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24/06/2008English-language websites getting 'lost in translation'

English-language websites getting 'lost in translation' Brussels, that modern Tower of Babel, appears to be coping badly with the language of Shakespeare. James Drew reveals bad grammar on a website can lose a company a lot of money.

With Hollywood producers realizing that bad translations on foreign export film copies are in fact far more expensive than good ones, a look at the quality of English-language translations closer to home, particularly in the Capital of Europe, reveals errors both printed and in particular online that make the toes curl, the sides ache with laughter and the hair stand on end.

To cite some examples of recent film dialogue that's somewhat 'lost in translation':

Film: My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006)
Dialogue: 'We have a zero-tolerance policy for sexual harrassment'
Translated as: 'We hold the highest standards for sexual harassment'

Film: Seabiscuit (2006)
Dialogue: 'It was a ball to shoot'
Translated as: It was like filming a dance scene

Seemingly, work on high-grossing Hollywood movies is being allotted to inexperienced translators in a bid to lower costs, but this is ending up costing movie bosses dear in terms of lost revenue, with audience complaints soaring.

Meanwhile, in Brussels and wider Europe, a lack of understanding of English nuance afflicts even blue-chip websites, with the language use often particularly poor in Belgium - a surprise, when one considers the obvious English fluency that most Belgians possess - as is the case with many other European nations, linguistic skills that put the majority of UK residents (and even a considerable number of Brussels-based expats) to shame.

Here's a taster from the Belgian site of a renowned entertainment venue:

How but can internet connection fail?
All depends of the browser. Nothing else to do. The site is well activated only if problems appear.

Answers on a postcard, please. But wait, there's lots more:

What have you to do for purchase advance ticket?
So that can function correctly, it is necessary that you accept all extra monies.

And the simple fact of the matter is that poor English usage is losing companies money across Europe - a recent website survey (September 2007), undertaken in Norway, found that ‘companies insult foreign clients, lose business contracts and are reluctant to expand into new markets because of poor English-language skills’.

The survey, conducted by philologist Glenn Ole Hellekjær on behalf of The Norwegian Centre for Foreign Languages in Education, found that almost 30 percent of the 664 business leaders surveyed said that their business had avoided expansion into new markets because they did not believe they had the English skills required.

Worse, 40 percent of business leaders said that they had lost business deals with foreign clients as a direct result of poor English skills.

Hellekjær told Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten that businesses would benefit from "thinking about language more professionally" adding that "the first point of contact for most clients is a company’s website, and if it’s really poor, it may well be their first and last visit”.

James Drew

Brussels-based James Drew and Colin Moors have established www.readright.be - an online venture offering English proofreading, grammar and syntax-correction services and translations from French.

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