case studies

English to French translation of an extract from Meon Springs website, a glamping site situated near East Meon in Hampshire, with the briefing of producing a text intended to feature on the prospective French page of the website. The Skopos of promotional website, promoting a particular destination, being to persuade, rather than simply inform, this text aims to lure, woo, seduce targeted francophone adventurers into making a decision. 

 Familiarity with technical terms used in the source text. 

Making the readers acquainted with the type of camping. 

Good control of the appropriate discourse convention, language, ton, and register.   

 In a bid to provide a trusted translation in a position to compete with similar text in the target language it was paramount to draw on the must-have aptitudes of a technical translator, namely, first and foremost, the ability to demonstrate expertise in the subject knowledge and the use of parallel texts in order to have a good command of the specialised terminology lest lexical translation loss should occur. 

In this text, while readers are expected to be familiar with this uncommon kind of camping, they may, however, have little to no information about Meon Springs peculiarities. This aspect has been considered using the strategy of Intra-gloss and extra gloss strategy. 

The intended recipients’ familiarity with related discourse conventions in their own language, combined with Culture specific items (CSI) present in the text, were given a particular attention. Additionally, the formal aspect attached to the language and ton of French tourist discourse as well as the hybrid genres (both having informative and persuasive purposes) have been weighed up in the translation. 

In in all, a full engagement with scholarship in translation theories, in particular as regards “culturèmes” proved decisive to disambiguate uneasy passages and produce a translation that undoubtfully ticks the right boxes with the client. 

Ahead of print sources such as tourism brochures, web-based resources have become an indispensable tool in the planning and development of travelling, as well as one of the main channels for the marketing of a destination. This allows tourists to find information, to book, to access products and services, and compare tourism offers in an independent way, and thus put together a holiday plan. Internet users are one click away from making a decision whether to go for a destination or not. With France having the 5th largest international tourism expenditure in 2019, occupying rank 5th of the countries with largest international tourism expenditure in 2019 with around with 51,7 billions US dollars, the aim of this project is to localise the project in France for maximum effectiveness for a French target audience.

 Africasafari.co.uk is one of the biggest organisers of safari tours to Africa in Northern Europe. They’ve been around since 2006 and, every year, they send thousands of guests on exciting and adventure-filled tours to Africa. They are a large team of dedicated, travel-minded employees with extensive experience of our destinations. Offering tours to many fantastic destinations, such as Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa, Kilimanjaro, Botswana, Zambia, and Uganda. 

 The source text comprises three distinctive articles on adventure-filled safari tours, iconic landmarks, and stunning accommodations of selected touristic destinations of South and East Africa including Botswana, Kenya, Mauritius, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. The texts emanate from the travel website Africasafari, one of the renowned planners of Safari tours in Northern Europe, trading since 2006 and sending thousands of visitors on splendid expeditions to Africa. This website is advertised as the right place to be for stunning and unforgettable exotic excursions to Africa (ibid.). The purpose of this dissertation is to accommodate the texts for upmost use for a French target audience. 

 Difficulties in translating tourism texts describing one of most preferred activities while visiting East and South Africa (Safari) taken from a well reputed tourism website from English into French.

Web tourism translation intrinsically implies the mastering of two indissociable aspects. First, the genre attached to the translation of adverting materials and second, the ability to align the texts into specific procedural frameworks that feature in a numeric platform. 

Accordingly dealing with the syntactical and pragmatic aspect of the localisation in order to create an effective translation that fits in the target audience’s aspiration.

Dealing with the challenges attached to the localisation of tourism texts. 

Adapting the translation to the sociocultural but also the politico-legal and specificities of the intended audience.

With different languages having different stylistic conventions with respect to the drafting of tourism promotional materials, the challenge was to dig up the stylistic elements ensuing from cultural eccentric penchants (idioms, quolloquialisms, axioms etc..) in a bid to make them fathomable to the intended audience. 

Degree and limits of intervention of the translator as a mediator, rewriter, and recreator. 

 As regards the syntactical aspect, preferences are given to compound adjectives having rather accessible constructions ahead of relatives closes with long and difficult structures.  Compound adjectives, which come in different shapes, amount to an important device to shorten information into a lexical component. This was taken into account in the translation process. 

With respect to the pragmatic aspect, a standard web translation must deliver the fundamental message, and simultaneously make a web page effective for the expected readership and for search engines optimisation. 

Achieving a standard web translation involves the translation of all pages, including all purely linguistic elements, alternative texts, links, etc., and support documents and the adaptation of dates, weights, measures and currencies; the modification of content, by omitting information not relevant to target receivers (TR), adding extra information, or practising a summary translation of the ST; a change in style, by employing the writing style conventionally used in the target culture (TC). 

Technical aspect, i.e., keywords and key phrases make up significant challenges linked with localisation. For the sake of search engine optimisation, Keywords and key phrases are meant to feature predominantly in the web content. They not only account for the focus point of web visitors, but also their relevance in the web language is one of the most interesting phenomena for linguists and translators alike. This aspect has also been given a thought in the translation process. 

I took the responsibility as a mediator, rewriter, and creator at cultural and linguistic level, which necessitated both a comprehensive linguistic knowledge, and extensive cultural acquisitions; A form of mediational work involving a positioning of the translator between two interlocutors who are speakers of different languages and acting to achieve communication where otherwise there would be no shared language.  

 The source text is an extract from the crime fiction novel, Les brouillards de la Butte, written by Patrick Pécherot and published in French in 2001. As per the brief, the translated text will serve as a sample for a British publisher looking to publish the novel in English. The immediate target audience is therefore the publishing company, with an implied eventual audience comprising members of the general English-speaking public with an interest in crime fiction and reading for pleasure. 

 The heavy use of slang, the presence of metaphoric language, and the cultural specificity of certain references posed some difficulty for translation. 

Since the translated text will belong to the popular genre of crime fiction, anglophone audiences will expect a certain level of ease and speed when reading the novel. 

The translated text should be of the same text-type as the source text. 

Handling complex wordplay i.e., slang and metaphors - an important stylistic French feature in crime novels – proved challenging to capture it and successfully translate some of the cultural specificities for an anglophone audience.

The translation of French names, locations and geographic sites. 

The greatest difficulty posed was deciphering unfamiliar references and transforming them into a pleasant reading experience for a new anglophone audience.

 To deal with the presence of metaphoric language, and the cultural specificity of certain references, I resorted to the consultation of scholarly works in order to find and apply alternative translation solutions. 

Since the translated text will be of the same text-type as the source text - namely, the expressive type - the translation was form-focused and prioritised the transmission of the source text’s aesthetic form. This means that it is important to recreate the source text’s narrative style through consideration of elements such as register, tone, and imagery.

Since the target text, like the source text, functions primarily as an expressive text-type, it resulted important to successfully transmit not only the text’s content, but also such formal features as its style, tone, and imagery.

There was a conscious decision to keep a French touch to the translation — which included preserving French names and locations, as well as informing individual decisions which will be discussed below.

The quintessential “Frenchness” of the translation was decided upon, when and wherever necessary. 

The French publishing company, Éditions du Masque, would like to publish the Andy Horton series of Pauline Rowsen’s crime fiction novels, so it commissions the translation of select passages from the novel, Undercurrent, to see how effectively the text’s style and subject-matter can be reproduced for a French audience. Members of the target audience are likely to enjoy reading for pleasure and have an interest in crime fiction set in Britain. Thus, the skopos is to present the book to a Francophone audience. The translation brief does not provide any further information meaning there was a lot of latitude in deciding how to perform this translation.

 Challenges in the translation of the source text arising primarily from differences in grammatical tenses and syntactic constructions between the English and French language. 

Certain syntactic constructions also posed a challenge. A key feature of the excerpt’s narrative style, for example, is its use of compound adjectival and nominal phrases. 

Crime fiction is culturally embedded and this is particularly challenging in relation to the legal/criminal justice system, institutional procedure, nomenclature and jargon. These Culturally Specific Items (CSIs) are present in the source text. The most glaring difficulties involved the use of specific English language abbreviations within the criminal justice system. 

The source text’s reference to cultural-specific items, and its use of slang and colloquialisms., Deciding whether or not to translate geographic place, along with challenges in dealing with specific word choices, were further difficulties encountered in the translation.  

In order not to expunge certain elements that make them French, parts and parcels of the translation of geographic names have been made “French”. This responds to the genre of this particular translation type. And the same argument applies in the inverse situation. This was particularly relevant when deciding whether to keep British terms in English, or to translate them into French. 

Conservation and absolute universalisation were employed as strategies to deal with these Culturally Specific Items (CSIs). With the latter involving a form of substitution in which one deletes any foreign connotations and chooses a neutral reference. This seemed to fit with the notion of Relevance: A factor that tends to influence the treatment of a CSI in its importance for the understanding and credibility of the text or of one of its passages.

In terms of specific word choices, I decided to keep some French terms simple and universally known. 

There is not always a direct correspondence between French and English grammatical tenses. In English, the preterite can be translated as the passé composé, the plus-que-parfait, or the imparfait. My translation therefore takes into consideration specific grammatical and cultural contexts in order to determine the most appropriate choice of tense. Additionally, an important feature of French written and formal literary style is the use of the passé simple. While the tense has no true equivalent in English, I decided to employ it in the target text, in accordance with French literary convention. 

Sometimes it is difficult to judge the translation of colloquialisms or turns of phrase from a small extract. It would perhaps require the translator to read a few chapters in order to get a sense of how the main characters phrase their expressions. So, I went about it with the flow. 

This translation indicates that care and local sensibility is required when translating not only the different natures of fiction and non-fiction, but of fiction based in one country and culture into the language and culture of another. This involves the interpretation of the ST, its characters, cultures and settings, and bringing them into the TT with plausibility and authenticity. Although this project was particularly challenging to translate due to all the cultural references present in the ST, I managed to overcome these difficulties and enjoyed the experience. I did much research in order to portray the translation as convincingly as possible. All in all, it was a gratifying professional experience in all aspects. 

Briefing: 

The Skopos, or purpose of this text was to argue on behalf of French and British residents who were unsure how Brexit would affect their status after Britain left the EU. It was published in l’opinion, which is a French newspaper aimed at liberal, educated, middle-aged readership. It was written by a French senator, and the article which deals with legal themes. The audience of this text is therefore expected to be a layman, albeit one which is interested in technical, legal and business-related content. The language used is an interesting mixture of plain and technical language, and the translation should therefore aim to reach that level. 

 Remaining royal to the text whilst keeping tab to the context were among others challenges linked with this legal article. 

The use of technical language, phrases without exact equivalents in English.

Identifying text type, context, ton and register and their implementation in the translation are keys to accurately translate this type of documents.

Some of the challenges encountered when translating include the fact that there were multiple possible translations of certain terms. 

Another difficulty with this text was in handling long sentences and deciding on the right word choice. 

Although this is a journalistic article, the ST is quite formal and the arguments are presented in quite a complex manner. As the ideas were unravelled, some simplification was required, which could have potentially led to the loss of the essence of some of the ideas presented. It was therefore important to try to remain loyal to the text, while at the same time providing context, or explanations as needed. 

This article contains facts (for example, there are 900 British councillors in France), and it also tries to persuade the reader that it is important to protect the citizens affected by Brexit. Therefore, using Reiss’s definition of text types (1981, p124), this article can be said to be both an informative type article, an operative type one. With regards to the translation, this would suggest that the language should be clear, so that the facts are easy to understand, but that it should also be written in such a way as to leave the reader in no doubt about how worrying the situation was for citizens living in the “other country”. This article was written before an exit deal had been reached, and British people living in the EU, and European citizens living in the UK had no idea how this would affect them. 

Some phrases did not have exact equivalents in English. So, I decided to rephrase some of them. In order to find the best technical terms to use, a parallel text was used from the official website of the European Union. Additional words were also used in order to aid with understanding. 

This text contained a number of challenges. Some of these challenges include the use of technical language, phrases without exact equivalents in English and sentences which could not be translated without adding some context or explanation into the target text. A number of decisions were made in the translation. Research into the readership of the readership of this text was also undertaken, in order to help to decide on the kind of language which should be utilised. 

 This is an extract from the ‘Institute for Government’ website, a British think tank which aims to make government more effective through research and analysis. This text can be found on the website’s ‘explainers’ section, which seeks to give advice and guidance on various topics, here on the rights of British citizens in Europe after Brexit. 

The brief is to translate the text into French which is to be included in guidance notes in the ‘Vous êtes britannique’ section of the French government’s website dedicated to ‘https://brexit.gouv.fr/sites/brexit/accueil.html

 The full text can be accessed here: https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainers/british-citizens-europe-after-brexit

 In the present text, the readership is understood to be heteroclite; ranging from Francophones (having interest in setting in the UK) and Anglophones (above all British citizens who are familiar with the French language) living in Europe or in the UK, to laypersons and lawyers -all belonging to the general public looking to be clued in on how ‘Brexit’ will affect British nationals and British’s close family members settled in Europe or looking to return to the UK. All of the above set of people are meant to be more or less familiar with the referent – Brexit. 

 Identifying skopos, text type and genre to appropriately translate the article. 

Having a good control of the language type and deep study and implementing the requirements of the target audience regarding the type of text. 

Mastering and good control of law-related technical terms as given legal terms in the English language do not always have their direct corresponding in the French language. 

 The text type is informative (Reiss, 2004), but has normative purposes and mostly prescriptive –legally binding as creating rights and obligations between nations to be viewed on a website - and the genre of the text is hybrid, a mixture of literary translation with the terminological precision of legal translation. 

The language and ton of such mixture is knowingly both formal and less formal with a whiff of legal lexicon - though very limited in the text. Undertaking such translational task does not require in-depth knowledge in law, but it essentially calls for enabling connections over linguistic, cultural and legal barriers by means of language. This, and including the level of perception of the above-mentioned target audience have to be clearly reflected in the translation.

The road map of the translation was set: the legal capacity, the expressive goal, the target audience and the text type. All that have impacted the translation drawing on the technicalities attached to the identified genre. 

This enriching EU-and-Brexit related legal translation text was an enlightening threshold combining legal (use of legal terms), language (good command of both SL and TL) and translation theory (Skopos of the translation, literary and legal translation technics). However, in order to achieve a decent translation, it was necessary to familiarise with both law and legal language, acquired to a greater extent through intensive scholarly reading material and parallel texts.

 The ST is an extract from B&Q website to be translated in French for Castorama’s website, a DIY and home improvement and supplies company based in the hexagon. 

User guide document whose purpose is to provide instructions to help users learn how to use a product. In the Castorama text, readers are assumed to be well-nigh acquainted with painting. However, the text would do a world of good to those who are experimentally engaged in the practice of painting. The intended audience are general public, Francophones (native or non-native French speakers), and this was reflected in the translation. 

 One of challenges was to adapt the online layout and presentation of the text to fit in the style of the reader’s culture (French and francophone readership). 

The other challenge was to have a good control of the terminology of the subject matter, i.e., 

building up knowledge of the referents. 

The source Text contained some spelling errors and minor blunders that needed fixing. 

Necessity of reediting, rearranging, adding and even removing poorly or sparsely formulated information in the source textabove all when it comes to health and leading to safety challenges.

User guides invariably use simple, uncomplicated language. In user guide document, it is more about how easy and effectively readers can assimilate and act upon information that is presented to them in texts. The language and ton of user guide document is less formal, however with moderate jargon Research carried out in the client’s website, combined with parallel texts, were key to grasp the linguistic expectation and presentation of the document. The technical communicator, so to speak, is mindful that this has to be evidenced in the TT. 

In order for the document to fit into TL norms and target audience prospects, changes on the layout and presentation were necessary. To this end, missing full stops were added where needed. Similarly, the heading has been repositioned at the same margin with the sub-heading. Along the same lines, a slight distance readjustment was performed where necessary for clarity purposes. This task was necessary to make the information effortlessly and clearly accessible to the readers. 

It was essential to come to grips with the terminology of the subject matter, indispensable threshold to delivering the goods. To achieving it, it was essential to the prerequisites of technical translation, consisting in building up knowledge of the referents. For this purpose, it was primordial to search parallel texts and a variety of available sources. These steps have buttressed the translator’s assurance in the use of well-controlled TT terms. 

In the course of the research, a ST error was detected. This information was crossed-checked with a trusted B&Q video presentation and a phone call with a B&Q painting engineer. This change has been mentioned on submission of the TT to the client. 

Furthermore, the referents captured through the SL has been utilised to reformulate in the TL. The referents have been used to editing, rearrange, add and even removing poorly or sparsely formulated information in the source text. This is particularly cogent when it comes to health and safety sequences in a user guide document. 

English to German and French Market research findings translation at Perspective Services. 

Translating Market research findings on the big four (KPMG, PWC, Ernst&Jung, Deloitte). 

In the market research findings, readers are expected to be conversant with finance activities. The intended audiences are French and German speaking senior decision-makers i.e., Finance managers, CEOs, and Finance directors. 

Perspective Services is One of the UK's leading fieldwork agencies getting you Research Data, from early discovery to journey’s end. In CATI, CAPI, F2F, Qual and Mystery Shopping. 

File formatting

Eradication of inessential translations with translation memory software. 

File transmissions between the research company and the translator. 

First-rate translation intended to eliminate any ambiguity over the meaning of every single question ensuring that the questions are understood by recipients in their respective language and geographical settings so as to ease data evaluation between markets.