Imagine that you have a very important text that you must present in English. A slideshow proposing a new campaign to an important client. A pitch to make to a potential client. A project description to solicit support from the state/an organization or a letter asking potential sponsors to fund a project. You are not a native English speaker. What do you do?
(a) hire a professional who’s a native English speaker
(b) hire a professional who’s not a native English speaker
(c) ask a friend who’s a native English speaker
(d) ask someone with a higher level of English than you
(e) you feel like you know English well enough that you could use an online translation tool and make any necessary adjustments and corrections yourself afterward
(f) contact a translation agency
(g) use an AI translator
I would hope that the obvious answer is (a). Yet in my experience, I’ve found that people often go for options (b)-(g). In this scenario (based on the many real cases I’ve come across), you don’t have the level to evaluate the text submitted to you. How can you tell that the translation you’ve received is top notch? To you it may appear sound. To a native speaker, there’s a high probability that it’ll come off as high-level-but-still-nonnative English.
You need to be able to trust the choice you make. Here are some things to consider about the alternatives when, for one reason or another, you opt not to go for a native-speaking professional.
A professional who’s not a native speaker of the target language…
… would be great for the reverse translation but is not the most qualified person for translating into the target language. Anyone who has studied a foreign language knows that you can master comprehension a lot better than production. Study and mastery of a language will equip one to translate from that language but not necessarily to that language.
A friend who’s a native English speaker…
…would be a good choice for something low-stakes, like making a social media post about your product. Otherwise, a native speaker who’s not a professional may not be a good writer or even know how to give good feedback. A professional has had a trained eye on varied texts and contexts that the average person has only observed passively. It takes a pro to pull it all into focus for work.
Someone with a higher level of English than you…
…may have near-fluency in their own field but this knowledge will not transfer to all types of texts. It’s possible to be almost fluent within the confines of one’s subject and still be missing basic vocabulary and expressions.
Doing it yourself with help from a translation tool…
… will get you a text that may not have grammatical errors but may be incomprehensible anyway. People who feel comfortable in the language overestimate their ability to evaluate a text. They don’t realize how much their thoughts are shaped by their native language and how much those expressions don’t work in the target language.
Contacting a translation agency…
… means letting someone else vet your translator for you. I find them too impersonal - faceless and anonymous. They say all the usual reassuring things without revealing anything of themselves. Big businesses usually call big agencies. But what works for a big organization isn’t necessarily the best choice for an individual or a small business. And part of what you’re paying for is the convenience of them getting the translator for you, not the excellence of the translation itself.
As for an AI translator?
There may well come a day when AI can understand exactly what you meant and provide you with a good translation perfectly adapted to the context. But we’re not there yet. Sometimes it gets it just right, sometimes it’s incredibly wrong. For shorter texts, it’s hit or miss. For longer texts, it’s more likely that it’ll get the context right, but it produces a text that sounds like a high-schooler trying to be sophisticated to impress his teacher. And failing at it.
Most of the time, people are unfamiliar with or underestimate the pitfalls of these alternate options. Other times it’s cost that makes people settle rather than seek out the best option. And it’s true, you don’t have to spend money every time you need a translation. But when it’s serious, finding the right professional and budgeting for it must be a priority. When it’s a matter of professionalism, when it’s your company’s image, when it’s going to be displayed in public - whether that’s a physical display or on the internet… then it’s not the time to cut corners.
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