Technical Terms Translation

The reasons why TermsTechnical Translation is causing problems.

1-Using general dictionaries

     Translating terms within a technical text requires special care by the translator who is professional as there must be special dictionaries chosen according to the translation type. Medical texts requires high care from the translator as their terminology is very high and specified according to each case, disease and illness stages. Many problems occur when the translation process lack the good tools needed by a translators such as specialized dictionaries, this means that using general dictionaries are not good for translating technical translation that includes terms. Commercial texts and legal ones, for example, need special commercial and legal dictionaries that could help a translator with the translation process and to avoid problems that may occur due to wrong terminology translation.

2-Lack of translators' experience

     Many translators commit errors in terms translation especially at their beginnings as beginners translators, terms technical translation requires good background and an enough amount of experience in translating terminology. Political translation needs wide space of political knowledge in the translator who does it because there are terms that could bear many meanings and choosing the meaning of the term depends on the nature of the text and the position of the term within the text, purposes of using it and ways of using it. There are terms in legal translation, for example, that cannot be found in dictionaries but they are usually used in courts, by lawyers and in legal law documents, these terms could be ordinary words for many people but using them within a legal text makes them work as terms and are known in the legal field with specific translations that mustn't be changed.

3-Using electronic translation programs

     Electronic translation programs such as Google Translate and others found free online are not useful at all in finding terms' meanings and when they are used in translating technical texts including terms, it could be a disaster and many problems could occur. A professional translator shouldn't depend on electronic programs for finding terms in any field of technical translation because this means errors and mistakes which could lead to life threatening problems when the translation is medical, legal or whatever. Electronic translation programs are not suitable for those professional translators who work in technical terms translation field.

4-Using wrong equivalences

     Some technical translation texts depends on the intelligence of a translator and how he understands the text's nature before translating it. Religious translation, for example, must be done on choosing the correct equivalence for the original language from the vocabulary and terms of the target language. A Muslim translator cannot use Islamic terms for translating the Bible, for example. Choosing the wrong equivalences leads to serious problems in business field, medical field and in any field that uses terminology which is special for that field. Hence, it is very important for a translator to take enough time in the translation process when terms are the main goal of translation and also compare the output with texts from the target language which are related to the topic of the original text. (Belenguer ET AL, 2013)

Means of Avoiding errors in technical translation

     Errors in technical translation usually occur especially when the translator is lacking experiences, is not using the proper dictionary or not exerting great efforts before delivering his work so such errors which could cause bad effects can be avoided by many means such as:

1-Practice

     Practice really makes perfect. When a good translator takes a time of training and practice before working in translating terms technical texts, there will be a chance for building up a good background of terms in the field the translator is going to work in. A translator who is well educated and have a good theoretical background about technical translation cannot be a professional translator without practice, this can be done alone or by joining a translation agency or company with a good history in technical translation, having a time for training and then being tested before doing real work in the field of terms technical translation. Applying the studied theories can also be good but this should occur in the practice time in order to have enough experience for beginning translating technical texts.

2-Choosing the proper dictionary

     It is useful to prepare a suitable dictionary for terms of a special field before beginning the translation process in order to avoid using words that give different meanings of the terms.

3-Understanding the terms within the texts not separated

     Reading the whole text before going into the translation process is very useful in terms translation as sometimes the position of the terms within the sentences, punctuation marks and grammar use turn the term from giving a specific meaning to another and this depends on a thorough reading for the text and the sentences in which the terms are found before translating them. (Larson, 1991)