A long time ago, I stumbled across a website that expressed my exact translation philosophy and attitude towards customers of language service providers. I copied and pasted the few pages of text to a Word file for keeps. Once I restarted my blog, I decided to check that website. It still existed as of early 2021. I contacted the e-mail address on the site and asked if the current website owner also produced the content I had originally found so delightful. It turned out that he did, and he had reasons for taking down the pages. Since I found that to be such a shame, I asked for permission to repost them here. I have respectfully not included one of the pages, which was about the translation industry in India. The sentiments about non-native speakers producing translations of poor quality using children and/or working conditions akin to slave labor were not the original author’s personal experience at a later time. So, I will reduce the message of that page with a personal anecdote of

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

There are many disturbing trends in the use of English today. There are people who could not spell or apply rules of grammar even if their lives depended on it. Apostrophes are being used to indicate the plural forms of simple nouns. There are marketers who believe you can make any product cool and an instant hit by giving it a name starting with a lower-case i .    Also at the top of this list of linguistic nonsense is the hyphenation of so-called compound adjectives formed with the adverb well . There is no grammatical justification for such creations as “well-played game” or “well-paid job” or “well-run business”. Let us begin by reviewing what we learned in junior high English class. An adverb is one of the eight parts of speech. Adverbs modify, or describe, a verb, adjective, or another adverb, generally answering questions such as how, when, and where an action was performed. Modifying a verb: Luciano sings loudly . Taylor sings poorly . I am going to see a movie today . Th

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

Rome wasn’t built in a day.  Good writing and/or translation takes time. The subject must be researched; questions must be answered. No writer is an expert on every subject; most have a limited range of specialties. Only an author who truly understands the material can produce effective copy. Expect a good writer to ask lots of questions no matter how detailed your briefing is. Only a native speaker writes like a native speaker.  Every press release, brochure, and tech manual should be written by a native speaker for native speakers. “Our customers are not native speakers, so we’re happy if they can just understand it,” is the wrong attitude. If you’re marketing to people in China, and they can’t comprehend native-level English, you should address them in Chinese. Potential customers who struggle with your brochure will toss it aside. Your advertising does you no good if it isn’t being read. If a reader can tell the text was written by someone who does not master the language, someth