CETRA CEO Jiri Stejskal featured in Vegas, Inc

In a recent article by Tovin Lapan published in Vegas, Inc (10/8/12), CETRA President and CEO Jiri Stejskal comments in “How to pick the right translator or interpreter for your company’s needs”.  See the full article below.

“Dictionaries in Spanish and German line a bookshelf at Judy Jenner’s home office Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2012. Jenner, a translator and court interpreter, runs TwinTranslations with her twin sister, who is based in Austria.

Consider the case of the Canadian company translating baby formula labels into French.

“They mistranslated the instructions in such a way that the mixture would cause illness or even death in babies,” said Jiri Stejskal, spokesman for the American Translators Association. “That was caught in time luckily, but it wasn’t good for the manufacturer. It cost millions of dollars.”

Then there was the time New York City pharmacies mistranslated prescription labels into Spanish. The doses on countless bottles were wrong.

And the sign for a 100-year anniversary that instead of “100 años” (100 years) read “100 anos” (100 anuses).

A bad translation can be horrible for a business. It can endanger customers, lead to lawsuits and create a public relations nightmare.

A good translation, on other hand, can open up avenues to new markets and clientele and help a company establish strong relationships with non-English speakers.

So how do you prevent the former and try to ensure the latter?

“Just because you are bilingual doesn’t mean you can translate or interpret,” said Las Vegas translator and interpreter Judy Jenner, who owns Twin Translations with her sister. “That’s a basic requirement. Just because you can write doesn’t make you a reporter for The New York Times. Subject knowledge and other factors are very important.”

To read the full article click here.