Everything today from comics to economics is neither country nor language specific. Businesses, art, literature, pop songs, etc., etc., have to be as multilingual and multicultural as target audiences and consumers. Web pages are no exception.

The whole world does not speak English- hardly 20% of the world’s population speaks and understands it. Though English drove the internet and the virtual world in their nascent days, this is not the case today. If you want to reach a global audience, web page translation is the way to go.

Let’s look into some scenarios which make web page translation necessary:

International business means multilingual web content

Multinational business interests may mean forging bonds with existing or new partners by communicating in their own language. This is not only welcoming in a new relationship but also signals that you are with them for the long haul.

Multilingual web content is also a way to attract new business partners or collaborators.

Your web page should drive traffic to your site

Web pages translated into multiple languages raise the ‘hit standing’ of your site. They increase your target base and add to your online presence. This will lead to better brand recall.

When you want your business to grow

If you are stagnating and are looking for greener pastures, spreading out from the local market is a good option. Targeting foreign markets which you feel are fertile for your product or service is impossible without having a tailor made web page capable of thriving in the new ethos.

Beating the competition

Competitors offering the same product or service may be nipping at your heels. Leave them far behind with a multilingual website.

Or they might already have gone multilingual. You have to join the web translation bandwagon to keep up with the competition or lose the race.

Website translation helps improve conversion rates

If your website is receiving hits from users who don’t speak the language, then translation will help improve conversion rates. A skilled translation agency can help you analyse and assess how much of your site to translate- the whole or just a part.

Translation is mandatory

In certain industries like pharmaceuticals and manufacturing of machinery, it is statutory to provide information in the local language. Web page translation is not an option here: it is a compulsion.

Once, you’ve decided that your website needs to be multilingual, there are a few more considerations.

Translate content only into key languages

There are innumerable languages in the world. Pick the language you want to focus on. French, Chinese, German, and Japanese give you entrée into big markets. But is this the market that your product or service is aimed at? Obviously, translation depends on your target audience.

Formats are important

The simplest things in the wrong format are confusing. For example, in India, the dd/mm/yy format is used for the date. But in the US the format is mm/dd/yy.

Arabic, for instance, is read from right to left. So the F pattern of English websites, where you read from left to right, will not be suitable here.

When translating, be careful with providing local phone numbers and addresses, properly formatted as per local usage. The devil is always in the details, so take care to avoid confusion otherwise you’ll lose out on sales: this is like traffic with no destination!

Commercial enablers

If you want to convert browsing to buying, country-specific transaction support like credit and debit cards, in suitable currencies is imperative. Otherwise, the website will encourage little more than frustrated window shopping.

Who will do website translations?

It is advisable for businesses to concentrate on their core and delegate the translation to a professional agency.

#1. Machine translations are more or less word-to-word inept products. Effective website translation demands that text should be translated infusing local flavour (localisation) to be attractive and effective.

#2. Translation should not retract from the overall appeal of the web page or website. When scripts change, the layout should be suitably tweaked to retain its aesthete. Who but a professional can do this?

#3. Google’s Panda algorithm has become the core ranking signal to measure the quality of the site and direct traffic to it. If you want people in the international market to find you, you need to have quality web content to turn up on top of SEO. Don’t make a mess with amateur translations which Panda will relegate to the bottom of the barrel.

#4. Improper and incorrect translations will make you an international laughing stock and hit your brand value.

Marketing surveys have showed:

That target audiences hold language to be of more importance than even price.

The more expensive the product, ( like luxury clothing and accessories), or the more valuable the service, (like insurance and financial services), people prefer and trust sites in their own language.

‘Mother tongue’ is the term we give to a language that we have heard since birth: one that inspires comfort and credibility.

Reap the whole gain from translating web content by having an experienced and skilled translation agency work its magic.

For a marketer aiming for global outreach and a deeper penetration of new global customer segments, the language English appears in two distinctive dimensions.

First, the translation of any material into English serves as a common ground before it can be extended into other languages or mediums. Second, English happens to be a relatively far-reaching and commonly used mode of communication in today’s world. The significance of the language takes new proportions when one considers its role in official and professional scenarios too.

So for a marketer entrusted with English translation decision, the next big issue is, what to look for when on boarding someone who can Translation English To Spanish or for that matter undertake Translate From German To English translation.

For instance, German is a language that is composed of many complex terms, origins and contextual underpinnings. Someone who simply tries to match word for word would not be able to do justice to the magnitude and undertones of either language. The challenge becomes all the more daunting when the target language is one where the user expects to understand everything easily and quickly.

Likewise, for someone really proficient when it comes to translating French into English, the task can get equally demanding. A good translator should be familiar with the culture, history and beliefs of the people who speak the both languages.

Any language has its grammar to be addressed from an engineering perspective. The basic syntax and vocabulary have to be handled with dexterity. To top that, there is a cultural sub-text to pay attention to, and the tough decisions of whether to leave interpretations for the reader’s mind or spell everything out.

Metaphors, phrases, proverbs, humor etc., are some other tricky spots that can make amateur translators fail too easily, and often too late for anyone to take remedial action.

The professional translation services though, realize the gravity of the task and underscore other adjoining areas too while converting languages from one form to another.

Semantics, for example, is something that can run pretty awry when not handled well or completely ignored. Same way, visual appearance of the text, the phonetic emphasis of various parts, misinterpretations owing to bad grammar or cultural cross-alignment can be very costly for some marketers.

Not all translations are normal documents. Some are technical documents like engineering documents, legal agreements, contracts, financial policies etc. Translators face different challenges while translating technical documents that include: lexical-semantic problems, grammar, syntax, rhetoric, pragmatic and cultural problems. Many of the Engineering designs and documents are made by German engineers and they need to be translated into English for use by engineers and even shop floor personnel.

When it comes to translation rates, usually many agencies charge one single blanket rate for European languages. Technical documents are charged higher amount, though.

This is the job of professional and certified translation service providers. They always have a strong proficiency and a firm grip on invisible factors when it comes to a language, not just for one language, but for both the target and the source language. This level of depth, expertise and practice is what makes language translation a powerful ingredient of any communication strategy instead of being relegated as a tick in the box. It can be French, it can be German, it can be English – but the message should come across clearly and swiftly in a good translation.

As the world becomes smaller and smaller due to technological advances such as the web, it becomes more and more obvious that the first step to understanding another person is to understand their language. As movies allow for a snapshot of culture, and as they are becoming popular in lands that they were not produced for, the ability to translate the movie into a different language becomes more and more important. As media becomes more available to people throughout the world, video translation becomes more important.

At its simplest, video translation allows for a single piece of media to be understood by any group that it has been translated for. Most translators work from a script of the movie in order to ensure the best translation. They will also watch the movie in order to make sure that they have the connotations correct. From this they will re-write the script in the language that the video needs to be translated into, allowing for some cultural differences.

It is the cultural differences that can make translating a particular movie interesting for those involved. Translators get nervous around cultural issues, as they can make a simple translation into a more difficult one. With some languages it gets more interesting, as sometimes there is no straight translation from one language to another.

For example, insults are a major part of European languages, with a wide variety of curses. It is virtually impossible to speak any of the European languages without hitting some form of curse. When translating that into Japanese, which has almost no native curses, those curses need to be translated with an eye towards invoking the same emotion as was in the source material.

Translating from Japanese involves a number of cultural issues, as the culture is well represented in its language; it even has a verb tense to show respect towards others of a higher social status, which makes it interesting to maintain from one language to another. Fortunately most languages have the same basic concepts or translations would be almost impossible.

Video translation allows for movies and games to find a broader audience. As it does so, they allow for one culture to gain a better understanding of another. They allow for a greater appreciation of different cultures, especially if the translators do some research into the culture and allow for some of it to peek through. It may be an onerous job, especially in order to ensure that the translation is correct, but it is an important one, especially in a world that is getting smaller with every tweet and email.

This article is devoted to the English Arabic translation; it will lay the light on the definition of translation, the importance of English Arabic translation, the difficulty idioms impose to translators, the qualities of a good translator and the necessity for translation in general.

Translation in Dr. Hasanuddin Ahmed’s words is: “the action or process of delivering from one language into another. It is the expression or rendering of sense of words, sentences, and passages etc from one language into another.” Ulm-ul-Qur’an, Dr. Hasanuddin Ahmed, I.A.S.

The Columbia Encyclopedia defines translation as the rendering of a text into another language.

Katharine Barnwell (1986, p. 8).defines it as follows: Translation is re-telling, as exactly as possible, the meaning of the original message in a way that is natural in the language into which the translation is being made.

Translation is much more than the interpretation of the meaning of a text in one language and the production of a new, equivalent text in another language , or the substitution of the words of one language with the words of another language, or the rendering of meaning of a text or whatsoever in one language into another, it is the bridge of appreciation and understanding among people of different cultural groups , it is the means of communication among different groups of people, the means of cultural exchange, the means of preserving cultural heritage of any nation, the means of forming ties and friendships among different groups of people, and the means of understanding and peace.

Human beings are after all not living alone and, every human being has the need and desire to know about one another, man tries to learn what other people are doing, how they are living, and how they have lived. We would like to know, apart from our different ethnicity, color, language, and culture, whether we share the same understanding of love, passion, sorrow, aspiration, sympathy, jealousy and many other respects of human nature. So as long as the desire to exists, translation will be the only bridge across which our aims are reached and our desire realized.

In the general sense, the goal of translation is to build bridges among different groups of people, but the goal of translation in the theoretical sense is to establish a relationship of equivalence between the source and the target language; it should ensure that both texts communicate the same message.

There has been debate as to whether translation is an art, a science, or a Skill. I think Translation is a combination of all of them. It is a science in the sense that it needs complete knowledge of the structure, grammar, semantics, and syntax and in general the make-up of the two languages concerned. It is an art since it requires artistic talent to reconstruct the original text in the form of a product that is presentable to the reader who is not supposed to be familiar with the original. It is also a skill, because it requires attention to detail the meaning and a thorough understanding of the relationship between syntax and semantics, coupled with extensive cultural background and the ability to provide the translation of something that has no equal in the target language.

Also being a human skill, it enables human beings to exchange ideas and thoughts regardless of the different languages they use. Man is endowed with the ability to convey his feelings and experience to others through language. For this process of communication man acquired both spoken language and the written language, but when human beings spread over the earth, their languages differed and they needed a means through which they can communicate and interact with each others. Thus necessity for translation to convey one’s feelings and experiences into the other language was felt.

Sometimes we ask ourselves, why is translation between English and Arabic important? Both Arabic and English are of the world great languages, in the book ‘The Spread of English, on page 77 the writer says: “the great languages of today are languages of empire, past and present. Only two, Mandarin Chinese and Russian, continue as languages of administration within single, ethno linguistically diverse states. The others -Arabic, English, French, and Spanish-are imperial legacies, having survived the disintegration of the empires that fostered them.”

Arabic language is one of the great world languages. there have been great languages of great empires that did not survive as a great language , like Turkish for instance, when we compare Turkish with Arabic, we find out that Arabic survived the disintegration of the Arab Islamic empire and it continues to be one of the great languages of the world till today, while the Turkish language which was the language of administration and authority in the middle east , Balkans, and different parts of the world that was under the Ottoman rule for a thousand years ,but Turkish in the words of Fishman on page 77 in the book ‘The Spread of English” ‘flowed back to Anatolia with the collapse of the ottoman empire’. But these words are not 100% accurate because Turkish is spoken all over Turkey and in Northern Cyprus, not only in Anatolia which is only a part of Turkey. Also Turkish minorities in the former Soviet Union republics, Bulgaria, Russia, Greece, and Romania use Turkish as their mother tongue. Moreover the languages of Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, are all branches of the Turkic language family. Yet, no denying that Turkish language lost a lot of its importance after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

Returning to Arabic, it is one of the six official languages adopted in The United Nations. Arabic is the language of a rich culture and civilization dating back many centuries; it was the language of Muhammad, the Messenger and Prophet of Allah (Allah is the Arabic word for God), and it is the language of the Holy Qura’an. It has produced great figures such as Averroes(Ibn-Roshd), the medieval Aristotelian philosopher; Ibn Khaldun, the first social historian; and Khalil Jibran. Between the eighth and the fifteenth centuries, the volume of literary, scholarly and scientific book production in Arabic and the level of urban literacy among readers of Arabic were the highest the world had ever known to that time. Islamic artists have used Arabic script as their principal art form for centuries; the beauty of their work will be revealed to anyone through the study of Arabic. Arabic is a member of the Semitic group of languages, closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic, the language the Christ spoke. Moreover, Arabic is widely spoken; total speakers of Arabic exceed 350 million.

According to the Wikipedia encyclopedia, Arabic was also a major vehicle of culture, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy during the middle ages, that is why many European languages have also borrowed numerous words from it.

Pamela J.Farris says in her book Language arts on page 99

“English has borrowed from Arabic algebra, candy, lemon, orange, sugar, and magazine.”

Not only these words English borrowed from Arabic, but there are hundreds of other words borrowed from Arabic, there are some hundreds of the words English borrowed from Arabic in Al Mawrid English-Arabic dictionary, such as typhoon which means in Arabic 7HA’F , Spinach 3(‘F. , and sesame which means in Arabic 3E3E.

So Arabic being one of the world great languages makes translation from and into that language very important, especially English Arabic translation.

No doubt that English is a world language; nowadays it is the language of science, aviation, computing, diplomacy, and tourism. It is listed as the official or co-official language of numerous countries .As well as Arabic, it is one of the six official languages in the United Nations

Consequently, the knowledge of the English language is one of the most important tools in achieving scientific and technological knowledge; moreover it is a tool of communication between countries, different cultural groups, various companies and organizations, communities and friends.

Translation is the tool to make use of the new technology and science. Science knowledge coupled with multiple languages and cultures are increasingly important in an expanding global economy and world welfare. It is clear that Britain and the USA are the forefront of new ideas in science and technology. USA has pioneered in all fields of technology and science; accomplishments of Britain and US technology are in English, so it is very essential to know English to make use of such technology and science.

Also Political relationships, wars, and conflicts make translation so important to have access to what is going on in different parts of the world, especially Arabic English translation, as English is the language of the big powers of the world, and the Arab region is the theatre, where vital events take place at present.

No denying that English is the cornerstone of the world media, many important news sources are in English, on page 34 of the book The Spread of English the writer says: “English newspapers in non English mother-tongue countries are another indication of the world wide status of English”.

If one knows English, one can read the news and points of views of several writers around the globe, by doing so one can expand his knowledge, and get a broader outlook on the surroundings, and to look at issues with a broader perspective. In my opinion, knowing any language is an international passport specifically English.

English is also the language of communication, with the spread of internet, English appeared to be the language of communication, hundreds of millions of different races communicate with each others via the internet in English, thus English helps to strengthen ties, and make friends among different cultural groups of people on different spots of our planet.

So being the language of science technology and communication, in the age of the internet, English spread so widely, there has never been a language so widely spread in so short a time as English.

As mentioned above, both Arabic and English are great world languages, so translation between this pair of languages is important and essential because of the many reasons mentioned previously.

Translation has been and continues to be the means of cultural and knowledge exchange among people throughout history, and the means of preserving cultural heritage.

As the Islamic Arabic Empire spread, the Arabic language and, indeed, culture was enriched by contacts with other civilizations: Greeks, Persians, Copts, Romans, Indians and Chinese. During the ninth and tenth centuries, a great translation movement, centered in Baghdad, was in force, in which many ancient scientific and philosophical tracts were transposed from ancient languages, especially Greek, into Arabic. Many were enhanced by the new wisdom suggested by Arab thinkers; other texts were simply preserved, only to re-emerge in Europe during the Renaissance.

Modern European languages, such as Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and English owe a great debt to Arabic. The English language itself contains many words borrowed from Arabic: algebra, alchemy, admiral, genius, ghoul, mare sherbet, soda and many others. “

By the means of translation cultural heritage is preserved and new civilizations evolved and flourished; the western civilization for instance, was established on the Arabic and Islamic civilization; scientific books were translated from Arabic into different European languages, and it was the core for the current western civilization.

In the book of “Muslim Contributions to World Civilization” On page 118 we will find that, “From 1154 AC to the sixteenth century, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scholars from Western Europe and Spain translated books from Arabic into Latin in the Toledo Academy established by Alfonso, Sabio the Wise. The translations were then distributed to academic centers in Europe, where they became the basis of the Renaissance, the revival of knowledge in Europe.”

Stanwood Cobb says:” Europe was indebted for all of its beginnings in alchemy and chemistry to the chemical science of the Arabs, which reached them through translation of Arabic works into Latin. In this science, as in other arts and sciences which they practiced, they developed an objective and experimental method as opposed to the purely speculative method of the Greeks.”

“The science of algebra owes much to gifted mathematicians of the

Islamic era. Its very name proves the magnitude of this debt, for the name itself is Arabic, al gebr, “a binding together .”

“In addition to the volumes of Greek science, many scientific works of the Arabs-Avicenna, Averroes, and Rhazes in particular-were translated.”

So English-Arabic translation has been and continues to be of great importance, the causes in the past and present are only different. Currently, it is well known that English Arabic translation is increasingly becoming a topic of much concern and importance these days. Oil, strategic location, history of the Islamic and different other civilizations that took place in the Arabic region, and the current events in the Middle East on the Arab side and the western desire to possess the oil and dominate the region on the Western side, contribute to this importance. This paper highlights the importance of English Arabic translation, mainly the translation of the two word English idioms into Arabic; as English language is full of idioms native speakers of English use a lot of idioms and expressions in everyday conversations, books, newspapers, magazines, TV shows on the Internet because idioms add color to the language, but at the same time, idioms are difficult to understand because their meaning is not what it appears to be at first sight. This imposes a major difficulty to translators from English into Arabic.

For example in the Telegraph newspaper dated 19/09/2006 one of the headlines reads “Police patrols at churches stepped up in Pope Row”

The Idiom ‘step up is used in this article, the Idiom Connection defines the idiom’ step up ‘as follows “rise to a higher or more important position, be promoted”

Al Mawrid dictionary translates the idiom ‘step up’ as J2J/- J6’9A- J2/’/- J*6’9A- JF/A9- J*B/E

In the context of the previous article, the idiom ‘step up’ can be translated as – J2/’/ , it is the translation of the meaning of the idiom.

A Second example in The Sunday Times dated April 30, 2006, the Idiom ‘back down’ is used in the following articles:

Iran’s psychopath in chief, by Israel

“Britain, France, Germany and America hope to pass a resolution at the United Nations Security Council this week mandating Iran to suspend its work on uranium enrichment. If Iran refuses to back down, the security council could impose targeted sanctions.”

Also in the Mail guardian online dated 07 November 2005 we will find the headline

‘Blair to back down on anti-terror laws’

British Prime Minister Tony Blair reluctantly accepted on Monday that he would have to back down on proposed anti-terror laws that would enable police to hold people for up to 90 days without charging them.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke, announcing what amounts to a climbdown, said, however, that the new time limit would not be as short as the 28 days sought by critics of the new Terrorism Bill, which faces a parliamentary vote on Wednesday.

“We do not want to compromise on the 90 days at all. It will be a compromise with this nation’s security,” said Blair at his monthly Downing Street press conference, where he held out hope that he could yet minimise the impact.

American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms – defines the idiom’ ‘back down as ‘Reverse one’s upward course, descend. For example, When she saw the wasps’ nest on the roof, she hastily backed down the ladder. This literal usage usually refers to something one has climbed, such as a ladder or mountain. [Mid-1800s]

Al Mawrid dictionary translates the idiom ‘back down’ as –J*F’2D 9F E7D(

Also 9F J*.DJ 9F – J*1′,9 is a proper translation

In the previous articles, it can be translated as 9F J*.DJ 9F – J*1′,9, and it is the translation of the meaning of the idiom.

Idioms are one of the factors that makes translation remain a human activity; although attempts have been made to automate and computerize the translation of natural language texts, or to use computers as an aid to translation, but translation remains mainly a human activity that needs skill, intelligence, human feeling that keeps the life and spirit of the original language to the translated text, idioms pose a challenge to any translation program. Since a lot of idioms cannot be translated literally.

The right understanding of Idioms is the key to have a good translation from English into Arabic. English is full of idioms; native speakers of English use a lot of idioms and expressions in their speech and writing, in other words, native speakers of English use idioms all the time. Idioms are the grease that makes language flow, but at the same time idioms are difficult to understand because an idiom is “An expression whose meanings cannot be inferred from the meanings of the words that make it up.” Webster’s Online Dictionary, but some are easier to guess when they have some association with the original meaning of the individual words. So the translator should be aware of the idioms.

The idiom ‘cold feet’ which the Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary defines as:”to suddenly become too frightened to do something you had planned to do, especially something important such as getting married” , whereas the American Heritage Dictionary defines the idiom ‘cold feet’ as

“Fearfulness or timidity preventing the completion of a course of action”.

It is used in an article in the guardian newspaper on Saturday March 25, 2006 as follows:

‘Iraq hostages ‘were saved by rift among kidnappers’

o Guards got cold feet after American was shot

o Returning Kember ‘failed to say thanks to rescuers’

Jonathan Steele in Amman, Ewen MacAskill and Richard Norton-Taylor

Saturday March 25, 2006

The Guardian

The British hostage Norman Kember and his two Canadian colleagues owe their freedom to a rift among their Iraqi kidnappers, a western security source close to the rescue operation said yesterday.

This idiom used in the previous article can be translated as AB/’F ‘D-E’3 DA9D 4& E’- FB5’F ‘D4,’9G #H ‘D+B) DA9D 4& E’, the translation is the paraphrase of the idiom according to definitions given above. So the right understanding of idioms is the key to translate well.

An idiom is learned and used as a single unit of language; and should be translated in the same way. To translate idioms the translator , first of all needs to recognize idioms , understand them, know the culture from which the idiom comes, the origin, the atmosphere in which it is used , then the translator should do his/her best, at first to find an equivalent or a corresponding idiom in the target language that keeps the flavor of the original, if there is not such corresponding idiom or phrase the translator analyzes the idiom and translates the meaning of the idiom in words that keep the color and flavor of the idiom in the source language

Every language is idiomatic; each language has a certain set of rules that govern the way words are put together to express facts, ideas and feelings. The rules and their exceptions are unique to the language, despite possible similarities with other languages. In this sense, a language is always idiomatic. Within this general consideration, we usually think of ‘idioms’ as unique phrases: we use them to express something that other, more general sentences can’t express just as well. It is important to learn idioms to be able to communicate well. They are also interesting to study because of the insight they give us into the language and the people who use them. These expressions originate in the history, literature, religion, and traditions typical of a certain community. For this reason, idioms reveal much of the way of thinking of a community.

Since idiomatic expressions are so frequently encountered in both spoken and written discourse, they require special attention in translation

the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines ‘idiom’ as : a group of words whose meaning is different from the meanings of the individual words:. This means even if one knows the meaning of each word; one may not understand the idiom itself. So we cannot translate the idioms correctly unless we understand their meaning. If we take into account the idiom ‘ New blood and translate it into Arabic (/E ,/J/) word by word, (/E ,/J/) is sometimes used in Arabic to mean young people. On one hand, it can be viewed as an equivalent, on the other hand sometimes it is hard to guess that the expression actually means ‘ people with a lot of energy or fresh ideas who are brought into an organization in order to improve it’ as defined in Cambridge advanced Learner’s dictionary, as in F-*’, ‘DJ /E ,/J/– it can mean the need for new blood in a hospital for instance, but sometimes it can be misunderstood.

Based on the previous definition in Cambridge advanced Learner’s Dictionary, the appropriate translation for this idiom is #4.’5 EDJ&) (‘D7’B) H ‘D-JHJ) H ‘D#AC’1- ‘AC’1 H 7’B’* ,/J/) .The translation here is a paraphrase.

As a matter of fact, the literal translation of an idiom is often absurd or comical. The idiom ‘Back burner ‘ literally translates into Arabic as ”D-‘1B ‘D.DAJ’

The literal translation in Arabic sounds comical. The Dictionary of English Idioms & Idiomatic Expressions defines it as follows: If an issue is on the back burner, it is being given low priority is ‘ then the right translation is -‘D EF 9/E ‘D’G*E’E-BDJD ‘D’GEJ)

sometimes The image created by the literal meaning of an idiom is comic but sometimes it can help to remember that idiom.

Here is an example of English idioms that can be easily understood from the images they evoke. The English idiom double faced translates literally in Arabic as 0H H,GJF- (with two faces) in Arabic. So the image created by this idiom helps us to remember and understand it. So we can translate it as EF’AB ‘hypocrite’ in Arabic- or -E.’/9 deceiver (in Arabic), which will be an adequate translation. The image created by the idiom double faced can make us think of a person with two faces , which means hypocrite .Even though using the images of the literal translation is an effective and fun way to learn English idioms, the literal translation alone is deceiving in many cases

The real meaning of the English idiom has to be learned in context to be correctly understood. It is necessary to study idioms within sentences. A proper example makes the meaning and the use clear. For example the idiom sitting duck which means ‘an easy target’, when we learn this idiom in a sentence as in “His arguments were so simple, she was able to knock them down like sitting ducks.” It will be easy to understand that the idiom means ‘an easy target’ and translate it into Arabic adequately, if we translate it literally in Arabic it would be (7) ,’D3) which does not make sense in Arabic, but the adequate translation is a paraphrase translation of the idiom which is G/A 3GD

Translation of ideas and meaning from one language to another leaves much freedom to the translator , but translation of idioms does not need only translation of ideas and meaning , the translator should keep the effect idioms give to the language as possible as the translator can. To translate idioms word-for-word” translation is inadequate and confusing, To translate idioms well, the translator must recognize idioms to be idioms, the translator must understand the goals and intents of the author of the original work; and the context in which idioms are used, then s/he should understand the meaning of the idioms, s/he should look it up in dictionaries, search on the web , ask native speakers, and understand the massage of the idiom and in what context it is used . It is good to find a similar idiom in Arabic that carries the same meaning of the English idiom, if the translator cannot find so it is good to parse the idiom apart into its meaning and translate the meaning.

Katharine Barnwell says: The task of the translator is to translate the meaning of the message, rather than the words.

Bible Translation, Katharine Barnwell, 1986, p. 12.

In order to have a good translation, there must be a good translator, who should be fluent in the two languages he seeks to translate between. He must understand the language which he is translating from, as well as the language in which he is translating the work into. Moreover, a good translator must specifically be a good communicator in the target language. A good translator must have the knowledge, skill and experience in this business; In fact the translator has a very serious responsibility not to change the meaning in any way. He must be careful not to add anything to the meaning, or to leave any part of the meaning. Actually the task of translator is more difficult than the writer himself, the writer is free to express his ideas and views in the way he sees suitable and in the vocabulary he likes, but the translator confines himself to the words the writer used and he must be careful not to add anything to the meaning, or to leave any part of the meaning.

Conclusion:

From what has been mentioned above, it is obvious that translation is the bridge of appreciation, love and friendship among nations, it is necessary for progress and prosperity .By the means of translation new civilizations evolved, the western civilization was established on the Arabic and Islamic civilization; scientific, books were translated from Arabic into Latin, and it was the basis for the western civilization.

English Arabic translation has been and continues to be of great importance, because both languages are great world languages, moreover current events, wars, conflicts and struggles in our world add to this importance ; English is the language of big powers and Arabic is the language of the region where conflicts take place for many reasons mentioned previously

Idioms pose a challenge to translators from English into Arabic. English is full of idioms which cannot be understood from the individual words .A translator of English idioms into Arabic needs good knowledge of the two languages and a good knowledge of both cultures .Idioms reflect culture traditions ,cultural identities and history of any nation. They give us insight into history , culture , traditions, and values, morals. So idioms reflect our common humanity through language.

Chinese natives use the same system for their written language. Mandarin (or Putonghua) is the Chinese standard. It is the Beijing dialect made of five pronunciation tones. Mandarin is one of four languages in Singapore, and one of six languages in the United Nations.

Before the Chinese government released the Roman-version of Mandarin in 1958, there were several ways that Chinese letters were sounded out with English letters. Thereafter, Pinyin became the standard to those who wanted to learn Mandarin Chinese.

At least one billion people in the world today speak Chinese as their native language, with 851 million of them being Mandarin native speakers. This clearly outnumbers any other language in the world.

Many Mandarin voice over services provide content for many clients. Dubbing, post-production, subtitling, and translation are all offered. Most companies provide a special team of audio engineers, voice-over artists, and directors to get the job done. Major European, Asian, and East Asian languages serve as their specialty. Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Hmong, Thai, Russian, and Vietnamese are just to name a few.

Wide-ranged Mandarin voice over services include: radio and TV commercials, e-learning software, computer games, documentary narrations, virtual presentations, corporate presentations, medical narrations, audio and video training materials, animation, audio books, and web voice overs.

There are a few free translation services that will help you convert your Mandarin over to English. When you use these, they translate your document or website via a web program. Complex sentences sometimes have trouble being translated over computers. Being aware of the possible limitations this may have, can allow you to receive the best translation services.

When a service works to translate languages into the simplest form, this is beneficial to the client. The simplest forms of translation come in Subject-Verb-Object results. Computerized results can grant satisfiable work, but for simplified, understandable, and guaranteed translation, a professional translator is the only way for proper Mandarin services; Even better, a Mandarin speaker, partnered with an English native.

Onside of translators, there are many self-serve materials to help. Learning software is an option. Whether you need to translate a web page, add Pinyin to a document, or take Mandarin classes, there are useful language tools.

Search engines can also convert languages to other foreign-language pages. They also have tools for converting texts, or entire websites from one language to another. Web Page Annotators can add Pinyin-Roman and English translations to a Chinese website.

You may have automatically assumed that the most appropriate option for the translation of your web site, reports and other business documents is to contract the services of a large translation agency. In this article, I’d like to share some of the benefits of contracting a translator directly and explain the pros and cons of the two options.

Contracting a translation agency, while costing more money, may offer certain advantages:

• A large agency has the advantage of being able to cope with “sheer volume” by having dedicated project managers to handle splitting a large translation among several translators. Although not ideal, if you need a large volume translated urgently, then it may be the only option.
• If you need your text translating into several languages, a large agency is likely to be able to cater to this need.
• If your business deals with a variety of technical fields rather than a very focussed area, then an agency will be able to assign documents requiring different specialisms to different translators.
• A good agency may have provided its translators with materials such as glossaries to assist them with their translations and ensure consistency.
• A good agency may have other Quality Assurance processes in place and should at least have vetted its translators according to some basic criteria such as number of years’ experience and in some cases satisfactory completion of a short test.

However, you should not assume that any of these are the case. Given that the agency could be taking anything up to half the price of the translation in commission, you should verify what actual added value they are providing. Is the agency carefully selecting the most appropriate translator for your project and then applying additional proofreading and verification? Or are they simply mass-mailing their translators, assigning the job to the first available person and mailing you the result without further checking?

You should also not assume that the above factors cannot be addressed if you work with an individual translator. If appropriate for your project, working directly with an individual translator can bring various advantages and still address some of the needs mentioned above:

• You have a direct contact with the professional who will actually be working on your project. You can discuss with them any particular requirements or doubts that you have. Conversely, they can quickly verify with you any points in the text that require clarification.
• You know that the same translator will be working on your material and will become intimately acquainted with your project and company.
• While an individual translator will only be able to handle a modest volume compared to a large agency and will be specialised in particular fields, many translators will also collaborate with trusted colleagues where need be to handle greater volume or consult them on a particular subject area. However, a good translator will still check their colleague’s work for errors and ensure, for example, that their use of terminology is consistent.
• You can ask the translator what experience and expertise they have with your particular subject area. Translators specialise in particular technical fields but a professional translator should also be happy to give you an honest answer if they cannot take on a particular job.
• While agencies can in principle benefit individual translators with their knowledge base of terminology and translation memories, in practice many agencies do not perform this role. And in any case, good translators will nowadays be familiar with and have access to large on-line terminology databases which have made traditional resources somewhat redundant.

Given the above factors, if you haven’t considered it before, then I would strongly recommend that you consider the option of contracting a translator directly if it is suitable to your business needs.

Anyone who has ever used the automated website translator function on Google or Bing knows that their usefulness is limited. They can help a reader gain a rough or rudimentary understanding of the meaning of the text on a website written in a foreign language, but much interpretation is still required. If the text is to be used for effective sales copy or a clear description of product, much manipulation of the syntax and grammar must be done before it can be considered useful and published. Even translation software that is more sophisticated and specialized can deliver a translation that does not capture the full meaning or nuance of a piece of text. It takes a person familiar with two languages to be able to translate the phrase “Here we go, again!” into its correct counterpart in a foreign language. Software may translate such a phrase into something that reads something like “In this place, we go another time.”

A cost benefit analysis may need to be conducted to weigh the costs of using automated translation software and then rewriting the text against hiring a translation service. In the end, hiring a translation service is often more cost effective, especially when the risk of delivering an inaccurate translation of a document is considered. The costs of an inaccurate translation can be lost sales if the translated text is used for sales copy. The costs can be ruinous if a contract or other legal translations are done improperly. That is why it is important to choose the right translation service. A professional translation service will answer questions about their procedures for translating a document, and the qualifications of their staff. The right translation service will be able to provide a certified translation of a document. Whenever possible, they will have a document reviewed by a native speaker of the language in which the document was written. That translator should also be fluent in the language into which the document will be translated. He or she may consult with a native speaker of the second language if the document contains regionalisms or jargon.

Professional translation services should have translators who have training or education in specialized fields, such as law, medicine or specific areas of business. This training and education can be critical in delivering accurate translations. Some translation services specialize in specific areas, such as insurance. The translators at these firms are selected not only for their fluency and proficiency in a given language, but also for their knowledge and expertise in their field. It is often necessary to have a deep understanding of insurance to be able to translate a document such as an insurance policy. Firms that provide legal translations can often assure their clients that the translators working on their documents or translating telephone conversations are paralegals or attorneys. They are not only fluent in more than one language, but are also familiar with the culture and law of more than one nation. It may be important to ask about such qualifications of translators when considering which translation service to use. In many cases, it may be necessary to find a service that has translators who are not only familiar with a given language, but also dialects of that language. When asking questions about the native languages and qualifications of the individual translators, it may also be helpful to ask about the language or languages in which the translators received their college educations.

The in-depth study of Art of Translation demands more attention not because it paves way for global interaction and offers an excellent opportunity to undergo socio-cultural survey of various languages and their literatures but also gives an opportunity to establish some kind of relevance it has in the study and area of Literary Criticism. Translation Studies can very safely be included as an important genre in the domain of Literary Criticism since translation is an art prompting to peep into the diversified lingual, cultural and literary content of a source language and thus highlighting/appreciating the essence and niceties of the literature of that particular translated language. In the context of Indian Studies, keeping in view the multilingual and pluristic cultural nature of our country,translation has an important role to play. It is through translation that we can look into the rich heritage of India as one integrated unit and feel proud of our cultural legacy. The relevance of translation as multifaceted and a multidimensional activity and its international importance as a socio-cultural bridge between countries has grown over the years. In the present day circumstances when things are fast moving ahead globally,not only countries and societies need to interact with each other closely, but individuals too need to have contact with members of other communities/societies that are spread over different parts of the country/world. In order to cater to these needs translation has become an important activity that satisfies individual, societal and national needs.

It goes without saying that the significance and relevance of translation in our daily life is multidimensional and extensive. It is through translation we know about all the developments in communication and technology and keep abreast of the latest discoveries in the various fields of knowledge, and also have access through translation to the literature of several languages and to the different events happening in the world. India has had close links with ancient civilisations such as Greek, Egyptian and Chinese. This interactive relationship would have been impossible without the knowledge of the various languages spoken by the different communities and nations. This is how human beings realised the importance of translation long ago. Needless to mentiuon here that the relevance and importance of translation has increased greatly in today’s fast changing world. Today with the growing zest for knowledge in human minds there is a great need of translation in the fields of education, science and technology, mass communication, trade and business, literature, religion, tourism, etc.

Defining Translation

Broadly speaking,translation turns a text of source language(SL) into a correct and understandable version of target language(TL)without losing the suggestion of the original. Many people think that being bilingual is all that is needed to be a translator. That is not true. Being bilingual is an important prerequisite,no doubt, but translation skills are built and developed on the basis of one’s own long drawn-out communicative and writing experiences in both the languages. As a matter of fact translation is a process based on the theory of extracting the meaning of a text from its present form and reproduce that with different form of a second language.

Conventionally, it is suggested that translators should meet three requirements, namely: 1) Familiarity with the source language, 2) Familiarity with the target language, and 3) Familiarity with the subject matter to perform the job successfully. Based on this concept, the translator discovers the meaning behind the forms in the source language (SL) and does his best to reproduce the same meaning in the target language (TL) using the TL forms and structures to the best of his knowledge. Naturally and supposedly what changes is the form and the code and what should remain unchanged is the meaning and the message (Larson, 1984).Therefore, one may discern the most common definition of translation, i.e., the selection of the nearest equivalent for a language unit in the SL in a target language.

Computers are already being used to translate one language into another, but humans are still involved in the process either through pre-writing or post-editing. There is no way that a computer can ever be able to translate languages the way a human being could since language uses metaphor/imagery to convey a particular meaning. Translating is more than simply looking up a few words in a dictionary. A quality translation requires a thorough knowledge of both the source language and the target language.

Translation Theory, Practice and Process

Successful translation is indicative of how closely it lives up to the expectations as: reproducing exactly as for as possible the meaning of the source text,using natural forms of the receptor/target language in such a way as is appropriate to the kind of text being translated and expressing all aspects of the meaning closely and readily understandable to the intended audience/reader.Technically, translation is a process to abstract the meaning of a text from its current forms and reproduce that meaning in different forms of another language. Translation has now been recognised as an independent field of study. The translator can be said to be the focal element in the process of translation. The writer/author becomes the centre, for whatever he writes will be final, and no two translators translate a text in the same way. It is genegally believed that a writer to know the intricacies of the TL in which he may wish to translate. As a matter of fact, it is not the writer of the SL text who asks someone to translate his works into the TL; it is primarily the interest of the individual translator which prompts him to translate a work into his mother tongue. A successful translator is not a mechanical translator of a text but is creative as well. We may say that he is a co-creator of the TL text. . In fact, for a translator knowledge of two or more languages is essential. This involves not only a working knowledge of two different languages but also the knowledge of two linguistic systems as also their literature and culture.Such translators have been seen to possess various qualities which we shall briefly discuss later.

Linguiustically,translation consists of studying the lexicon, grammatical structure, communication situation, and cultural context of the source language and its text, analyzing it in order to determine its meaning, and then reconstructing the same meaning using the lexicon and grammatical structure which are appropriate in the target language and its cultural context. The process of translation starts with the comprehension of the source text closely and after discovering the meaning of the text, translator re-expresses the meaning he has drawn out into the receptor/target language in such a way that there is minimal loss in the transformation of meaning into the translated language.This entire process could be graphed as under:-

Overview of the translation task

In practice, there is always considerable variation in the types of translations produced by various translators of a particular text. This is because translation is essentially an Art and not Science.So many factors including proficiency in language,cultural background, writing flair etc.determine the quality of translation and it is because of that no two translations seem to be alike if not averse.

Accommodation in Translation

Translation turns a communication in one language into a correct and understandable version of that communication in another language. Sometimes a translator has to take certain liberties with the original text in order to re-create the mood and style of the original.This,in other words is called ‘accommodation.’ This has three dimensions: cultural accommodation; collocation accommodation; ideological accommodation; and aesthetic accommodation.Accommodation is considered a synonym of adaptation which means changes are made so the target text produced is in line with the spirit of the original. Translation is not merely linguistic conversion or transformation between languages but it involves accommodation in scope of culture, politics, aesthetics, and many other factors. Accommodation is also translation, a free, rather than literal, kind of translation. Moreover, it is inevitable in practice if the translation is to maintain the source message’s essence, impact, and effect. There is an interesting saying: A translation is like a woman: if it is faithful, it is not beautiful; if it is beautiful, it is not faithful. That is to say if you want to be faithful with the text while translating you are bound to lose the beauty of the translated text and if you try to maintain the beauty of the translated text you are sure to be unfaithful with the original text.. Faithfulness was once considered the iron rule in translation process but over the years when we take a closer look, accommodation, or adaptation, is found in most published translations and it has become a necessity too since keeping in view the averse cultural/lingual/geographical/historical/political diversifications and backgrounds of various languages and their literatures, accommodation,if not compromising, is almost obligatory. Accommodation, too, has to be carried out very sensibly, more especially when it comes to translating poetry or any such text which is highly immotive and artistic in nature.For example translating poetry has never been so simple. Robert Frost once said, “Poetry is what gets lost in translation.” This is a sufficient evidence of the difficulty involved in translation of poetry. Because poetry is fundamentally valuable for its aesthetic value, therefore, aesthetic accommodation becomes an art instead of a basic requirement. A good poetry translator with a good measure of accommodation and adequate knowledge of aesthetic traditions of different cultures and languages, can be better appreciated by the target reader and can achieve the required effect.

Qualities of a good Translator

A good translator should have adequate knowledge of the SL(source language) from which he is translating into the TL which is generally his mother toungue/target language. In order to produce an accurate translation of the SL text he should have command over the grammatical, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic features of the SL. In addition to this it is necessary that he is well-conversant with the socio-cultural contexts of both the SL and the TL. A good translator should be the author’s mouthpiece in a way that he knows and comprehends fully whatever the original author has said in his text. One of the generally accepted characteristics of a good translation is that it should resemble the original text or come as close to the SL text as possible. It should appear like the original in the TL translation within the usual social and cultural settings with some minor accommodation, if necessary,of course.

Usually it is also believed that the job of a translator is a mechanical one-a simple rendering of the SL text into a TL text. But it is not so. The translator has to perform a really difficult task. It is in a way more difficult and complicated than that of the original writer. A creative writer composes or pens down his thoughts without any outward compulsion. A translator has to confine himself not only to the SL text but a host of other factors also intervene in the process of translating the TL.

A good translator must have an adequate knowledge of the subject or area to which the SL text relates so that the translator is able to capture the spirit of the SL text. If he does not have an in-depth knowledge, he may not be able to produce an accurate translation suitable for its intended purpose. For example, if you want to translate the Bible or the Gita or any other religious text, you must have adequate knowledge of those religious and theological works.

A good translator should be careful of the choices that he makes in using the TL. He should translate in the style, which is appropriate for the target audience. The style should be such that it appears to be natural and spontaneous to the TK readers. The translation in the TL should not sound alien.

A translator does need certain tools to help him out in moments of difficulty. These tools can be in the form of good monolingual and bilingual dictionaries, encyclopedias, e-dictionaries, glossaries of technical and standard works, etc. pertaining to the SL text.

A good translator must have patience and should not be in a hurry to rush through while translating any text. He should not hesitate in discussing with others the problems that he may come across. Morever, he should not shy away from conducting micro-research in order to arrive at proper and apt equivalents.

In short, a good translator should be a competent and proficient bilingual, familiar with the subject/area of the SL text chosen for translation. He should never try to insert his own ideas or personal impressions in the TL text. His objective should be to convey the content and the intent of the SL text as exactly as possible into the TL text. The job of a translator is very rewarding and intellectually stimulating

Finally,a few words(based upon my close understanding about translation study and activity) for up-coming translators and translation-lovers.To translate from one language into another has never been an easy endeavour.It is an exercise both painstaking and cumbersome and only those who have engaged themselves with translation work can realize the complex character of this Art. I have been associated with translation work for over three decades translating from English, more especially, from Kashmiri/Urdu into Hindi and back.

1-A good translator ought to be a good writer.

2-You needn’t translate everything that has been written, you need to translate the best only.

4-A good translator adjusts/accommodates and not compromises with the original text.

5-Translators are like ambassadors representing and exchanging the best of their literary world.

5-Art of translation is as old as makind, don’t you translate your thought before you speak it out? Some more suggestions:

1-Try to get into the mind of the writer.

2-Check your translation twice or may be thrice before finalizing the script. Put the original passage “aside” and listen to/read your translation with your ear “tuned in”, as if it were a passage originally written in the TL.

3-If your material is highly technical, with vocabulary that is distinctive to a discipline, it is important that the translator has at least some background or experience of that discipline. A good translator of poetry and drama may be a bad choice for a chemical engineering or biotechnology text.

4-If you have a native speaker of your target language handy, particularly one who is familiar with the subject, that person could be as useful as your teacher for final script-review. Take his assistance without fail.

A few more guide lines for the translators:

Do not try to find difficult equivalent words in the hope that this will add to the perfection of your translation.

Every language has its own punctuation rules and differ in many ways; take care to punctuate correctly.

Check your translation two or three times at the end.

If you have something important that needs to be translated, it is best to hire a certified translation services provider. Translation services are in demand these days and there are companies that are not licensed or have qualified personnel to provide you with the translation that you need. In having your translation needs handled by a certified translator, you can be assured of an accurate, precise and fast output. They can handle all types of translation services may it be a patent, script, manuscript, textbook, standard operating procedures or company policy. Certified companies who provide these type of services usually have all types of personnel that can provide you with any type of translation service.

There are things that you need to consider before you hire someone to do the type of translation service that you need. You must first determine the purpose of the translation. If it is important or it involves work, or other serious matters then it is vital to select a highly qualified provider to do this job for you. Reputable companies who provide translation needs can be costly but you can be guaranteed of an accurate and precise data even if you have a technical or complex document that others find hard to translate. Reputable companies have all the resources to have a 100 percent accurate data. If you are short of time and needs to have a fast service in order to catch a deadline, you can have your document or documents machine translated. Some companies have state of the art equipment for this purpose. They have the technology to translate documents in bulk with a very fast turn around time. If you need native speakers for a certain language, top companies who have been in the business for quite some time can provide you this. They have native speakers who know the language and the culture of your preferred county best. These types of personnel are very important in business deals. You can also be assured of all that took place will not leak or get out; a secrecy clause is signed by the company ensuring the privacy of your business.

If you need a translator for any informal setting or for less important matters, a mid-level translator can get the job done. It is impractical to pay a lot of money for a service that can be done by someone with a lower service charge. Examples of these are letter from a friend, a non-English speaking visitor or any documents that contains non-technical data.

With globalization affecting every sector, there has been an enormous growth in translation service providers of-late. In order to expand business in any nation, companies hire these agencies to translate business texts/documents into the languages of their targeted consumers. Document translation is an important global marketing strategy which is adopted by various companies and organizations. So, if a company wants to offer its products and services to its consumers in Italy, it will have to translate its business documents into Italian language by hiring expert translators.

Translation companies have made it possible to share information and ideas from one language to another. They provide translations for websites and documents for various businesses to target their multilingual customers and help them in numerous ways. Let us discuss the reasons why one should hire them:

• Translators are native language speakers who produce accurate translations. By hiring them, you can make use of their expertise to target your audience and localize your website or document according to their culture.

• Hiring professional translation can give access to a pool of talented language specialists. They can provide you industry specific translations complying with the industry standards.

• Hiring professional translation services ensures confidentiality of information. They sign a non-disclosure agreement which inhibits them to disclose or share any information contained in your documents.

• With professional translation services you can hold the copyright of your documents. As you soon as you get the final copy of your translations, you receive the copyright alongside which ensures that nobody can use your info or steal any part of your document for his own benefit. If you find an information breach, you can take legal actions against the doer.

• Translation companies provide cost-effective and comprehensive range of services which include editing, proofreading and formatting unlike freelancer or free translation services.

• They provide human touch to your translations unlike machine translations which cannot maintain the nuances of topics which are related to emotions. Moreover, machine or computerized translations appear to be more generic.

• They deliver quick turnaround unlike a freelance translator who move deadlines and doesn’t sign any contract.

• Translation services provide additional services like localization and interpretation services along with language translation.

• They maintain customer relations and have a full range of customer support to handle their client. With a good customer support, you can ask for re-writes and make any changes in the translated document which is not possible with freelance translators.

It is evident that hiring professional document translation services for your business is worthwhile because of the above listed reasons. If you want to get more information about document translation services, please visit our website.