English-Spanish Professional Translations – Spanish- English Professional Translations – Every other language – Every industry
1
Document translations
_____
Simple translations and certified translations covering every sector of the economy…
2
Proofreading services
_____
Make sure your proofed text gets your message across fully and accurately…
3
Interpreting services
_____
Our expert interpreters will accurately convey the message to your audience…
4
Localization services
_____
Each of the world’s main languages has numerous regional differences…
5
FAQ
_____
In this section, we help you answer some of the most frequently asked questions that may arise when hiring ….
Our customers
What they say about us
About us
The strategic partner you can always rely on
Babel is the premier Anglo-Mexican translating agency offering fast, accurate and cost-effective language solutions for the biggest names in world business.
- State-of-the-art Technology
- The Expert Team
- Urgent Translations
- Top Prices
- State-of-the-art Technology
- The Expert Team
- Urgent Translations
- Top Prices
Charities and NGOs
Other ways to contact us
If you need a free quote for any of our listed services, please contact us at:
If you want to join the Babel translating team, please contact us at:
Telephone
+52 (55) 5604 9088
Office hours
Monday to Thursday 08:30 to 18:30 hrs
Friday – 08:30 to 17:30 hrs
(Mexico City time)
Since 2016 Babel has been supporting Save the Children, the British NGO whose mission is to improve living conditions for underprivileged children. This initiative has opened the door for us to provide help in many different ways for children forced to subsist under unimaginable conditions, including actions such as:
- Refurbishing a reading room in a primary school in Mexico City to encourage children from deprived backgrounds to enjoy the world of literature in a safe and comfortable setting.
- Providing regular financing for staffing at a play centre in Acapulco to provide young boys and girls with a safe environment to play and interact in after school hours.
- Providing translations free of charge of documents such as the STC annual report; earthquake response strategies; nutrition, sanitation and hygiene campaigns, and first-hand testimonies of migrant children forced to leave their countries of origin in Latin America because of violence and/or extreme poverty to seek a better life elsewhere.
- Coaching and workshops on attentional skills for staff members at different Save The Children locations in Mexico City.
- Holding raffles and collecting foodstuffs for victims of the October 2017 earthquakes in the state of Oaxaca, coordinating directly with the local population to ensure the money raised and vital supplies purchased by our members of staff went directly to the affected communities.
- Refurbishing reading rooms in three different primary schools in the Yucatan Peninsula to enable children to enjoy the world of literature in a safe and comfortable setting.
- In February 2021 we accompanied Save the Children distributing personal hygiene packages in communities in Tabasco hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and then by flooding.
Our pledge is to give you the best translation
________
At Babel, we have mastered the language of the Third Millennium. We understand the need to send accurate information quickly across different languages and cultures.
Contact us, tell us exactly what you need and we’ll provide the tailor-made solution you’re looking for.
Get a quote
OUR SERVICES
DOCUMENT TRANSLATIONS
Document translations
At Babel we provide fast and reliable document translation services performed by experts. If you need a simple or certified translation, quick turnaround, 100% confidentiality and a truly professional service, Babel is your best bet.
Thanks to our team of over 200 professional translators, we offer the best value for money and turnaround times in Latin America.
Simple translations and certified translations
Covering all industries in the following languages:
- Spanish
- English
- French
- Portuguese
- German
- Italian
- Dutch
- Mandarin
- Japanese
- Russian
- Arabic
and pretty much any other language you care to mention.
Technology: AI, Trados, Groupshare, Adobe Acrobat, Abbyy, TeamViewer, Suma CRM, Monday and, most importantly, state-of-the-art human beings.
Formats: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, among others.
There’s simply no way round it; translating documents accurately and with the necessary speed takes years and years of practice, constant research, countless gallons of black coffee and an instinctive feel for both the source and target languages. Our translators and proof-readers, both in-house and freelance, have stood the test of time and rank among the most outstanding professionals in their field.
You’d be amazed at the huge diversity of documents we have been asked to translate over the years. Contracts, financial statements, pharmaceutical dossiers, articles of incorporation and a whole range of reports are part and parcel of our day-to-day work here at Babel. However, our customers have on occasion requested document translations that you would not readily include in the everyday fare of a translating agency. Examples include Christmas carols, hymns, recipes for beans and pork, tips for weddings and even market research interviews with consumers of alcoholic beverages (conducted after a sufficient degree of consumption to undermine the coherence of the interviewee’s answers).
At this stage of the game we believe there are no surprises left with the document translations we are asked to do. But, having said that, we kindly invite our customers to prove us wrong by sending us something to translate that we really weren’t expecting!
PROOFREADING
Proofreading
Do you need proofreading services in your own or a foreign language? Babel will get the wording, tone, syntax and style of any type of document just right for you.
A good translator is like a ninja; if they do their job right then you won’t ever notice they’re there. Our proofreaders are entrusted with the task of making sure there are no elephants in the room, only ninjas.
Apart from making sure the translation they are proofing fully and accurately conveys the information contained in the original text, they also make any necessary – often subtle – modifications so that the wording flows smoothly and doesn’t read like, well… a translation.
Often what a customer requires isn’t so much the translation of texts as their updating through the addition, deletion or modification of the information they contain. This can sometimes be the case with documents such as manuals, studies or contracts and agreements whose content became outdated or incomplete at some point.
It goes without saying that any adjustments made to the original version of a document will also need to be made to the versions in other languages of that same document. We place this type of work under the broad category of proofreading, because it tends to involve a pre-existing translation.
In such cases, there are usually two ways to proceed: (i) the customer indicates where in the document each of the changes can be found (perhaps using a tool such as track changes in Word), or (ii) the customer does not indicate where they are, in which case we go through the two versions of the text meticulously – the old one and the updated one – to identify the changes and make the corresponding translation in the updated version in the target language.
There is no doubt that proofreading is a type of work that requires a great deal of accuracy and good organization, especially if there are several updates of the same original document.
INTERPREATING SERVICES
Interpreting services
Babel offers top-of-the-range professional interpreting services, including both remote (Zoom, video conference, phone, conference software, etc.) and in person. These services cover all industries, with or without sound equipment (see below).
Ever wondered if you can do three things at the same time and get them all right? Our expert interpreters do just that, listening, translating and speaking to make sure the message is conveyed immediately and accurately to the audience.
- Spanish interpreting to and from all languages
- English interpreting to and from all languages
- Events with embassies, consulates and chambers of commerce
- Conferences
- Presentations and meetings with government entities
- Business meetings
- Trade fairs
- Training and briefings
- Hearings
LOCALIZATION
Localization
Babel offers localization/translation services specially designed to help you launch your products and services in new markets. Our localization services comb through all the different cultural, linguistic and technical aspects of the language and its regional particularities in your target market.
Each of the world’s main languages has many regional variations, and the same word or expression may have completely different meanings in different locations even though they speak the same language, so even the slightest misinterpretation could have very unexpected consequences.
There is also a huge array of cultural references, some of which might make perfect sense in one country but leave people in another country scratching their heads. So, whether it’s video games, websites or even a blog, we make sure your message is understood perfectly by the people it’s intended for.
Let’s give you an example. A couple with a baby from Minneapolis fly to the UK and rent a car to drive from London to the picturesque Roman town of Bath in the county of Somerset. Suddenly the car stops amidst swirls of smoke. Not to worry, they call the rental agency who reassure their American clients that they’ll be fine before moving on to more technical matters.
First of all, is the smoke coming out of the bonnet or some other part of the vehicle? Also, can they check that there’s a fire extinguisher in the boot? What was the reading on the petrol gauge when they left the car park? Are they still on the motorway? If so, are they near a service station? Maybe they can buy some nappies there. They should also avoid stopping near a roundabout.
This barrage of questions and recommendations could prove confusing to a non-British English speaker. The good news, however, is that there is a solution that will provide native speakers of any language with the terms and expressions they are familiar with. This solution is known as localization and often makes the difference between bemusement and clear communication.
DOCUMENT FORMATTING
Document formatting
Do you need your translated document to look identical to the original? Sounds pretty straightforward, but it isn’t unless you really know what you’re doing. Some languages are more compact than others, which means what you can say, for instance, in English in 300 words, may require 400 or more in Spanish.
So the challenge for our formatting team is to preserve the format of the original document while accommodating a significantly different number of words or characters. This is made possible thanks to the skill and tenacity of our formatting staff together with the deployment of cutting-edge OCR technology and the very latest conversion and extraction software.
The clearest examples of just how crucial document formatting can be arise when we are asked to translate invoices or do translations of certificates. This is because the amount of actual text to translate in documents of this type is often small, and what really takes time is making sure the translation’s format is exactly the same as that of the original.
Over the years we have done tens of thousands of invoice translations to help customers with their audits and in their dealings with the tax authorities. These projects tend to be huge but with very little turnaround time because of the proximity of the audit or hearing date. It is therefore absolutely essential to get the formatting done ASAP.
This is also the case with different types of certificates. They are often needed for important procedures or formalities and the time factor is vital. They may be birth or marriage certificates or, in more recent times, vaccination certificates for traveling abroad. On several occasions our customers have asked us to translate vaccination certificates from the airport. Thanks to our quick and accurate formatting work, none have lost their flight.
TRANSCRIPTION
Transcription
Babel provides premier transcription services for video, audio and text in every line of business and in whichever language you need.
Transcription is a piece of cake, right? Are you sure? Our transcribers can in fact stake a good claim to being the unsung heroes of our company. Transcribing hours of video or audio, or reams of text that cannot be made editable using technology, and getting it 100% spot-on every time is quite a heroic feat in itself.
Whether it’s Spanish, English, French or Japanese, absolute concentration and an unblinking eye for all details are the key to this understated skill.
Transcription is sometimes the first stage in a more complex job. For instance, a number of customers have sent us videos or audio in a certain language and asked us to send them the written audio in some other language. So the first step consists of audio transcription followed by the translation of this text into the target language.
It stands to reason that errors in the transcription of audio will almost invariably lead to inaccuracies in the final translation, which means the transcription needs to be done with a great deal of care. Afterwards, the translation of the transcribed text can be used for other things such as subtitling or voiceovers, thereby highlighting the vital importance of the transcription as a raw material for subsequent language services and solutions.
SUBTITLING AND VOIVEOVER
Subtitling and voiceovers
Babel offers subtitling and voiceover solutions for all your organisation’s digital content. Every language, every line of business.
We’ve all witnessed the recent exponential growth in visual and audio content, whether on social media, within companies, or for advertising campaigns or e-learning. This trend has given rise to an equally spectacular increase in the use of subtitling and voiceovers to get the message across to speakers of other languages
Both are very specific arts in themselves in which, unlike document translations, the subtitles or audio have to fit within a very specific time window. Looking forward, the need for reliable solutions in both fields will continue to rise.
- E-learning
- Video games
- Documentaries
- YouTube content
- News
- Corporate videos, inductions, promotions, etc.
- Marketing and advertising
- Sport
- Social media and blogs
One of the trends we have identified since the pandemic began is the number of foreign schools of different types looking to enter the Mexican market to give their courses. Whether it’s for classes on computer programming using Python or for workshops on French pastries, these schools tend to want both top level subtitling and voiceovers for their course videos.
This substantial range of courses and the degree of specialization implicit in each subject pose a major challenge in terms of the knowledge required to ensure a successful professional translation. There really is no margin for error either in the translation itself or in the timing of the subtitles and voiceovers. Subtitling and voiceover work demand nothing short of perfection in a number of fields, and this can only be achieved through years of training and hands-on experience.
Other ways to contact us
If you need a free quote for any of our listed services, please contact us at:
If you want to join the Babel translating team, please contact us at:
Telephone
+52 (55) 5604 9088
Office hours
Monday to Thursday 08:30 to 18:30 hrs
Friday – 08:30 to 17:30 hrs
(Mexico City time)
Document translations
At Babel we provide fast and reliable document translation services performed by experts. If you need a simple or certified translation, quick turnaround, 100% confidentiality and a truly professional service, Babel is your best bet.
Thanks to our team of over 200 professional translators, we offer the best value for money and turnaround times in Latin America.
Simple translations and certified translations
Covering all industries in the following languages:
- Spanish
- English
- French
- Portuguese
- German
- Italian
- Dutch
- Mandarin
- Japanese
- Russian
- Arabic
and pretty much any other language you care to mention.
Technology: AI, Trados, Groupshare, Adobe Acrobat, Abbyy, TeamViewer, Suma CRM, Monday and, most importantly, state-of-the-art human beings.
Formats: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, among others.
There’s simply no way round it; translating documents accurately and with the necessary speed takes years and years of practice, constant research, countless gallons of black coffee and an instinctive feel for both the source and target languages. Our translators and proof-readers, both in-house and freelance, have stood the test of time and rank among the most outstanding professionals in their field.
You’d be amazed at the huge diversity of documents we have been asked to translate over the years. Contracts, financial statements, pharmaceutical dossiers, articles of incorporation and a whole range of reports are part and parcel of our day-to-day work here at Babel. However, our customers have on occasion requested document translations that you would not readily include in the everyday fare of a translating agency. Examples include Christmas carols, hymns, recipes for beans and pork, tips for weddings and even market research interviews with consumers of alcoholic beverages (conducted after a sufficient degree of consumption to undermine the coherence of the interviewee’s answers).
At this stage of the game we believe there are no surprises left with the document translations we are asked to do. But, having said that, we kindly invite our customers to prove us wrong by sending us something to translate that we really weren’t expecting!
Other ways to contact us
If you need a free quote for any of our listed services, please contact us at:
If you want to join the Babel translating team, please contact us at:
Telephone
+52 (55) 5604 9088
Office hours
Monday to Thursday 08:30 to 18:30 hrs
Friday – 08:30 to 17:30 hrs
(Mexico City time)
Proofreading
Do you need proofreading services in your own or a foreign language? Babel will get the wording, tone, syntax and style of any type of document just right for you.
A good translator is like a ninja; if they do their job right then you won’t ever notice they’re there. Our proofreaders are entrusted with the task of making sure there are no elephants in the room, only ninjas.
Apart from making sure the translation they are proofing fully and accurately conveys the information contained in the original text, they also make any necessary – often subtle – modifications so that the wording flows smoothly and doesn’t read like, well… a translation.
Often what a customer requires isn’t so much the translation of texts as their updating through the addition, deletion or modification of the information they contain. This can sometimes be the case with documents such as manuals, studies or contracts and agreements whose content became outdated or incomplete at some point.
It goes without saying that any adjustments made to the original version of a document will also need to be made to the versions in other languages of that same document. We place this type of work under the broad category of proofreading, because it tends to involve a pre-existing translation.
In such cases, there are usually two ways to proceed: (i) the customer indicates where in the document each of the changes can be found (perhaps using a tool such as track changes in Word), or (ii) the customer does not indicate where they are, in which case we go through the two versions of the text meticulously – the old one and the updated one – to identify the changes and make the corresponding translation in the updated version in the target language.
There is no doubt that proofreading is a type of work that requires a great deal of accuracy and good organization, especially if there are several updates of the same original document.
Interpreting services
Babel offers top-of-the-range professional interpreting services, including both remote (Zoom, video conference, phone, conference software, etc.) and in person. These services cover all industries, with or without sound equipment (see below).
Ever wondered if you can do three things at the same time and get them all right? Our expert interpreters do just that, listening, translating and speaking to make sure the message is conveyed immediately and accurately to the audience.
- Spanish interpreting to and from all languages
- English interpreting to and from all languages
- Events with embassies, consulates and chambers of commerce
- Conferences
- Presentations and meetings with government entities
- Business meetings
- Trade fairs
- Training and briefings
- Hearings
Other ways to contact us
If you need a free quote for any of our listed services, please contact us at:
If you want to join the Babel translating team, please contact us at:
Telephone
+52 (55) 5604 9088
Office hours
Monday to Thursday 08:30 to 18:30 hrs
Friday – 08:30 to 17:30 hrs
(Mexico City time)
Localization
Babel offers localization/translation services specially designed to help you launch your products and services in new markets. Our localization services comb through all the different cultural, linguistic and technical aspects of the language and its regional particularities in your target market.
Each of the world’s main languages has many regional variations, and the same word or expression may have completely different meanings in different locations even though they speak the same language, so even the slightest misinterpretation could have very unexpected consequences.
There is also a huge array of cultural references, some of which might make perfect sense in one country but leave people in another country scratching their heads. So, whether it’s video games, websites or even a blog, we make sure your message is understood perfectly by the people it’s intended for.
Let’s give you an example. A couple with a baby from Minneapolis fly to the UK and rent a car to drive from London to the picturesque Roman town of Bath in the county of Somerset. Suddenly the car stops amidst swirls of smoke. Not to worry, they call the rental agency who reassure their American clients that they’ll be fine before moving on to more technical matters.
First of all, is the smoke coming out of the bonnet or some other part of the vehicle? Also, can they check that there’s a fire extinguisher in the boot? What was the reading on the petrol gauge when they left the car park? Are they still on the motorway? If so, are they near a service station? Maybe they can buy some nappies there. They should also avoid stopping near a roundabout.
This barrage of questions and recommendations could prove confusing to a non-British English speaker. The good news, however, is that there is a solution that will provide native speakers of any language with the terms and expressions they are familiar with. This solution is known as localization and often makes the difference between bemusement and clear communication.
Other ways to contact us
If you need a free quote for any of our listed services, please contact us at:
If you want to join the Babel translating team, please contact us at:
Telephone
+52 (55) 5604 9088
Office hours
Monday to Thursday 08:30 to 18:30 hrs
Friday – 08:30 to 17:30 hrs
(Mexico City time)
Other ways to contact us
If you need a free quote for any of our listed services, please contact us at:
If you want to join the Babel translating team, please contact us at:
Telephone
+52 (55) 5604 9088
Office hours
Monday to Thursday 08:30 to 18:30 hrs
Friday – 08:30 to 17:30 hrs
(Mexico City time)
Document formatting
Do you need your translated document to look identical to the original? Sounds pretty straightforward, but it isn’t unless you really know what you’re doing. Some languages are more compact than others, which means what you can say, for instance, in English in 300 words, may require 400 or more in Spanish.
So the challenge for our formatting team is to preserve the format of the original document while accommodating a significantly different number of words or characters. This is made possible thanks to the skill and tenacity of our formatting staff together with the deployment of cutting-edge OCR technology and the very latest conversion and extraction software.
The clearest examples of just how crucial document formatting can be arise when we are asked to translate invoices or do translations of certificates. This is because the amount of actual text to translate in documents of this type is often small, and what really takes time is making sure the translation’s format is exactly the same as that of the original.
Over the years we have done tens of thousands of invoice translations to help customers with their audits and in their dealings with the tax authorities. These projects tend to be huge but with very little turnaround time because of the proximity of the audit or hearing date. It is therefore absolutely essential to get the formatting done ASAP.
This is also the case with different types of certificates. They are often needed for important procedures or formalities and the time factor is vital. They may be birth or marriage certificates or, in more recent times, vaccination certificates for traveling abroad. On several occasions our customers have asked us to translate vaccination certificates from the airport. Thanks to our quick and accurate formatting work, none have lost their flight.
Other ways to contact us
If you need a free quote for any of our listed services, please contact us at:
If you want to join the Babel translating team, please contact us at:
Telephone
+52 (55) 5604 9088
Office hours
Monday to Thursday 08:30 to 18:30 hrs
Friday – 08:30 to 17:30 hrs
(Mexico City time)
Transcription
Babel provides premier transcription services for video, audio and text in every line of business and in whichever language you need.
Transcription is a piece of cake, right? Are you sure? Our transcribers can in fact stake a good claim to being the unsung heroes of our company. Transcribing hours of video or audio, or reams of text that cannot be made editable using technology, and getting it 100% spot-on every time is quite a heroic feat in itself.
Whether it’s Spanish, English, French or Japanese, absolute concentration and an unblinking eye for all details are the key to this understated skill.
Transcription is sometimes the first stage in a more complex job. For instance, a number of customers have sent us videos or audio in a certain language and asked us to send them the written audio in some other language. So the first step consists of audio transcription followed by the translation of this text into the target language.
It stands to reason that errors in the transcription of audio will almost invariably lead to inaccuracies in the final translation, which means the transcription needs to be done with a great deal of care. Afterwards, the translation of the transcribed text can be used for other things such as subtitling or voiceovers, thereby highlighting the vital importance of the transcription as a raw material for subsequent language services and solutions.
Subtitling and voiceovers
Babel offers subtitling and voiceover solutions for all your organisation’s digital content. Every language, every line of business.
We’ve all witnessed the recent exponential growth in visual and audio content, whether on social media, within companies, or for advertising campaigns or e-learning. This trend has given rise to an equally spectacular increase in the use of subtitling and voiceovers to get the message across to speakers of other languages
Both are very specific arts in themselves in which, unlike document translations, the subtitles or audio have to fit within a very specific time window. Looking forward, the need for reliable solutions in both fields will continue to rise.
- E-learning
- Video games
- Documentaries
- YouTube content
- News
- Corporate videos, inductions, promotions, etc.
- Marketing and advertising
- Sport
- Social media and blogs
One of the trends we have identified since the pandemic began is the number of foreign schools of different types looking to enter the Mexican market to give their courses. Whether it’s for classes on computer programming using Python or for workshops on French pastries, these schools tend to want both top level subtitling and voiceovers for their course videos.
This substantial range of courses and the degree of specialization implicit in each subject pose a major challenge in terms of the knowledge required to ensure a successful professional translation. There really is no margin for error either in the translation itself or in the timing of the subtitles and voiceovers. Subtitling and voiceover work demand nothing short of perfection in a number of fields, and this can only be achieved through years of training and hands-on experience.
Other ways to contact us
If you need a free quote for any of our listed services, please contact us at:
If you want to join the Babel translating team, please contact us at:
Telephone
+52 (55) 5604 9088
Office hours
Monday to Thursday 08:30 to 18:30 hrs
Friday – 08:30 to 17:30 hrs
(Mexico City time)
In this section we answer some questions that often arise when customers engage our services
1. Which services do you offer?
2. Which languages does Babel work in?
3. How can I get a quote?
Babel offers the following options for sending you a quote:
• Fill out a brief express quote form at this link: https://babelint.com/cotizador/
• Send an email to quotes@babelint.com attaching the document(s) you need to translate along with the following specifications: required target language, delivery date, whether or not the translation is to be certified. For services other than written translation, please provide details, or
• Call us and talk to an Account Manager on (55) 5604 9357 or (55) 5604 9088.
4. Do you offer translations certified by official translators?
Yes. Babel has official translators in a broad range of different languages who can certify your translations.
5. What’s the difference between certified professional translations and non-certified professional translations?
A non-certified professional translation is performed and checked by our team of professional translators to ensure optimum quality. A certified professional translation is the same as a non-certified one but, in addition, it is proofed, stamped and signed by an official translator authorized by the federal or state judiciary.
6. How much does a translation cost?
A number of factors are considered to determine the cost of a translation:
- The language combination.
- The volume or number of words.
- Whether or not the translation is to be certified.
- The required delivery time.
Don’t forget that you have the following options for getting your quote: form, email or phone.
7. How long will it take you to deliver my translation?
We are always mindful of the customer’s needs. At the same time, delivery times will always depend on the size of the document(s), the topic involved and the language combination.
8. In which format should I send my document(s)?
You can send your documents in any format. If you have them in different formats, we’d prefer to receive the editable version (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
9. Which topics do you translate?
At Babel we have specialist translators and interpreters covering just about every topic, sector and industry (please see the website’s Industries section).
