Peak Translations

The world of translation is a multi-million-pound industry, and yet, when creating brand messages for a specific foreign market, the native tongue of a company’s marketer or translator is seldom recognised or even considered.

To adapt a text into another language, a translator is not only required to speak the language they are translating into, this must be their first tongue.

When looking to translate informative text for highly technical products and services to this audience, it is paramount to understand the importance of clear, concise communication as any errors could cause life threating accidents, leaving an organisation liable for damages.
Helen Provart of Professional Translation Service, Peak Translations, states: “If there’s anything within a text that is likely to cause offence, confusion or, in the worst-case scenario, serious danger, translators, as part of their job, will adapt that text to safeguard against these factors.

“Part of the training provided when learning to translate is how to deal with these kinds of situations. It’s often misconceived that translation is just changing one word to another, however, the value of a translator comes with conveying messaging and meaning by re-working the semantics of a sentence to clearly convey its meaning in a foreign language.

“What we’re also talking about here is localisation, which is where a translator will take a message created by a marketer and adapt this text according to the country its going into, taking into consideration many aspects, including cultural references.

“It’s not always clear to the client what localisation is, and sometimes a business or company just want a straight translation as they don’t understand the benefits and safeguarding that professional translation can provide to them. 

“When translating, Peak Translations always include a local expert from the country the text is targeted at. This is important, especially if the client doesn’t speak the language the document is being translated into, as fact checking and proofing can be very difficult for them. For example, if a client has distributors, agents or offices in the foreign countries, Peak Translations will get a contact there and send them the text once it has been translated and say, this is the proposed text, are you happy with it?”

At a time when international relations are becoming increasingly unpredictable between the UK, the EU and further afield – the world of translation is evolving and becoming increasingly integral; from conveying detailed technical texts vital to engineers through to the need for an emoji translator, as advertised by a London company in December 2016, in what is thought to be the first job of its kind worldwide. Translation is omnipresent, yet, it is overlooked by businesses across the world far too often. 

Accurately presenting your brand and its messaging to your international clients is something that should be a priority when creating an international marketing strategy, specifically safeguarding against any inaccuracies and cultural considerations when exporting for the first time.

To find out more about professional translation or to book a free consultation, contact Peak Translations on enquiries@peak-translations.co.uk or call +44 (0) 1663 732 074.