Every day, the language experts at Untranslate ask themselves when a translation is good or bad. Obviously, a translation full of spelling and typos and grammatical inaccuracies is not a good translation. But is a translation without mistakes by definition a good one? Join us in finding the answer in this blog article.

Is every ‘mistake’ bad?

Translations are often judged on the basis of two criteria: the quality of the target language and the extent to which the translation remains true to the source text with respect to the content. We can judge the first criterion largely objectively by checking the text for spelling, typos and grammatical errors. The second is often less straightforward.

Translations are, on the one hand, derivatives of a source text and, on the other, stand-alone texts that function in their own way in the target culture. Each culture has different nuances and sensitivities. Part of a translator’s job is to navigate this specificity without compromising the original message. So are the cultural adjustments a translator makes to bring the text closer to the target audience a bad thing? And what about a translation that stubbornly sticks to the source text and ignores cultural nuances?

Skopos: target and audience

Vermeer and Reiß’s Skopos theory assigns more importance to the role that translations play as stand-alone texts that functions in their own way in the target culture, which makes sense. Except for a handful of few, the source text is usually not accessible to the target audience. So for them, the translation is the only text available. According to Skopos theory, it is therefore the purpose of the translation that determines translation methods and choices.

Let’s take Hang Kang’s novel as an example. Passive narrators, typical of Korean fiction, are less loved by Western audiences, according to Korean-American translation teacher Charse Yun. Therefore, the English translator chose to make the plot “a lot more nippy”. So are the adjustments that were necessary to do this wrong? Or are they just necessary for the novel’s good reception in the West?

The definition of a good translation

At the beginning of this article, we invited you to join us in searching for an answer to the question of whether or not a translation that is free of spelling, typos and grammatical errors is necessarily good. In what followed, we tried to show that the answer to that question is negative. But that does not answer the key question: when is a translation good? Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a ready-made definition. Right or wrong is objective, good or bad is not. Consequently, there are more correct translations than good translations. The question of when a translation is good can only be answered by asking more questions:

• What message does the source text convey?
• Is the target text intended to convey the message in the same way?
• What does the target audience expect from the target text?
• Should those expectations be met, or not?
• What is the purpose of the target text?
• How can that goal be achieved?
• …

It is these questions that we, as language experts, try to find answers to before embarking on a translation. We then look for the best strategy to achieve the desired result in the most efficient way: a translation that reflects the message and purpose of the source text, but does not read as such.

Un – translate

Untranslate’s mission is to guide your organisation in multilingual communication, so that your target audience never feels like they are reading a translation. Hence the name Untranslate: to rid a target text of the preconceptions attached to translation. How do we get the job done? Thanks to talented language specialists who know both the source and target languages inside out, thus producing translations that read like an original copy. By investing in a professional and high-quality translation, you can communicate smoothly with your customers in their own language, which in turn leads to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty. A win-win if you ask us.