How can I be sure to hire the right professional English
translator? Of the multitude of translators available on the market, not
all are suitable for your needs. Let's look at the different factors that
come into play.
1. To which country do you intend your English translation?
English is
protean, more than French. For an English translation to the UK, it is
better to have a professional English translator, the same applies to the
United States and Australia. And forciori for India or South Africa, where
the choice of a local translator is highly recommended. Following this
link you will find a small list of the differences between ENGLISH US and UK.
If you want to have your CV translated into English,differentiation is even more important. Beyond the differences in
spelling, the form and tone of the American CV and the UK CV are sometimes
discordant.
2. Professional English translator or simple bilingual?
From the outside, it can sometimes be believed that a
good bilingual English speaker will be a good English translator. It's
forgetting the technicality of the job. Professional
translatorsmaster the computer tools that allow for a
homogeneous and clean rendering.
Homogeneity, i.e.
the fact that a word or phrase is translated in the same way in different
places of the text, is paramount in legal translations, for example.
The French-English
translation is very "touched" by the phenomenon of amateur
translators. Indeed, the first foreign language that a Frenchman learns is
usually the language of Shakespeare, and university exchanges in Europe and
around the world allow many students to acquire a good level of English.
This type of
translation is perfectly suited for translations of lesser importance (blog
articles, tourism, internal communication...). But it is not recommended
for translations into legal English, in the medical field and more generally in
all areas where the text is required to persuade a client (marketing
translation) or to respect standards (translation in real estate
by example). In these cases, the use of a professional English
translator is paramount.
Conclusion
To choose the
right professional English translator and have your document translated, two
things to consider: the geographical location of the text, and the type of
translation you need.
Both of these questions also apply to translations into other languages,
but given the diversity of English-speaking countries and the number of people
who are fluent in english language, they are particularly true for English
translations.
