When deciding on a document translation, there are several things to take into consideration. Which language your business or product is targeting and what is the cultural and social context for the country or countries you are targeting, among others. Many company owners of small businesses look internally to their own staff for language translations. This method however may back fire, which could cost your business more money than what it would cost to hire a professional translation service to translate a document properly the first time.

Would you let a bad writer write your operation\’s manual? It is no different with a language translator since they do not depend exclusively on their bilingual skills; they are professionals with extensive training and experience. In the United States many businesses depend on their international markets and having a document translated professional will facilitate things like customer relationships, training, meetings, and contracts.

The second most commonly spoken language in the United States is Spanish. Many companies find it helpful to translate document to Spanish especially in states like California, New Mexico and Texas, but it is important to realize that there are many different dialects of Spanish, depending on the national origin of the Spanish-speaking population in a given area. The largest single ethnic group in the U.S. is German and the German language and it ranks among the top six most spoken languages in the USA. Statistics such as these can help you in deciding the language or languages you’d like to use to your benefit when having any document translations done. The following is a list of the top languages spoken in the United States:

1. English is primarily spoken in over 82% of American homes.
2. Spanish is the second most spoken language in the U.S. with 28 million native speakers.
3. French is spoken in 1.6 million American homes.
4. More than one million Americans regularly speak each of the following languages at home:

◦ German
◦ Italian
◦ Mandarin Chinese is the dialect of Chinese most often spoken in both the United States. There are more than one billion Chinese speaking people in the world today.

Who is your document translation going to be geared toward?

Many companies need a document to be translated into more than just one dialect or language. For instance, oil and gas companies are many times huge international corporations with offices in several different countries. Perhaps you are a smaller manufacturing firm and need a product manual translated in several different languages– professional translation companies have skilled professionals knowledgeable in a variety of fields who can provide a great professional service.

Perhaps you need a team of language translators to work on several documents for several languages; these are all instances where you may not want to look internally, choosing instead to hire experts to help your company thrive in the international world and reach a much larger market.

Document translation is a great way to expand you your business to other countries. Even though English is the predominant language used in the business world, many business people realize that English is not the ONLY language and use translation as a method to get products and services to overseas markets. Just because someone is fluent in a language doesn’t mean that their proficiency is such that they can understand all the nuances, details, and legalities of an international business agreement. You won’t want to risk the success of your business dealings when an established translation agency can target the language of your document translations to the dialect your associates speak and understand best.

Lastly customs and dialect should be considered, as they add difficulty to the translation process. When making legal translations, it is not a word to word translation. Social customs and culture, even legal systems in that country, also need to be considered in translating to make sure that the legal documents are translated properly. In cases where a legal document needs translating it is highly recommended that you hire a professional.

Author Bio: Language Translation is an expert in language translation , document translation services and business translation

Category: Business
Keywords: language translation, document translation, medical translation, legal translation,