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Interview | Wednesday, 10 October 2007

The translation elite

International Translation Agency Limited CEO Rachid Titouah revealed to Charlot Zahra the secrets behind his company’s comprehensive translation and interpretation services since its inception in 1992

First of all a biographical note. Who is Rachid Titouah?
I was born in Algeria where I had my secondary education then moved to France and read linguistics at Paris III University, graduating in 1990 with an M.A. in Applied Linguistics. While still completing my second degree, in 1989, I started working as a part-time translator for a Paris-based translation agency. It was then that I developed a keen interest in the profession. I came to Malta in 1990 to teach French literature and civilization at the Alliance française. Since then Malta has become my home, my base. I fell in love with the island and the warmth of its people, learned to laugh at the quirks and embraced the culture. I’d like to think that Malta has adopted me as one of its own as I have chosen it to be my second home. In 1992, I set up International Translation Agency Limited, better known as ITA, with a French friend and business partner, a company that offers translation and interpretation services both locally and overseas.

What led you to set up International Translation Agency in 1992?
I had already started doing some translation work in Paris. Being a professional linguist, it was only natural that I would evolve in this field of work. Way back in 1992, no company in Malta could offer a comprehensive linguistic service. The Maltese Government at the time was making great efforts to attract international conferences to the island, and consequently it became necessary to have backup in terms of teams of qualified and professional interpreters and translators. Hence the need was there but it was not fully catered for. At the time there were a few freelance interpreters and translators, but an organisation which would take care of all the linguistic services that a conference might require was still lacking.
I remember Malta hosting some very big conferences in those early years. In 1993 we had the United Nations (UN) conference on the family, which was one of the biggest conferences that ever took place at the Mediterranean Conference Centre with over 2,000 participants. On this occasion ITA provided simultaneous interpreting and conference translation services in some of the UN languages – Arabic, French, Spanish and English. Teams of translators worked through the night translating working documents and ensuring they were ready for perusal the following day, while simultaneous interpreters worked during the day. Therefore, you can see that a real need already existed for a one-stop shop, which would cater for all the linguistic requirements of such high-profile international meetings. ITA was created to do just that.

What are the two main services that International Translation Agency offers?
The two main services which we provide are translation of documents and conference interpretation. We offer scientific, technical and legal translation as well as sworn translation (birth & marriage certificates and other official documents). We also offer a service known as ‘conference translation’. This means that while a conference is taking place, documents that are being drafted or amended for approval during the proceedings need to be translated in real-time. If, for instance, delegates come up with a draft resolution today which will be submitted for adoption the next day, someone has to translate that resolution during the night so that delegates can find a version of it in their own languages on their tables the next day.

How many people does ITA employ (full-time, part-time and freelancers)? What are their areas of expertise?
There are 14 members of staff in house and we have a network of 70 translators and interpreters world-wide. Some are in countries as far-flung as China and Argentina. Most of these people, who are based outside Malta, have been regular collaborators since the outset, so one cannot really consider all of them to be freelance translators in the literal sense of the word. We concentrate on a small number of fields of expertise, technically known as ‘clusters’, and a limited number of languages as well. Unlike the conventional or traditional translation company, which handles all languages and all types of translations, ITA works mainly in the six UN languages – English, French, Arabic, Spanish, Chinese and Russian – plus German, Italian and Maltese. The latter was added to the list of languages we offer only recently when we were awarded a long-term translation contract by the European Commission.
The fields of specialisation are an issue because clearly one cannot be an expert in everything. To translate professionally, nearly perfectly, you need to have a full grasp of the subject matter dealt with in the text you are working on, so we have selected three main ‘clusters’ and acquired a great deal of experience in them. The first one of these is the environment cluster, which is perhaps one of the widest fields of knowledge today as it includes issues relating to climate change, desertification, biodiversity, protection of flora and fauna to name but a few. The second cluster comprises economics, finance and law including corporate law and corporate business, and the third cluster is related to the oil industry and covers matters such as oil exploration, commercialisation of oil rights, commercialisation of oil licences, derivatives and the like. So these are the three main clusters that ITA handles.
Practically all the translators we employ have graduated from some of the best Universities and interpreters schools in Europe. Many of us are also members of prestigious professional translators and interpreters organisations. I personally am a member of the Association internationale des traducteurs de conférences (AITC) Geneva, which is the foremost organisation worldwide for this profession. Our Technical Manager, Fiona Navarro, is also a fully-fledged interpreter and translator. She studied translation and interpreting in Milan and is a member of the Association internationale des interprètes de conférence (Geneva) better known as AIIC.
Given the fact that many of the assignments we handle are for UN agencies such as the United Nations Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol, the World Meterological Organization, the United Nations Offices in Nairobi (UNON) and Geneva (UNOG), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) among others, our clients impose the same minimum educational requirements applicable to their in-house staff on their sub-contractors, so necessarily all our translators and interpreters hold university degrees either in Linguistics or Applied Languages, in terms of training, as well as a minimum of ten years’ proven practical experience in their respective fields of specialization.
Becoming an approved translator for the UN is no easy task – adequate qualifications are just the first step. There are other very stringent criteria that need to be met as well. ITA is justifiably proud to be listed among the fifty companies worldwide that have been approved to translate for the UN. We handle projects whose word count runs into several million words, frequently, the subject matter is extremely complex in nature. Sometimes, a single translation job can take as long as one year to complete!

From which countries hail ITA’s staff?
The nature of the profession being what it is, our translators and interpreters come from all over the world. It is strict company policy to entrust our clients’ translation jobs to native speakers of the target language. We employ people of different nationalities – the majority are Europeans, but we also work with professionals from Arab countries, Hispanic countries and elsewhere. Ours is perhaps one of the few professions where your staff must necessarily be international. You cannot have fully-fledged Maltese translators translating biological diversity material from English into Russian for example; even if they do possess an excellent command of the foreign language, they will never use the language as naturally as a native. For this reason translators and interpreters have to be native speakers. With us this is not an optional.
In Malta we do not have a tradition of translation as such, with the exception of developments that took place since Malta’s accession to the EU which led the University of Malta to launch a course for translators. However, that course caters specifically for EU needs, translating from the main European languages into Maltese. Before Malta’s EU accession this need was not as strongly felt, hence the reason why ITA was set up in 1992. Of course, we also have Maltese employees, especially at management and administrative levels and a team of Maltese translators.

Do you offer other services besides interpretation and translation?
We also offer voice-over, sub-titling and dubbing of audio-visual material and linguistic and cultural consulting. Moreover, we also do copy-editing of books and scripts. For instance, a chairman of a company who wants to make an important speech at a conference abroad would just send us a copy of the speech or presentation and our linguists would improve the natural flow and style of the speech.

Who are ITA’s major clients?
As I already said, ITA’s market niche is intergovernmental organizations, mainly the UN system – the UN headquarters in New York and all its associated agencies. We also have corporate clients, with economic and business companies in Malta and overseas. We were also awarded two four-year contracts for translation with the EU, one for Maltese and another one for Arabic and Hebrew. We have contracts with other intergovernmental organisations such as the African Union and the Islamic Conference Organization. I, for instance, am regularly called upon to interpret for these institutions, but we provide our interpreting services at various conferences everywhere – China, Mexico, Indonesia…anywhere.

What are the qualities that your clients seek in ITA’s services?
Like any other liberal profession, language service providers are self-regulated through a code of professional ethics and conduct. All members of our staff, in-house and freelancers alike, formally undertake to abide by this code prior to being employed by us.
I would say that the most important condition imposed by clients is that their documents be treated with the strictest confidentiality. We frequently handle highly confidential and sensitive documents, therefore, unless one is able to prove to clients that the strictest confidentiality is observed at all times the likelihood of being entrusted with sensitive and important jobs may be greatly reduced.
Translation quality and adherence to agreed deadlines are equally important. If a client approaches us to translate tender documents for a contract the company wishes to submit a bid for and we do not complete the job on time this will cause the client to lose a very big business opportunity. Needless to say, the quality of the translation itself is also of paramount importance.

How do you ensure the quality of your translations?
The quality of our translations is ensured in a variety of ways. There are many components which together contribute towards securing quality. Like I said earlier on, the translators employed with us have to be qualified with a minimum of ten years’ experience. Apart from holding the required qualifications, and having sufficient referential knowledge, every potential translator or interpreter who applies for a job with us has to first take a series of tests at the level of United Nations requirements. These tests are of a level of difficulty equivalent to that of a test you would take at the UN if you were to apply to become a full-time translator with this institution.
Moreover, all translations are revised by senior translators, revisers and proofreaders. Proofreaders deal with the orthographic and formatting aspects of the text, while revisers deal with substantive issues such as ensuring that a translator had a correct understanding of the original text; that the text flows; that the terminology used is appropriate; and that the text as a whole reads naturally.
Basically, the best translation is the one that does not allow the reader to guess that the text in hand is not the original. As the saying goes “a translation that reads like a translation is not a good translation”. If you read a text and you get the impression that it might have been translated, then the translation is not as good as it could be. This standard of quality can only be attained after many years of experience, there are no short cuts.
In its drive to further enhance the overall quality of its services, ITA has recently been awarded ISO 9001:2000 Certification which further reinforces our commitment to quality.

Do you envisage a growth in the company’s translation and interpreting market in the foreseeable future?
Yes, certainly, just like any other company operating in any given sector, it is only legitimate to expect that that company would seek to increase its market share and position. Indeed, the linguistic services market, which comprises translation, interpretation and localisation, has registered marked growth over the past few years. According to controlled studies, in 2011 the market will be worth more than nine billion US dollars worldwide. So you can imagine what the market is worth today. It is a service industry which is there to stay.
Some analysts would argue that in the wake of globalisation and, with English becoming increasingly a global language, there will be less and less need for translation. The reality is that while English has indeed become a very widely spoken language, it is also a fact that interaction between communities – be they business communities or political communities – has also increased tremendously as a result of globalisation. Consequently, while in the 80’s you would have had 10,000 meetings per year worldwide, nowadays there are many more, perhaps 20,000 to 30,000 meetings every year, many of which require simultaneous interpretation services. Hence there is more need for translators and interpreters.

Any other important future projects in the pipeline for ITA?
Basically ITA needs to keep strengthening its relationship with the intergovernmental sphere and seek to win a market share in the corporate sector. It is by choice that ITA works with a limited number of organizations, within limited clusters. The fact that we have taken the initiative and went for ISO certification is, to my mind, proof that this company is here to stay and to grow. Our linguists, be they interpreters, translators or localizers – and their level of professionalism – are the very building blocks for a promising future. International Translation Agency has been around for the last 15 years, the early years are always the toughest years, surely the road will rise to meet us from here onwards. The route is charted and we are well on our way.

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10 October 2007
ISSUE NO. 506


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