Watch what you say

WATCH WHAT YOU SAY

This is only a very short blog, but I just want to say that I, as a professional translator, acknowledge a take on the expression “Watch what you say” that I wouldn’t expect most people to be readily familiar with. Consider this:

I did a test translation this morning, for which the client emphasised how much they wanted a good translation of it; I quote “Please let’s do our best to win the client!” It was German to English, and I saw this in the original:

“Die xxxxx Nagellacke machen die Nägel zum Hingucker auf jeder Party.”

and I translated this into English as:

“The xxxxx nail polishes will make your nails a fine sight at any party.”

Say what you will about that translation, but what I really want to say here is that the client never specified what kind of material this actually was – was it advertising or not? And so I decided to include a post-it comment at this bit in my work here, saying, “Is this meant to be advertising material? If not you can delete the word ‘your’ here.”

Nothing can substitute judgement, you know.