Why is Translation Glossary Important to Thai Translation Projects?
The glossary of translation terms is an essential step in the translation process. This is a powerful tool to help create high-quality translations. Many people assume that the glossary is only for term papers and reference books. However, for every important translation, a glossary of translation terms can be beneficial for your business. Likewise, the glossary of translation terms plays an important role in a Thai translation project that many people may overlook.
In this article, we will discuss the significance of a translation glossary and teach you everything you need to know about the subject.
What Is A Translation Glossary?
A glossary is a collection of glossaries. It contains foreign or specialized terms, rare or complex. This is a list of important terms specific to your company or industry. It contains definitions, abbreviations, SEO keywords and various marketing expressions. These terms are available in the source language and translated into the target language.
In general, the format of a translation glossary consists of three elements:
- Terms in the source language
- Term definition
- The translation of the terms has been approved
In which, headings (1) and (2) are mandatory elements in the glossary. Title (3) can be optional.
Example for Thai Translation Glossary:
| Term | Definition (Required) | Translation (Optional) |
| พี่เขย | Husband of one’s elder sister | Brother-in-law |
Why Is It Important To Thai Translation Projects?
The Thai Translation glossary is a useful document that provides a list of industry-specific terms to assist translators in using the correct terms. The translator is facilitated to translate Thai terms more accurately. It means your Thai project will achieve higher quality. Therefore, let’s dive into the benefits of a translation glossary.
Save Translation Cost and Time
It is essential to create a glossary of approved Thai terms in each target language for your translation project. Above all, it is especially important for the technical translations and marketing content of many businesses. Glossary lays the groundwork for consistent, high-quality translations of any kind.
A glossary not only saves you time and money but also ensures that your brand is successful across languages and cultures. Instead of wasting time sending back and forth emails, exchanging and explaining a specialized term, translators can read the definition given in the glossary and speed up the translation process dramatically.
Additionally, some terms appear frequently in your document. If you use a word count Thai translation service, using your glossary that integrates well with CAT Tools’ translation memory, you don’t have to pay too much for duplicate terms. As a result, your translation project will be much cheaper. Many businesses can ignore this factor because they do not realize its importance. But if you’re already reading this, creating a Thai glossary for your project is a strategy to work on.
Create Consistency for Translations
Although using a lot of synonyms avoids duplication and is great for creative translation. However, using the same words consistently is key to keeping the original message you want to convey through translation. Such consistency is only possible if only a single translator is working on your Thai translation projects. However, this is very unlikely as it is difficult for one interpreter to take over the entire project and complete it alone. Therefore, the glossary with the Thai language is the best solution for all businesses.
However, before setting up a glossary for translation, it’s important to create a Thai glossary and define a specialized style for your source language. If your original source language versions are inconsistent, the Thai versions will also be inconsistent, and vice versa.
Ensure Brand Recognition in Foreign Markets
Let’s take an example of some Thai words that can be translated into many different meanings. When a table translates into multiple target languages, the meaning is inconsistent. At that time, the message you want to convey also becomes misleading.
After Vietnam, Thai ranked 4th in the top 25 most difficult languages in the world. Basically, Thai has a complex alphabet. Thai is also difficult because of both written and spoken language. In terms of written language, the Thai alphabet consists of 44 consonants, 32 vowels and 6 syllables, many characters when placed at the beginning and end of a sentence all indicate the same sound in English.
Therefore, any slight change in character position can create different layers of meaning. Therefore, consistency when translating terms in Thai translation to other languages and vice versa is essential. It ensures your translation is not misinterpreted and is identical in any context.
In the face of this unnecessary confusion, you notice that these same lexical contradictions are rampant in the public relations campaign, the campaign to promote the product to the multi-country market. Brand recognition contributes to the success of your product or service, and inconsistent versions of slogans represent an ineffective and possibly ineffective global marketing campaign.
How To Build A Translation Glossary?
Preparing a glossary for your Thai translation project may seem daunting at first glance. However, the payoff is smoother translation and consistent results. From there, your project will be more perfect when approaching foreign markets. So make sure your translation partner can accommodate what you need. Including glossaries in translation will help you reap many benefits both foreign and domestic!
In general, using a translation glossary is highly recommended, but it has to be effective! You need to make sure the glossary in your Thai translation meets some criteria such as:
- It must be updated regularly;
- It must be saved in Excel or CSV file format;
- The terms must be in alphabetical order;
- Words or groups of words (up to 5) take precedence over including phrases.
How to Find High-Quality Thai Translation Services
GTE Localize uses translation software and translation experts with years of experience in the localization industry to support you in building a Thai translation glossary for a quality Thai translation project. With our extensive experience in Asian markets and the Thai market to be more specific, we are confident to bring you the best quality Thai translation at a budget-saving rate.
Contact our Thai localization team now to find out how we can help you set up a glossary of Thai translations projects. We make sure your brand can connect to new global language markets.
