In order for your business to attain international success, you need to be able to communicate effectively with your global target market. The most effective way to do this is to connect to each of them in their own native language. This is why the practice of interpreting and translating are very important elements in establishing an online presence.
Interpreting and translating are both very useful and serve a similar purpose for your business. One needs to be culturally and linguistically knowledgeable In order to successfully accomplish either of these tasks. There should also be a high familiarity with the subject matter, as well as a knack for communicating ideas well even across a different language. But similar as they may be, interpreting and translating also have a few notable differences that you must understand in order to apply them properly.
What Is Interpretation?
Interpretation is the practice of translating spoken content at the same time that it was spoken, or immediately after. If you have ever watched international beauty pageants where someone translates the answers of a contestant during the Q&A portion, that is exactly what interpretation is. Aside from being highly skilled in the language, interpreters have to think quickly and they also need good memory to be able to accurately interpret everything that has been said.
What Is Translation?
Translation is a long process that involves more thought and usually relies a lot on resources like translation style guide templates or glossaries. These tools improve the accuracy of the resulting text. While interpretation is only done in the spoken language, translation can apply to both spoken and written content.
What Are the Main Differences between Interpreting and Translating?
Now that we have an idea of what interpreting and translating are all about, let’s talk about some of the main differences between these two linguistic services.
Interpreting and translating both aim to deliver accurate content but the expectation is rather different because of the varying nature of the services.
Format
As mentioned earlier, interpretation applies only to the spoken language. The original content is spoken and the interpreted content is spoken as well. Translation can come from either spoken content, like audio clips from a video, or written content, like a blog post or an entire website.
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Delivery
The delivery of interpreted content is instant. There is no time to dilly dally when it comes to interpretation because it happens right at the moment that the person is speaking or immediately afterward. Translation can be delivered a long time after the original content has been written.
Accuracy
Interpreting and translating both aim to deliver accurate content but the expectation is rather different because of the varying nature of the services. Translated texts have higher accuracy because of the longer time that translators have to work on them, as well as the wide range of tools that can be used specifically to increase accuracy. It is very hard to achieve perfect accuracy in interpretation especially if the words are spoken very fast, causing some parts to be left out in the interpretation. However, it is still the goal of interpreters to deliver the most accurate outcome possible, given the constraints of the situation.
Direction
While knowledge in both source language and target language is important in both interpreting and translating, a very high fluency in both languages is absolutely required in interpretation. Interpreters need to have a lot of knowledge in both languages because that is all they can rely on while doing their job. Translators, on the other hand, only need to be highly fluent in the target language and can work with just average knowledge in the source language, as they have tools that can assist them with the translation.
In order for your business to attain international success, you need to be able to communicate effectively with your global target market.
Intangibles
In addition to having impressive language skills and a quick mind, a good interpreter should also have a knack for capturing the verbal quality of the original content as they translate to a live audience. It is not really a requirement but it helps improve the interpretation if they are able to imitate the inflections, tone, or even the voice quality of the speaker.
As for translators, there is no need for such voice skills but they do need to be able to translate idioms and figures of speech accordingly into the target language so as not to lose the original context and tone of the content.
A Reliable Provider of Interpreting and Translating Services
In order to ensure the success of your business, you need to choose a trustworthy and capable company to handle the interpreting and translating of all your content. In this regard, you need to look no further than Circle Translations. With over 17 years in the business and more than 900 satisfied clients from all over the world, you can be sure that Circle Translations can give you the best quality of translation and interpretation that can definitely take your business to a global level.
