Why not work with translators directly?

Well, of course you can work with translators directly. Perhaps you have been working with the same translators for years, and you want to keep it that way.

If you occasionally have a small bit of translation work, it always concerns the same languages, and the subjects are comparable, then you will probably be fine that way. Just don’t be in too much of a hurry; after all, an independent translator may be very busy, and you will need to wait your turn.

What now?

But you suddenly have a very large document that needs to be translated, and quickly. Just with that, it gets a lot more difficult to get your work done properly and on time. And the document has a completely different subject than usual, too. What now?

Your regular translator always provides you with great technical translations. But this hefty legal file you need translated now… Is your translator familiar with this kind of text? And to make things even more complicated, the document needs to be translated into six different languages.

You need a number of new translators to get to work for you quickly. That will be a bit of a gamble, as you have never worked with those freshly hired people before. But necessity knows no law; there is no time to lose.

At night, you lie in bed pondering the assignment. Will the translators deliver good work? And will they be on time? Will the quality be consistent? Do they understand the legal jargon? Questions, questions, and more questions. It is difficult to get any sleep.

Can it be a little more?

One of the larger jobs Translation Agency worked on recently was a significant amount of texts contained within the lines of code of computer software.

The first problem to solve was to find translators who could distinguish the actual text from the programming code. After all, there could be no changes to the programming code whatsoever. Not a single dot or comma could be misplaced, or the software would go haywire.

The source text provided contained approximately 75,000 words. An amount comparable to a book of about 350 pages.

Moreover, these texts were much less entertaining than the typical book. It was a specialised subject with its own jargon. The translators not only needed to be able to work in the computer programs, but also needed to know a few things about the relevant subject.

Oh, and it needed to be translated into 18 languages, and delivered within a few weeks…

In terms of volume, that brings us closer to a whole pile of books, except wrapped in endless computer codes.

Well; you can see where I’m going with this. How do you handle such a daunting job?

At Translation Agency, we do the following. From a pool of several thousand translators, we select the ones who have the relevant language combinations, the right background knowledge, and are quickly available. After some calls and e-mails, the whole crew is on it; on the very same day the order came in.

We are talking about translators who have proven their worth without exception, people of whom we know exactly what they can do.

Can it be a little less?

Of course! From the same pool, we can just as easily select someone to translate a single page for you. The quality and speed are no different. It just requires much fewer calls and e-mails to set it up.

And no matter how big or small the assignment is; the price is always small.

How much do you actually pay for your translator…?