Hiring professional translators is worth the price we pay in return for expertise, accuracy and, well, professionalism. An unprofessional translation can alienate an audience and have detrimental impact on the image and sales of a company. Choosing professional translation services helps maintain consistency and reliability while improving overall translation quality.

A company or client has three options to fulfill his or her translation requirements. The first is to use machine translation such as Google and Babelfish. The next is to hire a bilingual person or employee within his organization. And finally, one can employ a professional and qualified translator.

Each option has advantages and disadvantages. The choice is essentially a dialectic between cost, time and quality of output. Let us analyze each option one by one.

Machine Translation

Machine translations are free, fast, and convenient. However, the output is not necessarily or always desirable. Especially when it comes to idiomatic expressions, technical translations and context-driven interpretation, the machine fails miserably. Although there has been tremendous improvement over the past decades, as more and more translation memory is added to the database of these machines, the subtle differences in meaning are often lost in human translation vs machine translation. Errors are common and there is no quality control mechanism, which impacts translation quality significantly.

Amateur Human Translation

Many organizations attempt to economise by engaging amateur translators instead of qualified translators. Some managers, in the mistaken belief that translation is a simple rendering involving bilingual proficiency, look for bilingual staff and assign the task to them. They overlook the fact that translation is a qualified and specialized profession. Moreover, the managers are also making the mistake of hiring the same translator for translation in both directions. Professional translation should ideally be done by a native speaker of the target language. However, this idea is unknown to amateurs and their managers. The result will most certainly be ineffective, loosely translated texts. This clearly shows why you shouldn’t rely on amateur translation for important business or legal content.

Professional Human Translation

In contrast to amateur translation, professional translators will provide a host of advantages. The advantages of hiring professional translators go far beyond linguistic accuracy—they ensure clarity, tone, and cultural appropriateness in every document.

Professionalism

Firstly, as the name suggests, the translations will be professional! That says a lot! Professionalism naturally means accurate, timely, appropriate, and well-presented translations. This is what is required to create an impression and improve brand value for a corporation. Partnering with professional translation services guarantees this level of reliability and expertise.

Technical Skill

Professional translators are linguists. They are qualified, trained, and experienced in the subtle art and science of writing and interpreting. They are able to understand the nuances of a text in the source language and transfer the spirit and meaning to the target text, beyond a mere literal rendition. A professional translator is sensitive to the intended objective and purpose of the source text, and intended effect of the writer. This reinforces why you shouldn’t rely on amateur translation, as professional expertise ensures the message is preserved correctly.

Technical Knowledge of Linguistics

A professional translator is a trained linguist and his scientific knowledge leads to a systematic approach to the morpho-syntactic correspondence of his writing with the source. His understanding of grammar in both languages ensures the correct choice of tenses, voices, and moods as well as other grammatical devices across languages. Many language pairs have varying degrees of correspondence in the application of tenses, cases, and prepositions, which can often lead to misinterpretation across cultures. A linguist bridges this gap with technical knowledge—enhancing the difference between human translation vs machine translation.

Domain-Specific Terminology

A professional is trained to undertake requisite research into the terminology and registers of the given subject matter in both languages. The word “debit” and “credit,” for example, can differ in meaning depending on context. A professional translator identifies these subtle differences and avoids mistranslations. This is one of the key advantages of hiring professional translators for domain-specific or technical content.

Training in Translation Process

A professional translator is also trained to do due diligence, research, editing, and review before submission. Quality control is embedded in the process of translation. Even before a second check is done by a reviewer, a translator performs self-review to ensure consistency and accuracy—both key outcomes of professional translation services.

Computer Aided Translation Tools

A qualified translator has knowledge of automated tools—not machine translation tools but computer-aided translation (CAT) tools that improve productivity and maintain consistency. These tools play an essential role in ensuring better accuracy and consistency compared to human translation vs machine translation results.

Timely Delivery – Adherence to Deadlines

A professional translator will correctly assess the turnaround time before taking up an assignment and most will adhere to their commitments. Professionalism can be expected from professionals.

It is no surprise then, that hiring a qualified, professional translator has many more advantages than any other mode of translation. It is worth paying for technical skill and expertise, than to suffer the brunt of a bad translation. Ultimately, professional translation services ensure accuracy, efficiency, and lasting trust in every project.