What do you know about news translation?

by Target Language Translation Services

- January 17 2022

News translation is a special field of expertise, which includes translation for public print and electronic media. It has key role for societies everywhere. People want and need to know what is happening around the world. The press and media allow them to stay in touch with what is really going on.

Fast and accurate news source translation is vital to many news reporters, who depend upon foreign language sources for regular information. It is imperative that translation from one news source to another is completely precise and effective for any report, whether for investigative reporting, or for medical research translation.

Problems of News Translation

There are certainly plenty of problems while translating news reports. Readers don’t want to battle through a story which was roughly translated word-by-word by an online translation tool. It should sound flawless, as though it was written by the author. Professional translators “ensure that information is being distributed – and received – accurately”.

Journalism translators have to rewrite the initial copy so that any literary device will be matched by its twin in the target language.

Special attention goes into translating texts embedded in quotes. If not translated precisely, the translation can be incorrect, sometimes even offensive, leading to confusion and misunderstanding.

Let’s see how translators deal with the problems.

Technical Words

There are words that have no ready equivalents in other languages like computer, laptop, mobile phone or software. So, while translating a news report from English to Tamil or English to Hindi, etc, translators transliterate these words —they keep the words but type them in their own language.

Foreign Words

Translators also have to grapple with foreign words. One good example is glasnost. It was first used in the 1980s when the then USSR began to crumble. Few Indians were familiar with the meaning of this Russian word. Initially, copy editors explained the word so that their readers understood its import. Gradually, with repeated use, the word became a part of Indian lexicon. Today, it is used without explanation.

Usage

Every language has scores of words that have multiple meanings. English is no exception. A simple word like lie means to “utter falsehood” in one usage and to “rest in a horizontal position” in another usage. Another thorn is idioms. Translators have to have a good knowledge of English language to spot the differences. Otherwise, in news translation, they will end up mangling the meaning.

Writing Style

Translators have to meet two requirements. One, they adhere to the writing style of the newspaper. Two, they capture the spirit of the writer while doing the translation. Their goal is to convey the meaning without losing the elegance of the original text. In news translation translators are not constrained by rules. They have the freedom to choose words as long as the meaning and the context remains the same.

Direct Speech

One of the most difficult tasks is to translate direct speech. For example, what may sound striking in Hindi or Gujarati may become lusterless in English. A good example is an oft-quoted statement of Bihar politician Laloo Prasad Yadav. The Bihar strongman drew national attention in the 1980s when he commented “Hum Bihar ki sadak ko Hema Malini ke gaal ki tarha chikna kar denge …” There’s no way to translate this in English. The best is to transliterate with an English translation in brackets.

Organization Names

Another confusion is caused by names of organizations or their popular acronyms. To translate UNESCO or UNICEF in Hindi or Kannada, the best way is to go for phonetic transcription — translators use the acronym in their own language. However, some organizations now have a Hindi equivalent, which is popularly accepted. Therefore, the right thing to do is to use its Hindi equivalent — Sanyukt Rashtra. The thumb rule should be to retain the organization names in the source language, unless they have names that are officially recognized in the translated language.

Interview Woes

It is not only the copy desk that struggles with translation issues; the reporters too have to battle translation blues. For example, for reporters in India there may be times when they may interview a person in English but write the news report in Hindi or they may interview a person in Malayalam and write the report in English.

Types of News Document Translation Services

News and journalism translation covers a wide area of possibilities and potential translation services. Target Language Translation is a qualified translation service provider that works with the best mother-tongue professional translators. Here is just a short list of some of the types of news document translation services we can provide our clients:

--Periodical translation, journal translation, newspaper translation, news article translation, or any other print media translation service.

--Audio translation or transcription – for example, Polish to English transcription of audio recording, or audio to audio translation; upon request, we can usually send back an audio recorded translation.

--Niche publishing translation: for example, translation of a gardening magazine, art publication, health care publication, political news or medical journal translation.

--News source translation for reporting purposes, or news document translation in nearly any language.

--English to Spanish news document translation; Spanish to English translation of news documents and sources for Spanish newspapers, Spanish website translation, or translation for any other type of Spanish news reporting.

--News website translation for local broadcasting stations; website translation for newspapers, news blogs, or any other online news reporting. Often website translation involves localization, keyword and SEO translation service, information technology translation, and much more. We can provide any kind of technical translation service, whether for news and journalism, software and website service, or any other purpose.

This article is reprinted from easymedia and Tomedes.

If there is a copyright, please inform us in time, we will delete it right the first time.