What are the different types of translation services and what are their benefits?
What are the different types of translation services and what are their benefits?
No matter how simple, complex or sector-specific a project is, choosing the correct translation service is paramount to enable you to communicate effectively in the international market.
Each translation service is subject-focused which follows a specific process and has a particular technique that suits its content and requirements. What works for one translation type might not work for another.
Each type also requires different translators with different expertise.
Here are some of the most common types of translation services to suit the requirements of each specific industry.
Specialised translation
Requires industry-specific knowledge, nuanced terminology, in-depth understanding of local language and culture and in-depth knowledge of the business jargon. To help companies expand globally and communicate effectively in the international market across all subjects/areas, highly skilled translators are a must.
Main areas are:
- Intellectual Property and Trade Marks:
When dealing with patent filings in foreign countries, having perfect translations is vital. IP translators must have extensive experience and knowledge about all legal and industry-specific terms used in the documents to ensure that they are fulfilling their purpose and adequately protecting clients' ideas and interests.
- Legal:
Requires a specialist with an excellent understanding of the legal systems of both the source and target countries. Legal translation covers documents including contracts, agreements, wills, certificates, reports, etc.
- Medical
Includes any medical content that is patient related.
- Healthcare
- Pharmaceutical
- Financial:
Requires knowledge of financial terminologies as well as attention to detail.
- Technical:
Includes scientific and technical subjects like user guides, manuals, online help text, instructions leaflets, training materials, marketing materials, software, etc.
- Engineering & Manufacturing
- Defence and Aerospace
- Automotive
- Marketing and Surveys:
Marketing translation is not just about translating the text into its target language, but it more important to convey the correct marketing message in the audience's language to promote the brand and fully engage the user.
Multi-market research projects are very popular.
- Literary translation: literary works like stories, novels, poems, and play
- Documentation:
Translation of export documentation which is essential for international trade. Even the most seasoned exporters can experience problems when completing the necessary paperwork for their shipments.
- Individual/Personal Documentation:
Includes certified translations of certificates (i.e. birth, death, divorce, university, marriage), diplomas, police reports, police checks, DBS/CRB documents, bank statements, visas, passports, immigration papers, etc.
- Website localisation:
Essential for adapting areas like currencies, address formats and layouts, so as to appeal to the different local audiences.
- Software localisation:
Essential for enabling users to interact directly with a physical product or on-line system which requires localisation to ensure a positive user experience. The content needs to be adapted to suit the local target culture. This can include error messages, system messages, help files and so on.
- Trans-creation:
It is the process of adapting a message from one language to another, while maintaining its intent, style, and context. It is used to adapt your communications culturally and linguistically, to suit each market needs. Content is adapted to be locally relevant - especially in advertising and marketing.
- Post-editing:
Process of receiving first output by trained machine translation, then it will be reviewed by a professional translator - content can be translated faster, good for high volume and faster turnaround time.
- Copywriting:
This is not translation but it is in fact content created from a brief and written in your target language and is developed to match your business objectives. It should be used in a situation where you need to develop new content, such as blog posts or articles, in your target language.