8 trickiest language for translators

Foreign language translation isn’t an easy task for translators. Be it learning or translating a language can be a mind-bending challenge. Many languages are harder to translate than others when it is to be paired with English. This is because the rules of grammar vary across the globe and there are different ways in which people express themselves. In this blog, we are going to tell you 8 such trickiest languages that you as a translator can find difficult to translate.

• Japanese: One of the oldest languages, Japanese is written in three systems and they are Katakana, Kanji & Hiragana. This language has got a thousand different characters which translators may not be familiar with. If you are an Indian and is asked to translate Japanese to English, this foreign language translation will surely be difficult for you. A typical Japanese translation can result in sentences like, ‘Cat table on jumps’ which do not have any meaning in English.

• Chinese: Considered to be a tonal language, Chinese is based on words the meanings for which are based on tone. It is because of this that it makes difficult for translators to translate it. Some words can have more meaning in English, for example, ‘dage’ is used in Chinese as ‘burp’ or ‘hiccup’. However, these two are rarely confused in English.

• Arabic: One of the most difficult foreign language translation, Arabic is written in four different forms. This language is so complex that vowels are not included in writing and words are formed depending on where they are to be placed in a sentence. For this reason, it makes translation difficult. This language has also got dialects i.e. they are spoken differently in different parts of the world.

• Hungarian: This language has the most difficult grammar rules that you as a translator will ever come across. In the Hungarian language, tenses are dictated by suffixes and possessed instead of the order of words. This has got 35 different cases and all these case systems come up with unusual rules and tense forms.

• Korean: Having no ancestral relationship with any other language, Korean is unique in the literal sense and the way they are spoken. Some aspects may be similar to other languages, however, no consistency can be found across comparisons to that of a different language. Translating Korean is difficult because this language only plays by its own rules.

• Polish: Polish can be a little less challenging in comparison to the languages stated above, however, they are still complicated in their gender system and is often confusing.

• Thai: Thai letters are never capitalized and are not separated in sentences by any space. So while translating the translators need to have a clear understanding of the context in which words are spoken to differentiate between words. Adverbs & adjectives make the task even more difficult because these are placed after the verb & noun respectively.

• Finnish: A descendant of the language family known as ‘Fino-Ugric’, Finnish is pronounced almost similar to that of English, however, the similarities lie only in the speaking part. Their grammar is way too complex with variables affecting numerous other variables. However, modern Finnis is spoken in a more colloquial form and it is much more difficult in written form.

The foreign language translation of these languages can be extremely difficult for translators. A translator needs to have an in-depth grip on grammar, knowledge about words to translate these correctly. Organizations can hire an experienced translator in case of any important translation who can easily transcribe them into a readable and understandable form.