Médecins sans frontières

[tisoi]

So early this morning on CNN they showed the famine going on in Niger, particularly with the kids. They showed a doctor who was from an organization called - hold on to your seats - "Medicines without Frontiers."

Edit: Sorry, I guess it wasn't obvious to some people. The official French name is Médecins Sans Frontières. The official English name

Comments

[cluebyfour]

I thought it was usually translated as "Doctors Without Borders." Anyway, they do tremendous work throughout the Third World, and won the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts a few years ago.

[madcaptenor]

Yes, it is. I suppose "frontières" could be translated as "frontiers" (although that's not the usual translation) but "médecin" definitely refers to a person, not a pill.

[optimussven]

Think you may have missed the point of that post.

[cluebyfour]

I'm not entirely sure there was a point to this post, but if you've divined it, please share.

[dannypotter]

Isn't that bad translation?

[noktulo]

Un médecin is a doctor.

[keigan]

Yes, but medecines are drugs.

[keigan]

Plus, the word médecin doesn't exist in English, it's either doctor or physician. So that's a bad translation.

[noktulo]

I know. That's why I was correcting them. They translated médecin as "medicine," when they should have translated it as "doctor."

[tooffdk]

Yeah, it's "Doctors Without Borders". What's the big deal, Goodboi?

[pennywhistle]

I think the big deal was that it was translated very wrong. CNN, a major news source, didn't bother to find out the correct translation, and just translated it how it looked.

[fpb]

Shows you CNN's standards. If they cannot fucking translate from FRENCH, what hope is there that they could get much more alien cultures right? Buncha jerks.

[aurynne]

The big deal is proof why that whole myth of "anyone with two years of high school foreign language can translate"...
While technically a medic in English is a doctor and a frontier is the same as a border, a translator should know that almost every major organization has an official name in English and should look it up. This is called professionalism, which the above-mentioned translation clearly lacks..

[noktulo]

msf.org, by the way.