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Auerbach International, a San Francisco-based language services specialist offering a variety of translations services including Web/chat translation, explains top five reasons why native speakers of a language are not necessarily the best resource for translation and interpretation.

The first mistake committed by these native speakers, according to the language services specialist, is that they may choose the wrong descriptor or write in their native dialect, which can be extremely localized.

The second point, as noted by   Auerbach International, is that even if these people speak the company's technical terminology, they may not truly know the proper translation for advanced technical terminology or will use non-standard speech.

Also, these in-house speakers or agents may commit mistake in the spelling of many words.

The next mistake comes in the form of mistranslations, according to Auerback International. This is especially found in brochures, Web sites and other promotion materials. It can easily happen with in-country contractors and machine (software) translation, often resulting in amateurish and embarrassing translation.

The last reason why you should not pick native speakers of a language is that the errors can lead to serious consequence if the products are misused as a result, the language and chat translation provider said.

The best practice when translating a professional document is to hire professional document translation providers who have expertise in language. They deliver professional document, Web or chat translation services by rendering concepts quickly and accurately. They focus on various aspects of translation such as subject-specialized expressions, acculturation, nuances, term consistency and discounts for repeated text.

Auerbach International suggests native speakers may only review, rather than to implement, language projects and then send the native speakers' edits back to the language agency for final approval. While rephrasing and alternative technical word choices are acceptable, the language agency needs to warn the client of text omissions, additions or other edits that do not correspond to the source text.

In a related announcement in the chat translations services industry, SWANSEA Council has revealed that it has leveraged translators for 34 different languages last year. The council said that it required innovative chat translation solutions to help communicate with Polish, Bengali, Turkish and Vietnamese native speakers for a range of services such as social services, housing and education.