Why 'native-speaker'?

The LANGUAGE SUPPORT CENTRE is a native-speaker language company. We think that a native speaker of a language always has an advantage, other things being equal, over someone who has learned the language at school or in later life.

This is widely recognised to be the case with language teachers. Students learn a better accent and phrasing with a native-speaker teacher, and they do not risk picking up non-native usage from their teacher. Most people would probably also agree that a voice-over artist should be a native speaker from the relevant country.

Native-speaker translators, proofreaders and transcribers

But this advantage applies just as much to translators, transcribers and editors or proofreaders. Native-speaker editors and proofreaders can spot non-native usage with ease and accuracy. Native speaker transcribers are more likely to catch the meaning of the recorded spoken word. And translators who translate into their own language have a better "feel" for the right word or phrase in the context and generally construct better sentences.

A clear difference in practice

Most translators recognise this, and many translate only into their native language for this very reason. And it is certainly true that most native-speaker translators balk at the idea of reviewing translations made by non-native speakers! So the difference is very clear in practice.

That is why we have deliberately limited the independent peer review service for translators to native speakers of the target language.