The result of these global trends is that many more organisations, government departments, NGOs and businesses, let alone individuals themselves, translation services to help them communicate.
While there are more people choosing to travel overseas than ever before, many of them will find that they can get by with traditional phrase books and dictionaries as well as a range of electronic aids that help them to understand and be understood wherever they go if they visit a place where the language is different from their own.
It’s a different matter for businesses as well as the variety of organisations and agencies that now need to communicate in a language other than their own. Their translation requirements cannot be left to electronic translation aids alone and usually most requirements will be met by professional translation service providers.
Translation agencies vary in size from individual freelance translators to relatively large businesses which employ a team of translators and provide services for a range of purposes. While some translators will tackle just about anything, others specialise in legal translations, medical translations, marketing translations and so on. Good translation service providers will have translators who are not only familiar with the terminology and language specifics for a particular niche but will also have an in depth knowledge of the subject and the target culture, too.
Also, some translation agencies may only provide a limited range of languages they are able to translate while larger agencies may be able to offer a much larger range of languages.