In-House Translation
As a result of increasing internationalization, comprehensive English-language communication has become more and more important at the University of Applied Sciences Erfurt. A uniform English that is easily recognizable can be particularly helpful for non-native speakers. Furthermore, since the introduction of our first English-language Master's program 'Sustainable Engineering of Infrastructure', it has become essential for student- related information, portals and applications to also be available in both languages. This also applies to communication with the now numerous international research staff at the Research Centre for Horticultural Crops (FGK) in Kühnhausen.
For these reasons, a position was created for an in-house translator in 2020. You can find out more about the various responsibilities and services on this website.
FHE Glossary
International Translation Day
In 2017, the UN General Assembly officially declared 30 September as International Translation Day .
Translation Work
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Some examples of in-house translation work to date:
- the university website as a source of information for prospective students, guests, industry contacts and partner universities from abroad
- regulations, forms, applications, portals and other services for students with little knowledge of German
- English-language support in the recruitment of international researchers and employees
- marketing materials for degree programs, projects and the entire university
- standard operating procedures in English for laboratories in which international researchers work
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Larger long-term translation projects have already been agreed with many departments. The website is also being translated step by step according to priorities that have been set together with the web team.
If your department requires further translations from German into English or if you have already produced such translations that need to be checked before publication, please contact me by email.
Please note: Due to capacity limitations, translation jobs are prioritized - priority is given to needs that facilitate direct contact and daily work with foreign students, prospective students, lecturers, employees and partner universities.
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You will be informed once your website has been translated and asked to report even minor changes to the translator by email so that users with little knowledge of German can still be kept up to date
Thank you!
Proofreading and Editing
Before submitting a conference paper or an article in English, you are welcome to have it proofread. I am also happy to advise you on stylistic issues relating to academic writing in English.
Please note: Due to capacity issues, translation work has absolute priority. Please allow at least 3 weeks for proofreading and editing work. Depending on the volume of translation jobs, it may not always be possible to offer this service.
Corporate Language
Glossary
In addition to translating the university website and in-house documents, an FHE glossary (German-English) is gradually being developed. This is updated at regular intervals and published on this website.
Style Guide
Another long-term goal is the creation of a "style guide" for the use of English at FHE. Until this is achieved, I am happy to provide individual consultation or proofread your texts.
FHE Glossary
Machine Translation
Nowadays, there are a number of NMT tools available that you can use to translate your academic work or for your own purposes.Professional translators also use NMT in combination with their specialist knowledge and other tools in order to manage the sheer volume of translation jobs efficiently.
NMT stands for "neural machine translation" and refers to translations that are generated using algorithms by a computer that is capable of learning. The "deep learning" method, which is used to analyse larger data sets of neural networks, is reflected in the name of DeepL. DeepL (based in Cologne) has become one of the world leaders in this field, due to the fact that it's target-language texts read very smoothly, especially with regard to grammar. This is wonderful progress that also helps us translators in our daily work. However, before you rely on it blindly, please read the following tips and tricks, which are very important to observe when using DeepL:
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Like most NMÜ tools, DeepL translates segment by segment (i.e. sentence by sentence) and uses algorithms that offer the most likely translation of your text based on the translations it knows. To do this, DeepL saves texts that "train" its neural networks.
Attention: DeepL is not able to recognise context. What is particularly problematic is that most language professionals (translators, foreign language teachers) have a DeepL Pro account. In such cases, the translations that have been approved by the (professional) user are NOT saved and therefore DeepL CANNOT learn from them.
In other words: The presumably "best" translations (which are adapted/optimized by experts) are NOT available to the tool when it searches for the most likely translations. It also stands to reason that there may even be "poor" translations in the pool that have a negative impact on search results. DeepL is constantly working to counteract this problem, for example by employing native speakers to enter accurate content.
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- Check your source text very carefully (typos, spelling, precise language, is anything missing?) to avoid unnecessary mistranslations
- Delete all personal or sensitive data from the sentence before you enter it into DeepL
- Your language skills in the target language are at least B2, otherwise it will be difficult for you to identify and avoid inappropriate or even damaging word choices. This particularly concerns words that have many meanings and inclusive language.
- Only enter the text into DeepL sentence by sentence and use the left mouse button to click on words that do not quite fit in terms of language/content. This will provide you with other suggestions that may work better in the context. The ensuing sentence structure will be adjusted accordingly.
- Attention! If you go back to the beginning of the sentence and change something, the whole sentence will be modified again and any corrections already made will be lost.
- If you frequently translate similar text content, you might want to consider a Pro account, as this allows you to create a glossary that improves the consistency of your translation results
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The following text types are NOT suitable for machine translation:
- advertising texts (risk of creating a potential "shitstorm" if translated incorrectly!)
- all texts that attract public attention and contain important information (e.g. website, letters/brochures for prospective students/cooperation partners etc.)
- legal texts (DeepL sometimes skips over difficult phrasing, occasionally disregards negating structures, and at times omits terms it does not recognize completely)
- texts containing data of a personal nature (see "Attention: Data Privacy!")
- texts of a confidential nature (internal university matters, sensitive research data, applications for third-party funding, etc.)
If you have a text that belongs to these categories and is to be published in the name of Fachhochschule Erfurt, please have it translated by our in-house translator or ask her to proofread your translation (in this case, please provide both the German source text and the English target text). For other language combinations, please contact a native speaker or use a professional translator.
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- Do not enter any sensitive, confidential or personal data in DeepL. Only the Pro accounts (fee-based) do not save your translations. The free version of DeepL is therefore not GDPR-compliant and does not protect your personal data.
- Even in DeepL Pro, you should also avoid uploading PDFs that contain personal data because this uses an Adobe interface. The document is transmitted to the USA to be converted. Again, this is a violation of the GDPR!
- If you publish texts translated by DeepL, you should always mark them as such. In the event of mistakes that have legal consequences, liability lies with the person who published the text. It is therefore always advisable to have important texts translated by professional translators.