By Alexandra de Vries
Yes, it is that time of the year again: time to celebrate all translators!
September 30 is International Translation Day, the official day to recognize all those who work with translation. We all know how essential our work is to countless people, whether you translate marketing content, clinical trials, manuals for equipment, children’s books, training materials, subtitles, food labels and so much more. Take a look around your office, kitchen or living room. Open your phone or laptop, browse your bookshelf. It would be very hard to imagine a world without translators (and proofreaders and reviewers, of course).
- Did you also know that FIT, the International Federation of Translators, gives each International Translation Day has a specific theme? This year’s theme: A World without Barriers: The Role of Language Professionals in Building Culture, Understanding and lasting Peace.
Translation is also a very lucrative and growing industry. The global language services market was valued at approximately USD 49.6 billion in 2019. It has since increased to USD 56.18 billion in 2021, showing a growth of more than USD 5 billion in just two years (Statista). And unlike some industries, the translation sector actually grew by 40% during COVID-19 (Market Research Future).
Translation is not only good business, but also good for business. A large-scale behavioral study in 2014 showed that 75% of consumers are more likely to buy products from websites in their native language. Around 40% of internet users said they will never buy from websites that are not in their native language. 65% of non-native English speakers prefer content in their native tongue, even though they are highly proficient in English (CSA Research).
Simply translating a website into another language is not enough. To make sure the content resonates with your target audience and is culturally appropriate, it needs to be localized for the target market. This may even include lyrics, accents, text, colors, cultural references and style.
A huge player in the localization market is the gaming industry. Currently worth approximately USD 200 billion and estimated to hit USD 340 billion by 2027, most top companies translate and localize their content to cater to around 3 billion consumers worldwide. According to BLEND’s report, Nintendo, Xbox, and PlayStation all offer versions of their websites in 40 or more different languages, to attract particularly large international customer bases. The three companies receive more than 60% of their traffic from countries outside of where they are based.
The app industry is another sector that is undergoing a lot of growth in translation and localization. As mobile phone use increases around the world, the demand for apps in local languages that tailor to local users is continuously growing. For example, WhatsApp is available in more than 60 languages and Skype offers support to 41 languages. This means that every time a feature is updated or a new function is added, this information has to be updated in all of these languages.
For some final food for thought, I will leave you with some fun facts:
Did you know that…
- While the US boasts having no official language, South Africa is known to have the most official languages totaling to 11.
- The Cambodian language has the longest alphabet with more than 73 characters. It’s also one of the toughest languages to learn by yourself.
- Bilingualism is the norm! More than half of the world’s population speaks more than one language.
- The top 5 countries in the world with the best English speakers are the Netherlands with the highest English Proficiency Index of 652, followed by Denmark (632), Finland (631), Sweden (625), and Norway (624). (Statista).
And if there weren’t already enough real languages, there are over 200 artificial languages that have been invented for books, television, and movies. The most famous one is the science fiction language Klingon. It has a complete grammar and vocabulary. Fans have even translated Shakespeare and the Bible into Klingon. Want to learn the language? Check out the Klingon Language Institute and sign up for a course. You can even select Klingon as your language of choice in Google (https://speakt.com/language-facts/).
The DLD wishes everyone a Happy International Translation Day!
