Welcome to Into English Translations, Zwolle
What’s wrong with the English in the following excerpts?
Of course, it’s not your job to know what’s wrong with these excerpts…that’s mine!
If they all sound a little like ‘double Dutch’, well then you won’t be surprised to discover that they were written/said by Dutch people. More surprising perhaps, is that these mistakes are typical for Dutch speakers and really rather commonplace, even among the well-educated. Rather more disconcerting – and for me as a native English translator and language expert, rather disheartening – is that the ‘translation’ above was done by a ‘qualified’ translator!
The universally-acknowledged golden rule in the translation industry is: ‘Only translate into your native language!’ Having lived in an English-speaking country and years of translation experience are undoubtedly also very important. But a ‘qualification’ means very little in the world of translation if such basic mistakes can occur, and moreover, often remain unnoticed and unchecked; the same is true for English teaching. Read more…