“No smoothen the lion”
Or the art of communication

Communication is always a challenging task, regardless of who is trying to bridge the gap of understanding. Kids do not get their parents, wives struggle to get their point across to their husbands, masses tune out their leaders and people speaking the same language have difficulties understanding each other. So it should get easier when your message is being translated into another language, right? Well, it doesn’t.

The truth of the matter is that many companies ranging from mom-and-pop operations to Fortune 100 giants have made blunders trying to translate their materials into other languages. According to some of the hilarious bloopers collected (but not created) by Bromberg & Associates, communication across the language barrier can be very tricky. Feel free to laugh out loud reading some of these examples:

• The “Turn it Loose” campaign was introduced by a major beer company. Unfortunately, it was translated as “Suffering from Diarrhea” in Spanish and not surprisingly failed to increase sales within the Spanish-speaking population.
• A childcare company’s website, translated by non-native speakers into English, featured these priceless expressions: “Our children is our dignity. They are smart, independent and workaholics. … This teacher graduated Nursery School.” After reading a statement like that, many parents may have decided to trust another institution with their children’s early development.
• The following sign was proudly posted at a dry cleaning store in Bangkok: “Ladies may have a fit upstairs.” Well, out of curiosity, do they?
• A menu at a Swiss restaurant displayed this less than appetizing remark: “Our wines leave you nothing to hope for.”
• And going to this dental office could truly be perceived as a scary experience, since the sign in a Hong Kong dentist’s office reads: “Teeth extracted by latest methodists.”

While all languages are prone to losing a lot in translation, there are ways to ensure that it doesn’t happen to you and your company’s messages. There are steps a company should take to protect itself from funny, yet disastrous blunders?

• For starters, entrust your materials to professionals, instead of a “next to nothing” option of a bilingual friend, coworker or mother-in-law. While seemingly cheap, an option like that may end up costing a small fortune to the company’s image, customer relations, and more. Most certainly don’t try the “do-it-your-self” route through free automated translation sources. Even though professional translation memory tools are continuously being developed and improved, they are not free or easy to use. Remember the old truth “You get what you pay for”…
• Don’t hesitate to ask questions of the potential provider to make sure that they have an established process in place, instead of having just 1 person perform the entire translation. If you use editors in English, assume that the same diligence should go into recreating content in another language.
• And finally, share as much information with your translation vendor as you can. The more information they have about the message you are trying to get across and its intended outcome, the better result you can expect.

If you follow these simple suggestions, your translated messages will seem funny only if originally intended. If you decide not to, they may end up looking like the sign in the Czech zoo: “”No smoothen the lion.” And who knows what the end result will be then…