How to choose a translation company
What you should know before choosing a translation agency. QUESTIONS:
1.) Is the translation industry standardized to ensure companies abide by minimum standards? No. There is an ongoing effort to standardize the industry by groups like the ATA (the American Translators Association) and LISA (the Localization Industry Standards Association). However, success is piecemeal. Further, the translation industry is global, and the requirements for a translator in one country may differ greatly from the requirements in another. No organization or translator is required to hold membership in these associations to perform their duties, but adherence to their processes and membership status is considered – as one informant stated - "good for the purpose of pleasing clients." 2.) If a translator is "certified," or holds a "related degree," does that ensure you will receive a good translation? No. For example, there is not necessarily a relationship between a translator's talents and simply holding a membership to the American Translators' Association, though translator accreditation does provide some idea of their commitment as a professional translator. 3.) Then what makes a good translator? It is not a "certification" or "accreditation" alone. Nor is it being bilingual. Rarely, can bilingual individuals express themselves in a given subject equally well in both languages. And many excellent translators may not be, or need not be, fluent speakers (verbal) of the source language (the language of the original text being translated). The key skills of the translator are the ability to understand the source language and the culture of the country where the text originated and render a faithful translation into the target language. 4.) If you are not a language expert, how do you know if you received a good translation? You won't. We have viewed hundreds of translated websites, and we have found that the quality varies from deplorable to very good. Most are low-good to poor since so many are very anglicized and unnatural sounding to an educated speaker. 5.) Does the size of the translation agency matter? Yes. For our purposes, we are going to call "large" any company that is raking in $10 million or more a year. The consistency of translation quality tends to vary quite a bit among these larger companies.  Why? Because they outsource to armies of freelance translators. In many cases, they divide jobs into many smaller parts and distribute them among translators in different places, and then they coordinate the translators by e-mail. The quality of the work produced by these individuals can vary greatly regardless of glossary building for the project, or attempts to flatten the differences through editing. You can often notice changes in style from one translator to another. If a larger company is selected, you may find that you have different project managers and different translators for each project you entrust to them. This leads to impersonalized service and a lack of an intimate understanding of small, albeit important client specific details. The lack of such detail could undermine your business efforts. While services at large agencies may be highly organized and their person on the other end of the line is a cheery MBA, the actual product you are buying, the translation, may not have the same consistency and uniformity of style that can be found at smaller agencies. Do note, however, that some large companies produce good work - it just seems to vary a bit more than what is optimal. 6.) Do slick websites mean I will get a good translation? Absolutely not. It means that the business is investing in its online marketing scheme. It has no relation to the actual translation you will hold in your hand. You have examine to business more closely. 7.) Do phrases like "unsurpassed technical accuracy, unparalleled linguistic clarity, and uncompromising overall quality" carry much weight? No. These are personal guarantees. It is up to the client to investigate further. 8.) Does the use of "native speakers" ensure a good translation? No. "Native speakers" does not ensure good translations. Many are steeped in American culture and produce very anglicized translations, even if they live abroad. The stronghold of English in media, science, and entertainment undermines the lexical and phonological development of other languages. Sociolinguistic studies show that the influence of English is higher among the poor and working classes who are often excluded from demanding and rigorous educations in their own language. More often than not, from these strata come the translators employed by a number of translation agencies because they are less expensive workers. Large translation agencies and small translation agencies are likely to hire from this pool of workers. 9.) So, what does make for a good translation agency? What makes for a good translation agency may be invisible to the client.
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