People sometimes think translation is easier than creation. After all, creation requires a lot of thinking, imagining and polishing, while translation is only reproducing the original content in another language. However, this is wrong. On a basic level, the two important criteria used to assess an acceptable translation are that it conveys the meaning of the original text correctly and that it's grammatically correct. But there’s a lot more to dig into if you want an excellent and professional Traditional Chinese translation.
1. Traditional Chinese for Hong Kong and Macau differs from Traditional Chinese for Taiwan.
Traditional Chinese characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and some overseas Chinese communities. Overall, most characters are written in the same way by all users, but some aren’t. For example, Hong Kong and Macau write 衞, 説 and 着, which are officially written as 衛, 說 and 著 in Taiwan. A fun fact is that Traditional Chinese characters are called "complex characters" by most users within the Chinese-speaking world, and as the name implies, the characters are complicated. Only with a magnifier can you distinguish between 衞 and 衛. Traditional Chinese translation services should grasp the differences and deliver error-free translations to the target readers.
2. Translation requires skill.
Translation is the complicated, rigorous process of understanding text in the source language and retelling it in the target language. It requires the ability to harness words to deal with different information in various ways.
For example, the phrase "a fair and well-shaped warrior" seems straightforward enough to be easily translated. Now let's try to replace "warrior" with "lady" and "dog" while keeping the rest unchanged. That is to say, the phrase "a fair and well-shaped" needs to be used to describe the three different objects. But the last thing a Traditional Chinese translator should do is simply process the three phrases in the same way. The translations must be similar while at the same time being relevant to the respective objects. Experienced Traditional Chinese translation services can take care of the nuances and translate the English text into Traditional Chinese accurately, naturally and idiomatically.
3. Traditional Chinese and English stand on different cultures.
Language embodies culture, and culture influences language. Translators need to understand the cultures the text is created both from and for in order to translate not only the words, but also the cultural meaning hidden in the words, and most importantly, to ensure the message makes sense to speakers of the target language.
What you need is a professional Traditional Chinese translator.
Fluency in Traditional Chinese is only one of the prerequisites for translating from English into Traditional Chinese. Life experience, understanding of cultures and professional expertise are also essential to the work. All of these are at your disposal in our professional Traditional Chinese translation service!