Your Bilingual Employee Is Not Your Translator

It may be tempting to use your bilingual employee as your translator instead of contacting a professional. After all, your employee knows the language. However, there are multiple reasons why your bilingual staff should not be used for translation unless they are professional translators.

The first reason is the simplest: that isn’t the job you hired them for. You hired them to do accounting, marketing, project management, or some other job in which they have expertise. Just because they have experience speaking another language doesn’t mean that they have the know-how to properly translate any and all materials you would need translated. Additionally, since they are busy with other tasks, they likely won’t be able to get the document or materials translated in the proper amount of time.

Another reason is that they aren’t professionals. They likely don’t know how to do any professional level desktop publishing tasks, and they probably don’t use CAT tools to assist with translation. For quick and short translations, this may not be an issue, but the bigger the project, the less likely it is that your bilingual employee is equipped to handle the work, efficiently.

Depending on how much you pay your employee, having them spend long hours trying to figure out what takes a professional a much shorter period of time, using your employees might actually be the most expensive way to get the job done.

Depending on the employee’s background, they may also be missing the cultural context to be able to translate into the other language. Professional translators are often located in the target country and have all the cultural knowledge to be able to provide you with a flawless translation. Good language service providers have a pool of translators who can fit any occasion and culture.

The most important reason to not use your bilingual employee as a translator is that they may not have expertise in the domain in which you’re translating. If you need life science translation, you could be opening yourself up to liability through an inaccurate translation and potential HIPAA/patient confidentiality issues. Even if it’s just your marketing materials that need to be translated, your bilingual employee likely isn’t a marketing expert and likely isn’t able to convey the exact tone and message in their other language.

For all but the most trivial of matters, trust a language service provider or translation professional to handle your translations. They will ensure your project has high accuracy and meets your standards. Contact us today for a free, no obligation quote for any translation project.