Essay Example on There are many problems face translators especially Legal Translators

Translating legal documents from Arabic into English Department of English Introduction There are many problems face translators especially Legal translators One of these problems related to vocabularies of legal translation Legal translation is a type of technical translation which related to law and legal process Also it refers to the legal texts The aim of the study how pragmatic and functional considerations are important in legal translation and should be taken into account when determining translation strategies It will argue that legal translation involves more than terminological and syntactic issues Legal translation needs the services of an expert that is highly knowledgeable in legal terms and practices Mohammad Alawi and Fakhouri 2010 explained The approaches to legal translation have been mostly oriented towards the preservation of the letter rather than effective rendering in the target language legal texts having always been accorded the status of sensitive texts and treated as such 

A challenge to the unquestioned application of a strictly literal approach to legal translation came only in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Translating legal documents needs accurate and correct translation and is one of the most difficult among all translation work There are many things that need legal translation including birth certificates application letters technical patent confirmation deposition records financial statement evidence documents litigation materials and business contracts Review of Literature Empirically Abu Ghazal 1996 investigated Major Problems in Legal Translation He outlined a number of semantic problems in legal translation from English into Arabic by analysing graduate students translations At Yarmouk University of a number of UN resolutions He aimed at detecting the linguistic and translation problems facing translators in general and MA students in particular He concluded that such students should be exposed to intense training in legal translation before practicing is as a career Another Empirically Study Farghal and Shunnaq 1992 focused on the problematic areas in translating UN legal documents as encountered by MA translation students at Yarmouk University in their comprehensive examination According to them these areas fall into three categories syntax related problems layout related problems and tenor related problems Methodology The main method I have used in this article is questionnaire which includes some examples of legal documents Sampling procedures the sample in this study consisted of Petra University s students A sample of 10 students 9 of them who hold Jordanian nationality and one of them holds Syrian nationality 

The Questionnaire includes age gender nationality and experience The sample included 6 males and 4 females who age range between 19 and 22 years old No one of them has experience in translation and no one speak English very well Results and Discussion 1 اﻟﻌﺪل ﻛﺎﺗﺐ ﻟﺪى ﻣﻨﻈﻤﺔ Notary organization 60 Organization with notary public 40 2 اﻷرض ﻗﻄﻌﺔ ﻋﻠﻰ اﻟﻘﺎﺋﻢ اﻟﺒﻨﺎء ﻣﻦ Of the existing building on the plot 50 Of the building based on the plot 50 3 اﻟﻤﺴﺘﺄﺟﺮ ذﻣﺔ ﺑﺮاء Discharge of the tenant 60 Release of the tenant 40 4 اﻹﻳﺠﺎر ﻣﺪة Period of rent 90 Duration of rent 10 5 اﻟﻔﻠﺴﻄﻴﻨﻴﺔ اﻟﺘﺤﺮﻳﺮ ﻣﻨﻈﻤﺔ ﻣﻜﺘﺐ ﻣﻦ ﻋﻠﻴﻬﺎ ﻣﺼﺎدق Certified by PLO office 50 Approved by PLO office 50 6 ﻳﻠﻲ ﺑﻤﺎ اﻟﻤﺴﺘﺄﺟﺮ ﻳﻠﺘﺰم وﻋﻠﻴﻪ The tenant shall abide by the following 50 The tenant complies with the following 50 7 ﻛﻔﻴﻞ ﺷﺎﻫﺪ Witness sponsor 100 _____________ An example in this table is اﻟﻌﺪل ﻛﺎﺗﺐ ﻟﺪى ﻣﻜﺘﺐ was translated as Notary organization by six students while other four students translated as Organization with notary public The phrase اﻟﻘﺎﺋﻢ اﻟﺒﻨﺎء was translated as The existing building by five students while other five students translated as the building based The word ﻣﺪة was translated as Period by nine students while one student translated as Duration Another phrase in the same table ذﻣﺔ ﺑﺮاء was translated as Discharge by six students while other 4 students translated as Release The phrase ﻋﻠﻴﻬﺎ ﻣﺼﺎدق was translated as Certified by five students while other five students translated as Approved The word ﻳﻠﺘﺰم was translated as Shall abide by five students while other five students translated as Comply As you can see in the same table above the word ﻛﻔﻴﻞ ﺷﺎﻫﺪ was translated as Witness sponsor by all students From my point of view the only reason for the similarity of results in some of the legal documents in the table above is that none of the respondents has experience in translation especially in legal translation Another reason for the similarity of results is that all members of the sample are still learning translation skills as they are still bachelor students Conclusion Legal translation is not only a literal translation but a combination of literal translation and creativity or fuzziness in natural language 

Legal translation is the translation of texts within the field of law After I did this article I found that the law is a culture dependent subject field and legal translation is not necessarily linguistically transparent The instrument of the study was questionnaire The sample was ten person six of them was males and four of them was females Their ages was between 19 22 The questionnaire content legal documents and the sample has to translate the documents from Arabic into English The results were fairly close When the sample described above translated the documents in the questionnaire there was a great similarity in the translation This shows that all people have no translation experience and are expected to have used some of the websites that help them in translation References 1 Farghal M Shunnaq A 1992 Major Problems in Legal Translation Dar Al Hillal for Translation 2 Abu Ghazal Q 1996 Major problems in legal translation Yarmouk University Irbid Jordan 3 Mohammed A Alawi N Fakhouri M 2010 Translating contracts between English and Arabic Towards a more pragmatic outcome Jordan Journal of Modern Languages and Literature Vol 2 No 1