Serbian Association of Translation Companies founded

A group of Serbian translation companies has founded a national association, with the aim of promoting quality in the translation industry in Serbia. The association was formed to raise awareness of the importance of good translation quality, and to promote regulatory reform that can help institutions obtain better value for money.

SATC is open to all Serbian translation management companies that share its values of high quality work and ethical standards.

- We would like our membership to include all the translation companies in Serbia that share our values and vision for the industry. The more numerous SATC's members, the better it can represent the industry as a whole”, said association chairman David Lythgoe, a partner in Halifax Consulting whose translation division is among the initiative takers.

The other founders are the companies Eurotranslate doo, Proverbum doo and Event Group doo.

- There is a generally weak understanding in Serbia of the complexity of translation - he told eKapija's reporter.

- Many people think that translation is a simple substitution of words, a one-to-one mapping using a dictionary. This fails to take into account the extraordinary complexity of language and the fact that different languages express a concept in entirely different ways.

"Furthermore," he added, "the role of the translation service provider company is poorly understood. Many clients are used to working with individual translators and do not understand the crucial value added by a company that operates an effective quality management system.

For a company, the European translation standard EN15038 describes issues that must be systematically approached to ensure reliability. It requires a company to manage both translators and infrastructure in a systematic way.

For translators it means: recruitment; testing; contracting; specialisation; assignment of tasks - translation, revision, review and proofreading; dealing with deadlines; timely payment; ensuring confidentiality; training and more. For infrastructure it means operating a comprehensive translation and document management system; a secure IT system with appropriate licenses and daily backup; documented working procedures; work backup and peak load procedures; client billing and relations; computer-assisted translation tools to ensure consistency, translation memories and the use of a client's specific terminology; systematic approaches to continuous improvement from lessons learned, and so on. Humans make mistakes, but with all these things we can reduce their likelihood and impact to a minimum. This is what quality is about.

As the demand for translation grows and translation service providers start to play larger role, their ability to manage complex tasks will become ever more important.”

You can read more on the SATC web site: www.upps.org.rs.