The Spanish Translation Service at the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York
Translation: Kristin Addis
Abstract
This article describes the operation of the Spanish Translation Service at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York. We briefly present the types of documents that are translated, the languages used and the volume of documentation translated, as well as the various tasks and functions carried out by the technical linguistic personnel of the Service. Next we describe the production of documents, particularly their translation, keeping in mind the specific requirements of translation for the United Nations. We then explain the different tools and strategies of translation used in the Service and discuss the difficulties and options associated with the integration and expanding use of the technology of translation memories in the rising tide of modern translation. Finally, we stress the benefits of streamlining and adapting the writing of original documents using computer-assisted translation; for this purpose, we recommend the use of creation memories, pointing out the current interest in using automatic translation for certain documents.
