Translation is about “rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that the author intended the text”. According to this approach, the translation process focuses on the exact information provided in the source text and renders it into the target language.
On the other hand, translation as adaptation is a translation method that focuses on altering the source text so that it corresponds to the culture, style, grammar, semantics and syntax of the target language. This approach may not produce completely accurate translations, however, thanks to it readers feel that they are original recipients of the text.
Interestingly, we can distinguish various types of adaptation:
- collocation adaptation – in many cases, literal translation causes misconceptions and numerous linguistic mistakes. This is particularly applicable if source language and target language belong to different language families and differ in terms of collocations.
- cultural adaptation – Cultural adaptation is the key to ensuring that the translated text serves its intended purpose and is understood by the target audience.
- local adaptation – Local adaptation is still faithful to the source text and tailorsa situations depicted in it to the environment of the target culture.
- educational adaptation – Educational adaptation is still faithful to the source text and extends the situations described in it to taylor them to the requirements of the target students.
- localization – Localization is about changing individual elements such as dates, weights, addresses or currencies so that they match the target market.