7 BEST PRACTICES FOR ENGLISH TO THAI TRANSLATION SERVICES

 While English is a required subject in major Thai schools, the number of confident speakers remains very low, mainly outside of Bangkok. In fact, Thailand is categorized as a low English proficiency country.

This fact means one distinct thing. To thrive in the Thai market, your data must be available in the Thai language. Plus, you need accurate and professional English to Thai translation services because Thai culture should be carefully handled as they have a rich history.

For a certified Thai translation project, you should take the following key practices into consideration.

1.   Use Thai Pronouns Smartly

If you are only aware of the use of pronouns in English, which is founded on three factors – genders, numbers (singular or plural), and person (first, second, or third), you will be confused by Thai pronouns.

To choose an appropriate pronoun in Thai, some extra factors such as familiarity, politeness, respect, formality, and so on must be considered.

In Thai, there are numerous pronouns. Some words are now considered impolite as some of them have become obsolete.

Tips

Because the use of improper pronouns can offend addresses or confuse, you should be cautious when picking pronouns to interconnect with your customers in your English to Thai translation projects. One instruction is to always seek advice from native Thai localizers, learn about the culture of the target Thai locales, and research your target audiences.

The native localizers will contribute in picking the most potent pronouns for an effective project based on the customer insights you gain from research.

2. Acknowledge that there is No Space Between Thai Words

Unlike English, space is not used in Thai to separate phrases and words in a sentence. Instead, it uses a set of rules to assist readers to identify words. You won’t even notice the lack of spaces between Thai words once you’ve been aware of these standards.

The lack of space between Thai words presents a major barrier for the Desktop Publishing (DTP) step in Thai translation projects. If your DTP-ers aren’t fluent in the language or native Thai speakers, there’s a high risk they will break lines inaccurately, resulting in incomprehensible information.

“Words that are broken wrongly are unreadable. Computers are unable to properly detect words, hence human rechecking is strongly guided.”

Tips

Only let native and skilled DTP-ers manage and Thai linguists manage your English to Thai translation content to confirm that no mistakes are made.

After the DTP step, it’s a great idea for your team to spend some money and time hiring a native Thai editor to go over the whole document again to make sure your translated Thai content is perfect.

3. Understanding the Complex Spacing Rules

While spaces are not used to separate words within a sentence in Thai, they are vital in other situations. (And these rules are totally different from English so you should use them wisely.)

In fact, the Thai language’s space necessities are so complex that even native Thai speakers make errors.

Tips

When arranging for your English to Thai translation projects, you should contain these rules in your translation style guide so that your Thai linguists can effortlessly guarantee the consistent use of spaces and follow your requirements throughout the translated Thai documents from English.

4. Choose the Right Calendar

Thai people use two calendar systems called the Thai lunar calendar and Thai solar calendar.

•       The Thai solar calendar is built on the Gregorian calendar, which is used in popular countries globally. This calendar is used in the commercial and legal fields.
•       The Tai calendar (also known as Thai lunar calendar) is a Buddhist lunisolar calendar. Thais use the Tai calendar to keep track of Buddhist religious practices and traditional events.

Tips

Make sure you specify which system of calendar you would like to use for your English to Thai translations to your Thai translators. You should contain this data in the translation style guide.

5. Don’t Misuse the Number Systems

There are two distinct numeral systems used by Thai people: Thai numbers (ตัวเลขไทย) and Arabic numerals.

Tips

The Arabic numerals are generally used in writing by Thais in major situations. Thai numbers, on the other hand, are only used in very formal contexts such as legal documents for the court or the government, and rarely on the house address label. When it comes to English to Thai translation, you should cautiously consider which number system to use for your types of content in order to provide the best experience or reading for Thai audiences.

6. Be Aware of Text Expansion 

 Due to the variances in expression styles between English and Thai, you should experience text expansion and formulate for it when handling English to Thai translation projects. In fact, translated texts in Thai are usually 15% longer than their originals in English.

Tips

When transforming content from English into Thai, you should purposely leave more space for text or ask translators to use shorter words or sentences. In terms of layouts, some parts may need to be moderately or slightly redesigned.

7. Work with Professional English to Thai Translation Providers

The list of practices for Thai and English translation projects does not end with the six we stated earlier. When employed on this language pair, you will meet a huge number of other unexpected and common pitfalls.

As a result, we strongly advise you to only work with qualified English to Thai translators who are aware of Thai culture and language, as well as the difficulties related with English to Thai translations.

Wrapping up

Acadestudio provides high-quality and on-demand English to Thai translation services at affordable prices. Thousands of companies small and large trust us for global success.

There are many types of services like Telugu translation , Vietnamese translation and other more services.