Translation FAQ

When discussing a new project with you, one important factor we consider is your target audience. Knowing your audience’s country of origin will help us customize word choices when different terms are used in different countries. Think Spanish for Mexico versus Spanish for Spain. Chinese for China versus Chinese for Taiwan. Demographics like your average reader’s education level guide us to choose words that are more or less complex and properly adapted to your reader’s level of comprehension. For instance, many of our customers would like their translations to be read by Spanish-speakers in the Pacific NW. This immigrant community is primarily from Mexico (with some Guatemalans and Salvadorans) and has an average fifth-grade education level (range: illiterate to university diploma). Armed with this knowledge, we will not choose vocabulary and a writing style more suited to Chilean university graduates.

 

Additionally it is important for us to know whether the translations will be used in court, for immigrations purposes, or for job or university applications. In each of these special cases the translations may need to be accompanied by special certificates of accuracy or performed by a court-approved translator.