People often have preconceived ideas. And sometimes they couldn’t be further from the truth. As a profession that not all that many know all that much about, it’s fair to say that translation is party to its fair share of misconceptions.

Well, it’s now time to bust the myths and to change perceptions, boost the image of our profession and celebrate the work of translators. We take a closer look at some common translation myths.

Not all translators work as interpreters, and vice versa. As a rule of thumb: A translator works on written texts, conveying the content into another language, in theory their mother tongue. An interpreter translates speech orally during an exchange between two or more people who do not speak the same language. Spiritext linguists are exclusively translators.

We’ve had enough experience with machine translation to know that all it’s really good for is churning out a (very) vague version of the general idea of the original text, with no regard whatsoever to style. Many agencies use machine translation and then hire a professional human translator to ‘quickly’ correct the flaws and inaccuracies in the text, in the hope of turning lead into gold.

Machine translation, even when enhanced with artificial intelligence and machine learning, produces clunky results, because the program cannot translate words in context or detect key elements: it functions only at surface level. The syntax is questionable and nuances are lost. Say ‘Au revoir!’ to machine translation and put your trust in Spiritext – you won’t be disappointed!

Being multilingual is great, because speaking several languages is, of course, an asset when it comes to communicating. But it doesn’t necessarily mean you can produce professional quality translations in all the languages you speak. Because translation is not something you can simply ‘do’. It requires extensive training and – unless you have a natural talent for it – years of practice to acquire and perfect the necessary linguistic skill, speed and confidence. With Spiritext, you get 20 years of experience and expertise in the art of translation.

Uh-uh, false. And we can prove it! Spiritext offers affordable translation rates, without compromising on quality. As we wear the hat of both translator and project manager, we provide a two-for-one service, saving you money. That’s right – you deal directly with the person handling your translation. The advantage here is that you get a subject specialist who also knows your project inside out.

Not at all, quite the contrary. Communication and translation tools make us fast, efficient and productive. Companies often have tight deadlines, and we are well aware of this. For example, the translation of a short document like a press release (usually 300-400 words, or the equivalent of one page) can generally be delivered the same day or following morning. The translation of around 20 destination marketing texts of approximately 150 words each (around 3,000 words in total) will take us no more than two working days to complete.

Unless you grew up in a multilingual environment from an early age and have fully assimilated the culture associated with each of the languages you lay claim to master, it’s unlikely you can speak, understand and write perfectly in one or even two languages other than your mother tongue. It’s a question of professional ethics: A good linguist will only ever translate into their mother tongue.