You likely won’t find an internet user who doesn’t know about free online machine translation services and has never used them. These resources are very popular and easily accessible. The obvious question is, then: why should we use a translation agency? Maybe we could trust business translation to a robot? But how could you be sure the machine intelligence has understood your unique idea or critical requirements, and has properly rendered the exact meaning in the translated language? When talking to a friend from a foreign country while on vacation, machine translation would be more than enough to express your emotions.

However, when it comes to construction specification sheets, internet telephony hardware requirements or medical equipment manuals, even the slightest ambiguity of interpretation can result in costly consequences. Even with a clear terminological base, it’s not always appropriate to use certain terms in certain context. When it comes to marketing texts, the goal is to translate the heart of the phrase rather than the text itself. Idiomatic expressions are used very frequently throughout our communication, and due to their peculiarity, they cannot be translated literally from one language into another. Are you sure that machines will recognize and render them correctly? Every language is rife with idioms, which are reflections of an environment and culture specific to a certain country or region.

For instance, if you want to say “beat your brains out” in Ukrainian, you should say “сушити собі голову чимось” (translated literally as “to drain off one’s brains with something“).

Is Special Education Compulsory for Translators?

So, what are the criteria for selecting a translator? What kind of educational background should translators have? How can we find out about their actual work experience and qualifications? Anyone who has ever had the experience of looking for translation services comes across these questions. Indeed, sometimes the role of a professional translator is not obvious; however, when seeking medical help, we want this help from a Doctor of Medicine rather than someone else. You wouldn’t trust a vehicle mechanic to mount your air conditioning system, either. Horses for courses, as they say.

Assume that one of your employees can speak a foreign language: does it mean this employee can translate well? Can you be sure that the employee’s skills and abilities will be enough, and that foreign consumers could safely use your product? How do you check that the translation and localization you get is both correct and accurate?

Professional translators have linguistic background—this is a must—and commonly an additional university degree in Economics, Finance, Pharmacy, IT or any other subject matter. Such person knows how to deal with the rules and norms of their native language as well as the one or several foreign languages learned in the university. Professional translators know how to translate certain words, phrases, tenses and render them correctly in another language. They also have solid knowledge and experience in the content subject matter, which enables them to use proper terminology whenever required.

Professional translators prefer to translate into their native language because they know perfectly well all the nuances of their language. So when they translate into their native language, they can be sure that they get the right message to the reader.

When translating into a foreign language, translators will use their best knowledge and skills, along with dictionaries and the internet but they can never be absolutely sure that they will say it the same way a native speaker would. Of course, sometimes it is the only option, for example for rare language combinations or when you need to create a content in a foreign language from scratch. In this case, for business translation, you should always add proofreading and editing services performed by native speaking linguists. Thus, your message will be kept and the text will flow smoothly. This is for the sake of quality.

Another important aspect is time. Depending on the language combination and the subject matter, professional translators can work over 2000 to 3000 words per day. When translating into a foreign language, this volume drops by half. When translation is performed by a person who doesn’t have relevant experience, skills and/or expertise, their daily translation output can be several times lower.

So, it turns out that a translator must not only be experienced and qualified, but productive as well. By working with a translation agency, you will get all these aspects, guaranteed.

Non-obvious Aspects of Working
with a Translation Service Provider

Working with a translation agency—also called translation service providers—has many benefits, some of them are hidden behind the scenes.

• Two heads are better than one. To get the right diagnosis, doctors need to call a Concilium. The same goes for a translation agency—sometimes translating an advertising slogan requires the effort of the whole team.

• When you sign a contract with an agency, you don’t have to think about sick leaves, vacation or the amount of work your employee has. You’re paying for finished work and not for hours worked.

• Translation agencies use special tools that allow to apply customer-preferred terminology, re-use data from previous translations, perform spelling and other checks. The purchase and maintenance of such software means additional costs.

• Translation agencies perform quality checks at every single stage of the translation process (i. e. after translation, editing, and proofreading). They have customizable predefined quality checks, allowing to find and fix common and language-specific errors.  And if the customer has any doubts regarding quality, translation agencies hand over such translation for an independent quality review, ensuring the highest quality of the output.

• Translation agencies typically work only with native speakers—as their professional ethics and industry requirements, if you like. As a result, the translated content looks and sounds as if it were originally written in the target language.