A Singapore Affair: The Translation Industry and Market through Local Eyes

More often than not, the role of translation editors is rarely discussed in translation classes, yet in the translation industry, it is common for established companies to engage their services.

In view of this, Lingua Technologies International (LTi) was honoured to be invited to speak in an open lecture for translation students in Nanyang Technological University (NTU) on 26 October 2016.

In the open lecture, the role of a translation editor was presented and discussed with the students. Below is the summary of the presentation.

A piece of translation work is a product of the collaborative efforts of several participants. In the process of translation, translators may at times produce inconsistent translations, or use terms that are not very accurate representations of the source text. In such cases, translation editors, or revisers, play an important role in safeguarding the accuracy of translations.

With that said, translation editing has its challenges too.

The editing of translated texts of differing natures requires the translation editor to be familiar with how each text should be in the target language/culture, the proper terms and phrases to be used, and the tone to be adopted.

These were some of what James, an Editor from LTi, presented in his capacity of co-speaker during the lecture. The aim of the lecture was to introduce translation students to some of the things they could look forward to if they were interested in pursuing a career in translation.

All in all, it was a very encouraging experience for the speakers, who got to share their views and experiences with the students in NTU, and LTi looks forward to participating in similar outreach programmes in the future.

Note: Translation editors are usually referred to as “Revisers” in standards such as ISO 17100 as they do not perform the same role as conventional “Editors” in other industries.