Don’t risk losing your audience as you translate your brand into foreign languages. Get to know these different types of content translation.
It’s important to implement the right translation for the right content.
Translation for advertising slogans, for example, is especially tricky because accuracy is not necessarily as important as flow in certain situations.
In fact, an accurate slogan translation may make no sense, or may even be offensive in the target language. You might be best served making use of transcreation in that case.
Let’s look at a handful of different types of content translation you need to know.
Fiction Translation
This type of translation varies greatly depending on the genre and the author style. Most translators can find it invigorating and frustrating, yet ultimately rewarding.
There is rarely a right way to translate fiction. Unlike financial or legal documents, where the dry tone and the rigid sentence structure makes the end result by multiple translators almost always similar, translated fiction can be as different as any two individuals can be.
Creativity in translation really comes into play here.
News Translation
Translating news often involves a lot of facts, figures, dates, and names.
When translating quotes, for example, you must pay attention to where and how to break the sentence so as to not misrepresent the speaker.
Legal/Patent Translation
Translation of any legal text that could end up in a courtroom poses unique problems.
Additionally, translators have to pay special attention to dates, numbers, and specific terms. Something that is implied may not often be the case and warrants double-checking.
One cannot add qualifiers just to make the text flow better if the original text did not intend the same meaning.
Marketing Translation
Marketing really challenges a translator. Not only do you have to translate the meaning of the words, you have to consider the cultural connotations and any other implications of the words. This is what is known as localization.
You have to make the translation sound as catchy and memorable as the original, not an easy task.
Take a look at these brilliant brand name translations:
Guilty by Gucci Perfume: 古驰 “罪爱”
One of the most clever renditions of brand names around, this translation not only stays loyal to the pronunciation of the original, it also captures the meaning of “Guilty.” “罪” means “guilt” and “爱” means “love.” The translation is literally “guilty love,” a nice play on the original brand name of Guilty.
Subway Sandwich Shops: 赛百味
The translation implies that sandwiches can be customized a hundred different ways at Subway, which delivers the right message to consumers loud and clear. “赛” means “better than” while “百味” means “a hundred tastes” in Chinese, so people are inclined to think Subway sandwiches are better than any of a hundred flavors.
We Can Help With Any Type of Content Translation
Translation is a changing industry. Our challenges as translators are as diverse as our growing experiences; every localization project has its own tricky areas.
We consider every aspect of your translation project, including:
- audience and demographics
- local customs and trends
- tone and aesthetics.
Find out more by exploring our translation solutions, or have a look at how our experts can translate your website and increase your e-commerce reach.
What are your unique challenges? Contact us today to see how we can help!
