Testing Translators before They Become Translators

Testing Translators before They Become TranslatorsIt’s always a safe practice to test a new translator. Translation is a business and requires scheduling and timing along with keeping standards high. When is testing an absolute must? When selecting a technical translator for a technical project, we believe it’s an absolute must.

In our experience, many translators would like you to make a decision based on their prior work, but we find the best way is to use their experience along with a short test to evaluate something closer to the project at hand.

When evaluating a test, we don’t just look at whether the translator is correct; we look at the tone, smoothness and how the translation reads. This allows us to understand if the translation will read well and be accurate.

Translation is an art, and to keep our clients coming back, we must also respect that our clients will make their future decisions not just on accuracy but also on how well the translation reads.

If you have any question regarding translation you can contact us here.

Legal Translation vs Certified Legal Translation

Legal Vs. Certified translations

You might wonder what the difference is between a standard legal translation and a certified one. A law firm may be interested in ordering both types of services.

Legal Translation is ordered by law firms when they want to translate into foreign languages documents not meant specifically for use in a court of law, like letters and legal contracts when looking to do business in other countries. We receive a lot of requests from the internal legal departments of companies that are looking to translate documents such as contracts and to understand what legal documents are stating.

Certified legal translation is ordered by law firms for documents that are going to be part of a written submission to the court, submitted to opposing counsel, or used for official purposes. Certified translation comes with a stamp of certification recognized by the court that validates the authenticity of the translation as a true and accurate translation.

Whether you are looking for legal translation or certified legal translation, we are available to help.

The Importance of Translation Memory for Consistency and Cost Savings Advantages

The Importance of Translation Memory for Consistency and Cost Savings AdvantagesTranslation Memory or TM as the translation industry states is defined as a database that stores “segments” which can be sentences, paragraphs, or sentence-like units (headings, titles, or elements in a list) that have previously been translated, in order to aid human translators. (Wikipedia)

How can TM help translators and clients at the same time?

Two clear and straightforward ways are:

  1. Consistency of terminology – Companies translate on a regular basis and have terms that are customized for their business/industry and must be the same no matter what marketing or document you read about the company. TM helps keep words consistent across different documents and also with different translators taking on projects for this client.
  1. Cost Savings Advantages – Content duplication which the TM picks up allows the translator to save time in certain areas of the translation when sentences, and paragraphs are considered duplicates of one another. This helps us keep lower costs and helps companies save on their bottom line.

Using translation memory takes caution. Translators can not simply let the software program spit out terms and sentences. Translators carefully apply duplicate terms into the document and translate documents line by line. The more translation projects take place the more the database of content is added for this particular client. It allows clients to cut costs due to time efficiencies.

There’s a World of Translators, But Who Are They Really?

There’s a World of Translators, But Who Are They Really?There are so many people who are offering their services as translators in today’s global marketplace, but how do you find out which of them are valid and qualified translators? The internet allows everyone and anyone to enter the industry and start translating without any training or experience. It’s up to the buyer to be judge and jury in finding the right and experienced translator.

When you use Technovate Translations, we take the guesswork out of selecting a translator because we do the vetting for you. Here are three factors that we look for when hiring a new translator:

  1. Verifiable experience – Who have they translated for and what types of projects have they completed?
  2. Education – Ensure they have a translation degree or equivalent technical educational background.
  3. Demeanor and personality – Is this person easy to work with? Will they put the final product first and prioritize the client’s preferences and needs?

We have many other criteria, but these are foundational: verifiable experience, education and personality. The last one I find to be extremely important. Ultimately, our business succeeds when our clients are happy. Making the customer happy is our key objective, and if the translator also prioritizes client satisfaction, it makes for a perfect working relationship.

Are you presently looking for translation help? Call or email our team and we can help your translation project go smoothly.