In the global business setting, language translation services play a key role in communication. It is worth to take a look and get to know the different forms of translation services available out there.
Services for language translation are in great demand today due to globalization. Although English is the preferred language of commerce, there are still many regions around the world where English is not spoken. Thus there is the critical need for spoken and written communication to be done in the local language.
While generally speaking, translation involves the rendering of written text from one language into another, there are different types of translation that are available, as discussed below, which segregates the translation work based on its context and use.
1. General translation. This is the most basic type of translation that works with texts that do not need any specialization or a deep knowledge of technical terminology. Often, the texts only involve those used in everyday language.
2. Administrative translation. Broadly, this deals with the translation of administrative documents that are commonly used by organizations and businesses in their daily management routine. It could also be used to define those documents used in government offices.
3. Commercial translation. Also called professional business translation, it is for those documents that are used in business, including business reports, tender documents, company accounts, business correspondence and more. This is more specialized since translators must have in-depth knowledge of business terminologies.
4. Computer/technical translation. Generally speaking, computer translation means translation that deals with things related to computers and information technology, including applications, help files, manuals, software, games, videos, websites, etc. This also requires expertise in the field.
5. Economic translation. This is quite similar to business or commercial translation, although this one deals with documents associated to the field of economics. This is however more focused on academic documents. Sometimes, business translation and economic translation become interchangeable, depending on the location, as they could both deal with the translation of contracts, claims, accounting documents and business correspondence among other things.
6. Financial translation. Financial translation deals with texts and documents that are used with different forms of financial management, which could include asset management, banking and stocks and bonds.
7. Legal translation. This is one of the more difficult types of translation as this requires expertise and a thorough knowledge of legal terminologies as well as the various legal systems. The simplest type of legal translation is one that involves treaties, contracts and statutes. Law is dependent on culture, therefore legal translation requires a specialist who has a high-degree of understanding of the legal systems of both the source and target countries.
8. Medical translation. Like legal translation, medical translation is very tricky and requires expert knowledge in the medical field. This type of translation work involves the translation of medical books, medical equipment manuals, medicine packaging and information materials, medical publications, scientific articles, results of clinical research, reports of pharmaceutical tests, drug information and instructions and other documents related to the medical profession. It is also used for the translation of medical histories, diagnosis, medical findings, prescriptions and more.
9. Literary translation. Like the rest of the more advanced types of translation work, literary translation requires expertise in the field. The work translates literature such as poems, plays and novels. This could also include film scripts, magazines, books, manuscripts, letters and biographies. Working with literary documents could be very tricky as it is quite difficult to convey the true meaning of the original work (source) into other languages (targets) as there are words that simply cannot be translated into another language without changing the meaning. Humor is especially difficult to translate.
These are the general types of translation. We will have more in-depth information on some of them in future blogs.
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