The following article was posted on Inc. and provides some tips for those in need of translation services. Here are some excerpts:

“Finding a professional translator who is truly skilled can be a daunting task. Here are five great tips to help you find a qualified linguist for the job.

Business is becoming more globalized every day, creating fantastic opportunities for growth, particularly in the emerging markets of Asia, Latin America, and Africa. But expanding globally can be one of the most significant challenges for a growing business. In addition to adapting your company to the challenges of conducting business overseas, and internationally, you must also confront the all-important issue of communication.

The business of translation, however, is not necessarily limited to written materials. A highly skilled business translator can also localize your website and provide consulting services with respect to the preparation of your international marketing plans. He or she can even have a role in ensuring your business plan will work abroad. In other words, a translator can assist you in virtually all areas of your company’s global expansion.

Before you set out to hire a translator, it’s imperative to have a basic understanding of what translation is and how it works. Translation bridges the linguistic and cultural gaps that exist between the original and target languages, a process that involves translating concepts in addition to individual words. Because machine translation programs tend to operate on a literal, word-for-word basis, they are typically unable to accurately convey metaphors, figurative language and colloquial expressions—not to mention jargon and words that have multiple meanings—all of which are vital to effective communication. The problem is that inexperienced translators are often ill equipped to handle these types of language as well.

The German company AVUS Performance learned this lesson the hard way when its press agency mistranslated the original name of the 2009 Audi RS6 V10 Biturbo as the “White Power Audi RS6.” To avoid a similar public relations disaster, it’s critical to know what to look for when hiring a translator.

1) Determine your translation needs

With any translation project, you have to decide whether to work with a freelance translator, a translation company, or whether you need to bring someone onto staff full-time. Important considerations to keep in mind when making this decision are the type of project involved, the availability of translators in the language, the level of difficulty of the subject matter, the volume of work, and the turn-around time.

2) Establish the qualifications of the translator

Whether you want to hire a freelance translator or a translation company, it’s critical to check the credentials of the translator who will work on your project. Unfortunately, translator skill levels vary considerably, so you need to know what to look for when hiring a translator.

First, it’s necessary to clarify one of the most misunderstood aspects of translation: the difference between being bilingual and being a qualified translator. A bilingual speaker is an individual who speaks two languages fluently. A qualified translator is a bilingual (or trilingual, etc.) linguist who knows the languages in question and understands the complex linguistic and cultural disparities between them. An analogy that’s often used to make the distinction between a bilingual and a translator is that of a cook and a chef: you may know how to cook, but that doesn’t make you a chef.

3) Verify the credentials and expertise of the translation company

If you opt to hire a translation company, there are several important factors to consider. In addition to asking about the qualifications of the translator or translators who will be assigned to your project, you should also inquire about the credentials of the company. You will first want to make sure that the company, like the translator, has been certified. Translation service provider certification does not guarantee quality translation, but it does ensure that the company in question completes a specific set of documented steps to maintain a desired level of quality control.

It’s also a good idea to ask about the quality control practices of the translation service provider. Translation companies have a system in place for regulating the quality of the work. This system typically involves the use of multiple translators for a single project to reduce the likelihood of typos and errors. Companies also make use of special resources that freelance translators don’t such as Translation Memory (TM) software, which enables translators to translate a repetitive sentence or phrase only once. Although TM software is intended to reduce the workload of the translator and the time needed to complete the project, it also reduces the number of errors.

4) Get informed about going rates for your project

Pricing varies widely in the translation industry. Some translation service providers charge by the word or the page, while others quote a price per document or even an hourly rate. The fee is determined by a variety of factors, including the availability of translators who work in the language or the field, the credentials of the translator or the agency, the level of difficulty of the project and the turn around time for completion. It’s therefore extremely important to find out the going rate for your project by either conducting a simple Internet search or requesting multiple quotes from translation service providers.

Before settling on a price, however, there are several factors to keep in mind. If you’re paying by the word, you need to know that some languages use more words than others to convey ideas. English to Spanish translation, for example, results in a higher number of Spanish words. So it’s to your benefit to negotiate a per-word rate for your project based on the language that uses the fewest number of words.

Finally, beware of translators who charge below the going rate for your project. They may be amateurs or translators who utilize machine translation programs to do the job.”

See: Inc.

Do you agree with the tips listed above? Would you add any other?