Translation can be serious work or it can be a real game at times. People often see translation services as something that is required for contracts and such. Many times it is very structured but the content we receive to translate is as different as the companies that send it. As a translator you learn a lot from the content as you do your work.
Translation work is often last minute. A new product is about to hit the shelves and a team member yells out, “What about the french?” Meaning what about having it translated into French for Quebec? It is often an after thought especially for new companies not used to turning their marketing materials into different languages. The fun part is that we get to handle different types of documents from games to contracts.
Last month our workload was a mix of welding flyers to workplace contracts to trivia games. The trivia games were my favourite. These came from a division of retirement homes that required the trivia games converted into French. It was like translating the jokes from a comedian into French. It can be difficult as meanings change in French and can change the tempo of a question. Jokes and slang don’t always translate properly into another language so finessing of things like trivia games are always a challenge.
Translating trivia games hasn’t made me any smarter at trivia. I play with an online trivia group on Monday nights and although I don’t do too bad I often don’t remember all the trivia questions that I have translated. That’s the real game!
About the Author
Carmen Outridge is the owner of Outridge Translation Services and has been translating documents between English and French for over 30 years. Carmen is from Eastern Townships part of Quebec and understands the language and dialect of Quebec. To learn more about Outridge Translation Services or to get help with your next project visit www.outridgetranslation.com
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