12 November 2011

Translation by emulation, take #2

But why go to all this trouble, especially if the client's mandate is not explicit?

The short answer is that language-sensitive translators with an appreciation of good copywriting want to do the best they can by their clients. Further, into-English translators with a natural respect for customer-centred copyrwriting or trained in customer-centred communication or customer experience management (aka CEM) constantly strive to move away from company-centred copy and towards customer-centred copy because they know it will have greater and more positive impact on the translation client's own customers in English-language markets.

In summary, translators adopting a 'translation by emulation' approach with a view to producing English language documents that are a little less company centred or, better still, significantly more customer centred than the original must focus increasingly on the client's image, products and services as promoted to the target audience in the target language.

CEM: See also this HBR article.

ChatGPT, a drafting aid for translation by emulation

On 17 October 2011, I published the first of two posts summarising my general approach to the type of translation/adaptation services I was ...