As the world is getting more and more connected, it is important more than ever to find the best ways to communicate with each other. This is particularly important as many jobs have become remote nowadays. The need for a solid and successful communication medium is important, especially for corporate high-level organizations. Usually, humans in different parts of the world speak different languages and rely on free translation tools to properly understand each other.
We expect a major language barrier to prevent people living in a multicultural environment from communicating with fellow human beings eloquently. This is where there is an utmost need for the correct language tools that can make people understand a language common in an organization. But it’s always better to rely on organic human translation instead of free tools to overcome these language barriers.
There is a reason why paid tools charge a premium amount for translation services from clients. While free translation tools might seem to be a more obvious choice, it is important to see what the perfect choice is for you. Yes, the choice between the free and paid translation tools depends on the type of work you do as well. So let’s not waste any more time and dive deep into understanding why we should pick free or paid translation tools.
The Free Translation Tools
These tools emerged when we stepped foot in the golden age of the Internet and technology in the 20th century. Now, there are countless websites out there that you can use to convert text from one language to another. This provides the users with rapid translations in minutes. There are even apps like U-Dictionary which can be used to convert messages in your text message apps to the desired language.
What’s more important is that some of these apps work well and translate the given piece of text word by word. You might be wondering how these tools work. Well, they use advanced codes and machine learning to interpret a large amount of data online and find the right translation according to the generated query. The free tools are ideal for people looking to generate small translations.
These can be tasks for school-going students, college assignments, presentations, etc. The free tools work best for people using them for basic translations, as discussed above. You don’t need to purchase any premium translation tool if your translation tasks are limited to a few hundred words.
Drawbacks of Unpaid Translation Tools
Even though these readily available tools are great for casual tasks, they do have a lot of drawbacks when it comes to professional translation. For instance, many of these tools provide you with the option of translating only a few hundred words at most. This is why we recommend these free tools for casual work only. Also, these tools lack the basic things that you would expect in a sound translation, such as grammar, punctuation, clarity, etc.
This can be a major concern for people looking to use this software for professional work. These tools lack the vast vocabulary and synonyms that are crucial for a good translation. This can lead to the misunderstanding of text by the reader and sometimes sentences don’t make any sense at all. If you were using these translation tools for tasks like advertisement billboards, websites, merchandise, and others, what would happen?
Using unpaid translation tools may affect the standard of your company, creating a negative perception in the minds of your potential customers. Although these tools have evolved a lot in recent years due to a lot of involvement of AI, none can be compared with the natural and organic human translation which is the real professional way of translation.
The Value of Professional Translation
When you compare a piece of text translated by a freely available tool online to that done by a professional translator, the difference will be evident to you. That’s because these credible, professional translations always deliver when it comes to grammar, accuracy, punctuation, structure of the sentence, etc. That’s why free tools don’t hold water in comparison to these professional translators.
So professional translations are a perfect match for people looking for commercial work related to translations. These professional translators are trained people who have a high command of the two languages that they are mostly working on. More importantly, they have a keen knowledge of the cultural aspects of the languages that they are dealing with.
They not only translate a given piece of information correctly, but also know about the tone, choice of words, and expressions that are required in a particular translation. That’s why a lot of major industries are benefiting from the fruits of professional, credible translation.
Additionally, professional translators aren’t those who can translate any given language into the desired language. They specialize in different fields and different languages as well. For instance, a translator might be working in the field of medical science; their work must be to translate various medical documents and product descriptions into the language of a certain region. This expertise makes them capable of translating legal or medical information into the target language without missing a beat.
These translators not only have command over a specific language, but they also tend to have a command on the given topic in which they have to translate something. For this reason, only specialized people who have knowledge of the given material and command over a certain language can succeed in such endeavours.
Advantages of Professional Translation Services
One of the core benefits of hiring a professional translator is their ability to interpret certain cultural aspects and the context of the translation as well. Some languages require a deep understanding of certain words that only a professional or native language speaker can identify.
This is something that will always be missing when you translate using the free translator tool. When it comes to cultural aspects, it means that there are certain things and traditions inside a specific culture that a translator should be aware of.
Ignoring this aspect can lead to provocation by the customers or readers who read the translated content. So, being culturally aware of the happenings in a particular society is what makes the best translators different from the rest. Cultural awareness is supposed to be important for many organizations when it comes to translating their content into another region’s marketplace language.
Security
The translation is not only limited to businesses and products. It involves documents related to certain security measures too. Corporate high-level organizations have to deal with a lot of content that deals with sensitive or classified information.
These organizations have the utmost need for professional translators who can translate the security documents literally without a separate need for proofreading or editing.
So a corporate firm knows that they are in safe hands when they provide their translation work to a reputable translation company like TranslateSwift which has the best professional translators hired to especially perform security-related translation tasks with the highest level of proficiency.
Handling the Revisions According to The Client
Apart from being an expert in translation services concerning the many aspects we have discussed above, there is always a need to change whether you have translated according to the client’s requirements or not. No matter how perfect or literal a translation is, it is always subject to further revisions and editing according to the client’s demands. It is the utmost duty of a professional translator to handle those revisions and not appear arrogant.
The best way is to offer in-depth revisions that show the further work that has been done to meet the target criteria that were advised by the client in the revision brief. Keep in mind that humans are subject to different kinds of errors, not just limited to the field of translation but also every other field where a practical approach might be necessary. Usually, professional translation agencies do have certain policies and criteria to tackle the clients that require revisions in a very limited period.
A good way to tackle translation-related issues is to make sure that revisions and quality-related issues are tackled by a team-based approach. There must be separate proofreaders and translators, this is to make sure that an individual employee is not burdened with a lot of work and they leave the office at their designated time.
Conclusion
It is quite evident that professional translation is a much more difficult and important aspect of an organization. People have begun to forget the value of a professional translator due to the free apps and services available online.
Nevertheless, professional translators tend to get paid for their work, this is why they bring so much value to the written content of a company. They understand the different aspects involved in making a sound translation and they know that a good piece of translated content is not just limited to mere translation; it involves other elements as well.
FAQs
Is translation service a professional service?
It depends. If you are looking to translate a lot of content for your business or related matters, it generally falls in the area of professional services. Otherwise, smaller pieces of translations can be done with free tools.
What is the advantage of free translation?
Free translation saves time and is an ideal choice for casually translating a few hundred words for small tasks.
Why should we use professional translation services?
We should use professional translation services for a variety of reasons. Firstly, free software tends to compromise the quality of the translation in the aspects of brevity, accuracy, structure of the sentence, grammatical mistakes, etc. Professional translators tend to solve all these problems and simultaneously, these services can handle a lot of work for you with desired revisions as well.
