1/20/10

Assignment for the Portuguese One-Stop Shop Business Portal


Today I have finished translating into English a series of texts for the Portuguese Administration online One-Stop Shop for Businesses. In order not to escape terminological consistency I had to research quite a bit, e.g. the English translation already in use of the names of different government agencies and services, especially related with taxes, gambling, permits and licenses. 
What is really interesting in all this process is that there is not a single place where one may find a public resource outlining nomenclatures and other linguistic data which might help harmonise translation and terminology in the universe of Portuguese public administration. But why should one be surprised? After all Portugal is one of the few countries in European Union (and beyond) which has not granted translators their legal rights. For instance, in Portugal one will not find sworn translators, which indicates the translator's work is not respected as one can not legally certify his/her own work, which can only be made according to law by a notary, a lawyer, chambers of commerce... Technological and cultural leaps forward require recognised linguistic mediators.