Translator licensing and certification
Tags: american translators association, translator certification, Translator licensing
Translation being an ever growing profession, more and more people are getting into the bandwagon be it part time, full time, freelance, online etc. With increasing penetration of the internet, it is truly becoming a global industry with opportunities coming in from all parts of the world. Having said that, it is also getting more and more difficult to identify the good ones from the ordinary ones i.e. separate wheat from chaff. Hence some kind of regulation is called for just like other professions like lawyers, doctors, engineers etc.
That brings up the question of translator licensing or certification. There is a subtle difference between licensing and certification: while the former is kind of mandatory that gives permission to practice a profession, the latter is more voluntary. While there is no legal requirement for licensing or certification at least in the US some attempts have been made in forming association or self regulatory bodies aimed at streamlining or assessing translators’ quality. The American Translators Association (ATA) offers certification in 23 language combinations involving from and into English. You have to become a member of ATA first and meet eligibility requirements before you can take up the 3 hours certification examination.
Other than ATA there are private organizations like the Global Translation Institute, an Oregon, US based company that offers Certified Translation Professional program for 7 different language pairs. The candidates are tested through an online examination. Similarly there are also translators associations in countries like UK, Italy, France, Argentina and Spain that offer some kind of certification / membership programs.
In many countries like Argentina, UK etc. legal translation requires translators to have license. An institution called Colegio de Traductores Públicos de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires issues licenses to persons who have undergone 4 year language course at the university and want to become court translators in Argentina.
One of the obvious benefits that these certifications offer to a translator is that it increases his/her prospects of being hired by a client by increasing the comfort level of the client in hiring the translator knowing that the translator possesses some level of knowledge of translating in the language combination. In addition as an added incentive, some of the certifying organizations also link you up with translation agencies or clients who have registered with them.
There is also flip side to licensing or mandatory certification of translators: it increases the overall cost of translation and wastes the translators’ time in preparing and appearing for tests. Many people question the rationale behind mandatory licensing of translators and feel it restricts their freedom. They are against some bureaucrats deciding on whether they can practice their profession or not. Also licensing and certifications offer no guarantee that a given translation will be of high quality; there are excellent uncertified translators who through years of experience offer high quality translations while there are also poor certified translators. Hence the entire question of licensing or mandatory certification of translators is a debatable issue.
Christina said:
Feb 01, 10 at 9:20 pmHi Matt,
Thanks for your article.
In Germany everyone can call themselves “Translator” and even “Interpreter”.
The only way to distinguish between a wannabe-translator and a translator who has undergone the necessary training is to look for the words “staatlich geprüft” (i.e. state-certified) or “Diplom-Übersetzer”. The latter title is acquired with a university course. The first, however, is a more hands-on 2 to 3-year training in a Fachakademie. In order to become an interpreter, you would have to attend certain additional courses and have an additional final exam – but only after having successfully sat your final exam in translation.
In addition to the general translation theory, students also have to choose a field of speciality.
The university as well as the Fachakademie courses are not for free but to be paid by the student.
In many other job fields you get paid by your employer during your training period. As a translator you have to pay for your training in Germany.
In a way, this is similar to additional courses you may want to take and attend during your professional career in any other job.
So, you more or less pay to work before you get paid to work.
But then again, the thorough training and the experience gained during these year in training often guarantees for the best quality.
I would like to advise everyone to pay a cent more per word and be sure that you have a real professional and not just someone who thinks they can translate because they state they speak this language.
Thanks again, Matt, for this article.
Regards,
Christina
Hadas said:
Feb 11, 10 at 9:42 amThanks for the article. This is a very useful information I didn’t know. You have a great website for on hour translation. Good luck.
steve said:
May 01, 10 at 7:53 pmHello,
can you help me on this issue?
I want to start my own agency offering translation services in many languages.
There is one thing that I am confused about, the stamp or raised seal that translation companies put on their certified translations.
What licenses or permits do i need to get from the state of California to allow me to offer certified translations and to allow me to use that stamp? obviously, i would be certifying other people’s works.
Can I get a fictitious business name (doing business as) and buy the round seal and the stamp from a stamp-making company and start operating?
or I need some kind of permit/license from the state to be able to offer certified translations as a translation agency?
When you hire a freelancer who is not court certified and the translation agency puts their stamp on the document saying “we know this translator, he is fluent, blah blah”. Is the translation certified now?
again, the question is, what gives the translation agency the right to use that stamp and certify translations?
Thank you so much, the reason I am concerned is I dont want to do anything illegal and get in trouble (you know, the practicing without a license trouble)
thank you so much for any info
steve
Adriana Tassini said:
Aug 31, 10 at 2:21 amHello Matt,
Thank you for mentioning our team’s Certified Translation Professional (CTP) program above.
Just so there is no confusion the CTP program now covers 16 languages which are included within the quote below from our website:
“Our exam evaluates participant’s abilities to translate in both directions. For example if you choose the English-Spanish language pair you will be tested on translating from English into Spanish as well as Spanish into English. The language options are:English, French, Chinese, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, Bulgarian, Japanese, Greek, Korean, Polish, Dutch, Irish, and Danish.”
Thanks again and let us know if you ever want to conduct an email-based interview to create more content for your site here on translator training or certification programs.
- Adriana
Global Translation Institute (GTI)