Translation errors cause disputes over contract terms_美文

Translation errors cause disputes over contract terms

Some managers of translation agencies said some of their fellow translators accept any business and assign the work to college students doing part-time jobs instead of lawyers to save costs.

"It's difficult to translate contracts even if the student translator outperforms his or her classmates in a foreign language university," said Zhang Suping, who has been in the trade for nearly a decade.

Full-time translators at the agencies are not that skillful in working on contract translation work, he added, otherwise they would work for legal departments of foreign enterprises and law firms, which would pay better.

Li Yan, a college teacher in Shanghai who has worked part-time for a translation agency for two years, said she first seeks help from professional and translation websites when she bumps into topics she is unfamiliar with or even ignorant about.

"I'll also refer to professional online periodicals, which are reliable for being proofread before publication," she said, adding that she gets translation work in various subjects from the agency.

Translation companies need to put emphasis on training translators in specialized fields and on the study of translation methods for contracts that are internationally accepted, said Xie Chen, vice-president of the Shanghai Maritime Court.

He suggested training an expert panel with government funds to deal with translation and other document work in technical fields to help realize Shanghai's mission of becoming an international shipping center by 2020.