Like-Blog
Presenting you the most interesting translation solutions
Why Like-Blog? Now, first of all, this blog is a blog that you should like (and read regularly) – at least, if you are interested in translation. Then, the topic discussed here is one in which the meaningful likeness between a text and its translation in the language pair English-German plays a key role. On this page, I will take a close look at some interesting translation solutions that I have come across in the course of my work as a translator and translation scholar.
A translation solution is only as good as the arguments that support it. This means that any translation criticism, whether positive or negative, needs to be justified. The quality of a translation solution shows only when we compare it to other possible translation solutions in a given translation situation. Therefore, a translation critic should not only say why a translation solution is bad, but also demonstrate what a better solution might look like. I will try to stick to these principles of translation criticism. So if you have any questions regarding my line of argument or if you disagree, please, let me know your opinion by phone at +49 4171 6086525 or by e-mail to bittner@businessenglish-hamburg.de. So much for the introduction. I hope you’ll enjoy reading this blog!
Pestering children (September 2021)
In “The Obesity Warrior” (Time.com, 7 June 2004), Claudia Wallis writes about one of the “warriors”: “The restaurant and food industry spends about $13 billion a year on ads that teach children to pester their parents for special foods, she contends.”
Here is a German translation: “Weiter behauptet sie, dass die Restaurant- und Nahrungsmittelindustrie pro Jahr mehr als 13 Milliarden US-Dollar für Werbespots ausgebe, wegen derer Kinder ihre Eltern nerven, diese besonderen Produkte zu kaufen.”
At first glance, this translation is rather inconspicuous. Only when one takes a closer look at the language does one recognise two passages that could be improved.
For one, there is the nominal phrase “die Restaurant- und Nahrungsmittelindustrie”. Here, what might be called a semantic proximity rule ensures that the phrase in question is unobtrusive. In combination with “Nahrungsmittel”, the second element of the compound, “Industrie”, is perfectly idiomatic. However, the link between “Restaurant” and “Industrie”, indicated by a hyphen, is less satisfactory – at least for language purists. That this link is indicated but not implemented (“Restaurantindustrie” being not actually written as a compound) renders the given phrase more acceptable. Still, I would favour another translation, here – one that replaces the head of the compound, “Industrie”, by a more suitable noun: die Restaurant- und Nahrungsmittelbranche.
Furthermore, there is the not very idiomatic use of the verb “nerven”. The expression “jemanden nerven, etwas zu tun” seems strange. In German, you usually pester someone until they do what you want them to do. A solution would be: ..., wegen derer Kinder ihre Eltern so lange nerven, bis diese die angepriesenen Produkte für sie kaufen.