At Southern Cone Translations, your documents will always be translated by a native speaker of the target language or a translator who has achieved a demonstrable native level. But what is a “target” language? And why does it have to be a native-level speaker?
First, it’s helpful to understand some basic terminology.
Source and Target Languages
- Source language: The source language is the original language of the text that needs to be translated. If a document in Portuguese needs to be translated into Spanish, Portuguese is the source language. The document may be called the source text or source document.
- Target language: The target language is the language the text needs to be translated into. If a document in French needs to be translated into English, English is the target language. The document may be called the target text or target document.
When you send a document in Spanish to Southern Cone Translations, a native English speaker–with a bilingual level of Spanish–will write the translation in English. In rare cases when the translator is not a native speaker, an English native speaker will always review your translation.
We work this way because it produces the best, most consistent results. This is a frequent consideration within the translation industry, but is not widely understood from the outside. Unfortunately, some companies will downplay this truth because translators who are not native in the target language are more widely available, and disappointed clients are left with subpar translations, and they often do not have the skills to assess the quality of the work they have paid for.
Professional translators work into their native language… As a translation buyer, you may not be aware of this, but a translator who flouts this basic rule is likely to be ignorant of other important quality issues as well.
Translation: Getting It Right by the American Translators Association
We have a strongly-held conviction about translation: that the best translators have a perfect command of the target language, even more so than the source language. This has nothing to do with a translator’s nationality, and everything to do with their years of experience in the target language. A translator with a standard high school and university education in their native language has more than 20 years of additional experience in that language than in their second language. The advanced writing and speaking abilities of a native speaker will almost always be superior, precisely because they have so much more and varied experience in their native language.
Have you ever felt that you could understand a second language better than you could speak it? Maybe you took French classes in high school, and you can read a menu in French, but you wouldn’t know exactly how to chat up your waiter. This reflects a basic fact about language acquisition: understanding precedes speech. Even babies must hear their parents speak many times before they learn to ask for what they want. For that reason, the translator doesn’t need to be native in the source language to understand it, but in order to translate it well, they must be able to express themselves flawlessly in the target language.
| Stage of Language Acquisition | General Behaviors of Language Learners |
| Silent/Receptive Stage 10 hours to 6 months 500 receptive words | point to objects, act, nod, or use gestures say yes or no speak hesitantly |
| Early Production Stage 6 months to 1 year 1000 receptive/active words | produce one-or two-word phrases use short repetitive language focus on key words and context clues |
| Speech Emergence Stage 1-2 years 3000 active words | engage in basic dialogue respond using simple sentences |
| Intermediate Fluency Stage 2-3 years 6000 active words | use complex statements, ask questions state opinions and original thoughts interact in more lengthy conversations |
| Advanced Fluency Stage 5-7 years content area vocabulary | converse fluently, read textbooks argue and defend points write organized and fluent essays |
Considering the chart above, based on the work of renowned linguist Stephen Krashen, minimum fluency requires a minimum of five to seven years of second-language acquisition, which is necessary to write advanced prose. A translator who received secondary, university, or postgraduate education immersed in another language may learn advanced writing and speaking skills, but their writing in their first language will likely still be superior. Regardless of education, speakers who reach native-level fluency in their second language require years of immersion. Time and experience, especially on the scale of years, are the most precious resources there are, making this level of second-language fluency very hard to achieve.
Our priority is to provide quality work from translators who are native-level speakers of the target language. These translations sound more natural, require less review, and are produced more quickly, resulting in unrivaled efficiency. The comparative advantage of native-level fluency is indispensable to us. And for your company’s needs, only the best will do.
