Is there a difference between business and personal translation?
Business translation is translation services for companies and business-related operations, be it any sort of business, from big manufacturing corporations to a single proprietor tourist agency. Personal translation is translation services for a single person’s welfare and use. This could mean translating their divorce papers with a foreigner or their college transcript in order to apply to a university overseas, or their resume in order to work for a foreign company, and the like.
Business translation is a lot more significant not only to the business, great or small, but also to its employees. Therein lies the main difference of business and personal. Business translation affects the lives of many and personal translation affects the life of mainly just one person.
Consequently, a translator has to be more careful about business-related translations. These are not only more difficult, they are also more voluminous. It would be easy to lose track and be lost in the data. Business translations contain special technical jargon that may not easily be found in the usual dictionaries and may involve further research and inquiry to be understood, much less to find an equivalent word in the target language, assuming that one even exists. The documents are couched in formal language or legalese, not something you encounter everyday. These also include numbers and statistics which can be easily the source of errors.
What about personal translation?
Personal translations on the other hand are shorter and mostly involve forms that an adult encounters in their life from institutions that everyone goes to, such as the city hall, the bank or a school. There are likely ready-made translations of the forms online. All the translator has to do is translate the content in the filled-in spaces. Some personal translations involve the translation of personal letters, which are written in ordinary conversational everyday language.
Of the two, because of its significance, in business translation proofreading services are mandatory. They would require checking and rechecking. One small mistake can be the end of so many lives. Since big sums are involved it makes sense to spend more on translation services and proofreading services for business-related translations.
That is not to say that personal services do not require careful translation and proofreading as well. It’s just easier not to make mistakes in personal translations that one can forego any additional precautions, especially if their budget cannot permit it.
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