News

On 2-3 March, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Translation held a seminar in Tallinn for its contract partners who provide translation into Estonian.

The seminar proceeded in a pleasant yet business-like atmosphere, where administrative matters related to translation were dealt with by the Head of the External Translation Unit, Werner Grünewald; the Acting Head of the Estonian Language Department, Epp Vihterpal; and two specialists from the External Translation Unit, Irene Haaranen and Catherine Pirard.

Main Terminologist Tiina Pai spoke on issues related to Estonian terminology and Translation Assistant Merle Milva gave an overview of technical problems that have come up in relation to the use of computer-assisted translation programs.

An entire set of topics was devoted to translation quality – Quality Officer Mai Lehtpuu provided us with both general guidelines and specific advice for maintaining and improving translation quality. Questions were answered and concerns were forwarded – it was a pleasure to attend!

A&A Lingua has been a translation partner for the European Commission since 2004. Last year, the European Commission translated about 650,000 pages into various languages; of this total, approximately 20,000 pages were translated into Estonian.

On 27 October 2015, the Association of Estonian Translation Companies held its third annual conference, Translation Industry: From the Inside Out and from the Outside In. This year’s conference focused on new trends in the translation industry and how to adapt to them and on creating and maintaining teams and communication. It also weighed questions of giving people responsibility and managing people skilfully. Among speakers from a number of countries was A&A Lingua’s Merit Altrov, who delivered a presentation entitled “The project manager as manager and managing managers”. Merit talked about how important leadership skills and the associated decision-making powers are for project managers, illustrating her ideas with examples from A&A Lingua’s experiences. She also discussed ways to increase the impact of project managers’ work, motivate them and thus achieve better results. For more information about the conference and speakers, go to http://www.interlexmedia.ee/konverents/lang/en/

A&A Lingua has successfully passed a certification audit conducted by Metrosert AS to become the first Estonian translation company to meet the requirements of the new European translation service standard EN ISO 17100:2015. Certification of the written translation service attests to the professionalism of our staff, transparent project management and high-quality translation output. The certificate was issued on 23 November 2015.

A&A Lingua written translation service has also been certified under the previous European translation service quality standard, EN 15038:2006, since 23 November 2009.

As of 1 January 2015, a key change was introduced to the procedure for certified translations in Estonia. From now on, only certified translators (also referred to in Estonia as sworn translators) can prepare official translations of Estonian language documents into foreign languages. Until 2015, both notaries and certified translators could certify translations. This is the first stage of an overhaul of certified translation procedure to allow only certified translators to prepare certified translations. The final stage will enter into force in 2020, and from that point the sworn translators will also be solely responsible for the opposite translation pair, from a language other than Estonian into Estonian. Notaries will no longer be empowered to notarize the translator’s signature. Pursuant to the Certified Translators Act, a certified translator is a professional who has passed the state professional examination and to whom the state has given the right to

1. translate documents and certify the correctness of their translation
2. if necessary, to certify the correctness of a copy of the document being translated and
3. if necessary, certify the correctness of the printout of a document for translation obtained from the public online database.

Estonia has slightly more than 30 certified translators who translate from Estonian into English, Russian, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, French, Spanish, Italian and Latvian and from those languages into Estonian. In case of a need to translate an official document into a language not served by a certified translator in Estonia, the translation is prepared through a third language – in many of those cases, an Estonian document will be translated into English and then into the local language in the country in question. But don’t be put off if the above explanation seemed arcane. Nothing will change for customers. Send us a query and we will find the best solution, placing your order with a certified translator.

October 2014 saw the second conference organized by the Association of Estonian Translation Companies (ETBL), where Merit Altrov of A&A Lingua was one of the presenters. Speaking before an audience mainly consisting of young translators, Merit talked about the process of recruiting translators by ETBL members, explaining what skills translators are required to have under the European Quality Standard for Translation. This year’s conference was mainly oriented at people and companies working in the translation industry, aimed at fostering networking, sharing experiences and finding good solutions for furthering the entire sector. Over 140 people attended the conference. Besides presentations and workshops, a so-called speed dating event was held to provide an even more fertile setting for facilitating new contacts. For more, see ETBL’s website.