1. Ignoring Hispanic, Latin, and International Markets on an online world. In today’s world we need to reach out and expand into international markets to grow and expand our business. We also need to use multimedia in our target markets.
2. Expecting everyone to speak or communicate in English. Our world is more International than ever in scope, and clients appreciate when you communicate their own language, especially when it comes to money and health.
3. Using Machine Translation. Artificial intelligence has yet to surpass or equal the human brain. In medical, legal, or technical translation, correct terminology can make an important difference, especially with a good first impression.
4. Using your in house staff to translate, or not having bi-lingual in house staff. This save money but can result in miscommunication, embarrassing mistakes, or loss of clients or business.
5. Not using professionally trained translators, paying attention to language pairs. Be careful into whose hands you place your information and customers. A computer and dictionary does not make a translator. A university certification can take 3 to 4 years. Ideally you want an ATA accredited or University certified translator with a track record and specialization. Regarding language pairs, English into Spanish, or Spanish into English, (for example), not all translators are skilled in both pairs. Native speaking ability and the number of years a translator has worked in a host country environment, have significant impact.
6. Not using specialized translators or engaging a custom agency versus a large agency that manages your project with translation software using many translators, can impact style and continuity. Literary quality and polished language make a favorable impact. It is significantly more painful to discover problems further down the road.
7. Not having a professional editor. Does your translation read like an original document? How does it back-translate? How do you know what you are really getting as a finished product?
8. Putting your translations out for bid: Cheap is Expensive. Projects are more difficult to manage over international boundaries. Again, see item 7.
9. Nuances, specialized vocabulary and usage, implies years of specialized experience and research. Beware of translators that are more interest in volume, than in quality. The best translators are willing to thoroughly research your material, and can document and back up their work.
10. Localization versus a Neutral Spanish. Neutral Spanish can be used across the Spanish-speaking world. With Chinese for instance, one needs to know whether to use Taiwan Chinese and the right character set, or if Cantonese is called for in a translation.
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