Have you ever watched a film and heard someone who's supposed to be British speaking in a British accent unlike any you've ever heard before? Like the character playing the Yorkshire miner who sounds more Welsh-come-Irish or the London Air Force officer who sounds more South African-come-French? And that's the lighthearted end of the scale.

So many of us have bought a product, read the instructions only to scratch our heads and exclaim how it could be in Chinese for all the sense it makes. Well, that's often because the instruction manual has been translated from Chinese by an inexperienced individual, probably working for peanuts, or, far worse than that, translated using an automated translation tool.

Well, I've never been to China but I can only imagine poor Chinese people in the same position as myself now and again, wondering what nonsense they're reading when trying to work out how to set up the electronic gizmo they just bought for their home. Far worse it must be for the Chinese person watching a film or TV show with someone allegedly from Guandong speaking in their native Mandarin. (Picked up on that?)


These casual examples highlight the importance of hiring a serious translation professional whatever your line of work and whatever you produce. An English to Chinese translation must be carried out by a native speaker of the relevant Chinese dialect, that is Mandarin or Cantonese, only the latter being spoken in Guangdong.

Don't take the chance of looking amateurish by hiring the cheapest possible provider. Take a look at the English to Chinese translation page of our website for a brief overview of what to consider when you require Chinese language work.