Tips for Avoiding Bad Translations
Sometimes, bad translations aren't neccessarily the fault of translator. (Although the way you often read about translation mistakes in the news, you would think that translators are always making mistakes through no fault of the original author.)
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But that's precisely the point. Sometimes, the trick to avoiding bad translations is to make sure that you're not dealing with a bad source language text, because in this case, the blame for the bad text lies with the original.
However, most of the time, we as translators can't necessarily make our clients write their source language text better. Part of our job, though, is to try and figure out what it is that the original author intended, even when he/she doesn't know themselves.
Sometimes this can be difficult depending on the type of translation and how careful the client was when putting the original together, and while most of the time it is relatively easy to know what the author meant, other times it can be downright impossible. That's when translators are really worth their weight in gold!
So the question then becomes one of trying to figure out what to do when we come across errors in the original text. There are diferent options we can choose from and different circumstances warrant diferent responses.
Use Your Own Judgement
Even though it is the most common response, asking the client might not always be the most convenient. Say, for example, that you're translating informal communications like email or letters. A lot of times, people don't use the correct pronunciation or accent marks when writing and this can lead to a poor original. If the translator is still able to decipher what the intention of the author was, there's no need to ask.
However, make sure you are 100 percent sure that your interpretation of what was written is actually the right interpretation (or at least the one that the original author intended). If you're even a little unsure, you would be doing a great disservice to try and translate your "guess." In that instance, it's best to move on to the next step.
Ask the Client
Sometimes there's so much confusion in the original that you need to ask the client what was intended. It can also be important to clarify with the client when abbreviations are given or when numbers are in the text without having their units or measurements specified.
As I mentioned above, if there is any doubt about what was meant in the original, it does you no good to try and guess what the meaning is and translate accordingly. This is especially true for translations of numbers and abbreviations. Nothing is worse than mistranslating something because you were too proud to ask the clarify the meaning of something.
One thing to keep in mind with this, though, is to not overdo it. It's not a good idea to ask for clarification on every little issue, because clients expect translators to be able to work without too much supervision and if you ask too much, clients might (unjustifiably sometimes) think that you aren't very qualified and don't know what you're supposed to do.
You might want to use the same technique I use when I get a new translation project. What I do is look over the translation project when I first get it, maybe go through a rough translation, and write down anything I need clarification with. This way I have a list of things to ask the client and only need to do it once.
Follow the Original
Anyone that has been a translator for any length of time knows that ambiguity is common in source language documents and can easily lead to bad translations. A particular section or sentence might have multiple meanings or possibilities and it might be impossible to know what the author meant just by reading the original.
Well, in this case, one option that you might consider is trying to translate the ambiguity so that it exists in the target language as well. This isn't something that is doable all the time, but there might be instances when it would work. By keeping the ambiguity, you ensure that you're remaining faithful to the original, while at the same time avoiding wasting time with a bad translation.
Along with this, another method to avoid bad translations you might try is to be more literal in your translation or even add a translator's note to the translation. By being literal, you lose some of the flow of the original, but you at least can retain the meaning, which, depending on the circumstances, could be more important. I saw this one time at a conference I was attending where the speaker told a joke. The joke didn't translate well into Spanish so the interpreter just explained that the speaker was telling a joke and that the audience should laugh at a specific time. It worked out well for the audience, the speaker felt like his joke had gone over well, and was a good move by the interpreter.
