Knockhundred News

We decided to ask one of our regular Spanish subtitlers to tell us about their day-to-day life. Ana explained how she got into subtitling and told us a little about what the job involves.

We receive all kinds of transcription requests. We’re sent audio and video files in all sorts of languages and our clients have a diverse range of demands when it comes to transcription. But one thing that never changes, irrespective of language and presentation, is the need for quality.

UK-based manufacturers often seek to extend their markets by reaching out to customers based in other EU countries. Typically, an advert is produced for the UK market with an English voice-over. But if the commercial is to be shown in France, Spain or Germany, then it will either need subtitling or, better still, native language speakers producing voice-overs for local markets. It is quite an involved process and presents real challenges!

How do we provide such an excellent telephone interpreting service? By only working with the best!

Most people think interpreting is just translating orally or into sign language the words of a person speaking a different language. Of course this is true in the most basic sense, but there is so much more to the skillset of an interpreter.

Last week I spoke to Palash, one of our seasoned Bengali and Hindi subtitlers, to find out what kind of projects he has been handling recently. As well as subtitling, Palash also works on transcription and direct translations of media files into English.

The School of Social Work at the University of East Anglia is an internationally renowned academic department dedicated to research and teaching. Our English transcription service is an invaluable tool for the research students who study there.

We are working in close collaboration with a number of research institutions and production houses, creating Arabic to English subtitles for international marketing. There are some real challenges involved, but we’re so proud of our Arabic subtitling team!

With anywhere between 1000 and 2000 languages, Africa is home to approximately one-third of the world's languages. Our project management team prides itself on being able to handle the rarest of African languages, and to date, we have not been defeated by an African language transcription request.

We work closely with a number of online clothing retailers, who advertise literally thousands of products, from trainers, to jeans to hoodies. Our clients often have their websites translated into a number of European languages, in order to reach as many potential customers as is possible.

‘Transcreation’ is a term which is widely used in advertising and marketing, but what exactly does it mean? And what differentiates transcreation from ‘regular’ translation? 

When we are asked to provide a direct translation from Spanish audio or video material into English, we always need to listen to a sample first so that an appropriate member of our team can undertake the work. This is because there are many different Spanish accents and dialects - even within the same country.