Translation Articles

Learn about translation process, translation quality metrics, important steps and measures to get professional quality translations done.

  • Keeping an Eye Out for Bad Chinese Translations

    Bad Translations Hurt BusinessWhile you always want the best translation you can get, the world doesn’t always deliver. Budgets, schedules and inexperience often get in the way causing the end result to be pretty strange! And even though a Chinese bomb-sniffing dog with the translated phrase “explosive dog” written across its doggy vest (a great example of English Chinese translations gone wrong) might tickle your funny bone, at the end of the day bad translations can actually do a lot of harm.

  • Pharmaceutical Translation Service: Evolution of Medicine

    Medical Translation Looking to the Past to Solve Today’s ProblemsMedieval medicine has a bad reputation in most circles (leeches, anyone?). But perhaps it shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and elsewhere believe the medical translation of medieval, or even older texts (written in Latin,  Middle English, ancient Chinese and other languages) might hold to key to how we should deal with some of the medical ailments of modern times. And this is a field of inquiry pharmaceutical translation services — and professionals interested in the translation of healthcare concepts from the past (to benefit the future) — ought to pay some attention to.

  • Translation Certifications, Are they Needed?

    Certified TranslationsWhen you work with quality translation services, you naturally expect the best. But why might you need the guarantee of translation certifications on top of all of that? The reasons stem from the often complicated business world we live in, and the fact that national and international regulatory bodies — including governments and business groups — often call for that extra “insurance” (coming in the form of a certification for translation) when working with and processing translated documents.

  • Multilingual Translation and China’s New Silk Road

    Multilingual Translation and China’s New Silk RoadTrade and translation go hand in hand. Interpreters and translators used to ply their craft along the ancient Silk Road. And now that China is pushing for a new Silk Road (One Belt One Road), Mandarin translation experts — and anyone working as an Asian translator, or any type of translator for that matter — are bound to see an increase in work along this trade network, with the need for translations surging to impressive new levels.

  • Better Translated Content with Human Translations

    Human Translations Lead to Better Translated ContentWhile robots and A.I. might take over the world someday, we’re not there yet, which is why human translations are still an essential ingredient for effective foreign translations. Undoubtedly, the rise of computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools, translation software, online translation platforms like Google Translate, and the basic machine translations you find when reading posts (in a foreign language) on Facebook, have all changed the nature of translation, and how we interact with foreign languages on a daily basis.

  • Professional Language Services Benefit Many Industries

    Industries benefiting from translationIf you thought the scope of translation is limited to a few boring sectors, you’d be dead wrong. Translation is, in fact, an incredibly important business service that helps keep the world economy chugging along. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, translation, which is fueled by globalization and plenty of non-English-speaking folks calling North America home, is one of the fastest growing career fields in the United States.

    From media translation to engineering translation services — or maybe something more exotic, perhaps falling under the purview of defense aerospace translation services — global industries benefit immensely from quality translations provided by experienced translation services. Let’s take a look at a few examples.

  • Local vs. Global Translation Providers

    Local and Global TranslationsWith over a billion websites on the web, companies really need to invest in global translations and localization services to stand out. Just think about that: more than one billion websites (with unique hostnames) are up and running. That means your tech firm or IT service needs to distinguish itself from the competition any way it can. And a big part of getting your message out among all of the distractions offered up by the Internet is ensuring that the websites promoting your products and services are tailored for different audiences around the world. This is how translation and localization services can help your international business get ahead, and continue to grow.

  • Cantonese Translation Services Significance

    Cantonese Translation ServicesWhile Mandarin Chinese is the official national language of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), working outside the Mandarin-speaking environment is often necessary in different regions (especially in the south), and different business environments. Cantonese translation and localization is an effective way to reach the estimated 62 million Cantonese (officially considered a dialect of Chinese) speakers in China, as well as Cantonese-speaking communities (numbering in the millions) in other countries like Malaysia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Vietnam and elsewhere.

  • African Translation Services Support eLearning

    African Translation Services eLearningEducation and technology are going to play a big part in Africa’s future growth and prosperity. At least that’s the hope in a rapidly changing Africa. And with thousands of local languages, plus 10 or so main languages like Amharic, Arabic, English, French, Hausa, Swahili and more spoken on this enormous land mass, African translation services offering translation services from core African languages (used for business and education) into a variety of additional languages can bolster eLearning’s effectiveness across the continent.

  • Translation Services Opening Up East Asian Markets

    Localization Services East AsiaIn China, Korea and East Asian in general, the number of people who can be reached through targeted translated content augmented by localization services (translating the nuances of regional dialects) is remarkable. While China has almost 1.4 billion people, with an official national language of Mandarin Chinese, you’ll find a ton of linguistic variety inside of Mandarin (strong dialects) — not to mention the many minority languages like Kam–Sui, Miao, Mongolian and Tibetan also spoken in China. And while South Korea (50 million souls) is much more homogeneous as far as ethnicity and language are concerned, businesses interested in consumer markets, hi-tech and even heavy industry on the Korean Peninsula will find localization services exceedingly helpful as well.

  • Middle East Language Translation for Industries

    Legal Industrial TranslationCompanies and contractors working in the Middle East, especially on big industrial or tech-based projects, are certainly aware of the mountains of risk and reward on offer in a region renowned for its wealth and rich cultural history — as well as the hard conflicts devastating many countries today. And while this is an exceedingly complex part of the world, legal translation services staffed by project managers and linguist experts versed in the etiquette, laws, customs and different languages found in the Middle East can help with industrial translations and legal translations, which in turn can assist a company as it seeks to leverage its name and obtain new contracts and business partnerships in a multifaceted, and oftentimes crowded Middle Eastern marketplace.