Certified translations for academic evaluations and licensure from Italian since 1982.

For FCCPT, WES (World Education Services), IERF, FCSA (Foreign Credentials Svc of America), ECFMG, NCLEX, ERES Educational Records Evaluation Service), NAAB, NCARB, ACREVS, CAREE (Center for Applied Research Evaluation Education), CLARB, Modio Health, Evalcompany, IFCS (Institute for Foreign Credentials Services), California Architects Board, International Accreditation Service, Academic Evaluation Svc (AES), Educational Credential Evaluators ECE, Medtrainer, SDA National, Academic Credentials Evaluation Institute (ACEI), Alianza Academic Evaluations, Evaluation Service Inc, Foreign Credentials Svc of America, Increo Evaluations, Scholaro, SDR Evaluation Consultants, Ucredo, Global Language, International Evaluation Services, Lisano International, Josef Silny & Associations (JS&A), Florida Board of Education, Open Group, Naab (National Architectural Accreditation Board), NCEES, Educational Credential Evaluators, Educational Perspectives, Foreign Academic Credentials Svc, Global Credential Evaluators, Foundation for International Services, The Evaluation Company, Transcript Research, International Education Evaluation, International Consultants of Delaware, International Academic Credential Evaluators, Bruscan, The Evaluation Credentials, TBPES (Texas), State Bar Associations.

Request a quote to legaltranslationsystemsquote@gmail.com

https://foreigndocumenttranslations.com/french

#FCCPT #NAAB #NCEES #NCLEX

Certified translations for academic evaluations and licensure from French since 1982.

For FCCPT, WES (World Education Services), IERF, FCSA (Foreign Credentials Svc of America), ECFMG, NCLEX, ERES Educational Records Evaluation Service), NAAB, NCARB, ACREVS, CAREE (Center for Applied Research Evaluation Education), CLARB, Modio Health, Evalcompany, IFCS (Institute for Foreign Credentials Services), California Architects Board, International Accreditation Service, Academic Evaluation Svc (AES), Educational Credential Evaluators ECE, Medtrainer, SDA National, Academic Credentials Evaluation Institute (ACEI), Alianza Academic Evaluations, Evaluation Service Inc, Foreign Credentials Svc of America, Increo Evaluations, Scholaro, SDR Evaluation Consultants, Ucredo, Global Language, International Evaluation Services, Lisano International, Josef Silny & Associations (JS&A), Florida Board of Education, Open Group, Naab (National Architectural Accreditation Board), NCEES, Educational Credential Evaluators, Educational Perspectives, Foreign Academic Credentials Svc, Global Credential Evaluators, Foundation for International Services, The Evaluation Company, Transcript Research, International Education Evaluation, International Consultants of Delaware, International Academic Credential Evaluators, Bruscan, The Evaluation Credentials, TBPES (Texas), State Bar Associations.

Request a quote to legaltranslationsystemsquote@gmail.com

https://foreigndocumenttranslations.com/french

#FCCPT #NAAB #NCEES #NCLEX

PRONOUN MIXUPS: ANOTHER AI TRANSLATION SPECIALTY

 

By Carlos de Paula

 

It does not take much to realize that not all languages are similar. Sounds, alphabets, intonations are just some of the obvious differences between Russian and Chinese, for instance. But there is much more than that, much feared grammar. Some languages have articles, others don’t, some have declensions, many do not, several have tons of verb tenses, others have simple verb structures, so on, so forth. One area where AI translation often messes up is personal pronouns.

 

Take for instance Portuguese and Spanish, two languages where AI wreaks real havoc in the pronoun area.   

 

I have handled many AI edits to and from these languages, and AI makes a real mess of things, which can be troublesome in litigation documents, for instance. AI does have a problem reading context and seems to regard the use of gender in Romance languages a futile nuisance. This can even cause legal issues, when pronouns are wrongly translated and seem to identify the incorrect party. The longer the text, the worst the problem.

 

That is why a professional, experienced and thorough editor should be retained to edit any text translated by AI.

 

Carlos de Paula is one of the top Brazilian Portuguese translators in the USA since 1982. And now a top Portuguese and Spanish AI Translation editor as well. 

For information on translations of Prenuptial agreements visit http://prenuptranslations.com

 

TRANSLITERATION AND TRANSLATION ARE NOT THE SAME THING

By Carlos de Paula

 

Most translation done in the United States involves European languages whose alphabets closely resembles ours, the Latin alphabet, with a few differences here and there, mostly letters with accents.  However, everybody knows that many languages globally are written in different alphabets. Some, like Greek and Russian, share a few characters and look a bit like ours, while others, like Chinese and Hindi, are written in script that does not at all resemble our English alphabet.

 

Translating most texts between languages with different alphabets is a linguistic issue, however, translating names of persons, locations and places can be a peculiar challenge.

 

That is because a lot of transliteration has changed in the last few decades. Case in point, Mao Tse Tung became Mao Zedong, Bombay became Mumbai, Alma Ata, Almaty, etc. There has been little change in Japanese transliteration: Nakamura is still Nakamura, Nagoya, Nagoya, so on, so forth. That is because Japanese is a syllabic language.

 

Transliterating a simple person’s name in alphabets that resemble ours can be a nightmare. For instance, when I was writing a book on car racing in the 70s, the last name of a Greek driver appeared spelled in four different ways in non-Greek literature, so it was up to me to choose a transliteration.

 

In immigration cases this can have devastating outcomes. Whenever I receive a document written in a different alphabet I ask the client to provide the spelling appearing in US visas, passports and the like. Believe it or not, a simple “iy”, “ye” or “ii” ending can cause all types of trouble for a client.

For more information http://birthcertificatetranslated.com

JUST HOW GOOD IS AI TRANSLATION?

By Carlos de Paula

 

I have been exposed to machine translation from the very beginning, so in the 90s I had already tried computer software in a few language pairs. To tell you the truth, they were all very bad back then.

 

However, time flies when you are having fun, and it does the same when you are not. With time translation software has become better, I must admit. However, most AI translations still sound like AI text, devoid of style and life, incapable of understanding figures of speech, cynicism, irony, humor, nuances, and the proverbial text between the lines.

 

However, I knew that sooner or later it would be widely adopted as a tool, so in the last couple of decades I continued to study several software titles in myriad languages.

 

As it stands, AI produced translation still has a major problem: it reads context very poorly. That, in certain languages, can have disastrous consequences, for the same word can have different meanings in the same language, for instance, “recurso” can have several meanings in Portuguese. This can cause all types of nasty havoc. Embarrassment is one such problem. Legal issues are more serious, for, to this day, the most popular AI translation tools around make positive negative, and negative positive, with disturbing frequency. This in a contract can lead to litigation, great expense and loss of face.

 

Not only that, AI frequently picks up the wrong translation for a given term, often leading to hilarious renderings. Again, translation software fails to connect the dots where the dots are often very important.

 

Another problem is that AI translation works reasonably when text is well written. As writing skills are in short order these days, AI is often used to make sense of the senseless, haphazardly put together, ghastly collections of words. A badly written text will sound wacky, bizarre, after being put through translation software.

 

In short, commercial planes are flown by automatic pilot for the longest part of a trip, but qualified pilots have to take-off and land the darn things. It is no different with translations.

 

Let us face it, one cannot stop the wheels of commerce. Businesses penny-pinch as much as possible when it comes to translation work, it has always been so, for it is often seen as nuisance.  Now that it is available a few clicks away, for free, the perception is that we translators have been highway robbers all along.

 

I saw the writing on the wall and specialized in editing AI produced translations, for it is the future of the written translation industry, whether we like it or not. I have been able to turn atrocities and inaccuracies into good and precise text,  even making them enjoyable. When a client comes to me with “a translation he did”, I already know what that means. I only draw the line on certified document translations: I do not accept AI done translations prepared by clients, after all, I have to certify that I did it. Those are done from scratch.

 

Whether AI will ever reach perfection is debatable. Brazilians, for one, like to be witty, and AI fails to handle wittiness all that well, so that a culturally competent editor will always be necessary. In other words, rather than making it my number one enemy, I decided to coexist with it. We translators have no choice. I am not that handsome to become an influencer.

 

Carlos de Paula is one of the top Brazilian Portuguese translators in the USA since 1982. And now a top Portuguese AI Translation editor as well. 

Tourists staying away from Miami Beach in droves - one the reasons why

This Saturday, I decided to eat at Lincoln Road. I know most locals think of eateries there as expensive tourist traps of questionable quality, but there are a few good places, such as Cafe Nexxt, where my wife and I planned to have an inexpensive, honest and nourishing lunch.

So we drove to the nearest South Beach  parking lot, the large public parking across from City Hall in 17th Street. Until recently, the rate was US$ 1.00 an hour. They boosted it up to US$ 2.00 an hour a few months ago. Still not bad, considering there are places that charge as much as US$50 for all day parking. When we got there, although the lit sign said OPEN, there were two orange cones blocking the entrance.

I found that peculiar, because the city has been quite empty the last few weeks. The other day I found parking in the 7th Street Lot without any problems, in one of the first levels, on a weekend, too.

The 17th Street lot has two peculiarities. Tons of spaces are taken up by City Government vehicles. Not too sure that there is no other place for city vehicles to be parked by the dozen, they certainly might be more inconvenient for city workers. The fact is, dozen of places are taken up by them every day, not bad when the city is empty, very annoying when it is full.

The other peculiarity is that elevators are often not working. Al least the ones facing Lincoln Road. Wonder if the ones facing town hall are out of order - the only time I try to use them because the ones  facing Lincoln Road were all broken, they worked fine. Just a coincidence, I reckon...

So it seems that the lot is managed not for tourist and resident convenience, rather, for city workers' convenience. 

As there was no one around to explain the orange cones, I decided to park in the New Symphony Parking Lot, which is just across from the street, and have used in the past. Tons of spaces. No problem.

When I came back, after a two-hour lunch, problem, BIG PROBLEM. I found out that the rate for that day was a flat US$ 15.00...Then I found out the information posted in a barely legible and small sign, with a very light green background and white letters. Anybody that knows a little bit about graphics, will come to the conclusion that the signage was designed with  the intent not to be seen, specially under the sun. Red colors or a darker background, plus a better position would ensure the prospective client was better informed.

New World Symphony - Public Parking with a difference

So, my inexpensive lunch suddenly became US$ 11.00 more expensive.

Parking woes in Miami Beach, involving private tow companies Beach Towing and Tremont Towing are reported by the hundreds. However, when the city government seems to be playing numbers games with parking figures and signs, you realize that tourists might be getting tired of getting the shaft from a city that is treating tourists (and residents) badly.

Incidentally, there was no major event in Miami Beach at all to warrant such "Flat Rate" all day, and Lincoln Road was quite empty. So that a huge convention center might not be the answer, after all.   

The plight of the foreign Physical Therapist in the United States

It is a known fact that the U.S. population is getting older, and the demand for services to an aging population is increasing with every passing year in the country. Physical Therapy is among such services, meaning that the demand for these professionals is increasing all over the country. Job surveys and lists of future good careers generally include physical therapy, for the very same reasons stated. However, U.S. physical therapy graduates are not keeping up with the demand, which means that foreign physical therapists are being called to fill the gap.

The first step for a foreign physical therapist is getting a degree validation from specialized agencies such as FCCPT and ICA, which analyze the transcripts, degrees and syllabi and issue opinions which are widely recognized as authoritative. From that point on, it is up to individual state regulatory and licensing agencies to approve the applications or require the applicant to obtain more credits. So it is a good idea for the foreign physical therapist to find out which agencies are acceptable to the regulatory agency of the state where he or she lives, or intends to live in. NACES members, for instance, might be accepted in one state, not the other.

 

For physical therapists from countries such as Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand and India, and countries that issue syllabus in English, things can be easier, for their academic documentation does not require translation. That is not the case of documentation of physical therapists from other countries. While translating transcripts, diplomas and certificates is not very expensive, course outlines, or syllabus are long documents that can run from a few dozen pages to over 400.

U.S. university syllabus are generally very concise documents, in fact, sometimes each subject can be summarized in a single paragraph in the most extreme situations. That is not the case of syllabi from a number of countries, where even a single subject can run over 10 pages.

A quick search for translations on the internet returns a number of companies with flashy and modern looking websites that provide “per page” pricing that, at first, seem to be a good deal. A lot of these companies are Silicon Valley startups which are, in general, unfamiliar with the specifics of translation work, in spite of their claims, and are based on marketing strategies and technological platforms which not always favor the client. These “per page” prices can range anywhere from US$ 19.95 to US$ 33.00 a page.

However, before even considering hiring such companies, one must look closely into such price structures for a very long document. The per page price does not mean pages with unlimited number of words, you will soon find out. In fact, the advertiser that charges US$ 19.95 a page defines a page, in very small print, as having 100 words. However, most document pages have way more than 100 words, and many syllabus pages have more than 500 words. Other companies define a page as having 250 words, and change pricing to per word after the threshold is met. This means that a lot of the syllabus pages do not even qualify for the seemingly low “per page” price. When the maximum threshold is exceeded, these companies normally charge between US$0.10 to US$0.12 a word. Yet, they still charge the “per page” price for pages with little text. So, a 400 page course outline, not uncommon, can cost a very hefty US$12,000.00 or even more.

The fact is that the vast majority of translation companies and individual translators in the U.S.A. are not familiar with the validation and evaluation process, so they price the entire document, which is a waste of your time and money, and makes the evaluator’s job much more difficult.  Far from the author suggesting these companies do this because they want to deceive and overcharge - I would say it is sheer ignorance.

So the best  alternative is seeking a specialist, such as Legal Translation Systems, which is located in the Miami area and has been doing this specific work since the 80’s. “Evaluators seek specific information on a syllabus, and a lot of it can be omitted. When we price a job, we only include the information required by the evaluators, who appreciate our effort. Recently, a client was quoted US$8,000.00 by a major Miami translation company, we did it for only US$3,200.00,” says Celia Pieroni, a manager. Pieroni also says that “physical therapy syllabi translations have to be prepared by an experienced translator, because the originals often have dozens to hundreds of mistakes, so the translator has to be very familiar with the specific terminology and make adjustments.”

The downside is Legal Translation Systems is a boutique company, which does all work in-house so it is limited to translating documents from Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italian. If your document is written in a different language, such as German and Dutch, you have a long process ahead of you. I suggest you visit the American Translators Association website for translators of other languages. Look for science or medical translation specialists.