Translating an operator manual for an industrial computer network from English into Dutch does not seem too much of a complicated task. That is what I thought, too. However, the translation process caused some headaches.
Terminology
I had to translate a termlist with 120 terms, but the list was not approved until the project was almost finished, so I was still in the dark about what the right terms would be. I submitted extensive query lists, but they never reached the end client - the German agency replied, and the answer was always: Please use the proper Dutch term for this concept. See original PDF for reference. Context is automation technology.
I talked to all my family who (lucky me) is involved in computer technology, industrial computers and process technology and even called an engineer specialised in OPC - and they all confirmed that most of the specific terms were not to be translated.
So I plodded on, inventing terminology and trying to do something with clearly company-specific concepts, such as Asset Optimization which I did not translate in the end. OPC-specific terms such as "subscription update rate" I explained between brackets: (verbindingsactualisatietempo).
Two weeks later - just before the deadline - I received the approved termlist. About 30 of the 120 terms had to stay in English. Several Microsoft terms such as Application Bar or Status Bar even had to stay in English. Even terms followed by the threatening remark this term must be translated, such as Application Scheduler had to stay in English. Luckily, only about 4 terms had to be changed.
What went wrong
The German agency had not arranged for direct contact with the Dutch branch of the company. They should have realised that there are huge differences in translatability of terms.
It was also not clear which part of the company-specific terminology had to be translated and which part had to be considered as brand names or untranslatable concepts.
I am used to extensive glossaries with company-specific terms and friendly engineers answering my queries if there is no terminology available, to create a translation that is consistent with the language the company uses. The German agency saw this as a reason to doubt my capabilities as a translator. They were clearly not used to this working method.
I should have refused the job as soon as I found out there was no reference material nor any way to contact the client directly and that the Dutch agency that contracted me just acted as a middleman or called the end client to ask for reference material, even if that is usually "not done".
The source text had apparently been translated from German into English which did not help either.
But it was challenging and my cousins now know a little bit more about the difficulties of translation. Thank you Jaap Kramer and Roelof Hadders.
