Rules for Hiring a Translator or Copywriter

1. Your translator/copywriter does not translate or write for you. The text they produce is for your target audience. Your communications or advertising materials need to appeal to them, not to you. Whether you “like” a translation, for example, is irrelevant. Every word the language services provider (LSP) uses is generally there for a reason.

When you use a translation LSP, you should be getting a two-in-one translator and copywriter. With most translation services, you are lucky to get a halfway comprehensible text. The text a decent LSP produces is one people can actually enjoy reading. If your text contains plays on words, the translator will produce a text reflecting that. Most often, that will mean allowing your puns to get lost in translation because they are not translatable. It also frequently means using puns where you did not or phases you have never heard before.

2. With respect to no. 1 above, translators should not be expected to make changes to their work because you “thought it would be different.” If you want a translation to closely resemble the source text, use Google Translate. Any changes you request based on subjective reasoning (“We like the word XXX better than YYY.”) should automatically double your original bill.

3. If you write a crappy source text, expect a lot of questions and feedback from your LSP. If you do not respond to their questions, the LSP is not responsible for the final result. Decent translators make every effort to meet or exceed the quality of your original text. (Most of the time, they truly need to do better than you did.) If the text you wrote sucks, don’t complain to your LSP about a poor translation.

Learn to write a decent text (see also item 4), and the translator can provide you with excellent translation. When you describe everything mechanical or electronic as Technik or technisch, it is too ambiguous for proper translation. Call a spade a spade.

4. Translators are not responsible for your alphabet soup. Submit a list of explanations for every uncommon abbreviation in your text. 

A good translator will write headings that are short and snappy and not a summary of the entire article, which is the German approach. That is not the Anglo-Saxon way.

5. Translators should remove any and all redundancies from your source text at their discretion. Germans are notorious for having everything doppelt gemoppelt und redundant. That may be good style to you, but it is generally not good in English. Take a look at this example:

Eine Verletzung von Geheimhaltungs- und Vertraulichkeitspflichten stellt eine Verletzung Ihres Arbeitsvertrags sowie eine Verletzung interner Richtlinien dar.

If you think the translator should write “violation” three times, you are wrong.

6. Translators should not use word-for-word translation to render phrases that are typically German. Examples include “Vielen dank für die vertrauensvolle Zusammenarbeit” and “Wir wünschen eine gute Lektüre.” If it does not reflect Anglo-Saxon culture, it should get lost in translation. The translator should either omit the sentiment completely or replace it with something that appeals equally to English-speaking readers.

No LSP should recreate your Denglish in English. Your misuse and abuse of English does not dictate what proper English ought to be. The most obvious example is Handy for a mobile phone. Other such nonsense includes referring to a terrific product as “der Burner”. It will not be “the burner” in English. The only thing that should be burned here is the German author’s text so you can start over and produce an actual German text for your LSP to translate and not a hodge-podge of your language and supposedly cool English words.

7. If your German company has English terminology that you made up yourselves, chances are it sucks. It is most likely nowhere near what a native speaker would say and is quite possibly completely backwards from what the English-speaking world actually uses. If you expect your LSP to use terms like “policy responsible” for a person in charge of a certain corporate guideline or write “division processing” when you mean a “processing division”, forget it. Do you want your English texts to be understood by people who speak English? Then don’t bombard them with Yoda grammar and Tarzanese.

8. Your LSP is not responsible for your poor time management. If you spend weeks or even months putting together a text or presentation, don’t expect them to have it translated in a day. Rush jobs are a recipe for disaster. They should also cost you more. Save yourself some money, and eliminate a lot of stress for all parties involved. Plan the time for translation into your own deadline, and send the text to your LSP with enough lead time so they can do the job right.

9. If you don’t know English well enough to translate yourself, you don’t know it well enough to edit translations. If you think there is only one way to say Ziel in English, then use Google Translate. Depending on context, it will be with target, goal, aim, objective, or destination. In compound words, it may be something completely unexpected. A Zielvereinbarung is NOT a target agreement, but a performance plan. Just accept the fact that your translator knows more English than you, and the two of you will get along fine. Take my advice, and leave your LSP’s translations alone. Otherwise, you will only make yourself look foolish by revising them.

If you THINK you know English well enough to translate or compose yourself, you are probably wrong. Show your LSP a text you wrote in English yourself. If the translator can’t find at least five major errors in it, he or she should buy you a case of beer.