Top 8 things you should know about document translation

The 21st century marks the dawn of globalization, inclusivity and multiculturalism. There has been an incessant drive to shift from a top-down power structure to horizontally equitable power distribution. One area that has been a site of struggle to forge further diversity is language. Dedicated attempts are made to transition from an English-centric world to one where all native languages get their due importance. Although a universal language has particular merits, an obsession towards universalization can further marginalize the local languages barely breathing. Eighty-seven percent of Americans believe that overseas expansion is necessary for growth, and translation services must accompany any successful overseas development. It is noteworthy to highlight that English is the most widely spoken language, with 1.35 billion speakers out of whom only 360 million native speakers. But a large chunk of the non-native English speakers do not know enough to extract meaningful information from English language content. Thus, document translation becomes imperative for the successful cross-country expansion of any professional venture.

Top 8 unique things about translation

We can extract the significance of translation from the fact that there exist more than 7000 languages in the world with innumerable dialects.

1. The top target languages of the document translation industry are – English, French, German, Italian and Russian.

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

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

4. The 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.

5. 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.

6. The three most widely translated authors of the world are Agatha Christie, Jules Verna, and William Shakespeare.

7. A subset of translation services – legal translation – is one of the most regulated translation types globally, with certification mandatory in several countries.

8. According to translators, Spanish is the easiest language to translate because the written words are identical to how they sound.