This page attempts to answer some frequent queries about the French Linguistics Translation Service. However, if you have any other queries, please contact translation@french-linguistics.co.uk.
You can submit a translation from any country. If you're outside the UK, then the only restriction is that you must be able to pay by one of the accepted international payment methods (Paypal, credit card or Moneybookers, or wire transfer to a UK bank account).
The French Linguistics translation service specialises in translations from or into French, Spanish and English but, by outsourcing to a network of translators working in different languages, can manage translation projects for most language pairs. The best thing to do is send your document and ask for a quote.
A key advantage of the French Linguistics translation service is that it's being run by a genuine language expert. This is not a call centre sitting on top of a "translation sweatshop". Although I work in collaboration with other translators, I personally have an input on every job, carefully selecting the right collaborators for your particular project and continually reviewing their work. Many agencies simply won't provide this level of attention to your text and essentially treat translation like a package delivery service.
There are definitely one or two cases where this may not be the right service for you. I don't deal in mediocre-quality "rush jobs". I fully appreciate that there will be cases where a particular business process simply doesn't allow the time or resources for a proper, quality translation, and that you have to settle for a cheap or rushed job at the expense of translation quality. Unfortunately, I don't deal in that type of translation.
This is a quality translation service. If you're just looking for the cheapest, fastest possible translation whatever the quality, you should probably look elsewhere.
In principle, texts on practically any theme can be translated. Again, the easiest thing to do is to send your document and ask. Just very occasionally, a job may be declined because the right translators or consultants are not available within your desired timescale, but in practice this is rare.
The typical translation prices given on the previous page assume you need a minimum of 2,000 words translated. Shorter jobs will certainly be considered, but the price per word may be a little higher in such cases.
When you make your initial enquiry, a proposed timescale will be given along with the quote. Typically, you should allow at least one day per 2,000 words. Sometimes, a longer timescale will be proposed (e.g. for texts for publication, an extra review process will normally be proposed).
If you need your translation to be ready within a shorter timescale, please state this in your initial enquiry. If necessary, the work can be split between several translators to get it completed by your deadline. (Note that an additional proofreading stage would then generally be proposed to ensure consistency.)
Yes, the service is fully available over weekends, although the rate will sometimes be slightly higher.
Yes. If you have a large translation job and would like to see example translations or a list of reference publishers before going ahead with translation, please send an enquiry to the address above. Please indicate the type of material that you need translated: if possible, a sample translation in a similar field will then be provided.
Generally, no: in reality it is usually more practical to contract certified translations locally.
A certified translation is generally one which has been ratified by a representative of a particular body to be legally suitable for a particular official or legal purpose in a given country. A typical example would be a birth certificate needed for immigration processes. (It's important to remember that "certified" does not necessarily mean "good quality" beyond some very basic level— it simply means that the translation fulfils official criteria for a given legal purpose in a particular country.)
A certified translation usually needs to be ratified by a (representative of a) particular body in the country in which it is going to be used. So the truth is that it's usually more straightforward to contract certified translations locally in the particular country in which you're going to use the document in question. If you do contract a certified translation to a global service over the Internet, be careful to state from which body in which country you require certification.