The Danish Association of Certified Translators and Interpreters (DACTI) is a nationwide organization for professional translators and interpreters, founded on 20 March 1910. Since its foundation, DACTI has aimed – and still aims – to safeguard the professional interests of the interpreting and translation profession and to promote the high quality of the services provided by its members and the interpreting and translation industry in general, and to help maintain the highest standards in the profession through our Code of Professional Conduct.
Since 1910, the primary task of our members has been to provide TRANSLATION SERVICES in a wide range of fields such as medicine, law, technology and finance. Members also offer localization, subtitling, language revision, quality assurance and proofreading services.
Several members of DACTI also offer INTERPRETING SERVICES to businesses, the health sector, courts and the police. In addition to the subject knowledge and language skills required to provide good interpreting, our members are also familiar with the ETHICAL and cultural aspects of an interpreting situation.
All our members have passed an examination at university level as a translator and interpreter or hold a master’s degree in business language translation and interpreting between Danish and a foreign language or a master’s degree relevant to the translation profession and five years’ professional experience.
For more than a century
In Denmark, certified translation services go a long way back – all the way back to 1635. At the time, only the translations of shipping documents that were required to charge the correct excise duties for vessels sailing through Oresund between Denmark and Sweden had to be certified, however.
A few centuries later, in 1910, the Ministry of Trade for Denmark issued an Executive Order introducing a new formal specialized translation exam which led to the foundation of the Danish Association of Certified Translators and Interpreters (DACTI). Before the introduction of a formal qualifying exam, you could become an appointed translator based on a statement issued by a university professor or another translator. Obviously, this system had its flaws since an appointment in some cases required nothing but the right connections.
By 1966, society had evolved, and the Danish Parliament passed the world’s first Foreign Language Translation Act. However, in 2016, the 1966 Act was repealed, and to safeguard and retain the high standards for translation and interpreting services, DACTI set up its own certification scheme for translators and interpreters. To be enrolled with DACTI with the right to deliver CERTIFIED translations and use the Association’s trusted stamp with the Danish royal crown, the candidate must have earned a Master’s degree in languages, passed the special translator exam, or earned a Master’s degree in another relevant field plus five years of professional experience working with languages.
Today, DACTI is an association that – thanks to a highly skilled professional secretariat and active members – keeps up to date with the most recent developments in order to represent the professional interests of translators and interpreters and raise the profile of the profession. These interests include the working environment of interpreters, the DACTI Code of Professional Conduct, language technologies, continuing professional development (CPD) and courses, professional liability insurance, European standards, contact to government agencies and relevant business partners as well as international relations such as the International Federation of Translators, FIT, founded in 1953 with DACTI as founding member.
DACTI organizes frequent professional EVENTS AND COURSES covering a multitude of relevant subjects, usually allowing also non-members to attend.
Objectives
The objectives of the Danish Association of Certified Translators and Interpreters (DACTI) are to promote the professional interests of its members and to provide networking and professional socialising opportunities for its members.
One of DACTI’s important tasks is to make it possible for its members to network and socialize with their colleagues. Another important task is to safeguard and improve the opportunities of members to exercise their profession. To achieve this, DACTI offers courses for the purpose of ensuring Continuing Professional Development, organizes relevant events and conferences, upholds the principles of high-quality translation and interpreting services and contributes to ensuring high professional and ethical industry standards in close dialogue with government agencies, educational institutions and relevant professional associations. As the name indicates, DACTI offers its members certification as translators and interpreters.
A visionary association
The Danish Association of Certified Translators and Interpreters (DACTI) is dedicated to retaining, updating, enhancing and promoting the qualifications of its members.
With this in mind, DACTI’s event calendar is an important tool. By organizing EVENTS AND COURSES tailored to meet the professional needs of our members, DACTI helps to retain, update and enhance the knowledge, competencies and professional qualities of its members.
Translators and interpreters offer their services within an array of ever-changing subjects, and as language professionals they constantly have to keep up-to-date with the most recent developments within Danish and international law, society, technologies, AI, medicine, to name just a few.
As part of our dedication to do this, DACTI is part of the umbrella network TERMINOLOGIGRUPPEN which is dedicated to terminology work in the Nordic region, within the European Union and also at international level. DACTI works closely with THE DANISH LANGUAGE COUNCIL where DACTI has its own representative.
DACTI’s efforts reach into the future and we require that our members keep up to date within their fields of specialization and relevant language technology tools they can use for quality assurance purposes and to improve the translation process to the benefit of both translator and customer.
Our vision is your mission!