Our world has become more interconnected than ever, and this means that the commercial success of your endeavors can nowadays be influenced by more than the preferences of your local target audiences. Are you the administrator of an SME present in Spain, and are you looking for market expansion opportunities in the UK or the United States? Do you think your services will translate well to the interests of international clients, and the only thing left to do is adapt your promotional messages and website to the linguistic preferences of your new audience? In such a case, you are probably interested in discovering the factors that can determine the translation rates offered by linguistic interpretation agencies.
17% of the world’s population speaks English and is therefore interested in products and services available in this language. Do you want to expand your business operations to a whole new level and gain access to international audiences that might be interested in the offers presented by your private organization? If so, investing in certified translations might be one of the most financially wise decisions you can make for the down-the-road development of your venture. Sure, the translation rates for the contracted linguistic interpretation services will not always be in line with your expectations. However, in the long run, the ROI you can expect will, in almost all cases, be substantial.
What Determines Translation Rates?
In short? The source language of the input texts and the complexity of the information presented in them. Translation between languages with intense international circulation, such as Spanish or English, will be significantly cheaper, for example, than interpreting a text from a non-romance language like Arabic. The agency-requested translation rates will, ultimately, depend on the availability of linguistic interpreters for the selected languages and the characteristics of the document being analyzed.
Do you want, for instance, to get your Bengali-written PhD thesis translated into English? If so, you will need to find a translation agency that employs a native speaker of Bengali with a deep knowledge of the technical jargon utilized in the academic medium. Plus, for official documents that need to be admissible in a professional setting, the text’s linguistic adaptations can only be performed by ISO-17100:2015 certified translators, who can guarantee the quality of their work via an official seal.
What Will the Translation Rates Be?
That’s the million-dollar question. However, it’s hard to establish a set price, even if most translation projects are calculated based on a set per-word cost that’s simultaneously influenced by the documentation source. Yet, to set a baseline, translations between English and Spanish will typically cost between $0.090 and $0.125 per word. In contrast, translations between English and non-romans languages, such as Japanese, might cost upwards of $0.19 per word. These costs, however, will be affected by the complexity of the source document and its total word count.
Do you need, for example, to translate all of your blog articles from your native language to English? If so, the price necessary for the project’s completion could be negotiated. Do you need a certified translation for documents related to the medical or judiciary field? If so, the agency you are contacting might pose additional charges, depending on the document’s complexity. It’s also worth noting that in the case of certified translations, the total cost of the project could, in some cases, be calculated via a flat rate. Translation rates depend on multiple factors. However, as a general rule, the more exotic the language, the more expensive the performed work will be.
Why Should You Only Use Human Translators?
In the last couple of years, AI-assisted translation applications have gone through significant transformations and are now sufficiently advanced to handle the linguistic conversion of low-priority texts without risking significant interpretation errors. That said, even though AI-powered translation programs have become commonplace, their overall capabilities are still no match for the skills and experience of a professional translator. At least for now, in 2024, we humans are still better at understanding the hidden context behind the interpreted texts, and we can avoid making 1/1 translations that might miss the overall intent of the source texts.
As humans, we can understand the cultural nuances behind the source documentation, and we can tailor our work to suit the interests of the target readers. We are (at least for now) better at understanding abstract texts, we are more familiar with regional idioms, and we possess specialized knowledge about the subjects debated in the papers you need interpreting. That’s not to say that ISO-certified translation agencies don’t use computer-assisted translations in their day-to-day operations. Yet, as a general rule, regardless of the tools they use, the final revision of the translated documentation will always be performed manually by a translator with specialized knowledge about the subject matter presented in the analyzed text.
Quality and Accuracy: The Ingredients Behind Excellent Translations
Professional translations can positively impact your international expansion ambitions, help your offers and products become visible in multi-linguistic markets, and build the reputation of your private organization in sectors different than your home-country industry. But it’s not all about marketing. Do you want to operate legally in another country and migrate a part of your business operations from your homeland to a new territory? In such a case, your documentation will need to be interpreted by a licensed agency that will guarantee the accuracy of the work performed with an official certification.
Certified translations, performed by licensed agencies, are required if you are trying to submit legal documentation such as academic diplomas or ownership contracts, and the legal framework of the territory you are migrating to requires all official documents uploaded by foreign entities to be translated into the official language of the country. Certified translations are not necessary for low-complexity operations such as the linguistic interpretation of promotional messages or marketing texts. However, for official documents, the utilization of such services will be essential to make the paperwork recognized by the authorities.