How can I be sure that your work is of highest quality?

ChinaEbridge assures the quality of our translations by applying proven quality assurance and quality control procedures, as well as stringent project management principles. Translation Services is committed to provide our clients with the highest quality translation services by assigning a project manager and a team of language professionals to each client's project.

Our documents have special formatting and contain tables, text boxes, footnotes, etc. Will you be able to maintain the formatting and style of the documents we need translated?

Yes. Our translators translate directly into the source document; and, in most cases, we are able to maintain the formatting and style of your document. This includes any tables, text boxes, footnotes, etc. that may exist in your document. We can also translate directly into spreadsheets, presentation documents, and, of course, into virtually any available word processing applications.

We are concerned about the confidentiality of the document we need translated. How can you assure us that the document will remain secure while in your hands?

We understand the importance of proprietary information being treated as CONFIDENTIAL. If requested, ChinaEbridge will sign a non-disclosure agreement in order to assure the confidentiality of the document to be translated. All documents are stored in a secure environment and no proprietary information is ever released to any person or entity that is not bound by our non-disclosure agreement. If requested, ChinaEbridge will establish a username and password-protected ftp account to exchange documents.

I need my document translated quickly. Can you help me?

Yes. ChinaEbridge has the resources to respond to urgent requests. Typical turn-around time for a 2000 word document is 24 hours or less.

Will you be using more than one translator to translate my document?

We typically only use one translator per source language to ensure consistency of style and terminology. However, if the document size and turnaround time require the deployment of more than one translator, special measures are taken to use common glossaries, common databases, as well as the expertise of a translation coordinator, all to ensure consistency of the document.

How do you price your work?

Written translation projects are based on the document word count of the target language. Rates differ from European and Asian languages, normal and rush jobs, small and volume assignments. We will give you a fixed quote upon learning the details about your project. To obtain a quote within 24 hours, please e-mail or call for details.

If you wish to translate your website, send us your web site address (URL). We will review your site, request any additional information and then provide you with a complete estimate.

Are there any hidden charges?

No. You only pay for the work that was completed. We will provide charge per word price before we start a project and we guarantee not to alter it once it has been given, so long as you don't change the source material. With Translation Services, you won't ever face any unexpected charges!

How can I send my documents to you?

You can send the documents to us by e-mail, fax or regular mail.

If you have the document available in electronic format, we would prefer that you e-mail it. Please attach the document to your email message and specify your project requirements and the program in which your document was created. When we look at your document in electronic format, we will give you a fixed quote for its translation.

You can always mail the document to us if you have it only in the hard copy and need to get a fixed quote for its translation for budgeting purposes.

What turnaround time can I expect?

This will depend on the size and complexity of your project and the number of languages into which the documents need to be translated. Keep in mind that a typical translation process involves several steps: project evaluation, terminology identification, translation, editing and proofreading. Remember ALL these steps are included in your quote; some companies may charge extra for some of these services.

How do you select the team for my project?

All our language professionals are certified accredited and/or hold linguistic degrees. When selecting a team for your project, we make sure that our translators have the language expertise as well as the in-depth technical experience to handle your unique subject matter.

What are the steps of the translation process?

A typical translation process involves several steps: project evaluation, terminology identification, translation, proofreading and editing.

How much will it cost to translate my website?

If you have an existing website, you will need to give us its Internet address (URL) in order for us to review it. We will then ask you to provide us with the latest archive of your site or its specific portion that you want translated. We will then give you a quote on translating the text. Finally, we will produce a comprehensive proposal within 24 hours that will specify website translation stages, turnaround time, and costs. You must specify whether you want graphical text included or excluded in our calculations.

How exactly do you translate websites?

We take your existing website and download all text/graphics, etc that is language dependent. We confirm with the client the exact requirements, and then we translate it and culturally adapt the text, localize graphics wording and finally ensure your Webmaster has accurately made all substitutions. If you have online inquiry forms and order forms, we make them accessible in the appropriate foreign language(s).

What are some pitfalls specific to Chinese to avoid that a client should be aware of when translating into this language?

The most common pitfall of the Chinese language is whether to use Simplified or Traditional Chinese or both. This is the first thing the client needs to specify when requesting a Chinese translation. There are two different categories of written Chinese. While Traditional Chinese is for people in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Chinese population residing in the United States, Simplified Chinese is for mainland China—Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, etc. The difference lies not only in the characters, but also in the manner of expression.

Sometimes a client may ask for a translation into “Mandarin" Chinese. Actually this does not make sense at all because Mandarin only refers to spoken Chinese and to the official Chinese used everywhere versus Cantonese which is a dialect in the southern province Guangdong, Hong Kong, and some "old” Chinese communities in the States, especially in the San Francisco area.

So, when it comes to written Chinese, we always translate into either Traditional or Simplified Chinese, whereas we speak or interpret in either Mandarin or Cantonese.

What are characteristics of Chinese that are unique or different from English and/or other languages?

The characteristics of Chinese comprise, among other things, the following aspects:

1. The Chinese language is written in characters each of which consists of one up to dozens of strokes, and a phrase/sentence can be made of several characters. Since the characters are much shorter than the corresponding English words, the Chinese translation version always takes much less space than the English original if the “font” sizes remain the same. So when you translate a brochure or localize a website from English into Chinese, the layout of the pages will be affected by the shrinking text. One whole paragraph of English could become one or two lines, and the Chinese version of one full webpage of English original could end up as two-thirds of a page or even less.

2. However, in many cases, one English word may be expressed in two to three Chinese characters, such as gao-xing for “happy” and kai-che for “drive,” making the “word” count of Chinese translation always higher than the English original. The ratio of English to Chinese is roughly 1:1.5 depending on nature of the document and the style of the translator. So if you want a 1,000-word English document translated into Chinese, the word count of the “target language,” Chinese in this case, will be 1,350 to 1,500. And a 1,000-character Chinese document will be translated into an English version of about 700 words.