People have a lot of perceptions about what business translation involves. It is common for businesses to outsource to translation companies and so obviously they might be ignorant of some of the nuances involved in translation. They will expect a good end result of course, and if you choose the right translation services this is what you’ll get, however it may not be the translation you’re expecting.
Many business might assume that the best translator is a native speaker, i.e. native in the target language. Let’s think about this for a moment, no-one can be native in two languages and so there will always be a shortfall when translating from one language to another. That is if you persist with the idea that native translators are the best translators.
In reality, the best translator is the best translator, full stop. Being native may afford a translator some advantages in terms of how they judge cultural nuances etc, however it is not the be all and end all. When we consider something like business translation being native becomes less relevant, and it is much more important that the translator understands business lingo.
Some people mix up transliteration and translation. Transliteration is about transposing each individual word into a new language; translation differs entirely from this process. Instead, good translation is about producing something that works in a target language, retaining the details but becoming, essentially, something new. The best translators will be well equipped to deliver this.
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