An excellent translation services are a versatile services that can do just about anything you ask them to. These services have a way of sneaking in places you thought to have no area of the translation industry, but they come in, and they have a jolly good time and make you realize that yes, they are useful.
Many times, people try to deny the existence of translation services and translators, negating their use and their effectiveness. However, time and time again, this industry has proven to be useful, resourceful and sprightly in situations that are rather dull and boring.
An impressive number of translated words
There is an inevitable tendency among people to underestimate the real value of a translator’s work. They believe it is smooth and insignificant work.
A professional translator can translate around 250 words within an hour. But an average translator translates 300, 000 to 1, 000, 000 words in a year. And this is the statistics of an average translator. Things go to the extreme levels if the translator is working with a translation service provider.
Most Often Translated Into
And do you want to know which languages people chose to reach even more people and a greater niche market? The preferred languages are French, Spanish, German and Japanese. The world is finally ready to speak!
The literary text most translated
And it turns out; French, as well as German-speaking people, love to read (or inhale) books too. Because in the first decade of the 21st century, novels and books of all sources and types are in high demand in German and French more than any other languages. Over 75% of books are in French or German and just 5% in Chinese. And professional translation service providers translated the most significant part of them.
The most difficult word to translate
We bet you will never guess. It is “set” or “sets.” Set is the single most difficult English word to translate into another language because it has several meanings and contexts that can fill a whole universe. It has many definitions and connotations, and it becomes challenging to find an appropriate word for it in another language that has the same meaning and connotation.
Vowels are Tricky
Vowels are very tricky to translate, especially when a translator has to convert them into a vowel-free language. Languages like Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, Tigrinya, and Amharic have no vowels. And when the translators have to translate words like facetious and abstemious, you can imagine things can get a little nightmarish for them. Words containing vowels are not easy to translate people!
Some Languages are Just Difficult
People believe it is possible to translate every single thing in a matter of minutes. And sometimes, it is indefinitely true. However, there are languages that are just too difficult, and to make sure the quality of the translation is right, the translators take some extra time. Some of the most difficult languages in the world include Arabic, Hungarian, Japanese, Finnish, Korean, Navajo, Icelandic, Basque, Polish and Chinese.
Difficult Words to Translate
There are words in languages that are very difficult to understand, let alone translate into other languages. However, time and time again, we come across words that boggle our minds because they are impossible to translate into other languages.
The Easiest Language to Translate
There is a language that is far easier than English to translate. According to most translators with years of experience, Spanish is the easiest language to translate to or into. It is because, in the Spanish language, words written are identical to the way they sound, which makes it the most accessible language to learn and translate. You can find a few grammatical irregularities in the Spanish language, and this is the reason people prefer Spanish to many, many international languages.
The status of the translation services today
Translation services are an integral part of today’s global economy. Formal translation services really solidified and expanded. Countries around the world are communicating even more, and documents of all kinds need translation. This high demand for accurate translations created a desire among translators to make their jobs easier. It explains the creation of current translation machines and automated translation memories.
Today these tools for translation help companies and individuals build relationships in a fast-paced, globalized world where accurate communication is essential; and experts predict that the need for translations will only continue to grow. That said, mechanized translations can never exist on their own now or in the future. Localization services will always be in high demand from humans besides translations as it gives a chance to cater the translated content to the current cultural norms in which it’s being presented. It is the only way to convey the message accurately across cultures.
Some entertaining statistics
- “Happy Birthday to You” is the most translated song followed by “It’s a Small World.”
- According to recent studies, there are over 330,000 professional translators worldwide.
- About 1% of consumers spend their time dedicatedly on websites in their native language.
- A substantial part of global consumers believes their ability to gather information in their native language is more important than the price of the product.
- About 5% of users are more likely to purchase a product with information in their vernacular language.
- 30th September is an International Translation Day. Interestingly, on this day people celebrate the Feast of St. Jerome one of the first literary figures to translate the Bible into Latin.
- The English language has over 250,000 words. So, it is essential to know the maximum world while translating into or out of English! And an average person knows around just 10-20,000 words.
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