Someone kindly sent me this fabulous ‘translation’ this week. This is what you are offered if you ask Google Translate to deal with the simple concept of a paper jam.
Anyone in business knows what a paper jam means. The dreaded red light appears on the printer. Inevitably, it’s when you’re in the middle of printing a long and important document which has to be in the post by 5 o’clock. You sigh, (maybe even cry) knowing you’re now in for a long afternoon, trying to unblock it without leaving scruffy bits of paper irretrievably caught up in the printer’s roller. Then, when you do finally fix it, you have to work out which pages are missing and will need reprinting and collating without affecting the rest of the document. Nightmare.
Few of us – any of us? – would think that it meant something you could spread on your breakfast toast. Apart from Google of course.
Cost Versus Benefit
We’ve said it many times: Don’t take a chance on online translation. It won’t tick the boxes for accuracy, correct tone of voice or correct use of specialist vocabulary. You can, though, pretty much guarantee that it will tick the box for unprofessional, poor quality, and quite possibly, illegality.
It’s your decision how much you invest in translation of course. But the more you can allocate, the more accurate and persuasive your materials will be. We all make business investment decisions and cost will always play a part in that. But you wouldn’t buy cheap knowing that your reputation with clients would be affected.
If you skimp on translation costs, the short-term decision may look good, but the poor impression from bad translations will last for years – and lose you opportunities. At Accutranslate we offer excellent translations in virtually every language. You can trust us to get it right.