You’re right and I’m sorry, I meant to make a joke Should have made that more obvious, now that I read it again. I’m aware that Gallego and Galician are different, it’s just the bad custom of calling everyone from a country the same. Didn’t mean to offend at all, but I get if I did. What I meant to say is that, yes, the Spanish spoken in Spain and the one from Latino America are really different, so please don’t label something as “Spanish” when it’s specially made for people on Spain. What I meant with neutral is, well, Latino dubs are made in Mexico, mostly, and regionalisms are mostly cut out. Of course it’s not the best Spanish there is, but it is different and has different conventions, which you should keep in mind when translating.
Thanks. Trying it out on native speakers is a good idea although this often means even more time and money (it’s a thankless enough task to proofread someone’s work at the best of times). A quick Google Translate of the translator’s work might at least point to some obvious errors. I’d definitely try to go for a translator whose first language isn’t English, for the reasons you mention about being able to pick up things that just sound wrong. The downside of this is many common figures of speech that aren’t taught in English textbooks might get ‘swept under the rug’ or ‘kicked into the long grass’.
As well as names, cultural references may well not work overseas (and I use a lot), so it might be an idea for me to highlight anything that clearly isn’t universal- in one case, the player has an option to ‘jump up and sing a medley of Abba songs’(!)- and ask the translator how to get round this (maybe replace Abba with an Asian pop group, for instance).
So much of it will depend on the translator’s competency and approach. One might do a straight literal translation, another might take their own creative liberties. Ideally I’d want someone who will raise and discuss key issues with me. My number one priority will be to get someone I can have a good email discussion with beforehand.
Thanks for your comments- they’ve certainly got me thinking about things.