Translating rare language documents has become much more common place in recent years. A mixture of social, political and global issues have all contributed towards many non-English speakers coming to the UK and other European countries to work and live.
Here at Translation Empire we work with many public sector organizations including NHS Trusts, hospitals, councils, NGO’s and Police forces to provide exceptional language translation services. We work in partnership with these organizations to help them deliver front-line health and social care services to non-English or limited English speakers throughout the United Kingdom.
Translation of exotic languages could be seen as a growing challenge for the translation and localization industry. The reason for this? Well – it is very easy to find fully qualified and experienced translators for common European languages. The challenge lies with finding suitably experienced linguists for the numerous African, Asian and eastern European languages that have become much more prevalent in the UK and Europe.
According to the results of the last UK census taken in 2011- the top 5 most common ‘immigrant’ languages were:
- Polish with approximately 546,000 speakers equating to 1.0% of UK residents
- Punjabi with approximately 273,000 speakers equating to 0.5% of UK residents
- Urdu with approximately 269,000 speakers equating to 0.5% of UK residents
- Bengali having approximately 221,000 speakers equating to 0.4% of UK residents
- Gujarati having approximately 213,000 speakers equating to 0.4% of UK residents
If we were to fast-forward to today – we would find without doubt some changes to the statistics above. Arabic and dialectal variations of Arabic would definitely make the top 5.
And also moving up the charts; we would also see many African languages and dialects for which we currently receive multiple daily requests for. The continent of Africa has the most diverse range of languages on planet Earth, with more than 2,000 distinct languages and dialects. This means that translators for the less common African languages (and rare or exotic languages in general) can be more difficult to source.
The reasons for this can vary – but obvious causes include migrants in the UK looking at working in the translation industry as an alternative career to what they did for work in their native countries.
Also many rare language speakers have not been in the country long enough to gain the relevant qualifications, credentials and experience that many UK businesses and organisations want linguists to have; before translating their projects, content and documents.
At Translation Empire we are committed to improving the translation services landscape in any way we can. We only use native speaking translators – so finding ways to source and train native speaking rare language translators is a priority for us.
Our linguist relations team work directly with local community groups to engage with potential translators of the future. We offer top-notch language translation services for people who speak rare languages and help open doors for them to kick-start their own career in the ever growing translation services market.
We believe that if we can create a robust national pool of rare or exotic language translators – not only will we be helping people contribute to the UK economy; but we will also be supporting other rare-language speakers successfully start their new life in the UK.
If you want to find out more about how we can help with your rare language translation projects. Or chat with us about how we can support your company in engaging with communities who speak rare languages; simply complete the form below to contact us and we will be in touch to organise an initial discussion around your requirements.