No. Never. Machine translation produces clunky, low-quality texts that do little justice to your carefully written content. Machine translated texts are often incomprehensible, misleading or humourous (for the wrong reasons). The process involves searching a catalogue of already translated texts and determining the most appropriate option using statistical probabilities. The result is a mechanical sounding text, produced out of context and with no regard to what’s culturally appropriate. To find out more about how free translation may come at a high cost, see this article.

Yes. Spanish is my native language and there’s no substitution for native fluency when it comes to producing a quality text. There are always nuances that only a native speaker can convey. If you need translations into other languages, I can arrange that through my network of colleagues, but I’ll always have a qualified native professional do the work.

No. I am not qualified to translate documents intended for official use, such as birth certificates or contracts. In some countries, these type of documents have to be translated by “sworn translators” who are registered with an official body and have the capacity to translate and legalise documents. If you need a certified translation of an official document, I can put you in touch with colleagues who are qualified and work in that area.

Translators convert written materials from one language to another, while interpreters deal with spoken language and translate orally. Both interpreting and translation presuppose excellent language skills, but there are important differences in training and the type of talent required for each profession. While translators need to be good writers, interpreters need to be fast thinkers and good communicators. I only work with written documents, i.e. I am a translator.