Have you ever wondered how to spot a good translation?

It’s actually quite simple: reading it should feel as though the text was originally written in the target language.

Here are the 3 qualities that any good translator should possess:

• • Be a professional translator. This may appear glaringly obvious but you would be surprised! How many times have you heard, “I’ll get my cousin to do this, she spent two months in England.”? Here’s the rub: speaking a language and translating it are not the same thing! Translation is a profession,requiring years of study and experience, continuous training and expertise in the use of the latest linguistic and IT applications. Like any profession, translation has a code of ethics, covering professional secrecyin particular. This gives you the assurance that your documents will be handled with complete confidentiality by professionals possessing skill and integrity.

• • Being a native speaker of the target language. You can study a foreign language right down to the finest details, but our mother tongue is and will always be the one we are best at, the one we speak the most fluently and in which we are able to discern the tiniest subtleties.And that is exactly what you need to ensure that your message is conveyed with the level of precision required, as if it had been originally written in the language of the translation.

• • Being a specialist in your area of activity, because we can only translate something properly if we understand it. Corporate communications; international, European, federal or regional relations; legal, political, economic, commercial affairs; environment and climate; health (medical/paramedical); the media, social networks and copyright; lifestyle; NGOs and development cooperation are just some of our areas of expertise. Don’t see yours on the list? Ask away! Our network is vast. Whatever your domain, we are sure to have the right professional for you.

Is that all? No, of course not! Whilst a good translation mainly comes down to choosing the right translator, the process can be broken down into 3 stages :

1. 1. Having the source document edited by a linguist possessing the 3 qualities described above. A good quality original guarantees a good quality translation too. We also revise, with your agreement of course, your source document to hunt down every single typo. For more information on this step, see here.

    

   2. The translation itself, by a translator who possesses the three qualities described above: native speaker, translation expert, specialist in your field. Every day we translate into and out of the main European languages (French, Dutch, English, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Danish…) but try running an unusual combination by us: we enjoy a challenge!

    

   3. The translation is revised by a second linguist who will ensure that the style flows, will pick out any typos and any possible minor errors. Because no one is infallible, but your communications have to be flawless, this two-stage approval of the text offers you a seal of quality !

All of this is facilitated by use of cutting-edge IT applications. We are not talking here about automatic translation software but about translation memories which store previous translations and produce them when the same segments of text come up in a later translation. This ensures the consistent use of style and terminology across all of your documents.

And as a bonus, you have a single point of contact when managing your project from the initial contact through to the aftersales service. You benefit from perfect knowledge of your dossier as well as solid experience in the translation sector. Don’t hesitate to send us details of your project; we would be more than happy to discuss it with you!