How I'd choose a translator for something that matters

If I were choosing a translator for something that matters, I'd start by finding out who's going to read it. An embassy, a court and a marketing team want different things, and being fluent only settles the argument with one of them.

Ring the office first

My first call wouldn't go to a translator. It would go to whoever receives the document, because the rule belongs to them, and it can be quite specific.

The Dutch government's guidance on Malaysian documents is a good example. A document in Malay has to go into Dutch, English, French or German through a sworn translator. One already in English needn't be translated at all, which is the cheapest translator I can think of.

A Malay document on its way to the Netherlands

The page doesn't say who counts as sworn in Malaysia. So that would be my second question for the embassy, before anyone gets paid.

America asks for something else. Its immigration regulation wants a full English translation that the translator certifies as complete and accurate, along with a statement that they're competent to do it. That paragraph doesn't mention swearing anything, so I wouldn't pay extra for it on that paragraph's account.

Malaysian courts start from the language itself. The Rules of Court 2012 say "any document required for use in pursuance of these Rules shall be in the national language", as quoted in a law firm's note on a Federal Court case.

That same case shows how a rule like this has edges. The court held it doesn't apply to matrimonial proceedings, whose papers may go in English until the matrimonial rules themselves are translated and gazetted. So for court work I'd let the lawyer say what's needed, and who may do it.

What I'd ask the translator

"Certified" is a slippery word, so I'd ask certified by whom, and accepted by which office. Then I'd ask the question that matters more: has their work gone through this same office before, and can they show me a redacted example?

I couldn't find a fixed rate published by the Malaysian Institute of Translation & Books, ITBM, so with them I'd expect to ask for a quote. I wouldn't read anything into that, since a price without the document in hand wouldn't mean much anyway.

I'd ignore the long list of languages on the website. What I'd want is one named person, for this document, in this pair of languages, on this subject.

I'd walk away from anyone who promises the office will accept it, unless they can say how they know. A translator can promise accuracy. Only the office can promise acceptance.

Page or word?

The clearest dated price I found is from UTM's Language Academy, which translates for the public at a minimum of RM100 a page. Its page is A4, size 12, double spaced, about 250 words, and short texts still pay for a whole page.⁴

That's about forty sen a word by my sum. It's one university's list, so I'd treat it as a reference point and not as the market.

A per-page price sounds simpler, until you notice how little a double-spaced page holds. A contract in small print might fit far more, and it matters whose page is on the quote.

The same forty sen a word, in ringgit, my rough sums

So before I compared two quotes, I'd want four answers:

• Is the count taken from my text or from the translation?
• What's the minimum, and does a one-page certificate pay all of it?
• Does the price include a second person checking it?
• What does rushing add?

When a machine draft is fine

The evidence I trust most here isn't about Malay. A 2019 study in JAMA Internal Medicine, described in a press release from UCSF, ran emergency discharge instructions through Google Translate. It came out 92% accurate for Spanish and 81% for Chinese.⁵

The errors clustered around jargon, colloquial phrases and long, complicated sentences. The study's first author's verdict was "We cautiously support its use", and the researchers suggest pairing it with safeguards such as human interpreters.⁵ I couldn't find a comparable study on Malay legal text, so I'm borrowing.

Long sentences and jargon are a fair description of a contract, so that's where I'd draw my line. A machine draft is fine for getting the gist of a supplier's email, or for deciding whether a document is worth paying to translate.

I wouldn't send one to anybody who can say no. If a translator starts from a machine draft, that's their call, but I'd want to be told, and I'd want the person who signs it to have read every line.

And the marketing team?

They're the odd one out. Nobody stamps a tagline, so there I'd ignore the certificates and hire someone who writes well in the target language, then pay them to argue with me.