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Spanish to English translations [PRO] Bus/Financial - Business/Commerce (general) / Health & Safety
Spanish term or phrase:medidas preventivas
I'm looking to settle a gentle disagreement with a fellow translator about how to translate "medidas preventivas" into UK English.
She thinks "preventive measures" is fine whereas to me that is a *translatorism* and "health & safety measures" is a better translation - especially given that "prevención de riesgos laborales"/"PRL" is Health & Safety at Work (HASAW) in the UK.
Examples: - RIESGOS EXISTENTES Y MEDIDAS PREVENTIVAS - Medidas preventivas generales para PRL: el sentido común, nuestra seguridad y la de quien nos rodea nos hace poder fijar unas medidas preventivas generales para todos los sectores, que podríamos llamar “pautas de convivencia“... - Las medidas preventivas son una serie de consejos básicos sobre seguridad y salud durante la construcción, con el fin de ayudar a prevenir los accidentes de los trabajadores y personas ajenas a las obras.
What do others think please? (prefer native UK English speakers opinions).
Explanation: I do see your point, but given that the source text mentions "PRL" (which presumably you have translated as HASAW) and ".... son una serie de consejos básicos sobre seguridad y salud..." around the term "medidas preventivas", wouldn't you then be faced with the repeated occurrence of "health and safety"? Or would you adapt the text to eliminate that repetition? It's a while since I've translated health and safety documents, but I've certainly used the term "preventive measures" in that context a fair bit, and I would argue that it is one of several aspects of HASAW as a whole.
This article seems to draw a distinction between "preventive measures" and "health and safety measures":
Many thanks everyone for indulging this question. I feel more comfortable now going with "preventive measures". I wasn't trying to be too "smartypants" (thanks for that Neilmac!) but wanting to get it right. I appreciate everyone's help and input. Thanks again. 4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer
At the risk of stating the obvious, I've always argued that one of the most important things a translator has to do all the time is read. You don't always feel like it when you spend all your working day with texts, but it's vital. Read genuine English texts, of all kinds, written by competent native speakers; don't just look things up in them but read them. If you translate art catalogues, read genuine English art catalogues to get a feel for how they express themselves. If you translate medical articles, read articles by literate English-speaking medics (most scientific articles are written in non-native English, so you have to be very careful). And if you translate health and safety, read health and safety documentation written by people who have no idea that Spanish talks about "medidas preventivas". If you find, as you do, that they talk a lot about "preventive measures" or "risk prevention measures", you can be pretty confident that it's OK, I would argue.
I can relate to that completely, and I agree that constant vigilance to avoid falling mechanically into unnatural literal translation is a vital part of our job. I do feel, on the other hand, that our antennae can become over-sensitive and sometimes throw up "false positives". Avoidance of literal translation is a natural tendency for translators, not least (I would argue) because when clients see a literal translation they think it can't be any good, because any fool could have done it. Knowing when being literal is best is also a vital skill.
Spanish is absolutely peppered with unnatural calques of English expressions (as are other languages) for the obvious reason that people deal with so many texts badly translated from English. It's less common, however, for unnatural literal English translations of Spanish expressions to creep into common use, except, I suppose, among translators. That, of course, is why it's so important to take great pains to ensure that the examples one uses from the Internet to support a particular English usage are genuine English, "uncontaminated" by contact with another language. It's often not obvious until you look carefully.
"Needless to say, literal translations can also be inappropriate!" I agree that both literal translations can be appropriate and inappropriate. However, it's a hobby horse of mine to challenge/weed out terms that are not "natural" in English and that have become standard simply by overuse. It's a bit like that saying "a lie doesn't become a truth if you keep repeating it". I see a lot of those types of terms in EU and academic documents. A good example is "movilidades" for universities, to refer to Erasmus exchanges, placements abroad and so on - "mobilities" sits badly with me, but it does appear to now be a common term in the UK. Even so, I couldn't bring myself to use it (!), so plumped for Billhill's very helpful other options (mobility opportunities, mobility activities, or mobility programmes). Like I say, it is a hobby horse of mine :-)
"I think the asker means 'preventive measures' being a translatorism in the sense of it being a literal translation of the term without further thought" - that's exactly what I meant.
Do you mean "health and safety measures" is the standard term used in the UK? So it is, and so is preventive measures: they are roughly equally common in the documentation of the Health and Safety Executive, and elsewhere. The point I wanted to insist on is that while all (occupational) preventive measures are health and safety measures, not all health and safety measures are preventive measures. They are not synonyms, so "health and safety measures" is not, in principle, an accurate translation of "medidas preventivas".
I'm sure that is what Comunican meant by "translatorism". But a literal translation can be accurate, appropriate and idiomatic, with or without further thought. Efforts to avoid literal translations simply because they are literal give rise to a lot of inaccuracies.
Last month, I interpreted for the training of engineers on how to use a machine in a warehouse. The company's Health and Safety Officer also took part in the training. He was asking of sort of questions on how a possible error would cause an accident, etc. IMO, 'health and safety' is the standard term used in the UK. I think the asker means 'preventive measures' being a translatorism in the sense of it being a literal translation of the term without further thought.
But the main point to me is that HSW is broader than occupational risk prevention. Not all H&S measures are preventive measures. Installing fire extinguishers is an obvious example. Another is first-aid kits and defribillators, etc.
There is nothing wrong here with “preventive measures.”
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Answers
10 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +6
preventive measures
Explanation: I do see your point, but given that the source text mentions "PRL" (which presumably you have translated as HASAW) and ".... son una serie de consejos básicos sobre seguridad y salud..." around the term "medidas preventivas", wouldn't you then be faced with the repeated occurrence of "health and safety"? Or would you adapt the text to eliminate that repetition? It's a while since I've translated health and safety documents, but I've certainly used the term "preventive measures" in that context a fair bit, and I would argue that it is one of several aspects of HASAW as a whole.
This article seems to draw a distinction between "preventive measures" and "health and safety measures":
Kate Stansfield United Kingdom Local time: 22:55 Specializes in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 4
Grading comment
Many thanks everyone for indulging this question. I feel more comfortable now going with "preventive measures". I wasn't trying to be too "smartypants" (thanks for that Neilmac!) but wanting to get it right. I appreciate everyone's help and input. Thanks again.
Notes to answerer
Asker: @neilmac: not trying to be "smartypants"; trying to be "professional" and "consistent" ;-)