The Translator and The Global Economy

Translation services have risen in demand what with the internet enabling people from all over the world to communicate with each other. Suddenly, the demand for English speaking people is not the only thing out there but various business have begun to look for services from people who speak other languages other than English to translate for them – Arabic, Mandarin, Nihonggo, French, Italian, Hindi and many more. Advertisers have gotten smart with the globalization of economies and trade, they want to reach more audiences by ensuring their ad is something their target audience can understand.

Translators actually are in a position where they need to be able to convey a thought written in two different languages without losing neither the spirit nor the identity of the message. In that spirit, they need to be synced with the writer or the provider of thought to ensure that the tone and meaning is delivered as if it was said by the original writer himself.

Especially that there is always the facet of the cultural issues to consider, the translator and the translation needs to jive and helped along by the advertisement graphics to bridge the cultural differences or to textually adapt in order to convey the original text’s meaning in a manner that the target audience can understand and appreciate. For example, a US brand reaching out to an Arabic audience in a marketing strategy to sell a product the US brand feels can be useful to the Arabic audience. Let’s say the product is shampoo, the ad can adapt the background image to the socio-cultural environment of the target country and then the text translation from English to Arabic is adapted to supplement the thought and the whole idea is presented to the target market in a language and graphics that they understand. The words are not only perceived as a verbal entity; it also has a graphic identity easily detectable that the translator should be able to transfer.

Translation services need not be expensive, there are plenty of options out there, more so cheap translation services online as people from all over the globe make their translation skills available online and people who need them also go online to search. Affordable as their services may be, perhaps because of the many free online translation tools available, the translator’s role is very valuable that they also are presenters of culture. It’s not only a matter of being able to speak more than one or several languages but that they can present and deliver to the target audience in a manner that the meaning and essence of the original text is kept and yet they are able to decode and encode the cultural signs, the context, within the advertising communication. Translation is a powerful skill and tool, when done right, they bridge the communication gap between countries and cultures.

Translating text and audio is one easy way to increase a companies exposure and in turn business. Have you got any experience in this field? Let us know below.