Education

How to Choose a Good Translator

posted by Chris Valentine

The international business market is growing. So, if you are planning to join it, you will probably need help from the translators to communicate with foreign clients. However, remember that choosing a good translator is not easy.

So how to do it? Of course, you can google “translation services USA” or “translation services Canada”, and you will have a list of translators. However, just because a person is first on google ranking, it doesn’t mean that he/she is the best translator out there. Several things define a good translator that you can easily check.

The first thing that you need to check while choosing a translator is if they have an ATA accreditation. If a person does have that, it means that they met the standards of accuracy and quality set by ATA, by passing a special test. Only 20% of translators complete it successfully.

If you can, find a native speaker of a language you need the translation in, so that they can check if the sample translation done by the translator is correct. Ideally, find a person who knows both the language the text is being translated from and the language it will be translated into.

Choosing your translator wisely is very important because not accurate translations might have some serious consequences. Check out the infographic below for some examples.

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