On the Job

Translation Frustration

By Kathy Graden, Newsletter Editor

Many companies translate their technical documents into other languages, have important customers headquartered outside the U.S., or both. Such companies generally employ professional translators to convert their documents. They also usually require technical communicators to try to write information that is easy and quick (and therefore less expensive) to translate.

But, both translators and readers whose native language is not the one in which a document is written may be stymied by certain words that complicate translation because they have multiple meanings. And, some languages contain words whose meaning doesn't translate from one language to another because of differences in culture.

Recently, according to The Times of London, England, a London-based translation company called Today Translations polled 1,000 of their linguists around the world to find out which words they found most difficult to translate. The linguists who participated were native speakers of (among other languages) English, French, Turkish, Ukrainian, Chinese, Dari, Farsi, Amharic, Pushto, Somali, and Tamil.

The linguists named the following English words as the toughest to translate:

Bumf – In British English, bumf means "documents or papers that are usually of little interest." The term is a contraction of "bum fodder," a synonym for "toilet paper."
Chuffed – In British English, if you're chuffed you're "very pleased" or "enthusiastic."
Gobbledegook – Wordy and often unintelligible jargon.
Googly – A googly, for confused Anglophones, is an off-breaking ball in the game of cricket that is delivered with an apparent leg-break action on the part of the bowler.
Kitsch – An item, often of poor quality, that appeals to popular or lowbrow taste.
Plenipotentiary – A special ambassador or envoy invested with full powers.
Poppycock – Nonsense; empty talk or writing.
Serendipity – The phenomenon of finding something good or valuable without seeking it.
Spam – The canned meat product, not unwanted e-mail.
Whimsy – The state of being fanciful or fantastic.

I also learned recently that the supposedly simple English words as, once, since, and while give translators and non-native English readers grief because these words have multiple meanings. To avoid translation problems, experts suggest that we do the following:

Avoid using as in place of because (for example, don't say, "She didn't come, as she had to work overtime.").
Avoid using once in place of when or after (don't say, "Once the copier warms up, you can begin making copies.").
Avoid using since in place of because (for example, don't say, "Since the twins started the fight, Mother scolded them.").
Avoid using while in place of although (don't say, "While you have the car keys, I don't want you to drive.").

Are any words from other languages untranslatable to English? According to the linguists, these words have no exact English equivalent:

Altahmam – Arabic for a kind of deep sadness.
Gezellig – Dutch for "cozy."
Ilunga – Tshiluba word for "someone who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time and to tolerate it a second time, but not a third time."
Klloshar – Albanian for "loser."
Naa – A word, used only in the Kansai area of Japan, that is used to emphasize statements or agree with someone.
Pochemuchka – Russian for "a person who asks a lot of questions."
Radioukacz – Polish for "a person who worked as a telegraphist for the resistance movements on the Soviet side of the Iron Curtain."
Saudade – Portuguese for a certain type of longing.
Selathirupavar – Tamil for a certain type of truancy.
Shlimazl – Yiddish for "a chronically unlucky person."

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