Key takeaways
- Translation is not word-for-word substitution – jargon, slang and terminology make every project different.
- Language services are a large, growing market, not a small niche: according to Statista, the global market doubled in ten years to 49.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2019, with Europe accounting for around half.
- Being bilingual is not enough: translators also need native-level command of nuance and, for corporate work, industry knowledge.
- Translators specialise; no one is an expert in every subject area.
- Translation tools don’t understand context, so they cannot replace human translators.
Did you know that the translation business is around 2,000 years old?
We can hence gauge that as long as there have been written languages, there has been translation and related services. Translation has been helping people for ages by translating text from one language to another, enabling them to communicate globally.
Even though the translation business is ancient, many people – unfortunately including potential translation or interpreting clients – still don’t understand it entirely and have many misconceptions about how the industry functions!
In this article, we’re going to address five such misconceptions and bust them!
1. Translation is merely exchanging words
Many people mistake translation for an easy job that only involves exchanging words from one language to another. This is not true at all!
Translation is not a literal word-for-word substitution. The source text determines whether the translation project will be accessible or challenging. It may contain jargon, slang or terminology that may be difficult to translate into the required language.
No two translation jobs are alike. Each has its own set of requirements that need precision, accuracy and a strong knowledge of the target language, irrespective of the project size.
2. Translation is a small, niche market
According to a report from Statista, over the last ten years the global language services market has doubled in size, reaching 49.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2019. Europe accounts for around half of the global language services market.
Small agencies have a significant impact on the growth of the translation services market. There are more than 50,000 small translation agencies worldwide involved in translation projects in multiple languages simultaneously. These agencies are also responsible for creating jobs for freelance translators.
3. If you’re bilingual, you can be a translator or interpreter
If this were true, almost every second person nowadays would be a translator or interpreter!
Yes, it is a fact that a translator or interpreter should be fluent in at least two languages and should be a native speaker. However, there is a lot more that goes into a translation than just the words or the language itself. A good translator imparts the characteristics and nuances of the language they are translating into, which requires excellent knowledge of the language and nativity.
Moreover, they should have industry knowledge as well if they have corporate clients.
4. Translators and interpreters can work in any subject matter or area of expertise
As stated earlier, high-quality translation and interpretation need a good understanding of the subject matter and industry, as well as a skill set in the target language. For instance, a translator working for a pharmaceutical company cannot necessarily translate a restaurant menu, even if the language pair is the same.
5. Modern translation tools can easily replace human translators
It is indeed true that modern translation tools are changing the face of the translation industry today. However, no tool, no matter how advanced, can replace human translators. Existing tools translate sentences, but since they do not understand the context, they cannot differentiate between different meanings of the same word. They also copy sentences from the source language (with the same word order), leading to unintelligible or even embarrassing and meaningless translations.
We have only scratched the surface of the myths and misconceptions people have about translation and interpretation services. If you’re a business looking to expand into different geographies, we suggest you get help from a professional translation service agency.
There are many benefits that a professional translation company can bring to your business. You can read more about them in our article Why Your Business Needs Translation Services: 4 Benefits to Expect.
We would love to have a conversation with you over a cup of coffee to bust any misconceptions you may have about translation services or their benefits, and to discuss how we can help you go global!
