Says about your translation company of choice.
Here’s a website providing certified Japanese translation with good reads.
Certified translation?
Embassies and immigration departments (depending on which agency handles such matters, which is often different from country-to-country) want to ensure that translated personal legal documents have been accurately translated. In other words, they require Japanese English translation be certified -authenticated- as accurate by the translating company. Generally, official and legal documents translated & certified include:
- Birth certificates,
- Divorce certificates,
- Driver's licenses,
- Family registers,
- Marriage certificates,
- Residency certificates,
- etc.
But this translation article is not about certified translation. I want to draw your attention to a particular article on the site:
The long & short of it is that a client ordered a translation; however, the translating company refused to certify the translation, which rendered the translation useless for the client’s purpose – certified translation for a visa application.
The reason why the translating company refused to certify the translation is because they use poor quality machine translation. The result is that the client was forced to ask Translation Services Tokyo in Japan to redo the translation. This is the cost to the client to get that job done properly, first time round:
- 100% cost increase
- Delayed travel (at least the application wasn’t rejected!)
And, therein is the message I would like you to take away from the article:
When you prioritize translation cost over quality, you invariably end up paying more, much more at the end of the day.
Now, obviously you don’t need to pay high street prices for quality Japanese translation services; however, below a certain rate, you do need to be aware that it’s not possible to get quality translation. I mean, who but the most unqualified translators editing machine translation are going to accept work at such ridiculously low rates?
What constitutes a ridiculously low rate?
That’s a good question, because, truth be had, nobody really knows. But, there’s one surefire method to find out. That is,
Get at least 3 quotes from 3 different professional translation services.
This will not only help you identify suspiciously low rates -which indicates that the company is using poor quality translation tools & methods- it will also help you identify the rate that’s best for your budget.
Need more pointers to cost effective, quality translation? Then take a look at the &DISCUSS blog on the Translation Services in Tokyo website