Whether you are moving to a new country, visiting a faraway land, pitching a product to a foreign market, or simply trying to make your next event more inclusive, a translation service exists to assist you. If you know what you are looking for, then getting a quality certified translation has never been easier. The trick, though, is knowing what to look for.
To give you a better idea of what will benefit you, we are going to cover the different types of translations offered in today’s market and their purposes. By the end, you should better understand which types of translation services will best apply to your needs, and where you can find professionals who offer them.
With over seven thousand ‘living languages’ currently being spoken on our planet, and over a hundred languages with ten million or more speakers, translation services will be necessary for keeping the planet functioning well into our future.
Contents:
- What are Translation Services?
- The Different Types of Translation Services
- Certified Translation Services
- Medical Translation Services
- Commercial Translation Services
- Software and UI/UX Translation Services
- Financial Translation Services
- Technical Translation Services
- Legal Translation Services
- Common Translation Questions
- Can Any Bilingual Person be a Translator?
- How Do I Know What Type of Translation Service I Need?
- What is a Translation and What Does a Translation do?
- Translation Services for Families Can be Easy
What are Translation Services?
When we are going to talk about the many variations of a concept -it is worth defining that concept first. So just what is a general translation? The Merriam-Webster definition states simply that it is “a rendering from one language into another.” While there are many types of translations, they will all handle this primary task of taking a product from one language or dialect and putting it into another.
Usually, an informative article would attempt to give you more background information on a topic but trying to pinpoint the ancient history of translations is an impossible task. While there have been many famous translators (and translation blunders), the origins of such a role likely go as far back as the first separating of human languages, back to our very earliest days.
The Different Types of Translation Services
These forms of translation require a specific set of skills to accurately and adequately translate. While some translators may be capable of various kinds of translation, it would require many years -perhaps lifetimes- to become proficient in them all.
Certified Translation Services
A certified translator (often referred to as a sworn translator) is a translator who has been legally sworn in by a court and is now capable of using their signature to authenticate documents.
Most documents you submit to governmental or academic agencies will require a form of authentication to be accepted. Marriage certificates, death certificates, and birth certificates are common examples. A certified translator can save you time by both translating and authenticating the document.
Medical Translation Services
Proper medical translations are incredibly important. Mistranslations in the medical field have led to many tragedies in the past, and today many states and countries make it a requirement to have multilingual staff members available for patients.
Medical translations can vary from general packaging and labels of medical equipment to specific usage instructions regarding medications. These translation professionals are highly qualified for their position and are relied on to ensure the information they are passing along is correct. Any missteps can be disastrous, and the highest trust is placed in these translations.
Commercial Translation Services
Successful commercial translation requires both a knowledge of the business or product in
question, as well as the target audience. Commercial or marketing translation services need to be able to take a product and figure out how to present it to a whole new audience. Sometimes taglines or selling phrases will translate directly, while other times, it is up to the translators to find a tagline that can work within the context of a different culture.
Outside of marketing, business translations can also encompass business correspondences, reports, accounts, and other such documents. Large multinational corporations that work in many places across the globe utilize large amounts of business translators to keep their internal workings functioning correctly.
Software and UI/UX Translation Services
Sometimes lumped in with marketing translations, the ability to translate web pages, apps, and the general customer interfaces of digital products is a quickly growing market. Different languages look differently and read differently in practice -this means that the look and layout of webpages and apps need to accommodate these languages. Good UI/UX translators often have a background in graphic design and typography and understand how specific phrases must read and look.
Financial Translation Services
Banking statements, financial reports, stock exchange activity, and other forms of financial documentation all require translations at some point or another. Whether this is on behalf of an individual or a business, translators with a knowledge of financial matters are generally required for such translations.
Technical Translation Services
Writing instructions is an art form all in itself. The ability to distill complex tasks into simple steps is not as natural as it may first seem. Having to take these instructions and put them into a new language also requires a particular set of skills and understanding of terminology. IT, electronics, scientific papers, mechanics, and user manuals are all common forms of technical translations.
Often technical translation services can be broken down into even more specific subsets that require a particular translator. For example, scientific translations may need someone with an understanding of complex scientific matters to translate accurately.
Legal Translation Services
While legal translations often overlap with business and financial translations, there is a large set of legal translation services that are uniquely their own. Warrants, summons, judicial opinions, and court minutes are all items that can require specialized translations.
Judicial translations refer specifically to translations done to support a court setting, such as the deposition of a witness.
Juridical translation refers specifically to legally binding documentation such as decrees, regulations, binding contracts, or laws. The word choice in these documents is paramount and rife with meaning. Juridical translators, more so than the rest, must have an understanding of legal backgrounds.
Common Translation Questions
These are some common questions we get regarding translation services:
Can Any Bilingual Person be a Translator?
While theoretically, any person can translate something if they know both languages required, this post should demonstrate just how specialized the translation profession can be. Even basic translation services still need trained language professionals to provide a service that people can confidently rely on.
How Do I Know What Type of Translation Service I Need?
If it is not immediately obvious what type of translation service you need, you will simply have to ask a trained translator to evaluate your case. Either you can begin asking different translators if the task you require is something they can handle, or you can go directly to a translation service like The Spanish Group that specializes in having a wide array of translators on call.
What is a Translation and What Does a Translation do?
Literally speaking, a translation brings content or messages from one language into another.
Outside of the certifications and paperwork, a translation is a means of better understanding. Whether you are trying to market to a group of people or seek to learn more about a culture, you must first be able to understand -and be understood- by them.
So, what is a translation, and what does a translation do? A translation is a means of bringing various groups of people closer together through language.
Receiving Quality Translation Services Can be Easy
Thanks to organizations like The Spanish Group leveraging the power of the digital age, you can get nearly any translation process started with only a few clicks. The Spanish Group is happy to answer any and all of your questions, and our teams of translation specialists are ready to translate, review, and return your paperwork back to you quickly and accurately.
No job is too large or too small for The Spanish Group specialists. Go to TheSpanishGroup.org and take a look at examples of our work today!