Language Solutions

Content is king! There is a great amount of effort consumed in creating the original content. The term transcreation is made of two magic words: Translation + Creation. Transcreation could come in different forms.

 

A translation with a creative sense that reserves the original meaning and the contextual spirit. But flies with the readability and style when creating the target translation. So, when the readers won’t feel that the content is translated literally.

 

One of the nicest examples of creative trans-creation is McDonald’s famous slogan “I’m loving it”. The target translation in Egypt for example is أنا أحبه. Could've been formulated in many different ways as the Arabic language is very rich and diverse. But the choice of the word أنا (ana, means I'm) delivers a personal sense of belonging to McDonald's, instead of the using the slogan نحن نحبه (nahnu, means we love it).

 

Transcreation provides spiritual support marketing or the commercial experience in many ways and facilitates digestion in the intended locale.

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With that being said, if localization is the process of adapting the target content to fit a certain locale, transcreation is the creative adaptation of the target content to serve a deeper psychological feeling.

 

The concept of transcreation is applied to the creation of target translation with limited or without adherence to the source at all. Google Assistant employed the concept in creating target intents to train Google Assistant’s natural language processing (NLU) system by creating unique translation variations in the target language(s). The process instructed translators to create various translations for every single scenario. In other words, translating the same source text by different translators in parallel, while instructing the translators to go creative and feel natural when conveying the source language’s meaning.

 

Finally, transcreation could come in many forms that are commercially utilized. Below is an interesting list of commercial forms:

 

• Advertisement and commercials

• Slogans and titles

• Banners

• Copywriting

• Blogs and Press Releases.

• Voice Commands

• Songs and Lyrics

 

What are the essentials skills required in a transcreator?

 

Good question! Not all translators are qualified to carry out the transcreation. However, a sense of creativity is key! A user manual with literal or pre-defined terminology is difficult to transcreate. The creative aspects are required in both the source and the target language. For example, if a translator is required to create the phrase “Beating around the pushes” in any given target language. The output may vary according to the natural understanding of the phrase itself, then the creative or catchy method of formulating the translation.