To “translate” literally means to move from one medium to another and language translation completely embodies this concept. To move from one language to the other requires a major shift and transformation from one cultural context to another. LanguageTran’s team of professional translators understands the challenges of this journey and is prepared to produce some the best translations in the industry.

The significance of traveling across multiple cultural borders is better understood once we consider how different cultural frameworks impact the way we interpret the world around us. A professional Spanish translation needs to take into account how the author’s mother tongue can be accurately understood by the reader.

Are we pigeon-holed by our native language?

Researchers have discovered that language molds the way that we perceive and interact with the world around us. Different languages filter experiences in different ways. However, it is less straightforward to determine exactly how and to what extent this plays out. Every language has developed in its own geographic, cultural and historical context. There are many examples of these differences. In English to Spanish translations a word that sounds alike can mean entirely different things. One example of this would be “Common Law” which could be literally (erroneously) translated into Spanish as “Ley Común” or “Ley Ordinaria”. Common Law, in English law, refers to body of case law as established by the courts while in many Spanish speaking countries it refers to a specific range of laws promulgated by legislative bodies.

Guy Deutscher explores how your experiences are shaped by your mother tongue in his book Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages. The short version, "Does Your Language Shape How You Think?" was published in the New York Times and offers this insight:

“When your language routinely obliges you to specify certain types of information, it forces you to be attentive to certain details in the world and to certain aspects of experience that speakers of other languages may not be required to think about all the time. And since such habits of speech are cultivated from the earliest age, it is only natural that they can settle into habits of mind that go beyond language itself, affecting your experiences, perceptions, associations, feelings, memories and orientation in the world.”

Though many linguists believe that our mother tongue permanently defines a set of possible ways to experience the world, Deutscher disagrees that it plays such a restricting role. If we were so confined by our native language how has our communication ever evolved? Deutscher views the influence of the mother tongue as a well-worn groove or familiar path that guides or obliges certain thought processes without limiting them. The rest is left up to our incredibly plastic and capable brains, which permit us to change perspectives and open our minds.

Our true language potential reaches beyond the outer banks of our respective native languages. We have the ability to extract meaning from rudimentary or complex forms of communication and weave it into any cultural fabric. To do this, we must fully comprehend the differences between the languages and cultures we want to translate between. Good translators dissolve the walls of their cultural framework, access the subtext beneath the words and rebuild the idea with a new cultural relevance.

Challenges for English to Spanish translation

English and Spanish speakers are separated by fewer cultural gaps than languages that do not belong to the same language family. Traditional customs are more widely understood and accepted, each language operates with fairly similar logic, the alphabets are similar and very few sounds in either language are unique.  

Some words in Spanish and English sound alike but their meanings are not the same. This class of words is called false cognates.  There are many examples of false cognates between English and Spanish that could easily render a poor Spanish translation and that will usually stump the less experienced translators. For example, the English word “facility” can refer to a place or equipment required to perform a task. An untrained translator might be tempted to use the word “facilidad” in the Spanish translation. This would be a translation mistake, for in Spanish, “facilidad” only refers to the ease with which a task is carried out.

Spanish is a gendered language dotted with dozens of verb tenses and moods with no English equivalent. Furthermore, English vocabulary is much richer; typically fewer words are needed to convey a single thought in English. Consequently, Spanish translations are almost always longer than the original English text. Other minor differences include the use of double negatives in Spanish and the addition of subject pronouns in English.

English to Spanish translation is a detail-oriented process and should be carried out by a professional English to Spanish translation agency. LanguageTran hires selectively screened, native Spanish speakers to guarantee a seamless journey across the great language barrier. Our translation services include website translations, technical translations, certified translations, and legal translations, amongst others, and we can translate from almost any language. LanguageTran guarantees your translation will be accurate, professional and localized.