What is it like working for a translation agency in London?

A translation service is a huge and vital field of industry in the modern age. Thanks to the internet, fast and reliable travel, and more ways to communicate with people, so many of us come in contact with people from other countries in our day to day lives. While this can be great for so many reasons, it of course comes with a downside - the language barrier. We can only see the benefits of working with people in other areas if we can understand one another.

The solution has been simple, of course - translators. Translation professionals have helped us all stay in touch with people from other countries, and they can help translate any documents that need a really high quality translation. But what is it like to work as a translation expert for a London-based translation agency like Espresso Translations?

Accuracy is everything

A translation has to be 100% accurate, otherwise there can be endless problems. This can be especially important when working on legal documents, medical documents, or engineering information - even a small error in any of these fields could have big consequences, so there is a huge focus on accuracy. One way that a lot of translation professionals get around this is to have someone double-check a translation, making sure that it is perfect.

After accuracy, then comes tone

To people who only speak one language, it can be a surprise to realise how much work goes in to finding the right wording. A lot of the time translators spend on a translation will be getting the wording right. Think about it this way - in English we have a lot of words that all roughly mean similar things, but putting the wrong one in a sentence can drastically change the tone. For example, the words 'mischief', 'trouble' and 'shenanigans' are all pretty similar in English, but they all have different connotations, and could change the tone of a sentence a lot. That's why a large part of what a translator does it getting a really good feel for a document, to make sure they keep the tone consistent from the original.

There needs to be a lot of flexibility

Professional translators often have to be flexible. Some people will specialise in only one type of translation, but many people learn how to do multiple different types. Even if a translator only focuses on one type of document, each piece will be different, and it really keeps you on your toes! A translator could have to translate birth certificates, then change to translating product information leaflets, then spend the afternoon making subtitles for a science lecture - the work involved in translation changes so fast and so rapidly that translators need to be flexible.

There can be a lot of sensitive information

A lot of the items that people need to be translated can be very personal. Lots of people use translation services for immigration paperwork, including all their personal details and a lot of information about their lives. Legal and medical translation services often mean you have to be translating a lot of private details too. This means that a translator has to be comfortable dealing with sensitive information. Translators also have to keep this information confidential to avoid any legal issues.

Translating can be time-sensitive

A lot of translation jobs have short deadlines. Whether it is translation work for individual clients or for businesses, nothing moves slowly, and people need their translations done quickly. This means that a translator has to be able to do their work quickly, while still maintaining accuracy. Translation work can be rather full-on when you have multiple clients who need work done urgently!

Final thoughts

Hopefully this has given an insight into what it is like working for a translation agency in London. It can be hard work, but it can also be very satisfying. Translation is a very skilled line of work and can be very demanding. Luckily, if you do not do translations yourself, you can always go to a professional London translation agency where all the professional linguists have a lot of experience in handling all these different job aspects.