THE ART OF TRANSLATION

Mastering foreign languages is an advantage in the globalised world, but it is also a huge challenge. Even polyglots – according to the Guinness World Records the first place belongs to Ziad Fazah, a Lebanese born in Liberia who claims to speak 58 languages – are not able to brave all the challenges of modern communication. The ambitious aim of creating programmes for mechanical translation, like Google Translate, is still far from perfection, as you can easily see if you try to translate a compound-complex sentence with it.

That is why professional translators will hardly become redundant soon – as well as the need of their services. The more the world globalises, the more important the role of the professional translator becomes. There is hardly anyone who hadn't experienced the need of help in this respect. It could be the translation and legalisation of an important document. It could be the organisation of a conference with international participation. It could be important technical documentation, which should be translated correctly and in a good style. The variants are really dozens.

The specialised translation agencies are the best help in any of these cases. Unlike freelance translators, the agencies offer the accumulated experience and knowledge of a whole organisation – from translations to and from exotic languages, to services like legalisation, to specialists in interpreting, which is an art of its own. They guarantee the quality of the service not only with their reputation, but also with international quality standards and the usage of specialised softwares for translation and creation of terminological databases.

This is your only option to be sure that the translation will be correct, professional and with a good style.

How to find a quality translation agency is something more than a rhetorical question – the market is oversaturated, the choice is difficult and bad translation, particularly if you are from a company, can lose you money. To hedge your bets from disappointment, choose a company that is certified and implements work systems and quality control, has enough qualified staff, and puts client first.

Prevodachi.eu (Sofia, 25 Vasil Levski Blvd., fl.1, ap. 3, national line: 0700 310 10, www.prevodachi.eu) is such a company. Established in 2010, the agency already has 23 branches all over the country, and offers translation and legalisation of documents and specialised texts to and from more than 30 languages. The agency uses specialised software and terminological databases to guarantee the quality of the translations, and for faster service, it accepts online orders and requests for translations, legalisations and other translation services. Prevodachi.eu provides efficiency via its own system for orders management, quality control after ISO 17100:2015 and coordination of the client-translator relations. The agency has a contract with the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for legalisation and authentication, and is certified under the EN15038:2006 translation services standard. The editing services it offers, for their part, bring translation errors to the minimum. How good are the professionals at Prevodachi.eu is visible from the fact that since its establishments the agency has processed 40,000 client orders, has translated over 300,000 pages, and has legalised over 35,000 documents.

There is no such thing as good translation without a professional translator – and good translation agencies know it. "Formula F works with a data base that has more than 3,000 professional linguists, specialized in translation from/into more than 150 language pairs including all European, Balkan, Slavic, Turkic, Asian and other languages," says Theodora Assenova, CEO of Formula F (Varna, Panorama complex, 3 Dr P. Skorchev St, entrance B, floor 3, www.123translate.me, e-mail: info@123translate.me). "Through the years we had the opportunity to test and select the best resources in their field and proficient users of CAT tools," adds she. Since the beginning in 1999, the translation company won clients and established partnerships on five continents. Formula F offers a wide range of services: multilingual translations, localization, editing, linguistic review, machine translation post editing, linguistic verification and consulting, project management, interpreting, subtitling, transcription, translation memory and terminology management, DTP and formatting.

Competence, quality, reliability, competitive prices: these are only some of the advantages for the Bulgarian and international clients of Content Translations (Sofia, 39 Dunav St, phone: 02 983 2661, www.content-translations.com). Since its founding in 1998, the translation agency has been following its mission to offer services of the highest quality in the field of translation and interpreting by qualified translators and specialists. Its portfolio includes as well translations to all rare European languages, including by native speakers. The agency guarantees the quality, speed and accuracy of the translation with the use of specialised translation softwares for storage and usage of large data of technical terms. The pre-print programmes it uses allow the agency to offer to its clients translation in their preferred format. Content Translation offers translations in a variety of specialised subjects, like technical documentation for exploitation of machines and equipment, accounting, law, finance and insurance documents, legal papers, corporate documents and others. The agency has a contract with the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry to perform official translations, and is certified under the new standard for quality of translation services ISO 17100:2015.

Established in 1994, Lozanova 48 Translation Centre (Sofia, 23 Tvardishki Prohod St, Business building, office 2-3, phone: +359 885 322 065, www.lozanova48.com) is a reputable name in professional translation business in Bulgaria. The high-technology, modern equipment for translations to and from over 48 foreign languages, as well as the experienced teams of translators, ensure stable quality within short deadlines. The special attention paid to each customer, even for translation of the shortest documents or for authentication and/or legalisation, guarantees the achievement of your goal. You can trust Lozanova 48 for translation services in all fields of business, medicine, technology, science. The centre has a contract with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for official translation of documents, and has implemented the quality management systems ISO 9001:2008 and IS0 17100:2015-05.