Why You Should Be Wary of Cheap Translation

As with any service, most clients want high quality, a short turnaround and, ideally, a low price. But this is where the so-called project triangle comes in: fast, good, cheap, pick two. And the "slow, good and cheap" option rarely applies to translation. In my experience there have been very few orders with an open deadline where I could take all the time I wanted.

So a translation can be done fast and well, but then it costs more, because a qualified translator's work isn't cheap. Or it can be done fast and cheap by an inexperienced beginner, which always shows in the quality.

Tight deadlines or limited budgets often push clients toward the cheaper, faster option without considering that a cheap translation is almost always mediocre. As the saying goes, buy cheap, buy twice. When clients cut corners on translation, many of them underestimate what an inaccurate or wrong translation can cost.

One misplaced comma can change the meaning of a sentence, one extra decimal point in a figure can cause losses in the millions, and a wrongly prescribed drug because of an inaccurate translation can cost a patient their life. So before you order a cheap translation, ask yourself whether you're ready for the consequences.

Translation is a service

Clients also often treat translation as a product rather than a service, which is fundamentally wrong. This may be because the client doesn't see the actual process and simply receives a document, which naturally feels like a product. In reality, translation is a complex intellectual process that requires not only knowledge of two languages but special translation skills, command of the grammar and style of both the source and target languages, and knowledge of the subject. If you choose a cheap translation, don't expect it to be done by a professional translator.

Translation is an investment

If you run a business and want to grow, you've probably thought about translation: your marketing materials and brochures, your corporate website or documents for working with foreign partners. Most entrepreneurs see translation as an expense. But if you look at it as an investment, it becomes clear that a quality translation earns more trust from partners and potential customers than a cheap, amateurish one. A poor translation is more likely to scare customers away and make them doubt your company's competence. You may not only end up paying twice, but also miss out on a profitable partnership because you saved on translation.

Agencies that translate everything

Many translation agencies promise to translate texts of any complexity from almost any language into almost any other, fast, well and cheap, and try to make a profit by processing as many orders as possible. With this approach it's hard to talk about high quality. Such agencies often have high staff turnover, largely because of low pay, and few of them can afford to employ professional translators for even 15 or 20 languages. So expecting your text to be translated by a top professional makes little sense. At best, it will go to an in-house translator who has to translate everything and doesn't specialize in any subject, or to a freelancer if the language pair is rare. Careful editing is usually out of the question: the work is run like a production line, and no self-respecting linguist will check a translation in a rare language pair for what such agencies pay.

That said, if you need a passport or similar documents translated from a template, with no special knowledge required, such an agency will do just fine.

But if you need a professional premium translation you won't be embarrassed to show your business partners and that a native speaker will truly understand, your best option is a small boutique agency that specializes in one language pair, or a freelance translator who specializes in your subject.

Conclusion

Of course, in most cases budget is the deciding factor when choosing a translation provider, and in tough times many people try to save on everything. But remember that by saving on translation you seriously risk getting a text of dubious quality that your target audience simply won't understand. So before you choose the cheapest option, ask yourself: are you ready to lose your customers' trust, pay twice or miss a promising partnership?