| Translation agencies can be useful
‘one-stop-shops’ for multilingual
projects, for which a number of freelance translators
would need to be used. If you need a document
translated into several languages, an agency is
likely to be your easiest solution.
But when a single-language translation is required,
the non-agency translation service that Into
English provides offers significant
benefits.
How translation agencies operate
Most agencies are operated by a handful of individuals,
who are generally not linguists. Their role is
to act as middleman between the client and translator.
To maximise their appeal, most translation agencies
claim to cover all languages and all subject areas.
Since it would be impossible to do this without
employing thousands of in-house staff, they normally
use external freelance translators.
Consequences
The problem with this approach is that, since
the language resources are ‘outside’
the agency, it is usually impossible for the agency
to ensure that the translations it provides are
accurate. It may be impossible for the agency
even to vet the translators it uses. Quality control
then becomes non-existent.
You can imagine how, with this approach, your
important documents could easily end up full of
errors or even impossible to understand. Worse
still, consider how a seriously flawed translation
could affect your corporate image or legal liability.
Freelance benefits
Using a professional freelance translator
like me can offer several benefits over the typical
agency approach:
- Quality: You can be confident that you are
dealing with an accredited professional
translator. My membership of the Institute
of Translators and Interpreters (ITI), the UK’s
premier professional association of translators,
is proof of my professional competence.
- Cost: The agency fee will include a significant
charge for finding a translator – why
pay these unnecessary agency charges?
- Good English: As I’m a mother
tongue English speaker, you can be
sure that your translation will read elegantly
and be written in good English.
- Specialisation: As I specialise in commercial
and technical translation (not literary
translation), translate from only a select number
of languages and work only into English,
my translation service to you will be highly
focused.
- Communication: Using an agency can be very
frustrating: the staff often do not understand
the language or the nature of the foreign-language
text. Avoid such miscommunication by dealing
with your translator direct!
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