared their insights and advice about the still relevant problem of gender diversity in the workplace.