The Importance Of Localization and What You Need To Know About It

When we talk about website translation services, it goes without saying that we are living in an age where globalization is taking place at a rapid rate. It is not unknown that the Coronavirus pandemic has led to the increased popularity of the digital platform both amongst consumers as well as businesses. Be it work from home or lockdown restrictions, people have shifted a lot of activities to the digital platform.

 
The number of Internet users has grown and quite naturally, businesses are also targeting the Internet for business marketing and promotions as well as sales. This has created a global marketplace that is extremely profitable for different kinds of businesses, enterprises, and brands. However, adapting to the local needs and trends to better reach the target audience has become more important than ever. This brings us to the need for website translation services. 

In this blog, we will talk about the need for translation services for websites or web pages and we will also point out a few effective techniques of translating a website. While opting for the best website translation service can be the perfect way to translate a website, we will also discuss a few other ways to translate a website and all other important details about website translation, which you must know about. 

When Do You Need To Translate A Website? 

When we talk about translating a website, the first thing that we need to talk about is website localization. It is essential that any website’s content is made available across all languages, especially when it is an international brand or business. If you are targeting the global marketplace for business growth, then website translation is something that you must pay attention to and complete, as soon as possible. 

Content is the foundation to the success of any modern marketing campaign and in the content economy, website translation is extremely essential. Making your website localized has a critical role in the growth and success of your business. Translating your business site or particular service pages into different other languages will help you avoid limiting your business’ reach and potential for growth.  

Opting for website translation services to translate your website content into other widely used languages is the best way to leverage the potential of website localization. The best website translation service will ensure maximum efficiency through advanced translation technologies for the common CMS systems, whichever might be powering your business website. 

Your content will be more presentable to the global audience after being localized through translations. It will also successfully adopt the cultural norms and practices of your international target audience which has a huge impact on potential customers. 

Opting for website translation services to translate your website content into other widely used languages is the best way to leverage the potential of website localization. The best website translation service will ensure maximum efficiency through advanced translation technologies for the common CMS systems, whichever might be powering your business website. 

Your content will be more presentable to the global audience after being localized through translations. It will also successfully adopt the cultural norms and practices of your international target audience which has a huge impact on potential customers. 

What Is Website Localization And How It Helps? 

Website localization often referred to as “L10N,” is what is also the general process of translation of a website into the local language of the target audience. Localization of websites is not just the translation of the words on the page but also covers a range of other areas. A combination of all of them leads to the successful localization of content. It is extremely beneficial when a business is trying to grow in the international markets and enhances the international reach of a business. 
Along with the translation of words, let us look at the other areas covered by website translation services or website localization process: 

• Appropriate images optimized for the local audiences.
• Optimizing the site page layout to support the localized site language format.
• Considering and integrating the cultural norms and values of a particular region.
• Updates of measurement units like date and time formats according to local conventions.

How do Website Translation Services help? 

It is a common occurrence that any website, which is natively designed for the local audiences is more popular than other international competitors in the same market, location, and industry. Localization and translation services ensure that a particular site or page as well as the products and services of a business appears and feel like they are originally created for the target locality. 

It helps target customers relate with a particular business and its products, services, and message. It enhances the reach of a business in the global markets and enhances the engagement of the site with its target audience. Being able to communicate with native speakers through their native language also improves the brand authority and reputation helping transform the business dynamics and growth index. 

How To Translate A Website or Web Page? 

Let us now talk about the best ways to translate a website or web page. 

Human translation

One of the key aspects of website translation is maintaining relevance and context. Human translation for a multilingual website is the best way to maintain relevance and context. The context in language can be tricky and is often implied rather than being explicitly mentioned in words. Professional human translators understand the context and can ensure the best website translation service for maximum success. 

From understanding idioms to relating with the local cultural norms, and then integrating them with the key purpose of the website content, it is a great way to translate a website for the target local audience. Human translation ensures accuracy as well as is very nuanced. 

Machine translation

AI and Machine Learning are reigning in the world of technology right now. Quite naturally, machine translation (MT) is executed by AI and ML-enabled automated software. This software is designed to efficiently and accurately translate the source content into the target language. 

It is a valuable tool for translation purposes of specific content like product descriptions which undergo frequent changes and do not have many nuances, subtle implications, and meanings. Different MT engines can be suitable for different types of translation. 

Opting For Website Translation Services 

Website translation services are the most effective, useful, and value-for-money choice when it comes to website translation. Hiring a reputable translation company can be the best option for translating a website. It helps you save time, effort and returns the best value for your investment. They offer foolproof, accurate, and user-oriented translation services covering all aspects of website localization. 

Vanan Translation is a leading translation company offering the best website translation service for all kinds of needs. Get in touch with them for an accurate translation of your business website and conquer the global marketplace. 

Certified Translation Services vs Notarized Translation Services

There are various confusions floating around notarized translation services and certified translation services. The biggest misconception is that both are fundamentally the same. However, the fact says that there is a massive difference between the two. Both are completely different from normal document translation services. Discussed below are various aspects based on which both the services can be distinguished.

What Is Certified Translation?

A certified translation service primarily means that the concerned translator or the language service provider issues a declaration stating that the translation done is a flawless and accurate representation of the original document. These services are often required while dealing with legal affairs, involving legal documents.

The legal documents stated above include marriage and birth/death certificates, immigration certificates, bonds made for adoption affairs, business agreements, and service agreements. Those are not written in the official language of the concerned nation; it has to be submitted at.

Who Is Certified Translator?

One should not confuse the certified translator and translation as well. A professional translator, when clears a test and acknowledged by the American Translators Association, then he/she becomes a certified translator. Talking about certified translation, it is basically a work (of translation) certified by an LSP to ensure that the work is the exact translation of the concerned document.

Not just in case of legal document translation, every kind of certified translation work including birth certificate translation services comes along with a legal record. In fact, this is the reason that the governments often ask for the certified translations only, during the legal proceedings. It can be claimed that certified translation is very much essential for a whole range of legal documentation.

Immigration translation services are among the most prominent domains, where the importance of certified translation services is felt. While applying for a provisional visa in a foreign nation, the concern nation demands the entire personal details to be deposited in the official language of it. Similarly, students pursuing higher education at a university of a foreign nation also have to submit certified translations.

Essential Aspects Of Certified Translations

Certified translations are essential to contain the original documents; those must have been thoroughly translated, including the signatures, signs, stamps, dashes, and seals. It is the responsibility of the concerned translator to highlight the sections in the original that don’t possess clarity as per the “not legible” norm in English translation. The translation made should be visually equivalent to that of the original document. Most importantly, the positioning of seals, signs, and other symbols should be accurate in the translation, as it is in the original document.

Notarized Translation – Its Usage, And Difference From A Certified Translation

A notary public is the one that is acknowledged by the government of the concerned nation to authenticate and checkout the needful legal procedures, which includes a notarized translation. These notarized translations are done for the documents often demanded by institutions while submitting foreign documents like diploma certificate obtained from a foreign institution, transcripts of a high school from a foreign nation, etc. Unlike certified translation services, here flawlessness or quality aspects are not the big aspects. It’s moreover like fulfilling the formalities asked by the concerned institution or university.

Any professional translator can go for submitting the documents containing translated works to the assigned notary public. However, the notary public asks the translator to take an oath regarding the accuracy of the translation done in the document. In fact, the concerned translator has to sign an affidavit as well, containing the authentic seal and sign of the notary public prior to its authentication. However, the notary public doesn’t often go for checking out the quality of the translation works. Rather, more importance is given towards the identification of the concerned translator.

English is the most spoken language worldwide. Owing to the ever-increasing demographics of “English users” there are some languages which they might find easy or difficult to learn. For example, the whole of the Anglophone community will agree that Chinese is one of the hardest languages to learn in the world, but is the hardest? – Interesting proposition. In this article we will list out some of the most difficult languages to learn especially for English speakers.

Top Hardest Languages To Learn

1. Cantonese/Mandarin
2. Polish
3. Arabic
4. Japanese
5. Russian
6. Korean
7. Turkish

#1 Cantonese/Mandarin

Speaking Mandarin to a Cantonese speaker is like, as the saying goes, “a chicken talking to a duck”. However, Cantonese is harder to learn than Mandarin – not discounting the fact that for an English speaker both of them are going to be pretty difficult. Cantonese has from 6 to 9 tones, each of which signifies different things. Mandarin only has 4 tones. The grammatical system, the writing system – and the whole logographic aspect of it, and the tonal nature of these both languages place them as the foremost hardest language to learn.

Chinese, however, is also a culturally and politically relevant language, opening the door to numerous career in translation and interpretation.

#2 Polish

Polish uses Latin script but has 9 additional letters (ą, ć, ę, ł, ń, ó, ś, ź, ż). It also has seven diagraphs ch, cz, dz, dź, dż, rz, and sz. There are eight vowel sounds, but nine graphemes (a, ą, e, ę, i, o, ó, u, y). There are five genders: masculine, feminine, masculine inanimate, masculine animate, and neuter. Compared to English, which is considered to have no gender at all! There are seven cases: nominative, genitive, instrumental, accusative, dative, locative, and vocative. Compared to the English language, it is a very different scheme to produce sound – making it the second most hardest language to learn for English speakers .

#3 Arabic

Arabic is a very distant language from English with virtually no similarity. Speaking, writing, and the syntactical structure of Arabic is very different from English. Also, the dialectical dissimilarity of Arabic in the Middle East is big. Also, the diacritical marks present in Arabic writing can change the meaning of a word into another completely unrelated word. Hence, Arabic language overall is very difficult to learn for an English speaker. Another trivial fact, Arabic because of its guttural sound is the hardest language to learn for Chinese speakers.

#4 Japanese

First, there are the feared three systems of writing – the 2 kanas (Katakana and Hiragana), and traditional Chinese (Kanji). The Katakana and Hiragana are sound-based scripts used in day to day communication. Katakana is the basis for neologism (borrowed words). Modern Japanese is written with a combination of all the three scripts (sometimes the boundary is unclear) and to makes matters more confusing written sentences are written often with limited use of Latin alphabets. As such Japanese is one of the tough language to learn for English speakers.

#5 Russian

The case and gender system of the Russian language are very different from English – it has nominative, accusative, dative, prepositional genitive, and instrumental cases combined with three genders. This makes it tricky to learn Russian. Russian verbs have two versions, called perfective and imperfective. These are actually two different verbs used for each version, which does not equate to different forms of the same verb. So, for every Russian verb you learn, you need to learn two. Also, the actual words – they are long, a lot, and requiring loads of learning with various unfamiliar words in between.

#6 Korean

The Korean writing system, unlike Japanese and Chinese, is easy to learn – there are 24 basic letters and 27 complex letters that can be learned within days. In terms of speaking as Korean isn’t as tonal as Chinese – making matters a little easier. However, Korean still offers various difficulties in terms of speaking, the syntactical structure, and the vocabularies as a whole. Never mind the possibility of a combination of all of these instances is going to make learning Korean language is a tough job.

#7 Turkish

Turkish is an agglutinative language – which means expressions are made up of several suffixes. As such pronunciations for various words are going change according to contexts and the person who uses it. Turkish also has complex grammar. Turkish has a lot of cool features, written Turkish follows a Subject-Object-Verb pattern whereas English follows a Subject-Verb-Object pattern. There are order differences such as ‘prepositions’ following the noun in Turkish, main verbs preceding modal verbs, and relative clauses. These variations often make Turkish the hardest language to learn for an English speaker.

What groups all of these languages together, in terms of their difficulty, is their relative lack of connection (geographical distance) to the English language. Mastering any one of them is going to require grit and hard work. All of the languages listed here require at least 45 weeks and more of learning time to gain competence and often requires years of learning to gain mastery. Learning any one of these languages in combination with English places one in the highest-earning brackets in terms of translation jobs because of the difficulty in learning these.

In this article, we’re enlisting some of the rare languages in the World; you don’t know. These include Njerep, Kawishana, Liki, and more. So, let’s check out.

Most Rare Languages in the World

Have you ever heard of Dumi, Likin? Or about Njerep? These are the most least spoken languages in the entire World. As per the latest report published by the United Nations, there are around 6,000 languages that are sadly on the verge of extinction. Yes, special endangered language programs and campaigns are being run across the globe to preserve these languages. There are so many languages you probably, which are being spoken just a couple of miles away. So, in this post, we’ve rounded up the top less-known mother tongue languages worldwide. So, let’s check out the least spoken languages in the World:-

#1 Njerep

Njerep is a language that has already become extinct in one country, which is Cameroon. It is a Bantoid language that has only been spoken in Nigeria. But, did you know this one of the rare languages in the World, spoken by just four individuals? Yes, you heard it absolutely right, just four, a recent report by anthropologists. And, want to know the age of the youngest person in the World, who speaks Njerep? The answer is 60 years old. This means that the younger generation, even in native areas of Nigeria, is not speaking this language. And, that’s why Njerep tops the list of rarest languages.

#2 Kawishana

Another rare language in the list is Kawishana. Today, it is only being spoken in one small area of Brazil, which is in the proximity of the Japura river. Some decades back, the language was quite popular in various parts of Brazil, but today it is about to go extinct. The number of people speaking this language has narrowed down to 200 people. And, do you know, there is only one documented person who speaks this language? Isn’t that a rare language?

There are so many rare languages to learn around the globe, today to thoroughly understand the expression of each word; you probably need to pay a visit to the home ground of the language. Don’t you think, just by watching a couple of YouTube videos, you’ll be able to speak like a local? You’ve to spend time with the locals and interact with someone who understands both English and their mother tongue.

#3 Paakantyi

Third on the list of the rare languages is the Australian Aboriginal language, the Paakantyi. This language has only been spoken in one small community around the Darling River, probably a handful of people. Several reports suggest that anywhere between 2 to 22 individuals are still using this language for their everyday conversion. The language is highly complicated to learn, watch, do a quick search over the Internet about the different words, and believe me your mind you’ll be completely bamboozled. Today, this language runs the risk of extinction. However, several NGOs and even the government have language programs in schools to develop a love of the rare language, Paakantyi, in the next generation of society.

#4 Liki

Wow, another gem of a rare language, that only 5 to 11 people still speak. This language originates from the Papua region of the Coast in Indonesia. It is an island language. Not too long ago, Liki was spoken by some of the prestigious church leaders in Indonesia. However, with decades passed, the number of people speaking this language drastically dropped, and that time is not far when no one will speak this language.

#5 Sarcee

Now, let’s head to the United States, the Southern region where the Sarcee language related to the Navajo, is spoken by the Canadian Tsuu T’ina tribe. This language is based on oral transmission, not written, so there are no records as such to how many people speak this language. It is believed that not more than 50 people speak this language, and Sarcee in the coming one decade will become completely extinct.

#6 Chemehuevi

Last on the list of rare languages in the World is Chemehuevi, it is a language that had its stronghold in the Numic River in Colorado. Now, this language has only been spoken by a handful of people in the Midwestern United States. Several languages have preserved this language in the form of the notes and recordings so that even after decades people or natives of the area will know that there existed a language like this.

Conclusion

In the end, whether you are on a quest to learn a rare or looking for rare languages translation services, extensive research is required. You gotta understand the ins and outs of the language. But, if you are planning to target an audience to those who speak a rare language, then you’ll require the expertise of a professional translator. Don’t just hire anyone who says he or she can translate nay rare language, because they probably use translation software. Reach to a company or individual who has natives of the language, those then you’ll have an impeccably translated document you deserve.

Pig Latin Definition

If you are trying to learn a second language – English is your first – Pig Latin is the perfect second language. No wonder it has a cult status among children and adults alike. And the most fun part about learning this new language is that its fun – essentially it’s not a language, its a language game or argot/cant (jargon). But wait for a language game?!! Yes and that’s why it’s fun to learn this “language” and what’s more, you get to learn a “second” language in the process. The Pig Latin meaning in itself is a deliberate misnomer – well at least the “Latin” part of it is. Several Pig Latin words like “ixnay” and “amscray” have found a place in regular English

History of Pig Latin

One of the first instances of the use of Pig Latin was in the 16th century by no other than Shakespeare. Back then, it was called dog Latin. The modern version of Pig Latin burst into the cultural scene in 1919 through a Columbia Records album containing a song “I-Yay Ove-Lay oo-yay eerie-day” by a singer named Arthur Fields.

The Three Stooges shorts made Pig Latin famous in the 1930s by famously using “ix-nay” and “am-scray”. Ixnaying and Ixnayed have been famously included as a present participle and simple past and past participle of the word “Ixnay”.

Other languages have a similar play on words. For example, French has the Loucherbem and Verlan, which are French slang, and are is quite similar to English pig Latin in terms of rules.

How to Speak Pig Latin?

To speak Pig Latin language is easy. It relies on the placements of consonant and vowel sounds of the regular English world. We will now see some Pig Latin rules that will essentially make you an expert in no time. And as with every other language, the use of it will be easier with experience. Ets-Lay Et-Gay Arted-Stay (Let’s get started).

Pig Latin Rules

For the words beginning with consonant sounds: If the words begin with consonant sounds, the letters before the initial vowel are placed at the end of the character sequence. Then, the suffix “ay” is added, as in the following examples:

“pig” = “igpay”
“latin” = “atinlay”
“me” = “emay”
“duck” = “uckday”

For the words beginning with multiple consonants forming single sound: When words begin with consonant clusters, the whole sound is added to the end when speaking or writing. Let’s look at some examples:

“stupid” = “upidstay”
“smile” = “ilesmay”
“string” = “ingstray”
“glove” = “oveglay”
“trash” = “ashtray”

What if words begin with vowels? For words beginning with vowel sounds, the vowel is left alone, and usually, the suffix ‘yay’ is added to the end. Others might add “way” or “hay” depending on the dialect used. Here are some examples:

“are” = “areyay” or “areay”
“eat” = “eatyay” or “eatay”
“omelet” = “omeletyay” or “omeletay”
“egg” = “eggyay” or “eggay”
“explain” = “explainyay”

A different structure for words beginning with a vowel: Sometime when words begin with vowels one might remove the starting vowel along with the first consonant(s). Let’s look at some examples:

“under” = “erunday”
“every” = “eryevay”
“another” = “otheranay”
“island” = “andislay”

The sentence structure remains the same as English: Rather than having to exchange the sounds and add a sound in the end, some sentences form the Pig Latin could be remembered. A few key phrases can be remembered and expressed without thinking. This will help speed up the process of communication considerably! Here are some examples:

“What’s up?” = “At’s-whay up-way? “
“How are you?” = “Ow-hay are-way ou-yay?”
“What are you doing later?” = “At-whay are-way ou-yay oing-day ater-lay? “
“We live in a city.” = “E-way ive-lay in-way a-way ity-cay. “
“I hope this is what you asked for.” = “I-way ope-hay is-thay is-way at-whay ou-yay asked-way or-fay.”

Pig Latin to English translation

Now that you know the rules of Pig Latin, the next thing to do is to use it. Find a friend who is interested as you are such that you can start practicing – a learner will tolerate your foibles during the sessions. What can be fun is one can act as a ” Pig Latin transltor ” and can essentially latin translation what the person is saying in Englsih during the practice sessions. This as our experience suggests help in quicker learning.

“Ank-Thay Ou-Yay Or-Fay Eading-Ray! Ope-Hay Ou-Yay Ave-Hay Eat-Gray Ime-Tay Earning-Leay”