There are an estimated 100,000 words in modern Chinese, yet the Hanyu Da Cidian dictionary (the most inclusive available Chinese dictionary) contains over 370,000 words, including less frequently used or specialised terms.
Meanwhile, English, the lingua franca, has approximately 170,000 words in modern use, and a whopping 600,000 entries in the Oxford English Dictionary.
Even with this volume of words and meanings from both languages, however, some things remain untranslatable.
But that’s where translators step in.
Translators work on translation – the process of converting the meaning of a text from one language to another. They balance staying true to the original meaning and making a text sound natural in the target language, ensuring the final result communicates the same message, feeling, and tone as the original.
Localisation, on the other hand, involves more than translating.
It’s adapting the tone, style, and context of content to align with the cultural norms and preferences of the target audience. This ensures that the message is not only understood but also resonates emotionally.
In short, you can translate without localising, but there’s no vice versa. Doing that simply results in your message not hitting the mark, or worse, changing it entirely.
Whatever the case, neither are easy tasks – Amy Tang can tell you that.
Tang pursued a BA in Political Science and Government at the National Cheng Kung University and has a Graduate Institute of Translation and Interpretation from the National Taiwan Normal University. Source: Amy Tang
The start of a translator and localisation expert’s journey
Born and raised in Taiwan, Tang’s learning of new languages began when she enrolled in English after-school classes.
“I never really thought about why I liked the language; I just happened to be good at it, and it was easy for me to pick up,” admits Tang. “I got a sense of achievement out of it, so it got me interested in exploring more.”
That said, the more she learned about the languages, the more Tang discovered the magic and beauty behind them.
“There are a lot of small details you pick up that you would not know if you’re not a professional in this field,” she says.
Tang currently speaks five languages: her mother tongue is Mandarin, she picked up English as a child, took up French in college, learned German during a university semester abroad in Austria, and most recently, dabbled in Korean for a work project.
Most notable of Tang’s language capabilities is her MA in Language Interpretation and Translation from the National Taiwan Normal University.
This particular postgraduate degree was prompted by Tang’s undergraduate studies when she pursued a BA in Political Science and Government at the National Cheng Kung University.
There, she took courses in the foreign language department and learned about translation and interpretation – a subject that sparked her interest.
“I think it’s cool to be able to translate and interpret on the spot,” she says. “I took an introduction course, and then took more courses and realised that this was a field I wanted to study about or at least enhance my skills in.”
By the end of her postgraduate studies, Tang, already working as a freelance translator for English to Mandarin (and vice versa) projects, came across a job opportunity to work in a translation localisation company and jumped on board.
We caught up with Tang to learn more about working in translation and localisation and the best ways to help you get started on your own translation journey.
If you’re looking to venture into your own career in this field, these are Tang’s translation tips to take note of. Source: Amy Tang
What is your favourite part about translating from Mandarin to English?
One thing that I’ve been enjoying is discovering all the redundancies in Mandarin. It’s a non-structural language, so if you read or hear it, you can still understand it, no matter how redundant it is. But when you translate it, you realise that so many redundant words are used.
There are also many hidden things that you need to look out for, like missing subjects, for instance. When you hear a sentence in Mandarin, you know what the speaker means, but in English, you need to narrow it down to a certain word or a specific aspect to be able to translate it.
Mandarin has a lot of words that cover a broad idea, but English has a lot of specialised words to choose from. So, that’s one thing I definitely find interesting when translating from Mandarin to English.
Nobel Prize in Literature 2024 laureate and South Korean writer Han Kang (R) sits beside a interpreter as she addresses a press conference at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm, Sweden on December 6, 2024. Source: AFP
What is the hardest part about translation?
The hardest part about translation is learning to be flexible. Many translators will get very fixed on translating a certain word into the target language, which is not how it should be.
Of course, it depends on the type of text that you’re working on – if you’re working on marketing pieces, you’ll need to be a little more creative; if you’re working on legal documents, you need to stay close to what is meant in the original text.
But flexibility plays a big role here – you do not just translate word for word. You need to make sure that you understand what the text means in your source language and what it would look like in your target language.
You also need to focus on your audience. Can the audience understand you in this specific field or context? That’s the real challenging part.
You can tell a person is really good at their work if you, as the reader, don’t need to ask a lot of clarifying questions. That’s part of mindreading in translation – knowing what the audience wants.
Overlooking the packed hemicycle in Brussels, in booths half-obscured by tainted glass, a brigade of interpreters feed precious audio streams of the proceedings to lawmakers from 27 nations of the European Parliament. Source: AFP
What translation tips do you have for aspiring translators?
There is a common myth that people believe – if you know the source language, you’ll know how to translate it into your mother tongue or another language you know, but that’s not true.
To be able to translate, you need to ask yourself if you’re good enough in your mother tongue or your native language. Many ignore that, thinking they know enough, so it’s okay. The truth is that many people are not good at their native language or mother tongue, especially in written form. You can see grammar mistakes, awkward sentences or even incorrect word choices.
When translating for the written form, you have to make sure you’re using the right tone, grammar, and punctuation. You need to be very detailed, and you need to know the language well.
Second, you must ensure that your understanding of the source language is up to a certain proficiency, preferably completely fluent or near native-level.
For instance, I’ve worked with Mandarin-to-English translators who are native English speakers themselves, and we know it’s harder for them to learn Mandarin. So, their understanding of Mandarin is very critical, or else we will see mistranslations here and there and confuse the readers or audience.
But people often think that because they know the language, there’s no need to work on it further. In this case, you’ll find out that your understanding of the source language isn’t enough.
That’s the last thing – to be a translator, you need to do a lot of research and be willing to learn new things. You need to be curious to look up all the information you need, or else you’ll give the wrong or inaccurate translation.
The best part about picking up translation for a job is that you might be able to work remotely. Source: Amy Tang
Do you think having a good command of translation or interpretation skills is crucial in the localisation industry?
Video game localisation is very nuanced, where you have to strike a delicate balance between staying true to the source language and being very natural and creative in the target language. In my personal opinion, I think it’s harder compared to other translation tasks because you need to follow the source closely and need to make it sound natural and not stiff – you have to find a middle ground.
So, localisation does not translate directly to being creative – it’s about focusing on your target audience and meeting their expectations of your product.
I’ve talked to some translators in the gaming industry, and they said that even though we believe creative translations read better, many players actually expect something closer to the original text. So that’s where strategies in localisation apply because, through that, the audience will feel more connected to the game.
The same applies to novels or films; novel translators have said the same.
If you translate a Japanese or English novel into Mandarin, you don’t make it read like a Mandarin novel written by a Mandarin author. You translate the original text into Mandarin and make sure people can tell that the story was originally written in another language to give people the feeling of reading something different.
If the translation is presented as a Mandarin classic or modern literature, your audience doesn’t want that. The readers expect elements from a foreign language, so you need to balance the translation with the localisation.
But again, I think it really depends on what you’re working on.
During her undergraduate studies, Tang participated in an exchange programme at Austria’s Johannes Kepler Universität Linz. Source: Amy Tang
Does having the experience of being abroad help build a better understanding of how to localise content?
I would say yes because even though it’s just a half-year exchange programme, you get to know a lot more about different cultures and people.
And because you’re studying abroad, you’ll have a lot of local classmates and professors, so you’ll understand how they speak and work on stuff or their expectations and values. This way, you learn how to communicate better and interact with them. In the localisation industry, this allows me to work with linguists from different parts of the world and really understand their approaches to translation and their work style.
So, studying abroad definitely gave me an edge when I started my career in localisation with a big international team.
