French

Why a human translator is best for translating training materials

/ Natalie / Leave a comment
Some training documents containing graphs and charts are on a table, with four people's hands gathered around it.

When you work in an international company, documents and paperwork can come in many shapes and forms, as can the reasons why business documents need to be translated into another language. For every document with an external use, such as marketing materials, proposals, and websites, there are tons of internal documents that need to be available in multiple languages too, such as company policies, financial statements, and reports.

I have translated hundreds of business documents, and lots of them are meant for internal use only. This sometimes includes training materials, which are either designed to be delivered to new employees or to help develop the skills of existing employees.

But, just because they are not going to be seen by the public, doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be translated well or given less thought – after all, your employees’ opinions matter too! I have already covered why getting a colleague to do your translations is not a good idea, but it could also be a mistake to run your text through an AI program such as ChatGPT. Here are some of the challenges that I come across when I translate internal documents such as training materials.

Continue reading →

Global Talent Visa for Arts & Culture: How to find a certified translator

/ Natalie / Leave a comment
An Italian passport, a map, some money, a magnifying glass and a camera sit on top of a checkered suitcase.
Photo by Francesca Tirico on Unsplash

If you are applying for a UK Global Talent Visa, you may find that you need to include translations of some of your evidence. The Arts Council requests that if any pieces of evidence are in another language, they must include a full translation from a certified translator. But what does this mean, and how do you find a certified translator?

Continue reading →

3 things I learned at Warwick Translates Summer School

/ Natalie / 2 Comments

Source: Mike1024

Last month I attended the Warwick Translates Summer School at the University of Warwick, a series of literary translation workshops and talks led by leading professional translators and publishers. As I hadn’t been to a translation event in quite some time and this one was especially geared towards literary translation, I was quite excited. My enthusiasm clearly showed as I tried to cram in three modules over the 5 days: French translation, Spanish translation, and Theatre translation.

Continue reading →

Why are there two French versions of the Les Misérables musical?

/ Natalie / 8 Comments

Translating

Last week, I watched Les Misérables on stage for the first time ever. I know – I worked in a theatre for 9 years, but this particular show had passed me by. Partly because I live over 200 miles away from the West End so I mostly rely on shows touring to my part of the world, but also because my existing knowledge of the show painted it as a depressing tragedy, so I wasn’t exactly in a rush to see it.

But there’s a reason why it’s one of the longest-running musicals in the world: despite the sad events throughout, I found the performances incredible and it was hard not to get swept up with those iconic songs. Ever the linguaphile, the next day I looked up the original French soundtrack on YouTube to see how it compared with the English.

Continue reading →

3 translations into English that have suffered translation loss

/ Natalie / 3 Comments

Translations into English translation loss - cover

Humanity has been translating words from one language into another for thousands of years – from inscriptions in stone to religious texts, from books to films, and even songs.

But as any translator will tell you, sometimes it’s just impossible to copy everything into another language and expect it to have the same effect; some real creativity and ingenuity is needed to adapt the text to the new audience. Occasionally, the best solution is to leave some aspects behind in the original language, omitting certain parts in order for it to make sense – and be well received – in the new language. This is called translation loss.

Continue reading →

What to do if you’re not happy with a translation you’ve commissioned

/ Natalie / Leave a comment

You may not have to throw away your translation

On my blog, I like to talk about how to get the best possible translation for your money and reach the happiest ending for either you or your business – but unfortunately, sometimes things may not go as planned, either for the translator or for the person requesting the translation. I’d be lying if I said that I’ve never received questions about a translation I’ve done – although thankfully, these have never been full-on complaints, just clarifications 😉

Still, if you’ve hired a translator to translate your website or business documents, but something feels a bit off…how do you fix it?

Continue reading →

Why this “good enough” translation is not fit for purpose

/ Natalie / 9 Comments

 

Many translators would agree that there are two ways to translate something. While some of our clients appreciate that translations take time, require creativity and expertise, and may not word-for-word look like the original text, other clients may prefer a literal translation to be on the safe side, or may say something along the lines of “it doesn’t matter if it’s not perfect” or “as long as people can understand what it says”.

Continue reading →