Translation

Contrary to popular belief…..

…..translation is not just a case of transferring words systematically from one language to another. If it were, Google Translate would be ideal for carrying out translations. Other aspects, however, need to be taken into account at all times during the translation process. These include context, purpose, new audience, culture and style. Only a human translator can recognise these factors and produce a translation that is fit for cross-cultural communication. That’s where Tiki-Taka Linguistics comes in.

What do we translate?

We translate football club websites, publicity material, press releases, contracts, blog posts, social media content, match reports, articles, interviews, football programmes, fanzines, biographies, books and anything else related to football. All of our translators are football specialists and are very passionate about what we do. We want your text to sparkle and have the intended effect on its new audience.

A methodical approach

A project manager will oversee your project from beginning to completion. They will assign the work to a translator and make sure the job runs smoothly and arrives on time. The source text, any important instructions in the client brief, and the target audience and culture will be analysed by the translator to determine the purpose of the translation and the approach they should take. Research will take place to help understand the subject and a glossary of key football words will be compiled to ensure consistency and quality. Once the translator is happy with their work, it is sent to another translator for revision. This will ensure the translation is accurate and grammatically correct. Once revised, the project manager will carry out a final check before returning it to the client for publication.

Do we translate out of our native language?

Never! As professional translators, we work exclusively into our mother tongue. Why? Because despite our best efforts, we will never master a foreign language with the same lexical accuracy, grammatical correctness and complete familiarity typical of a native. Think about a foreign person you know who speaks to you in your language: Rafa Benítez, the Spanish football manager, for example. He may be able to communicate adequately and you can understand every word he says, but some of the expressions and words he employs sound weird and are not those that a native speaker would use. In a professionally translated document, these expressions would divert attention away from the message of the text, leaving the target audience with an alien and often disjointed reading experience. That is why all of our translators will only ever be asked to translate into their native tongue.

Continuous Professional Development (CPD)

As proud members of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI), football fanatics and professional translators, our team is committed to carrying out continuous professional development. By regularly working on our language skills and footballing knowledge, and by keeping up to date with football industry developments, we are able to produce polished football translations that sound as though they were written in the target language in the first place, demonstrating our utmost professionalism and pride in our work.

Language and translation expertise

Our core team is able to translate English, Italian, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese and Russian, and we also have an excellent pool of translators that can translate any other languages. Many of us have lived, or are living, in other countries. This has enabled us to get a firmer grasp on not only the languages of those countries, but also their culture. We all hold a Master’s degree in Translation and, after working as translators for many years, we also possess a wealth of professional translation experience between us, particularly in football translation.

Play us in and we’ll do the rest!

If you’re looking for accurate football translations that are culturally and stylistically fit for purpose, get in touch now and we will be happy to provide you with a quote. It would be helpful to let us know the following when contacting us: the word count of the source text, what kind of text it is, the purpose of the translation, when it needs to be completed, who the target audience is and whether it will be used for reference or publication.