Translation Blog

To the untrained ear, the Chinese language and the Japanese language might sound somewhat similar. However, these two Asian languages are very different. A translation from English to Chinese language is entirely different from an English to Japanese translation!

Undeniably, the written languages do share similar characteristics. Both writing systems are based on Chinese characters, known as hanzi in Chinese and kanji in Japanese. Unlike the English alphabet, hanzi and kanji represent entire concepts or words. Japan initially used hanzi to write Japanese before adapting them into modern kanji. Today, the languages’ writing systems share about half their characters.

The similarities in writing Japanese and Chinese don’t constitute the entire language overlap. Both languages largely eschew the use of plural nouns, and nouns and adjectives are typically genderless. Yet despite these minor similarities, the Chinese language and the Japanese language differ considerably. So, how can you tell them apart?

Chinese is a Tonal Language

Tone is fundamental when translating from English to Chinese language. This is different from intonation, which refers to vocal fluctuations when speaking (you use intonation in English when your voice rises at the end of a sentence to indicate a question). In Chinese, many words might sound the same to outsiders, but the tone conveys a precise meaning.

The difference between praise and insult could be as simple as a slight tonal shift. For example, the word “ma” could mean mother or horse (among other words), depending on the tone. You definitely don’t want to confuse the two when addressing someone’s mother! You must use the right tone when speaking the Chinese language. In fact, you could create unintentional confusion or offence if you don’t.

The Japanese language is very different. Some words have specific intonation patterns, but different tones do not generally change the meaning of syllables. This makes pronunciation much easier and decreases the risk of misunderstanding. An English to Japanese language translation is thus more straightforward as there is less risk of making a mistake regarding tone.

Japanese Uses Honorifics

While Japanese does not have tones, it does have an honorific system called keigo incorporated into its grammatical structure. Keigo has to do with the level of politeness one must use when speaking with others. This speaking system is based on the societal hierarchy in Japanese culture. Due to this concept, Japanese is known as an honorific language.

Keigo means that Japanese verbs have many forms, such as polite, humble, and honorific. The proper form will differ when you speak with a friend, a colleague, a professional superior, or a client. Pronouns like “I” and “you” also vary, depending on how polite or humble the speaker wants to seem. An accurate translation from the English language to Japanese needs to have a clearly defined audience, so the correct honorifics are used.

The Chinese language is also considered an honorific language. Although constantly used in Ancient China, the concept of honorifics has largely been phased out of the modern lexicon. Nevertheless, classical honorific concepts are sometimes used in formal settings. Your English to Japanese language translator will be able to advise when their usage is appropriate.

Dialects in Chinese & Japanese Languages

Most languages have a variety of dialects that vary from one country to the next. For example, British, American, and Australian English are unique in terms of vocabulary and pronunciation. Dialects can also vary within a country, such as the Queen’s English versus Cockney. These dialects are punctuated by differences in accent, slang, and cultural semantics.

The Chinese and Japanese languages are no different. In fact, there are significantly more dialects found within these two languages than most:

• Japanese has four main dialect groups: Eastern, Western, Kyushu, and Hachijo. Within these categories, there are roughly 47 different minor dialects spoken across the country. These dialects are associated with the prefectures of Japan. You must choose the suitable variant when translating from the Japanese language to English.
• Modern Chinese has seven major dialect groups: Gan, Kejia, Mandarin, Min, Wu, Xiang, and Yue. However, there are hundreds of minor dialects spoken by the Chinese population. Mandarin is the largest dialect and is often used for English to Chinese language translation. A different dialect might better suit your project when targeting specific local regions.

Therefore, not only are Chinese and Japanese distinct languages, but some dialects within the language have low mutual intelligibility. This means people speaking different dialects of the same language may struggle to understand each other.

Chinese and Japanese Writing Systems

The Chinese language might seem to be more difficult than Japanese when it comes to speaking. However, Japanese is arguably more difficult to write. In general, written Chinese consists of the Mandarin dialect represented by hanzi. A simplified version of writing characters was introduced in the late 1940s to increase literacy, but it’s still called hanzi.

There are over 50,000 hanzi characters, but in Chinese, most have only one pronunciation. That said, most educated readers will learn fewer than 10,000 characters. This is all you need to know for most English to Chinese language translations. In fact, the average adult only uses about 3,000 hanzi for everyday reading, such as perusing a newspaper.

In contrast, there are three Japanese writing systems: kanji, katakana, and hiragana. Kanji is based on traditional hanzi, and the meaning of kanji characters is often the same as or similar to the Chinese meaning. Yet unlike hanzi, most kanji characters have multiple pronunciations. Kanji’s pronunciation depends on a few factors, such as whether words are used as a verb or as a noun.

The characters used in katakana and hiragana (also called kana) do not have multiple meanings. Instead, each kana represents a particular sound, such as “ka” or “tsu”. Katakana is frequently used for onomatopoeia or foreign words, whereas hiragana is most often used for verb endings or Japanese words that do not have a corresponding kanji. Translating from English to the Japanese language requires an understanding of all three writing scripts.

Professional Translations from Renaissance Translations

With so many dialects, tonal variations, alphabets, and characters, translating the Chinese language and the Japanese language requires a high level of expertise. You should never let a Japanese speaker translate from English to Chinese language or vice versa. Despite their similarities, both are distinct and highly complex Asian languages.

If you need to translate from Japanese language to English, Renaissance Translations can help. With over 5,000 qualified, professional, native translators, we are more than capable of meeting your translation needs. Your partnership with Renaissance Translations comes with professional memberships such as ATC and SDL LSP Partner Programme. Contact us today to discuss your Chinese and Japanese translations!

Businesses are now looking to use their websites for marketing their products and services globally. Website translation is a good starting point, but SEO translations are equally critical. By investing in multilingual SEO services, you enhance your online visibility. SEO translations thus boost site traffic in the global market and, ultimately, sales.

If you’re unsure of the benefits of multilingual SEO or don’t even have a clue about what SEO is, don’t worry. This article highlights the importance of professional SEO translation for a business website and how you can get your site ranking on search engines across the globe.

What is SEO Translation?

SEO stands for search engine optimisation. It refers to the process of making your website liked by online search engines so that your site is listed in the search results. The better your online SEO, the higher up the search results your business website sits. This directly correlates to the number of website visitors and conversions into paying customers.

SEO translation is the process of translating content online, either from a blog or another webpage, into another language. A generalised translation process includes adapting that content to consider the culture and any specific linguistics of the targeted country. Multilingual SEO services go one step further, ensuring your content is searchable in your new market.

For example, imagine you started a blog about your journey to learn about Chinese culture. You are writing in English, but you would like to know how your blog would be received in China. An SEO translation company can help translate your SEO to Mandarin to have your blog pop up in Chinese search engines. This will increase your online visibility in China and help drive web traffic.

Why invest in Multilingual SEO Services?

Before you invest in multilingual SEO services and pay the agency’s translation rates, you might wonder: Why bother at all? Is it really worth it, and does your business or website really have that much to lose without it? The answer is a resounding yes!

There are many benefits to professional SEO translations. One of these advantages is that more people will click on your website. Rather than just translating your website word-for-word, your translator will conduct keyword research and find what phrases your new audience is searching for. They will implement these on your website, improving your visibility, traffic, and sales.

Even if your website has a good SEO presence in the UK already, multilingual SEO services are crucial. Did you know that an estimated 90% of web users choose websites in their native language? Additionally, 56% of users say that the ability to read and understand what is on a website is more important than the cost of the product that they are searching for!

Search engines rank all the web pages on the internet to achieve one primary goal: to give users the more appropriate content that answers their search queries. If your website is not translated, it can quickly drop in the search rankings. For example, Baidu is China’s largest search engine. Through this search engine, websites in English have an 85% chance of never being clicked on and eventually fall in the SEO order.

What Does SEO Translation Entail?

SEO translation involves translating your web pages into another language while considering how this will impact your search ranking. However easy that sounds, translation companies must consider all site aspects as part of their multilingual SEO services. Here are some of these areas that will be addressed when using a professional translation service:

1. Translated Website Domain Name

Your website domain name is an essential factor to consider when paying for multilingual SEO services. In fact, it helps you reach people in other countries when adapted correctly as part of your SEO translation.

One way to accomplish this is to adapt your domain name to something easily understood by internet users who speak another language. This will help the search engine know that you’re trying to connect with another country. Hence, your website will begin appearing under searches in that region.

Not only this, but people in that country will recognise that you have taken the time to invest in some translation and localisation. This will increase your visitor’s trust and appreciation. They’re more likely to click on your site and stay on the page for longer. The search engine sees that you’re giving internet users what they want, boosting you further up the ranks.

2. Country-Specific Website URL

Tailoring your URL is another crucial part of multilingual SEO services. Consider replacing your standard “.com” with something more country-specific. This will place you higher in the search results from that country since it shows the search engine you are explicitly targeting a particular market. More importantly, those who see your website will be more likely to click on the link.

For instance, “.com,” “.org,” and “.gov” are standard URL endings throughout the world. However, there are also country-specific equivalents such as “.co.uk” for the United Kingdom, “.pl” for Poland, and “.ng” for Nigeria. If you change your URL ending to one of these or another country’s equivalent during your SEO translation, the search engine will direct your website to people in that country.

3. Localised Site Content

Upon hiring an SEO translations company, they may suggest creative translation services. Transcreation services may include changing quite a bit of wording on your site. But do not worry – your translator will keep the content as true to its original as possible. However, it might include changing some wording to things that people from another country would better understand.

Essentially, transcreation services keep your content as it is but make minor yet essential changes to account for cultural and linguistic differences. This will help ensure that your customers or visitors can build an even deeper trust for your website. In turn, this reduces bounce rate and helps your website rank high on search engines. It’s thus a crucial part of multilingual SEO services.

4. Keyword Research

Keywords are also critical in SEO translations since search queries are usually how your customers find you. Sometimes a direct translation of keywords is a good strategy, but other times specific keywords can call for a more creative translation solution. Certain keywords can have different meanings in other languages, and no one is searching for the directly-translated phrase.

People from another country can also have an entire idiom for your product or service that they use when searching online. Paying for multilingual SEO services can help avoid this issue and get the customers you need!

Renaissance Translations’ SEO Translation Services

SEO translations are a highly analytical and technical form of translation, combining translation, localisation, transcreation, and SEO tactics. If you need a reliable multilingual SEO service, we have a team of creative translators that can help bring prolific results to your website.

Your partnership with Renaissance Translations comes with professional memberships such as ATC and SDL LSP Partner Programme. Get in touch today with our professional project managers to discuss your project!

The long summer days bring additional hours to spend hosting backyard BBQs and enjoying long naps. However, you should also consider learning languages online in your spare time this summer. Whether learning English or discovering one of the 7,000+ other recognised languages worldwide, there is no shortage of fun languages to learn!

But how do you learn languages effectively? How do you choose which language to learn? And what makes summer the perfect time to pick up a new language? Read on to see the benefits of using the season of sun and fun to learn something new.

Learning Languages Improves Communications

An obvious benefit of learning languages online is the increased opportunity for communication. This is particularly advantageous if you plan to travel to countries where they speak foreign languages. You could choose a dialect based on a location you’re visiting this summer to help you order food and arrange transport abroad. In fact, immersing yourself in the language and culture is one of the recommended ways of how to learn languages more effectively.

Alternatively, you might want to speak a new language that will help you in your chosen profession. Many businesses are global, and some require employees to be bilingual. If you’re a non-native English speaker, learning the English language can dramatically improve your career prospects. It is the lingua franca of the business world and the most widely spoken language worldwide.

Time to Spare During Summer

Our busy modern lifestyle is jam-packed with obligations throughout most of the year, but summer is a time when people tend to take a break. When asking experts how to practice a new language, they always say it requires consistency! This makes summer the perfect season for learning languages online; with more free time, you can schedule regular learning sessions.

Whether you take a class, seek out a private tutor, or guide yourself through lessons online or via mobile apps, it’s essential to set aside regular time each week for learning. English language learning, for example, not only teaches you new vocabulary and the basics of conjugation, grammar, and our Subject-Verb-Object sentence structure. It also reinforces previous English language lessons.

Enhances Holiday Travel

Are you planning to travel to a foreign country during your summer holiday? Learning languages online is a great way to enhance your stay. Not only will locals appreciate your efforts, but they’ll probably be happy to help you out by speaking slowly, offering corrections, and even teaching you new words. As mentioned, immersion is one of the best ways for how to learn languages!

Rather than relying on a language translation app, you can do the translation yourself. It’s an excellent opportunity to listen to locals and perfect your pronunciation to pick up regional flair. Plus, many people overseas want to improve their English language. If you’re a native English speaker, you can help each other pick up a second language.

Practice with Bilingual Friends

If some of your friends speak a language other than English, talking in their language can be a fun way to get to know them better and grow an appreciation for their culture. Learning languages like this also helps the learning process. While speaking with friends isn’t quite the same as living in another country for several months, it’s always helpful to learn from those with more experience.

This method of learning makes things fun, too. Make a weekly date to chat over cocktails and appetisers, or plan a trip with your friend group to a place where your new language of choice is spoken. You can also try learning languages online between sessions with your friend. This is a good method to learn basic vocabulary, pronunciation, and sentence structure.

How to Choose Which Languages to Learn?

We’ve explained a few best practices and the benefits of learning over the summer. But before you try immersion, speaking with a friend, or learning languages online, you need to decide what language you want to practice. The world is full of unique and beautiful languages, each providing opportunities to expand your horizons and better understand diverse cultures.

Do you love the melodic lilt of Scandinavian languages? Maybe you’re fascinated by the guttural sounds of Germanic dialects. Or perhaps the challenging nature of learning Asian languages when you have a background in Romance or Germanic languages is appealing. Learning languages you like the sound of or languages spoken by cultures you’re interested in is one option.

You can also take a more practical and purposeful approach. While learning languages is fulfilling in its own right, it can also open the door to career opportunities that allow you to turn your passion into a paying gig. Learning English is a good business for non-native speakers. Other languages to learn for career progression include Mandarin, French, and Spanish.

Professional Translation Services from Renaissance Translations

Learning languages online opens your mind to new ways of thinking and expressing yourself, as well as understanding different cultures. It can also improve memory, flexible and creative thinking, and problem-solving skills. Learning English is also extremely practical in a career sense, helping to open up new opportunities to non-native speakers.

You’ll gain even more benefits when mastering a new language during your summer holidays. With extra time to spare and opportunities for immersion, practicing a new language effectively suddenly becomes possible! We have many language facts and other information on our website if you need help deciding which language to pick up and make your summer project.

If you decide that learning languages isn’t for you, we also can help with any translations you need. We have more than 5,000 professional translators delivering round-the-clock translation services in hundreds of language combinations. Contact us today to discuss your translation needs.

English was once considered the international language of business. However, a growing global economy has made working with a professional translation service provider more beneficial than ever. Professional translation agencies can take your English content and accurately translate it into any language spoken by your customers, employees, investors, suppliers, service providers, and business partners.

Therefore, top-notch translation services are crucial to international success, helping you effortlessly communicate with people outside and within the organisation. This article will highlight a few benefits you stand to gain when you invest in professional translation.

1. Better Communication with Customers

According to the 2020 “Can’t Read, Won’t Buy” report from CSA Research, 65% of consumers want content in their native language. The report also reveals that 40% of consumers won’t purchase products without information in their mother tongue. Therefore, hiring professional translation agencies is essential for the global success of your product or service.

Successful communication with global customers relies primarily on one thing: understanding. The person you’re communicating with has to understand what you’re trying to tell them. This can be difficult even for two people who speak the same native language, yet It gets much more complicated when a language barrier exists. You’ll need a professional translation from English to another language.

However, it’s not enough to translate word for word; you must consider tone, context, and culture. Different cultures find different things funny or offensive. A joke that makes perfect sense as a play on words in one language won’t likely have the same impact when translated. This principle can apply to all communications, including marketing materials, social media posts, company websites, and other customer-facing documents.

2. More Authentic Communications

When running a global business, getting customers and investors to understand your business’s value and mission is one thing. However, companies also have to create compelling content that people buy into. You have goals to accomplish, and these goals frequently depend on convincing others to take specific actions.

If you can’t reach consumers and investors in meaningful ways, you can’t meet your objectives. Even worse, you might offend others through a lack of cultural understanding. Critical communications must be accurate and authentic, which professional translation agencies can provide. To get the best results possible, it’s essential to find translation services performed by native speakers from across the globe.

Suppose that you’re addressing French Canadians. You wouldn’t necessarily want a professional translation service performed by a French national; the language may be similar, but specific terms, phrases, and cultural attitudes will vary significantly. To communicate globally at a deeper and more personal level, you need a French Canadian to work on your translation from English.

3. Set Expectations with Investors, Employees & Consumers

Collaborating with global investors or international business partners helps improve your expansion prospects dramatically. However, you must communicate your expectations of the relationship. You need to be precise about what you’re asking or offering to promote understanding and ensure satisfaction. This is only possible through a professional translation service.

Moreover, more businesses are now focused on creating a diverse workforce, hiring employees from different countries, cultures, and backgrounds. A language barrier with employees can lead to delays or other failures that set you back. This is true even with employees who speak English as a second language, and a translation of contracts and policies helps to set the expectations of multicultural workforces or teams operating in different countries.

It isn’t only employees and investors you need to set expectations with either; miscommunication with consumers could impact sales and harm your brand’s reputation. In worse cases, it can lead to liability cases and potential litigation. With professional translation agencies, it’s much easier to convey the intended meaning, generate desired results, and avoid these potentially destroying outcomes.

4. Professional Translation Improves Online Communications

An enormous volume of business communication happens online these days. With emails, text messages, and project management apps, workers can reduce the need for in-person meetings and streamline workflows. Of course, this system only works when communication is clear. Professional translation agencies allow for better communication with teams worldwide, ensuring desirable outcomes.

You can also make the most of website content and marketing emails with a professional translation from English to the local language. An accurate website translation service will tailor content to suit the culture and the customers you’re targeting. This helps to build trust and gets more paying customers onboard, especially with online-only businesses such as eCommerce.

5. Avoid Miscommunication & Conserve Brand Reputation

It’s not hard to spot poor translation services: there are always telltale signs of a non-native speaker. Awkward phrases, incorrect conjugations or sentence structures, and cultural snafus within the content are all dead giveaways. These mistakes might be a little embarrassing in everyday life, but for international businesses, these mistakes can destroy your brand reputation.

A professional translation will have a handle on all of these common issues. But to avoid miscommunication, you need translations that not only convey your intended meaning but are also culturally appropriate. This is why it is always advisable to work with translation agencies that promise 100% accurate results and conserve your English brand overseas. They can even provide brand translation to ensure your company name itself doesn’t offend!

Professional Translation Services from Renaissance Translations

Does your company engage in diverse hiring? Are you working with a team in another country? Do you have business partners or providers overseas? Or have you recently started selling products internationally? Professional translation from English to the native language of your customers, employees, and partners is vital for today’s international businesses.

With over 5,000 vetted translators and a commitment to excellence, Renaissance Translations is your reliable language partner. We are one of the leading translation agencies in the UK, able to handle projects of all shapes and sizes. From legal translations to website translations and hundreds of language pairs, our professional translation service is one you can trust.

Contact us today to learn more about our multilingual translation service options and get started with an experienced project manager. Expand your global prospects and improve communications now!