What are the differences between native translators and non-native translators?

by Target Language Translation Services

- January 13 2022

Translation is more than simply a copy and pasting of words into a generator – it is a complicated and detailed process. It requires a fluent understanding of both the source and target languages, as well as an ability to convey the original meaning in a method that avoids misunderstanding of the message or misuse of a product.

Native translation has long been regarded as the gold standard for achieving these objectives. While both native translators and non-native translators have valuable skill sets, native translators often have the upper hand on non-native translators thanks to their organic understanding of the target language and culture. A native translator translates source text into their mother tongue. They have extensive knowledge of a secondary language from which they translate into their first language. A non-native translator is one that translates from their mother language into a secondary language, which they have extensive knowledge of.

About Native Speakers

Native speakers are those who have spoken the language in question from childhood as their first language. This is the basis of their ability to communicate verbally and in writing. These individuals provide the most precise linguistic perspective and fluent understanding of their native language. For example, someone who is born in Italy and grew up speaking Italian moves to England and now speaks predominantly English – this person is still a native Italian speaker. Despite the fact that some native speakers take other languages on as their primary mode of communication, it does not erase the foundation of their native tongue.

Differences Between Native Translators And Non-native Translators

Here are the key differences between working with native translators and non-native translators.

Voice and Tone

In writing, the author’s voice and tone are of paramount importance, especially when advertising or selling a product or service. Concerning e-commerce, consumers purchase from businesses where they have a complete understanding of the product being sold. Spotty translations from non-native speakers can severely detract from company credibility in the same way multiple typos on a resume would give employers pause – your target audience can tell if a translation was not done by someone native to their language.

Depending on the style of content being written, a translator’s voice is able to clarify the big picture, while honing in on specific details with assurance. As such, the writer’s voice largely influences the overall tone of the piece. Translations by non-native speakers and those forced through online generators lack real intention and urgency. Most of the time, non-native translations result in generalized content that isn’t especially unique or optimized for sales potential.

Cultural Knowledge

Knowledge of culture plays an important role in both translation and transcreation. Especially when it comes to forms of content that rely heavily on cultural references such as entertainment subtitles or marketing campaigns. When conveying or adapting cultural elements in translation, once again native translators have an advantage as they can cater to the target audience with their organic knowledge. References relating to politics, movies, current events, and common jokes are all useful cultural aspects available to native speakers. This is especially true when it comes to dialect choices.

Because a language can have various dialects often associated with physical locations, a native translator will usually be aware of relevant dialect choices that a fluent, but non-native translator won’t be privy to. A simple example of how dialect can vary is seen in the United States where the use of English is modified by region. For example, Midwestern residents refer to “soda” as “pop”, whereas someone on the West or East Coast would never call a soda a pop. A literal translation while technically correct may not be as precisely expressive as a non-literal translation by someone with regional expertise.

Creative Potential

For both translation and transcreation, creativity is often necessary to do the job most effectively. A native translator can often assist with translating humor and cultural references that would fall flat if translated literally. Marketing materials are a prime example of where creativity can shine. When trying to sell a product to a new culture, a native translator will be more aware of what could potentially offend that culture, what they will find funny, or what they will relate to. Not to mention language devices like rhyming, idioms, and alliteration will be much more attainable by a native translator, leaving the native translator with more creative opportunities.

Fluency

Consider the following descriptive keyword utilized to advertise a product: if a text written in English intends to market a Frisbee as “cool” , you want to make sure the resulting translation describes the Frisbee’s fashionable nature and not a cold temperature. Every culture maintains a unique framework surrounding language and cultural references, making it difficult to translate regionally-specific phrases and idioms into other languages.

This example is fairly basic, but the issue of ineffectual translations extends further and becomes increasingly complicated depending on the business and products involved. This is also true concerning search engine optimization (SEO) where specific keywords hold much more advertising power than others. Therefore, it is vital for translators to understand which words hold the most marketing power.

Conclusion

No matter what type of document you need to be translated, you need the insight and localized knowledge that comes from a native translator to help improve the accuracy and written flow of your document. However, if your document is also highly technical, you’ll better avoid malpractice, misunderstanding, or misuse by finding a native translator who also has the subject matter expertise to understand the technical details of your document and convey information precisely in their native language.

At Target Language Translation, our translators are native speakers of the target language. We follow the standards, set by ISO9001-2005 in which we have certification. This standard, for translation services requirements, states that translation work should be completed by a specialized translator translating source text into their native language.

This article is reprinted from TERRA TRANSLATIONS, YUQO and International Language Services.

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