How to Translate The Language of Football?

Without a doubt, the language of football is something that we all learn when we are still relatively young! It also explains why every country and every language will have a specific set of terms that will vary between the actual sports terms and the slang words that will make sense when something specific happens. It means that translation of the football language, be it the real game or video games simulation, always becomes a creative process that must be approached the same way as localization of a mobile application or the multilingual website. 

• Analyze The List of Professional Terms. Always start with analyzing the terms that football players and coaches use since it is vital to keep things professional. Ensure that you are offering exceptional assistance for the younger audiences who are only learning the terms and want to receive the best experience possible. Starting from the free Google Translate checking to professional translation service providers, you must consider the level of language skills you want to achieve, which can be done only by certified professionals who have experience in the relevant field. Start with analyzing those terms that you want to translate and consider the risks of over translating!

• Consider The Slang Words and International Aspects. Let us not forget that the language of football always includes the complex mixture of slang expressions that make sense to the players and meet the cultural point of the country. Turn to Portuguese in Brazil or consider the way how German soccer players explain being stable and bullet-proof. It will start making more sense, so translating these from English (or to English) becomes an important task where you must consider the spirit of the local football rules, customs, and traditions! It may take more time and creativity from the translator, yet it will always pay off in the long run!

• Talk to Professional Football Players. Do not ignore talking to professional football players or even online communities who can share their experience by offering better translation options or corrections for those cases when you are unsure about what term to use or how to shorten something because of the GUI restrictions. Just like those video games experts or law specialists, you will always have to deal with the content that will only make sense to professionals or dedicated subject’s aficionados, which is why it should act as the pre-grading for your translation task. The trick is to keep things alive and add more life and flexibility to your translation!

• Use Various Memory Tools For Translation.  Turning to machine translation may not be the best option. But, using memory tools with the language databases and the list of relevant football terms is a good solution that you must consider, especially if you are dealing with more than one foreign language and want to achieve accuracy.

The Cultural Aspect 

Translating the language is far not everything if you ignore the culture of football! As you may already know, FIFA encourages the use of body language for the referees as they can use hand signals and whistles to explain certain mistakes or situations that are unclear. Nevertheless, English remains the official language that the referees must be able to speak. Even though it is the most commonly spoken language, both Spanish and German football championships, let alone the Asian league branches, will use their native languages for commenting and video reporting. Just listen to Spanish La Liga live on the radio or on TV, and you will be inspired enough to learn the language! It also confirms why it is crucial to translate the language of football without missing all the cultural aspects!