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Language Services: A Discussion About Translation Myths

Translation Myths

Last updated on June 30th, 2023 at 11:17 am

Common Sensor Advisory’s article “Clearing up the Top 10 Myths about Translation”, published in The Huffington Post, points out some facts that may be surprising to the laymen, and may help answer some of the questions we receive related to myths in the translation industry.

Common Sense advisory is a well- known company in the translation and interpretation world, focused on bringing insight to global market leaders through international business market research.

The article leads to the conclusion that translation is an ever-evolving profession, expanding and reaching new horizons through advances in technological. Technological elements, like machine translation and crowdsourcing, will not eliminate the professional human translator but rather enable translation providers to reach higher levels of service.

Among the translation myths the author listed, we would like to highlight 3 important points that we have covered in previous posts:

Myth #1. An interpreter and a translator are the same thing. An interpreter works with oral language while a translator works with written language. Also, interpretation and translation require very specific and specialized skills germane to the task they perform.

Myth #2. A bilingual person is a translator. In the Spanish version of our translation blog we posted an article explaining that speaking and having proficiency in a language does not qualify a person as a translator.

Myth #3. The need for professional translation services is decreasing. Translation services generate new profits and forge new frontiers for companies seeking to compete and communicate in a global market place.

Follow the link to read the Top 10 Myths of Translation and feel free to comment and add any  translation myths not covered in this article.

Sergio Ruffolo
Sergio Ruffolo
Sergio has more than 25 years of multinational experience providing consulting services and leading IT organizations in Africa, Asia and America, which has given him plenty interesting and insightful lessons to teach about global business. He is fluent in Spanish and English, in addition to conversational Portuguese. He has lived in more than 12 cities around the world, moving around and working in different cultures has left him with a real global perspective. Sergio is a real citizen of the world.