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There's no such thing as a perfect translation. There is always a cultural context to any sentence that is more complex
than "the cat sat on the mat" kind of level. Even something as simple as "he wore an orange shirt" may have totally
different overtones for a Dutchman than it would for an Englishman. For the one, it is the national colour for the sports teams and
might be worn with considerable pride, whereas the other might perhaps say that he wouldn't be seen dead in something so garish. Elements of style may come
across differently - what one culture sees as being forthright and straight-talking may simply be seen as being rude and uncivilized by another:
the literal translation may be quite inappropriate. A German academic might well be justifiably proud of being able to refer to himself
as Herr Professor Doktor Doktor, without realising that the Englishman receiving the letter is going to see that as snobbish
or arrogant. Or just plain laughable. And the old favourite problem of translating the semantics rather than the syntax.
Considerations like these - and many smaller nuances too - mean that it is impossible to get every
shade of meaning across at once. To a certain extent, there is an inevitable tradeoff between perfect
fluency on one hand and literal exactness on the other. In other words: there is no such thing as a perfect translation.
But we do our best!
A closely related problem: the concept of making the text "fit" in the target language. A reference to a historical figure, a popular TV
programme, a football club, a town... these may mean nothing in the other language. Another tradeoff. Do you explain the details, and lose
the spontaneity, or do you substitute a reasonable equivalent? Even translating the Milieuwet as the Environment Act
may not be appropriate, for example, in another country where their own environmental legislation is entirely different.
Calling it the Dutch Environment Act may be more sensible.
Dates and numbers
Seemingly minor items such as numbers and dates may need a little attention as well. To English speakers 1,500 is fifteen hundred,
but to many contintental Europeans it would be one and a half. Purely numeric dates are generally MM/DD/YY on the American side of the
Atlantic, but DD/MM/YY in Europe (we prefer alphabetic codes for the months to avoid the potential confusion). A sum of money would never be expressed as £ 5,= in English (it would be
written £5 or £5.00). And so on.
Addresses and phone numbers
You may also find us altering the formats of postcodes or telephone numbers, even. There is a convention used in much of Europe by
which a country code can be prefixed to the postcode, but that is not done in Britain. Neither are slashes or dots ever used when writing
telephone numbers in English. And of course, the international dialling prefix may need to be added, if you are expecting people to call
you from the target country. Maybe the postal address is one where the recipient pays the postage (Freepost in the UK,
an antwoordnummer in NL) - but that doesn't apply for international mail. Similarly, premium rate phone numbers may not be accessible
from abroad. Naturally, these types of things have to be taken into account as well.
Academic titles
People are naturally very proud of their academic achievements and titles and may want them stated in their communications.
This is however not as easy as it might seem. The multiple titles of the German professor above have to be condensed to just the highest one, in normal
English usage. Others may have no good equivalent: the Dutch Ing. and Ir. and drs for example go before the name, but are meaningless and
therefore confusing in English and have to be either dropped or have a rough equivalent instead, e.g. a BSc or MSc (British - BS or MS to the Americans) after
the name. The Ir. title in particular looks like a first name, to any English-speaking reader who is familiar with the Continental habit of sometimes
placing two letters such as "Ph." for Philippe or "Th." for Theodorus... (which incidentally also have to be just "P." and "T." respectively in English).
The most confusing one of all, perhaps, is the Dutch law degree (LLB or LLM after the name in English) that entitles you to a mr. in front of your name... even if you're a Mrs!
The information received from clients is treated as confidential, irrespective of whether it comes directly from the end customer who owns the data or via an intermediary such as another translation agency. This means that it will not be passed on to any third party without first checking that the client accepts that the data may be passed on. The same confidentiality restriction will be placed on any other translator or agency that we pass the work on to.
It is no longer difficult to find websites that translate your material automatically by computer into all sorts of languages at relatively low prices. This will undoubtedly become a significant aspect of the market in the future, but currently the results vary between the execrable and the merely atrocious once you get beyond sentence structures like "the man kicked the ball". They suffer badly from the fact that they convert the syntax and not the semantics. If you want us to correct a machine translation, please note (a) that we will require the source as well as the output and (b) it generally takes longer than correcting your own attempts. We strongly recommend that you get your material translated properly rather than taking this route.
If you have any specific requirements for a particular job, don't hesitate to contact us. Click this link to send us an e-mail, or use the quick inquiry form.
We prefer to receive information in editable digital form: we use software that helps us keep the style and usage consistent, helps us check the terminology and (equally importantly) lets us work more quickly and efficiently. We will work happily with:
... the usual suspects, in other words. Most jobs can simply be supplied to us by
; larger jobs can be sent on CDs by post (address) or we
can make arrangements for transferring the sources by FTP, YouSendIt or Dropbox.
Our rates are based on the assumption that the material can be edited on the computer, so there may be surcharges
(e.g. an extra one cent per word) for anything that doesn't fit this pattern, depending on the additional work involved, e.g.
Our terms and conditions are in line with the industry. More...
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