que manque-t-il à votre confort

19:25 Jan 4, 2019 

Some potential answers to your suggested question: "What would make your travelling experience more comfortable?" that would clearly not have been wanted by the drafter of the question "Pour vous, que manque-t-il à votre confort dans ce train lorsque vous êtes assis ?"

1. A decent bus/tram service to get to the station.
2. Being able to park close to the station entrance.
3. Being able to get a seat rather than having to stand for the whole of my two-hour journey. (Yes, Lorraine, that's a common experience when travelling on trains.)
4. Not being pushed and shoved by other passengers while trying to get onto or off an over-crowded train.
5. Having an accessible wheelchair space not blocked by luggage.
6. Having a disabled toilet that isn't locked and out-of-order.
7. Lifts or escalators from the station concourse to the platform and vice versa at the destination station.

I hope that illustrates what I meant about the need for precision in scope and meaning and the damage to the client's research project that can be done by a careless translator.

18:51 Jan 4, 2019 

Hopefully travelling is done 'assis' otherwise, why discuss comfort?

18:09 Jan 4, 2019 

That would seriously corrupt the meaning of the source text question by generalising it way beyond "lorsque vous êtes assis". Questionnaire design requires absolute precision (I know because I've taught it at undergraduate level) and it would be very wrong for a translator to alter the scope and meaning of questions.

16:13 Jan 4, 2019 

(In your opinion) what would make your travelling experience more comfortable?

14:54 Jan 4, 2019 

Note carefully the exact syntax here:
« confort ... lorsque vous êtes assis »
To me, this clearly indcates it is not talking about JUST how comfortable the seating is, but also the convenience of things like the folding table, the lighting, the waste bin... all the things in the immediate vicinity of your seat.

14:48 Jan 4, 2019 

Oh dear me, yes! Another thing to watch out for!
Using "according to..." here would tend to imply there there might be some kind of contention of opposing views, which would certainly be unwelcome here, and at worst, risks influencing the answers. As BDF so rightly points out, the precise language used and wording is of vital importance in this sort of thing, in order to avoid unintentionally distorting the results.

13:57 Jan 4, 2019 

Quite! I think that a considerable awareness of nuances of language is required in order to produce a well-designed questionnaire. That means that it's best done by a native-speaker of the language in question.

13:07 Jan 4, 2019 

We wouldn't say "according to you" in this context.

10:48 Jan 4, 2019 

BDF makes an important point, and I think you're wider context possibly makes this clearer — I have a suspicion they are not talking here about 'softer cushions,' but rather 'the kind of facilities you have to hand without getting up from your seat'? This would make sense with your other question about 'poubelles', and tie in with BDF's comment under that one too.

10:13 Jan 4, 2019 

Your suggested translation isn't just "clunky", it's inaccurate: "lorsque vous êtes assis".