Translation Blog

Medical translations are one of the most essential language services offered by translation agencies. Our health is precious to us, and medical document translation helps healthcare professionals and non-English-speaking patients communicate. It follows that translation errors can have life-threatening consequences, highlighting the importance of accurate medical translations in the accessibility and effectiveness of healthcare worldwide.

This article looks at the importance of medical translations in more detail and uncovers the risks of inaccurately translated content. We also take a look at some real-world examples and why with the growing demand for translations, translation errors are becoming more common than ever.

The Importance of Medical Translations

Imagine you are injured or sick and cannot communicate with the doctor. Consider what you would do if you woke up from surgery to discover that you had undergone the wrong procedure. While these scenarios might seem far-fetched, they are possible for many due to translation errors or inadequate medical document translation. In fact, millions of people worldwide face such scenarios.

Let’s take the US as an example. The US Census Bureau states that about 25 million Americans don’t speak English fluently. In 2003, half of the Californian doctors surveyed said they were aware of language barriers affecting the quality of care provided. Without a multilingual doctor or effective medical translations, these 25 million people may not receive the healthcare they deserve.

This makes more sense when understanding how doctors make medical diagnoses. Approximately 70% of the information doctors base their diagnosis on extracts from the patient’s physical exam and history. These two information sources require effective interpersonal communication. Thus, providing healthcare solutions requires proper communication in the medical field.

The bottom line reveals a sad truth: patients who communicate effectively with their healthcare providers tend to receive more effective treatments, while those that struggle due to language barriers are less likely to see success often. Medical translations are crucial and can help improve these communications, but only when performed accurately.

The Risks of Errors and Repercussions

When providing healthcare to patients that don’t speak English, the most effective solution is to have language service provider to handle the medical translations. However, this isn’t always available. The demand for medical document translation significantly outweighs the supply. In lieu of professional services, ad-hoc solutions like bilingual staff or family members are typically enlisted.

While this might seem to be the answer, it is another reason why those in need of medical treatment cannot get the care they need. Since these individuals are not professional translators, they cannot give accurate translations. Their language adaptations are often full of translation errors, and even fluent speakers will struggle with translating technical medical terminology.

In a healthcare setting, these mistakes have severe repercussions. In worst cases, using the wrong cultural context or word could lead to someone dying. Relying on children or family members of the patient to translate medical documents also raises various privacy and ethical concerns. The simple fact is that there is a dire need for accurate and reliable medical translations worldwide.

Examples of Medical Document Translation Mistakes

One of the most famous examples of translation errors is the tragic case of Willie Ramirez, a young baseball player taken to hospital in South Florida. On arrival at the hospital, his family stated he was “intoxicado”. “Intoxicado” is the Spanish term used for the adverse effects of anything ingested. Doctors used a strict translation and mistook Ramirez as intoxicated due to alcohol misuse.

Ramirez was actually dealing with a brain bleed that went undiagnosed for days, causing Ramirez to develop quadriplegia. This is a form of paralysis that affects the entire body. The hospital failed to have a translation agency that offers medical translation services on standby. As such, they were liable for around $71 million in a settlement.

Another high-profile failure of medical document translation happened in a French hospital. An incorrect software translation caused them to administer radiation overdoses to patients for a year. The hospital also had cases where patients wrongly underwent double mastectomies or had kidneys removed due to inaccurate medical translations.

Concerns with Healthcare Translation Demand

Every hospital needs a translation agency that provides accurate medical translations. Proper communication can sometimes be the difference between life and death, and translation errors are arguably more important to avoid in the healthcare industry than anywhere else.

Unfortunately, the demand for medical document translation is bound to rise, creating other scenarios like those mentioned above. Using non-professional translators is a viable option, but this carries several major issues. Non-professional translators are usually unaware of patient confidential agreements, uninformed of insurance and legal matters, and struggle with complex medical language.

Another solution is to supplement the lack of in-person translation by having a phone interpreter. This phone line helps make up for a shortage of bilingual staff. However, the most effective solution is to have trained professionals on hand. By having trained linguists perform medical translations, the risk associated with poor language translation is negated.

The Future of Medical Translation Services

Medical document translation has to be done as accurately as possible to avoid translation errors. Something as simple as a word being out of place or a sentence omitted could result in a severe loss of life. Furthermore, evidence has shown that increased efforts in providing medical translation services can result in lower readmissions. Increased access to this language service can also raise overall patient satisfaction. This, in turn, lowers the chance of catastrophic errors happening.

Therefore, hospitals and healthcare providers must find a way to balance the demand for medical translations with available professionals from translation agencies. With the ever-growing diversity of countries across the world, the future of global healthcare may deteriorate if communication issues and language barriers are not addressed.

Renaissance Translations’ Medical Translation Services

At Renaissance Translations, we believe that translation errors can cause fatal disasters. For this reason, our language professionals are trained to translate medical documents with extra attention to detail. We have qualified translators in more than 120 languages with backgrounds in healthcare, able to easily translate the most complex medical terminology and diagnoses.

Our company is an associate member of the Association of Translation Companies in England as well as SDL LSP Partner Programme. If you think we could be the medical translations provider you’ve been looking for, contact us to discuss your project today. Don’t guess a medical document translation and put a patient’s care at risk—use our service instead. 

The Urdu language is a member of the Indo-Aryan group of languages, a subgroup within the Indo-European language family. The majority of the speakers of the Urdu language live in Pakistan, where Urdu is the official Pakistan language. However, a version of the language known as Indian Urdu is spoken in India, where it is one of 22 official languages.

Although both Pakistani Urdu and Indian Urdu are forms of the same language, there are significant differences to be aware of. This article uncovers these differences and highlights why defining your target audience is essential when translating to Urdu.

History of the Urdu Language

The Urdu language came to life in the twelfth century CE. It originates from the regional Apabhramsa of north-western India, where it served as a linguistic modus vivendi. The role of Urdu was further cemented due to the Muslim conquest. The very first poet of the language was Amir Khosrow, who created riddles, folk songs and dohas or couplets in the newly formed speech.

The Indian Urdu spoken then was known as Hindvi or Old Hindi. The language gradually evolved to include many Persian loan words. The newly formed speech was known by various other names, including Zaban-e-Hind, Zaban-e-Urdu, Dakkhani, Hindi, Zaban-e-Urdu-e-Mualla, Rekhta, Gujari, or Zaban-e-Delhi. It was also referred to simply as Urdu, which means “the language of the camp”.

Eventually, there became a sectarian divide between “Urdu” written in the Perso-Arabic script for Muslims (mainly used in Pakistan) and “Hindi” written in the Devanagari script for Hindus (predominantly used in India, known as Indian Urdu). However, it wasn’t until 1973 that Urdu became the national Pakistan language.

Pakistani Urdu spoken in the country day-to-day is closely related to Indian Urdu, and both can be referred to as “Urdu”. The Urdu language is today the native language for 70 million people, while over 100 million have it as their second language. Outside of India and Pakistan, there are significant enclaves of Urdu speakers in the United Kingdom, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates.

Pakistani Urdu & Indian Urdu Use Different Scripts

Although Indian Urdu and Pakistani Urdu are akin, the languages are written using varying writing systems. Indian Urdu utilises the Devanagari script, a Sanskrit-based system. On the other hand, Pakistani Urdu utilises Nasta’liq, an adapted version of the Arabic script. Where the Pakistan language script is written from right to left like Arabic, Indian Urdu is written from left to right.

The Devanagari script is perceived as better equipped for writing Urdu as Hindustani languages can be traced back to Sanskrit (the language from which the Devanagari writing system developed). The script has a letter for every Hindi sound and most sounds in Urdu. Nevertheless, there are some exceptions, with the Devanagari script adapting to add new letters like z and j with a dot underneath. The z is utilised when foreign loan words are used.

On the other hand, the Nasta’liq script isn’t the best choice for writing any Hindustani language. A significant reason for this is the vowels. Arabic, the source of the Nasta’liq script, has three vowels in short and long variants, while Pakistani Urdu has thirteen! Therefore, vowels are typically omitted when writing Pakistani Urdu.

Pakistani Urdu is More Difficult to Learn

Because the Nasta’liq script omits vowels, Pakistani Urdu is almost written in a type of shorthand. Unless you know what vowel is used in the word, pronunciation is complicated for people that don’t know the language. The Pakistan language is also more challenging to read and write due to complex Perso-Arabic script and right-to-left reading pattern.

Conversely, the Devanagari script is phonetic, meaning everything written in Indian Urdu is pronounced as imagined. As soon as you memorise the character pronunciation and know the writing system, you can pronounce just about everything in Indian Urdu. When Urdu translation services are offered with this script, it is much easier to ensure that accuracy is followed as there isn’t a steep learning curve associated with this script.

Vocabulary Differences in Urdu Languages

You are unlikely to notice a difference between Indian Urdu and Pakistani Urdu in everyday speech. For the most basic of conversations, daily discussions in Hindi and Urdu are completely the same. It is only when you begin delving deeper that you see vocabulary differences, particularly when it comes to more formal, political, or scientific terms.

A reason for this can be traced to the Hindustani language history. Persian and Arabic influences were brought into the Hindustani language via the Mughal Empire and Delhi Sultanate. This means that foreign loan words came from invaders, and they required vocabulary that was strictly formal and political. The Pakistan language is more Persianised with a greater influence from Persian and Arabic countries.

Are Pakistani and Indian Urdu the Same when translating?

Quite a number of people believe that both Indian Urdu and Pakistani Urdu are the same. The main difference is that both languages use different writing scripts or alphabets. However, linguists do not see alphabets or scripts as part of a language but rather as a way to express language on paper. Therefore, many argue that the Indian and Pakistan language are akin.

Yet while both languages have an everyday vocabulary in common, there are still some stark differences between them. As highlighted above, there are major differences in the formal registers. Pakistani Urdu, as its name states, has been developed in Pakistan. While everyday speakers can understand Hindi, there are more than a few differences to make both languages stand out.

Renaissance Translations’ Urdu Translation Services

If you have a document to translate into either Indian Urdu or Pakistani Urdu, get in touch with our project managers today. They will help you choose between the Indian and Pakistan language variant for your document. We have a team of over 10,000 qualified native speakers that understand the complexities of the language. They can understand both writing systems and nuances in vocabulary to ensure a high-quality translation. Let us be your trusted language partner and provide your business with our professional translation services.

Many industries have rapidly changed since COVID-19, and UK translation companies are one of them. The global COVID-19 pandemic required a concerted global response, requiring efficient, fast, and most importantly, accurate communication. UK translation companies played a huge part in helping this happen, providing billions with access to public health information in a language they understand.

This article uncovers how healthcare translation services by UK translation companies helped in the fight against COVID-19. We’ll also discuss how they continue to bring benefits to today’s multicultural world.

How Translation Services have Helped in the Past

The Spanish Flu pandemic hit the world in 1918 and infected around 500 million people, accounting for a third of the world’s population at the time. Of these 500 million, approximately 50 million perished. This public health catastrophe made it clear that the rapid distribution of information between relevant parties was pivotal to fighting disease. It taught us hard lessons and caused the world to collaborate.

Following the outbreak, information and data sharing were seen as essential tools in the worldwide efforts against illnesses in the future. UK translation companies thus created unprecedented scientific translation techniques to deal with future pandemics. Research units, hospitals, universities, and medical institutions could benefit from this rapid communication and save lives.

UK Translation Companies & the Emergence of COVID-19

A century later, a new global pandemic emerged: COVID-19. The first cases of COVID-19 began in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on the 20th of January 2020.

From that moment, both WHO and China started sharing information concerning the virus with the world. Researchers needed to communicate their findings, governments needed to communicate their restrictions, and COVID-19 patients needed to communicate their symptoms to doctors.

As the virus spread to other nations, these countries also began sharing information and advice. Indeed, the first tool against the virus was data and information sharing, meaning UK translation companies were placed on the frontline. People from different nations needed to understand safety protocols, lockdown measures, furlough schemes, unemployment benefits, and housing rights.

Passing on all this information was by no means an easy feat for UK translation companies, especially true when you consider that over 700,000 people in the United Kingdom don’t speak English fluently. There are over 300 languages spoken in London alone! All these UK citizens need to be informed of government changes, highlighting the importance of the language services sector.

Why not Use Machine Translations in COVID?

With a sudden surge in demand for medical translations, you might wonder why machines cannot be utilised instead of relying on UK translation companies. Some proponents of machine translation would claim that it has made leaps and bounds. However, accuracy and context are paramount when it comes to COVID-19 and medical translation.

While it might be easy to translate simple text using Google Translate, machine translation lacks the nuance of human language services. An example is a Japanese translation of “wash your hands” using Google Translate. While technically grammatically correct, the text was presented in a way in which a parent might talk to a child. When used on a poster, this comes across as condescending or patronising, reducing compliance.

Another issue with machine translation is that it is unavailable for certain language translations. The most popular translator Google Translate supports just over 100 languages out of over 7000 languages worldwide. And while less than 2000 people speak 40% of the languages, machine translation cannot reach everyone, UK translation companies can!

For this reason, professional translation service providers are much better equipped for widespread language translation under high-pressure situations. COVID-19 information was vital and needed to get to everyone to help reduce the pandemic risk. To this end, the translation industry had to make the information available in various languages.

What more can UK Translation Companies Do beyond COVID-19?

The changes COVID-19 brought to the world didn’t stop at just health and medicine. As a result of lockdowns, more people are spending time working from home. The way we work has changed seemingly forever! We have had to switch from casual meetings and face-to-face events to online video calls and Slack messaging.

Video is now the most crucial content form on the internet and has become a communication tool for organisations and businesses. Therefore, providing video-based language services to companies—such as transcription services and voiceover services, is crucial for business communications. UK translation companies are the primary facilitators of this change, helping to shape our new online future.

Let Renaissance be Your Trusted UK Translation Company

Renaissance Translations were one of the UK translation companies helping the world fight through the COVID-19 pandemic. Our network has expanded considerably since the global crisis, and we have a large network of linguists specialising in multiple subjects. This includes medical and healthcare translations alongside engineering, legal, financial, and other sectors.

Our expert linguists and project managers are ready to help with all your language translation projects. We are an associate member of the Association of Translation Companies in England as well as SDL LSP Partner Programme. Contact our UK translation company today. 

Social media marketing is a brilliant way to showcase your business to the world. Many companies have a renewed focus on social media translation, ensuring their content is effective with global audiences. However, it can be hard for companies to adapt captions effectively due to the unique challenges of social media. For maximum impact,  a social media translation should always be carried out by a professional transcreation agency.

This article briefly highlights some of the main challenges when translating social media content and tips for overcoming these obstacles. This helps ensure that your translated content can make your business boom!

1. Translate Social Media Jargon First

All social media platforms use jargon that has been developed for that specific site. For instance, words such as “Like,” “Tweet,” and “Follow” have originated and are primarily used in the English language. To produce engaging content, your social media translation services must consider how these site-specific words are used in different languages.

Before translating your captions, it’s a good idea to take on the individual challenge of social media jargon first. Take all terms used on your preferred social media platform and decide whether to find an appropriate translation or keep them the same in all languages. A professional transcreation agency can help if you’re unsure how to do this.

For example, a “Tweet” on Twitter might mean the same in English and Spanish. However, a “Like” on Facebook might need to be translated to “me gusta” in Spanish. Likewise, “Follow” may need to be translated to “seguir” for Spanish speakers to understand your meaning. Your social media translation will be much easier if you first handle all these specific terms.

2. Take Care with Internet Slang

Internet slang that most English speakers are familiar with includes LOL (laughing out loud), IKR (I know, right), and IDK (I don’t know). However, some of this slang may be hard to translate.

Policies on internet slang differ depending on your transcreation agency. Some translators will suggest a direct translation of all slang words and abbreviations to ensure your message is retained. Others may ask you to adapt your source text to remove confusing abbreviations before beginning your social media translation.

Either way, your translator should keep the translation flowing while using context to get your point across. The context will give the person reading in their native language enough clues, and they may even be able to understand internet slang in the original post.

3. Choose Your Words Wisely

We are all familiar with the character limit that Twitter enforces. This character limit goes across the board for all languages (excluding Chinese, Korean, and Japanese), but translated content is rarely the same length as the source text. Your social media translation will likely be longer!

If your preferred social media platform restricts characters, your translation must stay under the character count restrictions. A transcreation agency can help you adapt your text so it has the same meaning without exceeding the character limit. If this is impossible without cutting out crucial parts of the post, the original post can be translated into two or more posts in the new language.

4. Don’t Use Machine Translations

It may be tempting to run a social media post through machine translation, such as Google Translate. Some social media platforms even offer automatic social media translation directly via the app. However, machines offer word-for-word translations. When using this direct form of translation, it is near-impossible to translate personality and maintain your brand voice.

Your posts will be much more successful if you hire a professional transcreation agency to translate your captions. This will allow you to remove the “machine” feel of the translation, producing more authentic and engaging content. It will also ensure that the post still sounds like the original and retains your brand personality.

5. Remember to Translate Emojis

Different gestures mean different things in other languages. Let’s take the simple “thumbs up” emoji as an example. In the UK, a thumbs-up means “great job” or “okay”. However, a thumbs-up gesture takes a vulgar meaning in Greece and countries throughout the Middle East. It is seen in the same way English speakers view the middle finger!

You want to avoid accidentally offending anyone reading the social media translation. Therefore, you must remember that emojis also need to be translated! Basic marketing translation research is all you need to succeed in this area, or a qualified transcreation agency can handle this for you.

6. Know Your Target Audience

Always research your target audience before starting a social media translation. You must be familiar with local customs and how certain words or gestures are used within your target audience. Get a clear picture of who they are in your head and build your content strategy accordingly.

When defining your target audience, consider age as well as nationality. You will not want to translate a post so that teens and young adults will understand perfectly, but your target audience is elderly adults. For example, reducing slang and removing emojis is a much better strategy for older populations. A transcreation agency can help you picture and tailor content to your new audience.

7. Get Creative with Translations

We all know that social media is becoming a huge digital marketing platform. Marketing translation service is the translation from one language to another and from one target audience to another. They make your content understandable and enjoyable for a new target audience.

If using social media as part of your marketing strategy, hiring a transcreation agency is non-negotiable. They can offer creative solutions to ensure your social media translation evokes the right emotions and engages your unique audience. This requires a deep understanding of the culture and can take your content up a level.

Renaissance Translation’s Social Media Translation

Social media translation may initially sound like an easy thing to do. However, a lot of work and thought goes into the final translation. It is essential to translate not only words but also emojis, internet slang, and site-specific words. You must also retain the original post’s character while keeping within the character limit and connecting with your new audience.

If you want to improve your presence in foreign markets, Renaissance Translations can help. We offer professional translation services in any language and have access to over 10,000 professional translators worldwide. Our expert translators have all the required skills to provide social media translations of the same quality as the original. Contact us today to discuss your project or request a quote online.