Robin Engineering Offers Translation Services

Robin Engineering Services offers exporters translation and interpretation services into and from all European languages as well as Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Indonesian. Judith Pegg, director of Robin Engineering, said: 'Many companies looked to boost their sales and thereby ensure a more secure future by increasing their efforts in overseas markets to offset the downturn in UK activity. 'When these efforts pay off and orders are won, operating and maintenance instructions in the language of the country of the purchaser are usually required.

'Very often, the export salesman deals only with a company director or other highly placed individual. 'More often than not this person will have, at minimum, a working grasp of English, will be able to make his requirements known without difficulty, and sort out areas of doubt satisfactorily. 'However, the fitter on the factory floor, who will actually operate the machine, will not have the same knowledge and his English may be limited to a few, half remembered phrases. 'Hence the need for "own language" instructions,' she added.

In the last six months the company has supplied interpreting services to a manufacturer of mechanical equipment for the disabled to help with the product training for the manufacturer's Italian distributor. Robin Engineering has also been tasked with providing the translation of a maintenance manual for a mixing machine destined for a sanitary ware factory in Canton in Chinese, and the company has prepared and proof-read a manual in Czech for the supplier of production line robots in a Czech car factory. Frequently, the translation requirement is only for a few words to serve as the caption to a technical drawing, or the labels on a control panel.

The skill of the translator is to be able to select the correct word or phrase, in his language, whatever the context. For example, the English word 'set' has more than 100 meanings according to its context. Robin Engineering has a panel of qualified engineers who are native speakers of the target language for the translation. Quite often this can mean two or more experts for the same language, since an understanding of computer skills does not qualify a person to translate a document pertaining to structural engineering. In addition to foreign language manuals, Robin Engineering has also worked on foreign language website texts, induction courses and documentation for foreign workers, particularly from Poland, and foreign language soundtracks and subtitles for training and promotional videos and films.

There is also available a 'personal' service for private customers, requiring assistance with such things as wedding documentation for a marriage to take place in the Dominican Republic, insurance documents for claims for expenses during illness overseas, documents relating to the purchase of property in foreign parts, and the translation of personal documents into English when applying for British citizenship.