Asian languages

Who is our offer for?

The Asian markets, and in particular the Chinese market, but also Japanese or Korean, which are gaining importance in the global economy, every year.

Enterprises dreaming of access to the markets mentioned above must also prepare their offer, products and business documents in terms of language. The number of translators of Asian languages in Poland, let alone certified translators, is very limited. Therefore, to meet the expectations of our customers and help them cope with the challenges posed by the expansion to the Asian market, we have been systematically we creating our team of translators consisting mainly of native speakers of these languages for several years.

Asia is home to around 2,300 languages spoken by approximately 4.46 billion people. The most widely used Asian languages include Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian, Bengali, and Japanese. Below, we take a closer look at some of them.

Chinese

The Chinese language is an extremely complex language, consisting of several dialects. In the 50’s, the Communist Party of China implemented a program to simplify Chinese characters, which were considered too complex. The table below shows places that use different varieties of the Chinese language:

Simplified Chinese consists of simplified characters; it also differs in vocabulary.

Japanese

Japanese is a more homogeneous language than Chinese, although the latter had a significant influence on it - the amount of vocabulary derived from the Chinese language is comparable the number of native Japanese vocabulary, if not higher. The contemporary source of new words is the English language.

Korean

It is used on the Korean peninsula, mainly in South and North Korea, as well as in the autonomous Chinese prefecture of Yanbian bordering North Korea.

If your company plans to expand to Asia, you will undoubtedly need translations. We can be of help to you - it will be worth your worthwhile!

Vietnamese

Vietnamese, once written with Chinese characters but since the 17th century using the Latin alphabet, still shows significant Chinese influence, as well as some French influence, though to a lesser extent. It is the native language of about 76 million people, spoken in Vietnam as well as in Laos, Thailand, the Philippines, and Cambodia.

Hindi

Hindi, an Indo-Aryan language, has about 322 million native speakers and 270 million second-language speakers. This makes it the third most widely spoken language in the world by number of speakers (after English and Mandarin), as well as one of the most popular Asian languages. Hindi is used primarily in India.

Arabic

Another important language on Asia’s linguistic map is Arabic. It is spoken in Asia, Africa, and parts of Europe. In Asia, Arabic has official language status in 13 countries: Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

Indonesian

Indonesian, referred to by its speakers as Bahasa Indonesia, has 43 million native speakers and 156 million second-language speakers. Interestingly, standard Indonesian is used mainly in formal situations. In everyday life, most Indonesians speak languages such as Javanese, Sundanese, Balinese, or their own indigenous tongue.

Bangla (Bengali)

Bangla, also known as Bengali, is spoken as a native language by about 230 million people and as a second language by another 37 million. It is also an official language in Bangladesh, West Bengal, Tripura, and the Barak Valley region of Assam in India.

Telugu

A Dravidian language spoken in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in India. Telugu is one of only three languages officially recognized as a primary language in more than one state (the others being Hindi and Bengali). With 84 million native speakers and about 11 million second-language speakers, it is one of the most widespread Indian Asian languages.

Tamil

Tamil is one of the world’s oldest languages. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of the Indian Constitution and is also spoken in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and other parts of the world. Altogether, it has around 83 million speakers, including 75 million native speakers.

Malay

Closely related to Indonesian, Malay is a Southeast Asian Austronesian language. Its northern dialect is widely spoken in Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei, while its southern dialect is used in Indonesia.

Thai

Thai, belonging to the Kra-Dai language family, is the national language of Thailand. It is spoken by about 60 million people, primarily in Thailand but also in Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, Cambodia, and elsewhere. Thai has many dialects and five distinct registers (Street, Elegant, Rhetorical, Religious, and Royal). Most Thais are able to use all five.

Mongolian

Mongolian is spoken in Mongolia as well as parts of Russia, China, and Kyrgyzstan. Grammatically, it is very similar to Korean and Japanese, though the similarities end there. It uses a modified Cyrillic alphabet, while the traditional vertical script is still found in Inner Mongolia.

Hebrew

Hebrew is an ancient Semitic language, central to Jewish culture, known from biblical texts and now the official language of Israel. It is written in its unique Hebrew script. After a period of decline as a spoken language, it was successfully revived in the 19th century.

Yiddish

Yiddish is the language of Ashkenazi Jews, developed in medieval Europe on the basis of German dialects, with strong Slavic influences and vocabulary from Hebrew and Aramaic. It is written in the Hebrew alphabet and is distinct from biblical Hebrew, which is liturgical. Historically, it was the everyday language of Ashkenazi Jews, while today it is spoken mainly by older generations and Hasidic communities in the diaspora.

If your company is planning to expand into Asian markets, translations will surely be essential. We can help you with that – it will definitely pay off!