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ahi · 08-09-2009, 01:36 AM

Ideally, you should find a natively bilingual *writer to do your translations. A person who is better in English than in the target language will fail to translate things naturally, and a person who is worse in English than in the target language will fail to understand (and thus correctly translate) English idioms.

Huge pitfalls? Better make sure the person is both good and reliable before you commit yourself to paying any money. And ensure that there is clarity about ownership of rights.

You should probably also get several readers (who are native language speakers of the target language) to read the final product, and point out (and explain) mistakes to you. If they can find nothing great. If they can only find nitpicky stuff that isn't objectively wrong, good. If multiple readers keep offering the same better translation than what your translation went with... uh-oh!

- Ahi

* As in somehow who writes literature at least semi-professionally.

08-09-2009, 01:36 AM	#2
ahi Wizard Posts: 1,790 Karma: 507333 Join Date: May 2009 Device: none	Ideally, you should find a natively bilingual writer to do your translations. A person who is better in English than in the target language will fail to translate things naturally, and a person who is worse in English than in the target language will fail to understand (and thus correctly translate) English idioms. Huge pitfalls? Better make sure the person is both good and reliable before you commit yourself to paying any money. And ensure that there is clarity about ownership of rights. You should probably also get several readers (who are native language speakers of the target language) to read the final product, and point out (and explain) mistakes to you. If they can find nothing great. If they can only find nitpicky stuff that isn't objectively wrong, good. If multiple readers keep offering the same better translation than what your translation went with... uh-oh! - Ahi As in somehow who writes literature at least semi-professionally. Last edited by ahi; 08-09-2009 at 01:38 AM.