Thoughts on quality...

What is the quality required in translation?

An informal document does not necessarily need to reach the same standard of quality as a training manual or a contract, and this is an aspect that thought must be given to before beginning on the translation project. However, there is one field in which quality is essential – that of your external communication and the foreign documents on which your own work is based.

As for everything else, quality and price go together. A “low cost” translation can be tempting but what does it hide? How can you be sure that the translated document measures up to what is at stake? Where is the economy made if, to finish with, the corporate image is permanently damaged by a very rough and ready, clearly unprofessional translation? How much does the prejudice undergone add up to?

Translating is a real job requiring years of specialization and needing constant upgrading. It takes skill. When you have to be operated on, you go and see a surgeon, not a medical student because he is cheaper and can gain experience. Translation follows the same logic.  

In order to be convincing right from the word go and build up a picture of seriousness abroad, it is better to give one’s communication to a specialized, experienced translator who will know how to render your message while respecting all the different shades of meaning and without people being able to guess that it is a translation.    

To understand this better, read the little SFT translation purchasing guide.