Introduction

Nederlands

Our translation agency specializes in Japanese, Chinese, English and Dutch. Unlike the majority of translation agencies, we do not specialize in all languages and all subject areas. People who claim to specialize in everything, specialize in nothing.

We are certainly not the cheapest translation agency in the world, either. There are plenty of agencies who are willing to outsource their translation work to sweatshops in developing countries and charge 5 cents for the privilege. Given that Japanese is all Chinese to you, the results look impressive. Google Translate provides a free translation service. To see how well this free service works, we translated the above lines into Japanese, and then back into English again.

当社の翻訳会社を専門に、日本語、中国語、英語、オランダ語。翻訳会社の大半とは異なり、我々すべての言語で、すべての対象地域特化しないでください。人のすべてを専門と主張する人々は、何に特化。

Looks good! So what does it actually say? Let's run it through Google Translate again... Our company specializes in translation, Japanese, Chinese, English, Dutch. Unlike the majority of translation companies and we all languages, please do not target any specific area. People believe that all professional people, dedicated to anything.

What an outstanding visiting card. You, the customer, now have the fullest confidence in our organization. Are you trembling with excitement at the thought of outsourcing your translation work to us?

We doubt it. So, would such a text appeal to your customers in Japan? Your translation is your company's first visiting card. The quality of that visiting card is intrinsically associated with the quality of your product. High time you set to work to find a good translation agency that you can trust.

How to find a good translation agency

You are undoubtedly familiar with the unintelligible instructions supplied with your washing machine or washer dryer. The original Dutch or Korean version probably makes more sense than the English translation! How come?

Types of agencies

Firstly, it is important to make a distinction between translation agencies and translators. Translation agencies tend to employ so-called Project Managers who outsource translation projects. Translators, on the other hand, are individuals who will only accept work if they are genuinely able to translate the project in question. A combination of the two is also possible, i.e. agencies that translate and outsource translation projects.

The outsourcing of projects is the key problem. Outsourcing has become child's play in today's global economy, with sites such as www.proz.com offering a database of thousands of translators. This does not solve your problem, however. Anyone can claim to be a professional translator. This does not mean to say however that the result is universally consistent. In 90% of cases, the result is nothing less than disastrous.

You will hardly notice this at first. Until the complaints come flooding in. The consequences are incalculable: your customers will abandon you, because they associate the quality of the translation with the quality of your product. Your customers will abandon you, because they feel they are not being taken seriously.

Anyone can claim to be a professional translator. After all, the translation profession is not regulated. An individual's educational background only counts for so much. An individual's experience only counts for so much. References may sound impressive, but may not be genuine. A translator must be familiar with the material and have affinity with the language. In this unregulated world, "cheapest" is not necessarily "best".

The translation must be thoroughly checked and proofread. And this is where we separate the Good from the Bad. Some agencies carry out this procedure better than others. Broadly speaking, we can distinguish three types of agencies:

1. The Middle Man
These agencies only do what you could do yourself: they select a number of translators, outsource the work and return the work to you. They add a generous margin on top of the purchase price. This effectively means you spend a considerable amount of money without being offered any genuine added value.

2. The Better Agency
Where possible, these agencies try to check and proofread the outsourced work themselves. This may be acceptable for more common languages such as English and German, but well-nigh impossible for more exotic languages such as Japanese. These agencies tend not to employ a team of 'permanent' in-house Japanese translators, as Japanese translation work is rarely requested. These agencies therefore act as The Middle Man for exotic languages. Whether or not a language is deemed exotic naturally depends on the languages in which the agency specializes.

3. The Too-Good-To-Be-True Agency
These agencies check and proofread all returned translations. They are able to do this for all 5,000 languages of the world. Surely there must be a catch? And there is. The average agency only employs 5 to 20 people. This means that the average in-house translator has managed to master no fewer than 250 languages! Even if the agency were to have the quality checked and proofread externally, it is highly unlikely that it has a permanent and reliable network at its disposal, simply by virtue of the fact that certain language combinations are only requested sporadically.

In a nutshell, Agency No. 3 does not exist. For you, the customer, it is therefore important to know in which languages the agency genuinely specializes, and in which languages it does not. Can the agency vouch for the quality of its translations? This is the main question to ask a translation agency, be it Akebono or another agency: which languages do you check and proofread personally, which methods do you deploy, to what extent is the work proofread (word for word or skim-read) and is this work conducted by a professional translator who is a genuine native speaker of the target language?

Akebono Translation Service specializes in English, Dutch, Japanese and Chinese. All translations from and into these languages are carried out by us personally, or checked and proofread by us personally. Word for word, by professional translators who are native speakers of the target language. Per language combination, please feel free to ask us about our working methods. We will be honest.

Yes, we are honest. For all other languages, it is best to contact another agency. Not many agencies would be happy to disclose the above information.

10 euro discount for each mistake found

Furthermore, we are good at what we do. We personally vouch for the quality of our translations. For every mistake you find, you will be rewarded with a 10 euro discount.* Dare you ask another agency for such a generous gesture? Chances are you will be in for a rude awakening.

So, does this mean that we are perfect? No, of course not. After all, you cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs, and we deliver human translations, done by humans. Nevertheless, our strict quality controls mean that mistakes are extremely rare. Thankfully, we seldom need to give away 10 euro.

Quality versus a fixed point of contact

The dilemma facing customers is this: the more an agency specializes, the fewer languages it can offer. Conversely, the more languages an agency offers, the greater the risk that quality may be impaired. The word 'specialization' says it all. By definition, if an agency specializes in everything, it is fair to say it doesn't specialize at all.

If you want the best quality, you should manage your own translation agency. Only then are you guaranteed to be in full control of the end product. You send your French translations to Agency A, your Russian translations to agency B, your Japanese translations to agency C, etc.

This may however not always be feasible. After all, you have better things to do than check whether everyone is doing their job properly and is meeting deadlines. The other extreme, using one single agency, is more time efficient but not cost effective.

You need to strike the right balance between quality and time. We cannot do this for you. You will need to work that out for yourself. However, at least you now have the requisite knowledge to help you on your way!

Disclaimer
Akebono Translation Service's liability for errors and omissions is restricted to correcting the work we have performed, free of charge. Our liability shall in no case exceed the value of the work performed. All liability for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages is excluded. Nevertheless the greatest care is taken to ensure the accuracy of our translations.

* Only applies to grammar and spelling errors in English, Dutch, Japanese and Chinese translations. Does not apply to value judgments about style.