“How can I be assured that the translation of my medical documents will be accurate?”

This is one of the most common questions in the language translation industry. A three-step process is a great way to help you rest assured.

Step 1: Sound Beginnings

An accurate language translation service offering quality assurance will pull from a deep pool of experts whose translate into their respective native languages. The human element is key to the process running smoothly. Translation by computers — better known as machine translation — can produce the following concerns:

Machines are built to translate language as a commodity. It is programmed to view word meaning on a limited basis which is, not conducive to the way the human mind operates.

Human cognition can handle varied interpretations of words, phrases, and sentence structure. The mind considers the totality of a sentence, or the sum of its parts. In contrast, machines often treat each word as an individual whole regardless of the words that surround it.

A machine’s translation of a phrase or sentence often produces incoherent and awkward text. Example: The traditional Chinese translation of “Caution! Wet Floor” would be “Slip and Fall Down Carefully.” In the medical industry, this could translate to “disaster.”

Step 2: You Can’t Be Too Careful

While a translation by a native speaker is a good start for ensuring accuracy, an editing process is necessary to catch problems that might otherwise go unnoticed. An accurate language translation edit should consist of the following:

Native speaking translator offering a “second opinion” of the translation draft, finding errors and other types of inaccuracies in an effort to further clarify the document.

Technical prowess: The document is combed through and searched for grammatical mistakes and punctuation errors, further solidifying the quality of the translation.

Step 3: The Final Review

Quality assurance is a must for achieving accurate language translation. The last thing you’ll want printed on materials that represent your company is a flaw. A project manager, who oversees the entire project, finalizes the language translation to deliver an error-free document. Additional steps may also be taken:

Glossaries: Standardized terms and definitions of a company’s approved translations.

Style Guides: Creation of a template that maintains the image and voice of a company.

In-Country/In-House Review: Having a speaker of the target language on the client side review the translation.

Accurate language translation cannot be simplified like products and services of commodity. With the concepts, language rules, basic linguistic units, and other nuances of language translation, you’ll want to be sure that you can trust your translation service. The three-step process of translation, editing, and proofreading ensure that the message you want to convey is the one being conveyed.

Having answered so many questions, here’s one for you. With your company’s image at stake, why would you trust anything else?