You’ve probably read an article online at some point about interesting foreign words for which there’s no translation. Words like Schadenfreude, Wanderlust and Hygge frequently make the cut – but chances are you know what they mean by now. In fact, these concepts are so prolific that they can almost be considered English words in their own right at this point.
If, like us, you spend a lot of time translating, you begin to appreciate the differences between languages and cultures, and most importantly, how this relates to international commerce.
Sometimes there’s just a better way of saying something in Spanish, German, Swedish or French than there is in English.
The best language translation experts know and use these words with expert application to convey your brand message in the strongest possible manner to your new international audience.
Here are just a few of the tools our language translation service providers have to play with when translating your English content to a global audience.
Sougani (Japanese)
This Japanese word describes a concept we all know well but simply don’t have a direct translation for in English. With connotations of destiny and fate, this describes an inevitable situation that simply cannot be helped, to which you just have to find your peace.
Litost (Czech)
This nostalgic word from the Czech language combines the well-known emotions of grief, sympathy, remorse and longing.
Waldeinsamkeit (German)
German’s ability to stitch nouns together to create new and exciting concepts lends the language a whole range of fantastic words that we should definitely adopt. Our old friends Schadenfreude and Wanderlust come from the same pack. This oddly specific compound noun refers to the feeling of being alone in the woods.
Koi No Yokan (Japanese)
If you’ve ever met somebody and felt a strong sense of inevitable compulsion, then you could have probably done with this Japanese word to describe it. It refers to the feeling of meeting someone and realising instantly that falling in love is inevitable. How romantic.
Särbo (Swedish)
Once upon a time, you were either married or you were single. In decades past, relationships have found a whole range of new ways to be somewhere between the two – for which the English language is sorely lacking in suitable nouns. This Swedish word refers to one of these. Somewhere between a ‘boyfriend/girlfriend’ and a ‘partner’, this word describes a long term relationship with someone you don’t live with.
Mångata (Swedish)
This Swedish word is a rather poetic way of referring to the moon’s reflection on the water, effectively describing the ‘road-like’ way it shines across the surface.
Torschlusspanik (German)
Translating literally as ‘gate close panic’, this typically German compound noun is a great way of talking about the feeling that you’re running out of time to achieve your goals in life.
Verschlimmbessern (German)
‘The act of making something worse by trying to improve it’. The noun derives from the German words ‘verschlimmern’, to aggravate, and ‘verbessern’ to improve.
Mozzafiato (Italian)
Translating literally as ‘to chop off one’s breath’, this Italian term is perhaps most like the British idiom ‘take your breath away’, and describes a sensation, experience or sight as so beautiful or breath-taking that it ‘chops off your breath’.
These words are all grounded in the differences between cultures and people. That’s why translation is such a vital skill: it requires a fundamental knowledge of not only what different words mean, but also how it relates to the people who speak them.
If you’re looking to translate your website or marketing material into other languages, working with expert language translation services from Bubbles will help ensure your content uses the very best words available from the target language in order to truly speak to people. Get in touch today to discuss your project.
