A transcriber bears the delicate task of converting an audio file into sentences. These audio files can come from speeches, conference calls, court cases, business negotiations, interviews, and more. Accuracy is a fundamental aspect of a transcript. The final document should accurately represent the audio or video content.
Written words are always easier to analyze. When we read, we absorb information faster and more efficiently than when we listen. Imagine a few cases: a student checking on his teacher’s lecture, a judge reviewing a case’s records, or a doctor looking at a patient’s written breakdown of symptoms to make a diagnosis.
In all these cases, transcription provides information in the most convenient format. Readers read the information at their own pace. In listening, you have no choice but to follow the speaker’s pace. You can’t hear at your own pace, can you? When reading, you don’t have to scan the entire document. A quick glance can give you a good overview of the subject matter. Alternatively, you can also focus on the segments that are relevant to you. Having text offers more ways to consume content.
Somali transcription service providers translate English to Somali and Somali to English depending on the needs of their clients. Highly effective transcription services are those done by 100% humans instead of machines. Human services offer increased accuracy as the translator comes from a pool of experts in law, technology, language, and so on.
The Somali Language and Culture
Somali is a language in Somalia, a country in the Horn of Africa. The Gulf of Aden borders this nation on the north. Additionally, it has the Indian Ocean lying to the east and Ethiopia to the west. The country bears a vast heritage, similar to the nations around it.
Somali cuisine varies greatly, with many different cooking styles from region to region. One thing that all Somali food has in common is that it is halal. For this reason, it does not serve pork, alcohol, or from anything that has died of natural causes. It does not contain blood, either. Somalis serve dinner until 9 PM. During Ramadan, dinners often happen after Tarawih prayers, sometimes until 11 PM. Cambuulo is one of Somalia’s most popular dishes for dinner throughout the country.
Somali is an agglutinative language that uses a set of upper and lower case, gender, and number tags. Distinctive differences between Somali and most Indo-European languages include multiple forms of most personal pronouns, particles to indicate sentence focus, extensive use of tones to indicate case differences, and gender polarity. The plural form of a word is the opposite gender of the singular form.
Somali dialects come in three groups: North, Benaadir, and Maay. Northern Somali (or North Central Somali) forms the basis of Standard Somali. Benadir (also known as Coastal Somali) is spoken on the Benadir Coast from Kadare to the south of Marka, including Mogadishu (the country’s capital) and its immediate hinterland. Coastal dialects have additional phonemes not found in standard Somali.
An effective transcription service company understands the importance of working in Somalia. They can offer 24/7 comprehensive English to Somali audio translation and transcription, plus multiple other languages as well. Somali transcribers have to be native speakers and writers, fully vetted, certified, field-tested, and experienced in a variety of specific industry environments.
It’s important to remember that Somalia’s vast heritage and culture require transcription services that can maintain the authenticity of its language. Due to this, human translators will always offer better services and triumph over machine-learning solutions.
Why Choose Human Transcription Over Automated Solutions?
Transcription is very helpful in supporting researchers, students, professionals, and virtually everyone with their projects, papers, and documents. Several companies slowly started offering transcription services over the decades, resulting in the growing popularity of transcription services. Transcription is more than just listening to and typing what the speaker is saying.
Converting audio (especially difficult recordings) into readable documents can be tedious. A company’s success usually comes from the voice of the customer. If satisfied, companies can always count on repeat customers. Accuracy, turnaround, and price are the main factors that keep clients trusting a transcription company.
Ultimately, transcribers working behind the scenes are the deciding factor of why customers keep returning. Some companies rely on manual human labor, while others offer automated transcription software where machines use speech-to-text technology to do the work. Using this technology raises a question for most people seeking transcription services, whether to go for automated solutions or take the time to seek human translators.
Since the commercialization of speech-to-text conversion software started, automated transcription companies have attempted to improve the accuracy of their services significantly. However, getting a highly accurate transcript from one of these options without using a human editor to clean up the speech-to-text transcript is still a complicated task.
Difficult recordings with muffled audio, crosstalk, and other unwanted audio issues can affect the quality of the resulting file. The outcome of this can lead to customer dissatisfaction, especially when it comes to critical documents.
Individuals choosing automated transcription should prioritize transcription quality over turnaround time and price. In comparison, human transcription is more flexible in terms of doing research and contextualizing the subject of the recording. This reason is why many say automated transcription still requires a human hand in the end. A human typist or proofreader would undoubtedly raise the quality of the final product. Human transcripts go through many stages of proofreading to ensure that the final document is error-free.
Final Thoughts
Somali is a globally important language. Understanding Somalia’s general nature and specific idiosyncrasies are essential for an effective translation either from English to Somali or vice versa. Both human transcription and automated transcription have advantages and disadvantages. However, human translation offers the authenticity and attention to detail necessary to convey the desired culture. Most transcription services say they care about all these things, but you still need to evaluate whether they can meet your long-term needs and whether they are genuinely cost-effective or not.
