Translation Services Toronto:
3 Reasons Why A Certified Translator is the Solution You Need for Accurate Multilingual Document Proofreading
Let’s be honest, the title of “translator” is an overused one. After all, anyone who knows a second or third language can give themselves that title and start handing out services.
Unfortunately, this means that the quality of those services may not be what you expected or wanted.
If you have a business, corporation, or firm—you deal with numerous important documents. Such documents can include, but are not limited to:
- Compliance documentation
- Policies
- By-laws
- Contracts
- Employee handbooks
- Court documents
- Financial records
- so much more…
Let’s say these documents have already been translated by someone in your company or by a non-certified translator. This doesn’t necessarily mean the overall translation is bad, but you want to be 100% sure that the translation is accurate and there are no costly errors.
So, where can you get your multilingual documents proofread online?
The short answer: certified translators.
Let’s dive a little deeper into why.
Translation Services Toronto: Certified Translators Proofread Multilingual Documents with Expertise & Experience
Translators who get certified have to go through an arduous and long certification process, which means you can be assured that they know what they are doing and that your multilingual documents are in the hands of someone who has likely seen thousands of them.
There is also a high level of accountability among certified translators because if they are reported for poor work, they may lose the certification they worked so hard for. It’s harder to hold regular translators to that same level of accountability, since they realistically don’t have much to lose, aside from an unhappy client and perhaps a bad Google review.
A certified translator familiar with proofreading multilingual documents will have the right experience to expertly handle your documents and pinpoint where there are errors in translation, context, tone, and so much more.
As I often mention, translation isn’t simply about taking one word from a language and transcribing it into another. Hiring a non-certified translator or giving the task to a multilingual employee might cut some costs, but you don’t want that to be at the price of translation errors that could have been easily prevented by having an online certified translator proofread your multilingual documents.
Speaking of errors, let’s talk more about it—because it’s important.
Translation Services Toronto: Certified Translators Prevent Cultural and Linguistic Errors
Careful consideration has to go into making sure that the language your document has been translated to still upholds the context and meaning of the original document. It’s very easy for the true meaning of a sentence or an overall document to get lost in the process of translation – thankfully, a certified professional would be able to rectify this when proofreading multilingual documents because they see a document or a sentence as a whole.
For instance, certain sentences can have an entirely different meaning even if they contain the same word, such as “left”; such as: “I left for the store”, “I turned left here, or “I left my phone behind”. Mistaking one for another is common for inexperienced translators, but these kinds of blunders on an international level are more than just humiliating.
For example, in 2009, the HSBC Bank faced the consequences of such a mistake. Their original tagline used to be, “Assume Nothing”, however, when it went through translations to other languages, it became “Do Nothing”.
An error such as this would not have occurred if the multilingual documents had been proofread by a certified professional who had experience with linguistics, who then would have informed the bank that such a tagline can’t be accurately translated without losing context.
As a result of this unfortunate mistake, the bank had to spend $10 million on a rebranding campaign, but even so, it didn’t change the outcome of the bank losing profits, consumer trust and its reputation.
Language can also be complex when it comes to regions: sensitivity and respecting culture must be taken into account. For example, the German language isn’t just spoken in Germany – it’s also spoken in Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, and Luxembourg. The way the Swiss speak German is not how German is spoken in Germany.
There are regional dialects to take into account, different vocabularies, meanings to certain words, different spellings, and various sentence structures; linguistics can get complicated and unless someone is experienced enough to know this, there will be errors on top of errors in multilingual documents that fail to be proofread by a certified translator.
Certain imagery, metaphors, or mission statements can fail to carry influence, impact, and depth originally intended. These are issues that someone who is experienced will notice when they proofread. Certified translators would be able to catch errors like these and adjust the documents as necessary.
This is something worth investing in, as these kinds of errors can be fatal to public image, sales, reputation, and the overall survival of the business or firm.
For example, Mead Johnson Nutritionals had to recall 4.6 million bottles of baby formula due to a poor Spanish translation of the preparation instructions. Altered steps to preparing the baby formula can lead to severe health risks, such as – seizures, irregular heartbeats and even death if the infant consumes enough of the formula. The English instructions were correct.
However, someone hadn’t been careful enough when doing the Spanish translation – this led to a huge recall and negatively impacted Mead Johnson Nutritionals, leading to customer dissatisfaction and loss of trust in the brand. The consequences could have been far more severe.
These errors are easily avoidable, as long as you have someone who has the appropriate experience and qualifications to proofread your multilingual documents, or translate them correctly from the get go.
Certified translators are the answer.
Translation Services Toronto: Certified Translators Utilize Resources & Tools
Certified translators have even more than their qualifications and expertise to help them when it comes to either translating multilingual documents or proofreading them. They have the tools that a regular translator often doesn’t have or use.
This includes AI and CAT tools, also known as computer assisted translation.
A certified translator will know exactly how to use these tools at their disposal, paired with their personal knowledge and in-depth understanding of language to proofread your multilingual documents expertly with precision, and accuracy in order to ensure there is consistency throughout your document.
Noticeable mistakes can be caught by certified translators during the process of proofreading, not only because they have the eye for it, but also through using AI tools that guarantee a higher quality of work.
These tools significantly reduce turn-around times and errors in a work that the human eye can miss, and ensure consistency throughout the texts when proofreading. Translators who work with these kinds of tools are much faster, much more efficient and can guarantee that the text will be devoid of errors, while still upholding the values of the original context.
Certified translators are also more productive as a result, leading them to be able to translate or proofread more documents than someone who is non-certified and guarantee consistency and precision throughout the entirety of the document.
Translation Services Toronto: Looking to find a certified traanslator to proofread your multilingual documents online? Look no further.
It’s often really tempting to cut costs and rely on the translator who translated your documents to proofread them, or to ask a friend who speaks the language to take a quick look.
If you’re thinking of expansion, getting international clients, making sales globally, or simply keeping a good business image, you have to take into consideration that your multilingual documents definitely should be looked over by someone who has the experience to see the mistakes that the people outside your business definitely will.
A study was done to prove that although getting regular translators to translate was initially cheaper, the mistakes that were found in their work significantly increased costs when it came to having to fix those errors, which were typically related to poor wording and context.
Due to the inconsistent accuracy in the translation done by non-certified translators, more time and money was lost, and their work in the end had to be looked over or redone by certified professionals.
Words and phrases were omitted or altered; for example, a non-certified translator wrote “very sick” rather than respecting the original context, which was “I had diabetes and osteoporosis”. Saying “very sick” doesn’t accurately sum up the meaning of the original text in the slightest.
These are the kinds of mistakes a business or a firm might face if they choose to hire non-certified translators for their multilingual documents and then make the mistake of not having them proofread by a certified translator.
To make an investment for your future now is far more profitable than choosing to cut costs and potentially losing millions or, worse, facing liabilities.
It’s easier than you might think to make mistakes when it comes to translation, especially if you don’t have the right team on hand vouching for the translation or a certified translator to proofread. Translation errors have led to controversy, liability, loss of sales and much more. Multilingual documents should be in the hands of experienced certified translators to guarantee you the highest quality of work.
If you’re interested to having a certified translator proofread your multilingual documents, check out my services or contact me directly here.