Who is qualified to do French to Czech translations
It is the unspoken rule of translation that the translator must be a native of the target language. Therefore, for French to Czech translations, the ideal translator must be a Czech person who knows the French language.
Why French to Czech translations require a native Czech
Most people think that if anyone can do one pair then they can also do the opposite of it. Thus if they know a French person can provide translation services in Czech, then people think he or she must also know how to do French to Czech translation. While this can be true for some people, such as a French person who has lived most of their lives in Czechoslovakia, most of the time a French person would never be able to adequately express things in the Czech language. It would come off as either too simple, like a child constructed the sentences, or it would sound strange and unnatural, exactly as a foreigner would sound.
It can be particularly hard for a French person to do French to Czech translations. Of all European languages, they are probably the farthest apart. French words have gender and accompanying definitive and indefinitive articles. Czech also has gender but uses no articles. If I look up the word “look” in French I would get recognizable results such as aspect, regarder, surveiller and examiner. But look up the word “look” in Czech, the results are nowhere near French or even English. If you can’t find a Czech person, then a near substitute would be finding a Slovak, or at least a Polish person whose language belongs to the same Slavic group.
It is not a case of perfect grammar. One can always study the correct arrangement of words in a sentence. But as we tend to take for granted, natural-sounding sentences are not always strictly grammatically correct sentences. Also, sentences that are studied only show the basic structure. Learning to write and read more complicated sentences would take years, something that only a native has done since they could read.
There are certain words that go with certain words. Look up the word “look” in a Czech dictionary and you would come across at least 5 different choices. Which “look” would mean to glance at something, which “look” would mean a facial expression that one makes, and which “look” would mean having a certain style?
So for French to Czech translations, you can’t go wrong with a native Czech person.
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