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Subject:Re: "Technical writer" in other languages From:Richard Guziewicz <rkg -at- WORLDNET -dot- FR> Date:Wed, 30 Sep 1998 11:42:31 +0100
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chaim Chatan [SMTP:chatan -at- IDI -dot- ORG -dot- IL]
> Sent: Monday, September 28, 1998 5:20 PM
> Subject: "Technical writer" in other languages
>
> One of the problems that I have when I am describing our profession
> in
> another language (French, Russian, Spanish) is that when I use the
> literal
> translation for the word "technical writer," it comes out funny
> ("ecriteur
> technique" in French, "escritor technico" in Spanish, "tekhnicheskii
> pisatel'" in Russian). At least in Hebrew, which I also speak, the
> literal
> translation "katav techni" is appropriate. How would one translate
the
> word
> "technical writer" or "technical writing" in French, Russian, or
> Spanish?
>
In French, I would suggest "redacteur technique", although the problem
is less of a semantic than a cultural one. The concept of a "technical
writer", as probably understood by most list members, is not something
very easily communicable to many French businesses whose developers and
managers (or their assistants) have traditionally done much of the
documentation work.
===================================
Richard Guziewicz
Corporate Communications Consultant
Quality Consulting & Technical Writing
Member of ITG Consulting, Paris
