Yes, time seems to have really flown by. And September 30th, which is dedicated to St. Jerome, translator of the bible and a doctor of the church, is just round the corner. Once again it’s time to congratulate translation professionals for their day. Aliança Traduções greatly values its internal team and all of its collaborators, and would like to take advantage of this moment to reaffirm its partnership and to thank everyone for their commitment.
We would also like to use this occasion to ponder in a broader way as to why we celebrate translator’s day. Similar commemorative dates, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Child’s Day, Teacher’s Day along with Doctor’s Day, Engineer’s Day and many others annually mark a day of awareness. This is a good opportunity to highlight your importance and express our appreciation and support. It is time to set aside part of our extremely scarce time to say thank you to those professionals who we have around us and who help to facilitate our routine.
Nowadays, a lot of people believe that translation has become a purely automatic process, that all you need to do is to push a button and that’s it. They think that the technological progress represented by translation memories and machine translations has made the human factor obsolete. They could not be further from the truth, the new technologies are useful tools that should be operated by skilled professionals. These technologies have come to facilitate the painstaking and repetitive work so that translators can gain agility and concentrate their focus even more on the quality and consistency of the final job. In addition, in the way as occurs with any other type of progress, these tools require specific training, constant updating, and a great deal of dedication and investment. There is no magic involved, but rather a commitment to perfection and refinement.
The role of translators and interpreters in the globalized world has assumed an ever greater importance in the corporate environment, in the carrying out of business and in the dissemination of educational, information and entertainment content. Borders have been watered down, the Internet undertook the task of removing them. However, the language barriers remain unchanged and more than ever need to be overcome. Obviously, for this purpose it is not simply enough to press the ‘enter’ key in the automatic dictionary. Translating involves more than searching for synonyms, it entails conveying culture and knowledge, exchanging ideas in an understandable and accessible way. It is through the eyes, ears, understanding and knowledge of translators and interpreters that the world can become a more prosperous and united one. It is no wonder that world leaders gather behind closed doors accompanied only by these professionals, and put their trust and our fate in their hands.
So, on this commemorative day, we extend our thanks to the translation professionals who are committed first and foremost to the seriousness of their task and the quality of their work. You undoubtedly deserve our recognition and encouragement.
HAPPY TRANSLATOR’S DAY!
