Why use a professional translator? Execution yards and Barf Washing Powder - that’s why!

At a time when businesses are facing budget cuts, pay freezes and tough markets, it’s easy to feel that passing on translation work to staff who “know a bit of Spanish” is a cheaper option that using a professional translator. Well beware - it may be cheap in the short term but it can be very costly in the long run. Let me explain by illustration:

Imagine the horror of reading that you are in a prison with an execution yard! That’s how a booklet for Russian prisoners in Lincoln Prison* described the exercise yard according to a recent report by the Chief Inspector of Prisons.

Would you wash your clothes with Barf Washing Powder? That’s the offer on one of the latest ads in the English language section of the European TV channel Euronews.

These two examples just indicate how a single word can change the entire meaning or intent of what is said. Think of the effect of such a misunderstanding on one of your products. Multiply that by the amount of money wasted on advertising that error and again by the cost of correcting it. Now you see my point. We often use the phrase “lost in translation” to indicate that communication has broken down in the translation process, but actually translation produces the opposite effect - it opens doors, overcomes linguistic and cultural barriers, making it easier for you to sell your products or services.

It may cost more, but after all you’re paying a qualified professional to do the job right. Just because the office junior knows how to surf the net, would you let them design your company website? Of course not, you’d pay a professional web designer. Well why let them translate your company information for potential clients worldwide? Professional translators invest heavily in their education, often having spent several years living in the foreign country itself, and follow a program of Continued Professional Development which covers both business and IT skills as well as a specialised knowledge of the topics they translate.

More than that, they have a native-like knowledge of the languages they work with, and here in the UK professional translators only translate from the foreign language into their native tongue, so they are aware of the cultural nuances of the languages in question. That’s why I can tell you now - the ad for Barf Washing Powder was done by a non-native English speaker, because a native speaker would have understood in a flash the connotations of the word barf.

So the next time you want a document translated, think twice before reaching for the phone. Use a language professional. Better to be pound wise than penny foolish.



*Prisons: Execution yard is lost in translation, The Independent, 18 November 2010