No, translation deals with written documents and interpreting conveys the message orally to an audience.

No, each of these processes refers to a different procedure that ultimately provides you with a different end product. These terms can indeed be confusing for clients and linguists alike. Please read the definitions below, and contact us if any further clarification is needed.

Translation: The process of reading a source text and conveying the message in the target language. This is done when the source text does not contain any ethno-cultural content and no, or only minimal, cultural adaptation will be required.

Localisation: A step further away from translation – the target document is aimed at a specific locale (country, region) and deals with cultural aspects as a whole.

For example, a given sentence can be translated as “The friendly lollipop man, in his funny grey-coloured vest and blue trousers, walked the children onto the pavement, into the building foyer and only stopped by the lift” for a UK audience, but as “The friendly crossing guard, in his funny gray-colored undershirt and blue pants walked the children onto the sidewalk, into the building lobby and only stopped by the elevator” for an American one.

Transcreation: The process is a mixture of translation and creation, and involves analysing the source document and a creative brief. The end product will contain some elements of a translation but a great deal of creativity. The target document will be fully localised and culturally adapted.

Cultural adaptation: The process of translating a document that contains heavy ethno-cultural content and adjusting it to the intended audience, incorporating their cultural heritage, language and ethnicity. For example, a healthcare brochure aimed at a given Asian community living in East London will be different from one aimed at individuals living in a community in Asia.

Copywriting: The process of creating copy as per specifications from the creative brief. This process is based only on creativity and doesn’t involve translation, or indeed any foreign language at all.

Marketing translation: Translation of all sorts of marketing materials. This involves more creative flair. Even though the process can be more creative, it’s still largely based on translation. It may or may not involve localisation, and some cultural adaptation may be required.

Website translation: Although this is always called “website translation”, the reality is that, depending on the requirement, the end result may be a translation (with or without localisation), transcreation or cultural adaptation.

Translation deals with the written word and interpreting with the spoken one.

The process of reading a source text and conveying the message in the target language. This is done when the source text does not contain any ethno-cultural content and no, or only minimal, cultural adaptation will be required.

No – the translation process differs depending on the type of text that is being translated.

While a marketing or informal business document could be written in a very friendly style, playing with words and purposely creating a certain level of ambiguity, this would be unacceptable in a medical or legal document. Since these types of texts need different mental approaches, they are dealt with by translators specialising in that style of writing; so marketing text will be translated by someone who likes and focuses on creativity, whereas a legal translation will be given to someone who prefers working with more formal and rigid texts where ambiguity is not allowed.

To avoid having to go through an excessively long list, we have summarised the main translation categories below:

• Arts/Religious/Literature
• Business/Finance/Accounting/Corporate
• Legal
• Marketing
• Medical/Science
• Technical/Engineering

Note that each category above can have various ramifications, for example, “legal” can refer to the translation of contracts, writs, wills, certificates, patents, and many other types of legal text.

Controlled language is a simplified version of a language used in documents that will be translated by some form of automated translation, that is, machine translation. The controlled language incorporates a set of specific rules that facilitate the translation, improving the overall quality.

This type of language is more suitable when there is a need to translate:

• Help system files
• Software strings
• Technical documentation/reports/specifications

CAT stands for Computer-Assisted Translation. Often people get confused with this term because of the word “computer”. Note that it does not mean the same as “machine translation”, more popularly known as Google Translate, Microsoft Translator, Apple iTranslate and so on.

A CAT tool is a piece of software used for managing and editing translation memories.

A translation memory (TM) is a file that contains the source text, the respective translation, and the document settings; it is always used in conjunction with a CAT tool.

As an example, let’s say you have sent the translator a contract to translate from English into Italian. The translator will work on the translation within the CAT tool. Once the contract is translated, the text is stored in a translation memory.

If at some point in the future you need to have similar contracts translated, the translator will be able to check the new contracts against the translation memory and only edit the differences between the documents rather than translating everything from scratch, thus saving time and money.

It is a tool for creating, managing and storing the term bases, that is, lists of vocabulary that should be incorporated into the translation.

For example, if your company has a list of specific vocabulary (such as legal, medical or technical terms), that needs to be used across all projects to maintain consistency, the translator can create a term base. From then on, whenever the translator is working in a sentence that includes one of those words or phrases, the term base management tool will remind the translator about your preferences.

Depending on the scope of your project, it may be necessary to use some quality assurance software. It works by comparing the translation of one or more files against a set list of terminology to check whether only the most appropriate terms were used.

This is a great tool used to enforce consistency between several files or throughout a large body of text.

A step further away from translation – the target document is aimed at a specific locale (country, region) and deals with cultural aspects as a whole.

For example, a given sentence can be translated as “The friendly lollipop man, in his funny grey-coloured vest and blue trousers, walked the children onto the pavement, into the building foyer and only stopped by the lift” for a UK audience, but as “The friendly crossing guard, in his funny gray-colored undershirt and blue pants walked the children onto the sidewalk, into the building lobby and only stopped by the elevator” for an American one.

Although two or more countries might share the same mother tongue, the language itself can vary, not only in the way it’s spoken but also written. The locals may use different vocabulary, grammar or spelling rules, and you may need to take various cultural considerations into account, depending on the locale – hence the terms localisation.

No, marketing translation deals with the translation of all sorts of promotional materials, whereas localisation is a step further away from translation – the target document is aimed at a specific locale (country, region) and deals with cultural aspects as a whole.

In simultaneous interpreting, the interpreter speaks only a few words behind the speaker. There is no time for taking notes – this is a very fast-paced scenario. Because it’s a very demanding job, interpreters tend to work in pairs (or groups of three for some language combinations) and swap every few minutes.

In consecutive interpreting, the speaker says a full sentence and stops so the interpreter can convey the message. There must be a good synergy between the interpreter and the speaker, so they know when to speak faster or more slowly, when to pause and so on, to ensure that the message is fully conveyed. The interpreter may take notes and read from them when transmitting the message.

You should bear in mind that consecutive interpreting breaks the rhythm of the meeting because the same message is said twice, once in the source language and again in the target language. It is best suited to small business meetings, interviews, press conferences and one-to-one meetings.

During simultaneous interpreting, the interpreter conveys the speaker’s words or thoughts while the speaker is still talking, hence the term simultaneous. There is usually a delay of a few seconds from the moment the speaker starts speaking and the interpreter starts interpreting. It is suitable for conferences of any size or for presentations that convey a lot of information – and specifically in events where the speaker does not want to have to pause and wait for the interpreter to convey the message. If, for example, the speaker doesn’t have notes, they would find it more difficult to stop and then go back to their original line of thought.

As a rule of thumb, you will need two simultaneous interpreters whatever the length of the session. If the session is very short (say up to 40 minutes), one interpreter may agree to do it on their own.

Consecutive interpreters normally work on their own, but it may be necessary more than one interpreter in longer sessions.

The answer depends on the type of event you are planning – for example, how many people are going to attend, how many will need interpreting, whether the audience is going to be moving around, etc. The best thing is to contact us with as much information as possible about the event and we will be able to help you.

The process of creating copy as per specifications from the creative brief. This process is based only on creativity and doesn’t involve translation, or indeed any foreign language at all.

The process is a mixture of translation and creation, and involves analysing the source document and a creative brief. The end product will contain some elements of a translation but a great deal of creativity. The target document will be fully localised and culturally adapted.

The process of translating a document that contains heavy ethno-cultural content and adjusting it to the intended audience, incorporating their cultural heritage, language and ethnicity.

For example, a healthcare brochure aimed at a given Asian community living in East London will be different from one aimed at individuals living in a community in Asia.