Professional translations: advantages and how to request them online

Professional translation can be an excellent growth driver for companies that need to communicate abroad in a language other than their own through important documents such as financial statements, contracts and scientific articles.

Sometimes companies are unaware of how these advantages outweigh the cost, especially when comparing professional translations to those produced by amateurs or even Google Translate.

However, the immediate savings of these cheaper options are certainly not comparable to the advantages of investing in a professional translation, particularly when the documents for translation contain strategically important information.

So let’s take a look at the benefits offered by professional translations and how you can request them online.

Advantages

There are essentially three advantages to investing in professional translation.

The first and most important is definitely quality of results.

People who produce these translations are professionals, i.e. experienced translators with:

• proficiency in their working languages,
• knowledge of the cultures involved,
• training and experience in the translation industry,
• specialization in one or more vertical sectors (e.g., financial, legal, leisure, etc.).

These factors are what distinguishes a professional translation from an amateur attempt.

Non-professional translators who lack sufficient linguistic sensitivity may choose terminology or phrases that are inappropriate or unsuitable for the specific type of document.

The same applies to raw machine translation, i.e. generated by translation engines without any revision or fine-tuning by a professional translator. Even machine translation that sounds good can be full of oversights and mistranslations.

Another advantage that a company can gain by opting for professional translations is saving the time and effort of double-checking the translated text for errors.

The process of excellent translation involves professionals tasked with revising and checking the text.

At professional translation agencies, proofreaders are responsible for assessing the correctness of translations, in both form and content.

Additionally, the entire process is overseen by Project Managers who perform additional pre-delivery quality control on the translation, checking samples and the completeness of the text.

Finally, when you decide to invest in professional translation, you can be sure you’ll receive a document that respects the culture of the specific recipient.

Anyone in this line of work is well aware that words are not just terms, but conveyors of culture, so when transferring them from one language to another, attention must be paid to how they will be perceived by the recipient.

Some words or expressions may be offensive when translated literally, which can have major financial and reputational consequences.

Professional translators are familiar with these risks and know how to address them. All professional translators have deep knowledge of the cultures associated with their working languages. Only those with this skill and sensitivity can identify the most suitable and faithful linguistic expression to use in the translation, avoiding diplomatic incidents.

This is why professional translations provide benefits that far outweigh the apparent cost savings offered by other solutions.

How to request them online

Professional translations can also be requested online.

Nowadays, all agencies have a website and an e-commerce section with a comprehensive catalogue describing all the language services they offer and listing their specialization areas.

Once you have familiarized yourself with the company through a quick browse of its website and checked that the agency specializes in translating the type of document you are interested in, simply confirm your order with one of the options on the e-commerce page or fill in the Contacts form.

On the Contacts page, you can find all the agency’s contact details, such as telephone number and e-mail, as well as an online form where you can fill in the details of your request.

As a general rule, the minimum information any agency needs when preparing a quote for a professional translation is:

• the number of words,
• the language combination (source and target language),
• the type and purpose of the document.

This last piece of information is crucial for assessing whether the order requires services in addition to translation.

When it comes to legal documents, for example, the translation may require further services such as certification, legalization or apostilles to make it valid in the target country.

Once the request has been sent through the e-commerce or Contacts form, the customer receives a reply from one of the agency’s operations managers, who, in addition to providing a detailed explanation of the quote, may ask further questions to offer the service that best meets the customer’s needs.

At Way2Global, we provide professional translations in various vertical sectors: financial, which has always been our core business, as well as medical/scientific, technical, multimedia, legal and leisure.

We do so through our teams of professionals — translators, proofreaders and project managers — plus the added assurance of our three ISO certifications.

If you need professional translations, you can also contact us online.