Category: Language Translation

The Importance of Driver’s License Translation for International Students in Australia

International students are attracted to Australia because of the first-class tertiary courses available. International students in Australia may spend 6 months, a year, or several years in the country and may work part-time to help pay for the cost of accommodation and food. International students will find that Australia is not an easy place to get around by public transport, so after a time will often rent or buy a car to get around. Students in Australia can use their license for a limited period, but must then pass a driving license test and acquire a state or territory driving license.

Why Do International Students Need Driver’s License Translation?

Not all international driving licenses need to be translated, as many students can acquire an international driving license, which is a version of their national driving license, printed in several major languages, including English. If they do not have an English language or international driving license, then Australian laws state that their driving license must be translated into English before it is valid.

Understanding Australian Driving Regulations

Anyone who intends to drive on public roads and highways in Australia must have a valid, current driving license and be over 17 years of age. As long as you have a valid national license of your own, then this can be used for 6 months while in Australia before converting it into a state or territory license. One of the peculiarities of Australia is that each state and territory has slightly different rules about driving and issues different driving licenses. They all permit international visitors, including international students, to drive for 6 months before having to acquire an Australian license.

Necessity of a Valid License for Driving in Australia

It’s wise to take Australian road rules, car roadworthiness, and driving license requirements while in Australia seriously. There are penalties imposed on anyone who disregards road rules, drives or owns an unregistered vehicle, drives a vehicle that is considered ‘unroadworthy,’ or drives without a driving license. Driving without a license includes driving on a foreign driving license that is not in English or an international license after having already lived in Australia for 6 months.

Fines are administered by state and territory transport departments and can be several hundred or more than a thousand dollars, so it is worth knowing the driving rules wherever you are a student in Australia and making sure you are compliant.

Language Barriers Faced by International Students

The nationality of international students in Australia is eclectic. Some use English as a first or second language, while others struggle with English and may even be in Australia to learn better English. It is this latter group who has to be particularly careful if they intend to drive in Australia as they need to understand the driving rules and of course, these are in English!

How to Get Your Driving License Translated

It is easy to get your driver’s license translated into English as several well-reputed translation agencies will do this for you for a small fee. It is important to remember that you must have your driving license translated by a certified translator while in Australia. Getting your friend or relative who speaks good English to translate your license for you won’t be acceptable. It is best to use a translation agency that is accredited by NAATI, the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters.

Benefits of a NAATI Driver’s License Translation 

The basic advantage of using a NAATI driver’s license translation is that there is certainty that it will be accepted by a state or territory transport department which oversees and processes driving licenses. NAATI is a respected accreditation authority as it has high standards and only offers accreditation to would-be translators who have gone through training and have passed exams in translation.

If you are an international student in Australia and are considering renting or buying a vehicle while you are here, make sure you get a state or territory driving license after 6 months of residency, and if you do use your driving license that an English translation is available if your license is not printed already in English. Using a NAATI translator means that your translated driving license is compliant.

How Translation Services Drive Customer Engagement and Retention for Startups

Is your startup aimed at a multilingual market? Many startups fail to realize that their potential market size can be considerably magnified by taking advantage of a multilingual and often multicultural environment. Multilingualism and multiculturalism aren’t just an international context, but a national one, too. Many countries in the twenty-first century have multilingual and multicultural communities, even if there is one predominant official language. Multilingualism and multiculturalism are often part of the way national boundaries have been formed over the centuries.

To take advantage of this multilingual and multicultural reality, startups need to engage in professional translation and localization services to drive customer engagement and retention. Startups that build strong relationships with their customer base early on are most likely to have a healthy sales volume and become profitable and successful businesses.

Language as a Barrier to customer engagement

Research has shown that most people prefer to seek information about new products and services in a language they are most comfortable with. This seems to be the case even though the customer base is multilingual. Website browsing volume, for example, is greater if the content of the website has been translated into the languages of the potential customer base.

The Role of localization in customer experience

Localization is a process in which marketing material, web pages, traditional advertising in billboards, leaflets, magazines, newspapers, radio and TV broadcasts as well as through social media platforms is designed and tailored for a specific linguistic and cultural context. At the simplest level, it means converting things like currency and units into those of the target market. For example, a British startup that is intending to do business in the U.S. will need to use American units of measurement and currency rather than British ones. The U.S. example applies to vocabulary, too, even though both communities use English as the main language of communication. American English is noticeably different from British English, enough for potential customers to notice. 

The role of localization is even more important as the languages diverge and cultural factors such as gender roles, religion, dress standards, and the use of colloquialisms and dialect become more important. Localization involves translation as well as a more refined adaptation of marketing material in the form of text, video, images, and graphics.

Building trust through multilingual support

Support for customers is an important aspect of marketing new products. Customers like to know that when they buy a product that is new to them that they can contact the manufacturer or distributor if they have any issues with that product. There may be warranty issues, a defective product, or instructions that are not quite clear enough, amongst other reasons for wanting to contact customer support. 

Startups that set out from the onset to provide a multilingual support system are likely to build trust in their customer base. It’s hard for startups to avoid the reality of customer satisfaction or otherwise expressed through online reviews. A well-designed and effective multilingual support service is likely to lead to more favorable reviews than a non-existent support service for customers whose language is not that of the startup.

Brand perception and reputation management

Entrepreneurs understand the importance of creating an instantly recognizable brand. It’s something that can be frustrating for startups because unless they are offering a niche product or service, they will be up against the brand perception and reputation of their competitors who have been in business for much longer.

Conclusion

Not every startup will be operating in a multilingual or multicultural environment, but the modern reality is that this is becoming increasingly commonest startups can’t doo do all the translation and localization work all by themselves, which means that they need to choose professional services that can take on this important aspect of their marketing strategy for them. 

Unveiling the Key Differences Between Brazilian and European Portuguese

About 300 million people around the world speak Portuguese, a language that originated in a relatively small southwestern European country. The population of Portugal today is only just over 10 million, greatly exceeded by the 200 million Portuguese speakers in Brazil as well as another 60 million more in parts of Africa and the Portuguese-speaking diaspora in many other countries.

Naturally, just as Portuguese itself changed from its original Latin origins, so has the Portuguese of Portugal’s many old colonies, isolated from the mother country over hundreds of years and influenced by indigenous and other languages.

The key differences between Brazilian and European Portuguese


Just like many other European colonial countries, Portugal took its language with it as well as its religion and culture to other parts of the world it was able to colonize. Portuguese became the official language used in Brazil in South America as it did in Mozambique and Angola, Cape Verde, and Guinea Bissau in Africa. 

Portugal lost colonial possession of its Brazilian colony early on but ruled its African colonies until after the Second World War in the twentieth century. That might explain much of the differences between European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese, as Brazilians have had longer to experience their predominant national language evolve in its own way. 

Today, Portuguese from European Portugal can still easily communicate with Brazilians in Portuguese, just as Americans can communicate easily with their British cousins in English, but there are some substantial differences in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar.

Pronunciation:

Brazilians who speak Portuguese can recognize the Portuguese of European Portugal and vice versa. Brazilians speak with a more musical and broader tone, while in Portugal, the language is flatter, more guttural, and harsher in pronunciation. In Portugal, the final ‘s’ of many words are actually pronounced ‘sh’, while this is not the case in Brazil. The letter ‘t’ in Brazil is pronounced ‘ch’, while it remains ‘t’ in Portugal.

Vocabulary

The differences between European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese are not huge. There may be times when speakers of Portuguese from Portugal and Brazil may stop and ask the person they are speaking to, to explain what they mean when they use a certain expression or word.  Interestingly, each of the two countries has often absorbed and altered words from other languages, but in different ways. For example, the Brazilian ‘sueter’ has been borrowed from the American ‘sweater’, while the same garment in Portugal is called a ‘pulover’, taken from the English ‘pullover’. Similarly, the Brazilian ‘tren’ and ‘onibus’ are distinct from the Portuguese ‘comboio’ and ‘autocarro’. The Brazilian ‘tren’ is similar to the English ‘train’, while the Portuguese ‘autocarro’ is more like the equivalent in Spanish for ‘bus’.

Note that like many languages that have been modified and used by many millions of speakers, there are also regional variations in both Brazil and Portugal itself. Brazil, in particular, has absorbed words from its many hundreds of indigenous languages as well as Spanish, the language by which it is surrounded.

Grammar

Linguists say that the differences between standard Brazilian Portuguese and standard European Portuguese are not great enough for them to be called distinct dialects, let alone different languages. Basically, the grammar used in both countries is more or less identical. What small differences there are presently no difficulties in communication between Brazilians and Portuguese from Europe. 

Cultural Nuances:

Languages never stay the same. They are dynamic phenomena. Isolation is the main reason why languages evolve and the longer they are isolated, the more they are likely to change and evolve in their own way. The Portuguese speakers of Brazil have had five hundred years of separation from Portugal to absorb the languages of the indigenous peoples who lived in that part of South America for many thousands of years before the Portuguese conquest. Note that the Portuguese of Mozambique and Angola in southern Africa are far less different from standard European Portuguese because the Portuguese retained colonial control of these two African countries until the 1970s.

Conclusion:

It is important when translating into or from Portuguese that you use translators who are able to translate into or from the relevant Portuguese variant, or you may risk some amount of confusion or disinterest.

 

The Role of Korean Translators in Ensuring Effective Global Business Communication

South Korea is a modern, affluent, industrialized society. There is a huge Korean market with massive potential for continued growth in trade with the outside world. The major obstacle for Korean and foreign businesses is the fact that Koreans speak Korean, a language that is hard for non-Koreans to learn and understand, making effective business communication a significant hurdle. Korean is a unique language, not spoken by any other nation, and this means that Korean translators are extremely important in facilitating business communication.

There are around 46 million Korean speakers in South Korea and another 23 million in North Korea, as well as communities of Korean expatriate migrants who have made a home around the world. Most non-Koreans are familiar with well-known Korean brands, like Samsung, Kia, and Hyundai as well as Korean cultural icons, like K-Pop and K-dramas. However, there are many more Korean-based industries and businesses that are less well-known. This is the market for Korean translators to penetrate to allow the free flow of information and communication.

The unique challenges of Korean language translation for business communication

Korean as a language has no real linguistic analogs. Modern Korean has its origins in Manchuria as far as can be established. Chinese characters, hanja, were introduced in early Korean history but then replaced by their own type of written character called hangul.

There still exist regional variations in the Korean language, and there is a distinct regional difference, for example, between the Koreans of North Korea and South Korea. 

These dialect differences and associated regional colloquialisms are less important for most business translations as standard Korean would be used by translators, but marketing translation does involve what is called localization techniques. Localization techniques are an extension of translation in that local nuances in language use are taken into consideration. 

The fact that Korean is such a unique language presents challenges in business communication with just about every other language group, but it also presents opportunities for those who can offer Korean translation services.

The benefits of working with professional Korean translators

It is always advisable for businesses wishing to translate material into Korean or from Korean to engage professional Korean translators. The temptation to use Korean speakers who have no training in translation techniques should be avoided as should the use of amateur internet-based translation apps and software. 

The importance of localization techniques for some business needs in translation has already been mentioned. Professional Korean translators with experience in localization techniques are the obvious first choice when it comes to this type of business translation to ensure it is effective. 

Most professional translators end up specializing in a particular field of translation, such as legal, scientific, technical, business, or literary translation and this is true for the Korean translation industry as well. Specialization ensures that the specific terminology used in that field is learned, so that is why it is important to be careful when choosing the best professional Korean translators to make sure that you have chosen translators who are familiar with the sort of business needs in translation that you have. 

As far as Internet translation technology is concerned, it is doubly important that this is not used in serious business communication with Korean firms. Most Korean firms and government officials would probably be offended if this sort of technology was used as a cheap substitute for using genuine professional Korean translators, as the technology has not yet advanced to become as accurate as that of human translators. In fact, an inaccurate or poor translation could lead to miscommunication, delays, delayed contracts, and lost opportunities. 

Conclusion

Modern Korea, or more specifically South Korea, is already a highly important market for businesses worldwide. Because Korean as a language is not easily learned and is relatively little spoken outside Korea, there is an increasing demand for professional Korean translators who have particular expertise in business translation.

 

Why Translate Podcasts?Why You Should Translate Your Podcast?

What is a podcast and how does it work? 

A podcast is an audio recording that is available for interested people to listen to at their time of choosing. Typically, these days, podcasts are recorded by news media, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and businesses and made available via a link on a website. The fact that podcasts are available means that those people who may have an interest in listening to the podcast don’t have to listen to it when the original recording was made. For example, a radio presenter may interview a politician about a controversial policy that their party is keen to pursue or argue against. The interview is recorded and made available on that radio show’s own website as a podcast. Someone who was busy working at the time of the interview can then listen to it later when they are free to do so. 

Why you should translate your podcast

The reasons for translating podcasts are the same as the reasons for translating anything important. Making available a podcast in more than a single language, means that more people can appreciate or make use of the information in it. Not all podcasts are translated, of course. The creator of the podcast has to make a decision, often financially, whether it is worth having the podcast translated, and if this is a good idea, which language or languages should be chosen. 

In some countries, multilingualism is part of the make-up of the community. Leaving one or another language out wouldn’t make sense in somewhere like Switzerland or Singapore, for example, where there are three or four official languages. It would be quite natural even in the United States, which has a large Spanish-speaking resident community, to consider reaching this important community through podcast translation. In fact, in many countries these days, multiculturalism is accompanied by multilingualism. Most people prefer to listen to and read material that has been presented in the language they know best. Without translating such things as podcasts means that fewer people are entertained, or informed by whatever the podcast focuses on.

Factors to consider when translating your podcast

When a podcast has been chosen for translation, it is often first transcribed into text. Then the transcription is used by the speaker who reads out the material in the desired language after the transcription has been translated. The fact that the podcast was first transcribed is useful in more than one way. For a start, it allows the transcriber/translator the chance to ‘localize’ the podcast so it best suits the language group the translation is intended for. Transcription is not expected to alter what was said in the original podcast significantly, just render it easier to understand when it has been translated. The other advantage of having a text version of the podcast is that this will be picked up by search engines, whereas the translated audio version will not. 

It stands to reason that anyone tasked with transcribing, translating, or reading out the podcast once translated should have a good grounding in both the source and target languages to ensure the accuracy and acceptability of the podcast once translated. Professional translators tend to specialize in a particular niche, so some will concentrate on legal translation, and others, on medical or technical translation. There will also be some translators who specialize in podcast translation services. This particular skill is often accompanied by offering app translation services, too.

Conclusion

Podcasts have become a very popular way of getting a message or information across in a time-hungry and internet-savvy world. Listening to podcasts in the language you are most familiar with is the main justification for having a podcast translated into more than one language so that whatever the podcast is about can reach a wider audience. 

If your organization, media outlet, or business is looking to make your podcasts multilingual, then you are advised to hire professional podcast transcribers and translators for the highest degree of accuracy.

Tips for Getting Accurate Italian to English Translations

Italian is a major European language and is the first language for 67 million people on that continent, second only to German. Italian is also spoken by many millions of people who make up the Italian diaspora, especially in North America, but in parts of South America and Australia, too. Italy has one of the largest economies in Europe and the language has had an influence through the ages on the culture of much of Europe and the rest of the world, especially through music, theatre, the arts, architecture, and religion. Modern Italian evolved from more rustic dialects spoken across what is known as Italy today and as a Romance language is closely related to Latin, Romanian, French, Spanish and Portuguese.

Because of the importance of Italian, it means that there is a constant need for English-to-Italian and Italian-to-English translation. If you need your content translated into or from Italian it is important to know how you can rely on accurate Italian translators.

Tips for getting accurate Italian-to-English or English-to-Italian translations

Tip#1 Look for a professional translation service with native Italian-speaking translators

The most obvious tip is to only engage professional Italian translators who are fluent in both Italian and your own language. Avoid in particular the temptation to use computer-generated translation services. Some businesses make the mistake of choosing to use computer-generated translation services because they seem cheap and easy. They are cheap and easy, but not accurate enough for anything other than the most amateur of content.

Tip#2 Use translation agencies with expertise in the content you need to translate

The translation industry remains a mystery to most people, but in fact, it is highly organized into different categories. Professional translators tend to specialize in different fields which involve different terminology and knowledge of subject-specific content. Legal translators who can translate Italian to English legal documents accurately are unlikely to be a good choice for businesses wanting to translate marketing material or manufacturers of scientific instruments.

Tip# 3 Look for a professional translation service that has proven good proofreading services

Proofreading is a very important part of any translation project. It follows the raw translation itself, then editing, which refines the content and ensures it matches the requirements of those who want their content translated. Proofreading may be done by the translators themselves or given to others in a team. Good proofreading is an essential aspect of accurate Italian-to-English translation.

Tip#4 Use a certified Italian translator for legal document translation

Most legal documents require certification of translation. It is typical for translators to certify the content that has been translated itself, but you do need to know what the rules are in the country where the translated content is to be circulated. In many European countries, for example, professional translators are known as sworn translators as they have to have their credentials examined by a court before they can become certified translators. In Australia, English-to-Italian translators are accredited by the national accreditation board, NAATI, and certify any translated content themselves.

Tip#5 Stay in direct communication with the translators

It is advisable to build a good working relationship with your chosen translator or translation agency. This helps to avoid miscommunication and potential inaccuracies before they arise.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for Italian to English translation services make sure you use professional translators or translation agencies that specialize in the type of content you need translated and use good editing and proofreading techniques.

Languages of Romania : What Languages are Spoken in Romania?

Romania! Even those who have never been to Romania or Eastern Europe are familiar with the Dracula stories that were based in the Romanian region of Transylvania. Romania is a country steeped in history, wedged amongst the diverse countries of Eastern Europe, flanked on one side by the Black Sea and harboring the River Danube as it snakes from its mouth towards central Europe. The countries that surround Romania include Serbia, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Ukraine. Romania is a member state of the European Union.

Like many European countries, Romania has experienced long periods of upheaval, and was conquered and ruled from time to time by outsiders, but is now independent. Linguistically, Romania is very diverse, with its inhabitants speaking many different languages, although a single language has been chosen as the country’s official language.

The official language of Romania

The official language of Romania is Romanian. It is spoken as a first language by 9 in 10 Romanians and by most other Romanians as a second language. Romanian is the language of government and education. Somewhat surprisingly, considering where Romania is located, Romanian is not a Slavic language like Hungarian or Bulgarian, but a Romance language. That puts it in the same family as Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and French. Of these four European languages, it is probably most similar to Italian, in the same way as Spanish and Portuguese are similar. Because it shares so much with languages to the west of it, it also uses the same Latin script, rather than Cyrillic, which is used in neighboring Bulgaria, Ukraine, and Moldova.

Other languages that are spoken within Romania

Hungarian Language 

Hungarian is the second most widely spoken language in Romania with over a million speakers, or around 6% of the Romanian population. Most Hungarian-speaking Romanians live in Transylvania, although there are pockets of Hungarian speakers throughout the country. The reason for the prevalence of Hungarian is that parts of Romania were actually part of the Hungarian Empire for long periods of time, most recently just after the Second World War.

Romani Language

Romani is the language of the Romani people, whose ancestors arrived from Northern India many centuries ago and have spread throughout Romania and elsewhere in Europe in highly mobile extended family groups. Romani is not related linguistically to Slavic languages like Hungarian or Romance languages like Romanian. Around 240,000 Romani-speaking people live in Romania, approximately 1.1% of the whole population.

German Language

German is spoken by scattered communities throughout Romania, again because of historically important German-speaking empires that Romania was a part of. The number of German speakers has declined in the last 100 years, with probably only around 40,000 still speaking it as a first language.

Ukrainian and Russian languages 

Small populations of Ukrainian and Russian language users live within Romania, the Ukrainian speakers because of the proximity of Ukraine, and Russian speakers because of migrants fleeing religious persecution in Russia.

Other languages

Even smaller numbers of Romanians speak a variety of other languages for historical reasons, Turkish and Tatar being prominent. English has been gaining ground as a second or third language in Romania because of the opportunities the language has for international connections. French is another international language that has had an influence on Romanian culture and the arts.

Conclusion

Romania is a fascinating country with a diverse linguistic heritage. If you need to have documents translated from English into Romanian or Romanian into English or into or from one of its more minor languages, be sure to choose a professional translation agency to help you.

 

The Top 6 Languages for World Travel

Once again, travelers and tourists are planning their next overseas trip, where to go, how long they can afford to travel, what to expect and what language they will encounter. If you intend to travel to anywhere where the locals speak a language other than your own, it may be worth spending time learning at least a few words and phrases. The more you master that language, surely the more you will enjoy your travel experience.

The top 6 languages for world travel

1. English 

English may not be spoken by as many people as some other languages such as Chinese or even Spanish, but as an international language, it’s hard to beat. Obviously, if you are reading this blog, you are likely to be an English language speaker anyway, but it’s worth recognizing just how international English has become.

2. Spanish

Like Britain, Spain was once a major colonizer and took its language as part of its domination of parts of the world, especially South and Central America and parts of the Caribbean. If you are traveling to Spain, most of South America, except Brazil, Suriname, Guyana, and French Guiana, and most of Central America, except for Belize, or the Caribbean island nations of Cuba, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico, you should learn some Spanish. While many European Spanish people routinely speak and understand English, it is rarer for this to be the case in much of Latin America.

3. French

Another former colonial power, France took its language to almost as many countries around the world as Britain, making French a truly useful international language. If you intend to visit France, parts of Switzerland, West and North Africa, and a scattering of islands in the Caribbean and the Pacific, then knowledge of French, however rudimentary, will stand you in good stead.

4. Arabic

Arabic is spoken more widely than you might imagine, making it an important language for some world travelers. Arabic is the main language, or at least the lingua franca, for a whole swathe of countries right across North Africa from Morocco in the west to Egypt in the east and much of the Middle East. While some Arabic-speaking countries might seem to be a no-no as far as tourism is concerned at the moment (Iraq, Syria, or Yemen anyone?), Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, and much more recently Saudi Arabia are certainly tourist destinations.

5. Italian and Portuguese

Italy never became much of a colonial power, but the sheer number of attractions in Italy itself has meant that it is still a firm favorite for international tourists and millions pour into Italy every year. Italian is therefore an important language to learn if Italy is a destination. Portuguese is also a useful language to learn, like in Italy, because of the attractions of Portugal itself, which hosts huge numbers of tourists every year. Portugal was once a major European colonial power and its legacy remains in the form of Portuguese being an important language in Brazil, the Cape Verde Islands, Angola, and Mozambique.

6. German

Like Italy, Germany’s colonial ambitions were thwarted quite early on and so German is really only spoken in the European heartland nations of Germany, Austria, and much of Switzerland. Like Italy though, each of these countries is a very important destination for travelers, so learning German is almost a must if that is where you are heading.

Conclusion

Whatever your language credentials, you are advised to seek a professional translator if you need any of your personal documents translated before you set off overseas.

A Simple Guide to Choosing a Subtitling and Captioning Service

Subtitling and captioning are not quite the same thing but are related when in the context of being used in videos. It is important to choose a professional subtitling service when your video is to be released in places where people do not speak the same language as those in the film script or are deaf.

What is a subtitle?

Subtitles are short summaries of what someone is saying which are displayed clearly at the bottom of a video. Ideally, they appear just when needed, i.e. not too early and not too late, and are long enough for viewers to get the message, i.e. follow the speech or utterances of the characters in the video. Subtitles may be in the same language as the language used by the characters in the video or different. Subtitles that are composed in the same language help to provide an overview or précis of each person’s speech. This is basically to cater to those people who find it hard to hear or are deaf. They may also be turned on (if available) in certain circumstances when an audio version of the video is not suitable, e.g. if used in a library or educational institution and earphones are not available.

When a video is released outside of the country where the video was made and an audience who does not speak that language is targeted, then subtitles are typically translated into the relevant language. Very popular films and documentaries, for example, may have dozens of different versions of subtitles, each available for a different audience.

What is captioning?

Captions are typically very short words or phrases used to highlight a part of a video or documentary. Like subtitles, they may be used whenever someone who is hard of hearing or deaf is watching the video or when it is not acceptable for there to be sound. Captions, like subtitles, are typically translated when the video is intended for audiences who don’t speak the language of the characters in it.

Why is there a need for professional subtitling services?

There are two major challenges faced by subtitling services. The first is making the subtitle fit the actual speech or sounds heard in the video. The second is when the subtitle is translated. The second challenge is then added to the first challenge!

The first challenge involves knowing how to simplify what is being said without leaving out the main message. By simplification, it is common for a subtitle not to occupy more than a single sentence; otherwise, by the time someone has read the subtitle, the video has already progressed further, leaving the person watching well behind. Also, the subtitle has to appear on the screen in a suitable place and be of the font, color, and size that is required by the video maker. The subtitle also has to appear on the screen just at the right time and be replaced by another subtitle or disappear just at the right time. 

The fact that subtitles are frequently translated means that all of the challenges listed above also have to be taken into consideration when the translated version is devised. Text used in some languages, for example, may be of different lengths when translated, so the translator has to work with the subtitler so that the length of the subtitle, its appearance, and timing still fit in with the video.

How to choose the right subtitling and captioning services for your objectives

When you choose a professional subtitling and captioning service, you will want to know which languages they are familiar with and how much experience they have with the genre of video you need subtitled or captioned. Most videos, for example, use a lot of colloquial terms and slang, so the subtitler must be able to understand all of the nuances of these words and phrases and be able to convert them into equivalent subtitles in the target language without creating confusion or offense.

Common Problems of English to Indonesian Translation

Introduction

Indonesian, or Bahasa Indonesia, is the official language of Indonesia, a nation of 250 million people. It is an Austronesian language based on the Malay language spoken in the Malay Peninsula, Singapore, and Borneo and remains not only the only official language in Indonesia but the lingua franca of a culturally and geographically diverse nation. There are said to be 652 local languages spoken across the Indonesian archipelago, so Bahasa Indonesia is the only language that enables all these people to able to communicate with each other.

Because Indonesian is so widely spoken by so many people, the need for good Indonesian to English and English to Indonesian translators is immense. Like many language translations, there are specific challenges that must be overcome for effective translation. Some of these common problems of translation of English to Bahasa and vice versa are outlined below.

Problems faced by a language translator when translating from English to Indonesian or Indonesian to English.

Language structure

The fact that Indonesian belongs to the Austronesian language family and English to the Germanic language family means that there are many inconsistencies between the two languages when it comes to a comparison of syntax, vocabulary, and sentence structure. 

One of the more obvious ones is that English often has many different words that convey different meanings whereas, in Indonesian, the context of the phrase is more important. Indonesian is also a language that is constantly growing. It has borrowed words from other languages such as Sanskrit, Arabic, and even Portuguese. English also has many borrowed words from many other languages. These language origins complicate the structure of each language

Sentence structure

There are many differences in sentence structure between Indonesian and English. Indonesian, for example, doesn’t recognize direct and indirect articles like “a” and ‘the”. Indonesian also doesn’t recognize gender in the same way as English. On the other hand, despite the seemingly simpler sentence structure of Indonesian, there are also complexities that are missing in English. For example, in English, there is only one type of “you”. This is not true for other European languages, even Germanic languages like German and Dutch which recognize 2 or more forms of “you,” their use is dependent on the relationship between people and social status. Indonesian takes that one step further and has many more forms of ‘you,” up to 20 according to linguists.

Idiomatic expressions

Idiomatic expressions are often difficult to translate between any language pair. The further apart the 2 languages are culturally, historically, and linguistically, the more challenging they are to understand or equate. This is particularly important for translators whose work consists of translating text that often has a lot of idiomatic expressions such as literary and marketing translation.

Compound words

Both English and Indonesian make use of compound words to create words with different meanings from the component words, but the compound words in Indonesian are rarely the same as in English.

Double or multiple-meaning words

Indonesian typically uses double words as a way of showing plurals, or accentuation of the meaning of a word, while English usually uses a suffix to show plurality. Both languages have words that may have multiple meanings and the translator often has to use the context of the word to know what the specific meaning is of these words.

Conclusion 

Bahasa Indonesia is a very significant language in one of the world’s largest nations by population. English to Indonesian and Indonesian to English translation is important to many businesses, individuals, and private and government agencies and organizations. It’s important to always use professional translators who have an in-depth knowledge of the subtleties of both the Indonesian and English languages.