Beyond Translation

As a small, but perfectly-formed, self-made, translation company, we are truly passionate about what we do.

Our consultative way of working allows us to educate, set best practice, and deliver quality time and time again, however, it still surprises us how many people take translation for granted.

Often treated as a commodity it is down to language service providers, like ourselves, to stress how much more there is to translation; going further than simply the words on the page.

In this informal, interview with our Growth Manager, Emily, she highlights the importance of going beyond translation in order to truly position your organisation as a global brand.

Transcript

What do I love most about working in this industry? That it’s just so much more than the words on the page.

Translation is often thought to be simply taking words in one language and converting them into the words of another language, but it’s just so much more than that. There’s so much more than simply changing a word for another word. The thought, the message, the research, the terminology, the style, the voice.

This industry is so enriching, it’s rewarding, it’s everything that I could possibly want to get from a career, and one of the things that I love the most is educating people about translation, localisation, globalisation, internationalisation.

People take translation for granted and they really shouldn’t.

You can do so much with language. From translation, to copywriting, to transcreation. The possibilities are endless, but you need to make sure that you have someone that’s got your back. There’s no point in sourcing mediocre translations, it’s just not going to work, and you might have a colleague who happens to have done a German A-Level, but they’re not a professional translator. And I really take my hat off to the people that hold this industry aloft, because without the translators we would be nothing.

Yes, we can source the right translators for a given project or a given client, but the work that they do, it’s so beneficial to any organisation and the industry is growing so quickly and changing so quickly and with the introduction of technology and automated processes it’s just a really exciting time to be in translation. And, we want to spread that message. We want to be an extension to someone’s team. We want to be that consultant that they come to whenever they have a question about language.

As I said, it’s so much more than words on a page, it’s culture, it’s getting to know your audience, it’s putting messages across that are going to relate to them so much more than a direct translation or a Google machine translation.

Don’t take translation for granted, please.

References

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