Translation is not a Commodity!

Translation is Not a Commodity!

A Word (or Two!) about Comparing Prices

Because we specialize only in Korea and the Korean-language, our rates are very competitive among quality providers. Keep in mind that translation is not a commodity that can be purchased based on “job price” alone – and pricing gimmicks are completely meaningless.

Many factors are involved in handling the translation of your document properly and you must not measure the cost of your translation project simply in terms of the price tag of the work itself. Translation errors cost money too – in some cases, they cost a lot of money!

General translation agencies that handle many different languages subcontract nearly every Korean-language project to freelance translators and single-language agencies and so, because their prices are generally quite high, they are really only able to add significant value to multi-lingual projects.

We stand behind our work in extraordinary ways and our quality control processes mean that your important documents are delivered in tip-top shape — and everything is backed up by our satisfaction guarantee.

Therefore, if you only need Korean translation, then you will save money and get better service/quality by dealing with a specialist agency like Korean Consulting & Translation Service, Inc.

On the other hand, we are not the cheapest supplier in the market. Quality of output varies greatly from agency to agency and translator to translator and we have positioned ourselves at the “quality” end of the market. We do that through our two-step E>K translation process and native-English speaker K>E translation service.

You get what you pay for! We DON’T cut corners and we DO deliver top-quality translations on-time the first time. Trust us with your Korean translation work and you’ll make more money from your documents as a result.


The following are just a few examples to show the premium nature of our translation services. As demonstrated below, we do not cut corners in the quality of our deliveries.

US School District

A large city school district in the US has ongoing needs for Korean translation and our team has been a key (though not exclusive) provider of this work over the years through our agency client. Following a rigid style guide and glossary prepared by our client, as well as translating in CAT tools, we have worked hard to make sure the district’s materials in Korean are always top quality. Indeed, Dong-Hyeok Kim, one of our team members, holds a teaching certificate in Korea!

Complicated Typesetting Requirements

Suppose you have a large file in PageMaker for translation to Korean in Trados but the final delivery should be in FrameMaker? Or a file in English Quark that you need typeset into Korean Quark? If an English advertisement is being translated to Korean, it’s easy enough to pick out some fonts that look OK to a non-Asian, but what if the fonts in your delivery to the client were selected to appeal to Korean readers? These are just a few of the actual project challenges we have overcome for our clients. Our layout technician is the best anywhere. It’s generally safe to assume that if a Korean typesetting project can be done, we can do it.

A Very Large Job

Computer-aided translation (CAD) tools (not to be confused with “machine translation”, something we never use) are wonderful tools. But they are not always easy to use and when handling a turn-key approach from start to finish, in the latest desktop publishing software, knowing the ropes is important both in terms of keeping costs down and maintaining consistency throughout. On a recent one-million word project, our team worked steadily to not only meet, but also beat, original deadlines, even as the project scope increased unexpectedly. Needless to say, the size of this project also let us cut our prices far below our posted standard rates.

A Scientific Publication

We have been translating the monthly newsletter of an organization working in the field of nuclear power. How important do you think this document is in today’s market? Rather than just any translator for this task, our linguist on the job has a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering and is currently working in a nuclear technology research institute in Korea. If ever there was an example to prove that translation isn’t a commodity, this is it!

Corporate Materials for a Multinational

A large multinational has been having their corporate materials translated into Korean (and about 25 other languages, too!) for the last 4-5 years, during which time we’ve handled countless projects for them through our agency client in a wide variety of business subjects. From annually updated codes of ethics, to procedural manuals and letters from the president, our team takes ownership of the work, jumping in to provide constructive feedback about why certain changes by the client’s reviewers who joined the process late would affect the consistency of style and meaning with previously established language.

Ongoing Pharmaceutical Patents

Our patent translation team is second to none, with years of experience working directly under and with patent attorneys in Korea. On one ongoing pharmaceutical patent project which we have handled for several years, our team not only delivers translations ready for submission directly to the Korean Intellectual Property Office, but we frequently find and point out mistakes in the English source, too. This added value gives our client great confidence in our work.

Steven Bammel

Steven S. Bammel is president and chief translator/consultant at Korean Consulting & Translation Service, Inc. A graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington (B.B.A. Economics) and Hanyang University (M.S. Management Strategy), Steven has worked for over twenty years in Korean business and translation. | more about Steven

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