Translation Service - How to Choose the Right Provider
Translation Services - As the world becomes considerably more
globalised, the need for communicating across languages becomes ever
more important. However, with many businesses failing to understand how
translation works and what makes a good translation, many problems can
arise. Furthermore, with the emergence of many scrupulous service
providers, it is becoming increasingly difficult to know who you can
trust with your multi-lingual communication. What every business needs
to know is what questions to ask potential service providers to ensure
that they are going into business with the right provider. Below are
three questions that you should ask potential service providers:
1. Where are your translators based? - Many providers claim that they
can offer you the cheapest price for translation services. But have you
stopped to think why? These providers offer you such cheap rates because
they are outsourcing this work to unqualified people who live in
countries where labour is cheap. As they say, you get what you pay for.
These translators are almost always unqualified and inexperienced which
leads to poor quality work that doesn't truly reflect the original text.
If you require text to be translated into Italian, the translator
should be a native speaker. They should either be based in Italy and
have relevant experience or be based in Australia and have Italian as
their native language. This will help to ensure that the text reads well
in the target language.
2. What experience do your translators have? - In Australia the
accrediting body is NAATI (The National Accreditation Authority for
Translators and Interpreters). To be accredited in Australia you need to
demonstrate proficiency in the language pair that you are working with.
Furthermore, translators must pass an exam and are only accredited to a
level that they have passed an exam for. Good service providers in
Australia work with NAATI accredited individuals. Also, if the field in
which you need a translation is specialised (eg, Legal translation or
Medical translation) it is generally recommended that your translator
have experience in that field as technical terms can be difficult to
translate.
3. How do you ensure quality in your translation? - A good translation
service provider should have a quality assurance process in place that
is designed to pick up any human error in the translation process. A
common method of quality assurance is to have a NAATI accredited
translator to perform the initial translation. Then, the translation
should be passed on to a second independent translator who has relevant
experience in the field of translation. They should check for errors and
any issues and then provide feedback to the initial translator. The two
translators should then come to an agreement on any areas of issue
before providing the translation back to the client.