Pointers on Getting Professional Spanish Translations NYC
Finding the best Spanish Translation services in NYC , Brooklyn, Queens or Staten Island for your Spanish translations needs can be a time consuming and frustrating process if done without experience. Today there exists a plethora of translating services available from agencies, freelancers, directories, methodologies and software. To further complicate the decision the price quotes from one agency may be strikingly different from that of another.
With all this gallimaufry of choices and prices it is very hard to leave the market happy with a decision as you will always wonder if you really got the best deal available.
The goal of this article is to provide the reader with the information he or she may need to easily navigate the translation market and make enlightened decisions concerning the translation services they require. This article will cover several essential points to consider when making a decision and we are sure it will be helpful to you.
What is The Essential Spanish Translator?
The quality of translation is based primarily on the skill level of the translator. Imagine a scenario where we have this friend who is by all measures bilingual; fluent in both Spanish and English. And we have a medical history or patent to translate from English into Spanish. Well this is perfect, right? Our friend is a cost efficient solution; he won’t charge much because he has no specific experience in this field.
This could be a very serious error. Using a friend to translate vital information merely because his services are cheaper is an example of practicing the axiom “penny-wise and pound-foolish.”
Every individual situation in the spectrum of translation services has its particular concerns and required skills. In the case of translating a medical patent or a legal document such as court decision, for example, the services of a translator who has experience in the field of medicine and is well-versed in modern medical terminology are essential. In addition to these specific skills it would also be important to have experience in the particular writing styles relative to medical patents or legal documentation; a skill developed over years of practice.
At Apoling Solutions you can count on translating services from translators carrying PHDs in their respective fields of medicine, chemistry, biotech and biology and extensive experience giving translation services.
Even within the specific fields of Medicine or Life Sciences the services or a translator well experienced in Chemistry would be a better choice than a translator who has more experience in the field of biology, at least in terms of translating a drug patent. It goes without saying that projects of this magnitude should always be handled by a professional.
A good translator should also be a seasoned linguist who has carefully cultivated the art of translations in their respective fields over years of practical experience. It would be very important that such a Spanish translator be able to craft his translations to be understood by an international audience and successfully eliminate any regional colloquialisms or slang from his work.
It may seem unnecessary to be so selective when considering appropriate translation services; a translation is just words swapped to another language, right? Well, maybe if you are getting directions to the train station. But if you want a medical patent translated, there is more to it than that. A medical patent can be read by a lay person but only fully understood by an educated member of the medical or chemical community practiced in reading such documents.
It is important that colleagues in the Spanish speaking field of medicine or a legal field be provided with the highest quality translations from Spanish produced by translators with experience in the field even if it may cost a bit more.
A company’s image depends largely on the communications they send out to their associates and clients. Consider the effects a sloppy translation by an uninformed translator can do, besides looking very unprofessional.
How Dependable are Machine Generated Translations from Spanish?
What about the use of translation software, many clients say it works fairly well? True, software may work fairly well. This could be satisfactory for informal communications or getting a general idea of a topic, but when it come to the specifics of a translation, machines can only operate at 60 – 70 % accuracy. For fine tuned translations you need the human mind to go beyond the words that are used and effectively express the meaning behind them.
So some clients hope to run the text through a translating machine and have the product edited, in order to save some of the cost. The problem with that, many Spanish translation services would refuse this type of work because editing a bad translation can be more work than translating from scratch.
Should I Consider a Spanish Translation Services NYC or Go Freelance?
The next point is about hiring a freelance translator or an agency. The biggest question is, “what’s the big difference?” Price for one! Because an agency works with various translators at various skill levels it is very important that Spanish to English translations are routinely revised to maintain a professional company image; this is why an agency translation may be a bit pricier.
The main advantage of this is the “second eye” perspective given to each translation. No matter how skilled and experienced a translator may be it is only human to overlook a personal error; in this regard a final revision is a sort of safety net to assure the quality of production by eradicating any final errors.
In Summary
Before deciding on a Spanish translation service NYC or Brooklyn there are a few important points to consider:
-Does this Spanish translator or Spanish translation services agency have experience in this field and is he qualified to provide a quality translation? – Get a profile from them and compare it to the profiles of any other candidates.
-Why is the quote from a particular agency so cheap? Certain agencies offer lower rates for unrevised projects or are cheaper to sub-contract because they are unqualified.
-Does the Spanish translations Agency in NYC that I am considering to hire incorporate the latest Translation Memory Technology? This is an important innovation that recycles previous translations to reduce costs and ensure consistency.