The long-awaited summit between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin shook up the news this week. After 36 years, the two great world powers met in Geneva and debated for more than 3 hours on various subjects such as the US presidential elections, hacking and cyber security operations, nuclear arms control, the Ukraine issue without forgetting the Navalny case and now the Protassevitch case.

One American, the other Russian, one might ask how the two presidents managed to understand each other?

A major challenge.

In order to ensure perfect and fluid communication between the two great powers, interpreters are indispensable. But this is not as easy as it sounds. In addition to their ability to «listen and speak at the same time» in two different languages, they have to be extremely concentrated for long periods of time.

In keeping with diplomatic protocol, each leader travels with his or her own interpreters working for the White House or the Kremlin. In addition, UNIGE interpreters also worked for the delegations and for Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS).

Words that can be misinterpreted.

During this meeting, Joe Biden repeated the words of the ABC News journalist and reproached Putin for being a «killer» by assuring that he would pay the price for his actions. Because of the translation, this sentence could have been misinterpreted by Putin. This is why the mistranslation of such words can worsen important international relations.

Translation at the heart of the agreements.

In order for everyone to adhere to the different issues discussed during the meeting, it was essential to translate the agreements into writing. This translation task had to be accomplished with great delicacy and subtlety by professional translators who are experts in this field.

Switzerland is extremely fortunate to be recognised for its multilingual profile and its neutrality in international decision-making. A Biden-Putin meeting in the US or Russia was out of the question. Relations between the two are too bad for either of them to accept an invitation. According to Guy Parmelin, «it is Switzerland’s role to interfere between the great and the good of the world.

This is how the profession of translator/interpreter is valued and indispensable in this magnificent country and how the two icons of world power knew that such a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland would be a success.

ISO 17100 certification was created to guarantee the organisation and the level of requirements expected during a translation. It demonstrates a service provider’s ability to produce a certain quality and to respect procedures during all stages of a translation.

A translation agency specialising in the legal field is committed to positioning a team of translators specialising in this field. The success of each translation project also depends on the close cooperation between the client and the service provider. Strict quality procedures are followed.

In order to be ISO 17100 compliant, the service provider must also use a data protection system and comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Our translation process includes the following steps:

• Project preparation

Your contact persons have experience in the field of translation and ensure that your individual requirements for each project are met.

• Production process

We work with our specialist linguists who translate exclusively into their native language. They have significant experience in the field of translation and are specialised in medical, technical, legal, financial and communication fields.

• Project follow-up

The translation is worked on until our clients are completely satisfied. Our translators are based in Switzerland in order to be familiar with cultural specificities but also in the four corners of the world.

• Security and information

Your data is stored in our secure Salesforce information system.

Working with an ISO-certified service provider that respects the Swiss legal framework makes a difference.

SwissTranslate is proud to have obtained ISO 17100 certification, a guarantee of the quality of our work and our service.

The entire team remains at your disposal and will be delighted to accompany you on your next translation project.

How was this language adapted from German?

Several languages are spoken in Switzerland, making it a multilingual country. One of these languages is Swiss German, a language that combines the various dialects of German. This specificity is found in other regions of the world, for example in countries where Arabic is spoken. The «original» Arabic is nowadays mainly known as Literary Arabic, and in some countries (e.g. the Maghreb) dialects of Literary Arabic are spoken. Understanding between speakers of these different variants of Arabic can therefore become difficult. But is this also the case with Swiss German?

In the German-speaking part of Switzerland, people do not speak German, but Swiss German. How has the language evolved and what are its characteristics? Why is it that French-speaking Switzerland does not speak a language like «French Swiss»?

Historically, it was the Alamans who introduced the Germanic language to Switzerland. This language gradually developed into what we know as Swiss German. This language grew steadily over the years and was spoken more and more. From the 1980s onwards, it became increasingly important and is now one of Switzerland’s four national languages (along with French, Italian and Romansh).

Swiss German is very close to German, as the two languages are similar in many ways, but this does not mean that understanding it is child’s play for everyone. In fact, a Swiss German speaker will be able to understand what the German speaker is saying with greater ease than the other way round. This can be explained by the fact that Swiss Germans often have a better overall understanding of the German language because they have learned it at school, which is not necessarily the case for a German.

Here are some examples to illustrate the differences between these two languages:

Today, Swiss German is spoken throughout German-speaking Switzerland, but the relationship with German is «complicated»; not everyone understands it within Switzerland itself.

Indeed, Swiss Germans generally have an excellent knowledge of the German language, whereas in French-speaking Switzerland, it is German that pupils learn at school. As a result, they may have a lot of trouble with Swiss German, as they are not very familiar with the language.

This close relationship between the two languages is also felt in the field of translation. The differences can be complex and these 2 languages are obviously considered as 2 different languages, as for one sentence the translation into German or Swiss German can be very different. These are not mistakes, of course, but a wrong choice of target language can lead to misunderstanding by the target audience.

It is therefore important to know the target audience for your translation in order to know which German you want to use.

If we about the evolution of technology and how it changed our daily life, in the last 10 years, it is easy to think about a future where technology is involved in all our actions.

But does this access to infinite knowledge discourages us from learning, or is it an opportunity to learn in a more efficient way?

Let’s take a simple example that most of us encountered at one point: trying to learn a new language. When I first started learning English, I had a dictionary, a grammar book, and maybe, if lucky, some DVDs with movies in English. Whereas, nowadays Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are tools that can be used to facilitate language learning. For instance, Google’s headphones offer real-time translation from Google Translate.

There is no doubt that technology can facilitate language learning by offering innovative solutions and tools. However, many are still doubtful about automated translation or interpretation for one simple reason: human and cultural elements of language are characterized by such small nuances that AI cannot grasp them. In his book “Head in the Cloud”, W. Poundstone argues that even though we live in a time where we have more information than ever, we are actually narrowing our knowledge bases and we are often misinformed (2016).

Language is not like mathematics: it is constantly evolving along with culture and society. After all, language is not only based on vocabulary items or grammar systems, but it also characterized by situational awareness, cultural knowledge, social context, and human interactions.

Technology can and should provide innovative tools and means to enhance language learning and translation, but it should not try to replace the real-life experience of learning a language. Furthermore, technology can help translators and enhance their work by providing smart solutions and tools for translators while keeping a human-centric approach.

Is technology making our lives easier? The answer is YES. But does “easier” mean “better”? Not always. The point is, technology can facilitate and enhance our actions, but we should not drift away from a human-centered worldview and we should keep in mind that a machine won’t ever be able to replace the emotional nature, cultural knowledge and sensitivity of a human being.

Does learning a new language feel like a trip to an unknown country? If it does, it may be because you come from a monolingual environment. Foreign languages are part of our daily lives here in Switzerland. While mastering several languages may be highly valued in France, it is expected in a multilingual country. In this article, you will find out more about multilingual countries and the issues multilingualism raises.

Multilingual regions

Did you know that there are more multilingual than monolingual countries in the world? In fact, there are almost a hundred of them. The two countries where the most languages coexist are Papua New Guinea (four official languages and more than 850 indigenous dialects) and Mexico (Spanish may be its official language, but 290 languages are recognised as national languages).

Next comes Bolivia (37 languages), followed by Zimbabwe and Poland (with 16 languages each).

Let’s have a look at the Western World: in Spain, Castilian is the official federal language, but Basque, Occitan and Catalan are recognised in their respective regions. Switzerland has four official languages: German, French, Italian and Romansh.

On average Swiss people speak two foreign languages (in terms of European countries, only Luxembourg has a higher number of languages spoken with 3). Indeed, 71% of German-speaking Swiss people speak French and 67% speak English. Meanwhile 47% of French-speaking Swiss people speak German (or Swiss German) and 43% speak English.

The advantages and disadvantages of multilingualism

Mastering several languages has its advantages and disadvantages. The most obvious benefit is globalisation: speaking many languages makes interpersonal communication easier (lingua francas such as English are often very useful). What’s more, new studies have shown that a bilingual brain is faster and sharper than a monolingual brain and is also better at clarifying ambiguities and managing conflicts.

Multilingualism may be a real asset in some fields, but it has also its downsides. The European Union has almost 24 official languages, posing a real linguistic challenge. To face the challenges of intercultural dialogue, Europeans often use English as a lingua franca.

Perceiving multilingualism as a major issue of the twenty-first century, in some states, Public Education Bodies have opened bilingual classes, sometimes as early as kindergarten.  This is the case, for example, in California and Florida, where the majority language is no longer English, but Spanish.