Tips for More Effective Translations
Translating any document can be a great deal harder than many people realise, and whilst it may seem that simply dropping it into a translation app will be all it takes to get a document that those in another country can understand, there will be far more to translating documents if you actually wish them to make sense.
Whilst online translators have come a long way over the past few years, they will still, more often than not, produce documents that are little more than gobbledygook. Not only are there likely to be contextual errors in any machine translations, but there are also likely to be whole pieces of important information that are totally lost and, as such, it is often more dangerous when a document mostly makes sense than when it makes no sense at all. When large parts are decipherable, important information that was translated incorrectly can then be overlooked and totally missed.
As such, unless you are just trying to contact a friend in another country, using professional translation services will be a must. However, even then you need to be sure you find the right company and that you create a document that is itself easy to translate. If those translating documents are bilingual but not writers themselves, they may well get the meaning completely right, but present the information in a very uninteresting or unappealing way.
On your own end, before you use a business translation service, be sure that you have a document that does not include many phrases that could be lost in translation. Certain jokes or puns may not translate well, and even the best translator may struggle to find a cultural equivalent, leaving a portion of the document seeming very odd indeed.
Finally, before any translation is made, consider the people you are sending it to. Laws are very different in different countries and what may be legal or even simply offend can change drastically from one place to the next so always be sure that you are very aware of your audience before you create any document to be translated.
