What is a Certified Translation?
Most of the people are confused about what is a Certified Translation and what is a general translation as both types of translations are provided by linguists. Though the term ' certified ' can be found in courts and institutions where every single information is recorded and registered for references to make the case solid to prove everything has been on records officially.
Though the definition of what is a Certified Translation and what is a general translation can be different from country to country because of government policies. For example, if we talk about Asian countries like India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh or china etc, there is no such ministry or government body which allows a linguist to practice as a certified translator.
There is no such official Translation Association conducting translation examinations where linguists can take examinations. For example, a doctor and a medical practitioner have the licenses to practice their services, upon successful examinations. Because they have regular flow of patients and clients respectively or there are regular courts and hospitals where they can visit and learn about new diseases and cases.
But there is no such institute for the time being where a translator can visit and learn about new technologies. Most of the translators or linguists work as freelance translators, which means they are not bound to provide their services regularly or most of the important factor is no company hire any linguist as full time office employer.
Translation agencies contact linguists or translators when they have a project according to the qualification of the linguists. But because of internet being a lifeline for everyone, and which has caused everything to appear online, some search engines are hiring full time translators in local languages like Urdu and Hindi in India.
So now let's come back to our main point "what is a Certified Translation". Certified translation means the translation, which is provided in any domain or area like medical or legal, has been provided by the concerned translator having wide knowledge of language and practical experience in a particular filed.
For example, a lawyer has vast knowledge of legal terminology and legal formatting to produce a document in court. If you have a legal document like divorce papers, and you want a certified translation then a lawyer or a person having practical knowledge of legal terminology can provide you a certified translation.
If you are living in Asian countries and search for ' what is a Certified Translation' then you will see lots of results but you can't find any linguist showing you his license number, registration number etc as a certified translator.
But there are lots of certified translation services companies, which mean their certified translation services are acceptable in government department, public sectors and even universities and colleges. If you are still looking for 'what is a Certified Translation' then you can read more.
In brief you can assume that a certified translation is one which is accurate in terms of quality and content. While providing the certified translation, the original content is taken care of while translating the document from one language into another.
No word is deleted and no word is added in certified translation, the struggle is to provide exact changes of words while retaining the real meaning of the document. Some translation agencies provide Certified Translation and they provide you an acknowledgement letter that the certified translation has been provided by qualified linguists.
As far as an individual is concerned, no individual translator can provide you a certified translation. To get a certified translation you are supposed to contact a translation agency as they have professional linguists working in a particular field for years.
