Be it in Singapore or worldwide, translation as a profession remains a mystery to many.

When I say mystery, I don’t mean that there’s an unexplainable force, like magic, involved in the job.  I’m pertaining to people’s incomprehension towards it, which very often leads to moments of raised eyebrows or increased misconceptions. How many times have we professional translators heard things like “Translation doesn’t require a professional to do it, right?”, or “It’s just a few words, why do you need so long?”?  In an attempt to clear up the swirling fog clouding our profession, below is  a little Q&A  to address some common myths.

1. Why must I engage a professional translator? Can’t I just use machine translation?

We wouldn’t totally say  ‘no’ to machine translation because it is still useful in some cases. For example, let’s say you’re  doing  a bit of online shopping and decide to clarify with the seller before making a  purchase. The seller  replies swiftly, but in a foreign language. In this case, machine translation helps because the translation only serves as a general interpretation of the source content, and the possible weird sentence structures or irrelevant wordings are relatively harmless..

So when should you engage a professional translator? In our opinion, if it is anything official and  not meant  for your eyes only, go to a professional.

2. What is a reasonable translation rate?

Translation rate often varies due to the deviation in content nature, text length, and delivery time. Apart from these, translators may also use different approaches to determine the final quote: utilizing the per-word or per-page rate methods, or viewing it as a whole project.. Some may charge as low as 5 cents per word yet some may go as high as 35 cents per word. The point  is there is no hard rule to determine  reasonable rates. As long as the client finds the translation  satisfying  and worth the cost, that would most likely be a  reasonable rate.

3. Why do you need so much time for such a simple translation job?

In my years of doing translation, I have hardly ever  come across any translation work that was simple. To everyone  else, translation is usually deemed as one single task. Yet to any diligent translator, translation means reading (in detail), researching (relevant background), translating (the “real” job), proofreading (our translation), and editing (before delivery). This explains the seemingly enormous amount of time we need when it comes to translation.

4. The translation is not what I expected; it must be a bad translation.

Not necessarily.  If nine out of ten persons give a translation a thumbs-down, it is most likely a lacking piece of work. However, if you are the only one who does not seem to like it, this  may not necessarily mean it is bad. If a piece of translation appears to have abided by all the golden rules of  good translation and yet you do not find it satisfying, it couldmean that the translation style and your preference do not match, though it may still be a good piece of work. In this case, find yourself another translator the next time round.

 Visit Yiu Translation to find out more about Lee Ling’s work.

^{Edited by Michelle Sarthou
Image credit: Shuterstock}

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