There are a lot of different translation companies that operate worldwide and choosing the right company is not an easy task. Here are some questions you can ask yourself to simplify the decision process.

1. Do they have a quality management system?

A translator is close to their translations and reads their own text over and over again. That makes it difficult for them to spot mistakes. In order to achieve a high-quality translation, the text needs to be reviewed and revised by a second translator.

At transeuro, at least two translators work on a project, one as the main translator and one as a checker. Depending on the project additional native checks will be conducted. To further increase translation quality annual performance reviews with translators are conducted.

2. Is the company an expert in the field?

Some companies offer all sorts of translation services from marketing translation to legal translation. But depending on the field of translation different skills and knowledge are required. When translating marketing materials it is important to write a text that is engaging in the target language without relying on the original too much. When translating patents or contracts, however, every word must be translated as close as possible to the original. A lot of big translation firms use freelance translators for the actual translation work and only check the finished translation in-house, but some also outsource the checking and proofreading. Make sure whether the company has the competence to choose the best translator for the job and also whether they have the resources to check the translation properly.

At transeuro, we mostly rely on our full-time in-house translators and have a hand-picked group of external contract translators. All translators are experts in their special field. As we have a good understanding of the skill and experience of our translators we can easily choose the translator that is best suited for your project. All revision and proofreading are done in-house by translators with the same track record in the field. This way we can maintain our high quality level.

3. Who are their translators?

In many cases, you don’t know who will actually translate your documents in the end as the company might sub-contract the translation to someone, who might subcontract it again. If the company does not employ in-house translators you should find out how they choose their freelance translators and subcontractors. Do they have a network of translators ready or do they start looking once they received your inquiry? What qualification must a translator have to be part of the network?

At transeuro we mostly rely on our in-house translators. As for the external contract translators, they need to pass a translation test and undergo a personal interview with our managers or directors before they are registered.  A translation by an external translator is always revised by an in-house member. All of our in-house translators are situated in Japan and if you have any questions or issues it is possible the meet the translator in our office or you can have a discussion on the phone. Our translators even participate in the company blog. You can check here or here for their contributions.

4. Do they offer delivery dates that sound too good to be true?

Depending on the field of translation, the languages and the experience of the translator, a professional translator can translate an average of 1,500 to 2,500 words per day. Additional time will be required for prior research, checking and revision of the translation. If a company offers you a delivery date that is much shorter, chances are good you will receive a translation of low quality. Such fast delivery dates can only be achieved by relying on machine translations, having several translators work on one translation or skipping essential parts of the process such as research of technical terms etc.

We, of course, will deliver a translation as fast as possible, but please understand that a certain time is required to produce a high-quality translation. In urgent cases, we can also provide a rough translation that has not been checked and revised if that is acceptable for the client.

5. Do they use machine translation?

Machine translation can give you a first glimpse of what a text is about, but cannot be used for many other purposes without at least some human editing.

Especially in legal and patent translation, it is vital to have a high-quality translation prepared by an experienced professional, as a single word can have a huge legal impact. An incorrect translation could lead to the scope of your patent being smaller over even your patent being rejected for lack of understandability. Machine translation can be used if you want to know what a foreign citation is roughly about, but when it comes to preparing a response to an office action it is vital to have the exact wording.

At transeuro, we rely on human translation and do not employ machine translation. When appropriate we use translation assistance tools like translation memory managers to facilitate the translation process.

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