A translator might encounter various issues when translating a website. Businesses need to integrate by translating a varied amount of information into their websites so that it gives just enough information to the consumer. Garrulous rant can end up debasing the consumers’ short-attention-span and thus interest in the product. However, a short description might not incorporate the necessary information to peak the consumers’ interest. As a result business content needs to be translated with particular intent and audacity to incorporate the ideals of the business.

The Three Types of Websites

There are three types of sites dedicated to businesses:

Informational websites – Provides information on products. One such website is specification websites that provide information on mobile phones, and laptops. One can see it invariably linking to an online shopping website as such translation is of necessity. Informational websites can be lengthy but also provide for a quick read. Translation can include facts, figures, pictograms, and pictures.

Promotional websites – Promotional websites provide content promotion. Many businesses employ content and blog writers to promote a business. This also incorporates FAQs, social media posts, and even promotional pictures. 

Commercial websites – The goal is to sell a product, therefore to put potential customers in contact with a range of service providers.

Challenges in business website translation service

1. Setting Up and Sustaining Localized Websites

The first step in translating a website is setting up distinct, native websites where translations can be hosted. This problem is highly complex and highly costly, and the cost is recurring: translated websites must be maintained and updated over time, which requires incessant effort and technical backing.

2. Getting Content Translated and Managed

Translation can provide numerous difficulties. The process of translation is inexplicably linked to the purpose of translation – localization, internalization, or globalization. The translator needs to take cultural references, colloquialism, and jargon into account – such that the language favors a specific purpose. Spanish website translation is vastly different from Japanese website translation. Similarly, German website translation is different from, let’s say, Arabic Website translation. 

Along with the above-mentioned challenge, the challenge of mining content from a website’s content management system (CMS) for translation can be a highly intricate and grueling task. Often it means remarkable amounts of copying and pasting, and digital files can get misplaced or corrupted in the course. Generally, the process of content management might be considered as equally difficult as the process of translation.

3. Minute Details: Accuracy, Cost, and Turnovers

When translating a website for businesses, the concept for the context should be provided accurately. A website may be translated into a dozen different languages with actual website content being a thousand webpages in length. The website translation services cost for the meteoric task, such as one mentioned above, can take its toll on businesses. Similarly, during a product launch or announcement of events websites need to be translated into myriad global languages and released within specified deadlines which might be of a challenge in itself.

4. Contents Need to Be Updated and Synced

Websites change often and quickly, and content on websites needs to be translated each time. This means that content has to be circulated to translators, localized with accuracy, and then the newly translated content must be integrated into those sites, replacing the translations that were made earlier. Updating contents on the tandem and maintaining all of the sites in sync is an extremely complex process–as such creating more room for errors.

The Solution – Website Localisation Translation Services

A LISA (Localization Industry Standards Association) study demonstrated that for every $1 spent on localization by businesses, they saw a $25 (approx.) return of investment. This should help businesses see the broader picture of conducting business in the present scenario. Website localization translation services help you in this regard. 

Besides supporting hundreds of global languages, website translation services also provide translation for promotional, informational, or commercial websites. Business translation services in concordance with Expert native translators provide accurate translation and prove to be helping hand in making a global impact. Translated content can be linked through content management systems (CMS) such that there is seamless integration between content and websites, essentially protecting your data. This also allows for the rapid and synchronized update of website contents. All this and more exclusively with translation services for websites.

What is Financial Translation Service?

Financial translation is the process of translating documents related to finances, economy, and banking. This financial translation service involves a wide range of topics and types of reports and documents. Financial translators require good knowledge in a subject matter expert, who is highly skilled as a translator and has years of experience in the field. 

There are thousands of financial translation agencies serving in the United States. All of the reputed and know translation brands hire experienced professionals who are experts in performing financial translation services. These people understand how important it is for a financial document to be accurate. Any mistranslation in business financial translation can lead to major issues and damage the brand’s value.

But there is a very long procedure and a lot of effort required by these professionals to achieve high accuracy and great quality. The procedure of financial statement translation is not easy and demands patience, focus and a great level of effort to pull it out.

English has been accepted as the global language by most of the industries, finance is one of them. Most of the financial markets indeed work with English being their prominent language, but it is not the case everywhere. Spanish is the current favorite language of the investors, even for the ones working in the United States. For other large stock exchanges like Tokyo, Shanghai, and Toronto, the current prominent finance languages are Japanese, Mandarin, German and French.

All these languages are becoming an important part of the financial sector and have started influencing the markets. This has increased the need for financial translation services as businesses are going global and need to deal with various financial markets.

The work of a financial translator doesn’t allow them to do any errors and this is not the only problem they have to face, the list of difficulties is long and needs to be handled with proper focus and attention.

A few of challenges in financial translation services are

• Punctuation – The very first mistake which anyone can easily make with numbers is punctuation. The proper placement of punctuation is very vital concerning numbers. One thousand is not the same in numeric form in all the languages. It can be written as 1000, or 1’000, or 1,000 or 1 000 in different languages.
• Number Confusion – While performing a financial translation, if you are converting a number into letters or text form, you have to be very particular about the language you are translating content to. 1’000’000’000’000 is not termed as the same in every language. It is one trillion in the US English, as per UK English it is billion, Mille milliards in the French language and in Spanish it is called millon de millones.
• Terminology – Its easy to translate a straight translation where one document needs to be converted into another language. But when it comes to industries like finances, the involvement of industry-specific words will increase. These are the technical words that are self-explanatory and used in the financial content regardless of the language. Most of such words are untranslatable or needs a long translation for a single word.
• Misinterpretation – No matter how much a translator tries putting his/her efforts in translating the numbers, it is also important to place them in the correct context. Any miscommunication in the context can panic the entire financial market.
• Overseas Regulations – If a business is collaborating with other overseas businesses and requires financial business translation services, then the translation of the content, as well as the numbers, should be as per the rules, regulations, standards, and guidelines of that foreign country. The translated documents should follow the foreign country’s compliances and terminology as well.
• Privacy – Privacy of financial matters is highly important for both individuals and businesses. The risk of losing some financial details is the main threat that people or companies fear off. While translating financial documents, either for businesses or for individuals, it is super vital for the professionals to keep the document safe and private, should not share any information with any other individual and should not share data with third-party vendors.

Vanan Translation is a translation agency, known worldwide for offering accurate, quality, and affordable financial translation services. Our team of professionals is experts with in-depth knowledge of the finance industry. The team is experienced in performing financial translation services and knows the ways to overcome all the above-mentioned challenges.

Are you bilingual? Do you have an expert level understanding of more than two languages? Do you wish to make a career as a translator?

The translation industry is not alone blooming in the United States but is in high demand across the world. Be it businesses or be it individuals, these days all have started understanding the need for translation. It is not just a service of converting text, documents, audio, videos into another language but it is more than that. One’s business needs to grow globally. Translation has the potential and power to grow a business, to reach non-native population, to help in grasping information available in other languages, etc… The list of pros is huge.

Nowadays, more than 50% of school students in the United States are bilingual or know more than two languages. Most of these speak English as their second language. Also, many students speak one language alone which is not English. This not only highlights the importance and need for school translation services but also puts light on the fact that American schools need to concentrate more on the English language and as many other languages as possible.

If you are among the lucky ones who know multiple languages and want to utilize this skill to benefit yourself as well as others, the translation industry is waiting for you. But before finalizing things, you need to know that certificate or degree from a reputed translation school brings higher values and better career opportunities.

Top 10 Translation Schools in The USA

Here is the list of the topmost 10 translation schools in the US:

• University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arizona
• Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C.
• Institute For Applied Linguistics At Kent State University, Kent, Ohio
• Monterey Institute Of International Studies, Middlebury, Vermont
• State University New York, Binghamton, New York
• New York University, New York City, New York
• The Center For Translation Studies At The University Of Texas At Dallas, Dallas, Texas
• School Of Literatures, Cultures And Linguistics At The University Of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois
• LA Salle University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Arizona State University, Tucson, Arizona

University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arizona

It is one of the oldest universities in the country. If you are specifically interested in poetry and fiction work and would love to translate it, this university is for you. They have impressive classes and great courses for literary translation, which will help you in offering literary book translation services in the future.

Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C.

This university stands apart from all other translation schools and universities. It is widely known for offering translation courses in the fields of medicines, business, legal, education and mental health. A lot of translators offering legal or academic translation services belong to this university.

Institute For Applied Linguistics At Kent State University, Kent, Ohio

This university offers translation courses on all the level of higher studies which includes Bachelors, Masters and Ph.D. The university is known for offering language programs in languages like Russian, French, Arabic, Japanese and more. If you have an interest in computer applications or project management, join this.

Monterey Institute Of International Studies, Middlebury, Vermont

Founded by a foreign language professor in 1995, this university offers translation studies in a wide range of languages including Chinese, Korean, Spanish, and more. Students from this university offer university translation services to college students as their term projects.

State University New York, Binghamton, New York

This university provides certificate training and doctoral programs to translation students. It is one of the first school which started offering a Ph.D. in this region.

New York University, New York City, New York

New York University has professional programs that offer a master degree in translation for the science students and includes special fields like research translation. Other programs offered are law, business, and finance. They also have online courses for English to Spanish, French to English and Spanish to English.

The Center For Translation Studies At The University Of Texas At Dallas, Dallas, Texas

The university provides Masters and Doctorate degrees for arts, philosophy, and humanities. The 3 major research areas students work on are literary studies, history of ideas and aesthetic studies.

School Of Literatures, Cultures, And Linguistics At The University Of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois

This school of translation gives certificate courses and Master courses as well. Three specializations offered are Profession, Literary and Applied Literary, and Conference and Community.

LA Salle University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The university has Masters programs of translation focusing on areas of legal, business environments, healthcare, etc., with language combinations like Spanish to English.

Arizona State University, Tucson, Arizona

It is one of the highly ranked universities in the US, where special Translation and Interpretation courses are offered under the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. It will help to develop skills and practical knowledge about the translation field comprehensively. Also, one can get professional experience through internships that are part of these programs.

Hope this article was useful and helps you in making a career decision as a translator. On another note; if you have any professional translation requirements or want to know about different translation services, Vanan Translation will be glad to help you out.

It is not at all easy to figure out the most widely spoken languages of the world. There are more than 6,500 languages that are alive in this world today. The presence of these languages makes the world a diverse place.

But, the number of speakers of all these languages are not the same. While there are few languages with only hundreds of speakers, others have millions of speakers. Selecting these languages is not easy because no language would have native speakers alone, whereas there are individuals who speak certain languages as their second language.

Depending upon the number of speakers, the demand for content in a particular language can also increase or decrease. This affects the companies providing language translation services.

After calculating all the numbers, the final updated list for the top 5 most spoken languages of the world include:

1. Chinese
2. Spanish
3. English
4. Hindi
5. Arabic

Chinese

The Chinese language consists of multiple languages and dialects, but Mandarin Chinese is undoubtedly by far the highest spoken language of the planet. There are more than 1,200 million people who speak Mandarin Chinese either as their native or second language.

As, the language is one of the official languages of the United Nations, the demand for every Chinese language translation services has increased for industries and individuals to convert their content into the widely spoken language on earth.

Spanish

The second most spoken language on earth is Spanish. It is one of the languages which is spoken across 5 continents and has nearly 442 million speakers. The language is not limited to Spain alone but is very popular in the United States, Mexico, and other Central and South American countries as well.

Because it has number of speakers on American continents than in Spain, the use of Spanish language translation services has seen a rise in these countries. Businesses need to translate their content while targeting the audience of the US and nearby countries.

English

The language in the third place in this list is English. There are approximately 380 million speakers of the language. Despite being hugely in demand, and widely being used as the language for communication, it is not the most spoken language. Even after occupying the third position, English is one of the highly demanded languages in the world.

Translation of content from various languages to English is very common. Concerning education and job options, English is considered as the most important language.

Hindi

One of the official languages of India, Hindi, is the fourth most spoken language of the planet. The total number of speakers of the language is beyond 350 million. Hindi is not limited to India alone but is also spoken in other South Asian countries, the USA, Gulf countries, UK, African and Caribbean countries as well as in Oceania continent.

One industry responsible for making Hindi a worldwide language is it’s movie/ film industry, popularly known as Bollywood. More than 1,000 Hindi films are made annually and the popularity of these movies has increased the use of the language.

Arabic

The Arabic language is spoken by 250 million individuals around the world. This language is considered as the official language in 20 countries in the Middle East and Africa. Arabic has a lot of dialects similar to the Chinese language.

Because of the huge number of speakers, the businesses targeting these countries or industries working in these regions demand Arabic translation services. No business can go global without targeting the Middle East market as it has the potential to generate great revenues.

With the increment in the number of speakers of a language the demand for that language translation services online increases as well. Because the number of speakers is more, people or businesses targeting that audience expands and hence the content from the other language requires translation.

Aren’t we all looking to do something interesting at work? No one likes to sit idle and think about the next step. We all are humans who want to be invested into our careers by doing what we love. A career-oriented person who is looking out for options can consider translation to be his bread and butter. But how? Translation is a job that can be done only if a person has a calling towards it. The simple act of wanting to translate something requires you to learn two or more languages. Learning the language is one, but effectively utilizing the same in order to make a career out of it, is a whole different ball game. There are many approaches to this, and it purely depends on the curiosity of a person.

Translation Services definitely follows a very traditional path in order to maintain the financial benefits and make your work more amicable and interesting. It is never too late to switch jobs and want to become a translator if you are extremely invested in the learning process. Becoming a successful translator not only is an art to imbibe but is also a strong career option to take up for your future. You can join yourself into a translation learning course that can assist you in figuring out various options.

But before you dive into this, get to know how to become a qualified translator!

Basics are your key:

Working on the foundation of translation can help you access the role you might play. It is not only about knowing 2 or more languages and loving it or about being able to translate what you read to your friend in the language of your choice. All this comes down to strengthening your basics. It is about quality translation with the right amount of rudimentary data. The world assumes that knowing just one foreign language is not enough to be a translator.

Well, let us tell you a story: Did you know that Corinne Mckay, who is a French to English translator was demeaned and disregarded that she could not be a translator because she knew only one foreign language? Obviously, she was a strong-willed person who did not give up. She went ahead and made a career and became an ATA certified translator. She eventually became prominent and highly successful in her field. In fact,  she is the president of American Translators Association? So, if you are a person who speaks your mother tongue and one foreign language, you can definitely make a career in the translation business. But it all comes down to passion, getting your foot right in the field and being trained using professional help.

You need to work on both your source and target languages, gain vast amount of experience, practice and show perseverance before you call yourself a decent translator.

Cultural awareness is a must:

The foremost responsibility of being a translator is knowing different cultures and being connected to them whether you believe it or not. You will eventually find this job very stressful and challenging if you are not culturally updated and aware. Lacking cultural knowledge can be a huge downside as dealing with languages are more about guzzling individual cultures and beliefs. Since they go hand in hand, creating your path to artistic identity while keeping in mind the context can be simple. The benefit is higher if you have lived in the same country as your second language. To be precise, words in Japanese can easily offend people if not used perfectly. A few phrases or words in French can be spelt the same but mean quite differently in American English. The word Comforter in French is a baby pacifier, while it means a quilt in English.

So, knowing your language is not just it. You need to be aware of the words, phrases, cultural identities and differences while translating.

Read, Write, Translate, Repeat

If you find this procedure to be a tad bit of a pain, then clearly this isn’t the right career option for you. Being a translator also largely depends on the knowledge you gather on various subject matters. Reading and writing is quite an essential part of translation. Yet, the only good thing is that the topics are already written in one language and all you have to do is simply translate it into another. But on the flip side, you must think about the tone of the content that has been presented to you. You cannot change the way it is written; you have to be sincere to the document provided and make sure that none of the essence is lost while translating it to the target language.

It isn’t an easy feat if you are bored about equipping yourself with more and more information. You can be posed with various kinds of translation types and can be asked to translate technical content. Technical translation is extremely difficult if you do not know the actual intent of the document. It is always better to learn more, than to lose out on opportunities to work and earn.

Brand and Market Yourself

Once you are decently equipped with how the translation industry works, you are now eligible to market yourself. Questions on how to become a translator would by now be satiated as you would have gained some experience. Now it is time to market yourself out to the world. It is quite important how you create your brand identity and mainly to whom you create the same. To start off, pitch your talent with a few samples to industries that relate to both creative and managerial sectors. You can start off with advertising companies, market research, information technology industry, Corporate companies, and even language agencies. When you start small, you will gain experience and much needed real time practice. While pitching your work, don’t forget to have a backup of all your samples to show the recruiters.

For example, create a website with your details, policies, transparent pricing system and most importantly, your samples that can be accessed by the clients. Once they see the kind of professional work that you offer, it will be easy for them to choose you based on your proficiency and their expectations. You can also start a blog; join online language portals, active communities, etc.

Be prepared with your rates

The best way to showcase that you are a professional translator is when you can tell the difference between quoting rates yourself Vs. asking the client for their rates. There is a thin line here. When you quote your rates, it shows that you are extremely confident and that you have been doing this on a regular basis. If you show them your weakness of the project being your baby step, then they might question your capability and accuracy in translation. It is always good to keep your rates transparent, ready and fixed. 

You must also be sure of showing your accreditation and qualifications to your clients. Having a degree in the linguistic field or a training from a professional college can be an added advantage. For example: If you are in the US and have started your career, you might want to consider becoming a member of the ATA. This will be a huge moral and professional boost on your resume.

Specialize to eliminate competition

The most important way of eliminating competition is to specialize in a particular kind of translation. It could literally be anything – the field that you are interested in, the education you have had, etc. It is a general belief that you might lose business if you specialize in a particular field, but that’s not entirely true. Though this looks like a narrowed down business for you, having a hands-on experience on a particular industry can help you gain benefits for your future. The fact that your target market is much more narrowed down can accomplice as a huge benefit in eliminating multiple translator choices that the client may have. You can be positioned in a faster manner and the focus of your client can be to just hire you, who knows everything about that particular market.

The most important thing is for you to find the sweet spot that alternates between enjoying translation and also delivering what your client asks for. If you are the ‘go-to translator’ for your client, then you need not target a huge market to find a suitable project.

Ignore the naysayers

There are at least 4 people who will tell you on your face that the translation business has its downsides, it isn’t doing great as an industry, it cannot be a long-term career and so on. Firstly, unfriend them and stay away from such naysayers. If that’s how it is, then why do translators in this era make a decent economic background for themselves?  We agree that translation is a niche industry to have an interest in. But that certainly doesn’t mean that there are not enough jobs in the field. If you have your mind set on the unique selling point, it is quite easy for you to survive in the business. Don’t let the negative vibes bite you – simply step out of your comfort zone and get started as soon as possible. If this is your true calling, then without a doubt, you can make an amazing career out of translation.

A lot of hard work, creative inquisitiveness and a smile can take you a long way.