I firmly believe that the quality of a translation provided by a good, trained, specialised, professional, independent/freelance, human translator will always be unmatched. Here’s why.

Why do we still need human translators?

Let’s start by defining a human translator, because not everyone can do it. Speaking a couple of languages isn’t enough, being “bilingual” isn’t enough: it requires training, practice, a thorough understanding of the original and target audience and a polished approach with an eye for detail and firm research skills. That’s what makes the difference between a text that has been translated – where you can tell – and a true translation, which should slip by unseen.

Machines are getting better. We all know it. Technology is able to streamline and improve the translation process, and may even be able to match untrained, unpolished translations but is unlikely to ever replace real human translators. Why? Translation is not simply transposing words and structures from one language to another, but rather reading and understanding a whole text in its context in order to transmit its message, its ideas, its inner meaning. Translation, like language, is inextricable from culture – a translator needs to understand both the culture of the source language as well as their own in order to know what needs tweaking, how to transform implicit references for one culture to explicit ones for the other in order to produce a text that that is fully accessible for its target audience. After all, language is just a vector to meaning, meaning transcends language and translation therefore goes beyond the words that a machine could recognise.

Your text was written by a human who made choices to say things in a certain way for a particular reason. Why should your translation be any different?

Why should you work with a freelancer over an agency?

There is an increasing number of bigger and broader agencies out there offering all kinds of translation services, and they do provide a certain level of convenience, particular for companies requiring simultaneous translations into dozens of languages or working in multiple different fields. The translation requester in these cases does not have to build up a relationship with their translators, nor take part in their administration or pay.

Such a simplified process does have its merits, but there are some pretty big trade‑offs for this to be aware of. First, it is the epitome of quantity over quality. Huge structures seeking permanent growth need non‑stop projects executed rapidly so they can take their profits and move on to the next one. Their networks of hundreds or thousands of translators mean they can take any project at any time, but this also means that if you have long‑term or multiple projects, many different translators might work on them, resulting in consistency issues and instructions that have to be repeated. Finally, it is said that there is no better reader than a translator – a good translator will likely ask questions about your text, may need to clarify certain points or might have suggestions for improvement. The human chain of big agency workflows results in a multiplicity of short-term steps and middlemen, meaning such questions and improvements are likely to be lost before they get back to you – if they were even raised at all.

Only by choosing to work with an individual can you receive a proper, sustainable, personalised service, where your specific needs, comments, choices and desires come first consistently throughout the whole relationship. Remember: a good translation is a tailored service for which your translator should work with you, not for you.