Transcription vs Translation: What’s the Difference?
Transcription vs Translation: What's the Difference?
The terms "transcription" and "translation" often get confused and muddled up. They're only a few letters apart after all, and both involve converting spoken or written content. However, the key difference lies in what they convert and how they do it.
While transcription and translation are both essential in many industries, they serve distinct purposes. Understanding these differences can help ensure that you're using the right service for your specific needs.
In this article, we'll start by breaking down the definitions of transcription and translation, then explore the key differences, and finally, look at how the two processes can complement each other.
Jump to:
What is transcription?
Transcription is the process of converting spoken language into written text. In other words, it's the act of taking what someone says and writing it down word for word. It's often used in situations where keeping an accurate record of what's been said is important - think business meetings, interviews, lectures, and focus groups.
One important thing to note: transcription always stays in the same language. Whether it's a conversation in English or a speech in Spanish, transcription takes what's been said and writes it down in the same language.
What is translation?
Translation, on the other hand, involves converting content from one language into another. Unlike transcription, where you stick to the original language, translation requires a deep understanding of both languages to ensure nothing gets lost in, well, translation!
Translation is used in a wide range of industries to break down language barriers and expand the international reach of content, whether that's translating product manuals, technical documents, websites or marketing materials.
Key differences between transcription and translation
At first glance, transcription and translation might seem somewhat similar - they both deal with converting spoken or written content. However, the key differences between the two lie in the process, language, the skills required, and the purpose.
Here's a breakdown:
Process
Transcription is all about listening to spoken language and converting it into text, staying true to what was originally said. Translation, however, involves taking content in one language and converting it into another language, preserving the meaning rather than the exact words.
Language
In transcription, the language stays the same. If you're transcribing a meeting in English, the output will be in English too. Translation, on the other hand, involves moving between languages - converting a document from English to Spanish, for example.
Skills required
Transcription demands sharp listening skills and attention to detail. The focus is on accuracy, ensuring that every word or nuance is captured. Translation, meanwhile, requires deep knowledge of both the source and target languages, along with cultural awareness. It's not just about understanding words but also their context and meaning.
Purpose
Transcription is often used for documentation, record-keeping, and accessibility purposes, such as creating written records of meetings or interviews. Translation is typically used to bridge communication gaps, enabling people who speak different languages to understand the same content.
How transcription and translation can work together
Although transcription and translation are different processes, they can often complement each other, especially in projects which require content to be made accessible across languages and formats.
Here are some common scenarios where transcription and translation work together to make content more accessible:
Video subtitling
To create subtitles, video content is first transcribed to create a script. This script is then translated into various languages for subtitles or voiceover, ensuring the content reaches global audiences.
Educational videos
Lectures, tutorials, and e-learning modules are often transcribed to produce text-based resources, and then translated into multiple languages for international students.
Training videos and materials
Global companies often transcribe training videos and resources, which are then translated to ensure consistency in training across regions. Discover more ways transcript translations benefit multinational businesses.
Multilingual events
Conferences, panel discussions, and presentations are often transcribed for documentation, then translated into various languages to provide reports or summaries for global participants.
Podcasting
Podcasts are transcribed into text to provide accessible content for people with hearing impairments, then translated into multiple languages so that listeners from different regions can enjoy the content in their native language.
Market research
Companies conducting focus groups or interviews across different regions may first transcribe the sessions for internal analysis, and then translate these transcripts to share insights with international teams.
Press conferences
Transcriptions of press conferences, especially those addressing global issues, are translated to ensure that media in different regions can accurately report on the content.
Academic research interviews
Transcriptions of research interviews or discussions are translated to share findings across international academic communities or to include participants who speak different languages.
Final thoughts
I hope you've enjoyed learning about the differences between transcription and translation, and how the two can work hand in hand in a wide range of scenarios, particularly when there's a need to create content that's both accurately recorded and understandable across different languages.
At Transcribe, we support transcription and translation in more than 120 languages and dialects. Simply upload your audio or video content, select the language of the content, and we'll provide a written transcription in the same language. Once you've got that, use our transcript translation service to convert the transcript into other languages.
Check out our guides on how to transcribe audio content, how to transcribe video content, and how to translate transcripts for more information.