The importance of translation in education

There are several reasons why translation services are needed in Education. For a start, formal curricula may be going through a transformation in which educational material is being converted so that it is taught in more than one official Language. In countries like Malaysia, or Switzerland, for example, it is common for national curricular material to be translated into other languages other than the most commonly spoken and understood.

In countries like Australia, where there are significant indigenous communities in some parts of the country, the importance of educational translation of primary-level material into local languages, such as Yolngu or Arrernte, has been recognized by both state and territory education systems.

When students apply for overseas education courses, they will typically need to have their educational qualifications and other personal documents translated professionally to acquire the relevant visa if they come from a country where the official language spoken is different from the country in which they intend to go to for a course.

In some countries, export education has become an important foreign exchange earner. Overseas students aspire to get a diploma or degree in another country and there is often quite a lot of competition to attract these students. The Covid pandemic did a lot of damage to overseas student education as they were either stranded in the country where they had been studying or couldn’t get back to the country where they had embarked on courses. This has more or less now gone back to normal and educational institutions in wealthier countries like the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand are falling over themselves to attract foreign students again. This often involves sophisticated marketing translation services which help to create messages depicting the desirability of facilities and courses in the various countries offering them.

Types of translations needed

Academic translation

Academic Translation is a huge industry as it refers both to the translation of national curricular material as has been mentioned above, but also the translation of significant research material into a number of key languages so that it can be peer-reviewed. To give an example of the former, consider the use of translation services to translate the national curriculum of Malaysia into Malay (the official language), Chinese, English, and Hindi, or Tamil. Most schools in Malaysia use Malay as the main teaching language, but there are also Chinese and Tamil schools and some schools where the curriculum is taught primarily in English.

Marketing translation

Marketing translation, in the context of an education system, is primarily needed to create marketing messages to would-be foreign students, extolling the virtues and advantages of enrolling in a course in another country where the primary language of education might be quite different from the language of the student’s home country.

Document translation

Document translation is typically important whenever research material created by a student, academic or expert needs to be translated into a number of other languages so that it can contribute to an international review process.

Hiring the right translation service

It is important to hire the right translation service whatever the reasons for translating material in the education system. The right translation service means one that is not only capable of fluent mastery of the languages needed but also uses professional translators who have experience and training in translation.

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