Closed captions are not only for people that speak a content’s native language. In fact, they are a great way to help people who are hard of hearing or who can’t turn a video’s audio up to understand what is happening on screen. Translation services help videos with closed captions reach a wider audience globally.
There are a number of countries that share the same language but that have different accents, dialects, cultures, and vocabulary. These differences are important to native speakers and can make similar words and phrases vary significantly between two areas. Without the proper context, translations can miss the point of a translated sentence or even give the wrong meaning to viewers. Experienced translators are able to understand a language’s meaning and cultural references. They use this knowledge to translate that correctly into other languages so anyone can understand the true meaning of what is being said.
Close caption translation includes not only translating the language of the audio that is being said on screen but a variety of other things as well. Translators have to take audio content and form sentences that match the speed of what is being said on the screen to keep the audio and captions together. They also have to be aware of things such as readable line lengths on longer sentences and places where text can be split for ease of reading. Also, if the characters of the language the audio is being translated into vary from the original language, formatting needs to be considered.
Using closed caption translation services helps content creators give access to their content to a wider audience worldwide. Translations can help boost content online to foreign users
while still providing accessibility to multi-lingual users in a creator’s native country. There are also SEO benefits that can be gained from having closed caption translations attached to a piece of video content.
Many different kinds of video content creators make use of translation services for their closed captioning including:
- Governmental organizations
- Non-profits
- Television and Broadcasters
- Online content creators
- Universities and Colleges
Not only do different industries rely on close caption translation, but also different genres. All types of videos benefit from being translated into one or more languages. This can include documentaries, entertainment videos, sporting events, political statements, and more.
There are several types of software online that offer close caption translation. Platforms such as YouTube have built-in translation services that automatically translate videos that are uploaded to their platform. You can also download various apps both on desktop or mobile that can provide the translation you need for your closed captioning. For a guaranteed professional translation service, working with a dedicated closed caption translation company is the way to go.
Just because a video is recorded in one language doesn’t mean that it is restricted only to speakers of that language. Close caption translation combines the need for audio converted to text for viewers that can’t access the audio for various reasons with a translation of that audio text into other languages.
