Globalization has paved new pathways of insights and communication for various sector across the globe. Due to globalization, foreign languages are currently often found in every interaction, text, product, and even the language of directions. Social media, television, advertisements, and international journals are also a collection and combinations of text in a foreign language.
Role of Foreign Languages in Daily Life
Foreign languages that are often encountered in daily life are English, Arabic, and Mandarin. Some words that are often found in English such as stand by, login, setting, insert, shut down, options, wallpaper, restart, and many more. Some of these words are very familiar in a product or text.
However, amid the growing globalization and the use of foreign languages, this language difference has become a major obstacle and can hinder the communication process both orally and in writing. The development of an increasingly complex era and increasingly advanced technology encourages the use of foreign languages in various devices and documents. Although advanced technologies such as google translate and other translation applications are now available, technology like this will not guarantee 100% accurate and correct results.
Google translate and translate applications only give meaning per word or phrase. Meanwhile, a dictionary in the form of a book only displays several meanings or meanings without being juxtaposed and matched with different sentence contexts. These language differences lead to an increasing need for language translator services in providing a translation service. In the world of translation, there are two types of translation commonly used, which is crowdsourcing and professional translation.
Professional translation is a translation used for professional purposes. The main goal of professional translation is to get all translated information as accurate as possible because accuracy is very important for all these types of translations, especially those used for industries that do not tolerate the slightest translation error. To produce professional translations, more complex industries often also require specialists or professional translators to ensure the accuracy of translations. The more complex the source language, the more educated translators are needed.
In general, professional translators are people who speak their mother tongue and have acquired fluency in one or more languages through various experiences. Such translators must have professional knowledge both in their mother tongue (target language) and in the language, they are translating (source language). Professional translators have a linguistic background and know how to deal with the rules and norms of their native language, as well as in the one or several foreign languages learned. Professional translators know how to translate certain words, phrases, and tenses, and then render them correctly in another language.
They must also have acquired a vast general background knowledge over several years to be able to relate their specialty with topics covering vast information domains. For example, when one translates a contract covering a scientific topic, legal knowledge is a basic requirement, but scientific knowledge of the subject of the contract is also necessary. Thus, boundless knowledge requirements are needed. They also have solid knowledge and experience in the content subject matter, which enables them to use proper terminology whenever required.
Professional translations are often provided by professional translators or trained linguists in respective fields. To make a professional translation, it needs to choose exactly the right words, idioms, written and technical formats, colors as well as references that will make the most sense and should highly appeal to the target audience.
Qualifications of Professional Translators
Professional translators also tend to be specialized in specific subject matters. There are three main types of professional translation services, including Industry Specific Translations, Certified Translations, and Notarized Translations.
Industry Specific Translations
Industry-specific translations refer to professional translation services performed for a particular industry. They are often specialized as every industry has terminology and concepts that are unique to the business being performed. For example, legal translations are often performed when a document is used as evidence in a court of law and must be translated into the language of the jurisdiction in which the court proceeding takes place.
Legal translations, in particular, should be handled by adhering to the laws of the jurisdiction or country where the translation will be used. Legal translations may also be needed when filing for intellectual property or when undergoing immigration processes.
Certified Translations
For a Certified Translation, the translator or agency that performs the translation will present a signed statement stating that the translation of the source document they completed is accurate. The translator is not required to be a certified translator to produce a Certified Translation.
Notarized Translations
For a Notarized Translation, a translator will request the services of a Public Notary. When getting a translation notarized, the person who completed the translation must sign an affidavit, or a written statement certifying that their translation is accurate.
In some instances, a translator will be asked to swear an oath, affirming that their translation was precise. The Public Notary then verifies the identity of the translator and places a seal on the document, but they do not assess the quality of the translation itself.
Advantages of Professional Translation
There are several advantages when using professional translation. Those advantages include:
- The content and meaning can be translated correctly. A professional translator can translate content and meaning behind context, metaphors, slogans, idioms, and language nuances more accurate
- Quality control. Professional translation is produced by professional translators who work in translation provider agencies. Translation providers should have procedures in place, such as proofreading and quality assurance teams, to ensure accurate content that is free from mistakes.
- When using a professional translation provider, their accreditations will show that the provider is committed to ensuring your data is secure.
- Transcreation is the process of adopting a message during the translation process to ensure the intent, style, idioms, context, and tone are all reflected accurately. A professional translator can translate these contents to produce an accurate translation
- Multiple language pairs. Depending on the need of language needs, you may need to hire multiple translators for each project. This can be overcome if you pick a translation provider that has access to translators around the globe with different skills.
Despite all advantages we could get from using professional translation, it also has several disadvantages:
- It will cost. One of the biggest drawbacks for those with a limited budget is the cost. You will need to pay a translation company for their work. The translations’ price differs from project to project. Prices can be worked out per word, per page, per line, per hour, or based on a flat rate. Of all these approaches, translation per source word is by far the most common. One page or line can differ from another, in terms of content and number of words. Several main cost-influencing factors, including language pairs, the nature of the content, urgency, the service provider, and certifications
- Need a longer time to finish. It can take some time to translate content, and if you’re working to a very tight deadline it might not be possible for a translation agency to meet your demands. The time it takes to translate a document can vary widely depending on the content and the translator.
Advantages of Crowdsourced Translation
Aside from professional translation, there is also crowdsourced translation. Crowdsourcing is a method of problem-solving where it will combine knowledge from as many participants as possible is used to come up with the best solution to an issue. Outsourcing projects are usually launched through a website that acts as a marketplace, where procurers can publish a request for services and interested parties can then post their offers.
The same principles have also been applied to translation, yielding what is called crowdsourced translation, wherein a community of non-experts collaborates on creating translations on a volunteer basis. In crowdsourced translation, translations are produced through the simultaneous efforts of a significant number of translators who sometimes work as volunteers or are remunerated for their works. Some of the translators might be professional language service providers trained in translation sector, while others might also be amateur translators.
Crowdsourced translation can be divided into two categories based on the profile of the translators involved. These two categories are non-professional translators, such as Google Translate users who improve the translations of the machine translation engine, and professional translators who use various crowdsourced translation service platforms.
Crowdsourced translations are better managed and yield higher-quality translations than machine and community translation because these projects and the translators involved are generally managed by language service providers who monitor the feedback given by customers on the translations to gather information on which translators are qualified to translate. Several advantages when using crowdsourced translation.
- Translation speed. Crowdsourced translation involves many people working concurrently on the same translation project and correcting each other’s mistakes. This will make it possible to save time on editing the translations and enables crowdsourced projects to be completed in a relatively short amount of time.
- Translation price. Crowdsourced translation often provided at an affordable price
- Varieties of language pairs. Crowdsourced translation allows bringing onboard a large number of speakers of many different languages, and there are essentially no barriers to how many languages or which languages the projects can involve.
Although crowdsourced translation has several advantages, this kind of translation have also several disadvantages, including:
- Quality may not be as expected. The biggest problem with crowdsourced translation is the quality of the translations, which may not always meet expectations. This is caused the volunteers in crowdsourced translation projects are rarely who are professional translators, linguists, or subject matter experts.
- Hard to find translators. High translation quality can also be challenging if we cannot find enough speakers of the required languages. The lack of suitable translators can be a problem, especially in the case of minor languages, such as Estonian.
- Inconsistent translations. Crowdsourced translations are frequently very inconsistent and may need considerable editing to fix it.
- Hidden cost. Although crowdsourced translation might seem more affordable, this translation still involves several costs, including the costs of setting up a common platform; recruiting, constantly communicating with, and motivating the translators; managing the project; and checking and editing the translations. In some cases, the crowdsourced translation may even need to be ordered from a translation agency as a service.
- Confidentiality issues. Confidentiality is difficult to ensure in a crowdsourced translation project because there will be many participants who are not contractually bound.
Crowdsourced translation has been used relatively successfully for translating user interfaces (UI), user support, help center, FAQ (frequently asked questions) content, and other kinds of content that are not too complex. However, crowdsourced translation may not be the best option for translating marketing materials, mottos and advertising slogans, legal texts such as terms of service, and confidential material. This kind of content needs a more professional translation.
In conclusion, in choosing the type of translation to be used, several things need to be considered. These can be in the form of the context content that you want to translate, the desired final quality, the available budget, security, and the speed of the translator in completing the translation of the document.
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