5 Important Key Factors to Consider When Hiring Chinese Translators

Without a doubt, the removal of COVID-19 limitations has put China’s economy on the road to recovery and China’s GDP is predicted by the IMF to increase by 5.2% in 2023. That is why every translation company should work with professional Chinese translators, with the aim of providing high-quality translation projects for any business targeting Chinese area.

Today’s blog post will list five necessary criteria to choose the most skillful Chinese translation providers for your projects.

1. Language Proficiency Of Chinese Translators

The most important characteristics of a good Chinese translator are proficiency in the languages and their ability to translate between languages with ease. 

As Chinese has long been regarded as one of the hardest languages to translate. Here are a few key aspects that you might consider when evaluating the Chinese language competence of any linguistics.

1.1. Chinese Idioms

The Chinese language features idioms (Chengyu) that are infused with culture and tradition, as does any language. If you want the best Chinese translation services, the translation must be well-versed in idiom usage.

In order to translate quickly and accurately, Chinese translators stay current on commonly used colloquial idioms. The best option is to go with native Chinese speakers who have had extensive training in translation.

1.2. Sentence Structure Understanding

Working on sentence structures is essential for getting the most accurate translation possible. In Chinese, a complicated sentence is made up of several short sentences. Therefore, translators need to have a thorough comprehension of Chinese phrase structures in order to accurately convey the meaning.

1.3. Grammar Structure Knowledge

The syntax of the Chinese language is still another difficult factor. For example, Chinese nouns don’t have single and plural versions as they do in other languages like English. How well a Chinese translator handles the grammatical portion of a sentence during translation influences the quality of the translation.

2. Cultural Competence 

Since the translated material must be adequately adjusted for its Chinese audience’s cultural background, the Chinese translator should know how to research, make detailed notes on the subject, and ensure that no feature of the translation may offend or mislead the reader when it comes to Chinese cultural appropriateness.

One example is about the face and reputation between China and the U.S. In China, a person’s reputation is highly significant. An activity is avoided if it would make someone look bad or damage their reputation. When shame strikes, the victim gives up their work or whatever else will help the situation. In the United States, reputations may change overnight and are typically unimportant; instead, the attention is primarily on the outcome. A person is more inclined to disregard their reputation in order to complete the task.

As you can see, achieving cultural appropriateness adds to the complexity of the translation process. This also implies that a translator must be native-like proficient in two or more languages and have a thorough understanding of both the source and destination cultures.

3. Subject Matter Expertise

Numerous Chinese translators attempt to specialize in particular sectors because various industries need specialized translation services. They identify themselves in accordance with language- and industry-specific requirements.

The common industries that might need Chinese translation are: 

• Medical and Healthcare: Translations for medical equipment product descriptions, prescriptions, drug labels, or lab report content are necessary.
• Business and Finance: Chinese translation services are frequently required by financial institutions including banks, insurance firms, and funding organizations in order to grow their operations internationally and engage with overseas partners and customers.
• Technical and Engineering: When working with international clients, technical documents like user guides, manuals, and building project plans require correct translation by translators who have experience in the sector. 
• IT and Software: It’s a brilliant idea to increase your sales by releasing your program in China’s language, and also take some of their market shares.
• Website: Your business will expand at an astounding rate if you translate your website into Mandarin. 

Through their specialty, Chinese translators have their own knowledge of the subject matter they are translating, and their ability to translate without altering the meaning of what is being said.

4. Ability To Deal With Technology and Tools

Experienced Chinese translators must know how to improve their translations by using a variety of CAT tools. The following are a few CAT programs that a translator could use:

• Software for language search engines: This program functions like a search engine, but instead of looking over the Internet, it looks through already translated material to locate passages that correspond to a source document.
• Software for translation memory: Translation units are where paired passages of text and their translators, translation memory software can help automate a portion of the translation process are kept.
• Software for managing terminology: This program keeps terminology in databases that translators can access while translating written and spoken communications.

5. Professionalism and Ethics

Communication skills and the ability to accept criticism are crucial for Chinese translators to have since they eventually improve their work and convey the best ideas. And the most important thing is integrity. 

The ideal translator is truthful. This characteristic mostly relates to how they set their prices. Setting cheap charges to draw in more customers may at first seem like a smart plan, especially for independent translators. In the long term, nevertheless, they end up hurting themselves by doing this. This is due to the possibility that other translators would cut their rates to compete, pressuring the translator to further cut costs.

A great Chinese translation must offer top-notch services within a reasonable pricing range. Prices can vary depending on a translator’s level of education, experience, and the difficulty of the language pair and the material. Good translators are skilled at finding the ideal balance between cost and quality.

In short

We can all notice the need for excellent Chinese translators has grown as China continues to draw in more foreign commerce, but it is crucial to choose translators who possess the greatest skills.

GTE Localize has worked with native Chinese translators with experience in a variety of fields to give you a faultless, personalized translation in the dialect of your choice.

We offer Chinese translation services for multiple types of information, such as websites, papers, e-learning courses, etc. with the target of giving you trustworthy results quickly and at a reasonable cost. 

Contact us immediately to get the free test and the best quote!