Language is essential to our communication. It combines our culture, and history, and encompasses our experience. But, when there are more than 7,000 languages available, communication can become a pain.

This is when translation comes into play. It’s important to note that translation does not mean that you take a sentence and convert it plainly into another language. You must be mindful to keep the context and the culture relevant to convey meaning.

Take the Chinese greeting “Have you eaten?”. It symbolizes a cultural salutation. Similarly, we often say it’s raining cats and dogs in English. To an outsider, this would be confusing. Just like this, in different industries, there are certain words used. These are known as jargon. Within these, there may be phrases or acronyms that people working in the industry are familiar with.

However, quite a few of these words are not able to be translated. This may be because of contextual meaning reserved for the industry or that the word has no translation in a language. With this in front of us, here are four industries where words remain the same.

The Gaming Industry

When talking about the gaming industry, we can see that many games are known as they are. For example, the board game of Monopoly is known as “Monopolio” in Spanish. Similarly, across both Japanese and English releases, the game “Pokemon” remains the same.

The casino industry within the gaming world is a prime example to discuss the topic. You would be able to recognize Blackjack and Poker even in foreign countries. This has to do with the fact that Blackjack is based on a combination of cards so finding an equivalent is not possible.

When looking at this from a linguistic viewpoint, this challenge of untranslatability is because of how the most popular casino games embody culture. These games make use of the context within their culture so you would not be able to find the same meaning in another language. This is the core reason why they are the same.

Another example of why translation in the gaming industry is difficult is because of game mechanics or rules. Look at All-In in poker. It refers to you placing all your chips on the board. This would have no direct translation available.

The Legal Industry

In legal systems around the world, several keywords remain the same to maintain consistency across languages. This has led to the creation of something called the universal legal lexicon.

Contract, jurisdiction, and plaintiff are commonly used in courts. These are used in their English form throughout legal systems in other countries as well. This has a lot to do with the influence the English law system had on other places. These became adopted and now lie beyond linguistic boundaries.

This can be explained through the concept of loanwords. These are words that are embraced from a foreign language without change. In fact, Latin words in the law industry are a good example of this. Terms like “habeas corpus” and “pro bono” are used in their original forms. This also highlights the significance that they have had on history and the need for precision in legal language so misunderstandings are minimized.

The Medical Industry

The terms of medicine need to remain the same across languages. This makes sense when you consider that misunderstandings in communication here may lead to critical errors. A patient receiving a prescription in one language getting the wrong medicine in another country would violate their safety.

Medical terms are mostly passed down from Latin and Greek. This creates a shared linguistic foundation through which people in healthcare can communicate with ease. Hypertension and anemia are two among many examples of medical words that are recognized internationally.

Another example would be myocardial infarction, the medically accurate term for heart attack. It’s used universally in medical settings to maintain clarity. A direct translation of this might not convey the same urgency.

The Culinary Industry

The art of fine cooking often reflects the universal nature of food and kitchen practices. There is a consistency across various languages where the names of dishes and ingredients remain the same. This creates a shared understanding between chefs as well as food enjoyers.

To give an example, take sushi, a highly popular Japanese dish. Even in foreign countries, this dish is called by its original name. The same goes for tacos and croissants, the former being Spanish while the latter is of French cuisine. Such usage preserves the cultural authenticity of the dish as well.

Some words should remain the same across languages. Whether this is to maintain context appropriately or for legal or safety reasons. When a term is translated inaccurately or forcefully it loses its meaning as well as part of its charm.