A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO INTERNATIONAL TRANSLATION SERVICES

A wise man once said that without translation, we would be living in provinces bordering on silence. Well, he was absolutely right, as we all can attest to the monumental importance of international translation services in the contemporary era, which has become a sort of a global ice-breaker. A part of our daily lexicon – translation is a multifaceted process that entails dynamism, flexibility, and inclusivity. The history of translation is as archaic as time and can be officially traced back to the Mesopotamian Era (2nd Century BCE), wherein the Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh was translated into Asian languages. The word translation is extracted from the two Latin words bifurcate as ‘trans’ meaning 'across’ and ‘ferre’ meaning ‘to carry.’ Thus, the etymology of the word is self-explanatory and apparent. Translation has two rudimentary aspects – source language and target language. The former refers to the linguistic composition of the original document. The latter is the language to which the paper has to be translated. 

Seven Interesting Facts about Translation Everyone Should Know

1. A professional translator can translate 250 words per hour. Therefore, he translated about 520000 words in a year.

2. The most widely spoken native language globally is Mandarin, with 920 million speakers, followed by Spanish, English, and Hindi.

3. The international translation industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. The annual revenue of the translation industry is expected to rise to USD 52 billion by 2021.

4. September 30th is celebrated as World Translation Day to commemorate St. Jerome, who was a Christian translator. He translated the Old Testament into Latin directly from the original Hebrew.

5. The three most widely translated authors worldwide are Agatha Christie, Jules Verna, and William Shakespeare.

6. According to translators, Spanish is the most accessible language to translate because the written words are identical to how they sound.

7. The top target languages of the translation industry are – English, French, and German.