If you are reading this, and you live either in Quebec, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany or Austria, or if you live in the United States, Canada, Britain, Ireland, Australia or New Zealand and do business with the above countries, then chances are good that at some point you have needed, or will need, a professional translator.

Now the problem here is, given that you are probably not yourself a professional translator, that you need some kind of way to evaluate the work of a translator you might hire.

How do you do this?

A crucial determinant of whether or not to use a translator is to ask the question:

"Is the native language of the translator I want to hire the same as the language INTO WHICH the text will be translated?"

Think of it this way. If you hire someone to simply WRITE a text, would you hire a non-native speaker to do it?

Translation involves writing a final text. If the translator is constructing a final text, then if he or she does not speak that language at a native level, then you are taking a risk.

If you are not a native speaker of the final language of the final translation, then it is particularly important that your translator be someone who speaks the final language of the conversion process as a native tongue.

This is because, if you do not know the language of the final translated text to a native level, then you really will not be able to notice small but important defects in the translation. BUT YOUR CUSTOMERS WILL.

Customers know when there are mistakes in your text. Similarly, people reading your CV will notice errors in a translated CV if they are native speakers of that language.

If you are not a native speaker of the final text of the translation, then you will not be able to judge how your customers view that text.

As a result it is crucial you use a native speaking translator, who can read his or her own text, after it is in its final form, and judge whether it sounds appropriate for a native audience.

As a native speaker of English, I only translate from German to English or from French to English.

As a result, I can always tell when my own translation needs changing or editing.

Although I function well in both French and in German, and have lived (and currently live) in places where one or more of either French or German is spoken as a (or the) dominant language, I never translate from English to German, or from English to French (or from French to German or from German to French).

If you are in the market for a translator who can translate from German to English or from French to English, then you can contact me at ProfessionalTranslatorService@gmail.com

I have a multitude of references you can contact beforehand. I am professional, and reliable.

Remember, before you hire a translator, ask this question:

Is the final language of the text to be translated the same as the native language of the translator doing the translation?