Articles - Anlin Translation Services

A company profile is a document that provides al the details about the company. It is typically used as part of the company’s marketing plans and serves to enhance its customer perception and branding. Items contained in a company profile typically include: the company’s name and address, its mission, vision and/or philosophy, its history, milestones and/or major achievements, the main services or products it offers, the names and positions of its key personnel, and testimonies of its past and current clients. A company profile may also contain the company’s business plan, audit report, awards and credentials, community involvement, welfare activities, etc.

A company’s profile explains what makes the company unique and why a client would like to purchase its services or products. It is typically written in a language that is eye-catching and free of jargon, however highly specialized the company may be. Because of its promotional nature, a company profile should be translated by a professional translator who has sufficient knowledge in fields related to the company’s sector. Experience in advertising is also desirable. The translation should be clear, precise and free of error, and its writing style should be as fluent and attractive as that in the original.

When it comes to translating a document, you have two choices: You may go to a self-proclaimed talented freelancer or you may approach a reputable company that follows industry standards. Costs of working with a freelancer may be less, but the risks are proportionally higher. A sad experience of Coors illustrated this, when their ‘Turn it loose’ slogan ended up as ‘Suffer from Diarrhea’. Talk about being lost in translation!

However, when it comes to legal documents, there is only one smart choice, and that is working with certified and experienced translators. Since law is very much dependent on the culture of the land and on the particular subject that is dealt with by the document, inaccurate or wrong translation may have dire consequences. That is why businesses invariably turn to reputable translation companies that work with certified and experienced translators.

Legal translation services may be required by any business or individual, though they are most commonly required by law offices and courts, especially for court proceedings on an international level. So, when lawyers deal with foreign documents, legal translation services are a must. What's more, if the translated document is to be legally valid in another country, it has to be translated and certified by a "sworn translator".

A sworn translator is a person who has been certified by his or her country’s government with the power to execute a sworn translation. This is different from a certified translation. In the latter case, the translator is highly competent and is a member of an association or club (like the American Translators Association in the US). While this offers a guarantee of the quality of work, it is not legally binding. The document may be well translated, but it will not have any legal validity. A legal translation service will provide you with a translated document that bears the seal of a local civil court which identifies the translator as being a sworn translator. Any translation that is produced by a sworn translator may be deemed as being a legal document when it bears the official seal and signature. Every page of such a document will be signed and sealed in this manner.

Most businesses documents need legal translation services only for certain documents that require legal validity in a foreign language. For instance, a translated birth certificate, degree certificate, patent certificate, proof of identity, official documents or a company’s articles of association require legal translation services when they are rendered into a foreign language. Only then will such documents be accepted as being legally valid in the foreign country.

As businesses grow, the demand for corporate documents to be legally translated is on the rise. Sworn translations may be more expensive but it is the very nature of accuracy and legal validity that make them costly. And smart businesses are happy to shell out the extra price. Better safe than sorry, especially for legal documents.