My daughter began college exactly 10 years after we moved to America from Germany. When we first moved here, she still spoke fluent German and had a summer to learn English before school started in the fall. Ten years, apparently, was enough time to completely forget almost every bit of German she learned at such an early age.
Not realizing just how much of her native tongue she no longer knew, I tried to pressure her into taking another language in college so that she could gain valuable knowledge of other cultures and languages. She decided to take German instead of following my advice.
During the second semester of her freshman year, I received a frantic phone call.
“Mom”! I need your help! My final paper is due tomorrow for German, and I don’t think it’s saying what I want it to say. Are you really busy? Can I e-mail it to you to take a look?”
Of course I said yes.
Five minutes later, her paper was in my inbox ready to be proofread. Little did I realize how much she had forgotten…
I called my daughter back, and I asked her one simple question, “Have you forgotten everything of your German?”
To my horror (not only as a mother but also as the CEO of a translation company), I hear my daughter say, “I used an online translator for the words I didn’t know.”
I went silent. My own flesh and blood...
“Mom? Are you still there?”
Oh, I was there. I was there trying not to scream at her about how ridiculous it was to use an online translation service to turn in a final paper that determined her final grade in the class, which could have caused her to fail.
I got my wits about me and in my professional, calm voice explained to her why using an online translation service that has no clue about native slang, innuendo, homonyms, heteronyms, etc. is an absolutely terrible idea. After a few minutes of my speech, she cut me off and simply asked me to help her.
The story of my daughter’s near misfortune with a failing paper is, unfortunately, something I often see when a company does not invest the time and money into quality translators with native language ability, educational credentials, etc. The “machine translator,” as it’s dubbed in the translators’ inner circle, is just purely that: a machine. It doesn’t understand common native sayings such as, “I love this!” If that were to be translated into German, the literal translation would be, “I love it!” This looks the same; however, Germans don’t use the words “love” and “it” in the same sentence. EVER. The word love in German is really only used when talking about an actual being. A native speaker would know this and would quickly be able to distinguish between the English meaning and translate it into the German version of saying that same statement.
Successful, globalized companies spend a lot of time and resources ensuring that their message is being clearly and correctly stated because, again, what means one thing in English doesn’t necessarily mean the same thing in Mandarin Chinese, German or Spanish. An example from history is JFK’s faux pas of saying, “Ich bin ein Berliner!,” which literally means, “I’m a jelly donut!” not I’m a citizen of the city of Berlin (quotation from a June 26, 1963 speech by U.S. President John F. Kennedy in West Berlin, Germany).
Correct translations go a long way when trying to take your company global. Consumers worldwide are becoming more sophisticated, and they want everything in their own language. Employees do as well. From product packaging to websites to human resource documents, everything must be translated. And it must be done right. A computer program simply can’t do that for you.
About Susanne Evens
Susanne Evens is the founder and CEO of the St. Louis-based AAA Translation company (celebrating its 20th anniversary this year), the president of the St. Louis-Stuttgart Sister Cities, an executive board member for the World Trade Center St. Louis and a member of the Business Week Alliance/Market Advisory Board. Her advice regarding global business development and communications has been featured by national and international media outlets that include BusinessWeek, National Public Radio (NPR), International Enterprise Singapore, BrandChannel.com and more. Under her leadership, AAA Translation has grown to serve business clients the world over, working in 150+ languages. Learn more at www.aaatranslation.com.
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