| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Off topic: When the client asks you to use a grammatically incorrect construction Thread poster: RominaZ
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Kay Denney 
France
Local time: 13:10
French to English
| 5th or Fifth? | Jun 20, 2013 |
Nicole Schnell wrote:
Regarding the street names, I caved in and translated them anyway.
That's OK provided the street names are shown as "5th Avenue" rather than "Fifth Avenue"
| | | | Nicole Schnell
United States
Local time: 04:10
English to German
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In memoriam | Street names | Jun 20, 2013 |
Texte Style wrote: Nicole Schnell wrote:
Regarding the street names, I caved in and translated them anyway. That's OK provided the street names are shown as "5th Avenue" rather than "Fifth Avenue"
I found the file:
St. George Street = St. George Straße
King Street = Königsstraße
Cathedral Place = Kathedralenplatz
Somewhere in Florida.
They insisted. Seriously.
| | | | Nicole Schnell
United States
Local time: 04:10
English to German
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In memoriam | Hehe, I forgot to add: | Jun 20, 2013 |
City of St. Augustine = Stadt St. Augustine
Looking at this file makes me wince. The young PM insisted that each and every word that they paid for had to be duly translated. The same young PM also managed to call me on the phone because the word count in my invoice exceeded their word count by four words.
Can't find the other file. Some driving directions to a company in Utah or Nevada.
| | | | Ty Kendall
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:10
Hebrew to English
| Oh........... | Jun 20, 2013 |
Nicole Schnell wrote: Texte Style wrote: Nicole Schnell wrote:
Regarding the street names, I caved in and translated them anyway. That's OK provided the street names are shown as "5th Avenue" rather than "Fifth Avenue" I found the file: St. George Street = St. George Straße King Street = Königsstraße Cathedral Place = Kathedralenplatz Somewhere in Florida. They insisted. Seriously.
Königsstraße!!!! In downtown Orlando! I know it well!! LOOOOOOOL!
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Well, to be honest, I do tend to insist on geographical names. I just stand 'Wielkopolska', 'Małopolska' etc. in any foreign texts like they don't have a word for them. I dislike translating street names from Polish, though, as according to most people that should produce the awful combination of an uninflected foreign word (and therefore basically a Nominative) with a Polish Genitive, an awful combination which makes no sense in addition to beinf awful, and it becomes completely silly when num... See more Well, to be honest, I do tend to insist on geographical names. I just stand 'Wielkopolska', 'Małopolska' etc. in any foreign texts like they don't have a word for them. I dislike translating street names from Polish, though, as according to most people that should produce the awful combination of an uninflected foreign word (and therefore basically a Nominative) with a Polish Genitive, an awful combination which makes no sense in addition to beinf awful, and it becomes completely silly when numbers get involved, not to mention awful.
Nicole Schnell wrote:
But I was asked by two different PMs at two different agencies to translate street names into German. I am not making this up. To help the German tourists find their way around in the US
Oh lol, marvels of the human mind. This said, lapses of logic like that probably happen to me too from time to time, so I try to be soft on people. Few people are smart already before first being corrected (by someone who was corrected by someone else years ago etc.).
I don't actually take those things to hear as much when they happen to me as when I hear about them from others. Perhaps I can empathise more with the people I work with and talk to.
[Edited at 2013-06-21 00:29 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Nicole Schnell
United States
Local time: 04:10
English to German
+ ...
In memoriam
Łukasz Gos-Furmankiewicz wrote:
Well, to be honest, I do tend to insist on geographical names. I just stand 'Wielkopolska', 'Małopolska' etc. in any foreign texts like they don't have a word for them. I dislike translating street names from Polish, though, as according to most people that should produce the awful combination of an uninflected foreign word (and therefore basically a Nominative) with a Polish Genitive, which makes no sense, and it becomes completely silly when numbers get involved.
Street names should never, ever be translated. How is a visitor supposed to find his way around in a foreign city in a foreign country when neither his driving directions nor his city map match any signs? Especially when both languages use the same character set. There is no such thing as a Königsstraße in Orlando. The poor visitor will cruise around the city until he runs out of gas and/or suffers a nervous breakdown, will abandon his car probably in King Street and will walk to next pond to commit suicide by being eaten by the next available alligator.
Edited for hysterical typo. Sorry!
[Edited at 2013-06-21 00:48 GMT]
| | | | Balasubramaniam L.
India
Local time: 16:40
Member (2006)
English to Hindi
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SITE LOCALIZER | Hybrid language | Jun 21, 2013 |
Recently I did a translation into Hindi from English of an ad like thing. But soon I had the PM writing back saying that the client is unhappy with the translation and that some of the words used by me were very literary and unsuited for an ad. According to the client, using the original English words in place of these would be a better choice.
I wrote back saying that by no stretch of imagination can English words be more easy to understand for a Hindi audience than their Hindi equ... See more Recently I did a translation into Hindi from English of an ad like thing. But soon I had the PM writing back saying that the client is unhappy with the translation and that some of the words used by me were very literary and unsuited for an ad. According to the client, using the original English words in place of these would be a better choice.
I wrote back saying that by no stretch of imagination can English words be more easy to understand for a Hindi audience than their Hindi equivalents, however literary they may be, and moreover it is a big no-no to mix words from other languages in the translation if those words have not already become accepted as loan words, and none of the English words suggested had reached that status. Moreover, I explained to the PM, that the resulting translation would be an ugly hybrid that is neither Hindi nor English.
The PM wrote back saying he understood my point, but the client is always right, and could you please implement the changes requested?
I didn't make any further attempt at client education, and just implemented the changes and resubmitted the translation for what it was worth.
This is a frequent experience with me. If the reviewers are not as experienced as you and do not sufficiently understand the nuances of good writing, you always face such problems. But there is hardly anything you can do about it. I do make feeble attempts at setting the record straight, but only half-heartedly as I know it is a lost case. ▲ Collapse
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Balasubramaniam L. wrote:
This is a frequent experience with me. If the reviewers are not as experienced as you and do not sufficiently understand the nuances of good writing, you always face such problems. But there is hardly anything you can do about it. I do make feeble attempts at setting the record straight, but only half-heartedly as I know it is a lost case.
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| Never, ever in that context only | Jun 21, 2013 |
Nicole Schnell wrote:
Street names should never, ever be translated. How is a visitor supposed to find his way around in a foreign city in a foreign country when neither his driving directions nor his city map match any signs? Especially when both languages use the same character set. There is no such thing as a Königsstraße in Orlando. The poor visitor will cruise around the city until he runs out of gas and/or suffers a nervous breakdown, will abandon his car probably in King Street and will walk to next pond to commit suicide by being eaten by the next available alligator.
Yup. But a different cup of fish when you're translating some high-profile catalogue entries or even realty profiles where it's not a piece of street address but just, 'located at King Street.' I might leave that alone in Orlando's cale, but probably not in some kind of posh thing about a European capital unless it where some kind of Via del Corso that just has to have the Via there.
While not a street, I remember discussing this one on a Polish board. (Isle-of-the-Dome, by the way.)
Edited for hysterical typo. Sorry!
[Edited at 2013-06-21 00:48 GMT]
I do all the time, myself. A typo here can cost a career!
Balasubramaniam L. wrote:
The PM wrote back saying he understood my point, but the client is always right, and could you please implement the changes requested?
He isn't. And those requests for changes are mere clerical jobs that come down to satisfying someone by manually executing an instruction to the letter with no thinking required. A translator is not needed for that. Which is why it irks me when translators comply and some actually see it as their ethical duty and a mark of professionalism to do so.
How about: "British or American, I couldn't care less. I just like my months before my days. Please correct all dates in the translated document?" (Alternatively, the infamous Polish 'r.'/'roku' for years.)
Balasubramaniam L. wrote:
This is a frequent experience with me. If the reviewers are not as experienced as you and do not sufficiently understand the nuances of good writing, you always face such problems. But there is hardly anything you can do about it. I do make feeble attempts at setting the record straight, but only half-heartedly as I know it is a lost case.
I actually point out the mistakes, along with gravity. There also proof mistakes, viz. unnecessary changes and other false positives. And there's reviewing malpractice. If you allow yourself to be corrected, they'll think they're right and you're wrong, or that it doesn't matter actually, you still can be corrected. I don't ever let them do that. I terminate end clients after exactly one such incident unless an apology is forthcoming after somebody competent on the end client's side inspects the matter. Actually, I've terminated agencies for that, too (2 so far). Costs me some income but not really that much.
[Edited at 2013-06-21 05:08 GMT]
| | | | | Varies by field? | Jun 21, 2013 |
Łukasz Gos-Furmankiewicz wrote:
I actually point out the mistakes, along with gravity. There also proof mistakes, viz. unnecessary changes and other false positives. And there's reviewing malpractice. If you allow yourself to be corrected, they'll think they're right and you're wrong, or that it doesn't matter actually, you still can be corrected. I don't ever let them do that. I terminate end clients after exactly one such incident unless an apology is forthcoming after somebody competent on the end client's side inspects the matter. Actually, I've terminated agencies for that, too (2 so far). Costs me some income but not really that much.
Maybe this has a lot to do with your primary field, Łukasz. A single incorrect/awkward word or phrase in law can have great ramifications, but in some fields it's not so much of a game-changer. It can make a difference, yes, but often no one is going to go to prison over it or be forced to pay huge sums of money. In these more or less irrelevant cases, the energy you have to put in to trying to convince someone of something often just isn't worth it. It's time and energy that could be better spent translating something else (and getting paid for it).
I guess in the end it really just depends on the nature of the work and the severity of the grammatical/terminological offense.
| | | | Kay Denney
France
Local time: 13:10
French to English
Nicole Schnell wrote:
St. George Street = St. George Straße
Surely that should be Heiligen Georg Straße!!!???
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