TRANSLATION ERRORS THAT AREN’T ERRORS

TRANSLATION ERRORS THAT AREN’T ERRORS

« It is common for multilingual laymen to look at a translator’s work and exclaim enthusiastically, “Wait a minute. They translated that wrong! The source text makes mention of a cat, yet the target text does not!” There are indeed a lot of bad translations out there. Being a professional translator myself, however, I often wonder if these linguistic sleuths have truly found an error or are simply unfamiliar with the translation process. Professional translation is a very complex technical endeavor that requires in-depth cultural knowledge, thorough fluency in both the target and source language, and professional knowledge of translation theory. Rather than aiming to translate every word, a translator’s goal is to ensure the meaning of both texts within their respective cultural contexts matches. Read on to pull back the curtain and catch a glimpse of how this works by examining five instances where literal translation itself would be a translation error… »

METAGLOSSIA NOTE

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