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Understanding the Different Types of Spanish

Explore the various types of Spanish, their regional variations, and the importance of choosing the right dialect for your translations. Learn how localization can enhance your communication with specific target audiences and improve the overall impact of your content.

The Gateway to Latin America: Why Spanish Translation is Key to Thriving in Miami

Explore the essential role of Spanish translation services in navigating Miami’s vibrant, diverse market and unlocking lucrative opportunities throughout Latin America, while understanding the importance of professional translators in ensuring accurate, culturally-sensitive communication for businesses expanding their reach.

5 Reasons Every Big City Law Firm Needs a Legal Translation Service on Speed Dial

Top 5 Reasons: Why Big City Law Firms Must Prioritize Legal Translation Services – Exploring Compliance, Embracing Linguistic Diversity, Streamlining Efficiency, Ensuring Accuracy, and Developing Long-Term Relationships with Trusted Providers.

Why Can’t They Just Learn English? The Difference Between Language Access and Entitlement

The misconception that immigrants don’t learn English and instead expect help in their native language. In this article I discuss the difference between language access and entitlement and why it’s important to provide language services to individuals with limited English proficiency. There is also a legal requirement and benefits of offering language access to promote inclusion and diversity in the United States.

Will ChatGPT Replace Translators?

Explore the impact of AI on language services, particularly the use of ChatGPT in the translation industry. This article provides a reality check on the capabilities of machine translation, how it compares to current technology, and whether it can replicate all the functions of a translation agency. It concludes with the future of the industry and how businesses can make the most of AI without sacrificing quality or privacy.

Facing a Language Barrier? Remember These Five Tips

Overcome language barriers in cross-border litigation with our expert tips. Learn the difference between a certified translator and translation, the limitations of federal and state-certified interpreters, and how to choose the right language service provider. Ensure accuracy and avoid the risks of sub-par work with our guidance.

Beware The Fake Translator

Beware of fake translators on freelance platforms. Learn how to protect yourself from grammatical errors, unnatural phrasing, cultural inaccuracies and more by checking credentials, membership in professional associations, and samples of previous work. Evaluate the experience, credentials and expertise of the translator to ensure quality and avoid wasting time and money.

When Google Translate Saves the Day

Explore the pros and cons of using Google Translate in different scenarios, from critical emergencies to low-stakes conversations. Learn when it’s appropriate to rely on the tool and when professional translation is necessary to ensure accurate communication. Contact TransForma for expert language services.

BMW Showcases AI Translation Fails for Lunar New Year Campaign

Discover how BMW’s 2023 Lunar New Year campaign in China showcases the hilarious side of AI translation fails. The commercial created by TBWA\Juice Beijing and TBWA\BOLT Shanghai highlights the importance of accuracy in translation and how a robust QA process can avoid costly mistakes. Read on to learn more about this amusing ad and the three common business translation mistakes to avoid.

10 Translation Fails That Are Too Funny Not To Share

English signage is sensible for businesses in tourist-heavy countries. If your English translations become bad jokes, your smarts are gone. We appreciate that not everyone speaks the language well enough not to get lost in translation, so please don’t rely Google Translate to offer you anything close to a precise translation of whatever you enter in, making your sign a wonderfully humorous flop.

The Pros and Cons of Finding Translators Online

The pros and cons of hiring a translator from an online marketplace versus engaging a traditional translation company. Learn about the factors to consider before making a decision, such as convenience, pricing, speed, and quality control, and get advice from the experts at Transforma to help you decide what’s best for your project.

Why Translate Your Employee Documents? It’s Not Required by Law.

Explores the importance of translation in the workplace, discussing why it’s beneficial for employers to provide translated versions of safety guidelines and training documents in languages other than English, even though it’s not a legal requirement. Learn why it’s important to ensure language equity to build a model workplace where employees feel valued and respected.

Artificial Intelligence and Document Translation: What Lawyers Need to Know

Explore the ways artificial intelligence is revolutionizing document translation for lawyers. Learn how AI can assist in quickly and accurately translating foreign documents, but also discover why human oversight is still crucial in the process. Discover the best practices for using AI in document translation for legal professionals.

Freelance Translator vs Translation Company: When To Cut Out the Middleman

Learn the pros and cons of hiring a professional translation company versus a freelance translator. Understand when to choose a professional company for large and complex projects, and when a freelancer may be a better option for smaller and more specific projects. Get the information you need to make the right decision for your translation needs.

The International Lawyer’s Guide to Certified Translation

Certified translation for lawyers refers to the translation of legal documents, such as contracts, legal agreements, and court transcripts, that have been certified by a professional translator to be accurate and true to the original document. This type of translation is often required by courts, government agencies, and other legal entities in order to verify the authenticity and accuracy of the translated document. Its incredible important that this information is correct. This post explains how you achieve that.

Is AI the Future of Human Resources Translation?

Is the future of HR translation dependent on AI? From Chat-GPT to DALL-e and beyond, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is having its moment. The translation industry is certainly not exempt from the hype. In fact, The Economist recently published a piece called “The Rise of the Cyborgs,” describing the translator of the future as a “human-machine…

By the Word, By The Page, Or By The Hour? How Translation Is Priced

Here’s a question we frequently get when customers ask us for quotes: “How do you charge: by the word, by the page, or by the hour?” Translation is most commonly billed by word or page. I don’t know of any company that charges for written translation by the hour, although interpreting, formatting and DTP are…

When Onsite Interpreting is Out, Try Over the Phone

Picture this: you’re a business owner and you must have a quick call with your client in Brazil who speaks limited English and would feel much more comfortable having a fluent conversation in Portuguese. Or you’re an immigration attorney who’s having trouble finding a Punjabi interpreter on short notice for your client’s immigration interview. Or…

Translation Prices Are All Over the Place. Here’s Why.

If you need translation on a regular basis, it’s happened to you: you send your files to three translation providers and ask them for quotes. Vendor A quotes you $1,500, Vendor B quotes you $500, and Vendor C quotes you $4,500. Now, you probably think I’m exaggerating with these ranges. But based on my experience…

Translation vs. Equivalency: Which Do You Need?

If you’re new to the United States and you’re applying to college or applying for a job, chances are you’ll be asked to present your credentials. If you’re in the process of obtaining a temporary work visa (such as the H1B), chances are you’ll have to present your diploma and/or college transcripts to ensure that…

Don’t Just Try to Upsell. Try to Downsell, Too.

It makes perfect business sense to upsell. Not necessarily because you’re on a quest to squeeze as many nickels out of your client as possible (although there’s nothing wrong with trying to sell more), but because your client may genuinely need or want a product or service that she may not know you offer, or…

If You Can’t Do This, Don’t Start A Business

Six months into my first “real” job out of college, I knew that corporate life wasn’t for me. I liked my job just fine, but it didn’t take me long to realize that I was a square peg trying to fit into a round hole. I was driven and self-motivated, and I wasn’t good at…

The Real Cost of A Bad Translation

Recently we got a desperate call from one of our law firm clients. The attorney was requesting a Spanish-English interpreter immediately, because the client had brought her teenage niece as an interpreter to a bankruptcy deposition. Another attorney client told me of a case he was handling where the Chinese witness had brought his mother…

Spanish Is Spanish … Or Is It?

We get a large amount of requests on a daily basis for translation from English into Spanish, most of them for “dry” content: tax forms, contracts, financial reports, and so on. And occasionally the client will say something like, “this is for Colombia. Can you make sure this is translated into Colombian Spanish?” There is…

No Matter What You Do in Life, Consistency Is The Key

Not long after I took up cycling, I attempted a 50-mile ride. It didn’t go well. It was early September, and the scorching Miami sun was particularly unmerciful that day. I was fine for most of the ride, but at about 45 miles I began to feel the exhaustion. The cyclist next to me noticed…

Being Bilingual Does Not Equal Being a Translator

I was recently talking to a young woman who speaks English and some Spanish and who works in childcare services. She was distraught because her boss, who only speaks English, had asked her to translate a PowerPoint presentation into Spanish. She was trying, but she found it incredibly difficult and she was afraid to tell…

New to Networking? Here’s A Formula That Works

Whether you’ve just started your own business (congratulations!) or you’ve been at it for a while, you need to place yourself in front of your potential customers and educate them about your product or service. Networking is a proven way to do this. If you’re new to networking, let me be clear: it’s not about…

Ten Years in Business: I Knew I’d Made It When …

I’ve always loved to read, and when I was young I devoured women’s magazines. One of them – I don’t remember which – had a column called “I Knew I’d Made It When …” It featured a reader sharing a particular accomplishment she was proud of, and it was usually, but now always, a work…

Ten Years in Business: You Can’t Do It Alone

There’s a saying I love. I saw it a few years ago in a book in Spanish written by the famous soccer coach Jose Pekerman. Not sure if he was the originator of the phrase, but here it is in English: If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together….

The Myth of The Certified Legal Translator

We get lots of requests from lawyers that go something like this: “We need you to translate a contract for us, but the translation must be done by a certified legal translator.” This is a perfectly reasonable and justified request. After all, a lawyer wants assurance that the work requested will be done by a…

Ten Lessons Learned in Ten Years in Business

This month of April, TransForma is celebrating ten years in business. During this time we’ve relished the good, survived the bad, and learned some valuable lessons along the way. Here are the ten most important ones. I hope you find them useful. 1. You don’t have to do things the way they’ve always been done….

TransForma Turns 10 … But Almost Didn’t

This year, TransForma celebrates a significant milestone … our tenth anniversary. For ten years we’ve been providing worldwide translation services from our home base in Miami. But three years into our existence, we landed a project that we thought would serve as a gigantic financial and professional springboard for our company. As it turned out,…

Ten Things You Didn’t Realize About Language and Translation

An astounding 43% of the people in the entire world speak more than one language. In today’s global village, language and multiculturalism are more important than ever … so, to celebrate our ten-year anniversary, we’re sharing with you ten things you may not have realized about language and translation: 1. Not all Spanish is the…

Spotlight Interview with Santana Rodriguez Law PA

Last month, we sat down with Elina Magaly Santana from Santana Rodriguez Law PA to share more information on TransForma Translation and how our services can benefit attorneys and their clients. For ten years, managing partner Carmen Hiers has provided professional translations to clients in Miami and beyond. In that time, we have seen attorneys from…

Translation of Medical Evaluation Reports and School Records

At TransForma, we take every translation and interpreting project seriously, but we have to admit that the translation of children’s school and medical records, including the translations of evaluations for special-needs children, really strike a chord in our hearts. During the last 20 to 30 years, society has become more aware that children with special…

Get Your Birth Certificate Translation Right Here

If you were born in a country where a language other than English is spoken, and need a birth certificate translation for a visa to come to the United States, your work doesn’t end when mom or dad texts you to say “found it.” Now, you need to find a birth certificate translator to take…

¡Sin el IVA traducido, no SENIAT a ningún lado!

Si usted es un comerciante venezolano y desea emigrar a Miami (más correctamente, a los Estados Unidos) con una visa de empresario, prepárese para el reencuentro con una vieja “amiga”, la Forma 99030 del SENIAT, la Declaración y Pago Del Impuesto al Valor Agregado, cariñosamente conocida como “la bendita vaina esa del IVA.” Usted la…

TransForma Translates SENIAT

Maybe it’s the bone-chilling 53° in Miami this morning, maybe it’s too early in the morning to be blogging about the translation of Venezuelan tax returns, or maybe our sight has been hampered by the new years’ deluge of translations (thank you, keep ‘em coming), but doesn’t the Venezuelan internal revenue service publication the left…

Barry Stein: The Miami Workers’ Compensation Lawyer’s Workers’ Compensation Lawyer

This is the first in what we hope will become a series of articles where instead of telling you what great translation and interpreting work we do, we tell you about other highly-regarded professionals. Our first featured professional is Worker’s Compensation attorney Barry Stein. Barry is the lawyer that other workers’ compensation lawyers turn to…

5 Steps You Should Take Before Hiring a Translation Agency

Let’s say you have a small or medium-sized law practice, or you’re a banker who serves foreign nationals, or you are a small exporter. You’ve realized the power that professional translation and localization can have on the growth of your business, and you’re ready to hire an agency. Would you know where to start? Would…

The Importance of Translation for Mortgage Borrowers and Lenders

It’s not uncommon for a mortgage lender to conduct business with a client who’s interested in purchasing property in the U.S., but their paperwork is in another language. It’s in fact very common in the banking industry. Banks offer several types of services that foreign nationals use quite often – mortgage lending being one that…

When It Comes to International Trade, Language and Culture Matter. Here’s Why.

“Bridging the Gap,” the 18th annual conference of the Organization of Women in International Trade (OWIT), took place yesterday in Nairobi, Kenya. Women from every part of the world gathered in this beautiful city to learn everything they need to know about taking their businesses beyond their borders, get to know one another, and find…

Retail, Commercial and Investment Banks Can Benefit from Professional Translation

Financial institutions are part of a business sector that can benefit greatly from translation services. In such a complex environment, the stakes are high. Accurate translation is a must when it comes to transactions, and because there is little room for error, it’s critical to hire a professional translation agency. Retail and commercial banking call…

Professional Translation Is A Must for Medical Institutions and Patients

Translation is most common in real estate, law, and e-commerce. But what about medicine? There aren’t many instances where proper translation can mean the difference between life and death, but in this field, the stakes are high. Professional translation is always needed for both medical institutions and their patients. The failure to translate costs a…

The Role of Localization in the Rebranding Process

Your brand is ready to expand to a global market, or maybe it already has. In an effort to garner more attention for your company, you consider a rebrand.  Between updating offerings, designs, and testing the market, there is one mistake we see time and time again. A company’s success abroad cannot depend on repurposing…

International Real Estate Industry Relies Heavily on Professional Translation

Immigration documents, financial records, licenses, and certificates are at the top of the list of documents that seem in obvious need of translation. However, with the increasing amount of real estate transactions that involve foreign players, there is a growing need for professionally translated documents. As it becomes easier to find buyers and investors all…

The Importance of Localization for Doing Business Online

Thinking of going global with your business? Here’s something to consider: localization and translation services. For a company going global, language is a number-one priority so that it stands out as an industry leader. Localization and translation services help businesses increase ROI by connecting employees, consumers and their local communities on a more personal (and…

Translation Is Necessary For Global Expansion And Ecommerce

Global Expansion Is Essential In 2017, the U.S. retail ecommerce worldwide sales totaled $2.3 trillion and by 2021, ecommerce revenues are expected to grow to $4.88 trillion! Historical data show that this trend is not going in reverse, which is evidence of the fact that to progress in today’s economy, you must consider global expansion…

Mistranslations Cause Loss Of Profits, Trust, And Reputation for Global Businesses

In 1987, Braniff Airlines aired an advertisement of their new slogan urging travelers to “fly in leather” in Spanish, shocking local Latin American consumers and advertising executives. Without using an expert translator to take into consideration regional colloquialisms, and no doubt using a bilingual dictionary (this was before the Internet), the phrase “in leather” was…

3 Ways to Evaluate A Translation Agency

How To Evaluate A Translation Agency There are many reasons for needing a translation agency. In an international city like Miami, translation is often needed by law firms, mortgage brokers, companies selling a product or service, insurance agents, import-export companies, and many others. In the case of law firms and corporate entities, there are usually…