“Language Use and the Quality of Latvian Language Translations” (study)

• Thematic framework: Study
• Geographical outreach : National
• Types of project: Research and Analysis
  
  
• Beneficiary country:
  Latvia
  

• Main responsible:
  Translation centre Skrivanek Latvia
  Brivibas Boulevard 40 – 18
  Riga
  Latvia
  

Summary of the activities
In order to implement the meaning of high quality and grammatically correct Latvian language translations, a two-month study (from January to March 2008) titled “Language Use and the Quality of Latvian Language Translations” will be conducted by the translation centre Skrivanek Latvia and the State Language Agency.

The study will be done in collaboration with the newspaper Dienas Bizness. Over the course of the study, company employees, who utilise translation services daily, will be interviewed to determine: how often companies use foreign language and translation services, which languages are used to communicate and what kind of difficulties do employees meet, both in verbal and written communication.

The study will also include interviews with professional translators and the Latvian University translation faculty, answers to questions like :
- “Why are there inadequate and grammatically incorrect translations?”,
- “Which problems do companies most frequently meet when translating documents?”,
- “Which mistakes are characteristic of student-done translations?” and how those interviewed view the Latvianization of foreign words.

The results of the study will be presented at a conference in March of this year, and will be the basis for further studies of the quality of Latvian language translations.

Main partners
- The State Language Agency
- The newspaper Dienas Bizness.