Language Translation Overview

Professional communication is very essential in International business. You will definitely want your product or service known to a larger sections of people residing in different regions rather then cater to people of only your locality or region. Of course it is not possible for you to be fluent in the target language. You will need to bring in someone to do your job. That is why translation service has become very popular. Good translators help you to translate documents into other languages while correctly preserving the meaning and content of the text as well as the original style and focus.

Translators can handle almost any type of documents:

• Marketing material
• Technical and scientific manuals
• Legal and accounting documents
• Handbooks
• Personal correspondence
• Books
• Business cards
• Press release
• Brochures etc.

How it works?
You provide the translator or the translation company with the document as paper (hard copy) or computer file (soft copy) and accordingly the translator returns the translated document. If the document includes any formatted elements like tables, charts, graphs, tables, figures etc., the translator gives a proper formatted text. But there is also the choice to exclude these formatted elements from the translation and get only the unformatted text in the foreign language. The entire process includes a long process of studying and understanding the document by the translator, translating the document in the required language, proof read, edit , then give it for final print with proper format if necessary, which is further checked so that ultimately a complete translated work is handed over to the client.

The cost of a translation project depends on several factors. Your individual project requirements determine the overall value. The requirement means whether you need:

• Top professional services: These include services for translating documents used for legal, medical, business, or other professional purpose, and also for external use.
  
  
• Basic work: These are services meant for translating documents for general internal use.
  
  
• Understanding content: Whether the content needs to be understood in broad strokes or only a rough knowledge is enough. Accordingly you can choose your translator.

What it costs?
The billing of translation projects undertaken by various translation companies depend on various factors like

• The type of material
• The length of the document
• The source and target languages
• Formatting of the document with figures, tables etc. and
• Deadline requirements

The type of material
To get an accurate quote, the first thing that you have to do is to classify the type of the document. Some popular classifications the translations of which are done are as follows:

• Accounting documents (contracts, annual reports )
• Legal documents (court hearings, summons, court case )
• Marketing documents (presentations, brochures, catalogs, cards )
• Technical and software manuals (technical product descriptions, software descriptions, installation guide)
• Handbooks (Work-flow, process descriptions)
• Business literature (corporate books, newsletter, articles, training guide)
• Correspondence (personal email)

The length of the document
The translator or translation company should also keep a track of the number of pages, lines and/or words to be translated. The word count function in Microsoft Word can be used to give the exact number of words that are to be translated if the document is given in soft copy. Otherwise, manually the number of lines and words on a typical page can be counted, which is multiplied by the total number of pages to get an approximate idea. For most translators, the cost is calculated as a rate per (thousand) words or as total number of pages etc. and this rate is adjusted considering the following criteria:

• Industry specialization: For certain industries or services or products, translators expert in that subject are required and some specialized translators charge prices above average because the work requires additional research.
  
  
• Level of difficulty: The translation of a very technical and complicated document is more expensive than a general straight-forward text. Unformatted documents are less expensive than formatted ones.
  
  
• Language: In some cases it is difficult to get a translator of the target language. In such cases, the translator needs to be hired from the native place and this becomes costly.

Deadlines:
For over-night service or very short deadlines, most translation companies or translators charge an extra charge.

Long-term contract/relationship:
As a rule if you have regular translation job, it is better to consider a long-term contract with a translator agency or a translator. This can significantly decrease your costs.