Japanese Translation Agency Arc Communications – Blog

Maybe you are not too keen on studying Arabic because of its apparent complexity, but it is the third most widely used language in the world, after English and French.

With the increasing globalization of business, it is now usual to work across borders. No longer are the language barriers an impediment to business.

Arabic is a language of non-negligible importance for interaction with countries around the world.

Arabic is used as an official language in 27 countries including non-sovereign territories, mainly in and around the Arabian Peninsula as well as in the North African region north of the Sahara. Also, together with English, Spanish, Russian, French, and Chinese, it is among the official languages of UN organizations. Moreover, the Quran, the central religious text of Islam, one of the three major religions in the world, is written in Arabic. You will see that Arabic, though unfamiliar to the Japanese, is one of the major languages in the world.

As business becomes increasingly global, there are more frequent interactions with overseas countries and enterprises, which results in a growing demand for translations of legal documents such as contracts and application forms.

Translations of legal documents with important contents or for important purposes must be of the highest quality. In addition to being accurate, such translations must serve as legally valid documents in the country they are intended for.

Here is a brief description of expertise in legal translation, a field demanding more than linguistic skills.

Overseas business development or expansion inevitably requires legal documents such as contracts. Take contracts for instance: different types of contract documents - including agency/distributorship agreements, license agreements, intellectual property agreements, and lease agreements - can be needed, depending on business requirements. Besides contract documents, articles of incorporation, minutes of shareholder meetings, company rules and such also have to be translated. Moreover, additional legal translations will be required from time to time at various junctures in the course of overseas business development.

The popularity of "Cool Japan" such as "samurai" and "ninja" has increased abroad, not to mention the recent expansion of J-POP culture. On the other hand, in Japan the opposite trend can be felt, with a strong leaning toward Western languages and especially English - which has become part of the panorama -, partly due to the increasing number of tourists visiting Japan from overseas

However, some of these English language signs have the contrary effect and sometimes confuse native English speakers, often inducing laughter. So let's take a look at such "Funny English" (also known as "Engrish") phrases, which are incorrect but seem perfectly natural to most Japanese people.

In many public facilities, English translations can be found written next to Japanese. And while these English phrases are displayed for "hospitality" reasons, some of them tend to confuse native English speakers instead.

It is necessary to carefully choose targets and areas to develop products and services. Not to mention North America and Europe, the remarkable growth of China and other Asian countries in the recent years may see their rise as strong candidates.

How about Latin America, and especially its Spanish-speaking zone? Indeed, although Latin America is relatively known for soccer, flamenco and tango, it remains an unfamiliar area for most Japanese people. Anyhow, these are a region and a language that both seem to be gaining the favors of the business world.

Spanish is spoken in the majority of Latin America countries, save for Brazil and a few others. Brazilians speak Portuguese, a language that shares many similarities with Spanish, so people can generally get by speaking Spanish in Brazil. However, Spanish varies depending on the region where it is spoken, be it in Spain, Latin America and its many communities. This can make localization a little tricky, so let's keep in mind these points.