Users must find what they are looking for

Aart van den End is the compiler of the Juridisch-Economisch Lexicon / The Legal and Economic Lexicon and the Onroerend Goed Lexicon / The Property Lexicon and founder of Gateway Vertalingen. This translation agency has built up a vast wealth of expertise in the fields of law, general economics and property.

 

These days Aart devotes all his time and attention to updating and extending the Lexicons, and the results are impressive. His dictionaries are regarded as the translation standard and indispensable tools for professionals. They are widely used at universities, universities of applied sciences and translation schools.

Born and bred lexicographer

After teaching English at a variety of vocational, secondary and pre-university schools in the Netherlands, Aart began his career as an independent translator under the name Gateway. Alongside his translation work he also gave English-language courses for property specialists. This inspired him to collect together the specialist terminology used in the sector and compile the very first edition of Onroerend Goed Lexicon / The Property Lexicon, which was published in 1990.

 

Aart proved to be a born and bred lexicographer, and in 1993 together with a group of legal translators he began with the compilation of Juridisch Lexicon / The Legal Lexicon. The first edition of the Lexicon was published in 1995 and over the years has developed and grown to become Juridisch-Economisch Lexicon / The Legal and Economic Lexicon. The dictionaries clearly meet a need in view of the enormous success of the Lexicons today.

 

Tailored to the user

Aart is extremely enthusiastic about the Lexicons online, not least because he can enter new terms and make changes which are then instantly available to users. All living languages constantly change, and the Lexicons are constantly updated to keep in step with these changes. That is why Aart feels it is so important that users have the most recent edition at their fingertips. ‘The user must find what he is looking for.’

 

An important source of new words and terms is the search log. Sjoukje Hiemstra, an experienced member of Aart’s office team, systematically goes through the terms that users have looked up but have not found, and from this draws up a list of relevant terms. Aart then sets to work on this list to come up with correct translations. Users can of course put translation questions to him direct. Aart enjoys the challenge of answering all these questions and finding the perfect translation as quickly as possible.

 

Aart always goes through the translations made by Gateway Vertalingen in search of new words and phrases to be included in the Lexicons. Needless to say, he also follows closely the news in the various media, focusing particularly on terminology. He uses every conceivable resource to keep the dictionaries up to date and relevant to users.

 

Contribution to quality

Aart is a lexicographer through and through. He takes great pleasure in the fact that his dictionaries make a vital contribution to continual improvements in the quality of translation work.