Welcome to The Translation Guide
With so many free translation services and professional translation companies available on the net, sometimes it helps to have a guide to help you reach your final destination.
This guide is aimed at a wide audience of business users, students, translators and private individuals. We hope to bring you advice and information to ensure you successfully find the right solution for your needs.
There are many sites on the internet that offer advice and resources for translation, so why is TheTranslationGuide.com any different? Well, for starters it is written by industry insider and e-business specialist, Phillip Perks. Secondly, we aim to provide an unbiased approach and foster a community of like minded users. Our hope is that the site will become a living resource for what is a living subject - language.
Are you looking for a quick free translation?
If you need to quickly get the 'gist' of some foreign text, you can use our free translation service. Our online translation tools allows you to type in text or enter the URL of a foreign language website and see the translation instantly. Even though we utilise the latest Machine Translation technology, I'm afraid we can't promise perfect results. For accurate translations you will have to pay for a professional translation service.
Professional Translation Services
There are literally thousands of translation companies operating in the world today. From single freelance translators offering one language to large translation agencies providing hundreds of languages. You will typically need to wait a minimum of 2 business days for a professional translation, however if you are in a particular rush you may be able to persuade someone to turn your project around quicker. But be prepared to pay an extra premium!
What to Look for
The first and most important rule is to ensure your translator is a native speaker. An absolute must. Secondly, if your text is very specialised you should only utilise a translator with relevant industry experience. Finally, If your text is for publishing (e.g. a printed corporate brochure) it is a good idea to ensure your translation has been proofread/reviewed by a second translator.
How much?!!!
You could always opt for a free online translation, but the results could end up costing you more than a professional translation in loss of potential business. If your a personal user, for example investing in overseas property or communicating with a long distance 'acquaintance' it could end up costing you a lot of heartache (metaphorically and literally).
To enlist the services of a professional translator however is not that cheap. Freelancers typically won't get out of bed for less than $30.00 USD whilst a translation company will usually start at around $50.00 USD and may even charge a $50.00 project management fee for the pleasure of taking on your job! For every day business and personal correspondence and small word count projects you could save a lot of money by using a fast turnaround translation service such as www.LiveTranslation.com. They offer professional translations in minutes from only $1.99!
The internet has helped bring down costs, but are few things are worth bearing in mind when soliciting the services of a translator and deciding if they offer good value.
- Translators are typically well educated - A Degree at least - and have done so in order to raise their earning potential. You would expect to pay peanuts to a solicitor or doctor so why scrimp on a translator.
- Translators often have industry specific experience, e.g. medicine, law or software. What would you expect to pay a doctor or lawyer to translate your document accurately?
- They must be native speakers. No matter how fluent you may become in a foreign language, you never fully appreciate some of the idiosyncracies of local culture and dialect.
- Does the service include Proofreading - Not as critical for all projects. A general rule of thumb would be if you had your original text read over by a second person then it is surely worth paying that little bit extra to have the translation proofread by a second translator. This is especially important when you are addressing a large geography - such as Latin America - where there isn't one version of a language which is used and a consensus on the most appropriate translation can be reached by two or more translators from different regions agreeing on a common terminology.
Once you have taken all these options into consideration, you are somewhere near making an informed decision on the best translation service to use. Use this site to answer any other questions you may have and you shouldn't go far wrong.