Manche potentiellen Kunden von Sprachdienstleistungen dürften sich folgende Fragen stellen: „Warum soll ich mich an einen Profiübersetzer wenden? Sie sind doch zu teuer. Ich habe Mittlere Reife (bzw. sogar Abitur) in Englisch gemacht. Ich kann’s genauso gut.“ Falls Sie keinen akademischen Abschluss in einer Fremdsprache besitzen, kommen Sie vielleicht in Versuchung kommen, einen maschinellen Übersetzer wie zum Beispiel Google Translate zu benutzen. Der wird doch eine brauchbare Übersetzung in null Komma nix ausspucken, oder? Anhand folgendes Beispiels einer echten Stellenanzeige dürfte klar sein, wieso man unbedingt Übersetzungsaufgaben qualifizierten Fachkräften überlassen soll. Ihre Aufgabe: Sie übersetzen Texte in der Spezialität einzahlend aus dem Deutsch ins Englisch für ihre internationale Kundschaft. Nach einer Ausbildungsphase an ihrem Ort in Zürichen oder Basel findet sein Gebrauch mit Ein von ihrer Fremdlandagentur mittels örtliche Positionenbedingungen in Madrids oder Lo...

Originally posted to MySpace, April 20, 2009   Since the advent of the DVD, seemingly endless possibilities have been added to the simple experience of watching pre-recorded movies or TV shows. You get interviews with actors and directors, fascinating behind-the-scenes footage, deleted scenes, bloopers, and the list goes on. One nice feature I have always enjoyed with my collection of DVD's bought in Germany is the language options. The discs generally offer some combination of major European languages: German, English, Spanish, French, and/or Italian. After having had to digest so much American TV dubbed into German, I preferred to watch movies on DVD with the language set to English. Now that I am again immersed in my native tongue, watching more DVD's in German could help me maintain my language skills. In the United States, it wouldn't hurt to work on some Spanish, too. Thankfully, I can easily do so by popping in a few episodes of Star Trek or Stargate with the a...

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...