Many brands dream about entering the overseas market or successfully going global. Because of that, they spend a lot of money to create fascinating content to increase brand awareness and drive more engagement with their potential customers in the overseas market.
What should those brands do to make their potential customers around the world appreciate their digitally produced content? As an example, Chinese and American consumers understand and engage with the same content in totally different ways. This makes it more challenging to resonate with audiences in both countries. Also, even if a campaign was extremely successful in certain countries, it could still be rejected by customers in others with different cultural characteristics due to fatal cultural issues.
Thus, proper translations are essential when it comes to creating content for potential customers around the world.
Translations play an important role in drawing attention to the companies’ global websites, products, or services and increasing consumer trust. However, sometimes it is not enough to just translate the meaning of texts. In order for the content to get the same reaction across any culture, transcreation also needs to be utilized from time to time.
Many people mistakenly assume that translation, localization, and even transcreation are the same. Yet, all of them have different meanings and purposes. To clarify this misunderstanding, as a provider of professional localization services for games aiming for overseas expansion, will provide you with the definition of each term and the differences between them.
Translation: Conveying the Precise Meaning of the Original Texts
Translation is literally a process of changing texts from one language into another. It focuses on accurately conveying the original meaning without compromising it. It is also important to convey the messages and intentions of the original language naturally and effectively with a sufficient understanding of both languages.
Localization (L10N): Considering Regional and Cultural Issues
Localization goes one step further than translation. It involves thinking about how the context of the original language will sound in the targeted language groups and checking whether this would be problematic. It also focuses on providing customers with familiar experiences by considering the targeted languages’ cultures, traditions, and customs. Additionally, it is the best option for companies entering an overseas market to ensure their various contents, such as mobile apps, videos, or digital content and games meet the needs and expectations of their potential customers in the overseas market.
Transcreation: In Between Translation and Creation
Transcreation is literally a combination of the words, ‘translation’ and ‘creation.’ It is not just about translating but rather about re-creating a translation into a brand new translation while keeping the original meaning and intention. This task requires not only the transcreators’ linguistic expertise but also their creativity. Also, they have a bit more freedom in translation within the scope of the client’s request. Since it has to resonate with the viewer, a high degree of understanding is required. They are mainly in demand in the marketing or advertising field, which requires a lot of creativity.
Transcreation vs. Localization
Transcreation is more than translation. Rather, it means taking the source content and infusing it with inspiration into the target language from scratch. Copywriters involved in transcreation focus on restructuring the content rather than adhering strictly to the literal meaning of individual words, aiming to make it more relatable to the target audience.
Transcreation and localization have the same fundamental roots, as both of them provide target customers with culturally appropriate experiences. However, the difference is that transcreation is mainly referred to as a work involving written works while localization is referred to as a work affecting every aspect of a product. Also, transcreation might require creating entirely new content, while localization is based on the original content.
Transcreation for Games
Transcreation for games is a different project from traditional translation projects. This is because the the main goal of the transcreator working on a project, is to ensure that gamers are fully immersed in the game. While it is important to provide translations with accurate semantics, it is also important to provide target customers with creative and unique game language that feels natural and effective. In general, a transcreator understands the game’s universe and tries to convey the precise meaning of the language used in the game within its universe.
Main Transcreation Subjects in Games
- Character Names – It is not just about translating the meaning or copying the pronunciation. Rather, a translation capturing the character’s personality can help gamers understand the background of a character or setting.
- Weapon and Skill Names – If the translation is awkward, it is recommended to play the game or use visuals like videos to create a new name.
- Character Limits in Game UI– If the translation is longer than before and doesn’t fit in the UI, it should be newly translated to convey the meaning accurately within Character limits.
- Cultural Elements – Different cultures have different humor standards, so translations may convey different meanings from their intended messages. Also, gamers from other countries might not be familiar with the local cuisine, music, or celebrities of the country where the game was initially created. Thus, those factors should be re-created to convey a familiar meaning to the targeted countries or languages.
Generally, players play games solely for pleasure, which means that the game should be fun and allow the player to be immersed in the game world created by the game developer. If any of the various aspects of games that players enjoy feels awkward, gamers might stop playing. Because of this, game translators should work on translation projects with these facts in mind. They also should not forget that the ultimate goal is to provide gamers in different countries with the same gameplay experience as playing the original.
For more information regarding transcreation, please contact us at any time. (contact@latisglobal.com)
