Talking Business: How to Avoid a Translation Fail | The Language …

Posted on March 9, 2010 by Donna Jodhan

Talking Business: How to Avoid a Translation Fail | The Language …
By Donna J. Jodhan

 
When it comes to the translation of slangs and colloquialisms, one has to be extremely careful to ensure that the real meaning of what you are translating is indeed translated.  For example; if a German translator comes across a phrase such as “give me a ball park figure”, they need to be able to understand the true meaning of this phrase before even attempting to translate it into German.  So often, and too often, the real meaning of slang phrases is lost in translation and this frequently leads to misunderstanding and in many cases it ends up causing a lot of hardship for business as a whole.
 
Maybe, and just maybe, there should be a compilation of some of the more popular English slangs and colloquialisms and then this should be taken and turned into translations that would be appropriate for the more spoken languages.  Something that a budding translator may want to think about; it could turn into a very useful project.  Many businesses and companies could easily benefit from this.  Food for thought.
 
I am going to leave you with a really interesting reference to check out and from it you will get a much better picture of what I am talking about.  Please see below.
 
Talking Business: How to Avoid a Translation Fail | The Language …
By Carolyn
Take, for example, the common English expression “give me a ballpark figure.” Translated into Russian literally, as a computer would do it, you get “Give to me the diagram of the baseball stadium.” Unless you’re in the baseball stadium … In Spanish, “We’ll hit the ground running” turns into a phrase that brings to mind an action movie: “We will strike the earth operation.” The best of the bunch is probably the literal Chinese translation of the phrase “We need to get …
The Language Blog | Bloglingua.com –
http://www.bloglingua.com/ 
 

I’m Donna J. Jodhan wishing you a terrific day.
Donna J. Jodhan is the president of Sterling Creations
Now you can view blogs and editorials written by Donna at:
http://www.donnajodhan.blogspot.com (Donna Jodhan!  Advocating accessibility for all)
http://www.diversityintheworkplace.ca (monthly editorial on issues concerning diversity)
 http://numpadplus.com/blog/?page_id=7 (access and accessibility)
http://www.accessibilitynews.ca/acnews/editorials/donna.php (accessibility issues in Canada)
http://www.accessibilitynewsinternational.com (under the editorials section, an international perspective)
http://www.onestopbookcafe.com (under the café talk link) 
http://www.sterlingcreations.com/businessdesk.htm (important answers to consumers concerns)
https://www.sterlingcreations.ca/magazine.html (monthly editorial)
https://www.sterlingcreations.ca/blog/blog.html (blogs for language professionals and accessibility consultants)
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About Donna Jodhan

Donna Jodhan is an award winning blind author, advocate, sight loss coach, blogger, podcast commentator, and accessibility specialist.
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