What is the image you wish to have for your company? What do you want your client to associate you with? When professionally translating your text, it is not only a matter of choosing the right words that one time. All following translations must uphold a coherent image that makes you recognisable and confirm the trust that was placed in you. Your company’s identity must be conveyed by the target language the same way it would be conveyed by the source language. This is where terminology management comes into play.
Terminology has a decisive impact
This is why it is important that your orders be translated in a non-isolated manner, but rather in the frame of terminology work. Terminology could be defined as the regrouping of all technical terms for a given field. Some expressions will only have a meaning in a precise context that has to be taken into account when translating. This is something that concerns not only abbreviations or material designations, but also advertising slogans and acronyms. In the medical field, some terms will be translated in a different way than in technical documents, and using the right term is critical in such situations.
A good terminology work can strengthen your company’s reputation and reduce the risk of errors. The technical terms and other “building blocks” of your texts will be documented and reused in later translations.
How does terminology management work?
For your translations to be consistently uniform and univocal, the same terms need to be used for every translation. The leading data bank systems use Translation Memories and save previous translations in a way that allows suggestions based on them to be given to the translator during future translation jobs in order to guarantee a uniform style. This ensures that your communication remain consistent even if a different translator takes care of the translation work next time, or if it is divided between several translators for a more extensive project.
Computer-assisted terminology work is by no means to be confused with machine translation. When using a Translation Memory, the translator still has full control over the result at all times and this makes for better quality and precision when compared to automatic translation.
What advantages for you?
A consistent terminology management leads to optimised processes and better results in no time. Since the translator has access to an already acquired terminology, they can focus on the new aspects brought up in your texts.
Moreover: A good terminology management does not only make the result of your orders better in quality, but also increasingly cheaper over time. Contact us to learn more about terminology management for your translations!
This article was translated by Leginda GmbH.