Translating yourself? These are the pitfalls

Translation often seems simpler than it is. You speak a few words across the border, have handy tools within reach, and before you know it, you’re translating yourself. However, there’s much more to a good translation than just converting words from one language to another. If you start translating yourself, you’ll quickly encounter a number of pitfalls that can have significant consequences for the quality and impact of your text. Let’s zoom in on the main reasons why it’s better to leave translation to the professionals.

1. Lack of expertise

Translation is a profession. It requires more than just language knowledge; it also involves understanding cultural nuances, the right tone, and sensing the target audience. Those who think that anyone who speaks a second language can easily translate often end up disappointed.

Suppose you have a business text and think that an employee with a reasonable knowledge of English can translate it quickly. But that employee is not a translator, let alone a specialist in this field. A professional translator knows how to translate industry jargon and can adjust the message so that it is conveyed correctly. An inexperienced translator lacks these skills, which can lead to inaccuracies or inconsistencies.

2. The native language principle

Translating into another language requires more than knowledge of language rules; you must truly feel the language. That’s why professional translators adhere to the native language principle: translators only translate into their native language, because only then can they appropriately express the nuances and subtle differences between words and expressions.

Another example. You have a French text that needs to be translated into Dutch. You ask a colleague who speaks good French to translate it, but Dutch is not that colleague’s native language. The translation is understandable, but lacks feeling and sounds unnatural.

A native speaker understands how sentences feel in the target language and knows exactly which words and sentence structures work or don’t work. Non-native speakers often miss these subtle language nuances, resulting in translations that don’t read well or can even be misleading.

3. Relying on translation tools

Translation tools can be useful for a quick translation or to understand the gist of a text. But fully relying on these tools without human oversight is asking for trouble. The translations are often literal, lack context, and contain mistakes that can have significant consequences.

Consider, for example, a marketing text that is quickly run through a translation tool without human revision. The tool translates a catchy slogan into something flat and meaningless in the target language. Customers do not understand the message, and the impact of the campaign is completely lost.

Translation tools do not always understand context well and often miss the subtle nuances that a human translator does pick up. They are mainly useful as a tool, but cannot replace a professional translation service, especially when it comes to important or sensitive content.

4. Inconsistency due to lack of translation memories

A frequently overlooked challenge in self-translation is the lack of consistency. Professional translation services use translation memories: databases that store previous translations and ensure consistent use of terms and sentence structures.

When companies translate texts internally, this usually happens without using a translation memory. As a result, terms such as product names, core messages, and technical terms can be translated differently each time, creating confusion for the reader.

A consistent message is crucial for your brand identity. Using different terms for the same concept can dilute your brand and leave an unprofessional impression. Translation memories prevent this issue and contribute to the continuity of your communication.

Conclusion: leave translation to the experts

It seems so easy to quickly translate yourself, but in practice, this often causes more problems than you anticipate. Whether it’s a lack of expertise, the absence of native language intuition, reliance on translation tools, or inconsistency due to the lack of translation memories: the risks are significant.

Mave collaborates with professional translators who understand the nuances of your texts.

This ensures that your translations are correct and consistent. Because ultimately, your message deserves nothing less than that.