Languages
Two tiers, described honestly.
We staff 3 pairs directly and deliver 4 more through vetted partner linguists. The difference shows up in the delivery date, not in the review or the certificate, and it is stated here rather than discovered after you send the file.
Core
Staffed directly.
Reviewers retained in the pair, a written quote back same business day, and a 2 business days standard turnaround that is a schedule rather than an aspiration.
Spanish
Español
The threshold language in every California jurisdiction that has one, and the highest-volume pair in public-agency translation statewide.
What we decide in this pairChinese
中文
The largest limited-English-proficient population in San Francisco. We set script and regional convention per audience rather than defaulting to one.
What we decide in this pairVietnamese
Tiếng Việt
Added to San Francisco's Language Access Ordinance requirements as of January 2026, when the threshold fell to 6,000 limited-English-proficient speakers.
What we decide in this pairNetwork
Delivered through vetted partner linguists.
Same review, same certificate, same file formats. What we will not do is print a standard turnaround next to a language whose reviewer we have to book first, so the date for these pairs is confirmed when we quote.
Filipino
Filipino
A San Francisco threshold language and a required language across several Bay Area county agencies.
Russian
Русский
The next language approaching San Francisco's ordinance threshold, and already required by several state agencies under Dymally-Alatorre.
Korean
한국어
A threshold language for multiple Southern California and state-level programs.
Arabic
العربية
Right-to-left typesetting handled in-house so forms and layouts survive the language change intact.
If the language you need is not listed, ask. We will either source it the same way and confirm a linguist before quoting, or say that we cannot take it.
The difference
What the tier changes, and what it does not.
| Core | Network | |
|---|---|---|
| Who does the work | Reviewers we retain in the pair, on standby rather than sourced per job. | Vetted partner linguists in the pair, engaged per job. |
| Quote | Returned same business day, with the delivery date in it. | Returned same business day, with the date confirmed against a linguist's availability before we send it. |
| Turnaround | Standard is 2 business days; priority is 24 hours. | Stated in the quote for that job, rather than promised in advance. |
| Human review | A qualified linguist reviews the full text against the source. | The same. This step does not vary by tier. |
| Certificate of accuracy | Signed and dated with every delivery. | Signed and dated with every delivery. |
Before we translate
The decisions come first.
Every pair has a small set of choices that have to be made before a sentence is written, and that cannot be fixed by editing afterward. Each language page lists ours.
Traditional or Simplified Chinese is a decision about which readers a document is for. Arabic is Modern Standard for anything of record. Spanish is held regionally neutral for a California audience rather than set to one country.
An official notice and a community flyer are not written the same way in any of these languages, and in Korean the difference is carried in the ending of every sentence. We set the level per document type and hold it across the set.
Text expansion, right-to-left rebuilds, and CJK line breaking are production problems that surface after approval, in the exported file. We lay out to the translated text rather than fitting it to the source.
Program and benefit names are unsettled in several of these languages. We build a glossary from what your office has already published, agree it before drafting, and keep it so your next document matches this one.
Tell us the languages and the date.
Send the document with the language list and the deadline. The quote comes back same business day with a delivery date for each language, and it says plainly which are core and which are network.