Choosing The Right Translation Services For Your Needs

Picture this: you have a document that's in another language, and it has to be translated for an important business presentation to all the executives of two companies. You have a limited understanding of the language and time is short - so you're tempted to try to translate it on your own. You get out your French dictionary, and try to remember your four years of High School lessons on the language, and start to translate.

After a short time you realise that, though the general idea of the article is correct, there are some glaring inconsistencies, and there are some things that just cannot be correct. Why is an article about technology talking about cars? You realise that it's almost too late to finish at the rate you're going, and that you should have got a professional translator from the start. The good news is that there are translation services out there that can cater to your needs, even if time is short and the document is long.

This scenario is probably not that uncommon. It's also not uncommon for people to approach an untrained freelancer who will give you a good hourly rate - but maybe not achieve the best results. Both scenarios can end in frustration. Even if your friend has good language skills, it doesn't mean they will be an expert translator. Even being a fluent speaker of both languages doesn't mean you will be able to perfectly capture the essence of the article you need translated.

People who are constantly translating do the best translations. Why? Because it's a skill that can be honed through many hours of use. That's why choosing a translation service is probably better than choosing a freelancer who isn't constantly translating.

Looking out for a translation service that uses people who live in the country of your target language (for example, someone who lives in France if you need a French translation) is bound to help. When translators live outside their native country, they're not immersed in the language, and so inconsistencies and mistakes creep in. They are also less likely to keep up with the current use of expressions and words, which change over time in every language. Words and phrases go in and out of use in society, and new words are constantly immersed into a language (foreign words, technological words, words coined by young native speakers).

Similarly, translators who have a good knowledge of the subject that you need translated mean that they are less likely to make mistakes, and are more likely to finish the document efficiently. If your original copy is written by someone very knowledgeable in the subject, but this is then put through the lens of someone who has very limited knowledge, it's likely to become a confused mess. Good translation services will always use someone who is knowledgeable in the target area - and will even decline jobs that they think are outside their forte.

A dedicated translation service is also likely to be extremely efficient as well as accurate. A freelancer is likely to be efficient, but if they are working on material outside their comfort zone, it's possible that they could be much slower. A translation company is likely to have more staff - which obviously means they can distribute the work, and will mean that there's more than one pair of eyes who can evaluate each translation.

As always, the quality of the finished document is the best way to evaluate how good the translation service is. And quality with a professional translation service is likely to be higher.