For several years now, companies, business owners and private customers alike relied on professional translation services in their everyday lives. From converting corporate materials, legal documents or simple certificates – translation agencies became an inseparable part in the daily routines for many people.
Whether you needed to translate your documents for a visa, education or job application or have worked on behalf of a company which required their corporate materials to be carefully transcribed for a specific target foreign audience – collaborating with specialist language suppliers was, for many people, a daily practice.
Nonetheless, with an outbreak of the global pandemic in early months of 2020, language translations, sadly, became somewhat obsolete for a very long time.
People have stopped travelling internationally and businesses no longer wanted to approach international markets, as their focus in tough times remained on the home-turf. This allowed them to ensure that their processes were fully centred around actually staying in business, rather than growing.
Naturally, with this, the demand for professional translations plummeted across all sectors.
Fast-forward to 2022 and things are fortunately starting to slowly improve. Overseas travel resumed, in most countries people are yet again free to visit friends and family abroad, the global economy is definitely more balanced, and so business owners once again consider approaching international customers and new markets.
But does this actually mean that translation services are once again becoming a necessity?
Current state of the translation industry in the United Kingdom
Translation services in the United Kingdom, despite the recent hiccups (also known as Brexit and a world-wide pandemic) are once again in a relatively strong position.
Majority of industry experts predict, that by the year 2025 the global translation sector will be worth a whooping $50b.
This clearly shows, that in 2022 professional translation agencies again play an essential part in our economy. From translating private documents and certificates for personal use to serving large brands, translation services are once more desperately sought after.
Most popular UK translation services in 2022
Professional translation services are definitely an intricate and complex process. They often involve not only linguistics, but also some of the key socio-cultural aspects, which can directly influence the reliability of your translated document. The type and level of a language service needed can depend on a wide variety of factors. In order to better understand what the most popular and sought-after translation services are in 2022, we contacted Translation Services 24, which is one the UK’s most popular translation agencies and an officially certified member of the Association of Translation Companies.
A representative of TS24 (Translation Services 24) was able to give us an insight into some of their most popular solutions and shared with us, which particular languages are amongst the most frequently demanded in 2022.
Speaking with FeedsPortal.com, she said: “In 2022, we can see clear patterns which show a continuous growth of the translation and interpretation services sector. It’s interesting to see that some of our clients who were quiet over the last 2 years or so are now coming back to us with large translation project required during their internationalisation processes.”
We asked her, which specific type of translations is currently most popular amongst their UK clients, and which languages seem to be most often needed.
“In the first quarter of 2022, written translations were by far our most popular service. From legal documents to marketing campaigns and financial papers – translating text content is currently the solution most sought-after by our clients. Additionally, due to remaining restrictions and many people still working from home, telephone and remote interpretations were also often needed. This is true across practically all European languages, such as German, French, Polish or Spanish. Interestingly, we can also see a rapid growth in the number of clients requiring translations into English for the UK market, so it appears companies were not put off by Brexit.”
You can read one of our older articles, which talks about 3 reasons to use a translations service here.
Key aspects of choosing an LSP
As you can see, professional translations are yet again at the centre of UK’s corporate world.
Businesses from practically all sectors are today expanding their offerings abroad and reaching out to the international customers. However, in order to do so successfully, it is absolutely essential to communicate the corporate message accurately.
And this is exactly where problems unfortunately start for many people.
As we have mentioned previously, translations are a complex process. Although linguistic aspects play the most significant part, other factors must also be taken into account to ensure the suitability of your translated documents.
As a result, before converting your materials into another language, you must find the best possible supplier that can guarantee highest levels of certification and accuracy.
But how do you actually go about finding such provider? Well, there are some essential traits, which you can look out for in the translation agencies when looking for a new supplier.
One of the most crucial factors to look out for is definitely the company’s official memberships. Affiliations with the previously mentioned ATC (Association of Translation Companies) or CIOL (Chartered Institute of Linguists) are great indicators of quality. In order to become an accredited member of such institutions, the language service provider will have to meet rigorous criteria.
Ensuring that the LSP specialises in translating content and documents for clients from your particular industry can also be extremely important. Language varies not only from country to country, but also from one corporate industry to another. A provider that specialises in, for instance, legal translations, may not be your best choice if you need to convert your marketing campaign, and vice-versa. As a result, when choosing your preferred language agency, look at their past clients and areas of expertise. This will give you a better indication into their sector-specific knowledge.
Last, but definitely not least, and this can be especially vital for any advertising/marketing documents, make sure that your chosen LSP collaborates with professional human translators. Although machine translations have come a very long way, and are now able to accurately translate even complex text, human linguists will always be able to translate your materials more accurately. Especially, as they will also be able to take into the account social and cultural aspects.