In today’s market scenario, most industries across the world depend heavily on highly specialised technical translation across languages.It has become a dire necessity and therefore the demand for hundred percent accurate and high quality professional technical translation is on the rise. Technical translation is often required for approval processes, statutory purposes, internal use such as training and development as well as for external use such as for marketing purposes. But there has always been a challenge for the industries to acquire technical translation that fulfils its purposes as there is a tremendous lack of high quality and reliable technical translators across the globe.
Technical translation is not general translation, it is a distinct area of translation, requiring translators to have enough subject matter expertise in industry-specific terminology and nuances, clear understanding of government approval processes, designing and embedding text in pdfs, specific formatting of documents, cultural implications of words in the target audience, and readability. It has been observed that sworn and certified translators in every country, who are specialised in legal translation, have also proven their talent in technical translation.
What is Technical Translation?
All technical translations are not technology translations, but all technology translations are technical translations. Technical translations include financial documents, learning and development documents, product manuals of tech-based products, research findings etc. We can define technical translation as translating documents that contain technical information, thereby requiring a deep understanding of a specific industry-niche. Technical documents are full of complex terminologies, industry-specific jargon, critical details of particulars that impact how information is received, processed, understood and applied. Technical translation services play a crucial role in industries where accurate and clear communication is essential to ensure product effectiveness, safety, and compliance.
Technical translation covers a range of documents such as audit reports, annual reports, profit and loss accounts, balance sheets, training material, user manuals, safety instructions, scientific research, engineering reports, software documentation, patent descriptions etc. The medical and pharmacological documents that are highly technical in nature are many such as clinical trial protocols, patient information leaflets, pharmaceutical regulatory submissions, drug safety reports, toxicology reports, medical device manuals, pharmacovigilance documents, clinical study reports, lab test results, standard operating procedures (SOPs), investigational new drug (IND) applications, informed consent forms, dosage and administration guidelines, and adverse event reports.
A translator needs a high level of expertise in both the source and the target languages and subject matter knowledge in the relevant field to handle technical translations, as even a minor error in translation can lead to severe damages such as misunderstanding of facts, attracting penalties from regulatory authorities or, in worst cases, operational failures or legal issues.
Industry-Based Categories of Technical Translation
The nature of technical translation varies to great extent depending on the industry and niche to which the documents belong to. Find below some of the major sectors where technical translation services have become indispensable for conducting business affairs in today’s highly evolving and volatile market scenario:
Engineering and Manufacturing: In this niche of industry, technical translation refers to documents like translating manuals, operational procedures, and safety documents for machinery and equipment, ensuring all materials comply with local safety and regulatory standards.
Healthcare and Medical Devices: In medical translation documents such as clinical research papers, patient information leaflets, medical device manuals, and pharmaceutical instructions require technical translation.
Legal and Regulatory Documents: In the legal field, technical translation often refers to contracts, patents, compliance regulations, and intellectual property documents. Legal translations are always carried out by certified and sworn translators.
Information Technology and Software: Technical documentation and software codes are documents that require technical translation in the software industry.
Aerospace, Automobiles, and Defence: These are highly sensitive industries and the complex nature of these industries require specialised or technical translators to work on their technical manuals, operational procedures, and engineering documents, where precision and confidentiality are fundamental requirements.
Linguistic skill is not enough for a translator to handle these documents but they also need to be well-versed in the technical details of each particular niche of industry. The translations should not be just correct from the perspective of a language but also in meaning, context, and applicability.
You may find even specialised technical translators, but very rarely, such as – a technical translator for the automobile industry or a technical translator for the healthcare industry. In this world of so much access to the internet, the challenge still lies in finding the right translators. Companies struggle for months and years to find a suitable translator who can do their job perfectly on time.
Also, it is unrealistic for them to recruit in-house translators for all languages. On freelance market places they may find thousands of translators but not a single of them for their use. As these freelance translators are mostly inexperienced, not connected to the work culture of these companies, it is almost impossible to acquire the job effectively from them. So, what is the solution to this problem?
The easy solution to this problem lies in choosing a perfect translation vendor, who can assign the right translators and make a team to handle such projects. Also, big international translation companies; such as Dar Al Marjaan Translation Services in Dubai, UAE, International Tercüme Bürosu Limited Şirketi in Istanbul, Turkey, and International Übersetzungsbüro GmbH in Berlin, Germany; have a huge pool of all kinds of translators for all languages. These are translation companies that at first study the culture of their clients and align themselves accordingly.
These translation service providers are highly professional, walk shoulder to shoulder with their clients, understand them and their industry in-depth, value deadlines, adhere to the best practices of confidentiality and security of documents, and do everything to get the job done successfully. Also by teaming up with such professional translation agencies, a company can assign the tasks and then sit back and relax.