This had originally started as a post about one brand's continuing struggles to produce coherent English language press releases.
The more I thought about it, I realized that it just seemed kind of mean to single out one brand. In fairness, this is not an isolated problem.
A brand will often hire an agency to provide translation and editing services. Seems pretty reasonable.
But...
The brands often have NO WAY OF KNOWING if the English in the press release is grammatically correct. The agency assures the brand that they have an international staff of qualified people. The agency can handle everything! But that is not always the case.
The now not infrequent results are press releases and communications that look as if they were slapped together by an adolescent using Google's translation tools.
The one thing the local agency has going for them? You guessed it, they are based in Switzerland! Proximity seems to trump ability. Maybe some of these brands might want to consider investing just a little bit of money into ensuring that their marketing message is correct and presented in a professional manner.
I simply assume that they'd rather help their Uncle, Jack, off a horse...
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| Courtesy of someecards.com |
A brand will often hire an agency to provide translation and editing services. Seems pretty reasonable.
But...
The brands often have NO WAY OF KNOWING if the English in the press release is grammatically correct. The agency assures the brand that they have an international staff of qualified people. The agency can handle everything! But that is not always the case.
The now not infrequent results are press releases and communications that look as if they were slapped together by an adolescent using Google's translation tools.
The one thing the local agency has going for them? You guessed it, they are based in Switzerland! Proximity seems to trump ability. Maybe some of these brands might want to consider investing just a little bit of money into ensuring that their marketing message is correct and presented in a professional manner.
I simply assume that they'd rather help their Uncle, Jack, off a horse...
In these illiterate times, it is not just foreign translation that creates grammatical errors. Whether people do not read or are not taught grammar, mistakes in that and spelling are so prevalent that, in the general run of things, is almost made a minority state. Lynn Truss (Eats shoots and leaves) has plenty to do. Predictive text is another factor - how do people learn unless they do it themselves. My Samsung is always trying to guess what I am going to type but it is not always right. I could moan on endlessly about sub (as opposed to il) literacy but increasingly few of those who are even aware care. I do.
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