Chinese is a leading language that comes from a fast-growing and superpower economy, i.e. China. The Chinese population is no secret and they make Chinese the world’s most-spoken language with up to 16% of the world’s population speaking Chinese as their first language. Chinese belongs to the Tibetan language family. The linguists also believe their different dialects and variants are spoken and used as languages. However, the problem occurs with the lack of mutual intelligibility and this is why it gets to be considered a different and difficult language. 

A few of the important variants spoken as languages are listed below

• Mandarin Chinese has 800 million speakers and is spoken across the country and neighboring states collectively. 
• The Min variant has 75 million speakers. Most of them are included in the Southern Min group.
• Wu has 74 million speakers and is also known as Shanghainese or Shanghai dialect. 
• The Yue variant contains 68 million speakers and this variant is also called Cantonese.

Interestingly, despite coming from similar origins and stimulating from one other, all these variants greatly differ from each other and are barely mutually intelligible. The details of the dialects for the languages such as Chinese or Japanese can add great value to Chinese translation or English to Japanese translation services. As both languages are somewhat related to each other. Japanese people use kanji writing system to write Japanese which has been derived from Chinese characters.

Historical background of Chinese 

Chinese is one ancient language. They found Chinese records on oracle bone inscriptions in 1250 BCE during the Shang dynasty. Standard Chinese serves as the official language of China and the Republic of China also known as Taiwan. It is one of the four languages in Singapore and a part of the United Nations six official languages.

Chinese is a tough and tonal language that does not have any defined alphabets and rather works on pinyin. If you are pondering about pinyin, it is about the phonetic symbols also called Chinese characters. This is a system that people use to transcribe Mandarin into the Latin alphabet. There are up to 50,000 Chinese characters and you have to have a grip over at least 3500 characters to be able to understand and speak basic Chinese.

Given the profile of the Chinese language and the factors that make it hard, it is extremely crucial to be mindful of certain aspects and details while hiring a Chinese translation company. Being a speaker of English or other Western languages, understanding Chinese and translating your business into this language can be intimidating and challenging.

Clarity with Chinese dialects

Now that you are aware of the basics of the Chinese language and its important dialects, make sure that you are clear about which is your to-be-translated dialect. Whether you have a client from Beijing or other parts of China. Do they speak Mandarin or are they into the simplified Chinese version? The dialects may vary accordingly. You can only excel in Chinese translation when you understand your targeted audiences’ dialects and nuances and can communicate about the same to your translation vendor. So make sure that you are aware of the language, its variant, and dialect before finalizing the things with the translation agency.

Scanning for language knowledge 

If you opt for a native Chinese translation company, it can make the process easier and swift for you. However, you should not rush about the selection of the vendor, you should take your time, conduct thorough research, and take measures accordingly. Chinese is a complex language, and many of the Chinese speakers only know what they speak. So sit with the shortlisted companies’ spokesperson. Talk to them about Chinese characters, and pinyin and evaluate them for their language knowledge and understanding of the Chinese characters and their uses.

As there are 50,000 Chinese characters even native speakers can’t keep track of it. However, it is important that you as a speaker of a Western language are aware of the fact that the meaning of a symbol can change suddenly when combined with another one. For instance, 開 stands for opening something in Cantonese. Whereas 心 tells about the ‘heart’ so we mix both words the word becomes an expression which is ‘happy’ and otherwise separately both terms said to open heart.

Dealing with all these languages, such as Chinese and Japanese can be tricky as these come from different language families and barely share similarities. Hence, whether you look for Chinese-to-English or English to Japanese translation services, you will have to go through the hassle of understanding the language to the extent that the whole process gets comprehensible for you.

Industry knowledge 

The next aspect that you need to consider while choosing a translation company is asking about the industry knowledge. Tapping a market as China and flourishing in this land can be testing for you. The Chinese market is very much sorted and blooming every single day. It has taken over every possible market all over the world. So to strive for this flourished market, many factors are important to consider. The list goes beyond knowledge of language. You should ensure that the company understands your industry well. Great command over specialized terminology and the customs of businesses, as well as marketing norms are significant. Every industry works around certain factors. There is a unique lexicon, convention, and then cultural intricacies. So make sure you are working with a company that not only has native Chinese speakers but also subject matter experts. 

Conclusion 

Chinese is the world’s most spoken language. It is a very old tonal language and works without alphabets. It has many variants which people speak as languages. You need to be proficient in Chinese characters to understand it. As a business, you should ensure that you only hire a local Chinese translation company to work with.