Blog Elements - Affinity Translation

Sometimes these lay linguists get tasked to review a delivered translation. The result is often unnecessary change recommendations and confusion for translation buyers.

Generally speaking if a person is tasked with reviewing a translation they will recommend changes. It’s as if not making changes to a translation is somehow not doing what they’ve been asked to do. A reviewer reviews and makes changes almost by definition.

What do business translation buyers receive for their money? They buy the judgment of a professional linguist that’s assigned to their project. When the judgment (approach to expressing meaning) of a translator is sufficiently altered, the result is something other than the translator’s professional judgment.

In general we recommend that lay reviewers of the work of professional translators tread extremely lightly.

A client’s translation requirement is important whether it’s large or small. For us as a business it’s true that larger translation projects help our company reach monthly revenue targets more quickly. Still we take smaller project requirements seriously. We remind our project managers of the things below:

1) We become indispensable to our clients by meeting their requirements consistently over time. A requirement is a requirement, whether large or small. We want to provide services to clients over a lifetime. To do that it’s important that we support them in whatever task is at hand.

2) It’s a fact that small projects can lead to larger projects. When a small project helps establish a connection with a new client that’s an unambiguously good thing. Every client-supplier relationship has a beginning. A few begin with fanfare, although more typical is a modest beginning. Trust and working relationships take time to develop.

A requirement is a requirement …

3) The performance of smaller translation projects requires just as much attention to quality control as larger projects. While the scale is lesser, steps in the control processes remain the same.

Do you have a small translation project requirement? Please don’t hesitate to send it to us for a quote. We give our clients’ translation projects (large or small) the care they need.

Dear Client — Your In-House ‘Translator’ Is Not Awesome

June 25, 2019

Occasionally these days a client company will have someone in their organization that speaks a language other than English. This is especially the case for major languages such as Spanish, French, and one or two others. Sometimes these lay linguists get tasked to review a delivered translation. The result is often unnecessary change recommendations and […]

Small Translation Projects Are Serious Business

June 21, 2019

Half Sized Blog Element (Single Author Style)

Half Sized Blog Element (Multi Author Style)

Dear Client — Your In-House ‘Translator’ Is Not Awesome

Small Translation Projects Are Serious Business

Dear Client — Your In-House ‘Translator’ Is Not Awesome

Small Translation Projects Are Serious Business

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

Dear Client — Your In-House ‘Translator’ Is Not Awesome

Small Translation Projects Are Serious Business

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