Tag Archives: translation company

Why It Pays to Use a Professional Translation Company

If you have ever used a machine translation tool and have some idea about the target language, you will soon realize that the text is full of flaws and in some cases sounds absolutely ridiculous.

The problem is that most people who use machine translation tools do not have a clue about the language they are translating into and therefore they are not able to differentiate between a good or a bad translation, but they use it regardless because it is free.

Using a free translation tool from the internet is fine for the odd word, but if you are in business, especially a global one, then it will not only make you look unprofessional, but may well be regarded as an insult by the recipient. They will assume that their company is not valued enough to warrant a professional translation and this could harm your reputation and lose valuable clients.

If you are translating a web site, you will not attract much business if the translation does not make sense. You may even find yourself being talked about on one of the social media sites, like Twitter or Facebook. People will not have confidence in your product or service if it is obvious that you do not speak their language.

Translation is not only about changing words from one language to another. A translation should sound completely natural and include any nuances relevant to the target language. This makes the difference between a natural sounding translation and one which does not flow properly because it has not been done by a human.

A reputable translation company or agency employs translators that live in the country of the target language, or have lived there in the past. Agency translators are not only knowledgeable about the language, but they know about the culture and traditions. They know slang words and colloquialisms.

Technical, medical and legal translations can all have dire consequences if the translation is not 100% correct. The translation needs to be carried out by someone who is an expert in the technical, legal or medical field. Therefore it is imperative to use a professional translation agency, which will provide an experienced translator for both the language and the subject matter.

Running a business in a global market means professionalism is a priority, so do not use someone you know personally, who is not a translator, but who speaks the target language. They will not have the experience and they may not have the required level of vocabulary or grammatical skill needed to translate on a professional basis. Professional translators have an arsenal of tools to help them with their work, like glossaries and technical dictionaries, which a non-professional will not have.

A translation agency will give you a clear quote for the work required and provide you with a professional and accurate translation.

In order to ensure that your translation is carried out without delay, make sure that you provide the translation company with the following information:
• The source and target languages – There might be more than one target language.
• The type of translation – Technical, medical, legal, corporate business.
• The target audience – Who will be reading it?
• Where the translation will be seen – Is it a letter, leaflet, white paper, web or is it for internal use only?
• When you want the translation to be completed – The deadline.

You should also be prepared to answer any questions the translation company asks, because the clearer the instructions, the better the translation will be.

Spending the money to have professional business translations will reap the benefits in the future. Your customers will have more faith in your products and services, and you will gain a reputation as a global business which makes the effort to communicate on a professional level, with its customers, clients and colleagues.

How Centralizing Your Translations can Help Your Business

The process of centralizing translations involves the localization of large amounts of content to one part of the company. Once you have put all your content in one section of the business, you will find that it is far easier to manage the content and translate it as per requirements. The purpose of changing the language is so that you can allow people from other parts of the world to access your online content easily. Translation companies have to focus on many different projects simultaneously so that this can be achieved.

When you are presenting something on a website, especially when you are trying to market goods and services this way, you will find that you have to allow the end reader to be comfortable. These readers will be your consumers in case your content is business oriented. Also, for the purpose of giving instructions on how to use a certain product, instructions in different languages save many service and other issues relating to ease of use. This in turn guarantees customer satisfaction and repurchase.

Importance of Choosing a Suitable LSP

Language Service Providers, or LSPs in short, refer to those organizations that help provide the translation and localization services. Some of these LSPs however have a drawback that they cannot process large volumes of data at once. Instead, they specialize in single projects. This means that a company will have to tie up with many different LSPs at the same time in order to process all the information that is to be translated and later put on the Internet.

Companies therefore must be careful while they choose the right LSP. If there are such LSPs which manage bulk data then they are the best kind to go for, provided quality standards are maintained. Otherwise, you will have to manage many different and simultaneous tie ups. While this may be slightly difficult, it is necessary.

How does Centralization Work?

Centralization is a process in which you are localizing every project or body of the organization to one single managerial unit. This helps because individual teams get caught up in the work that they are assigned and do not focus on accumulation and delivery of any other project. A business can only run if every single unit is fully functional and is managing to meet all client deadlines.

Putting up content on the Internet can become a messy task because of the large amount of information that has to reach different destinations. This is especially true in the case of translation companies because their main area of expertise is handling data and processing it so that it is of good quality in the eyes of the end reader.

Advantages of Centralizing Your Translations

The reason that most companies prefer centralization when compared to multiple LSP units is because the process saves about fifteen percent of the overall payments that have to be made otherwise. It is quite an efficient system because it uses just a single LSP in the form of a multi-language vendor, or MLV, so that all the localization and translation that the translation company does is done on one platform with different units.

Not only does the process of centralization save companies money, they also cut down a lot on the time taken for the completion of related projects. They manage to do this by simplifying the procedure developed by LSPs and unify the whole thing. While one LSP is complex enough, the use of multiple LSPs is completely unnecessary now that most translation companies are shifting to centralization. The advantages are numerous, which is the reason behind the success of this structure.

What to Look for in a Translation Company

Magnifying glass Since most websites are available for a global audience, its availability in different languages is very important. You might be surprised to know that people in some of the most developed nations, including China, are not well versed in English. To translate the content on your site, you have to hire the services of a translation company. Naturally, you look for the best translation company that suits your needs and budget requirements. This article will highlight some of the key characteristics that you have to look for in a translation company before hiring it.

Experience of Translators

Translation is a job that needs a lot of practice. There is no other way of mastering a language except using it in a way where you have to pay attention to grammar and other key aspects of the language. Naturally, more experienced the translator more will be his/her command over the language. Before hiring a translation company, ask for the experience of the translators that it has at its disposal. At Terralingua, for instance, all of the linguists are college graduates in Translation or Linguistics or have at least 3 years of experience in their main translation area. Furthermore, the Terralíngua linguists are all native speakers of the target language, ensuring that the translated text has the required natural fluency so that the final text does not sound like a literally translated text. For example, to translate into German, we only use translators whose native language is German and who live in Germany, and thus are culture sensitive to language nuances.

If after analyzing the company you realize that they have a good experience and they can show the relevant proof to back it up, you can go ahead and hire the company.

Quality of Work

If you are well versed with a language, say English, you might be aware of the fact that there are numerous ways of wording a sentence. All of them might be grammatically correct but only some of them will sound right. You would want your translation company also to use only high quality sentences while translating content on your site. There are number of ways you can gauge the quality of work of a translation company. Here are a few of those ways.

Translation Certificates

Reputed companies obtain certifications from certain internationally accredited boards just to show their clients that their translation is of the highest quality. To be certified, the companies need to have translators who have passed a basic level test and also have some minimum experience. If the company you chose has this certification, you can assume that its work will be of good quality.

Reputation

Like in any other field, good translation companies acquire a reputation for themselves over time. This is a result of their consistent delivery of quality work to clients from around the world. At Terralíngua we have 85% of our clients satisfied with our services. We are always concerned to meet our client’s needs and expectations. We are ISO 9001:2008 certified and SAP partners, which lends us worldwide credibility. If the translation company in your radar has a good reputation, you can assume that the services of this company are of good quality.

Other methods of gauging quality include quality assurance, accuracy, confidentiality, free revision services, among others.

Terralingua uses the LISA method to keep up with linguist quality standards. This method is based on the standards accepted by the localization industry. You can have more information about this methodology by accessing our webpage about the LISA quality assurance.