Thread: Back Translation

Hey gang, I had a client ask for a back translation. Does anyone know what that means? Thanks! Adam

Hi!
Yes, it's when you translate an already translated text to its original language.

Thanks Daniel. Do you know why someone would want to do that?

I guess that your client may want to do it to check that the translation corresponds to the source (although there are other ways of checking it too) or because the source file is missing and they need it again in that language.
It is also a way of practising if you study translation.

Oh okay. I imagine that they are requesting for quality assurance in that case.

What are the other ways for checking quality?

Exactly, Daniel, back translation is the procedure according to which a translator interpret a document previously translated into another language back to the original language. This process should be made by a translator who had not been previously involved in the project.
Hope that helps.

By the way, Comparison of a back-translation to the original text is used as a quality check on the original translation.

Thanks Maximiliano! Do you know of any other methods to check the quality of a translation?

As Maximiliano says, this process has to be done by an umbiased person who doesn't know the text.
Every company or provider can established its own process to check the compliance. But I think that a good editing focused on correspondance can work and the potential errors can be avoided. Or just a linguistic quality assurance to point out if the text doesn’t correspond and why.
These are just suggestions. Both are simpler than back-translating and they should be adapted to each case and recommended to the clients if needed.