Selecting the Best Professional Translators
The key to ensuring the highest quality result for your translation project is to have access to the most qualified, professional translators in the business.
To ensure the best results, it is not enough that your language provider has a great number of translators in their network from which to draw. The provider must also apply the highest standards in the selection of their translators in the first place.
What are the standards that your provider applies in the selection of translators for their clients’ projects?
When talking with your language provider, ask about the background, expertise and experience of the translators that will work on your projects. Are they professionals that work on projects full time? Or, do they only work on projects part-time for extra income? You need someone who is committed to the field.
It takes years to develop the skills to be a qualified translator. In most cases, at least 10 years of experience are necessary to ensure the best result. Is your provider clear about the level of experience of their translators?
Translators should be native speakers in the target language (the language you are translating to). They should have been raised and educated in the target language. Your translator must have a college degree from his/her native country.
A translator needs to have a deep understanding of English. For this, residence in the United States for at least 5 years and an advanced degree from an American institution is optimal.
Finally, what expertise does the translator offer? For specialized projects, they must be trained and/or experienced in the relevant field for the project. For highly technical work, for example, do they have an engineering degree and experience translating technical information?
These are the major considerations when selecting the right translator for your project:
- They are professional…they do not do translation as a hobby or second job.
- They have at least 10 years of experience.
- They are native speakers of the target language. They grow up with the language.
- They have college degrees from the target language country.
- They have lived in the U.S. for at least 5 years (for English capability).
- Their fields of expertise (legal, medical, financial, etc.) are matched to the job.
The application of these high standards for selection of your provider’s team of translators will ensure that the end result meets the expectations of you and your management team.