(and other language services)

Or: de-risking translation

Did my headline catch your attention? Good! It means that my click-bait worked well… But jokes aside: in times when most people seem to believe the Big Tech narrative of AI as the be-all and end-all for language capabilities in any language of the world, most companies do not want to spend more than just a few cents on translation, interpreting or copywriting anymore. This is a sad truth that my profession has been facing for a few years now.

But even though I am here to advocate for professional services, there are things you can do to make these services cheaper. How? That is what I would like to show you in this post; how to de-risk commissioning translation, interpreting and copywriting projects and get the most out of them—which, in the end, will also significantly reduce the budget spent.

Using a service you have never used before…

… is always daunting and it can be very difficult to find out where to start and how to choose from the endless number of providers at your fingertips. How can you guarantee that you will receive good quality, especially when your company’s reputation depends on it?

This is what I would like to help you with today, so you can de-risk your commissioning of language services and therefore, in the end, get the best value for your money.

Practical advice

General tips and best practice

1. Work with a professional. While this sounds like the obvious thing to do in other areas (would you trust your neighbour to do surgery on you just because they have a first aid certificate?), people seem to think that anyone who speaks more than one language is also a good translator. Unfortunately, it is not that easy, so I would aways recommend to work with someone who is an experienced and certified translator with a translation degree or some other official accreditation, e.g. from a professional body. I also wrote a 2-part blog series on how to find a translator; you can find part one of it here.
2. Consider human vs machine. While big AI and machine translation developers promise that their tools will make human translators, interpreters and copywriters superfluous, we are still far from reaching that state. Yes, technology is very impressive, produces great results and can improve the efficiency of the process. But it still makes mistakes and sometimes sounds really stilted. When your company’s reputation is on the line, work with a human. In this post, you can find a short guide on how to decide on whether to use a human or a machine.
3. Ask for a contract. Unfortunately, there are also a lot of translation scammers out there. So just to be on the safe side, ask for a contract or terms and conditions. A lot of ITI (UK translation and interpreting association) members, for example, work with the association’s model Ts & Cs.
4. Provide a contact for queries. Texts or instructions that do not have ambiguities, company-specific idiosyncrasies or even small mistakes are a rare breed. In order for your translator or copywriter to be able to produce a high-quality product, they may need someone to talk to who is knowledgeable about the text, product, service, etc.
5. Provide context. A lot of what makes a text good is adapting it to fit the context in which it will be embedded. That does not only include other text or graphics around it, but also its publication channel. More information on what your translator needs to know can be found in this post.
6. Provide reference materials. They help with context, terminology and ways of phrasing that a specific client may prefer.
   • For translation, we like glossaries, existing previous translations and further information on products or services that are mentioned in a text.
   • Interpreters appreciate information about speakers, topics to be covered and presentations.
   • And copywriters need in-depth information about products and services or companies they are to write about.

The more we know, the better the result—some things may be really obvious to you as part of the company, but might not be obvious to outsiders. They are the points to look out for.

7. Think about language variants. Are you targeting a specific audience in a specific part of the world? For example, a US, UK, Australian or Canadian audience instead of “generic English speakers?” Or are you looking to talk to people from Argentina rather than Spain? Even though we generally group all these countries under the labels of “English speakers” or “Spanish speakers,” there are huge differences between their use of language. This is less important in spoken interpretation, but definitely vital for written services, such as copywriting and translation.

Advice for translation projects

1. Provide editable documents. PDF is a great format in general, but having the editable originals really helps a translator extract the text and putting the translation in formatting that is as close as possible to the original. This will save everyone valuable time and money.
2. Think about scope. Do you need everything in this 100-page document translated? Or would it suffice to just translate certain sections from it?
3. Prepare your texts. Making changes later on while the translator is already working on a text will incur additional charges. In this handy blog post, you will find out more about how to prepare your texts for translation.

Advice for interpreting projects

1. Provide information on the setting and the venue. Is it a small business meeting to discuss the details of a contract? Is it an audit? A company tour? Or is it a big event including several speakers and presentations? The more an interpreter knows about the topics covered, the better they will be able to prepare the appropriate vocabulary, etc. and advise you on the best interpreting mode to use.
2. What would you like to get out of your event? What is the purpose of the meeting or event for which you require one or more interpreters? Who are the participants and what are their goals? This will help the interpreter tailor the delivery to your needs.
3. Do you also require support in setting up an interpreting team and interpreting technology or do you already work with a specialist? Have you considered this in your event arrangements?

Advice for copywriting projects

1. Provide a brief. This is a short document informing the copywriter about your company, the project details and other useful context that helps them create your text. The copywriter of your choice will of course assist you in preparing this and might even provide a handy questionnaire.
2. If possible, have someone internal on hand who can provide feedback in the language the content is written in. This would ideally be a native speaker of the language, as only native or near-native speakers of a language are familiar with the nuances of words and culture that will influence how it is perceived by your target audience.

How about using tech?

As I have mentioned in previous blog posts, AI and machine translation have their place, but definitely also their limits. You should therefore always ask yourself: how high are the stakes? The higher the stakes, the greater the risk is and the greater the human involvement in your project should be. You should also always be aware of the risk that the use of unsupervised technology poses, not to mention issues such as privacy.

So many things to consider…

I know, this was a long list of things to look out for in order to get the most out of language services. But if you keep these things in mind, you are already several steps ahead of everyone who is just blindly diving into using technology or the first service provider their search engine presents. And if you have any further questions or would like support finding the right fit for your project, be it AI, a human or a hybrid model, please feel free to contact me. I am happy to help!