How To Prepare Documentation For Vietnamese Medical Translation Services (P2)

After part 1, we will continue with part 2 on how to prepare documentation for Vietnamese medical translation services.

2.3 Translating Followed by the Regional Writing Styles 

Geographically, Vietnam is divided into three main regions: Northern Vietnam, Central Vietnam, and Southern Vietnam. People in these three parts use distinct spelling as well as vocabulary in both written and oral communication, which make the language diversified, and sometimes cause “translator headache” syndrome. 

Here are examples:

2.4. Translating Based on Contexts 

Due to the unavailability of equivalent hypernym/hyponyms in Vietnamese or the source language, your Vietnamese translation services provider will have to rely on the context for translation. Your job is to give a careful and clear context for the terms.

For instance, the word problem, a relatively common hypernym in several English medical terms, finds no equivalents in the Vietnamese language. Thus, the word problem is translated into Vietnamese based on its context as shown in the table.

Due to these differences, we recommend you to use Vietnamese translation services from a trustworthy localization agency or certified translators who understand the Vietnamese culture and writing styles for the best outcome.

3. Prepare for Text Expansion When Using Vietnamese Translation Services

When translating words from a foreign language into Vietnamese, the length of the words usually increases slightly. While text expansion does not affect translation accuracy, it does affect the layout and design of the document.

Take, for example, an English to Vietnamese translation. Translated Vietnamese papers are likely to be 30-37% longer than their original English versions. This is because the phrase in Vietnamese is usually much longer and more detailed compared to English.

If you want to keep the translation layout the same or you need to meet the character limit, you should ask the translators to choose short words and sentence combinations to satisfy the criteria.

4. Discuss File Formats with Your Vietnamese Medical Translation Services Provider

File sharing is another administrative duty that has a significant influence on your medical translation. Fortunately, language service providers currently get their workflow automated and make information sharing easier. You’ll be able to build a secure connection between your content management system and your language service provider this way.

To speed the process, you must ensure that your linguists’ tools support the file types you intend to deliver. Otherwise, you’ll have to collaborate and come up with technical solutions that allow linguists to access editable files in order to work on their translations.

5. Build a Glossary of Terms for your Vietnamese Medical Translation Services

Your documentation for medical translation includes industry and company-specific terminology, and some of which may be tough for your translator.  

Let’s take the word gene as an example. It consists of two contrastive concepts which are dominant gene and recessive gene. They are respectively translated into Vietnamese as gen trội (exceeding gene) and gen lặn (setting gene). Though the translation gen lặn (setting gene) is highly figurative, 2 components trội (exceeding) and lặn (setting) are not systematically contrastive, since lặn (setting) contrast with nổi (rising) and trội (exceeding) contrast with thua hoặc kém (receding).

Hence, in order to deliver 100% accurate translations, your linguists will need guidelines from your in-house experts. A glossary for medical translations will ensure a smooth flow of current and future projects, guarantee accuracy and reduce incurring costs. It would be perfect if you could gather all terminology relevant to your products/services, the corresponding terms in Vietnamese, and guidelines on how your Vietnamese translation services providers should use each word in different contexts. 

6. Provide Past Translations for References

Don’t forget to share your translation memory with your language service provider if you’ve used one in the past. Linguists can use previous translations to get more familiar with your content, understand more about your expectations, and decrease turnaround times and translation costs.

If you have your steady brand voice already, translators who have access to your translation memory are also more likely to speak in your voice.

Pick Your Right Vietnamese Medical Translation Services

GTE Localize is a trustworthy translation company for your Vietnamese medical translation services.

With our knowledge and experience in the Vietnamese market, we bring you comprehensive Vietnamese medical translation services from best-in-class Vietnamese linguists with 5+ years of experience and a solid background in medicine at the most reasonable price. We also understand the sensitive nature of your medical work, so we are committed to keeping all medical data confidential. You may see our case studies here.

We offer a list of Vietnamese medical translation services, including:

• • Translation Only (TO)
  • Translation + Editing (TE)
  • Translation + Editing + Proofreading (TEP)
  • Desktop Publishing (DTP)
  • Linguistic Sign-Off (LSO)
  • Linguistic Quality Assessment (LQA)
  • Medical Transcription & Video Subtitling

Book a 1:1 consultancy with localization experts right now and let us help you reach your Vietnamese audiences through our reliable Vietnamese medical translation services.