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The significance of professional language translation services has grown enormously over the last decade or so. Today, businesses and companies across practically all corporate sectors work closely with translation agencies and suppliers in order to accurately convert their key documents and materials. With a fast-progressing globalisation as well as now widely available internet, translations have also recently begun to play a key part within the entertainment industry. From film and TV productions to music and books – converting materials into the native language of the target audience is now an essential part practically any newly developed or created medium.
With that in mind, it’s important to appreciate the true skill that goes into translating not only media content, but any content in general. Often, it is assumed that translating involves solely converting words for their foreign counterparts. This however is far from truth.
When it comes to professional translations, linguistic aspects are only one of the factors, which can directly influence the overall quality and accuracy of the converted materials. Specialist linguists understand that in order for the documents and materials to be suitable for the target audience, socio-demographic, political, religious and even economic factors must be taken into the account. As you can imagine, these play an extremely significant role within the entertainment industry.
An example of a recent translation
One of the most recent examples when translation affected how content was perceived by the target audience is the 2021 hit series ‘Squid Game’ from Netflix. Although the Korean show has taken the world by storm, bilingual Korean speakers widely express their concerns in regard to the subtitles offered by Netflix to their English-speaking audience. Many people said, that not only the subtitles are inaccurate, but they in fact change the general understanding of some of the key parts of the show.
These inaccuracies and mistranslations come as an even bigger surprise when we look at the budget spend. In the last few years, Netflix has been making a major investment in Korean-language content, producing more than 80 original shows and announcing plans to spend nearly half a billion dollars in 2021 alone. The company is still nonetheless falling short in the final stretch, completely mishandling translations in ways that seriously compromises the audiences’ understanding of certain parts of the show.
So, where do I find an expert translation agency?
Looking at the translation budgets, which are available to media giants such as Netflix, and the fact that even they still couldn’t manage to get the work done precisely and accurately can raise a few concerns for organisations and SMEs with much more limited budgets, understandably so.
Fortunately, however, obtaining a professional translation service doesn’t need to be a complicated affair, and if planned and done correctly, can potentially bring great value to your content and the target audiences, positively affecting your brand image. Nonetheless, in order to ensure that the translation is accurate and suitable for the target audience, it’s important however to bear a few things in mind. One of the key aspects of converting your documents and materials into another language is to make sure that the provider you choose to work with is an established and trustworthy translation services agency which specializes in translating and interpreting documents and content similar to yours, directly into your chosen language.
An absolutely key aspects to consider when choosing a translation company to partner with is to ensure that the linguists used to convert your materials are native speakers of the target language. Going back to the ‘Squid Game’ example we mentioned earlier, it’s clear to see that not all of the translators working on the show’s English subtitles were native English speakers. This not only led to awkward translations, but have also in fact directly affected some of the storyline and role certain characters play within the show itself.
Perhaps the best way of ensuring that your chosen translation agency is professional, reputable and trustworthy is checking their official credentials. In the U.K. for example, the ATC (Association of Translation Companies) as well as the ITI (Institute of Translation and Interpreting) are the two main bodies within the translation industry. Any provider registered with such organisations must undergo diligent inspections and tests which must be completed in order to become an official member.
Additionally, looking at the agency’s past projects, clients, the languages covered as well as industries they specialise in will give you an idea, of whether the provider is suitable to convert and translate your documents or materials. It’s also important to remember, that providers offering extremely low rates might not be able to offer the highest translation quality, and as a result, cost more in the long-run should your documents need to be re-translated or proofread by another agency.
Most translated works of all time
The benefits of translating your work can be truly astounding. From larger audience and higher global revenues to creating a household name for yourself as well as your brand. Certainly, if we take a look at some of the most translated works of all time, we can see a pattern of world-wide audiences and extremely high revenues across practically all continents.
It’s commonly known, that The Bible is world’s most translated, most read and most sold book of all time. When translating The Bible, linguists are faced with several difficult challenges as there are a number of versions of the book available, which is basically a collection of religious texts: some of these texts were written in Hebrew, some in Greek and others in Aramaic: all texts were written in ancient versions of these languages. Nonetheless, although the Bible is the most translated text of all times, Jules Verne and Agatha Christie are the two most translated authors. Verne’s ‘Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea’ for example, originally written in French in 1870, was officially translated into around 100 different languages! A more recent book, the ‘Harry Potter’ series written originally in 1997 was translated into around 80 languages. With the international success of the books as well as movies based on the title, it’s clear to see that the translators converting the text did an amazing job.
In terms of language translation requirements, the entertainment sector is in many ways quite similar to any other corporate or business sector. In order to reach the wider audiences and international markets, the authors themselves or people responsible for promoting their work must act quite like corporate organisations – working closely with professional translation agencies and linguists in order to convert, interpret and accurately localize content in question, whether books, documents, or films based on the specific market’s preferences and socio-cultural bias.
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