Re: Bad translations?

[Steve Iverson <steve -at- IVERSONLANG -dot- COM>]

As the owner of a translation company, I understand the difficulty that you all have
in trying to find translators who are not only native speakers with technical
knowledge, but who also know who to write well. Keep in mind that technical material
and marketing material require different sets of skills, and you may need more than
one translator depending on the type of material it is.

Have you developed glossaries to make sure that certain terms are understood? This
also allows you to standardize. It is good that you are using Trados. Is there some
reason that you only use it on larger projects?

Editing is critical to any type of writing assignment--in English or a foreign
language. We use an outside proofreader, and then do in-house editing for a large
number of languages. In addition, we encourage our customers to have a qualified
staff person review it as well.

Just as writing in English can be tricky, so can the translation. It is a human
process, so our policy has been to have a number of "humans" look at it to avoid
misinterpretations and mistakes.

Hope this helps,

Steve Iverson

Erin Kampf wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> I'm a little behind on my reading, but hope it's not to late to add to the
> translation thread.
>
> Having recently made a move from technical writer to translation coordinator (at
> the same company), I'm finding this thread quite interesting. I am responsible
> for the translation of all company documents, which range from technical
> documentation to advertising copy and everything in between, as well as software
> localization (which I personally haven't had to deal with yet). We use a variety
> of agencies to deal with this workload (and larger projects use Translation
> Memory - Trados).
>
> I would agree with Geoff Hart that, in many instances, "translation is every bit
> as much an original act of creation as the act of creation that led to the
> original document that you're translating". I find this is particularly true for
> marketing documents. A lot of the copy that requires translation is very
> creative, catchy, trendy, etc. A basic translation will not do in this case. For
> example, I recently had a piece that contained the term "corporate watchdog".
> This required quite a bit of work to get the translation to say the right thing
> - generally using a different metaphor, but with a similar meaning. However,
> some translators don't understand this.
>
> This is not necessarily the translators' fault - if they are not marketers
> themselves, how can they basically rewrite a marketing piece? I am finding it
> very difficult to have pieces translated by people with the appropriate
> backgrounds. I ultimately need someone with some combination of the following in
> their background, depending on the piece: software/auditing/marketing. How on
> earth do you find someone with that kind of speciality who can also translate to
> the appropriate language? You don't. Bernd Hutschenreuther comments that "it is
> important that the person reviewing the documents does not only know the native
> language, but also the native technical language and something about the
> contents". Yes, ultimately. But, realistically?
>
> To try to compensate for this, I am doing as Geoff suggests: having all
> translations edited. However, I still run into the same problem of the
> translators lacking the appropriate background. And to complicate matters, how
> do *I* decide when the original translator is wrong and the editor is right or
> vice versa? I have some grasp of most of the languages we translate into, which
> can help, but I am not a native speaker of any of them, nor do I have an
> auditing background.
>
> I don't know if I am adding much to this thread. I'm mostly just voicing my own
> concerns about the experience I've had with translations to this point. If
> anyone has any comments/suggestions about my concerns, I would greatly
> appreciate hearing from you. Also, if anyone happens to know that any of these
> issues are covered in the archives, please point me there. I did start searching
> the archives in December, but I didn't get very far before I got bogged down
> with a bunch of urgent translations. I also think I may pick up _International
> Technical Communication_, by Nancy Hoft, as suggested by Betsy Maaks, as part of
> my research.
>
> Best,
>
> Erin Kampf
> Translation Coordinator
> ACL Services Ltd.
> t: 604.646.4280
> f: 604.669.3557
> email: erin_kampf -at- acl -dot- com
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------
>                    **** VIRUS-FREE ****
> This message has been scanned by MIMESWEEPER TM/McAfee TM
> ---------------------------------------------------------
>
> From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000==


 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=