What skills are necessary to provide sworn translations?

For legal, administrative and business formalities, sworn translations play a central role since they promote communication between jurisdictions that speak different languages. Whether they be legal acts, business contracts or official degrees, legal and administrative documents sometimes require an accurate and certified translation to be accepted by a court or administration. This is where sworn translators come in. They are experts in official translations and can sign and stamp them to certify their accuracy.

However, the certified translation profession requires a gamut of specific skills. To better understand this, here we’ll explore these skills, language mastery, legal knowledge and interpersonal and professional skills.

Understanding sworn translations

Sworn translations, also called certified translations, are unique in the field. They require not only an excellent mastery of language and law, but also official recognition. Let’s explore the characteristics of this service and its role in law.

Definition of sworn translations

Provided by sworn translators, sworn translations are official translations of legal documents that are certified to be accurate representations of the source text. The translator him or herself provides this certification by writing his or her signature and placing his or her stamp on the translated document. But why is he or she authorized to do this? Simply be being designated by a court of appeals and swearing an oath there.

The importance of sworn translations in different contexts

In legal, administrative and business contexts, sworn translations are often necessary. Documents such as legal acts, business contracts and degrees are translated, and a sworn translator’s signature is required to certify that the translation is an accurate representation of the original contents, giving it legal weight.

Take the case of Ms. Durant, a French citizen who was served to appear in court in the United States. The legal documents, including the service, were written in English and, per American law, the defendant, in this case Ms. Durand, must be able to understand these documents. However, she doesn’t speak English well and requires a translation of these documents to understand the charges filed against her and thus prepare her defense.

Here a sworn translator is crucial. Ms. Durand hires a sworn translator to translate all her legal documents from English to French. In addition to speaking both languages, this translator is also familiar with the legal jargon in both countries.

A sworn translator’s responsibilities and commitments

As you can well imagine, the sworn translation profession implies great responsibility. Sworn translators commit to respect the confidentiality of the documents and to be impartial and accurately translate the original test. Also, they must use their expertise and skills to demonstrate a great degree of accuracy and professionalism. And let’s not forget that this responsibility stems from swearing an oath at the court of appeals, making sworn translators court language experts.

Language skills

For sworn translators, excellent mastery of languages is not just basic knowledge; it’s an absolute necessity. However, just understanding the meaning of words is not enough. Sworn translators must also understand the tone, style and cultural nuances of the original document to adequately transmit the information in the target language. Let’s analyze the different aspects of these language skills.

Exceptional grasp of the source and target languages

As we just mentioned, sworn translators must fully grasp the source language of a document, including grammar, syntax, vocabulary, slang and phonetics. This may their native language or one of their target languages.

Understanding of cultural and language differences

Translations don’t only imply a word for word replacement from one language to another. Translations also require a deep understanding of cultural and language differences between the source and target languages. Because of this, sworn translators must be able to navigate these differences to provide translations that aren’t just correct but also sound natural in the target language.

Specialized skills

Beyond language skills, sworn translations require several specialized skills including legal knowledge, legal terminology and professional ethics which are essential for ensuring the accuracy of sworn translations. Let’s explore these specific certified translation skills.

Understanding law and legal terminology

First, it’s logical that sworn translators have solid knowledge of law and legal terminology. The translation of legal documents requires a deep understanding of legal systems, laws, procedures and field-specific terminology. Only with this knowledge can translators accurately reproduce the contents of legal documents.

Research and verification skills

In the field of sworn translations, research and verification are without doubt essential skills. Thus, translators must be able to research and verify precise information, especially legal terminology. Also, they must be able to research and interpret trustworthy legal sources to ensure a translation’s accuracy.

Respect for ethical norms

Finally, sworn translators must naturally adhere to strict ethical norms. To achieve this, they must respect confidentiality, remain impartial and avoid conflicts of interest. Likewise, they must strive to always ensure accuracy and integrity in their translations by guaranteeing that they are true and correct reflections of the original document. It goes without saying that this respect for ethical norms is essential for maintaining confidence and credibility in a field like sworn translations.

Interpersonal skills

Beyond technical skills, interpersonal skills also play a crucial role in providing sworn translations. The ability to effectively interact with clients, other legal professionals or legal authorities can significantly impact the success of a translation. Let’s look at these essential characteristics.

Communication

Clear and effective communication is crucial for sworn translations. This includes the ability to precisely understand a client’s needs, ask relevant questions and present translations coherently. Communication includes both a translator’s working language and a target language and requires that he or she pay particular attention to cultural nuances and subtleties.

Professionalism

Professionalism is a key interpersonal skill for a sworn translator. It implies not only respecting ethical norms, as mentioned above, but also maintaining confidentiality, honoring deadlines and behaving in a respectful and courteous way at all times.

Adaptability

The very nature of producing sworn translations requires adaptability. Translators may need to work on a large variety of documents with strict deadlines all the while meeting specific (legal, administrative, etc.) needs. Adaptability is therefore a crucial skill for effective challenge management.

Teamwork

Although a lot of translation work is done independently, translators may need to work on teams, especially in translation offices. The ability to effectively collaborate with others – whether they be translators, interpreters or legal professionals – is thus an important interpersonal skill.