If you’re looking to hire an English-Portuguese translator there are a few things that you should know first. While there are many companies out there that can help you translate from English to Portuguese, or from Portuguese to English, not all of them are created equal.
The purpose of this article is to share with you some insider tips about how English-Portuguese translation works, so that you can make a more informed decision about which translator to hire. These tips come from a translator who has been working in Brazil for several years, translating projects for multinational corporations as well as more informal translation jobs for smaller media outlets.
Let’s start with the basics.
What kind of document are you translating?
The type of document being translated, and who it is going to read it is the most important thing that a translator has to consider. Many of the documents that clients request us to translate pertain to a very specific industry and involve a lot of technical terms. Furthermore, there is a certain style of presentation that has to be kept intact when translating from English to Portuguese.
These factors have to be accounted for when making the translation, and often require the translator to do additional research to better understand the worldview of the person who wrote the original document. Depending on the length of the document and how technical the text is, this can add a significant amount of time to the translation job.
When hiring a translator you need to be aware that if your document seems complicated, it might create complications during the course of the job. If the translator has never worked with that type of document before then it may take them additional time. If they have a lot of experience they should be able to tell you how much extra time their research process will add to the project.
Even better yet would be to hire a translator who has a lot of experience translating that type of document. What may be complicated for one translator could be the bread and butter for another. It can be difficult to find an industry specific translator on the internet, but taking the extra time to find one could make a big difference for the quality of your finished product.
How quickly do you need the document translated?
If you don’t budget enough time for the translation to be finished then the final product isn’t going to be very good. Some clients come to us expecting a 100 page technical document to be translated in a few days. This just isn’t reasonable. While it is certainly possible to get a translation done in that time, assuming a smart team is working together and doesn’t sleep, there is a cost to doing translations this way.
When the client doesn’t give the translator enough time to do their job properly they have to make sacrifices in one way or another. As part of our process we like to double, triple, quadruple and quintuple check our translations over the course of several days to ensure the highest quality of our work. When we don’t have time over several days to go back over what we’ve translated, it decreases the quality of our work.
While the first or second draft that we translate is generally correct, it usually isn’t up to the professional standards that our clients are expecting. By the third or fourth revision of a document we are able to produce a work that matches the original in terms of quality and consistency of the authors voice.
On behalf of all translators everywhere, please don’t wait until the last minute before you hire a translator for a big project.
Where is this going to be read?
Another question we like to ask is where is this going to be read? Is it going to be posted on the internet? Is it going to be shared internally amongst a corporation?
Where and how the final product is going to be consumed determines the final voice that the document should be read in. This knowledge allows us to make subtle changes in word choice and grammar so that the final product fits perfectly in with what people are expecting.
Looking for a Portuguese-English Translator?
After reading all of that you’re probably wondering, well that all sounds great, how can I hire you?
Well at this moment I’m not currently taking on any new translation clients, but I can recommend some companies for you to work with.
Here are a few places where you can find Portuguese-English translations.