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The Federal National Council passes draft law on translation |
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Werner Maurer 
Canada
Local time: 16:40
Spanish to English
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Abu Dhabi has just shot itself in the foot. From now on it and its businesses will have a devil of a time finding competent translators inside their own country. Jailtime for mistakes? No domestic translator will touch it with a barge pole, IMHO. Businesses will now feel forced to look abroad for translators.
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Vadim Kadyrov
Ukraine
Local time: 02:40
  Member
English to Russian
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In case I translate a story for my son - will it be a crime?
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Tomás Cano Binder, CT
Spain
Local time: 01:40
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
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Well, if I were a translator in Abu Dhabi I would triple my rates immediately, to cover the cost of the two, three, or more reviewers needed to be absolutely establish that no mistake is present in the translation.
Indeed as suggested by the colleague, this is the end of the profession in the UAE and companies will have to find translators elsewhere. Knowing about this law passed, I think I will never accept a translation job from the UAE unless they pay me in gold bars.
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Christine Andersen
Denmark
Local time: 01:40
Member (2003)
Danish to English
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| | Reminds me of Catch 22... | Feb 10 |
Any translator who agrees to those terms must be certifiable - and not as mentally sound. 
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Catherine GUILLIAUMET
France
Local time: 01:40
Member
English to French
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| | This is an outrageous scandal ! | Feb 10 |
And nobody at the international level, within the international administrations/organizations and/or intellectual societies denounced it !!!????
I can't believe it.
Catherine
[Edited at 2012-02-10 17:57 GMT]
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Gennady Lapardin
Russian Federation
Local time: 03:40
Member (2006)
Italian to Russian
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| | Price of wrong translation | Feb 11 |
Mistakes [that ruin the life of an individual or a corporate organisation] be a jail term of six months to two years and fines of Dh50,000 to Dh100,000.
If compared to medical, law enforcement, judiciary criminal liability?
[Edited at 2012-02-11 11:55 GMT]
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Christine Andersen
Denmark
Local time: 01:40
Member (2003)
Danish to English
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| | I have professional liability insurance | Feb 11 |
Gennady Lapardin wrote:
Mistakes [that ruin the life of an individual or a corporate organisation] be a jail term of six months to two years and fines of Dh50,000 to Dh100,000.
If compared to medical, law enforcement, judiciary criminal liability?
[Edited at 2012-02-11 11:55 GMT] |
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I make every effort to ensure that my translations are correct, and I know that my work is often proofread by the agency or the client as well.
Considering how a technically tiny error can cause disaster nevertheless, I have an insurance that covers quite a lot of damage, if I should forget the word 'not' somewhere, or slip a zero too many in some critical figure, or make some similar error.
I have never had to claim on my insurance, and I would feel awful if I really ruined someone's life or business in spite of my precautions.
But I would not feel a six month jail sentence was reasonable. Human error sometimes has tragic consequences, but it is not a crime.
Luckily, where I live, the claimant has to prove fault or negligence before I can be punished by prison or a fine. A genuine mistake is covered by my insurance.
Draconian punishments do not make better translators. But they could ruin a good translator's business for a technically very tiny mistake. And nobody in this world is perfect...
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George Hopkins
Sweden
Local time: 01:40
Swedish to English
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Perhaps they've never heard of the one man ever who was never wrong?
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