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Pangeanic

Multilingual Translation:
Breaking Down Barriers
and Opening up
Opportunities With
Languages
Written by Marisol Letelier | 07/08/22

Translating the same content into

different languages, known as multilingual
translation, is a challenging endeavor.
Some of the difficulties that need to be
overcome include the particular
structures of each language, cultural
differences, the need for context or the
presence of idioms or colloquialisms.

To ensure the quality and accuracy of the

translation, it is essential to use the
services of translators specialized in the
source and target languages, as well as
experienced in the topic and type of
translation. Likewise, the computer-
assisted translation (CAT) and machine
translation (MT) are important tools for
multilingual translation, especially in the
case of technical or scientific texts.

What are the main challenges of

multilingual translation?

In this article, we will discuss the main

obstacles and problems of multilingual
translation and their solutions. Being
aware of these is vital in order to achieve
quality translations that do not distort the
message between the source language
and the different target languages.

Language structure

The fact that there are differences,

sometimes very noticeable differences,
between the grammatical and syntactic
structures of different languages is
indisputable. However, this should not be
a problem for an experienced
professional translator, who should be
used to producing natural target texts.

Therefore, the solution to this potential

problem is none other than to use
professional translators with sufficient
linguistic expertise to be able to
understand and correctly process the
different structures of the languages they
work with.

It is necessary for the translator to fully

master the grammar of their source
language, however different it may be
from their native tongue. This proficiency
will enable them to detect differences in
the sentence structure, as well as
interpret them and translate them
correctly into the target language.

For example, in some cases, translators

translating from Japanese will have to
deduce what the subject of the sentence
is, as it is a language in which meaning is
often down to context. This is not the
case in many other languages, such as
English and other European languages,
where the subject is almost always
specified.

You may be interested in:

Languages that defy machine
translation

Context and cultural settings

To ensure the quality of a translation, it is

necessary for the translator to have as
much context-related information as
possible, either through their own
research or the client providing it to them.
For example, the Spanish verb "tratar" is
very polysemic: it can be translated as
"address" (an issue), "treat" (an illness),
"process" (data), and many more, adding
up to dozens of different meanings.

This also happens in video game

localization, where in order to do a good
job, clients must provide information
about which characters each sentence
corresponds to, so that the translator
knows which style or register to use.
Unfortunately, this information is not
always provided.

It is also necessary to be aware of the

text's cultural circumstances in order to
be able to translate it correctly. For
example, even if the text is written in
English, if you do not know whether the
author is American, British or any other
nationality, you cannot be sure how to
interpret the date 02/03/2022, because
depending on the country, the date can
mean either March 2 or February 3. This
confusion may be detrimental to the
preservation of meaning and coherence
in certain translations.

Translation of expressions and

colloquialisms

Idiomatic expressions and colloquialisms

can almost never be translated literally,
as they lose meaning, and in most cases,
not make any sense. It is necessary to
evaluate meaning and not only words in
order to avoid literal translations.

A clear example is the Spanish

expression "de perdidos al río," which
has a similar meaning to "in for a penny,
in for a pound". However, leading
translation engines, such as Google or
DeepL, still translate it into English
literally (from lost to the river).

The translation of such phrases can only

be done by a translator with a good
knowledge of both the source and target
culture and language. This will allow them
to skillfully choose the equivalent idiom or
colloquialism, and thus maintain the
meaning of the original message.

Another interesting read:

Mexicanisms III:quotes and
proverbs

Sector experience

Not only is it important for the translator

to have extensive linguistic knowledge,
but they must also be familiar with the
culture of all the territories in which the
language is spoken. Otherwise, they will
probably be unaware of the meaning of
an expression or idiom and make the
mistake of translating it literally.

Another important issue is linguistic

updating. It is crucial to keep in mind that
languages are dynamic, they evolve and
new colloquialisms emerge every day. For
this reason, the translator must keep up
to date with new trends and usages in
both the source and target languages.
Only then will they be able to find an
equivalent expression or term in the same
register. This is especially important in
translations of more creative texts, such
as literary or audiovisual content.

Machine translation and the

power of AI

Machine translation, especially if

supported by artificial intelligence (AI)
technologies, is particularly useful for
technical and scientific texts, where the
difficulty lies mainly in the terminology. In
these cases,CAT tools can be used to
generate glossaries that are of great help
when it comes to maintaining terminology
consistency, avoiding mistakes and
speeding up the translation process.

On the other hand, machine translation

loses much of its effectiveness in the
more literary, rhetorical and stylistic
content, where there is a great
dependence on context. When dealing
with this type of content, the translator's
knowledge and experience, as well as
their skill and cultural background, are
essential.

ECO by Pangeanic: a mission to

translate all the text in the world

ECO, Pangeanic's language service

platform, provides an accurate and easy-
to-use machine or hybrid translation
service. ECO runs in the cloud and is
accessible to any user with a browser
and internet access. Thanks to its
intuitive interface, the user can process
texts directly or use files in the most
common formats.

Do not hesitate to try our personalized

services, fully adapted to the specific
translation needs of each client, as well
as the human and technological
resources available.

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