You don’t need to get “lost in translation”

English is still an ‘alien’ language to most of the Chinese in mainland

Karl Zhou, MMM’s Chinese consultant, says there are many challenges to entering the expanding market in China. “China is an emerging market where many businessmen want to go,” he says. “However, English is still an ‘alien’ language to most of the Chinese in mainland China, even in the business sector. If one wants to do business in China, translated materials are still highly desirable”.

However, poorly translated materials not only can’t get your message across but will even tarnish your company’s image. We have heard a lot of complaints from clients who had bad experiences before they came to us.

Take for an example, the translation of a media release. The original English was:

“These resources have been produced to complement formal pesticide training that is mandatory for all people who use pesticides in NSW as part of their job or business and will provide growers with general information about keeping their training up-to-date and keeping records of their pesticide use to meet NSW requirements.”

However, the original Chinese translation was:

“These methods complemented the formal training for the people who use pesticides and who sell pesticides in NSW, and continuously provide them with the latest information, so that their ways of using pesticides meet the requirements of NSW.”

You can see that the underlined words such as “resources” , “as part of their job or business” and “general information” were mistranslated into  “methods”, “who sell pesticides” and “latest information” correspondingly. On top of that, the sentence “keeping records of their pesticide use” was totally missing from the translation. The translator not only did not translate the wordings fully but also mistranslated some sentences.  In this case, the important message that the client wanted to convey, we say,  was “lost in translation”. A good translation not only needs to capture the exact meaning of a document, it also must be careful not to delete any of the information.

MEGA Pacific is the exclusive and master distributor for many quality transport hydraulics products in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific region, and they wanted to expand their market into the profitable Chinese market. They asked MMM to translate their sales brochure and two management staff’s business cards into Simplified and Traditional Chinese*.

As most of MEGA Pacific’s product names are very technical, MMM’s translators not only did the translation but also verified with people in the field in China that the terms used were understandable both in China and in Hong Kong. This is what we call “one-step ahead” translation. With this proactive action, MEGA Pacific’s sales team in China gave high praise to the translated sales brochures.

A spokesperson for MEGA Pacific told MMM, “We are impressed with the final outcome and have been complimented by potential Chinese clients that our flyer was the best they have seen when it comes to translation and professional presentation. They said that many translated materials from overseas are full of mistranslation or wrong words, but the one MMM produced for us reached high standards, even though the terms were quite technical”. We are proud to say that MEGA Pacific has remained a valued MMM client, having commissioned MMM for another flyer translation and layout. 

MMM always keeps one of its business mottos, “First impressions count,” in mind, not only in doing business with its own clients, but also in preparing materials for clients. Especially with translation, if the first impression isn’t right, you may never get another chance.

Spoken form	Written form	Where
Mandarin	Simplified Chinese	Mainland China and Singapore
Mandarin	Traditional Chinese	Taiwan and some overseas Chinese
Cantonese	Traditional Chinese	Hong Kong, and some overseas Chinese
Cantonese	Simplified Chinese	Many people in southern Mainland China

 

When you present to international audience ...

To Australian eyes, the message is that the magic pill relieves pain and make a sick patient happy.

But people who read from right to left (for example, speakers of Arabic and Hebrew, and some older Chinese and Japanese) will understand that your magic pill makes a happy person sick!

a. $17.20

b. $17,20

c. $17.2  

d. 17,20$

Other little things like making sure how your audience write their currency will win you their heart. (a. Australian way, b. French, c. Hong Kong, d. German)