The global market for language translation services and website localization is currently estimated at about $13 billion. The field of language services is assuming great importance in the expanding global economy, and is also evolving into a very precise and specialized profession. Governmental policies also play a part in some cases, and result in pushing up demand for translation services. A recent news item in the Belfast Telegraph refers to the issue of the high cost to the Irish exchequer on account of translation services. The costs of translating press releases, speeches and documents within the Department of Health in Northern Ireland over a five-year period are estimated to have crossed ?150,000 ? a direct outcome of Irish devolution.

Global reach

When businesses translate their brochures and other promotional materials, they gain instant access to a worldwide audience and a huge potential market by spending just a couple of thousand dollars or less towards translation costs. With e-commerce becoming a worldwide phenomenon, it makes good business sense to go online in multiple languages and let the world know what you have to offer.

Issues in translation

Translation service is one area where it's often difficult for the business owner to assess if the service provider has done justice to the job. The simple reason is that most often the buyer of the service is not multi-lingual himself, and will have to rely heavily on the provider's assurance that everything is in order.

It is no longer enough for service providers to just hold a certificate as professional translator in a language pair; subject matter expertise is becoming a very crucial asset to a good translator. There is a crying need for talented translators in the fields of medicine (in hospitals), law (in law firms and as court interpreters), in the field of property development, software development and in international commerce.

Sometimes, important documents are badly translated, and the buyer is ignorant of the lacunae in the work delivered. Translation errors often come about because of polysemy which means that a single word may have different meanings in a given language. This creates difficulties when trying to translate from English to other languages and vice versa.

For instance, the word 'plain' can have different meanings in English, depending on the context in which it is used:

(i) A woman is described as being plain to say that her looks are not above the ordinary

(ii) It may be used in the context of a language as in plain English, meaning simple, everyday usage of English

(iii) It may refer to a level area of land as in 'the great plains.'

The importance of product, promotion and website localization

In order to be able to successfully launch and sell their products in international markets, it becomes necessary to localize them, or in other words, to adapt the promotional materials (and the products themselves) to the language and special forms of expression, cultural habits, and conditions of the local markets, while also staying in line with the local legislation.

Translation as well as graphic processing of documents (using applications like FrameMaker, PageMaker, QuarkXpress, Corel, Photoshop), and adapting them to suit the technical requirements and language standards of the target audience, are some of the areas in which providers offer localization services. Translation, dubbing and subtitling of movies and audio recordings, and sound editing and post-production of audio recordings are some of the special services in demand in film and media production. Website localization services involves the localization of software and multimedia applications.

Translate and localize for success

As businesses target customers from different ethnic and language zones, it often happens that the target audience does not respond to the marketing campaign or even find a use for the products offered unless they have been localized to suit their needs. It is important to provide supporting information in a language they can understand, and in a way that is in tune with the local business environment and practices.