What does your Chinese translation say about your company? You may be surprised…
By Jocelyn Eikenburg
“I hired a student from a local university to do my translation…and it ended up hurting my reputation.”
This was the story I heard from a business contact I met with a couple of weeks ago. He works for a large chemical manufacturer with a presence in China, and they needed their website translated into Chinese. His choice was to hire a local student from China for the job. Once he presented the translation to his Chinese business partners, they weren’t impressed — the errors actually made him and his company look less professional in their eyes.
My point here isn’t to criticize Chinese students. There are no doubt Chinese students studying here in the US who can produce fine translations. But without knowing their abilities, you’re always taking a chance and, ultimately, putting your company’s reputation on the line. Keep in mind also that, since they are students and usually new to US business culture, they will miss the nuances or terms that are so second nature to us we don’t even realize they’re idiomatic or culture-specific.
I always remind people that, between me (US native fluent in Mandarin Chinese) and my husband (Chinese national fluent in English), we understand the business cultures of the US and China. We also cover the entire linguistic field and, when we collaborate on a translation, the result is the message you intended in the first place.
Seems simple enough — that translation was meant to translate exactly what you wrote in the beginning. But sometimes your intention isn’t enough to get it right.
Jocelyn Eikenburg, http://www.thewuway.net
May 8th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
I hope people start to realize that translation is a profession. People knowing both languages don’t necessary make good translators.
May 9th, 2008 at 2:23 am
Good points and this is what you get when companies want to pay peanuts. Like Bill said, translating is a profession and if your company image is important to you, don’t try to save a couple of pennies on that part.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Any translation job related to a specific subject/area would need a test run 1st as usual. Most of the time you’d need someone who has the experience or reference.
Another point is classic - don’t go cheapo ones to save $$$ but lose face later.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Dear Jocelyn ,
“Chinese business partners, they weren’t impressed”
Have to say the same thing about the Chinese, i get mails almost everyday from China both big and small company´s!
almost every mail is Google translate so many times you can´t understand what they say
So before the Chinese business people criticize us foreigner of not translate Chinese in a proper way, they should learn speak the most common business language them self
Kind regards
Lars
SWEDEN
May 9th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Bill… Absolutely agree.
Knowing something about both languages is critical, but that’s nowhere near enough. The translator/interpreter MUST be able to step aside, not interject his/her own opinion, and genuinely facilitate the communication. If something is interpreted correctly and is still not clear to one of the parties, it’s not up to the interpreter to clarify. It’s up to the parties to ask each other via the facilitation the interpreter provides. I would not want an interpreter giving me medical or legal advice; I totally appreciate an interpreter who can clearly tell me what the doctor actually said.
Not only is handling translation and interpreting a profession which should be respected, there is also an art to working with a translator / interpreter which many people fail to realize.
May 9th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Dear Jocelyn,
I am not impressed with the ‘double act’interpretation English to Chinese and vice versa for face-to-face presentation when the interpreter lacks experience. Hmmm…business and specialists’ language do not work when the language is interpreted word by word. The meaning sometimes is distorted.
Regards,
Swiftminds
May 11th, 2008 at 2:49 am
did he found another Chinese to check the translation first before given to his Chinese bussiness partner?
is he didnt, i would say, as a company owner,he is really not careful enough. how can he hire a man without testing his ability?
May 11th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
http://www.hanzismatter.com/
May 12th, 2008 at 1:29 am
It’s a sticky subject! To truly understand the message the company is trying to send partners, competitor or customers, the translator has to know the ins and outs of the company, its goals, it background and history. They must also know; Chinese, English, Western Business culture, Chinese Business culture and any technical language required in both Chinese and English. I would personally choose someone in house to collaborate with a professional translator. The result of an accurate translation would be well worth the extra cost.
May 12th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Just as writing and copy writing are skills which improve with experience, translation is also a skill that requires much more than the ability to speak the two languages. Automatic translation systems show the result of basic literal level translation. Conveying an equivalent message in the target language does not come by magic. As already noted, cultural and business knowledge are essential. Also, various translation best practice methods are needed to create and maintain linguistic, stylistic and brand consistency. Companies and other organizations spend enormous amounts of time, energy and financial resources to define and use their brand voice and specific terminology in the source language. An unplanned translation strategy for branded content, including technical fields, can be a recipe for disaster and rejection of the translated content by the local target culture. This is why my discussion with customers is not just a statement of translation quality, but concrete examples of the strategy and deliverables for how to achieve it.
May 13th, 2008 at 1:52 am
I work with a translation and localization company called Elanex. Going to a student in college or even grad school can be very perilous especially if you don’t have the right controls in place. In our project work-flow, each translation must be seen by a translator and an “semantic bilingual editor” who we certify through testing. Then we have an intelligent matching system that requires the translators and editors both have experience in the subject matter and work type involved. We also score each practitioner after each project via Editor/client survey which will then make higher scoring practitioners rank higher when a new project comes up.
So in short, yes, translation is a profession, and a highly specialized one at that. There is a reason why good translation seems expensive, but as professional content managers know - it is worth it, especially when your reputation is on the line.
May 13th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
I am not impressed with the ‘double act’interpretation English to Chinese and vice versa for face-to-face presentation when the interpreter lacks experience. Hmmm…business and specialists’ language do not work when the language is interpreted word by word. The meaning sometimes is distorted.
“… the meaning is distorted.” Like this? No clue what the meaning of this message is. There appears
to be some point about word/word interpreting…
The article presents the idea of having a native speaker of each language look at the translation. This is the best option when possible. Word choice is important in conveying the meaning; slight variations can result in big communications problems. Usage in context is also a factor. In some cases, a word fits the meaning but would never be used in the given context.
As a business professional, if I need to work with an interpreter, I REQUIRE that person actually interpret what was said (the words used) and not make up something that they thought I meant. It is not the interpreter’s job to mangle my meaning by adjusting my vocabulary to meet whatever they think is appropriate in the target language. Particular words actually MATTER in many situations. As the principal in the communication, it is my job to choose my words, not the interpreter’s.
One of my functions in certain meetings has been to keep the interpreters honest. If I notice the interpreter straying too far from what was said, adding their own explanations, or making statements not made by any of the principals in the room, I will interrupt. The more professional the interpreter, the less likely it is that I have to say anything.
It may be that the interpreter believes he or she is performing an added service by “changing the meaning.” This could not be further from the truth; by interposing and interjecting their personal “idea” of what should have been said or what was “actually” meant, they have dis-abled the communication, not enabled it.
I have worked on several translations and been the interpreter in situations where it was extremely important to use literal language. My task was to render whatever was actually said or actually written as closely as possible in the other language, not make up words. Achieving this level of precision can be quite challenging.
Some time ago, there was a published article by someone who was supposedly an accredited translator. He translated the English phrase “We are open 7 days a week, 24 hours a day” into the Chinese equivalent of “We never close.” This is not translation; it is the imposition of this translator’s own thoughts, ideas, and judgment as to what __should have been__ said. I would never, ever want to have this person or anyone like him be my interpreter in a critical situation or negotiation. Who knows what he might decide the translated message should be?
May 13th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Generally speaking I totally agree with the statements that translation is a profession one needs to study.
Due to some experiences in oral and written translations of very specific content I happened to know that even professionals of Higher Education sector (all of them Chinese sinologists with highest level teaching and translating degree) told that they encounter difficulties in fields they do not have any subject and cross-cultural related education such as TCM, music, arts, literature etc.
All of them agreed that one needs an additional study in those fields to make a good and culture-appropriate translation.
But, on the other hand an excellent musician just because of being a Chinese native cannot make automatically correct and subject-related translations neither.
One needs that much on (conscious) background knowledge in diverse aspects that a non-professional for sure cannot make it if not experienced and devoted to this area!
Concerning the e-mail stuff: this is something I would neglect. A homepage is an international advertisment / promotion whereas an e-mail is somehow a private letter.
And how many of us write our daily mails to our counterparts in correct Chinese!?
May 13th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
Terri,
In your comments above, your point of view is more related to the role of an interpreter (who conducts unidirectional or bidirectional translation, in consecutive or simultaneous modes, depending on the requirement). Given the nature of interpretation, where there is no time to think about the utterance, the key objective is “comprehension”. Sales and negotiations are two specific contexts where being literal in the interpretation role is important, because the choice of a single word can help maintain focus of the discussion, or make it go completely awry.
Translation of written text, however, is different because the translator has written content to think about, more time to think about it, can do a search on how s/he stated the term or expression previously and re-use it, etc. Written text also usually has a longer lifespan (eg. is in principle less perishable, and in some case is read, reread, and reread hundreds of thousands of times), than orally interpreted sessions which are limited to the attendees of those specific sessions (or those who later listen to recording of them, but this is often very limited).
The article at the top of this thread pertains to a website in the chemical manufacturing sector. This implies that the content is written, that it is partially to highly technical (this varies depending on types of categories covered in a website), and it is usually a significant marketing avenue for the company that likely spent significant amounts of money to create their brand and image in the source language, including a range of terms and expressions specific to their products and services. Working with such branded content requires studying the branding and the style, and “adapting” it to the target language(s). Unlike the preference of literal translation in the interpretation of a negotiations session, the literal translation of highly branded content on websites and marketing collateral can simply scare readers away. One reason for this is that the goal of written content on websites is not restricted to the “comprehension”, but rather extends to convincing the reader to adopt, to adhere to, to use and even to promote the branded expressions in their own speech and writing.
There are also differences in that interpretation is like a one-man band in which the interpreter is a single person channeling the flow of information from the speaker to the audience during a time-limited session. Written content, on the other hand, can be authored by one to hundreds of writers, with a variety of stylistic variation in the source content. It also has the potential risk of creating increased variation in the target languages if high volumes of content must be returned in very tight turn-around-times with regard to the volume.
It is important to get the client to state and validate their requirements and expectations. In some cases, a literal version might be important. Yet, in website marketing and global branding contexts, this is often not the case. It thus requires using a strategy that will capture the message and brand voice and adapt it with respect to the target languages and cultures; this can include adjusting the meaning so that it sounds as natural to the target readership as the source text does to the source text readership.
May 15th, 2008 at 8:04 am
Yes, I also totally agree that translation is an occupation.
The translation should be specified to various fields, one can not translate all documents. It is better if let one with economy background to translate articles about economics.
Thanks.