We are excited to be sharing the first blog for Allied Interpreting & Translating. We are gearing up to provide great content that our readers can use in practice, business, or life.
Snapshot of Who We Are
Silvia Goldsztajn started Allied Interpreting & Translating in 1980 and has been serving the legal and business community since then. She is a certified Spanish interpreter and had been practicing her trade for many years, and still speaks with an Argentinian accent. She was determined that there was a business to be had by hiring interpreters and translators who knew many languages and offering this service to California’s legal and business communities. She created and maintained the “go-to” source for finding professional and certified interpreters and translators, from any language to any language. Allied is passionate about ‘keeping your word while losing nothing in translation.’ Allied serves the legal and business communities’ needs, court reporting services in Los Angeles, and worldwide as the leading interpreting & translating firm in California.
As the Director of Marketing for Allied, I am sometimes known as ‘the 2nd Most Interesting Man in the World.’ My connection to our clientele and interpreting & translating is two-fold, as I have practiced law for over 48 years. It’s great to be on the inside of the legal world and see the benefits we can provide for attorneys and spreading the word.
In spreading the word, let’s dive back into why and when did Interpreting & Translating begin?
It all began thousands of years ago when the then nations of the world decided to build a tower in the sky to reach God. Higher and higher, the group went. The tower was crushed and spread the builders throughout the world; up to that time, everyone spoke the same language, and once dispersed, there were 70 different languages. As a result, no one could understand the other. Then God decided that one specific language might not work. So, HE incorporated Allied Interpreting & Translating and anointed Silvia Goldsztajn as CEO/President. Fact or fiction? Your call.
Today there are nearly 6,500 spoken languages in the world. However, about 2,000 of those languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers. The most popular language in the world is Mandarin Chinese. According to research, the top 10 languages are categorized by the total number of people who speak that language, regardless of their mother tongue.
- English:1.121 billion total speakers
- Chinese: 1.107 billion total speakers
- Hindi: 534.2 million total speakers
- Spanish: 512.9 million total speakers
- French: 284.9 million total speakers
- Arabic: 273.9 million total speakers
- Russian: 265 million total speakers
- Bengali: 261.8 million total speakers
- Portuguese: 236.5 million total speakers
- Indonesian: 198.4 million total speakers
Interesting, to say the least.
Why could we not have but one language for the billions of people in the world? Could having one language be a uniting factor? Why do we need languages in the first place? Well, all of our progress as human beings has been achieved with communication. We need language to express our thoughts and communicate with one another. We use language in spoken form and in written form to communicate.
Some of us have difficulty conveying what we mean in our mother tongue, let alone from one language to another. For example, our body language, intonation, facial expressions, gestures, and eye movement tell us more about what is being said than the actual spoken word when speaking English.
So, picture someone speaking in Spanish, which needs to be interpreted to English by a certified Spanish/English interpreter. The interpreter will give us the exact word-for-word meaning but cannot imitate the intonation, facial expressions, etc.
Allied’s History Helping the Community
Allied’smain focus in the interpretation and translation world is the legal community. Lawyers, Attorneys at Law, Barristers, Solicitors, notaries; lawyers need interpreters for in-take of new clients, depositions, and trials. Lawyers use translators for all written materials that are in a foreign language that requires translation to English. And vice versa.
What about a certified interpreter or translator? When a language is certifiable by the Judicial Council in California, then the interpreter/translator must be certified when that language is used.
Examples of certifiable languages in California include Russian, Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Armenian, and Farsi. If not certified, then the deposition or translated document will not be admitted as evidence by the Court.
How do lawyers find the interpreters and translators they need? Good question. Let’s say a lawyer needs a Russian interpreter. They can search on their own, ask their court reporter to find one, or call Allied Interpreting.
The latter is by far the most efficient. Lawyers are best served by their staff being able to schedule the people needed for the services with a guarantee, and we bring the best available. Why should a lawyer or law firm have to get stressed out when needing an interpreter or translator in a foreign language? Don’t stress, Allied Interpreting & Translating is one call, email, or fax away.
We look forward to keeping your word and letting nothing get lost in translation.
“I don’t care how much a man talks if he only says it in a few words.”
Josh Billings
