Business profile
Sharing information in a clear and simple way is key to the safety and security of train passengers
globally.AST Language Services has it covered
W
e have all seen examples of bad translation when travelling overseas. A wrong word in the wrong place can alter meaning and cause confusion. At best, it may raise a smile but, at worst it could lead to an accident. The aim of a good translation is for the message to be received and understood by the reader without it being obvious that the information was not composed in the reader’s own tongue. The words flow well, and the message absorbed without its reader tripping over poor grammar or style. This, says Andrew Schlich, is the ethos behind the service delivered by AST Language Services. Located in Nottingham, AST was set up more than 15 years ago by Andrew Schlich. Having worked for many years in manufacturing exports, he gained experience of the language requirements of exporting companies. Schlich’s early clients were old contacts at German and Swiss companies who needed premium quality translations into English. Since then, the company has grown steadily and now offers a wide range of language combinations to many different industry sectors.
Schlich, AST Language Service’s managing director, visited Railtex this year and in 2011, and from various
conversations with delegates he became convinced of the latent demand for high quality translation within the rail sector. With engineering and design companies having ever more technical documentation to support their products and services, Schlich believes that exporters in the sector feel an ‘increasing need to communicate this information confidently and reliably in the language of the target market’. To that end AST tailored its offering towards international rail engineers and consultancies for whom high quality translation is an essential component of their international documentation management.
Technical translation
AST Language Services offers two main types of translation. The first is technical translation, which makes purely technical information accessible to specialists. The second is technical marketing translation, which adapts the message for a broader readership and creates an attractive and readable style for the text. Schlich said: ‘Technical translation for specialists is appropriate for technical literature, product data and safety sheets, workplace health and safety documents, user/operating manuals and technical reports or white papers.
‘Technical marketing translation is more suitable for large scale bids and proposals, sector sales and marketing collateral, and PR and corporate identity material such as press releases, case studies and newsletters. Advanced technical writing skills are required for this style of translation to maintain accuracy and integrity in the document, while also maintaining readability,’ he added.
A further important consideration for all types of technical translation, added Schlich, is use of the correct company or sector terminology. ‘The correct terms used in the right context are critical for maintaining the precision, impact and integrity of project documentation. Careless and incorrect terminology does not reflect well on corporate image and can compromise the very best reputation. AST’s translations really do protect your reputation worldwide – just as we promise in our company motto.’
Translation memory technology AST uses Translation Memory (TM) technology to identify duplicate or previously translated text. When important documentation is subject to periodic updating, it often contains a mixture of unchanged and new sections.
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