Q/ What is translation?
- Translation is the process of
converting the meaning of a spoken or written text from one
language to another.
Q/ Translators must strike a fine balance between staying true
to the original meaning and making a text sound natural in the
target language. Discuss?
- To ensure that the final text communicates the same
message, feeling, and tone as the original.
Q/ Translation is an essential tool for businesses looking to
globalize their products and services. Discuss?
- It helps them break down language barriers and
communicate with customers in their native language. It can
lead to higher exposure, a larger customer base, and a
subsequent boost in sales and revenue.
Q/ What are the key approaches to translation?
1- Human translation (HT):- It means people translate text
from one language to another. They can use digital tools, but
they mainly rely on their own understanding to assure being
accurate. Human translation is more expensive and it is slower
than machine translation.
Q/ What are the advantages of human translation?
1.1- Understand Nuances:- They get sarcasm, humor, and
hidden meanings that machines struggle with. This is crucial
for marketing and texts where quality matters.
1.2- Specialize:- They know specific industries well, like
medical or legal fields, preventing costly mistakes in technical
translations.
1.3- Customize:- They can follow character limits for things like
user interfaces or include specific keywords for SEO.
1.4- Make It Natural:- They avoid awkward literal translations,
especially important for marketing where impact matters
more than exact phrasing.
2- Machine translation (MT):- It uses software, often with AI,
to convert text from one language to another without human
help while keeping the same meaning.
Q/ what are the advantages of machine translation?
2.1- Speed:- Machine translation is much faster so it is perfect
for big projects like ecommerce product descriptions.
2.2- Affordability:- It's cheaper, making it a good choice for a
low budget businesses, especially for less important content.
2.3- Automation:- Machine translation can integrate with
other software, allowing fully automated processes. This is
great for content like internal documentation, making it
accessible with minimal human effort.
Note | Some companies choose a hybrid approach that
combines machine translation with human post-editing to get
the best of both types.
Q/ What are common translation techniques or methods?
1- Direct translation:- It means the translator aims to make the
target text closely match the source text in meaning, style,
and structure, often used for technical or scientific content to
preserve the original meaning.
Q/ what are the techniques used in direct translation
method?
1- Borrowing:- Taking a word or phrase from the source
language and using it in the target language when there's no
direct equivalent or when it adds clarity.
2- Loan Translation:- Translating each part of a source text
word or phrase and combining them to create a new phrase in
the target language, like "Adam's apple" from French “pomme
d'Adam."
3- Literal Translation:- Suitable for similar language pairs, this
aims to closely match word order, sentence structure,
meaning, and style, providing a direct equivalent for each
word or phrase. For example "O gato bebe agua" the
Portuguese phrase will be "El gato bebe agua".
2- Oblique translation:- It means the translator uses creativity
to produce a target text that captures the source text's
meaning but doesn't have to be an exact match. It is common
in literature and marketing when maintaining the original
style is more important than the precise meaning.
Q/ what are the techniques used in oblique translation?
1-Transposition:- Changing the word type in the target text.
For example, turning
a verb into a noun.
2- Modulation:- Altering the perspective in the target text. For
instance, changing "is difficult" to "it's not easy."
3- Reformulation or Equivalence:- Replacing idiomatic or
culture-specific phrases with expressions that have similar
meanings in the target culture. Like changing ”. "انها تمطر بغزاره
it's raining cats and dogs" to"
4- Adaptation or Cultural Substitution:- Swapping a cultural
reference from the source text with something more familiar
to the target audience. For example, using a different holiday
if the original one isn't known in the target culture, often seen
in the localization vs translation distinction for global
products.
3- Transcreation:- It combines creative writing with oblique
translation to make a text culturally appropriate and engaging.
It's often used in marketing to create emotional messages for
the target audience, while still keeping the source text's
message, intent and style. It's a specialty within translation,
not a separate discipline.
Q/ What are some types of translation?
1-Business translation:- We speak of business translation as an
umbrella term when the transfer of meaning between two
languages has the purpose of accompanying global business
activities. This could involve the most varied types of
documents, marketing materials, and digital assets.
Q/ what are the types of business translation?
1.1- Document translation:- This type deals with the
translation of business correspondence, internal memos,
manuals, legal contracts, and other important documents.
Complexity may arise from the large sizes and fragmented
nature of business documents, as well as the need to maintain
consistent terminology throughout the document set.
1.2- Legal translation:- This type includes the translation of
legal, judicial, and juridical, documentation, Warrants,
registrations, certifications, statements, trials, contracts, and
insurance policies are only some examples of legal documents
that may need translating. Accuracy is of the utmost
importance in legal translation, because a small mistake could
have major consequences.
2- Literary translation:- This type is about transferring the
meaning, style, and beauty of literary works between
languages. From poetry and drama to novels and short stories,
literary translation is an art that requires a great deal of
creativity to do justice to the source text.
3- Technical translation:- It groups a wide range of scientific
and technical texts as user manuals, service guides, and
datasheets etc. This type is complex because of the need to
maintain consistent terminology throughout the text, as well
as the risk of inaccuracy affecting the safety or efficacy of
products or services. the support of terminology tools are
essential for this type.
4- Financial translation:- Financial services are required
globally because there is a continuous demand for the
translation of financial documents. It include translation of
balance sheets, income statements, and market analysis. The
emergence of fintech also created a demand for the
translation of software, apps, and website in this domain.
5- Ecommerce translation:- In the age of ecommerce,
businesses need to reach consumers in multiple markets. This
means that landing pages, reviews, and blog posts need to be
translated into the language of the target market. It needs to
strike a balance between accuracy and SEO-friendliness, also
being adaptedto local customs and cultural norms.
