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published on 1 December 2021 | reading time approx. 3 minutes
by Olga Efremova
Any company with foreign partners will sooner or later have to translate diverse documents ranging from invoices and waybills to complex legal and court documents; however, maintaining its own translation department is an expense not every company can afford.
If you have good command of the relevant foreign language you can manage on your own of course in some cases, such as writing an email to a colleague from your foreign parent company, browsing a website, reading an article or quickly going through a document to decide whether you need its translation. Nevertheless, it would be better to involve a suitable translator for translations of more serious documents or large volumes of text. Even if you are proficient in the language, a professional will translate your texts faster and at a higher level of quality, enabling you to focus on tasks more important for you. Here is an overview of different types of translation service providers operating at the market so that you could make an informed decision as to what option will work best in your situation.
Even major companies sometimes do not realize the importance of accurate translations and do not believe the services of a professional translator are a good investment. They might give translation tasks for example to an office manager or a secretary with some command of the required foreign language. It is important to understand in such situations that translation is a complex process requiring certain specific skills in addition to knowledge of foreign words, grammar and industry-specific terms. A good translation requires at least general understanding of the subject matter and in-depth knowledge of the economic, cultural and legal background in the country in question. Even though your office manager can handle day-to-day translations for in-house needs, it would be much better to involve a professional for the translation of more important documents.
Considering the current progressively broader use of machine translation engines, the time is approaching when machine translation will be able to replace human translators in certain situations. Major machine translation engines such as Google, Yandex, Microsoft and PROMT already use neural networks and the quality of machine translations has considerably improved in recent years. Nevertheless, computers are not yet able to fully replace humans, and such translation tools should be used with caution and certain reservations. This translation approach is quite successful for example in a production environment to translate an operation manual for a new piece of equipment with a familiar operating principle or to get an idea of the content presented in a professional article. But you do not want to rely entirely on machine translation to translate a contract, a website or an important business letter unless you are eager to fall victim to some annoying gaffe for which machine translation is known all too well.
Working directly with the translator bypassing an intermediary such as a translation agency or a broker is certainly advantageous for both parties - the customer as well as the translator. These days, there are quite many possibilities to search required service providers: freelance service markets, translation communities and web portals, virtual noticeboards, even word-of-mouth recommendations. Although the market more than abounds with translation service offers, finding a true professional can be tricky - you are exposed to the risk that ‘an experienced translator with a massive portfolio’ might be just a start-up offeror fresh from university. Moreover, you will have to control all organisational aspects such as meeting deadlines, arranging quality assurance measures and handling complaints, agreeing on the remuneration plan and keeping track of the delivered scopes.
If you are not eager to invest your resources into search of a suitable freelance translator, it may be worthwhile to engage a translation agency that can help with translations from practically any language and on any subject, while taking care of all organisational aspects and communication with the translators. The main challenge is to find a reliable agency. A nice-looking website, an impressive list of big clients and well-publicized name do not necessarily stand for adequate quality; vice versa, a little-known agency with a modest website can be very responsible and reliable. It would certainly be useful to thoroughly research all available information about your prospective contractor before you engage a particular translation agency. There are many online discussions in professional communities where translators share their experience of collaboration with diverse agencies and even maintain customer blacklists. If the agency frequently delays payment of translator fees, offers fee rates below average or is in breach of their fee payment obligations, experienced professionals will abstain from collaborating with them – and therefore your translation will most likely end up with a newbie translator.
Large consulting companies typically have their own translation departments to serve their in-house needs as well as the needs of their clients. The main strength of this option is that the translators proactively cooperate with professionals and experts from the company’s other departments rather than work in a self-contained way. Even the most experienced and skilled translators cannot know all the subtleties of the specialist subject matter concerned - so an opportunity to request explanations from the relevant expert in a difficult situation will be a significant factor improving the quality of the deliverable and accelerating the completion of the translation project. The fees charged for such services can be somewhat higher than those charged by a freelancer or a translation agency, but there are situations where the translation quality is crucial: an incorrect translation of financial documents can lead to problems with tax authorities, an error in the translation of a contract can result in major losses, and for example poor translation of an expert opinion can lose your case in court.
Thus, the market of translation services is vast and varied and you can find a service provider in line with any requirements and budget. The main thing is to choose carefully and thoroughly to avoid situations where short-term benefits can lead to additional costs and losses in future..
Ewa Zawadzka
Head of Central Translation Service German-English
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