When I have nothing more pressing to do and want to earn some extra cash, I work for an extremely cheap translation service, the name of which I shall not divulge here in case they disapprove of my comments.
The service is a website offering soi-disant accurate translations at about half the price professional translators usually charge per word, with a pretty large pool of languages. I think the charges go down for high-volume orders. How do they manage to charge so little, you may ask, and does the quality suffer?
The first thing the company does with a text is run it through machine translation (MT) software – the same kind of creature as Google Translate. However, it is then checked by two humans: one who gets paid VERY little to do a first check, and another who gets paid a bit more to do a final edit. People in the first group can move into the second by demonstrating high accuracy (measured by how many changes the final editor needs to make to a text that has passed through their hands). The final editors ensure that the translation accurately communicates the content of the original and has correct grammar and spelling. However, they are not supposed to spend a lot of time mulling over stylistic matters. If a sentence is a little awkward but technically correct, they will leave it as is. Although the pay per word is low, editors can get the work done quickly so the hourly rate is pretty good.
Some texts I’ve edited that were good fits for this service: a brief letter from a client to an insurance company, a complaint letter to an international charity, a birthday invitation, a thank-you note, practical information for hotel guests (e.g. check-out times, what to do with towels…), run-of-the-mill news articles. There was also a scientific text about mitigating climate change in Mexico that came out surprisingly well and didn’t require much editing. I think I once did a German teenager’s English homework, but since I’m not dealing with clients directly I can’t be sure.
Texts that do not fit the service: legal documents (or any documents requiring confidentiality), academic writing, resumes/CVs, in-depth journalistic pieces, poems, songs, novels, stories, or indeed anything destined for publication. Advertising materials and tourist brochures sometimes go through this service but they shouldn’t, because although the translations will be accurate, they won’t have pizazz.
It’s a decent way of meeting the demand for translating the vast amounts of practical information and everyday communication flying around the Internet. But if you want a first-rate business website or a careful rendering of your thoughts on German Expressionism, get in touch with me directly.