Japanese Translation Services In SG: Why A Translator Is Needed

When it comes to Japanese translation to English, it’s quite a challenging task. After all, translating is often laborious and challenging in its own right. Translators themselves have to reproduce a text comparable to the original yet pleasant to read and culturally relevant to the translation’s target audience. 

Translating is not just replacing words, but it is also an art. The translator must have a good grasp of both the source and target language and a knowledge of society and culture.

While machine translation does exist and seems like the ideal solution to take some work off the Japanese translators in Singapore, the solution may not apply when translating Japanese to English, even if machines are technologically advanced. Here are some reasons why a professional Japanese translator in Singapore is preferred. 

1. Completely different alphabet

Aside from Japanese and English originating from entirely different places, the alphabet used also differs. While English has only 26 letters in the alphabet, Japanese has three various sets of characters: Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana. Hence, it’s difficult to get a direct translation.

Hiragana and Katakana are the Japanese phonetic alphabets, with 46 symbols to represent every pronunciation. Each set of letters are also used for different purposes.

For example, Katakana are words used when derived from other languages. Hiragana is used when Kanji characters cannot be used. To form words, the Japanese combine Kanji and Hiragana.

Kanji is the most complicated, as some machine translations may mistake it for Chinese because Kanji uses Chinese characters.

These differences mean there is no English counterpart to how a Japanese writer expresses their sentences. Hence, it will be better to use a Japanese translation services in Singapore because the translator will need a good grasp of both languages, spoken and written, to ensure the meaning is retained after translation.

2. Grammatical contradictions

English and Japanese do not follow the same grammatical structures. Some differences would include:

No plural nouns: Japanese do not have any difference in plural and singular nouns. Even when adjectives and pronouns are applied, the way of counting can change.

Example:

English: I/you/he/she/they received a chocolate/chocolates from Amy.

But if you translate Japanese to English with a machine, you may receive this: 

Japanese: Amy from chocolate received.

If a machine is used, you will not get the message of how many chocolates were received and how many people. We may not even know who received the chocolate and only know Amy was somehow involved.

The clarification will have to come from the original context.

Because there is no difference in singular or plural nouns, the sentences “There is a cat” and “There are a few cats” will be the same in Japanese.

SOV instead of SVO: English puts subject, verb, then object. In contrast, Japanese sentences end the sentence with a verb.

Hence, when translating a sentence, the translator must understand the entire sentence and change the order for the target audience to understand.

Example:

English: The wind is so strong.

Japanese: The wind so strong is.

No subjects: In Japanese, they leave out the subject. Sometimes, they can leave out the object too.

Example:

English: I like you.

Japanese: (I) You like. Or simply: (I you) Like.

3. Usage of honorifics

While English does have a more formal way of speaking, we usually look out for what is said rather than how we will make another person feel when speaking. In Japanese, they emphasize a lot on formality, and their language shows different respect levels.

To the Japanese, it’s crucial to use language to establish the social level difference. More importantly, they emphasize not accidentally offending or causing disrespect through language.

Hence, you may see that the language is somewhat indirect. In Japanese, you wouldn’t say, “I dislike this”. Instead, you may say, “This is not my cup of tea”. The former is perceived as blunt or even rude.

Conclusion

While we have machine translations, the immense complications of the Japanese language mean that we need Japanese translation services more than ever. If you are picking a Japanese translator in Singapore, it is crucial to ensure they have a firm grasp of both languages and the culture.

After all, a good translation is rarely about matching words exactly, but more about staying true to the tone and spirit of the original content.

As a translation agency in Singapore, Eureka translations only hire native speakers for the target language. Should you need something translated from Japanese, contact us, or visit us at Raffles Place today.

Korean Translation Services In SG: What Makes Korean Unique

Korean, like any other language, is unfamiliar. After all, for English speakers, there are almost no words common with English, apart from a few lone words, such as “computer” or “television”.

When it comes to translating Korean words, a significant obstacle is that most of them sound similar. Since there are no characters, it’s harder to mentally build systematic building blocks. Moreover, Korean is ranked as one of the more difficult languages to learn due to its unique designs.

Here are some ways Korean differs from other languages and why a Korean translator in Singapore is needed:

1. The shape of the letters mimic your tongue

Korean’s primary letter system, Hangul, derives its consonant shapes from scientific principles and the forms of vocal organs. The basic shape letters, such as ㄱ, ㄴ, ㅁ, ㅅ, and ㅇ, replicate the mouth, teeth, tongue and throat positions at the moment of pronunciation.

Some examples include:

·      “ㄱ” is /k/, which resembles the tongue’s rear raised to block the throat

·      “ㄴ” is /n/, where it looks like the tongue shape touching the upper gums behind the teeth

·      “ㅁ” is /m/, which is similar to the shape of the mouth when the lips are pursed

·      “ㅅ” is /s/ which represents the teeth shape

·      “ㅇ” is the shape of the opening at the back of the throat.

2. There are two kinds of number systems

Korean has two number systems, unlike many languages with a standard counting system. These two number systems are the Native Korean number system, and the Sino-Korean number system. Both of them are used in different circumstances.

For overall counting, such as from 1 to 99, you use the Native Korean number system. It’s also used for counting things such as ages, people, items, and hours.

If you want to number things such as dates, money, minutes, addresses, phone numbers, and numbers more than 100, you use the Sino-Korean numbers.

Here’s an example. Suppose you need to purchase two oranges. Since two is less than 99, the Native Korean number system is used.

The world “oranges” in Korean is 오렌지[olenji], so two oranges would be 오렌지 두개 [olenji du gae].

What if you want to buy a whole crate of oranges, such as 120 of them? Because 120 is more than 99, you will switch to the Sino-Korean number system. Hence, “120 oranges” in Korean would be 오렌지 백이십 개 [olenji baegisip gae].

An interesting thing to note is that the Sino-Korean vocabulary is derived from Chinese, where they create new Korean words created from Chinese characters. Hence, the pronunciation could be mistaken for Chinese, which is why an expert Korean translator’s service is recommended for Korean translation.

3. There are distinct differences between North Korean and South Korean

While both North Korea and South Korea share the same language, Korean, the way they use the language is different. For example, the language spoken in South Korea has a Seoul dialect, and they use words borrowed from English.

However, in North Korea, the leaders strongly discouraged the usage of borrowed words. Hence, they use the Pyongyang dialect. When they include words from other languages, they will use Russian, the preferred language.

Moreover, when it comes to written language, they may not look quite the same even though they do use the same letters. For example, some consonants and vowels are considered separate letters for the North Korean version. In contrast, the South Korean version will think of them as being connected and hence, the same letters.

Sometimes, depending on the version, some “jamo” are put in a different order. Not only are the letters different, but complete words can also be distinct. For instance, the South Korean language has more spaces than North Korean, especially when writing pairs of words that are merged to display a single idea.

A machine is unlikely able to tell the difference. Hence, a Korean translation service is needed to distinguish them.

Conclusion

Because of Korea’s unique variations and systematic functions, this means that a machine translation will not cut it, because they may not be able to distinguish from other languages, such as Chinese. Should you need to translate Korean, it’s best to ensure that they are able to have a firm graph of both languages, especially the version of the Korean language you want to translate.

Translating is not just putting words into the target language, but rather being able to stick to the original content, while maintaining the cultural aspects of the target language.

As a translation company in Singapore, Eureka Translations only hire the best experts for the designated language. Should you need something translated from Korean, contact us today.

Why Chinese Translation Services Remain Popular In Singapore

Chinese is the most spoken native language worldwide. With 1.3 billion native speakers, making it the main rival to English as a leading language. Because the official language in China is Chinese, it is already spoken by at least 950 million people in China alone.

Furthermore, China’s rapid growth in global economic and political power has made it hugely relevant to any organization that communicates globally. Hence, it’s necessary for businesses and organizations to familiarize themselves with Chinese or Mandarin, or at least understand it and communicate effectively.

As one of the ancient and most complicated languages due to the number of dialects, it comes with serious translation challenges. That is why Chinese translation services in Singapore are needed, because our grasp of Chinese is probably nowhere near as professional as those in China.

This article will discuss the many challenges in Chinese translation, and why Chinese translation services are needed, even though most of us may be Chinese-speaking.

1. Using characters instead of letters

Chinese is the only modern language that is completely character-based. There are around 3,000 Chinese characters often used and 6,000 others for writings, such as for literature and technical. Each character represents a word or a concept. In some cases, they can represent several.

For instance, the Chinese word 着 can be pronounced as zhe, zháo, zhuó, or zhāo, depending on the context or the other word that is paired with it. The translation accuracy depends on the literal meaning of each written character and the context.

Hence, to fully grasp Chinese or Mandarin for translation, a translator needs to know the number of syllables each Chinese word has and the corresponding character each syllable should have.

Moreover, the translator should know which character can be used alone and which can only be used when paired with other characters.

2. Different characters for traditional and simple

In Chinese, they have two different written forms: traditional and simplified. As the name states, simplified Chinese is a simpler version of traditional Chinese characters. On the other hand, traditional Chinese keeps the orthodox characters set for many millennia. Hence, traditional Chinese requires more stokes to complete a single character.

Simplified Chinese usually combines some traditional characters, so simplified Chinese commonly has fewer characters. Traditional Chinese uses a single character to express a word or part of a phrase, whereas a single simplified Chinese word can represent one or more words or concepts.

The character 发 in Simplified Chinese equates to either 髮 (hair) or 發 (become/develop) in Traditional Chinese. Hence, when writing 头发发白 (hair turning gray) in Simplified Chinese, the centre two characters are the same, but they have different meanings. On the other hand, traditional Chinese will have unique characters for the centre two, and it will be written as 頭髮發白.

3. Grammar Rules

When understanding Chinese grammar, context plays a huge role. Unlike English, they do not have singular or plural terms or verb conjugation to state the tenses.

Even something as simple as “I eat” can be used for all the tenses in Chinese. The verb remains no matter what the subject of your sentence is. Their verbs always stay the same and never need to be conjugated because they cannot be. The only thing that can change this phrase is the context.

Hence, the translator has to figure out the entire context first to translate.

4. Diversity in Dialects

Chinese is already challenging enough, but Chinese has multiple dialects, adding layers of complexity. There are hundreds of dialects, of which seven to ten significant dialects are recognised. These dialects have a unique vocabulary and are generally distinct from one another.

Because it’s a dialect rather than an actual language, the written language is the same. Even if someone has a good grasp of Chinese, only a few Chinese translators can translate all of the major dialects, and most would concentrate on one or two of them. Hence, it’s difficult to tell which dialect is being used unless it’s being spoken.

That is why a Chinese translation service in Singapore is needed, and what a good one can do for you.

Conclusion

While Chinese may seem like a simple language at first glance since most of us in Singapore speak it, the complications lie in the number of characters, context and dialect that Chinese can be derived from. That is why if you are using Chinese for professional purposes, it’s better to hire a Chinese translator to aid you for better communication.

As a professional translation service provider or mandarin translator in Singapore, Eureka Translations have a team of experts, ready to translate any language to the target language. Should you need help translating from Chinese, contact us, or visit our company at Raffles Place today.