The Malady of Translation Errors

Instances of wrong translation in different languages is a constant source of amusement on social networking sites, and even otherwise in our day to day lives. Instances of a “Chocolate Puke” in a Chinese Restaurant Menu, or a “Translate Server Error” display at the airport to welcome dignitaries, has drawn in plenty of laughs from most of us. However for a minute, just imagine yourself as the Marketing Manager of a Company that has spent about $50,000 to outsource its multilingual translation and localization requirements.

Within just a fraction of a second, a single wrongly translated word just wreaks havoc into your marketing efforts in a foreign country. Your company becomes a laughing stock or in the worst case, gets sued for hurting the sentiments of the local community. This is the malady of translation errors; they seem to be funny from a distance, but when you are directly involved, there is nothing more unfortunate indeed!

So the next time you look out for Russian Translation Services in Delhi or a Russian Translator in Delhi, do make sure that you’ve thoroughly scrutinized the previous track-record of the translation agency, whether its translation team is native or not, and whether they have prior experience in the particular area of expertise. All said and done, always remember that most companies who entrust language service providers with their translation requirements have no way of cross-checking their work, which is why a great deal of responsibility and trust is involved. It’s high time that we took the onus of putting an end to the malady of translation errors.