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Keeping up with a growing market
As demand increases, services are multiplying By Mindy Kay Bricker For The Prague Post (April 15, 2004) As a freelancer, Milan Havlin translated German documents in his Prague 1 flat, which measured about 5.5 square meters (6.6 square yards). He worked for himself, by himself. That was 1990. Today, as director of Presto Translation Center, he has a roster of 5,000 freelance translators and 12 full-time translators -- and his two Prague 1 offices, combined, measure 730 square meters. Havlin's secret for success: "I think I delivered good translations quickly." Specializing in business, medicine, pharmaceutical, Web site and information technology translations, Presto offers simultaneous interpreting, consecutive interpreting, conferences, proofreading and transcription services, among others. In 2002, the company, which Havlin founded in 1990, ranked second in revenues for translation services in the Czech Republic, according to a Prague business publication. Presto brought in 60 million Kc ($2.2 million) in 2002 and 2001. The country's accession to the European Union has fueled a growing market for translation agencies offering increasingly diversified services. Havlin is already a beneficiary of the move, winning a tender to translate EU regulations. That translates to 90,000 pages of work. Before Colonel Sanders In the business sector, the growing English-language requirements demand another layer of expertise, according to Ljubov Sucha, managing director of ArtLingua in Prague 2.
As interpreters for banking systems and European Commission twinning projects, ArtLingua must be familiar with a variety of industry and technical jargon. To train bank clerks, for example, Sucha's interpreters basically had to learn and understand the job to be able to interpret appropriately and accurately. "Perhaps we are enlightened or maybe stupid as ever, but it is a lot of terminology," Sucha says. ArtLingua, which ranked third in 2002 revenue for translation services, translates 43 languages and specializes in business, environment, law, finance banking, information technology and economics. Its major clients include PricewaterhouseCoopers, Czech National Bank, European Commission twinning projects and film festivals such as Karlovy Vary. The company, which was founded in 1990, has kept some clients since its inception -- or, as translator Rudolf Stefec says, clients that were with ArtLingua before "the legendary Colonel Sanders was here." "What we've always focused on is quality," Sucha says, "high-level quality."
Mindy Kay Bricker can be reached at
features@praguepost.com
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