Translation is not and never will be a simple process. At a professional level, this activity involves many hours of research and a solid educational background. When working with a professional translator, it is important to make sure that he has the linguistic knowledge to understand the meaning of the source text and render it as accurately as possible into the target language. But the challenges don’t stop at a grammatical level. As we all know, there is a strong connection between language and culture, so every text will undoubtedly be packed with terms with multiple meanings, ambiguities and even terms that don’t have an equivalent into the target language. This applies not only for general translation, but also for the specialized one: economic, legal, literary, technical. Needless to say, there is a lot of responsibility involved, because even the slightest inaccuracy can lead to serious misunderstandings. For example, professionals who translate contracts and legal documents in general have to double check the meaning of each term. If this doesn’t happen, misunderstandings will appear and now few were the cases when companies ended up in court because the contract was poorly translated. All languages have their share of challenges, but it is fair to say that the translation process is particularly difficult when the source language and the target language use different alphabets and/or have dramatic cultural dissimilarities. One of the first languages that come to mind in this case is Japanese translation. Some say that it takes up to ten years for a foreigner to be able to understand a Japanese newspaper. This may or may not be true, depending on one’s learning process, but the statement illustrates the intricate nature of the Japanese language and the cultural gap that translation has to fill. Working with a professional Japanese translator is the key to effective communication. The best translator masters the Japanese spelling and grammar as well as a native speaker and he can understand the three alphabets used in Japan: Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. Therefore, the first challenge in translating Japanese comes from the numerous (and sometimes dramatically different) grammar rules. In addition, the translator should surpass one of the biggest sources of difficulty in Japanese translation: the cultural gap. He should draft an accurate translation, without inaccuracies and vague phrases. Ideally, the perfect Japanese translator is a mediator between two parties, a professional who facilitates communication, but whose interference should not be visible. The last main source of difficulty in Japanese translation refers to specialized terminology. More often than not, people go to translation agencies for business reasons, which means that the documents they bring aren’t written in a general language. On the contrary, they pertain to the legal, economical, finance, technical, medical or IT field. These specialized terminologies can be seen as separate linguistic entities that have their own vocabulary which often conflicts with general language. In order to get results as accurate as possible, clients are strongly advised to work with translators who have double specialization and understand this terminology. For more resources about Japanese translation or about Japanese translator, please review this link http://synergy-focus.com/.
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