by Tayfun Yazıcı
"Not everyone who speaks more than one language can become a translator without a strong education or experience" says the owner of translabe.com from his experience in the field for more than 10 years. Choosing the right translation service is one thing and choosing the best one is the another. Because the secret behind it is a multidimensional one as more than one factor determine the quality of translation and the translation company that we are looking for. Let's look out what criteria can pave the way for a great translation agency.
Even language pairs can tell us somethings about the translation or proofreading quality of a company. because if a company has lots of language pairs ready to provide services that means most of the time that the translation company has at least a translator network you can choose from. This is important especially for your multilingual projects as it is really difficult to manage the translation process of let's say 10 different languages with freelance translators on your own.
Language pair prices are another important factor in order to understand the general quality of the translation. So, it is best to find a balance between the cheap and expensive services by comparing the translation websites' prices.
The number of translators of a translation company can help if we are looking different translators to work on just one project or if we have a huge translation project that needs to be completed by a team. And a different aspect is that not every translator can translate any type of document. A cryptocurrency related article, for example, should be translated by a translator who is competent in that field. That is why we can infer from the number of translators whether that company has translators in different fields such as education finance tourism etc.
One of the easiest ways to understand what kind of translators will be dealing with our texts is to find the relevant information on the company's website about the process that translators go through. The ideal process should be at least a three-step one. The translator should take a quiz on the language pairs that he or she provide services and that quiz should be in the field that translator is competent in.
Some translation agencies provide notary certified translation, apostille, translation delivery to address, DTP services etc. Those kinds of additional services should be checked in advance especially if you are using an international translation agency as they may not have in-house sworn translators who can provide, for instance, apostille services.
Privacy matters! Your files shouldn't be seen by different employees in the company until you complete the order process. That is possible with automation tools now. Some have instant quote systems that count the number of words in the documents and set the translation price by getting the language pair price data from database. That way, the only person who is going to see your documents is the translator/proofreader/editor.
Customer support is also one another thing that shouldn't be disregarded. A live chat, for example, can be a good sign. You may want to get quick answers. So, please go over everything with a fine-tooth comb in order to have your money's worth, at least.
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