Policies

Under Alafranga Turkish Translations (ATT), we categorize translators under 3 headings: 1. experienced professional translators, 2. talented students and 3. specialists in any field, translating.

1. Experienced professional translators are the translators who have meaningfully narrowed his field of expertise with satisfactory track record. For example: technical translators, medical translators, subtitle translators, game translators etc. This category represents our main translating capacity. They are very efficient in CAT Tools. 

2. Talented students are the beginner translators who have passed our evaluation process including test. Talented young people with ambition to develop themselves are the best players particularly in technically challenging tasks. Also, most of them are gamers. They are very efficient in CAT Tools.

3. Specialist in any field, translating are the the specialists, because of their education background and career. This category is our main support for the highly technical projects that needs to be revised by true expert. They are not very efficient in CAT Tools. As the performance of neural machine translation is getting better, it is claimed that a new era will begin for specialists.

Our recruitment policy for experienced translators is in harmony with ISO 17100 requirements for translators, reviewers, revisors and project managers. ATT have a documented process in place to ensure that the people selected to perform translation tasks have the required competences and qualifications. ATT keeps a record of the evidence upon which the professional competences of translators, revisers, reviewers, and other professionals have been demonstrated. According to ISO 17100, professional translators at ATT must have the following competences: 

Translation competence: the ability to translate, including the ability to address the problems of language content comprehension and language content production and the ability to render the target language content in accordance with the client-TSP agreement and other project specifications. 

Linguistic and textual competence in the source language and the target language: the ability to understand the source language, fluency in the target language, and general or specialized knowledge of text-type conventions. This linguistic and textual competence includes the ability to apply this knowledge when producing translation or other target language content. 

Competence in research, information acquisition, and processing: the ability to efficiently acquire the additional linguistic and specialized knowledge necessary to understand the source language content and to produce the target language content. Research competence also requires experience in the use of research tools and the ability to develop suitable strategies for the efficient use of the information sources available.

Cultural competence: ability to make use of information on the behavioural standards, up-to-date terminology, value systems, and locale that characterize both source and target language cultures.

Technical competence: the knowledge, abilities, and skills required to perform the technical tasks in the translation process by employing technical resources including the tools and IT systems that support the whole translation process.

Domain competence: the ability to understand content produced in the source language and to reproduce it in the target language using the appropriate style and terminology.
 

ATT has determined the translator’s qualifications to provide a service conforming to this International Standard by obtaining documented evidence that the translator can meet at least one of the following criteria: a. recognized graduate qualification in translation from an institution of higher education, b. recognized graduate qualification in any other field from an institution of higher education plus two years of full-time professional experience in translating, five years of full-time professional experience in translating. 

According to ISO 17100, ALS has ensured that project managers at ATT have the appropriate documented competence to support the ATT in delivering translation services to meet client and other project specifications. Appropriate translation project management competence can be acquired in the course of formal or informal training (e.g. as part of a relevant higher educational course or by means of on-the-job training or through industry experience). In the course of their training and the execution of their duties, translation project managers should develop a basic understanding of the translation services industry and a thorough knowledge of the translation process, as well as master project management skills. Recording regular maintenance and updating of required competences ATT shall have a process in place to record that the competences of their translators, revisers, reviewers, project managers, and other professionals.