Translators who are subject matter experts will produce higher quality results than generalists. The principle is pretty simple.

Only people with a solid understanding of a topic are qualified to write about certain topics for you, so why should it be any different with translation? Someone who has honed his or her skills to become expert at translating technical patents may not do so well with equity research reports or marketing materials for nutritional supplements. A reader will know if a writer or translator did not fully understand the topic because it simply will not “sound right.”

So much time is required for a translator to maintain their skills in just a few specialized areas that it is simply impossible for a translator to maintain such skills in all areas. A translator who claims to translate everything is a “jack of all trades and master of none.” Serious professional translators know when something is outside of their expertise, and they say so up front without putting on any facades or trying to translate anyway.

Make sure that your translation supplier is not using generalists to translate your documents. For the above-mentioned reasons, GGI’s selection process has always required that linguists specialize.