Translation Errors
Ok, so, LDS missionaries who have served in foreign countries have a very distinct way of speaking the language they learn. It's usually filled with missionary jargon and various slang phrases that work very well when spoken, but not so well when written. So, I work for a company that is making language teaching software for teaching English to various non-English speakers. As such, the software has to have instructions written in the students' language. Apparently they had a Portuguese translator some time ago who went through and translated all of their stuff for them. You can tell he was a missionary. He translates things like a missionary would-- you get the gist of the idea he's trying to get across, but it's still not exactly what the English version of the instructions say.
That's all fine and good if you're just trying to get the gist across, but if you're trying to translate something for an official set of instructions in which you're teaching the person English-- come on! The translation had quite a decent amount of slang phrases and usages in it, not to mention a phrase or two that you could tell the guy had heard but never seen written, because he was using the wrong word that had a similar sound. There were a ton of places where he rearranged the meaning of the translation so it was different. For instance, in one thing, the student is asked to describe some symptoms to a doctor on the phone, and they are told to leave their phone number with the doctor for him to return the call. The Portuguese translation literally translated says: "Leave your phone with the doctor and ask him to call you back." Now, spoken, that makes perfect sense-- most people talk like that. The problem is that it's COMPLETELY wrong to write that. Especially for a set of formal instructions.
Ergh. He really should have put some more effort into it, I think. Maybe it's just my sense of pride at wanting to see translation work done properly.
That's all fine and good if you're just trying to get the gist across, but if you're trying to translate something for an official set of instructions in which you're teaching the person English-- come on! The translation had quite a decent amount of slang phrases and usages in it, not to mention a phrase or two that you could tell the guy had heard but never seen written, because he was using the wrong word that had a similar sound. There were a ton of places where he rearranged the meaning of the translation so it was different. For instance, in one thing, the student is asked to describe some symptoms to a doctor on the phone, and they are told to leave their phone number with the doctor for him to return the call. The Portuguese translation literally translated says: "Leave your phone with the doctor and ask him to call you back." Now, spoken, that makes perfect sense-- most people talk like that. The problem is that it's COMPLETELY wrong to write that. Especially for a set of formal instructions.
Ergh. He really should have put some more effort into it, I think. Maybe it's just my sense of pride at wanting to see translation work done properly.