English, German and further translations in Nuremberg this year

It doesn’t have to be mentioned that Christmas will be far from normal this year. The pandemic interfered with Santa’s plans and basically everyone has to do without the traditions they hold dear. Christmas shopping, the Mass, the visit from relatives: Anything that is not altogether cancelled will take place in a very unusual manner.

While last preparations are made for Christmas dinner in many places, the staff at the translation agency AP Fachübersetzungen in Nuremberg are busy translating Corona tests. The end of every year also sees a great deal of requests from clients who need a certified translation of their document as soon as possible. Even so, things get a little calmer now and we have the opportunity to take a look back at the year 2020.

Needless to say, we too have felt the iron fist of COVID-19. Most of the conferences, trade fairs and many other events where our highly skilled interpreters had been booked were cancelled. Due to the unstable economic situation, numerous companies had to curb spending, which also meant that fewer specialist translations were ordered.

Nevertheless, the companies that kept doing their business had to meet their contractual obligations and deliver their products. Consequently, we translated numerous operating instructions, contracts of all kinds (e.g. license agreements, supplier contracts), data sheets, pharmaceutical delimitation agreements, product presentations and leaflets.

Authorities had their hygiene instructions translated into English, Turkish, Arabic and Russian for citizens from different cultures.

Companies struggling with setbacks in sales have understood the sign of the times and learned that it is vital to invest in marketing and online presence. For our Nuremberg-based translation agency this led to an increase in sales of no less than 26 per cent in this field because many companies relied on our expert qualifications in the translation of web pages. Less work-related stress meant an opportunity to strengthen the market position for these companies. In other cases, employment contracts had to be translated into Serbian and Croatian as companies increasingly hired personnel from these countries. For some businesses it was about time to order translations for their privacy statements and data processing agreements, updated long ago. Still others wrote new press statements, newsletters and marketing texts to get more attention from potential clients.

Sadly enough, numerous people lost their jobs and had to find new work opportunities. For us, this meant a surge in orders for editing of applications from unemployed migrants. For those about to find luck in other countries in these hard times, we translated CVs and certifications in addition to the usual civil status documents.

For people who were about to change their nationality into German, we translated naturalisation guarantees. Others married and needed numerous certified documents for the registration of their marriage. In this regard, we translated more than 900 affidavits, birth certificates, documents of non-impediment and other civil status certificates in 2020. After the marriage ceremony at the registrar’s office (where the interpreter at work has to wear a mask), marriage certificates must be appropriately translated. However, people got divorced as well: divorce decrees, decisions on custody, divorce certificates and court correspondence are part of the daily business of sworn translators.

Court proceedings still take place, of course. If any of the parties involved are not fluent in German, our court interpreters are summoned - due to corona, however, without the possibility of whisper interpreting.

Our qualified interpreters for Russian, English and numerous other languages are also often called to hospitals, where they have to ensure understanding between foreign patients and doctors. There is also a constant need for the translation of hospital release documents, test results and other medical documents. Of course, you can rest assured that all data are treated strictly confidential by our trained and sworn interpreters and translators.

There is also an unchanged demand for German translation services in the field of education: certificates, diplomas with supplements, educational documents, curricula and excerpts from dissertations have to be translated from different languages into German. Proofreading is also frequently asked for.

Real estate sales in the metropolitan area of Nuremberg have remained on a high level. Accordingly, there is still a high demand for the translation of notarial purchase agreements and interpreting services at notarizations.

In the turbulent year of 2020, there have still been mergers in Germany and elsewhere in the world. In this context, we translate extracts from commercial registers, articles of incorporation, company reports, contracts, agreements and other business-related documents.

In the area of pharmacy, we participated as GMP interpreters in document audits conducted by foreign licensing authorities in several German cities. Once the inspection is successfully completed, the inspection report must be translated into German for the pharmaceutical company. Other clients and their partners requested the English translation of processing and production instructions from us. We also translate licensing documents for newly developed drugs into various languages.

Our translation agency in Nuremberg offers specialist translations and interpreting services in all common languages of the world. Among them are, of course, the “classic” languages like the world language English, which make up the biggest part of translation and interpreting requests. However, we also notice new trends. Chinese, for example, is becoming ever more important. Consequently, we deliver an increasing number of Chinese specialist translations. Farsi, commonly referred to as “Persian”, is less familiar, but also of increasing significance. Global migration is one reason for the growing number of languages spoken in a country like Germany, leading to a high demand for translations and interpreting services.

There are certain kinds of documents which we translated very seldom in 2020, among them forwarding agreements, potential analyses, military identity cards, personal information sheets, articles on the desire to have children, contracts on surrogate motherhood (for Switzerland, in the field of law), minutes of the taking of evidence at court, notifications of loss, certificates of marital status, conversion certificates and vaccination cards.

There is always something to discover, even for experienced translation professionals like us – we like to face new challenges. In this regard, the memorable year 2020 was a good year for AP Fachübersetzungen.

At the end of this year, we like to thank all our clients. We wish you a contemplative Christmas time, restful holidays and a great start into the year 2021. We are looking forward to many more exciting translation and interpreting projects and remain a reliable partner for you.