German Translation – Wissentransfer

15 Sep German Translation – Wissentransfer

Wissentransfer

German language has an excellent term that has no analogue in English – “Wissentransfer”. The closest possible translation to English is “practice of applying academic research insights into the real world”. A professional English to German translator would know this concept very well and would have a lot of experience employing it in their translation practice.

Qualifications

It is common practice for German translation service providers to employ people who not only have excellent knowledge of German, but also have the necessary qualifications from translation institutes. When hiring a professional translator to do an English to German translation, it is advisable to check that they have a specific English to German translation qualification. While people who have the German to English translation qualification might be fluent in both languages, it is likely that they are more familiar with the English language and how it is perceived by native speakers, rather than German. On the other hand, if they have both qualifications, the client can be assured that the results of their work would be of a very high standard.

Experience

Another thing to consider when choosing an English to German translation service provider is the experience of the translators employed by the company. If a translator has little or no knowledge or experience about the field related to the subject of translation, they are unlikely to know how certain terms are translated in various contexts. They would also encounter problems when adapting the text for its target audience because they would not be aware of how various features of the German language work in that case. For instance, when translating a heavily worded text it is important to bear in mind one difference between German and English. This difference is that in German, fields of behavior are often written as “things”, which doesn’t happen in English (such as the example above, “Wissentransfer”). Such terms are important for translators to know when their task is to translate an English text using plain language. Fortunately, this feature of German makes it easier to use the plain language tool and adapt the text so that a native speaker has no trouble understanding it and doesn’t perceive it as a translation.

Plain language and technology

Any professional translator knows the significance on the plain language as a communication tool and knows that it is quite difficult to present information in plain language by using solely online translation tools or CAT tools. This is particularly the case with German – as we’ve pointed out above, addressing the literary needs of the target audience requires understanding unique features of the language that a program cannot do. Plain language makes it possible for every member of the intended target audience – not just members of an industry to which the document is related but others surrounding them – to understand the text. Once again, the importance of making the text appear to a native speaker as though it was written in German cannot be overstated.