Foreign languages and standardization

Contact: Sonja Miesner (miesner@kan.de)

Standards are increasingly prepared in European and international working groups. The working language is usually English. The initial drafts also appear in English in the first instance.

Translations are therefore an essential tool for KAN's work in order to

• Make foreign-language documents accessible to the German occupational health and safety community
• Exert an influence on international discussions
• Improve the exchange of information in Europe

KAN takes the predominantly European orientation of its work into account through its multi-lingual publications. Like the KAN homepage, the quarterly KANBrief also appears in several languages. The KAN Reports contain a summary in English and French or are translated completely into English.

We would welcome an exchange of information on terminological matters with other interested parties and institutions. Several articles on the subject of foreign languages and standardization have been published in the KANBrief:

• KANBrief 1/02: "Learning by doing" and other methods for increasing foreign-language proficiency
• KANBrief 3/00: Proper use of risk terminology
• KANBrief 4/99: Draft standards only in one language?
• KANBrief 1/99: ‘Shall’, ‘should’ or ‘must’ - modal auxiliary verbs in standards
• KANBrief 4/98: Standardization and foreign languages: Principles