5 Tips on Hiring Quality Translations Services

Posted by Make Julia on March 17th, 2020

If you are concerned about the quality of the translations that are made for your company, in this post, we offer you some essential tips to put your grain of sand to achieve quality translations. Whether your company's translations are done internally through a professional translation department or outsourced to a translation services company or freelance translator, some things can be done to help these professionals translate in the best conditions.

1. Do Not Fall Into Temptation: Work With Professional Translation Services:

It is possible to use the translation services of an individual that is your acquaintance or a family member who has a good command of English, French, German, or any other foreign language to save resources. It is not recommended to seek services of a native of a foreign language that can do the translations. These resources could be a solution to save on costs when you need to translate a not so technical document or that is for internal use and does not affect the image of your company.

Professional translation is a job that can be complex, and hence you need specialized professionals to achieve quality levels. Anyone who has started to read a contract or medical report in Spanish, even after studying Spanish, often found it challenging to understand the text in its entirety. Imagine now that it was not your native language and that you had to translate it. In short, a quality translation is not done by anyone who knows languages: you have to have a high level of language, know the subject and know-how, and where to document.

If you are concerned about the quality of your translations, you must ensure that your company's internal resources have training or/and translation experience. If you do not have internal resources, do not hesitate to hire professional translation services, whether they are translation agencies or freelance translators.

2. Provide Context And Reference Material If There Is:

It is not unusual for a client to send a phrase to translate. However, words can have very different meanings depending on the context in which they are found, and it is a healthy habit to explain where a phrase or document that we are going to translate will be used. Sometimes it is obvious and not necessary, but other times we see them as distinct because they are our usual context, but this does not have to be for the translator.

A typical case in which translators work "half-blindly" is in the translation of databases or Excel files that contain the content extracted from a product catalog or the interface of a computer program. In these cases, it applies that "a picture is worth a thousand words." The possibility of having the product image or the software screen that we are translating avoids many potential errors due to lack of context.

Note if there is already material translated with crucial terminology of the company, you have to provide the translator with these documents. 

3. Get The Original Materials In Editable Format:

Translation Services Company often receives the request to translate a PDF. The problem with PDF documents is that they are not intended to be modified. If there is a PDF, there is an original document that was created, and it would be advisable to make it available to your translation department or your translation services agency or translators. The opposite means more work for the translators and, in case you need a document completely formatted as the original, more work or budget for you.

This problem is even more significant if the PDF has non-editable text, such as documents scanned or converted to vector graphics. Modern professional translation implies the use of translation assistance tools or TAO (computer-assisted translation) tools that facilitate the work of translators by arranging the text in a two-column format. In this way, the translator has the source text in one column and writes the translation in another column. These programs are creating a database with the translations that the translator is doing, which allows you to search for any term that has already been translated into the database. In addition, these programs will enable you to detect repetitions or similar text, which speeds up the work and allows translation companies to offer discounts based on this technology.

4. Take Advantage Of Your Company's Specialists Or Distributors:

No one knows more about your company's products as your company. So it is essential that, if your company has subsidiaries abroad or distributors that you collaborate with or can convince to collaborate, you involve them in the translation process to get to use the most appropriate terminology for your company. This implies more time for everyone, but it is a process that will give a quality leap to your translations, also allowing you to have feedback on the quality you are receiving from the translation department, or from the outsourcing company or freelance translator that you have hired.

In this case, be proactive in getting feedback from customers who buy your product regarding the quality of the translations, and that indicates if they do not agree with some of the terms used. For example, WPML (initials of Word Press MutiLingual), one of the most popular plug-ins for managing multilingual websites, offers a module to request feedback from users of a site on the quality of translation (in English ).

5. Provide All Relevant Information About Your Target Market:
   
   

Many times there may be characteristics of the public that your company wants to target that can influence the translation of your documents. In English, there is no clear distinction, while languages ​​such as German or French keep formal conduct when Spanish would not. Offering this type of information to the translator, you can opt for a more informal practice when translating into Spanish.

Another example that also involves Spanish is the case that we do a translation for Latin America. Although the translation companies offer Latin American Spanish, the truth is that Latin American Spanish only exists in the minds of buyers who want to solve their communication needs with Latin America with a single translation. It is the desire to meet the demands of our customers. 

Following these five basic recommendations, we can avoid many translation errors and speed up the workflow that involves translation, with the benefits in costs, time, and peace of mind.

At RN Translations, we have a team of professional native translators and highly qualified conference interpreters of multiple nationalities for different specialties. We are committed to the highest quality translations, speed, and punctuality. And all this at a reasonable price.