A couple of days ago, I was talking to one of my colleagues, Eda, and since I am new in this company, I was wondering what kind of customer portfolio we have as Link Translations. The fact that there is a wide range of clients amazed me. Seriously, Fortune 1000 companies, government agencies, law firms and individual clients… Different customers need different services. I was wondering, how on earth are we able to keep all of them happy? She looked at me and said two words: translation quality.
There are many different approaches to translation and every translator has a different way or method to conduct the act of translation. Since most of the language service providers are working with various translators, assessing the quality of a translation might be tricky. So instead of calling translation standards in action, I will explain how does Link Translation keep its thousands of customers happy.
Translation Training
We work exclusively with trained and qualified translators. They are either holding a BA and/or MA in modern language or a Bachelors and/or Masters degree with specialized knowledge in their respective fields with accreditation from associations such as ATA, US State Department or State and Federal courts. Let’s say you contacted us and asked for a Spanish interpreter in Chicago. Before saying “sir, yes sir”, we ask detailed information about the job, search our database and direct you to the interpreters in Chicago that are specialized within that field.
Translation Quality Experience
Companies are somehow similar to humans. When they first start to walk, they fall a couple of times. They make mistakes and learn from those mistakes, which is the nature of it. But would you prefer to work with a company which just started to walk or a company who is running marathons for 20 years? Experience does change a lot in translation business. Not only the experience of the translator or interpreter, but also the experience of the project managers, IT team and all of the support staff of a language services provider, affects the quality of the translation forthright.
Computer Assisted Translation (CAT) Tools
CAT tools are a lifesaver and also a life-changer for translators. I remember when I was working manually, I was spending at least 2 times more time for each translation project. Not that I was more through, but all the time I was finding mistakes and spending hours to fix it. Computer Assisted Translation tools helped me to increase my speed, quality and also introduced me to a new level of project management. Now I am able to work with an Arabic Translator in Kentucky, Chinese Translator in Washington and a Russian Interpreter in New Jersey on the same project with the help of cloud-based CAT tools.
Terminology Database
It is also a part of the CAT tools but I want to underline the importance of terminology databases. They are simply needed if you assign more than one translator into a translation project to make the final product consistent. Without a terminology database, it is rather impossible to keep the quality of the translation high.
Post Translation: Editing and Proofreading
As Link Translations, we also assign editors and proofreaders to all of the translation projects no matter how big they are and this is what Link Translations has been doing for last two decades.
Let’s sum up, what Link Translation does to keep the translation quality at the top:
- Understanding what each customer requests and confirm it in writing.
- Contacting with all of the parties regarding the project deadline and put it in writing
- Assigning only available translators with knowledge on the subject matter
- Editing the translation for accuracy and format retention
- Proofreading the final product before delivering it to the customer
For your language service demands, feel free to contact us and get a no-obligation quote for your translation projects.