Recently, I attended a party this summer, and the conversation quickly turned to world travel, and the ensuing stories many of the guests told were about unfamiliar pronunciations, faulty comprehension, and the natural insecurities of traveling overseas or abroad without the certain knowledge of the native language.
As it happened, I quickly added, “The United States never had an official federal language. Still doesn’t.”
One lady threw up her hands, while laughing a response, “Well, I speak American.”
She eyed me with a look that was hoping for a similar response, since we were roundabout the same approximate age. Imagine her confusion when I replied that I spoke English. Feeling undercut that I had shown her an acerbic attitude, she had no idea that I had a Bachelor’s and a Master’s in English, had spent many years analyzing, teaching, and studying English and Middle English, and I was considerably comfortable with my abilities in other languages such as a working knowledge of French and German.
Upon further reflection, I realized that both of us were wrong, a sort of present-day Pride and Prejudice. She had “prejudice,” and I had “pride.” In fact, she does speak an American English; only she omitted the word English. I provided the English; yet, I do speak an American English as well, so, as most English linguists would agree, we both speak a kind of “regional” American English full of colloquialisms known mostly to other fellow Americans. I mean we don’t call mail boxes pillar boxes; do we? (The English do.)
You’re now thinking, “Who cares?”
Any conscientious translation service must care. Apex Translations receives job requests for Spanish translations in Mexican Spanish, Spain’s Spanish, and South American Spanish which varies with each country’s regionalisms. Apex Translation Services completed nearly 1,260 translations last year from one language to Spanish, and not just any Spanish. With each translation job request, there is a specific geographical Spanish target language.
Another example is the French language. French can come in Quebecois, Parisian, Swiss, Congo, Monaco, Luxembourg, Niger, Togo, and an Asian French is still spoken in Vietnam and surrounding borders. Apex Translations knows. Apex Translation Services cares about accurate, culturally-sensitive language pairs.
Academic translators are assigned with great consideration by Dr. Florian Deltgen of Apex Translations. These translators are carefully scrutinized and their translations aree proofread by linguistic experts schooled in world languages. That’s what a translation service should do. And Apex Translation Services provides these services world-wide.
