Original article published on the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce’s website on September 11, 2019. Find it here.

In this week’s spotlight, twin sisters Cynthia and Paula Penovi share the story of Argentum Translations, a minority and women-owned family business that provides translation and language services for business.

Tell us about your business and the role you play in it.

Our names are Cynthia and Paula Penovi and we are identical twin sisters who started our journey as translators around 10 years ago in Argentina. We are the co-owners of Argentum Translations, a minority and women-owned family business that provides translation and language services for businesses. Our company was born as an initiative to break down language barriers for our community and build strong linguistic and cultural bridges so that everybody can communicate as if they spoke the same language and shared the same culture.

We have always had a passion for languages and, after obtaining our bachelor’s degrees in Technical, Scientific and Literary Translation and visiting the US on several occasions, we ended up combining our diverse expertise and qualifications in a translation agency in the Asheville area. The highly-specialized requirements of our translation assignments inspired us to pursue master’s degrees related to the field: Cynthia has just finished her master’s in Art and Communication, while Paula got certified by the American Translators Association (ATA) and is getting ready to defend her thesis in Medical and Healthcare Translation in October.

We provide a broad range of translation services to and from more than 50 languages, and we have worked with content from many fields, including school textbooks, software user guides, applications, clinical trials, marketing campaigns, you name it! We also provide localization services (adapting your message to the cultural standards of an audience in terms of codes, graphics, style, humor and more), transcreation services (a blend of translation and creative writing, mostly used for marketing and advertising purposes), editing and proofreading, subtitling and dubbing services, and desktop-publishing services (using graphic design software to give translations the format and layout of the original content). We work with medical, legal, marketing, IT, technical, financial and educational content, and we serve businesses, non-profit organizations and institutions looking to communicate with the local non-English speaking communities or take their products and services abroad.

How did you get your idea or concept for the business? How did you decide on a name?

We had been toying with the idea since we were really young. Our mother is an English teacher and our brother is a certified translator too, so we grew up in an environment highly influenced by academic language learning. Once we moved to the United States, we noticed a general demand for high-quality language services due to the overall lack of translation academic programs and professionalization in the industry, along with the need to provide equal opportunities and access to the ever-growing non-English speaking population. This is a big contrast to what we experienced in Argentina, where English proficiency is highly prioritized and academic translation studies are very well-established.

We aim to fill this need in the US with a company whose name reminded us of our roots and what our country stands for in the Hispanic world: “Argentina” is derived from the Latin “argentum” (“silvery”), and the name “Argentina” was used by Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors in the 16th century, in reference to the Río de la Plata (meaning “River of Silver”). We chose the colors gray (a neutral, balanced and sophisticated color) and turquoise (associated with wise, creative and refreshing qualities) to reflect our values, which are professionalism, high-quality and expertise, combined with an approachable, modern and flexible image.

What makes your business unique in its field?

Leaving aside the fact that we are identical twins running a family business together, the main thing that makes us different is our absolute requirement that all the linguists we work with be certified or have degrees in the field. We believe in high-quality work supported by academic training and continuing education, and since translation is an intellectual process that requires specialized knowledge, being bilingual is not enough. You don’t become an attorney by simply watching Law & Order, or an accountant just because you are good at math and know how to handle spreadsheets. Well-executed translations can mean the difference between life and death, freedom and jail time, great customer service or a bad public reputation. Our methodology distinguishes us from other local companies because we use three linguists for each project (a translator, a proofreader and a quality specialist) to structure our translation workflow in a way that guarantees high quality.

In addition to this, we are experts in the latest translation technology solutions in the field, which allows us to provide more accurate translations, capability for larger projects (an average of 50,000 words per week), increased speed and turnaround times, and the guarantee of coherence and consistency within a project. Moreover, we can provide our clients with the possibility to reuse previous translations, discounts for repeated segments, glossaries and other perks. We can also work with graphic design software such as Adobe Illustrator and InDesign to recreate the original format and layout of our documents.

Fair trade is another crucial goal of our company, since many of our contractors are located in developing countries. We strive to promote greater equity by paying fair rates to our colleagues in a world in which the real value of translation is gaining recognition but it is still hard to quantify in money. We understand translation as a very specialized craft that requires years of training and expertise, and we aim to support our fellow global linguists with better trading conditions than other big international translation agencies. We are committed to working with professionals only, with competitive compensation commensurate with their abilities. Last but not least, we care about our local community and are engaged participants who try to give back as much as possible. Western North Carolina is full of amazing people, and our vision is to promote language access to help residents grow, gain equal access to services and resources, and use their full potential so that they can contribute as much as possible to the society. This is one of the reasons we are offering pro-bono translation services to nonprofits in the area, with our most recent project consisting of translating 10,000 words into Spanish for Pisgah Legal Services.

How many employees do you have? And what qualities do you look for when hiring?

One of the greatest aspects of running a translation business is that we can do it from anywhere in the world. We don’t have a need for employees because we work with a large network of reliable colleagues from all over the world who provide high-quality language services in their native languages. Our team is made up of linguists with MAs, BAs, credentials and certifications in translation that are relevant in their location and language pair. All of our linguists need to have over 3 years of experience working in the translation field and using specific translation tools and technology solutions. We also work with doctors, lawyers and other specialists for concept and terminology review when necessary, and collaborate with marketing specialists and graphic and web designers to meet formatting and localization requirements.

Why did you decide to join the Chamber?

We knew we would become members of the Chamber sooner or later because building relationships is a crucial aspect to running a business and there is no better place to build a powerful professional network than at the Chamber of the Year! Our commitment to working with our fellow business owners and expanding our diverse local economy were our main drivers to start taking advantage of all the initiatives promoted by the Chamber. They do an amazing job at empowering local companies by organizing networking events and offering resources and learning opportunities. At the moment, we are proud to be the only language and translation services provider among the 1,700 members of the Chamber and to be listed in their directory, which is a great space for visibility. We were surprised to find that there are not many translation agencies in this area and, because of this, we ourselves have been working with the Carolina Association of Translators and Interpreters (CATI) to build networks of professional translators and interpreters in an attempt to professionalize the industry and promote its recognition. We definitely appreciate all the spaces that the Chamber provides to help us make our profession more visible, such as this newsletter.

What is your favorite part about doing business in the Asheville area?

The Asheville area is a very unique, diverse and different place to do business; what is not to like? We can provide translation services from anywhere in the world, but we decided to build our company here because there is something very special about the community in this place.

It is very inspiring how small businesses are the foundation of the economy in this area and there is a huge importance placed on shopping local. Every time we go to a networking event, we are greeted with a lot of warmth and love. Our fellow Ashevillians really care about supporting each other, and they are becoming more and more committed to promoting language diversity and multilingual spaces for the rest of the community.

We also love the commitment to patient care in Asheville. We feel very strongly about helping underserved Limited English Proficiency (LEP) residents get access to health care and navigate the school system. It is incredible that we have one of the top 15 best health systems in the country here, Mission Health, where Paula worked as a Certified Medical Interpreter for a few years.

Moreover, we have the Appalachian Mountains, the thriving art scene and the amazing weather, which are all part of the Asheville charm!

Written by Paula Penovi
ATA-Certified Translator and Certified Medical Interpreter (CMI-Spanish)

As a linguist working at a hospital, it is not uncommon to notice languages merge and blend into each other, adopting foreign terms and structures and converging into a complex hybrid language. As we all know, communication is critical to ensure successful healthcare. Lexical borrowings, calques and literal translations that may sound natural to the untrained ear could end up leading away from the meaning that was originally conveyed, while contributing to the impoverishment and erosion of the target language.

That is why today I am going to share some insight into four of the most common false friends that I have encountered in the medical setting, their polysemy and some lexical equivalents and alternatives. False friends (also known as false cognates) are words that look very similar and appear to be translation equivalents, but which actually have different meanings in different languages.

Since we are focusing on some of the most frequent terms that an interpreter or translator will encounter on an everyday basis, the first place must go to ‘condition,’ when it is translated as condición. Quoting Dr. Fernando Navarro, whenever this word is used to refer to a defective state of health, it can be translated as enfermedad (skin condition = enfermedad cutánea), proceso (pathologic conditions = procesos patológicos), dolencia, afección (surgical condition = afección quirúrgica), trastorno or cuadro clínico. Whenever it refers to the particular state that something or someone is in, it can be translated as estado (critical condition = en estado crítico) or situación (stable condition = en situación estable), and sometimes the interpreter or translator has to use their best judgement and choose a translation based on the context, as in the case of ‘clinical condition’ (cuadro clínico, estado clínico or situación clínica).

Another word that I hear mistranslated a lot is ‘severe.’ It is not uncommon to find severo used as an equivalent, term which in Spanish means ‘strict, tough, harsh in treatment or punishment’ and is only used to describe the character of a person. In English, it can have many different meanings: grave (severe condition = en estado grave), intenso (severe pain = dolor intenso, agudo), fuerte (a severe blow to the head = un fuerte golpe en la cabeza) or extenso (severe psoriasis = soriasis extensa). It goes without saying that sometimes only the context can define the most accurate translation for this term: for example, ‘he had a severe loss of blood’ could be translated as ‘perdió mucha sangre’.

In 1980, a patient was taken to a hospital in a coma and his family used the word intoxicado to refer to his condition, since they thought his symptoms were caused by something he had eaten. This word was mistranslated as ‘intoxicated’ during the encounter, and in consequence the doctor immediately made a misdiagnosis of drug overdose, causing the patient to become quadriplegic at age 18. There is a lot to say about this false friend, but we can start with the fact that, in Spanish, intoxicado refers to food poisoning (intoxicación alimentaria, toxinfección alimentaria), while in English ‘intoxicated’ is related to the effect of alcohol or drugs. During regular medical encounters, the word ‘poisoning’ will most likely refer to intoxicación instead of envenenamiento (malicious poisoning). For instance, accidental poisoning would usually be translated as intoxicación involuntaria and acetaminophen poisoning as intoxicación por paracetamol. While intoxicación might seem to be the best equivalent in this setting, when using a more technical language, translators and interpreters will have to resort to a word ending in ‘–ismo’ in Spanish: cheese poisoning (tirotoxismo), fish poisoning (ictiotoxismo), lead poisoning (saturnismo) and blood poisoning (toxemia or septicemia), among others.

Last but not least, I would like to discuss one of my personal favorites, a Gallicism widely used both in English and Spanish: the term ‘control.’ Even though it seems easy to avoid translating this term literally in cases such as ‘birth control’ (regulación de la natalidad, reducción de la natalidad, anticoncepción) or ‘centers for disease control’ (centros de epidemiología), we tend to be unoriginal when faced with verbal phrases and collocations that come up all the time during medical encounters. For instance, we tend to stay in our comfort zone and resort to this word when translating phrases such as ‘controlar una hemorragia’ (detener, restañar), ‘controlar la tensión arterial’ (medir, vigilar, estabilizar, normalizar), ‘control de la temperatura corporal’ (regulación), ‘controlar los efectos de una sobredosis’ (neutralizar), ‘controlar una anemia’ (corregir); the list could go on forever. In this regard, Dr. Fernando Navarro presents an exhaustive list of alternative translations for this term in his dictionary, and I believe it would be interesting to mention a few to shed light on the variety of linguistic choices the Spanish language has to offer: getting/to get a situation under control (dominar una situación), control of an epidemic (contención de una epidemia), disease control (lucha contra las enfermedades), control visit (consulta de revisión), food control laboratory (laboratorio de bromatología), self-control (autodominio), temperature control (termorregulación), case-control study (estudio de casos y testigos).

After exploring all these equivalents, one wonders why it is so easy to forget the richness and beauty of our native language and to embrace this constant influx of foreign terminology. Only professional translators and interpreters can at all times recognize this dilution of language and make the most accurate choice in the right context. Continuing education plays a key role in helping us celebrate our own lexical items and structures, value them and avoid these frequent and deep-rooted mistranslations. This is only one of the reasons why there needs to be an emphasis on certified translators and interpreters in the medical field. If you are seeking translation or interpreting services, make sure you choose your language professionals wisely. In the long run, the costs of professional services are likely to be far less than the costs of the clinical error claims that may arise from these incidents in a healthcare setting.

References:

Diccionario de dudas y dificultades de traducción del inglés médico, by Fernando A. Navarro
In The Hospital, A Bad Translation Can Destroy A Life, by Kristan Foden-Vencil
Language, Culture, And Medical Tragedy: The Case Of Willie Ramirez, by Gail Price-Wise
Medical English and Spanish cognates: identification and classification, by Lourdes Divasson and Isabel León
Severe: A False Friend, by G. Blasco-Morente, C. Garrido-Colmenero, J. Tercedor-Sánchez and M. Tercedor-Sánchez
Cambridge Dictionary
Online dictionary by Merriam-Webster
The Royal Spanish Academy’s Dictionary