Buying translations - Getting it right! part II

As promised, here is another piece of advice for Buying translations. I will not finish this subject today, so keep your heads up for the next post!

The information I am using was taken from a 2006 brochure called Translation, Getting it right. A guide to buying translations, by BDÜ, ITI, CiLT, ASTTI and SFT (for contacts see end of article), text:Chris Durban; Editor/Design: Antonio Aparicio. Any mistakes included here are my own responsibility, though.

11 - Professional translators work into their native language

If you want your catalogue translated into German and Russian, the work will be done by a native German speaker and a native Russian speaker. Native English-speakers translate from foreign languages into English.
As a translation buyer, you may not be aware of this, but a translator who flouts this basic rule is likely to be ignorant of other important quality issues as well.

OK, there are exceptions. But not many. If your supplier claims to be one of them, ask to see something he or she has done. If it is factually accurate and reads well, and if the translator guarantees equivalent quality for your text - why not? Sometimes a translator with particular subject-matter expertise may agree to work into what is for him or her a foreign language. In this case, the translation must be carefully edited - and not just glanced through - by a language-sensitive native speaker before it goes to press.

Do translators living outside their home country lose touch with their native tongue? At the bottom end of the market, perhaps. But expert linguists make a point of keeping their language skills up to scratch wherever they are.

12 - What language do your readers speak?

Spanish for clients in Madrid or in Mexico city? Uk English or US English? (European Portuguese or Portuguese from Brazil?) Liaise with your foreign partners to find out precisely what is needed.

In 1999, the US Department of Housing and urban Development ordered a "creole" translation of an 8-page brochure. The text was erroneously translated into a Jamaican-style patois that started "Yuh as a rezedent ave di rights ahn di rispansabilities to elp mek yuh HUD-asisted owzing ah behta owme fi yuh ahn yuh fambily". "Total garbage, of no use to anyone in the Caribbean," said Jamaican embassy spokesman in Washington. All Jamaican government documents are printed in standard English. "We find this extremely offensive," he added.

Register is also important. German for doctors and medical personnel or for healthcare consumers? Are you selling shoe polish in the third world or investment funds out of Luxembourg?

Speak your readers' language. Put yourself in their shoes, and zero in on how your products and services can serve their needs. Be concrete. Be specific. (The same applies to source-language promotional materials, of course).

13 - An inquisitive translator is good news

No one reads your texts more carefully than your translator. Along the way, he or she is likely to identify fuzzy bits - sections where clarification is needed. This is good news for you, since it will allow you to improve your original.

A European video-games specialist notes that management did not really understand their own stock-options policy until an English translation was commissioned: the translator asked many questions and delivered a version far clearer than the original.

Ideally, translators strip down your sentences entirely before creating new ones in the target language. Good translators ask questions along the way.

14 - The more technical your subject, the more important it is that your translators know it inside out

If you supply basic information to five native speakers of any language and ask them each to write up a 100-word product description, you will get five texts, some clearer and more readable than others. People familiar with the subject are likely to produce a better text. The same applies to translators.
You will get best results from developing an on-going relationship with a translator or team of translators. The longer you work with them and the better they understand your business philosophy, strategy and products, the more effective their texts will be.

Whenever possible, know your translators - not just the project managers, but the translators themselves, the people who actually produce your texts. And make sure they know you.

Talk to your translators. They should be at home with the subjects they translate; if not, it's time to change suppliers. Translators should not be learning the subject at your expense, unless you have expressly agreed to this.

15 - The home stretch: have a typeset copy proofread by your translator

Always. Even if you have a sound procedure in place, with reliable translation providers who know your company inside out, last-minute additions (headings, captions, word changes) by well-meaning non-linguists can sabotage an otherwise effective document.

"Skeletons of Mothers (Foreign companies)" reads one heading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange web site. The page itself is a well-translated outline of listing information for foreign companies. The stumble appears to have occured when a non-native English speaker stepped in, dictionary in hand, as dealines loomed: true, honegumi (literally "bone/assembly") can be rendered "skeleton", but in this context would be "outline" or "summary". "Mothers"? The market segment concerned is for high-growth companies that need "nurturing".

"Beware: there are two stops at Roissy/Charles-de-Gaulle airport" warns a sign in the rail link to the international airport north of Paris.

Be sure to have a language-sensitive native speaker on hand to vet final fiddling. For the same reason, do not finalise changes for foreign texts by telephone. They are almost always misheard.


ITI - Institute of Translation & Interpreting www.iti.org.uk
CILT, the national Centre for Lnaguages www.cilt.org.uk
SFT - Société Française des Traducteurs www.sft.fr
BDÜ - Bundesverband der Dolmetscher und Übersetzer e.V. http://www.bdue.de
ASTTI - Swiss Association of Translators, Terminologists and Interpreters www.astti.ch