Re: Bad translations?

["Steven J. Owens" <puff -at- NETCOM -dot- COM>]

Erin Kampf writes:

> I'm a little behind on my reading, but hope it's not to late to add to the
> translation thread.

     Me too :-).  Actually, I'm not behind, I just mass-deleted a whole bunch
of stuff (checking my techwrl box after a few days and finding about half a
meg of messages in it... sigh).

>  as well as software localization (which I personally haven't had to
> deal with yet).

     This is also called "internationalization", often with a funky
abbreviation involving a numeral 8 for reasons I cannot fathom.

> 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.

     I'm reminded of a friend who was up until recently doing phone
customer support in Spanish/Portugese/etc for a product that is
produced in english but sold in various countries.  A few months ago
he told me an amusing anecdote.  It turns out there's some sort of
simple phrase like "may I help you?" in one country, which is commonly
used to solicit business by prostitutes in another latin-language
country.  Just another example of how you can innocently put your,
uhm, foot in your mouth without trying too.

Steven J. Owens
puff -at- netcom -dot- com

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