Certified translations are made by a professional who studied the particular language, or who is a native speaker, but is authorized by law to do that, and also to confirm and sign that the translation is accurate. That’s why this type is also known as a “certificate of accuracy”, and it’s usually prepared by the person who translated the text, or by someone else, just to make sure the document meets the needed standards of quality.
If an independent translator is working on the text, a certified one should check on it next, and certify it as accurate and exact. That’s known as the quality assurance process, and it’s pretty common among people who are trying to gain more experience or want to get that certificate, but they are monitored and mentored by a professional who will guarantee their accuracy and quality of work.
Today, we can “buy” this service online, no matter what’s the purpose of the document. As you can see on global-lingo.com, you can choose the language you need, and get translation, transcription, and interpretation services, as an individual, or as a business. You can even register yourself as a linguist too since they offer global carriers for the people who are working that.
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Being a native or close to a native speaker of some language makes you eligible to get that certificate. We all know that getting an accurate translation is crucial when we want to spread our business or engage more audience. Sometimes people need the medical report translated in the language of the country where the treatment will be performed. And there is no space for mistakes with that because a lot of things depend on that accuracy.
So, no matter how good your cousin is in English or French, for sensitive types of documents and texts, you will have to contact a professional to do that for you. The only case when you can skip that is if you are a certified translator by yourself.
This introduction may seem too long or confusing, but here we are to explain all of that and make things clear to you.
1. There is a difference between a certified translator and a certified translation
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The translator is the person who passed the exam to verify their professional skills in some language, and the service they provide is translation. When someone is certified to translate from one language to another, they have to sign the document, claiming that they stand by what’s written and that everything is exact and accurate, without improvisations and experiments.
They provide a signed statement for that, but they also have the allowance to check someone else’s translation, and certify it if everything is accurate, and provide the same statement, even though they didn’t actually work on it.
2. It’s not the same as notarized translation
This is actually the next step needed. Notaries are approving the facts, that the person who signed the document and issued the statement is really a translator. They can ask the translator to swear under oath that everything is done professionally, but on the other hand, they aren’t eligible to read the document and claim the accuracy, since they are legal workers, not linguists.
So, once you get your translated document, the certified translator is claiming the accuracy, which leads you to own certified translation, and after it’s notarized, that document becomes useful for different purposes, like studying or getting medical treatment in a foreign country.
3. When do you need this type of statement?
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That depends on the purpose of the document. If you need it for personal use, then you don’t really have to confirm the accuracy. But, when it’s used by third parties, institutions, hospitals, colleges, or dorms, it needs to be certified.
But, in companies, the internal documents should have that certificate, even though they don’t really “get out” from the office. But, in the case of merge, acquisitions, or sales, these documents can save a lot of nerves, and prevent unwanted outcomes.
4. Which documents need a certificate when translated?
There are some cases when you must certify the translated documents, like birth certificate, marriage documents, your school and university diplomas, medical records, vehicle’s ownership, notarial acts, or your proof that you don’t have a criminal record. Business owners also should have their contracts, statutes, court documents, and other certificates and internal documents claimed as accurately translated.
In the digital age, the accessibility and efficiency of online certified translatio
5. It’s different than interpretation and so-called artistic translation
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There is a huge difference between translating a novel or a document issued by an institution. The first one allows you to be creative and rewrite the original thoughts and sentences in another language, so you can either keep the accuracy and save the artistic part of the writing.
But, you can’t improvise with the official documents you need to certify as accurately translated. The books and novels have an artistic value that should be prevented and passed to the readers the same way as in the original book.
So, those translators are artists. The certified translation is the same as the original (as much as the language specifications allow that), and there is no space to make it look and sound beautiful. It’s technical and must be very accurate, so the document is useful.
Also, artistic translation or so called interpretation service require a signed statement too, so you can know the book is approved and correct, but the procedure is different than when you need official documents to be rewritten in another language.
Conclusion
As you can see, in some cases you must have that certificate, and in others, you don’t need it. It all depends on the nature of the document and its purpose. If you do that on time, you will save a lot of money and nerves, especially if you need them abroad.
Hiring a certified translator to check the work or perform the translation by themselves is the most elegant solution in these cases. That’s the only way to know your document is accurate and valuable equally as the original one.
