WHY YOU NEED A PROFESSIONAL TRANSLATOR

At a time of increased global connection and on-demand solutions, it is vital to recognise the importance of ‘proper’ translation. While machine translation can have its place in the process, it is no substitute for human translators. Professional translation not only saves you time and money, it also boosts business and can even improve your own writing.

In this article:

• The role of translation in your business

• How translation quality can impact your business

• What to expect from your translator

• When to use a specialised translator

• What else a translator can do for you

IT'S JUST GOOD BUSINESS

In the same way that you would seek out a professional lawyer or accountant, a translator should be thought of as an expert service for your business. Translating your website or marketing material into the local language of your target markets can not only increase customer reach, it also enhances your brand image. While a basic machine translation fulfils the brief of having a multilingual website, a professional translator will choose the right tone and register to help portray your business as a quality brand in your target market. After all, why spend all that time and money crafting the perfect brand voice only for it to get lost in translation?

DON'T RISK YOUR REPUTATION

“A bad translation is better than no translation.” True, except if you want to portray yourself as a quality brand. Especially if your business operates in a crowded market, mistranslations can lead to loss of customer trust, which drives them straight into the arms of your competitors. Mistranslations in product descriptions can have serious consequences beyond just returned products and bad customer reviews—they could lead to compliance issues, cancelled contracts and a negative brand reputation. And in some sectors, such as medical and manufacturing, mistranslations can even be fatal.

A CHEAP TRANSLATION MAY COST MORE THAN YOU THINK

As they say, “If you buy cheap, you buy twice,” and translation is no exception. Amidst the recent boom in machine translation, there are many stories of clients paying for a machine translation only to then have to pay for a human to retranslate it later (not to mention the potential lost business from the bad translation). Plus, mistranslations and hard-to-follow operating instructions and user guides mean customers are more likely to seek out customer service, which also adds to your operational costs. But there are ways to reduce the cost of human translation, such as prioritising the content you need translated right now (e.g. certain pages of your website) and having less vital content translated later.

KEEP IT SECRET, KEEP IT SAFE

Most large language models (LLMs) are trained using the data you input, so if your text is for commercial use or contains sensitive information such as personal data or business secrets, the best way to ensure confidentiality is to use a human translator. Professional translators are subject to data protection regulations, so will keep your data secure during translation. NDAs are also the norm in the translation industry, so most translators will be used to signing them as part of the onboarding process for a new client or for individual projects.

THE HUMAN TOUCH

While we have seen huge improvements in the quality of output from machine translation engines in recent years, they should still be thought of as tools that aid the translation process rather than take it over completely. The degree of human involvement required will vary for each text, factoring in things such as the subject area, target audience and intended purpose of the text, but in some cases, editing a machine translation may actually result in a slower and lower-quality translation. A translator who is experienced in machine translation post-editing (MTPE) will be able to advise on whether your text is suitable, but generally the more specialised the text, the more human involvement needed.

And never underestimate a translator’s research skills—they will meticulously research key terms and concepts to find the exact right word for your audience.

CULTURAL AWARENESS

Translators are not just experts in language, they are also experts in culture, so they can find a suitable equivalent to make sure that your perfectly crafted cultural reference has the same effect on its new audience. Direct translations not only impact the fluency of the text, they can also affect SEO and make it harder for potential customers to find you. A professional translator will carefully research terms to put your message into words your customers are actually using. Some may even offer SEO keyword research as part of the translation package.

IMPROVE YOUR WRITING

Because of the nature of the translation process, the translator will be closely scrutinising the original text as they go and can even spot typos and ambiguities you may have missed. We all know that things slip through the cracks in writing, from misspellings of names to a missing decimal point or an extra zero, and while a machine translation engine would simply copy the errors across to the translated text, a human translator will flag and correct them.

BEYOND WORDS

Many translators also offer additional services such as DTP, typesetting and SEO keyword research, so you can outsource the entire creation process and get back a foreign-language version of your text that is ready for publication. They may even offer additional linguistic services such as subtitling, transcription or copywriting to save you the effort of finding multiple vendors for all your services.

UNDERCOVER EXPERTS

Most translators will have a niche, which they may have developed through higher education, training or just from career experience. This could be a certain content type, such as marketing translation, or a specific industry, such as healthcare or finance. This means that they will be familiar with your sector and will approach your text from an informed perspective, producing a clear, well-written text that speaks to its audience in their language. It can also speed up translation, since they will already be familiar with the subject area and terminology and will not need to spend as much time on research.

In certain areas such as medical, legal and patent translation, it is vital that the translator not only has a strong command of the source language, but also has sufficient subject-area knowledge to understand what they are translating and convey the meaning as well as the words.

TAKE THINGS SLOW

In response to the growing trend towards machine translation solutions, the ITI (Institute of Translation and Interpreting) has published its Slow Translation Manifesto, which highlights the value of humans in the translation process and encourages translation buyers to prioritise quality and artistry. It describes the core principles of this approach: celebrating linguistic diversity, prioritising artistry over automation, advocating for quality, upholding high ethical standards and demonstrating cross-cultural competence.

You can read the ITI’s slow translation manifesto in full here.

QUICK TIPS

• Not every text is suitable for machine translation, so it is recommended to involve a human (preferably a native speaker) in the process—at the very least at the editing stage.

  • My translation consulting services include source text analysis to advise on whether your text is suitable for machine translation to help you make the choice.

• If you already have translated content, it may be enough to have it edited by a translator—but bear in mind that this will be at their discretion and they may prefer to translate from scratch.

• Any text that contains confidential information or personal data should never be inputted into a machine translation engine. To ensure that sensitive texts remain confidential, use a human translator and have them sign an NDA.

• If you have a highly specialised text, use a translator who specialises in that area to make sure your foreign-language text is as accurate and informed as the original.

• Check with your translator whether they offer any additional services that could help you save time, such as DTP, typesetting and SEO.

Inspired to hire a professional translator? Get in touch to see how I can help you or explore my website to find out more about my services.