website translation

[Guest meriljean]

I've been an editor for intrnational students and business people for years. One thing I've noticed lately is that most European and Asian websites are well translated, but China's are generally not. They seem to rely on inferior translation or even on machine translation, which produces a kind of "word salad," with all the right words, but very little of the meaning. (I'm speaking specifically of sites advertising big companies or factories: chemical, agricultural goods, manufactories.)

Does anybody out there know someone who I could speak with to start a small business that would help websites reflect the professionalism of their companies?

How about the delicate cultural tightwire/business of letting someone know that their English website is not expressing the meaning that their pre-translated website does?

Thanks for your thoughts on this knotty problem!

meriljean

[Guest pl]

translation must based on human beings.

the translatation technology based on machine has no future.

[geek_frappa]

yes, very true. machine translation is neither practical nor ethical.

it is not practical because there is so much busy work that goes into the programming with very few benefits...

it is unethical because the goal of translation is to provide information in the exact context. machine translation breaks down communication and defeats the purpose of language.

[bathrobe]

That said, there is a place for machine translation. Human translation is very expensive. If you have a text that you just need the rough meaning of, and a machine can do it, then machine translation is justified. There is an awful lot of translation out there that is just sheer drudgery (I'm not talking about literary or business translation that might require fine cultural judgements, I mean technical stuff that could just as easily be churned out by a machine).

[geek_frappa]

you make an excellent point, bathrobe.

i guess that many levels of translation that are required for different situations. better judgement helps each solution work for the right problem.

[geek_frappa]

How about the delicate cultural tightwire/business of letting someone know that their English website is not expressing the meaning that their pre-translated website does?

from my experience, you should show them a competitor's website. showing the possibility of losing face is easier than criticizing reputable business people.

gently imply that if the audience does not believe you are authentic, then the website may lose marketshare to other companies who are serious about getting their marketing message across.

be reverent, but be assertive.

having GUANXI helps, too.

[Guest meriljean]

Thanks everybody! This is such an important topic to me. Clear communication serves busines-to-business but also makes cultural misunderstandings less likely--or at least possible to fix when they happen!

Once upon a time, German was the language of science, French was the language of diplomacy, and English--imperialism, I guess. Now when Europeans do business with Koreans, it's in English. English as a second language is in use by so many different native language speakers. It makes it even more importaant that clarity and accuracy and ease of reading is paramount.

Primezero: Special thanks to you for your sensitive advice--it's the best yet. Makes sense to take the spotlight off the flaws of the "target" company or webmaster and plays into the cultural imperative to save face using another company as an example.