How to Avoid a Bad Translation

You could go your whole life translating things perfectly, and then one day not translate something maybe as good as could be, and people will jump all over you about how bad of a translator you are. And this happens even if you as a translator translate something in a different way than someone else might translate that same thing.

But as translators, we know that this is part of the territory going into the field of translation, so hopefully we're not too surprised when it actually happens. (Because if it hasn't happened to you, it will someday. Don't worry. Just expect it.)

But while we know that there will always be critics, we should still do everything we can to be professional translators and avoid being labeled as someone who produces a bad translation. The best way to do that and avoid bad translations, is to know the different types of translations mistakes that are commonly made, so that we can hopefully avoid those in the future.

Totally wrong translations

Sometimes a bad translation is just that: a bad translation, a mistake, a completely wrong way to go. This is the most obvious type of translation error, and hopefully, the least common for professional translators. Most decent translators are able to avoid these kinds of translations, and if one of these does creep into a translation, it's most likely a proofreading error.

By that, I mean it could be that a translator just misreads the source language and translates the text the way he or she thinks the source text is, when in reality the original meaning is something completely different.

These kinds of translations are the ones you sometimes see in bad translation pictures.

Slightly off translations

This type of translation error is definitely more prevalent than the major translation errors, and can often be more dangerous. The reason is because a lot of so-called translators don't have either the experience or the training to understand subtle differences and nuances in both languages.

This type of bad translation happens when a translator knows the basic meaning of a word or phrase but doesn't quite understand the exact meaning of what is being conveyed, sometimes as a single phrase or word, or sometimes its meaning in terms of the context of the rest of the translation.

One good example is Spanish slang translation. Slang is one part of language that can vary dramatically depending on where, when, or with whom it is used. If a translator renders slang differently than what the original author intended, the resulting consequences of a seemingly small error can be serious. A mistranslation here could change a slightly-off translation to the category of a totally wrong translation.

Wrong approach

One of the pitfalls in both translation and interpretation is that even though word equivalents can often be found, these might not have the exact meaning or quite the right impact to get across the intended meaning of the author or speaker.

When that happens, it can be extremely difficult for a translator or interpreter. Oftentimes, the best response is to not try and come up with an equivalent, but instead note that it might be better to explain the author's intention.

I've often seen this in talks and speeches. The speaker might relate a joke that works in the original language but just cannot be transfered very well to the target language. Instead of making a "rookie" mistake and try to force the translation or interpretation, it would be better to say that a particular section doesn't quite translate but then explain the intention.

An important skill to have as an interpreter or translator is the ability to understand that not everything from one language is going to transfer 100% over to another language, and that the job of a translator is to try and get the original meaning across as best as possible. Sometimes the best way possible is going to take a little bit more explanation.

Translation that's not necessarily bad

The last section of bad translation types includes those that are not neccessarily bad but sound a little off. These types of errors usually surface when someone translates something into a non-native language. To a native speaker, it just doesn't sound right and it can sometimes be hard to articulate the reason(s) why.

The best way to avoid these types of translation errors is to always translate into your native language and do your best to avoid translating into a target language that you're not very good at. For most native speakers, it will be easy to spot a translated document, and you want to try to avoid that from happening as much as possible.