Frequently asked questions

1. Who is entitled to call themselves a translator?

Since “translator” is not a legally protected profession, practically anyone can call themselves a translator. People from outside the profession will occasionally undertake translating work simply because they have a fairly good command of the language (e.g. they were brought up bilingually or have spent a long time abroad).

Having international experience and being bilingual are certainly very useful assets, but they are not enough unless backed up by linguistic training. (This is why native speakers who have lived in another country for a long time sometimes tend to get their expressions mixed up. They confuse English “eventual” and German “eventuell”, German “Beamer” and English "data projector" and call a "text message" an “SMS”, whereas American or British people would never use these terms.)

It is therefore extremely advisable to enquire about exact qualifications and experience when selecting a translator.

2. How can I recognise a professional translator?

Professional Translators

• have studied their profession and have the appropriate educational and professional qualifications.
• specialise in expert fields and prefer to turn down jobs in areas in which they have no expertise.
• have a profound knowledge of the cultural background of the country in question and make sure they keep up to date with language developments.
• usually only translate into their mother tongue (there may be a few exceptions here).

3. What is a typical price for a good translation?

The price for a translation is agreed upon between the client and translator based on either a rate per line or per word, or as an all-inclusive price. We take the source text as the basis for our calculations with the aim of creating absolute transparency for our client from the very start.

Quality has its price. Our maxim is: quality at an appropriate but fair price. Pricing based on varying quality levels is not to be recommended in our opinion (some of our competitors operate this way), since the margin between a slightly inaccurate translation and a completely wrong interpretation could be a very fine one indeed.

4. Do native speakers always produce the best translations?

A general condition for a good translation is the total comprehension of the source text. The German language is hard to master – a fact we Germans are often unaware of. Consequently, native speakers of another language may find difficulty in understanding all the nuances of a text with complex sentences, although they may have a reasonably good command of German.

For us there is only one solution: the skills of a native speaker are necessary for the source as well as for the target. This means native speakers of both languages working together in close collaboration – or at least in consultation with each other.

5. Why is quality so important?

You have put a lot of time and effort into creating your texts for contracts, websites, brochures etc. This is because you consider it important for the public to see you in a positive light. It takes an equal level of skill and diligence to translate your original text into another language if the original content and style are to be maintained.

6. Can I influence quality and price in any way as a customer?

You certainly can! In fact you are more than welcome to. You can be a tremendous help to us by providing as much background information as possible, e.g.:

• Company-internal glossaries or previous translations
• Further information / complementary material for the product / services you offer
• Information on your target group / audiences
• Details of how and where the translation will be used / published (website, advertising etc.)?
• Any preferences you may have concerning style (UK or USA English )?

7. Can a bilingual friend of mine not translate just as well - and even cheaper?

Even if someone has a perfect command of two languages, this is no guarantee that they can easily switch from one language to the other or convey the meaning of a text satisfactorily. It cannot be emphasised enough that in most cases a lay person is not able to compete with the experience and skills of an expert. Experience has shown us that translations by non-experts often need to be redone, which may mean the customer paying twice in the end.

8. What does computer-aided translation mean?

"CAT-Tools“ store segments of the source and target language which have previously been translated in a database and recognise similar sentences and expressions when they occur again in later additions or other documents. In such cases the CAT software submits a translation suggestion to the translator, which is a great help in ensuring consistency of terminology and style.

“Machine Translation“ (or “automatic translation“) refers to software applications which are programmed to analyse and split up the source text, translate the individual components, then assemble everything again in the target language. The problem with this method is that the nature of language is not static or purely logical. It is complex and context-dependent and may involve a number of possible meanings. Machine translations tend to make no sense at all. They are merely a 1 to 1 translation of vocabulary. This is in fact a recipe for disaster.

9. How do you guarantee the quality of your translations?

• We only employ native speakers for the source and target text
• We only accept orders we can handle professionally within our network of translators
• We work in close cooperation with the client and ask questions in order to ensure a clear understanding
• We make use of a large network of colleagues or forums to clarify unclear terminology

10. Must the translation be handed on to a copywriter?

We were surprised when a customer told us they had always gone to a copywriter to have their translations “brushed up”. In our opinion a good translation should be a final product which does not need any future improvement.

11. What happens if the translation is not up to my expectations?

In spite of all our diligence and efforts, discrepancies can still occur. In such cases we naturally carry out the necessary amendments free of charge (see our Terms and Conditions).

12. How secure are my documents?

We handle all texts with complete confidentiality and are sworn to secrecy in all matters which come to our knowledge in the course of our working relationship.