Sworn Translation in Zonguldak

There is a theme that recurs in the files coming from Zonguldak: safety. Hard coal mining, iron and steel production and port operations are all sectors with risk management at their centre. What that amounts to at the translation desk is that the greater part of the texts describe a procedure, a warning or the outcome of an inspection.

What a translation error costs in safety texts

The wording used in occupational health and safety documents, in material safety data sheets and in emergency plans is standardised internationally. Carrying a warning level across wrongly in these texts is not merely a linguistic error. For that reason we use the accepted standard wording in files of this kind and steer clear of free interpretation. The same rigour holds for equipment manuals and maintenance instructions.

The commercial files of heavy industry

Alongside the technical texts there is a steady commercial flow as well: contracts for equipment imports, supplier audit reports, quality certificates and investment correspondence. On the iron and steel side, product specifications and test certificates come in often; with these documents the essential thing is that standard numbers and alloy designations are carried across unchanged.

Document	Where it is submitted	What makes it demanding
Occupational health and safety procedures	Inspection and supply chain	Standard warning wording
Material safety data sheet	Import/export	Chemical nomenclature
Equipment manual	Use in the field	Consistency of terms
Product test certificate	The buying company	Standard references
Ship and port papers	Maritime procedures	Set formulaic language

Port and seafarer documents

Port activity brings its own set of documents: cargo papers, insurance policies, survey reports and the certificates of competency of maritime personnel. The documents of personnel who will serve on foreign-flagged vessels are generally wanted in English, and in these documents the equivalents of ranks are fixed by international regulation. We also cover needs beyond English and German; the list is on the languages page.

Technical staff looking for work abroad

The most distinctive human resource Zonguldak produces is technical staff with experience in mining and heavy industry. For that experience to find its counterpart abroad brings a set of documents of its own: vocational qualification and operator certificates, occupational health and safety training certificates, service and experience letters, references. The difficulty met most often in translating them is that occupational titles have no exact equivalent in the other country.

In such cases, rather than inventing a title, we prefer a rendering that explains the job description. An employer works out what a candidate did from the description, not from the title; that is why translating the job description in full on a service certificate is worth more than finding an exact equivalent for the title.

With training and certificate documents it is the period of validity and the issuing body that come to the fore. This information must be preserved unchanged and the names of institutions must not be translated. In the same way, the type of equipment or operation the certificate covers has to be carried across by its technical name; a generalised phrase lowers the value of the document.

These files have a timing dimension as well. Interview processes generally move at short intervals and the request for documents comes at the last moment. Because personal files are small in volume, such requests can mostly be met the same day; the real delay comes not from the translation but from how late it becomes clear which document is being asked for.

On the family side there is a different need: the civil registry, marriage and school documents of the spouses and children of employees moving abroad. These can arrive in the same week as the technical files and call for an entirely different language regime. The flow of work coming from Zonguldak is made up of these two strands together.

The order of the documents matters too. On some applications the certificate is required to be certified first and translated afterwards; proceeding in the wrong order means the procedure is repeated from the start. We therefore confirm the expected order before taking a file on.

We run no branch in Zonguldak; we complete the work at the office in Ankara. Since working life in the city is built around shifts, calling in at an office during business hours is not possible for everyone, and in that pattern uploading a document at midnight and seeing the price in the morning is of more use than a branch nearby. The electronically signed copy arrives the same day, the wet-signed copy by courier.

A process suited to a city that works in shifts

In Zonguldak working life is built around shifts; calling in at an office during business hours is not possible for everyone. Uploading a document at midnight and seeing the price in the morning is a real convenience in that pattern. The translation and the certifications are carried out in Ankara, the electronically signed copy arrives the same day and the wet-signed copy by courier. For the page count and the amount, you can look at the quote screen.