Over 1.2 billion people in the world speak some form of Chinese as their first language. Businesses can reach a huger base of consumers simply by translating their web-pages into Chinese. This is because when you do this, you take your business to the Chinese-speaking people all around the world, which comprise almost 1/3 of the global population. So, just by Chinese translation, you can take your products and services to a much wider base of audience.

There are many ways of translating one language into another, but how do you know what kind of translation services you choose:

Machine translation (MT) is a form of translation where a computer program analyses the text in one language — the “source text” — and then attempts to produce another, equivalent text in another language — the “target text” — without human intervention. Although this system can help with specific words and some phrases in much the same way as a dictionary, it shouldn’t be used to replace a human translator. Computers do not have the ability to deal appropriately with the complexities of a language such as ambiguity, syntactic irregularity, anglicisms, false cognates, context, etc. A machine translation is similar to the one made by a human who lacks a deep knowledge of the target language.

There are thousands of translation agencies and identifying of good translation services English to Chinese is a big task. Translation clients usually don’t know what they are paying for, especially when they don’t know the target language (the language into which a text written in another language is to be translated). The language translator should always translate INTO his or her mother tongue. Only a native speaker can come closest to creating a translation that “sounds” so natural that the reader is not even aware that it is a translation. Mistakes can have ruinous consequences.

Translations are usually charged per word. Be sure that the English to Chinese translation charges the job based on the number of words in the source text. Many companies give you an estimate and the final quote is based on the target document. With this method you never know the final quote until the job is done and this may lead into abuse on the part of the translator as he/she can use longer sentences on purpose, degrading the quality of the target text and increasing your price.

Don’t be afraid to ask for references or samples. References are perhaps the most important way to ensure a quality job. If you have knowledge of the target language or know someone who does, samples may also be good. A reputable agency will not hesitate to give you references and show you samples of previous English to Chinese translations.