A happy client is music to our ears
The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) came to us back in 2007 because they were in the early stages of developing a process for having their extensive range of music exam papers translated into a host of foreign languages.
ABRSM had been marketing their service to distant parts of the globe where classical music enthusiasts in places as far flung as Korea and Thailand had been applying in large numbers to sit their prestigious music exams. A music certificate from ABRSM is a world renowned qualification which many musicians aspire to. It was only time until ABRSM needed to find an equally prestigious translation agency to help cope with this increase in demand.
As with previous years, ABRSM came to us to provide the translations for their new 2011 theory papers into French, Korean, Polish and Thai, amongst others.
How we answered the brief
The key to providing a quality translation is about sourcing just the right translators for the job. All our translators are fully qualified and have a vast amount of experience, and of course hold recognised linguistic qualifications. For difficult texts and niche markets such as classical music, it is vitally important that each translator is tested for suitability and their work checked independently. However, for a client like ABRSM, these quality procedures are still not enough. We needed to source translators with all the experience, skill and qualifications above, but who also are in themselves accomplished musicians who can understand the technical musical notations and phrases set in the exam papers they are translating.
It’s these kind of sought after, skilled professionals we used when translating the ABRSM 2011 Theory papers.
The results
How well our translations were received can be measured by how well the questions were understood by those sitting the exams. ABRSM gets feedback from their in-county representatives who are in regular contact with the music students and as you can imagine, the chances of passing or failing may sometimes hang on our ability to provide clear and accurate translations.
When feedback eventually finds it’s way to us, it is only ever constructive. We have been working with ABRSM for so long now, that they can count on us every time to provide their exam papers in a range of languages, year after year with ever increasing success. They also know that feedback will be taken and used for future reference to continue to improve the work we do for them.
"We operate in over 90 countries worldwide and they have always been able to find translators for all the languages required, tailoring the dialects to the country in question whenever necessary. Living Word have been particularly good in sourcing specialist translators who are familiar with the musical vocabulary that we are working with - this is particularly essential for our music theory papers, often used by very young candidates, where an incorrect translation could make the difference between a pass and a fail.
Above all, their staff is always friendly and willing to go the extra mile in order to meet often tight deadlines and provide translations which we can rest assured will be reliable and appropriate to the region and context which they will be used.”, The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music
