The translation of official personal documents is a largely unresearched and rarely commented upon domain of translation.
Whether these are identity documents, educational qualifications, driver licences or employment records, translation of such documents directly affects both the document bearer and the institutions to which they are submitted to gain recognition of an anticipated status. In this presentation, we are going to report the findings of a recent research project on the translation of official documents. Our research documented the various issues that arise in their translation, performed a quality analysis of a large sample of such translations, and developed a set of recommendations for translators, for language service providers, and for end-user institutions, which we present for discussion.
Presenters:
- Mustapha Taibi
Mustapha Taibi is Associate Professor of Interpreting and Translation at Western Sydney University, and Editor-in-Chief of Translation & Interpreting. He has conducted a number of studies on community interpreting and translation. His recent publications include Community Translation (co-authored with Uldis Ozolins, Bloomsbury, 2016), Translating for the Community (Multilingual Matters, 2018), Multicultural Health Translation, Interpreting and Communication (Routledge, 2019, co-edited with Meng Ji and Ineke Crezee), and Translating Cultures (Routledge, 2021, co-authored with David Katan).
- Uldis Ozolins
Uldis Ozolins is an academic researcher, author and teacher, and a translation practitioner. He is co-author with Mustapha Taibi of Community Translation (Bloomsbury 2016), and co-author with Adolfo Gentile and Mary Vasilakakos of Liaison Interpreting (Melbourne University Press 1996). He has published widely on interpreting, translation, language service policy and language policy. He is currently Adjunct Associate Professor at Western Sydney University.
