Knockhundred News

We’ve been working on transcribing some English-language interviews, with some very well known individuals!

You can understand why teachers of the Spanish language recommend watching films and TV programmes that have been subtitled either in Spanish of English. It is a great way to learn another language.

Advertising agencies cast individuals from all over the world and often their interviews need subtitling into English.

We wanted to learn a little about what life is like for our Arabic medical interpreters, so we took the time to chat with Muhammad and hear about his day-to-day life.

Sajid Javid was forced into a grovelling apology yesterday after admitting Pashto and Dari translators and interpreters were wrongly forced to take DNA tests before they could settle in Britain.

With an increasing number of programmes made specifically for Welsh audiences, so comes real demand for Welsh subtitles and captions.

Our German transcription service for academic research is regularly called upon by students from the University of Bath.

Working from either video or audio, our German transcribers and typists can either produce a same language transcript or a direct translation from German into English.

We are frequently asked to complete ‘direct translation’ which can be from either audio, or from video. But exactly what is ‘direct translation’? Our clients frequently make foreign language audio or video recordings. The content can be literally anything, but the endgame is the same. Our linguists listen to the content (which may be in Spanish, French, German or any other language) and produce an English transcript, with no steps in between.

It is an uncomfortable fact that upheavals around the world usually result in our translators in certain languages being called upon to translate video content into English.

Here at Knockhundred we can remember when our clients usually demanded one of two things, either text translation, or interpreting. As technology has developed, so too have the demands of our clients. The increasing popularity and accessibility of multimedia platforms means that clients are demanding subtitles. Subtitles, subtitles and yes… more subtitles!

Did anybody see the bit in the second episode of the new Dr Who when Jodie Whittaker explains how the humans could understand the language of the Stenza? The answer is obvious - an alien health pod implants universal translators into the necks of Tardis team Graham, Ryan and Yaz (making them able to understand Angstrom, Epzo and Illin). Of course!

Over 2000 languages are spoken in Africa, but there are many fewer recognised at national level. When documentary-makers, journalists and charities travel to various African countries to interview people, they often don’t know which language(s) they will encounter.