Translator

I can give you a list of the sort of justifications that authorities such as the Chambre de Metiers have already asked for sworn translations of and you can see which ones you can provide: - professional qualifications / certificates - attestations from insurance agents to prove having taken out professional public liability insurance - attestations from apprenticeship training committees - certificates or attestations from City & Guilds - attestations from former employers In order to be translatable by a sworn translator, these various documents must be authentic and verifiable. That means the translator must be able to contact the person who delivered them to verify himself / herself of their authenticity. So they must have the issuer’s contact details and a signature.  If they have a letterhead and are stamped, so much the better.

I read your dilema. I bought my property from an estate agent and I wouldn't have found it alone. But if you have found a property alone (or with a little personal investigation) and if you speak and write a little French then use it and do as you'd do back home. Go visit the owners, you will find the French very helpful in general (moreso when you talk directly than by phone or letter) and not pushy sellers at all. Besides you don't have to agree to anything on the spot. Then if you feel the need for some extra security visit the estate agents (French or Foreign) or Notary to see if they have the property listed and see for yourself what extras they are offering for their commission.  Sometimes, like for me your 'dream' can't be found alone but if it can, go for it, you'll still have to go through a Notary (make your first visit before signing anything) so s/he will make sure that the sale is 'legal' and officially recorded, but you'll have to settle on a price by yourself.

Kathie, instead of throwing in the towel, can't you get in your car and drive to the insurance company to get the famous piece of paper needed and take it to your doctor. I don't know the distances involved, but the drive might relieve some of your obvious exasperation, and you can give the banker a piece of your mind in person (s/he'll understand your mood even if you speak Chinese). My advice is to stop writing and telephoning and go get what you need, even camping in the bank hall until they give it to you. I know that they are all appallingly slow approving loans, but why stay with Banque Populaire? Another possibility could be to take an appointment with an independent financial advisor and let him/her guide you towards several possible banks. Cheer up - Peter

[quote user="RichardA"]Kathie, Just to back up what Kathy said, you need an official, certified, translation. Your local mairie will have a list of approved translators. You send off your signed english doctor's report to the translator (it costs about 50 euros per document), then you get a official translation back a couple of weeks later with a great big stamp on it (the French like big stamps!), that is acceptable to all French banks/government offices etc.. Your english doctor does not need to sign the official translation. Richard [/quote] Richard is right that your doctor doesn't need to sign a sworn translator's translation. I know because I've been one for 13 years. It's the translator who takes all the legal responsibility if ever he or she makes a mistake. This is a terribly big responsibility that none take lightly and partly justify the cost (BTW most translators charge per word, not per document, so 50 euros would be an average for about a page of source text.) However Richard's off the mark about two things. The 2-week delay in turnaround time he mentions is extremely long and  I anyway, don't have a particularly big stamp.

[quote user="Froggy Lou"]I have been here for about 8 months and although I'm doing as much as I can to improve my spoken French, I feel as though I've reached a plateau and am continually using the same vocab.  I have decided toplace an advert locally offereing English conversation for French or even just for French alone.   Please can someone give me some suitable wording - I don't want to offend anyone and know how sensitively the French perceive their language. Thanks! [/quote] If you can tell how you'd like to word your ad in English, I can translate it for you. In the meantime here's a draft (with translations). I wish you luck. Cours de langue en conversation gratuite Free Conversation classes   Voulez vous pratiquer vôtre anglais? Do you want to practice your English?   Je suis une anglaise qui veut améliorer son français. I am an English woman who wants to improve her French.   Voulez vous participer à des cours de langue, une/deux/trois fois par semaine, basés sur des conversations informelles autour d'un thème, mais avec la correction des erreurs de chacun. Would you like to take part in language classes once/twice/3x/ a week, based on informal, theme-based conversations but correcting each other’s errors.   Autrement je recherche un professeur de français pour les cours plus « traditionnels » Otherwise, I am looking for a French teacher for more « traditional » courses.   Téléphone: xxxx

[quote user="nicktrollope"] My understanding of a "certified translator" is one who translates into French and is "authorised" by the Chambre de Commerce. The basic rule of translation is that it is translated into the natural language of the translator (my mother was a translator/interperator for the EEC for many years), so who would "certify" a serbian, in France? I am probably being particularly pedantic (typically). I still wonder, like others, why the OP's Notaire requires a certified translator and who certified a translation company in Sussex (assuming that they are). [/quote] Can I please put all of this straight? I often do legal translating work for the Chamber of Commerce, but it's not the CdeC that gave me any status; it's the Court of Appeal. I know of one CdeC that has an in-house traducteur assermenté, sworn in before the Court of Appeal. They receive a lot of requests for translators, some of which they pass it on to us out-of-house translators, adding their commission. As for translating into one's first language. Yes, as a general rule it’s best. But general rules are for general situations and thank God unusual situations exist. Just as some Brits write hopeless English, and some French people write hopeless French, so some of us write perfectly in both languages. In the UK, there are translators working perfectly into French, so why shouldn't there be French people working perfectly into English. Personally I find it easier to translate into either language than to swap between translating and interpreting as your mother did. When translating we have time to check things, to go back and reread things, whereas with interpreting it's all about memorizing what one person said and instantly translating it. I occassionally have to interprete for the court or for house sales, chez le notaire, so I know how hard it is. As for what one notary wants compared to what another wants. There are no fixed regulations. Each notary does his or her best, for the client, based on so many things (linguistic competence of buyers, sale difficulties, notary's conscientiousness, etc) that it's impossible to say that because it was one way for me it should be like that for you. Personally if I was spending 100,000 - 200,000 euros on buying a house, in an overseas country, I'd be happy to pay 200-300 euros to have a legal sales contract that I could understand perfectly. Cheers - Peter

[quote user="nicktrollope"][quote user="johnv"]not sure if this is the right place to post .. My Notaire expects me to get a 'proper' translation of this document, signed by the translator with his/her qualifications  .. any takers?[/quote] Assuming you are needing a translation from French to English then you won't find a certified translator in France. [/quote] There  are dozens of (certified) Sworn Translators in French who translate legal documents from French to English or visa versa. You can get a list of our names and contact details from any Court of Appeal or from many Town Halls, Tribunals or Embassies. All the best, Peter Moderator. If anyone offers a service and feels they can respond to a forum members needs they should do so via private PM and not in open forum. Rather than delete this post I have modified it as it provides general information which might be helpful to others.

[quote user="Cassis"]One of the problems is that all of these systems are so literal.  Unless you know a bit of the language it's hard to know if what you have produced is nonsense or not. For example, here is Altavista's Babelfish translation of:  'We are hoping to open a bed and breakfast business.' 'Nous espérons ouvrir des affaires de lit et de petit déjeuner.' I'm not sure a Frenchman or woman would know what that was supposed to mean. Phil [/quote] Some say that a good (and amusing) test for a free online translator is to run the translation back through it again, back into the source language. Here's what http://babelfish.altavista.com did with the above: "We hope to open businesses of bed and breakfast" Which seems quite good. However the French translation is not as good as the retranslation into English. This is because in English we are familiar the collocation "bed and breakfast" whereas "lit et petit déjeuner" in French makes about as much sense as "pillow and breakfast" or "pyjamas and breakfast" or any other word you want to use to invoke the idea of sleeping in a room. On top of this "des affaires de lit" could be read in French to mean "bed affairs" which might get you a completely different clientele to the expected one. You might get clients ringing to book “a bed affair with breakfast!!” - “For how many?”             ...........Peter

[quote user="hastobe"]Our notaire has told us that we don't need an up to date copy - the original is fine. hastobe [/quote] Hastobe We all need Notaries for different reasons and maybe your need was different to RogerJN's. Requiring an up-to-date certificate is very common for major transactions, weddings, nationality changes, etc. and if you didn't need one, you were either lucky or your need was different. Peter

[quote user="Tony F Dordogne"]If it makes things easier you can order a copy of your marriage certificate online from the UK's ONS, think it's 1837.com. It will be dated the day that the copy is made, costs £6.50, will arrive within a week and I think that should help you out with your predicament.   [/quote] The site I send people to is www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content  which I'm sure you can get to from the site mentioned above. The price has gone up a little now to £11.50

[quote user="Sunday Driver"]Why is this law stupid?   What's the reason for the notaire's request?  Does the french equivalent of the registry office get notified if you get divorced in the meantime or you're partner dies?  If it does, then it makes eminent sense to have this procedure to avoid bigamy and fraud. One could argue that a piece of paper issued by a UK registry office, say, 30 years ago is of doubtful reliabilty as of today.  But then, that would make the UK look stupid. [;)] [/quote] Hello SD, Yes, there ARE reasons for requiring an up-to-date birth/marriage certificate. Obviously your date or place of birth can't change (sorry no-one can lie about their age anymore) but other things do change and French birth certificate changes with them. It can contain the following information : les nom, prénoms et mention du sexe de la personne concernée (family name, first name, sex)l'année, le jour, l'heure et le lieu de naissance (year, day, time of birth)éventuellement : les mentions de mariage, divorce, séparation de corps ou décès (marriage divorce, separation)éventuellement : les mentions relatives à la nationalité française (déclaration enregistrée, perte, réintégration, naturalisation) (registration, obtention, loss, regaining of French nationality)éventuellement :la mention de la première délivrance du certificat de nationalité française (delivery of nationality papers) A marriage certificate in France contains the following information: les nom, prénoms, dates et lieux de naissance de chacun des époux (family names, first names, dates and places of birth of both spouses)la date du mariage (date)les mentions relatives au régime matrimonial (prenuptual agreements)éventuellement : les mentions relatives au divorce ou à la séparation de corps (divorce seperation) Now some may say that because a British birth/marriage certificate doesn't change why should the French authorities ask for an up-to-date British one? The answer is probably that every country's certificates contain slightly different information (they all certainly use different formats) and so no country can adapt to all others. I hope this helps, Peter

Hello Jane and Charlie, This translation isn't easy, (linguistically and conceptually) . My translation should be followed up by supplimentary clarification. For example it would be helpful to know more more about the "le partage inégal". P.S. Adding the accents would make reading easier too, I suppose that they are in "Insert" > "Special characters" on English keyboards. All said, here goes: "The spouses are (duly) informed that the Notaries' tarif includes a fee which is proportional to the value of the first-to-die's property,  (as mentioned?) on the conventions of inequal distribution of the community (property) such as that of full attribution to the surviving spouse, mentioned in the present contract. These fees will be payable upon the death of the first-to-die". This is a private matter and I'd rather give you a simplified summary of the translation in person (not in public). If you'd like a "simplification" please contact me in person. I hope this helps for starters, Peter

You are right that "Je vous prie de m'excuser." is MORE common in French, especially in written French. But that doesn't mean it's as commly used as "sorry" is in English. As English speakers we simply need to stop needing to feel "sorry" so often when speaking French. This is nothing to do with one language being more polite that the other,it's about different ways of being polite.

Maybe I can throw a little light on the difference between "Je m'excuse." (never said alone) and "Excusez-moi". If you have to leave a table early, you could say "Je dois m'excuser maintenant." (I'll have to excuse myself (from the table) now.) (This is still rare in French except perhaps in the politest of circles.) "Je dois partir maintenant" is more common. If you phone a wrong number you can say "Excusez-moi Monsieur/Madame." But in fact this is as much a cutural question as a linguistic one. Brits excuse themselves left, right and centre. We say "sorry" on the answering machine when we aren't home to take a call. The French language doesn't generally have a "sorry" or "excuse me" for being away or closed or for not knowing street directions. This is a clutural difference, or a way of looking at the need for the word "excuser". The most common word used in French, for all these occassions and for bumping into someone in the street is simply "pardon (Monsieur/Madame)". Hope this helps and amuses, Peter