English to Thai Translation Services: Keystone for Your Success When Entering This Country
Thailand not only contributes significantly to the global economy but has also emerged as a viable market for foreign companies as Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy and the region’s geographic center. In order to adapt your business to Thais and improve the chances of success in this market, English to Thai translation services are significantly needed.
This article will explain why Thai localization is necessary and point out the best tips to handle Thai translation services.
1. Why are English to Thai Translation Services Necessary for Your Business?
Over 36 million people in Thailand speak Thai, which is the official language of the nation. Additionally, Thai is spoken by 567,000 people in Lao and approximately 1.5 million people in Vietnam. And there are some typical reasons why you need to have wise choices when adapting to English to Thai translation services.
- Thai may be among the hardest languages in the world to learn and translate. There is no formal technique to convert Thai to Latin script since Thai has its own writing system. The language is extremely challenging for non-native speakers to understand.
- Thai clients prefer to pick their home language above any other international language when it comes to acquiring material or information and making transactions because they feel more connected in their mother tongue.
- Thailand is classified as a country with a low level of English proficiency by the EF EPI 2021. (ranked 100 out of 112 countries). Therefore, you will be losing out on a lot of prospective Thai partners and buyers if your paperwork is only available in English.
- Thailand is a multicultural nation. It is crucial to carefully consider crucial elements like conventions, values, and history in order to prevent any misunderstanding or misunderstandings. Experienced translation and localization companies are aware of these details and can produce accurately translated material for you.
This is why it’s so important to hire native Thai speakers to work on your Thai translation services.
2. Tips to Get the Best English to Thai Translation Services
As the Thai language and culture are rich and should be treated with care, you should prepare carefully when working on precise English to Thai translation services.
Here are the 6 essential procedures to ensure the success of your Thai translation project.
2.1. Be Aware of No Space Between Thai Words
Thai does not employ spaces between words and sentences as English does. Instead, it uses a set of principles to make it easier for readers to identify words. Once you’ve become used to these rules, you won’t even realize that Thai words don’t have spaces between them.
The Desktop Publishing (DTP) stage of English to Thai translation projects might be significantly interrupted by the condensed spacing between Thai words. If your DTP staff members aren’t proficient in Thai or native speakers, there’s a good chance they’ll break lines wrongly, producing unintelligible text.
Line breaks are a common issue discovered during the final stages of translation since incorrectly broken words cannot be read and computers cannot accurately recognize words. So, human rechecking is highly recommended.
Your team would be wise to invest some time and money in hiring a local Thai editor to review the entire document once more after the DTP stage to ensure that the Thai text you translated is error-free.
Get more Thai translation guidelines from other blog posts:
2.2. Handle Thai Pronouns Smartly
Thai pronouns will be confusing to you if you are only familiar with the usage of pronouns in English, which are based on three criteria: person (first, second, or third), number (single or plural), and genders. Additional elements like formality, respect, politeness, familiarity, and so forth must be taken into account while selecting a pronoun in Thai.
There are several pronouns in Thai. Some phrases have lost their relevance and are now viewed as rude. So you should be careful when using pronouns to connect with your consumers in your English to Thai translation services.
Always conduct market research on your intended audience, educate yourself about the local Thai culture, and consult localizers who are native Thai speakers. Based on the customer insights you discover via research, the native localizers will help you choose the strongest pronouns for a fruitful project.
2.3. Know the Difficult Spacing Rules
Thai does not utilize spaces between words inside a phrase, yet they are crucial in other instances. In fact, the space requirements for the Thai language are so intricate that even native Thai speakers still make mistakes. You can take a look at the guideline of Bryan to have a clearer view of spacing in Thai language.
Therefore, you should include the specific guidelines in your translation style guide when planning your English to Thai translation services so that your Thai linguists can simply adhere to your instructions and ensure that spaces are consistently used throughout the translated Thai into English or vice versa.
2.4. Pay Attention to Text Expansion
When working on English to Thai translation projects, you should anticipate seeing text expansion due to the variations in expression styles between English and Thai. In fact, Thai translations of English literature are sometimes 15% longer than their English counterparts.
You should request translators to utilize shorter phrases and words when translating information from English to Thai if you want to purposefully leave more room for text. Some layout components could require a small or major change.
2.5. Adapt to the Right Calendar
The Thai solar calendar and the Thai lunar calendar are the two calendars used by the Thai people.
- The Gregorian calendar, which is used by the majority of nations worldwide, serves as the foundation for the Thai solar calendar. The legal and business worlds employ this calendar.
- Buddhist lunisolar calendars include the Thai lunar calendar (sometimes called the Tai calendar). The Tai calendar is used in Thailand to record traditional occasions and Buddhist rituals. The Buddhist Era, which is 543 years longer than the Christian Era, is now used to measure time.
Then, make sure to let your Thai translators know which calendar system you like to utilize for your English to Thai translation services. These details should be mentioned in the translation style guide.
2.6. Carefully Choose the Number Systems
Thai people use Thai numbers (ตัวเลขไทย) and Arabic numerals, which are two separate numerical systems.
Thai people frequently write in Arabic numbers in most circumstances. On the other hand, Thai numerals are only ever used in extremely official circumstances like legal papers for the government or court, and sporadically on the house address label.
In order to give the optimal reading or experience for Thai audiences, you need to carefully examine which number system to employ when having English to Thai translation services.
3. To Sum Up
English to Thai translation services are essential if you want to connect with your target audience. We hope the information we’ve provided above will help you choose the best Thai translation agency to handle your projects.
For international businesses seeking quick, high-quality Thai translation services, GTE Localize is one of the market leaders. Our clients may surpass their international competition thanks to the precision and speed with which our experienced linguists can translate thanks to our leading-edge language translation solutions.
So, request a free Thai translation test from our staff right away!
