This poem is a great reminder of why we should always, always proofread—and for language service providers, why we should do it even more than the average writer. In today’s blog post, we’ll go over the reasons why.

1. Proofread the source material

Oftentimes, language service providers are given source material documents that the parent company wants to distribute at the same time as their translations. Theoretically, these documents will have been proofread already. After all, the parent company will want their readers to focus on the message of the documents and keep up their reputation and good impressions.

However, before translation, it’s essential that the source material be proofread again to ensure that the translator understands the meaning of it. Grammatical or spelling errors can cause the translated document to lose lots of meaning, and potentially bring about lots of costs to fix these mistakes later down the pipeline.

Let’s look at a common English example of a grammar mistake: “Let’s eat, Grandma!” and “Let’s eat Grandma!” With just a forgotten comma, the entire meaning of the sentence changes into something out of a horror novel. An accurate translation of the second sentence’s meaning could spell disaster, if that sentence is a mistake.

2. Proofread the translation

People are only human—making mistakes is something everyone does, and there’s no shame in it. However, what’s important is how we monitor ourselves to make sure that we catch those mistakes and take responsibility for them.

Translators have the same ability to miss a comma or period, misspell a word, or accidentally misunderstand the meaning of a sentence in the source document. To be safe, it’s crucial to hire a separate translator to act as a proofreader for the translated documents.

3. Assure the quality of the final product before delivery

Even after a translation has been proofread, oftentimes, language service providers are tasked with putting the translation into a certain format—a pamphlet, a PowerPoint, a website, etc. Once the translation is in that format, it’s important to double-check the target document. You want to avoid crashing, missing or hidden text, text overflow, and a slew of other issues.

The need for proofreading all stems back to the need for a proper, professional, trustworthy identity between the parent company and the customer or reader. Glaring issues in the text, or visual problems in the final product, convey to the reader that the document was handled sloppily—and if the document was handled sloppily, why would the parent company treat the reader any differently?

Remember: we should always, always proofread.

It’s always about team work. At Monterey Language Services, we are always looking for the right fit for a translation team which always includes a reviewer. Translation can become a long and difficult process if we don’t choose a right team, but then with the right insights and strategies, it becomes easier to control quality and get the desired results.

Lack of the natural flow probably is the most common scenario to be improved. Other than that, many things could be missed in a translation as well, whether it’s due to careless error or a difficulty of tracking everything that the client wants. This is why we need to start with the right foot by choosing a right team to work with for a specific project , and so we can ensure that the translation is accurate, complete, and easy to read.

Then, how do you know what kind of a team would be the best to use? It’s the same for translators and reviewers, you have to choose one that is the best fit for you and the project at hand. This means that even if you are used to using a certain team, you cannot always use them for every project that you have. The selection usually is based on subject specialization. Someone who writes well and is familiar with how subject terminology is used in their daily business. For instance, someone who has experience with the medical field, ideally familiar with whatever is being mentioned in the document. If a translator or a reviewer is unfamiliar with the subject, they may not catch certain errors or they may misunderstand the real meaning or commonly used terminology in that field.

Additionally, you need a team who are familiar with cultural conventions. For example, in Japanese, there are different ways of writing depending on the audience that the document is written for. If someone is not familiar with the different nuances of the language, they might flag certain phrasing or pronoun usage as errors, even though they are correct in the context of the document. This is why depending on the content, it is important to hire translators and reviewers with a certain amount of experience.

One other thing that you might want to be careful of is more in regards to your company itself. The team should be made aware of what is expected of them and what they expect the finished translation to look like and represent. This means everything should be kept handy and shared, including style guides, terminology lists, stop-word lists or any other kind of documents that they want the translation to adhere to. This will help everyone be aware of what they should be looking for when they are translating as well as reviewing.

What makes an expert translator? Generally, it’s someone with a wealth of experience in a particular field, which they can bring to translation of materials in that field. The expert translator is able to understand difficult or obscure concepts, and then convey these concepts in another language clearly and accurately while using proper terminology and discourse.

Subjects that typically require expert translators include IT, Law, Medicine, and Business Management, to name only a few. When launching a translation project in one of these fields, we start by putting together an expert team – but no mixing expertises. For example, we will assign legal projects to translators who used to be lawyers, but not IT projects. As another example, we recently translated a large tech company’s presentation into Turkish. Since the subject matter was highly technical, we limited our selection process to translators very familiar with the IT field, and also had an industry expert to go over the translation. This is because we take quality assurance very seriously, and we want to be absolutely sure that the translations we produce are completely accurate. We also take a similar approach when we work with a large volume of medical documents. We put together a team of translators who are experienced at translating such documents, and some translators even have actual medical training.

Expert translators can really shine when it comes to cutting-edge technologies that are quickly becoming the trends of the future, like artificial intelligence (AI), block chain technology, and more. These topics are constantly developing, and expert translators have to keep their knowledge and understanding up-to-date. Imagine being able to understand and express these complex, ever-evolving ideas in not one but two (or more) languages! That is the skill level of some expert translators. In fact, since some of these technologies are so new, there are no equivalent words or phrases in languages other than the one it was developed in. This means that expert translators can sometimes even be the ones to create appropriate terminology in their native language. Working on cutting edge technology provides an exciting opportunity for expert translators, who give tech companies the ability to expand and grow internationally.

For us, working with expert translators is such a dynamic and positive process! It’s a breath of fresh air which always gives us a lot of energy and momentum to keep going and provide the best possible translation and interpretation services to our clients!

When working on a large project, we have to be organized in our thoughts, in our workflow, and in both our physical and digital space. Every step or the must be clear-cut, and everything must be organized logically and efficiently. This includes labeling all of our files and folders clearly and consistently. When we organize our project documentation, the question we ask ourselves is, “Would the next person working on this project be able to jump in and find everything without any trouble?” This helps us make sure that everything is crystal clear to all of the team members involved, which in turn means that everyone will be able to work effectively. We also create spreadsheets with relevant and up-to-date project information, we keep our files organized in a location we can all access, and we make sure to update each other regularly on what we’ve done and what remains. Ultimately, having clear and understandable organization is the foundation of our work.

We organize the different phases of the project in a way that will help us meet the deadline. In addition to the actual translation, which can take a week or more, there needs to be editing and review, quality assurance, etc. We need to make sure that there is enough time for all of these phases, which are all necessary steps in producing an accurate, high quality translation. For example, in the Japanese-English medical records translation, we received work back from the translators several days before the official due date. We were then able to review the translations and communicate with the translators to settle any possible mistakes or issues. One way we approach this, for example, is to make comments in the delivered file regarding even the tiniest potential inconsistency, and send it back to the translator for clarification.

Another strategy we used, in addition to recruiting multiple translators who had demonstrated experience working in the medical field, was to also include an expert to help us identify less legible doctor’s notes. Part of the source files were handwritten doctor’s notes (which are notoriously difficult to read) so we made sure to find a professional who could help decipher these notes.

Finally, as with any project, there can be unexpected setbacks. We have to be prepared for anything and ready to do what it takes to get the job done, no matter what happens. For example, when one of our team members had an unexpected emergency and couldn’t complete certain parts of the review process that he was going to do, our other team members coordinated to make sure that it would get done.

While these challenges of large projects can take a lot of energy and time, it helps us to remember our end goal: delivering a great translation, and ultimately helping our client. These challenges are much easier to manage when we think about our clients and how they are depending on us to do our best. Our passion for helping people gives us the energy and drive we need to do our best and ensure that we deliver high quality translations!

You have found us – we provide quick & easy solutions for all your translation needs. Tell us about the subject of the text to be translated, its size and the languages you want, and we will provide a quote. Send us the files, and within short order, we will deliver a clear, accurate, complete translation.

That’s it! That’s all you have to do. Simply send us the text you want translated, then leave all the rest to us.

Of course, quite a bit more goes on behind the scenes, starting with doing the translation right the first time. We use a multi-step process to ensure the quality of our translations, starting with the translation itself, then editing, followed by proofreading and QA. Every translation is confirmed by at least one other linguist to assure that the meaning of the original is conveyed clearly and accurately. 

We also check for completeness and formatting and can perform DTP image editing as necessary. We work with any format, from Word documents, to PowerPoint presentations, to Excel spreadsheets, to software applications, to website localization. Whether you’re looking to translate a code of conduct, an employee handbook, company policies, a slideshow, a survey or a script, we can make it happen.

We can also handle any subject matter. Whether legal documents, technical manuals, or medical reports, our highly-trained translators will rise to the challenge. Our specialization is in highly-technical subjects.

Furthermore, we provide over 175 languages (including Arabic, Japanese, Hebrew, Malay, German, French, Indonesian, Danish, Finnish, Hungarian, Korean, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Italian, Swedish, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Hindi, Norwegian, Polish, Russian and more).

We treat every project with special care, and our goal is to always try our best to make sure the readers understand the original text in their own language, as clearly and as easily as possible. 

Monterey Language Services strives to provide the highest quality of translation and interpretation services. Please feel free to contact us for a quote.

Through accurate and clear translation of corporate communication materials, customers and employees can gain a better understanding of the corporate message and guidelines and can thus better contribute to the greater success of the corporation.

Global companies working with Monterey Language Services are growing stronger because they have chosen a translation and interpretation company that gives individualized attention to each translation project entrusted to them.

Our company stands firmly by what we believe in and provides the following to our global corporate customers.

Specialty: Translation and interpretation that require high level of expertise

Domains: Medical, legal, technical, and business subjects

Approach: Clear, accurate, and complete translation and interpretation

Value: Professional, efficient, and high quality services

Languages provided: Over 175 languages (including Arabic, Japanese, Hebrew, Malay, German, French, Indonesian, Danish, Finnish, Hungarian, Korean, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Italian, Swedish, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Hindi Norwegian, Polish, Russian and more)

Monterey Language Services strives to provide the highest quality of translation and interpretation services. Please feel free to contact us for a quote.