Professional Translation Services
There really is no substitute for a good, professional translation. Whilst many of us are familiar with free online translation websites, we are also all too familiar with the pitfalls of the quality of translation they give out. When you need to communicate accurately, for either business or private reasons, you absolutely must engage a professionally qualified human translator.
Freelance Translators or Translation Agencies?
This question is a little tricky and comes down to cost, ease of use and quality. If you only need to translate into one or two languages you may be able to build a good relationship with freelance translators. This could save you some money in the long run as their costs are usually lower in terms of minimum charges and cost per word. They may even be more flexible with regards translation turnaround times. But they may also get booked up quite quickly.
On the other hand, a translation company or agency can usually provide guaranteed turnaround times and a quality guarantee that a freelance finds difficult to provide. This is because translation companies usually have a translation workflow in place that involves several quality checks, including a proofread by a second native speaking translator.
Professional translation agencies often employ the services of freelance translators, however they usually insist on rigorous tests before a translator is added to their database. This gives you further assurances that you will be receiving a high quality translation.
Because translation agencies also have a large pool of resources to call upon, they are more likely to have a translator with the right industry expertise. This is especially important when it comes to legal, medical or technical translations were the subject matter can be very specialised.
Go Native
For any professional translation, you should always insist on a native speaking translator. No matter what level you have studied a language to or how emersed you have become in a culture, you will almost never become as competent as a native professional translator. The location of the translator can also play an important role in their ability to localise a piece of text. Many translators move out of there home countries and travel around the world. Whilst this brings with it new exposure to different cultures, it also brings with it the risk of losing touch with changes in the local culture of native country. Language is, after all, constantly evolving. Imagine, an English translator living abroad for 20 years having to translate a book about modern urban sub-cultures or even a simple text message.
Additional Services
Website Translation and Software Localisation
Most major translation companies employ specialist software engineers to assist in the localisation process. They understand how to localise complex databases and work with multiple file formats such as ASP, PSD, FLA, QXD and most other 3 letter acronyms you can think of! They take your original file and create a localised version which is translated and then tested and quality checked by a translator to ensure the translation has been inserted correctly. This may be checking for thinks like button sizes where text has significantly increased in the translation process or making sure hyphenation is correct.
One of the most difficult areas of localisation is concatenation. This is where whole sentences are made from broken up strings of words and put in order. This strings may need totally changing around in a different language. e.g. the next train at platform / 6 / will be / the 8:15 / to London - may be rearranged to the / 8:15 / to London / will arrive next at platform / 6. Not a great example but you get the gist (a bit like computer translation!)
Graphics
Another specialist area of localisation is graphics and page formatting. Most translation agencies provide just translation and charge additional fees for laying out the translation to match the formatting of the original. The cost usually depends on the type of document such as MS Word, Quark Xpress or Adobe Photoshop and also the editability of the text. If the text is a bitmap for example, the text needs extracting into an editor for the translator.
As with website translation, most translation agencies have dedicated teams who work with the specialist graphics software in order to create localised versions of the final published material. Another advantage of working with a translation company is that they are more likely to be able to work with the different file formats available. Having access to all software packages would be financially unviable for most freelance translators, whereas translation agencies have to invest in such software to cope with their diverse client demands.