The biggest translation fails
Lost in translation
What makes translations so tricky
Because even if it’s tempting, your School German or School French are quite possibly not enough to aptly translate certain things into a foreign language.
There’s a reason why most professional translators and interpreters have spent many years honing their skills at university. Because, quite simply, “saying something in German/French/Italian” is not the same as correctly and comprehensively translating a statement into another language.
In addition to excellent command of both source and target language, professional translators also need other vital skills:
- detailed knowledge of the target market’s culture
- in-depth understanding of different text types and target groups
- expert knowledge of the covered topic
- a fine feel for language
A good translator – like our experts from the punkt & komma team – has all these skills and uses them to make sure that what you want to say is literally not just “all Greek” to your readers.
Our tip: To find out what other skills a good translator needs, read our blog article “4 web copy translation myths”.
Why slogans are so difficult to translate
As our famous examples of international brand fails show, slogans are often horribly mistranslated. But why is that? After all, slogans usually only consist of a couple of words. Well, it might only be a few words – but these words mostly carry a lot of meaning.
The following is usually true for slogans:
- They are creative.
- They include plays on words.
- They are based on well-known idioms.
- They communicate nonverbal, cultural aspects.
- They have local shades of meaning.
These reasons make slogans notoriously difficult to translate. Actually, what you need is often not a translation but “localisation” – adapting an idea to a different target language and culture.
Sometimes it’s necessary to completely change the source text in order to communicate the same meaning in the target text. This process is also called “transcreation”, a combination of “translation” and “creation”.
Word-for-word translations are completely useless in this case. Instead, you often end up with translations that have an entirely new message while retaining the same emotional connection with the target group.
Here’s an example: Nike’s legendary slogan “Just do it” didn’t work for the Chinese market. That’s why the company opted for a transcreation that roughly translates to “Do sports”.