How to get a document translated for free

How to get a document translated for free

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We decided to write an article about how to get a document translated for free because, sometimes, clients who are new to translations are surprised that translation costs literally more than a few dollars. The advent of Google Translate and similar services have skewed client expectations into believing that translations is all done by computers and that it takes only minutes to deliver. This is only true if the LSP literally uses machine translation (MT), but even then, it’s not always possible to apply it to a document and, in most cases, is a terrible idea. In this article, we cover three ways to get a document translated for free:

  1. Request machine translation (MT) from an LSP
  2. Ask an LSP nicely
  3. Defer payment elsewhere

Some of these options are less surprising than others.  Nonetheless, all three options are genuinely feasible and, in some cases, may be the best way to go about getting a document translated.

Request MT from an LSP

Machine translation is not for any project. In fact, there are some projects where the technology simply doesn’t allow it to be used. For example, some scanned PDFs and other graphic files are the worst candidates for MT because no technology can read the files well enough to make a translation of it.

On the other hand, MT can be perfect for some projects. One recent example was when a client received a physical letter from a foreign company regarding the taxes of their local branch office. The client wanted to know what it said in case if it was something important that she needed to act on. In this case, MT is perfect for her needs. The client made a high-quality PDF of the letter and emailed it us. Within the hour, we MT’d the file and returned it to her free of charge. It turned out to be nothing important – just a notification.

Machine translation usually costs money to cover the overhead of staff and maintaining the servers. However, since no additional team members are involved in basic MT projects, the overall cost of an MT project is significantly less than a standard ISO or professional translation project. As a result, an LSP is more likely to do an MT project at no charge than any other type of project. In the example above, offering the MT solution at no charge was a natural response to make a client happy and help her out with little effort.

A bonus of working with an LSP to use their MT over something public like Google or Bing is that an LSP’s MT engine might do a better job. Some LSPs have their own trained MT engine based on translations they have done for their clients. In fact, there are some LSPs who’s entire business model is to provide machine translation for a particular domain.

Ask an LSP nicely

Believe it or not, if you ask some LSPs if they would be willing to translate a small file (a few pages) for free, there is a good chance that they will. You have a better chance of an LSP offering the translation for free if you happen to have more work coming, which you’re willing to pay for. The reason some LSPs are willing to do free work is because some LSPs recognize that what they offer is a service, and services are very different from commodities. Commodities can be seen and measured prior to purchase. Services are interpreted entirely subjectively and not everyone can appreciate a service prior to experiencing it. As a result, some LSPs recognize that some clients need to experience the translation service prior to really investing in it. A free sample of the service is a good way for a client to learn what working with an LSP could be like.

If you have a larger file, you might be able to ask for free machine translation followed by editing (MTE). MT is the least expensive translation task and editing is less than the cost of translation. From an LSP point of view, the cost would still be low, yet the quality is better than MT, but worse than a typical translation. The main benefit is that more words would be translated than otherwise. 500 Words is probably the amount of text you can ask for at no charge.

Finally, consistency in terminology and style are not important in the translation project, you can always split the file between LSPs so each one is doing a small amount. This approach might be most appropriate if the file you need translated is for internal purposes. If multiple LSPs are MTE’ing about 500 words of text each, you can get enough samples to complete a larger document. You can also use the samples to compare the quality of translation and customer service.

Defer payment elsewhere

Many of our clients are non-profits or large multinationals, so we are familiar with the various ways that some clients use to get invoices paid. Here are a few:

  1. Order splitting
  2. Invoice splitting
  3. Get sponsorship

Order splitting is when an invoice is paid using multiple purchase orders. This practice is not suggested by procurement, but it can be justified if the translation project includes files from more than one budget holder. This can be particularly useful for pooling translations for the purpose of reducing total costs, ensuring language consistency, and overcoming a short budget.

Invoice splitting is when we split an invoice into pieces per the client’s request. The invoices can then be paid by different people or over time. There have been instances when clients have requested this approach purely to circumvent bureaucratic authorization procedures that would have delayed the start of the project and the subsequent delivery of the translation.

There are economic development organization dedicated to helping companies achieve certain business goals, like selling internationally. If the invoice is small enough, these organizations will fund the entire translation project. Here is a small list of economic development organizations:

If you can’t find an economic development organization near you, contact the Small Business Administration.

Summary

It is possible to get translations for free, but there is always some kind of limitation. For the price of nothing, you can get a very high-quality translation of a few words, or lower quality translation of more words. Alternatively, seek funding from an economic development organization or another source. The main message is that translations are done by professionals who make a living spending their day translating content – much like professional technical writers. In addition, establishing a healthy partnership with an LSP will yield good will that materializes as occasional free services if you ask nicely. At BURG Translations, each Project Manager is provided an amount of discretionary spending that they can use without prior authorization to facilitate services.

If you’d like to learn more about how BURG Translations helps you ensure high quality translations, contact us today.