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English doesn’t always cut it as the international language. There are times when you must communicate with someone in their mother tongue, and you can’t be expected to speak all of the major world languages fluently.

You need a translator, and fast.

Since you’re dealing with material that can be sent electronically, you can have your pick of translation firms online. However, after shopping your way around the entire world, you’re quickly going to realize that translation does not come cheap...

A single page of regular text can cost you anywhere from $50-$100 translate.

When prices are high, people naturally look to sidestep the middle man. With the advent of online freelancing, you can quickly and easily get in contact with the professionals themselves and skip the corporate overhead. What’s more is that these pros must then bid for the privilege of working with you, making price shopping further more efficient.

That is not to say, however, that the world of freelancing is perfect.

First of all, the quality of professionals in freelancing websites such as Guru or Elance will vary greatly. Translation is an industry that many will enter, but it is notoriously difficult to succeed in as converting one language into another does not simply involve replacing words with their dictionary equivalents. Some languages, such as Korean and English, are so utterly different from each other that practically every element of the original text must be redefined. Many words will not easily translate, and many languages frequently have levels of formality that change depending on the status of both the speaker and the listener. Almost every word, from nouns to verbs to adjectives, will change completely from level to level.

This requires an intimate knowledge of two languages, and that is something that is not easy to achieve.

Freelancing websites will be full of people who do not possess this knowledge, simply due to overeager inexperience rather than incompetence. These sites are a good place for people to get their start, and if the text you want translated is relatively simple, finding a freelancer can be your best option. In the wild west of the Internet, however, you must remember that you get what you pay for. Cutting out the middle man can only save you so much money, and you must still be prepared to pay for quality. Anything less than $0.10 US a word is probably not going to meet your expectations.

Ultimately, the golden rule for translation is that the translator must be a native speaker of the target language. When shopping credentials, a university degree is the minimum standard and there should preferably be post-secondary qualifications in the source language as well. However, even an inexperienced translator with only a basic working knowledge of the original language can take a simplistic text and turn it into a compelling piece of material if the writing skills for the target language are there. The original just has to be easy enough to understand.

This is when you can take an extra step to ensure quality in your finished product.

Working with a novice translator can be worth it if you simply acknowledge that he or she is a novice and act accordingly. If you are providing a text in your native language, take the time to simplify it so that it is as basic and easy to understand as possible (think grade-school level for the target audience). Then, communicate closely with the translator during the entire process to answer any questions they might have. Ensure that any and all questions by the translator are wholeheartedly welcomed, and take the time to explain the language carefully. Since the basic “facts” of the text have been preserved, the final product can be polished in the target language.

In translation, the middle-man is more than someone who just takes a piece of the pie. He or she plays a role that involves managing staff, delegation, and most importantly, quality control and editing to reduce errors of meaning. Once this job has been cut out, then someone else must address these issues. Seeking out a freelancer may save you cash, but you must realize that in the world online freelancing, you are not just a customer. You’re an employer. As such, when choosing to deal with inexperienced (albeit well-meaning) professionals, one must take an active interest in the quality of the finished product. Being able to simply hang back and wait is not recommended when there is no middle-man to handle the details for you.