One Hour Translation Blog

Translation service agencies conducting professional translation by themselves (human translation) or with the help of computer software (machine translation) are currently in demand by a multitude of industries ranging from multinational corporations to diplomatic envoys. Even small businesses and individual enterprises are now getting into the act of hiring translators to promote their wares thanks to the global interconnectivity that the Internet presently provides.

Because of this rise in interconnection, more and more people are clamoring for the services of a professional translation company. However, finding the best translation service can be an intimidating task, especially for budget-conscious small businesses. If you are among these companies, then you must find out first if your prospective translation firm is capable of doing the job well or if it’s worth the money. At any rate, here are the relevant questions you need to ask yourself when looking for the right human translation agencies.

Where can you find a translation firm?

Translation firms don’t exactly grow on trees, but you can easily find them if you know where to look. You can either start by browsing through the Internet or perusing your local directory such as the Yellow Pages. With the latter approach, you need to thumb through each and every entry until you’ve procured a satisfactory number of potential local translation agencies. You also have the third option of asking your officemates, comrades, friends, family, and colleagues for recommendations.

As for the Internet option, a simple look-through in search engines like Yahoo or Google should bring you quite a menagerie of options to choose from. For instance, feel tree to search for “translation firm California” or “translation agency San Francisco” if you live in those areas. Also, if you want to get in contact with a translation agency in the area of, say, New York that specializes in translating Chinese, then type “Chinese translation company New York” to get the exact results that you want.

How do you get a price quote from a translation firm?

After you’ve gotten your list of professional translation leads, it’s now time to contact them in order to properly canvass which one offers the best value for service (in other words, “more bang for your buck”) by collecting the information required to get a proper quote.

Keep in mind though that many translation companies would rather see the source document first before giving you any price estimates. As such, it’s probably best to convert your text into a PDF file, a Microsoft Word document, or a scanned copy first for the sake of your prospective agency’s perusal.

What’s more, the translation firm you’re interviewing will probably want to know what format the translation will be delivered in, when you will need your translation, the source format, the length of the document measured by the number of source words, and language combination. These are the details they need in order to give you a concrete quote.

What questions do you need to ask the translation agency?

Once you’ve narrowed down the translation firm you want to do business with, ask them the following important questions:

• What is your charge per 1,000 words?

• Can you do a trial translation? (this is best asked for particularly large jobs, but do remember that these aren’t always free of charge)

• Do you charge per target or source word?

• What format do you send your translation in? (e.g., printed out, PDF file, or Microsoft Word document)

• What are the qualifications of your translation team?

• Do you want the payment for the work in advance or only after you’ve finished it?

• Do you allow your staff to work into their native language or not?

• Do your translators have experience on the subject matter? (that is, if your text is a specialized or specific document like a legal contract or a technical manual)

• Does your work get proofread or do you only offer raw, uncorrected translations?

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