Check for reasonable time schedules

Can you believe that a 10,000 words translation can be done in 24 hours? Yes, but only if you throw quality in the garbage. Good translators, even professional and experienced ones, need time to do a good job. Working in a hurry is the first step for a document filled with mistakes.

Evaluate pricing based on experience and quality

You can find translators charging from one to twenty cents of dollars per source word. Prices vary a lot, as well as quality. We believe in reasonable rates, that depend on the experience of the translator, and the technical difficulty of the job. A translation for a personal or small business website is one thing, while translation of technical manuals and large business texts require much more work. If you find super-cheap translators on the web, be careful.

Prefer inquisitive translators

A good translator is one that always contact the contractor when in doubt. These contacts can prevent many problems in the final document, because even a professional translator may not determine in one contact all he needs to know for the job. This relationship can only be achieved if the contractor is easy to find, though.

Conclusion

Choosing a translator requires some work and search, but this can prevent many future problems. You should hire a translator according to the technical difficulties of the job, and the quality you would expect for your readers. If you want a translation for a small personal page on the Internet you would need fewer requisites from your translator. But if quality is of the most importance to you, following all these seven tips would be really beneficial to you.

Choose a translator with experience on your field

You can have a translator with 20 years of experience do terrible errors of translation in a document of a specific field. If you want a Medical text translated, and the translator has experience in Engineering, how would you expect him to know the translation specifics of technical terms?

Hire native-speakers if possible

A native-speaker is someone that was born or lived several years in a country that speaks the desired language. Although exceptions exist, it is much more common for native-speakers to know terms that are commonly or rarely used by speakers of the language they are translating to. Maybe a term that was common 20 years ago is not even used today or has a very different meaning. Native-translators usually know such things, specially if they currently live in a country that uses that language.

Check for the translator’s experience and academical degrees

Unless you want a poor translation for your document, checking for the translator’s experience is of great importance. Professional translators not only are experts on their work languages, but also have experience in writing and research of terms.

Get a second opinion

If you can afford it, request a proof-reading service by a second translator. This can be extremely valuable, since errors can occur, and more commonly, a second expert can catch minor details that could decrease the quality of the translation. Proof-reading services are usually much cheaper than the translation and complement the work significantly.

This article continues here:  Top tips on choosing a good translator (part 2)