Steps To Follow When In Need Of Translation Services

Before you embark on a journey there is a specific “ritual” you do to ensure that you are 100% ready for your journey and the same thing usually happens before we do anything. The preparation process before the exact process begins is what ensures that you follow through and easily with your plans or whatever it is you would love to do.

In this article, we will look at the steps everyone who has a plan of seeking translation services should be able to do and follow through before contacting a translator. Many people don’t really know that this is an important thing to do but trust me, it makes your work and that of the translators easy.

I’m sure you have heard of the saying that goes, “Not preparing is preparing to fail” and this is very true because I can’t tell you how many things I have had to put on hold because I didn’t really prepare well before I embarked on them. Now I know better and my preparation ritual is very successful.

What Are The Steps One Has To Follow Before Contacting A Translation Service Provider?

So what are the steps one has to follow before contacting a translator or a translation service provider:

1. Depict how many target languages you would love to work with. This sounds easy and simple to the ears, but it’s not. Yes deciding on what language you want to work with is a matter of just saying, I would love to work with A, B, and C and note it down but the reality of the matter is that all these languages have a lot of specifics that you must be able to look into and understand well. All languages have different cultural values, beliefs, linguistic differences and so on and so forth. You should be able to specify your target market in order for the translator to know what words to use when translating, whether it’s for youths, old people, business entrepreneurs and so on and so forth. Also, if a language is being spoken multiple regions, you should be able to know which area you are targeting so that your translator doesn’t end up doing the translation for a region you were not targeting. Being able to have this depicted from scratch makes everything easy for everyone and also for you because you wouldn’t want to work on a new language or something you forgot to include when planning when everything else is being completed.
2. Make sure that all documents being translated are complete and in good form. As someone who works in the translation industry, I can’t tell you how many companies feel the need to bring in incomplete work for translation with the general request that they will keep on bringing more than the time goes. When this happens, you find out that the translators end up finishing the work they have and since they can’t take on a new project they have to wait for these businesses to bring in more work thus making them waste their time. If that’s not enough, bringing in last-minute corrections on translated documents may either alter the context of the translated documents or the thought process of the translator working on them. I highly recommend avoiding this because it really does brings in a lot of alterations which eventually end up making the whole translation project a hassle. So it’s very important to make sure that your documents are complete and without errors before you bring them in for translation because a lot of translators don’t enjoy being given the extra job of editing and making sure that documents are accurate without their pay increase.
3. Be sure of the scope of the whole project. Everything with a start most definitely must have an end. A lot of businesses usually have targets and deadlines and whatnot. This ensures that everyone follows through and stays within a specific scope of time. We expect the same thing of you as the person in need of translation services. A lot of clients usually work with the service provider’s availability, but most times businesses have deadlines to meet and they usually need a scope for their work finished so they can either use it in another industry or sell it. It is important to look at this seriously and plan on it too, so you don’t end up being disappointed. Everything is a plan and once the plan is already in place, then it’s very easy to work with it. If you give a translator a deadline, then it’s very easy for them to plan and work around your time scope. This also ensures that you talk to the translators and let them know which part they should work on more and concentrate on more than the other parts.
4. Expectations if the translation process. I honestly don’t think there are businesses that would come up with a budget for a process that doesn’t benefit them in the long run. When embarking on something, everyone has their expectations. They might have the time scope on how long they want it to take, the turnaround time that will work in towards their long-term goals, and so on. What this does is that it makes the whole process worthwhile because you know how long a certain project will take, whether it’s enough time for the translators to deliver and whether it is okay with the effect to what you want the translations for. Be sure to not have unrealistic expectations and put shorter deadlines to work around your schedule and expecting that everything will go as so. The best thing to do for your business is to ensure that what you expect is realistic.
5. Be sure of the formats you want the documents to be after translation. It is very important to know what formats you want the translated documents to be in the long run. There is nothing as bad as working with a service provider who has specific file formats they work with, but since you did not confirm with them, you end up using the formats they have. First, ask your service provider what file formats they work with and which ones they don’t, so you don’t end up with something they did not want.
6. Ensure to have a glossary with the translation team. This is very important, however, people constantly ignore it, or forget to do it. It’s very important to understand that there are different translations types that usually affect a lot of things in the long run. Depending on what kind of translation you want there is a specific jargon to used to maintain the context of the original language and that is why it is advisable to have a glossary list. This is more important for documents with large amounts of content. A translation glossary will determine the complexity of the language used and guide the translator on the path to take when doing the translations. Creating a glossary entails finding a certain number of words (the number depends on the size of your project), and making use of an in-country reviewer from your company’s team.
7. Establish prices of translation services. Everything that I have mentioned above eventually come together to ensure you come up with the budget for the translations you want. Deciding what on the documents for translation, and calculating your budget to fit the amount of work you want, is so easy but now getting a service provider to work with your budget and still ensure perfect work that within the deadlines, is the tricky part. Therefore, you must establish all this and then look for a service provider who will give you exactly what you want. Most translation service providers are very constant and the only way to ensure that you get one that is good, it’s to do thorough research.

Now that you know the steps you need to take in order for you to ensure that you get the best translation services there are, I presume you will follow them through every time you have to. If you need your project to be as easy and smooth sailing, it is very good to follow through with these steps. They are so simple, yet very important.

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