Protecting the interest of translation companies – establishing a Danish ATC Presentation at the Annual Conference of ATC, Association of Translation Companies,
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Protecting the interest of translation companies –
establishing a Danish ATC
Presentation at the Annual Conference of ATC,
Association of Translation Companies, Tuesday 16th - Wednesday 17th October
Protecting the interest of translation companies –
establishing a Danish ATC
Portrait of Shakespeare on a stone tablet at the main entrance to
Kronborg, Hamlet´s Castle
Protecting the interest of translation companies –
establishing a Danish ATC
Quote
"William Shakespeare's story of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark,
takes place behind
the walls of the castle at Elsinore.
Kronborg is therefore known throughout much of the
world as Hamlet's Castle, and Elsinore as Hamlet's town.
Unquote*
Protecting the interest of translation companies –
establishing a Danish ATCQuote:
The legend
A Prince Hamlet was first mentioned more than 800 years ago in a history of Denmark
by Saxo Grammaticus entitled Gesta Danorum.
From Saxo, the legend was retold by Christian Pedersen, whose version of the story was printed in 1514.
This publication spread the drama beyond the confines of Denmark and the
English playwright Thomas Kyd's new version of the work around 1590 transformed
Hamlet into a drama of revenge. Probably inspired by Kyd's version, William Shakespeare
wrote the "The tragicall historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke and the Castle of Elsinore" around 1600 and immortalised Saxo’s legendary prince.
Protecting the interest of translation companies –
establishing a Danish ATC
Shakespeare was the first to associate the legend with Elsinore and its castle.
This was probably due to the town's reputation as one of the most important places
in the world during the 17th century. Thanks to the Sound Dues, the special fee
that all passing ships had to pay, Elsinore was a major traffic junction for
international shipping. At the same time, the town also became a cultural centre
thanks to the newly built royal castle, Kronborg."Unquote*
Protecting the interest of translation companies - establishing a Danish ATC
State authorization/certification of translators
About 35 years later, on the 21st of August 1635, the Danish king
Christian IV published an open letter stating that all shipping
documents had to be translated into Danish.
The translation industry in Denmark began with the Sound Dues. The Sound Dues, and the "Translation
office", continued to exist until 1857.
The logo of the authorized translators
Protecting the interest of translation companies –
establishing a Danish ATCIt is an assumption that the Notary Public at that time was the person in charge
of official translations. The Public Notary, when necessary, took contact to individuals with specific knowledge of languages.
As an example, in the year 1785 a Royal Certification was issued to a translator capable of translating Swedish, Portuguese, Italian, and several more
languages.
In 1800 ten translators were certified by the king, most of them multilingual and translating up to four languages.
Certification was issued on application, and the applicants were tested by the Notary Public. This system lasted until 1853.
From this year the Ministry of the Interior became the competent authority, and in 1910 an examination committee was established.
Protecting the interest of translation companies –
establishing a Danish ATC
The Association of Danish Authorized translators
Thus a platform for the creation of Translatørforeningen (the Association of Danish Authorized Translators) was
established, and on the 20th of March 1910 the Association had become a reality. The authorized translators obtained
the sole right to use the title state authorized translator and interpreter, and the sole right to do interpretation and
translation work in the Danish courts of law. The Association of Danish Authorized Translators celebrated it
´s 90th anniversary last year.
Protecting the interest of translation companies –
establishing a Danish ATC
The exclusive right was established in the Danish Retsplejeloven (the Administration of Justice Act), entering into force in 1919. Its article 149 says that "the language of the courts is Danish". Questioning of persons who do not speak the Danish language must, if possible, be done by
the intervention of an authorized translator.
The sole right was confirmed in a court decision in 1912, but
not transformed into law before the Trade Act of 1931.
Protecting the interest of translation companies –
establishing a Danish ATC
Law on authorization of translators
In 1966 Denmark had the first ever in the world law
on authorization of translators. The law has been
revised only a few times. All legislation
concerning authorization of translators and
interpreters can be found (in Danish) at the
websites http://www.eogs.dk and
http://130.228.210.124/eogs/lov/menu/tolke.htm
Protecting the interest of translation companies –
establishing a Danish ATC
One mayor problem remains. Since certification is personal, you are in principle not allowed to organize on a company basis, but only as an individual, and the term "authorized
translator", in Danish "translatør", cannot be used in company names, which is why the authorized translators have to come up with other company names less suitable for marketing purposes. This has definitely influenced the
structural development of the translation business in Denmark, as most authorized translators run companies of a limited size only, while big business is set up by business
agents who are not authorized translators, generally speaking. The situation may be changing slowly.
Protecting the interest of translation companies –
establishing a Danish ATC
Another important legislation is the Nordic Convention on
Languages, Den nordiske sprogkonvention, entering into force on
the 1st of March 1987.
The Danish Administration of Justice Act makes an exception
concerning citizens of other Nordic countries in that they may
hand in to public authorities and courts of law documents that are
written in the language of the citizens concerned. The Convention
is applicable to Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian and
Swedish Citizens and to Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian
and Swedish languages.
Protecting the interest of translation companies –
establishing a Danish ATC
Training of translators
Around 1920 the steps towards business schools or
faculties offering business language training as
their main courses at an academic level were
taken, including education of the famous
bilingual secretary that we have known in
Denmark ever since, and preparatory studies for
authorization as translators.
Protecting the interest of translation companies –
establishing a Danish ATC
After the Second World War international organizations such as NATO and the United Nations were created, along with an
increasing international trade. Also FIT, http://www.fit-ift.org, the International Federation of Translators, was created as a result of
the new international cooperation. Translatørforeningen (The Assocation of Danish Authorized Translators ) was one
association out of six founding fathers.
Speaking only Danish, the need for translators in Danish business and society in general grew.
Protecting the interest of translation companies –
establishing a Danish ATC
The Danish business language institutions continued to develop, and in 1966 a new model for academic training was developed. After
high school one did two years full time for the bilingual secretary degree, two more years for translation competences at the practical
level, and finally two years full time for the MA in business languages and authorization as translator and interpreter.
The first authorized translators and interpreters graduated from this new system in 1972 when Denmark in the autumn of 1972, like the
United Kingdom, had a referendum for membership of the then European Communities. When Denmark in January 1973 became a
member of the European Union Danish became an official language, and the need for translators and interpreters at all levels
reached new heights. Also due to this development language technology applications were developed for Danish at an early
stage.
Protecting the interest of translation companies –
establishing a Danish ATCThe training structure existed along the same lines until 1993 when a bachelor / MA degree was implemented, and specialization in different subject matters introduced such as international communication and
marketing, websites, company communication, language engineering and , not to forget, translation and interpreting, focussing on legal, technical and
economic text types.
Around 2.000 authorized translators exist today, working in-house in Danish
companies, most of them being organized in Erhvervssprogligt Forbund
(The Danish Association of Business Language Graduates),
http://www.esf.dk, a FIT member. A growing number of these in-house
translators combine in-house work with part time freelance activities.
About 500 authorized translators run their own company, be it small or big.
Protecting the interest of translation companies –
establishing a Danish ATC
Translators associations in Denmark
In 1989 a group of authorized translators left Translatørforeningen (the Association of Danish Authorized Translators) to form Dansk Translatørforbund (The Danish
Association of State-Authorized Translators and Interpreters), http://www.translators-association.dk
The old association joined forces with Erhvervssprogligt Forbund (The Danish Association of Business Language
Graduates) as a section for self-employed authorized translators.
Protecting the interest of translation companies –
establishing a Danish ATC
Last year negotiations aiming at separating the two on
friendly terms began. But one group of self-employed
translators wanted to continue the good relations with the
in-house translators, one group wanted to transform the
association into an association of translation companies
and open up the association to translators without any
authorization, another group on their part wanted a merger
with the other association of authorized translators, being
of a somewhat fundamentalist observation as far as broad
cooperation concerns. If you were looking for trouble you
had come to the right place.
Protecting the interest of translation companies –
establishing a Danish ATC
On the 31st of May this year the old association was
established as an independent association on the basis of
cooperation agreements with the in-house translators
association, and no merger with the other group of
authorized translators. Still based on individual
membership and still open for membership only to
authorized translators, however.
Protecting the interest of translation companies –
establishing a Danish ATC
The Danish Association of Business Language Graduates has all in
all about 10.000 graduated members, 1.000 being authorized
translators working in-house.
The Association of Danish Authorized Translators (the old one), now
has 150 self-employed translators, and the twelve year old
association has about 100 members.
But how about all the translators in Denmark, companies and
freelancers, that have no public certification or authorization?
Protecting the interest of translation companies –
establishing a Danish ATC
Winds of change
Through history the authorized translators have had a monopoly on business
related translation work in Denmark. They were the ones that were there, they had the certification and the training,
not much translation was needed, and last but not least,
no foreigners took up competition.
Protecting the interest of translation companies –
establishing a Danish ATC
Through the last century they developed what is called traditional
work of an authorized translator, specializing in legal, economic
and traditional technical texts. Translating - as is also the Danish
tradition - from and into their mother tongue, Danish.
However, when the winds of change swept the country, when
globalization opened up windows, when lozalication required the
use of new technology, when the Internet opened up translators
directories, and so on and so forth, many a Danish translator
were stuck behind closed doors, still doing traditional translation
at a modest scale. Also the universities and the business schools
took some time in adapting to the new circumstances.
Protecting the interest of translation companies –
establishing a Danish ATC
With globalization and internationalization
foreigners came in taking up technology based
translation from Danish into their own mother
tongue, and international translation companies
entered the scene translating for the growth
sectors of the Danish economy.
Protecting the interest of translation companies –
establishing a Danish ATC
The present
When it became clear that the associations of authorized
translators would not open up for membership on a broader
basis, the non-authorized translators and the translation
companies, accounting for maybe 50 per cent of the market,
were all dressed up but nowhere to go, and nobody to protect
their commercial and professional interests.
For the first time ever a group of translation company
representatives met on October the 9th - only one week ago - to
have a talk about the situation.
Protecting the interest of translation companies –
establishing a Danish ATC
The conclusions of the meeting was that an association of
translation companies should be made, that the company
representatives would go back home and think, that they
would forward suggestions for main objectives of an
association to be, and that a seminar will be convened later
on this year.
Protecting the interest of translation companies –
establishing a Danish ATC
The future
What will future bring: My guess is that we will have an association of translation companies created in 2002,
operating in close cooperation with Translatørforeningen (the old association of authorized translators), based on the
assumption that many authorized translators will be members of both associations and that the general
interests in many cases are the same. And, where possible, cooperating with the association of in-house employees.
Protecting the interest of translation companies - establishing a Danish ATC