Hi,
I have some medical reports in Spanish that are going to be translated into English. Should I keep the units in the metric system or convert them to inches, pounds, etc.?
Printable View
Hi,
I have some medical reports in Spanish that are going to be translated into English. Should I keep the units in the metric system or convert them to inches, pounds, etc.?
I would suggest using the International System of Units, since all the Spanish speaking countries use it.
Thank you, but these files will be read by native English speakers in the US. I'm not sure if they will understand the cm, Celsius degrees and kg at a first glance.
Then I guess you should use the American system, but if not sure you may want use the International System between brackets...
My guess would be to leave all measurements as they appear in the source file. If the client doesn't specify he wants them converted. In this case, As Levices said, I think you should use the US system with the original numbers between parenthesis... but that's just my opinion. You can always ask the client, because for those type of things, it's always preferential, and changes depending on the client. What do you think?
The client doesn't have a particular preference. I am just thinking about the possible end user of those documents. American doctors will have to calculate everything while they read.
Adding both systems could be an option too. I'll wait for the client to confirm.
I agree. I have transcribed dozens of medical reports from Latin America and translated them into English. According to the client's protocol instructions, I had to leave the measurements as they were.Quote:
Originally Posted by nabylm
Thank you for the option wolfmario. It depends on the client's preference then.
And it made me wonder. What was the best format for the measures? Were 5'1" or 33.2 in right?
No, Danielr, metric system measurements are formatted according to that system: 3 mm, 2 m, 0,4 cm, etc. No conversions, unless the customer wants it explicitly (according to my experience).Quote:
Originally Posted by danielr
Anybody in the medical field in the US would immediately recognize metric abbreviations such as these. The metric system is fairly prevalent here. Most educated people in the US are familiar with the metric system even though many would have to mentally calculate cm, kilograms, degrees Celcius into inches, pounds and degrees Fahrenheit.Quote:
Originally Posted by danielr
Thank you. They stay as they are then ;)
I agree with wolfmario, when it comes to units (or money currencies for instance), converting the numbers into the metric system (or currency) used in the target language country is not recommended, unless the client specificaly gives the instruction to do so.
in this case, it is necessary to use the international system of units