What are Back Translations?

 

When ever you decide to use a professional translation agency to translate your business documents understandably you want to ensure that measure for measure the new document matches the old one. This is logically the best way to check for any inaccuracies in the translation, and more importantly to ensure the general quality of a translated document.

Or is it? Many clients of translater services request that a translated document is translated back into the original language, in the hope that it will either prove or disprove its accuracy. There is, of course, logic in this approach, however it misunderstands the true nature of translation:

Good translation, as opposed to machine translation, is not a word for word process. Instead, not only do the words needs to be transliterated into a new language, but also the concepts, cultural nods and the general sense of a piece. A good translator will ensure that a translated document can not only be read, but more importantly reads well.

Of course when we are discussing official or business related documents there is obviously an importance on accurate translations, which don’t miss-out any crucial information. This of course can be kept in check by an auditing system, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that a back translation will be exactly the same each time. That would just be putting words in someone else’s mouth.

So, whilst back-translation can be helpful, it does not necessarily ensure the quality of a specific translation.