Many critics, no defenders,
Translators have but two regrets:
When they hit, no-one remembers,
When they miss, no-one forgets.

This anonymous quote is heartfelt by many translators. When it comes to translations, everyone is an expert. One seemingly silly mistake in a subtitle, and the translator did a bad job. A user manual that's incomprehensible? That must have been a bad translator. The reality is less straightforward. Even the best translator can hardly deliver quality translations if other conditions are imperfect.

But a translator who is less talented can deliver bad translations even in optimal conditions. Translation is a craft, which requires more than some knowledge of a foreign language and a dictionary. A good translation not only has the same content as the original, but also uses the same style and register. A good translation uses the correct specialised jargon. And, as obvious as it may seem, a good translation contains no spelling errors or grammatical mistakes.

All translations delivered by me are guaranteed to comply with these and other principles.