Lost In Translation
In today’s interconnected and interdependent world, demand for free translation services has been on the rise. While English reigns supreme as the world’s lingua franca, entrepreneurs and business people often deal with counterparts who cannot speak English. That’s when they start turning to free online translators to save money and time.
Google Translate claims that over 500 million people use its translation services every day. This amounts to 100 billion words. While free translators are fine when you want to convey simple, basic ideas, thoughts, or questions, they can be counterproductive when it comes to advancing your business goals. Free translators often mistranslate words and terms, let alone idioms.
One can only wonder about how much is lost in translation when using free translators! Keep reading to find out why you should avoid free translators in your business.
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Low quality
This is an obvious one. If you use free translators, you are guaranteed a subpar quality of translation. If you want to just greet your foreign counterparts or congratulate them on some occasion, free translators are fine
It’s a different story if you need to translate parts of your business plan or narratives supporting financial projections. The risk is that you will either miscommunicate content or just confuse your business partner. Clearing up that mess will take time and effort, and it might cost you more than your initial saving on professional translation services.
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Reputational risk
Business people know and appreciate the importance of reputation. It takes businesses years to build a credible reputation among customers, business partners, and the media. All those years and efforts will be in vain if you allow poorly translated texts to tarnish your image.
That’s why the businesses that realize the importance of finding reliable, reputable, and professional services use TranslationReport to ensure the top quality of translated material. You can browse by category to find the best match to your needs.
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Negative impact on localization efforts
The quality of translation particularly matters to companies that go global. As they enter various markets in the world, they normally start by translating their content into the local language. Therefore, anything short of outstanding quality is going to influence their localization efforts negatively.
In addition, the optics of incorrect or poor translation to the local public will be harmful to your company’s business activities. People might interpret it as a sign of cultural insensitivity. Since localization is essential for international business, successful companies do not spare resources to use the services of professional translators.
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Expensive
Last but not least, it might turn out to be more costly. Any professional translator would tell you that rewriting a poorly translated text is more onerous than translating it from scratch. By choosing a free translator, you might end up losing time (and time is, of course, money too) and risking your reputation while eventually forced to hire a professional translator anyways.
Summary
You can make do with free translators for simple and basic messages. When it comes to translating content about your business, products and services, customer outreach, or business communication, you cannot afford any inaccuracies or inconsistencies.
Not only does poor translation create unnecessary misunderstanding, but it might also deliver a blow to your reputation, brand image, and localization efforts. That’s why it is always a wise choice to use professional translation services.
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Eric Wyatt is a professional writer and translator. As a seasoned bilingual translator, he has more than a decade of work experience under his belt. He knows what it takes to convey the same meaning, intent, and cultural nuance in a different language. Eric’s reviews take you on a riveting linguistic journey exploring a myriad of translation hacks hidden from the untrained eye.
