Legal translation

What is Translation?
Translators continually adapt the message from one language to another, while preserving context, tone, style and intent. This service covers a translation of the text, but changes the humor, idioms, cultural references and slang to resonate with the target foreign audience. The operative word here is “adapt,” not recreate. Adapt is to revamp, adjust, alter and modify. Professional human translation services entail always using the original text as the source, not just as a reference.
Often the translated text does not feature many dramatic changes, so that the end result is frequently a word-for-word translation of the original.
Any text can be translated, but in the realm of marketing, material often translated consists of web content, catalogues, product descriptions, marketing collateral, social media content and video scripts.
How Are They Similar?
Both translation and transcreation involve creativity. The translation of marketing copy is particularly creative. Because the latter material aims to persuade the reader to be interested in the product, to purchase the product, and even recommend and develop a loyalty to the product, the material – both source and translated – has to be compelling and of high creative quality.
The two terms also refer to transforming the original communication so that it addresses the target readership. In both services, the translator or transcreator must have ample skills and follow any creative or branding guideline.
The two services are undertaken by bilingual linguists who are specialists in the topic. Bi-cultural people who understand source text concepts and what the parallel is for the target market have solid writing skills on top of their translation skills are fundamentally creative people who are confident making decisions on how to interpret the brand as they work on the piece.
At the same time, transcreators typically have more experience and seniority than translators, because they have a greater responsibility to honoring the spirit of the text. They also tend to have free creative license to recreate the core concept in the target language.
How to Tell Which Service You Should Spring For
All translations are usually direct and straightforward. Transcreation, in turn, is similar to copywriting. Both services fall between word-for-word translation on one end of the spectrum and creative, from-scratch, content creation with no source text as reference, on the other end of the same spectrum. If confused as to which service you should request, your translation provider will guide you.