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The six biggest mistakes in getting business
documents translated (and how to avoid them)
by Dennis Brown, Managing Director,
Pacific International Translations (NZ) Ltd.
This report can also be downloaded as a one page PDF file.
I've been involved in the professional translation of business
documents for over 20 years. Our company has the experience
of several hundred skilled translators working in over 80 languages.
If you are considering having documents translated here are
six mistakes to avoid.
Mistake One. Using someone who is not a translator.
Some people assume that anyone who speaks a second language is
automatically capable of translating well and accurately. In
fact, translation requires a rather specialised skill set that
is not so easy to find. Translators must have extremely good
knowledge of both source and target languages. They must also
be skilled writers in the target language, be highly accurate
and have excellent attention to detail. They must also have
broad general knowledge across a range of fields and excellent
reference materials (bilingual & specialist dictionaries,
thesaurus, etc).
Many people lack the writing skills, the language knowledge, or the attention to detail (which is vital). Translation takes training and considerable practice. When choosing a translator look for specific translation qualifications (not just a tertiary foreign language degree) and solid experience.
Mistake Two. Using someone translating into his/her second language.
This is a huge no-no! Good translation requires excellent writing skills, and these are first developed in the education system and then honed with experience. It is extremely rare for someone to become a talented and error-free writer if his/her education wasn't conducted in that language.
Ever felt like tearing your hair out trying to decipher gobbledegook 'English' instructions for some imported appliance or product? That translator sure wasn't a native English speaker! That's what can happen when people translate into their second language.
Mistake three. Using a translator who is out of his/her depth
Translators like everyone else have areas of particular expertise
and other areas where their knowledge is limited. Technical,
engineering, legal, accounting and medical texts in particular
all need to be dealt with by translators experienced in those
fields. To produce an accurate and natural sounding translation
the translator must command the specialist terminology and writing
style of that particular field.
A related problem involves regional language variation. For example, written Chinese varies considerably throughout the Chinese speaking world, and there are even two different writing systems used. You need to ensure the translator won't produce a text that, no matter how thorough he/she may be, is still going to sound a little 'foreign' to the target audience.
Mistake Four. Inadequate checking and editing.
Translating doesn't seem to be a very natural thing for the human
brain to do. It's not an easy task to read a sentence in one
language and readily and easily express that content naturally
and well in another language. That's why good translators view
their first attempt as only a draft translation, to be thoroughly
checked and then polished to create an accurate and natural
sounding translation.
Because of the complex mental processing involved it is not at
all uncommon for words and even phrases to be missed in this
first translation, or for the source text to be misinterpreted.
Thorough checking procedures are therefore vital. Inexperienced
translators will sometimes hand over their first attempt as
a final translation. The result is a stilted translation that
may well also contain omissions and/or errors.
That is why professional translation companies like ours will use a second translator, generally a native speaker of the source language, to provide a safety check of the initial translator's 'final' text.
Mistake Five. Imposing a time frame that is too tight.
People often greatly underestimate the time required to translate
a document. As a guideline, allow 1½ to 2 hours translation
time per 300 word page, more for technically difficult texts.
Then allow time for the second translator check. Translators
are also trained to put their final translation aside for at
least a couple of hours after completion and then re-read it
checking solely for quality of expression. This break allows
the translator to distance him/herself from the source language
and tidy up any awkward wording.
The tighter the time pressure the less time there is for checking, which dramatically increases the chances of omission and/or error and is much more likely to produce a somewhat stilted final text.
Mistake Six. Not using a professional translation service
Professional translation companies like ours offer two key benefits. We are able to select the translator most suited to your particular document, and we have thorough and proven checking and editing systems. This all adds up to greater assurance of quality. In fact, not using a professional service means you are effectively gambling on quality, with potentially embarrassing, not to mention expensive, consequences.
