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.
