Does it matter?

I guess most people have come across funny signs in English or other foreign languages. Some people collect them and then sites like Engrish.com become popular.
I like this site too, yet it makes me think: does it really matter that there are grammar mistakes or funny expressions in (let's say) English, when most people who will read these signs don't know English well enough to spot the mistakes or get the "jokes".
OK, this is certainly not worth an academic argument, but let's develop it a bit further:
Imagine this: a company, e.g. in Slovakia, publishes its "yearly report" in English, yet with grammar mistakes, because they didn't want to pay a native proofreader, or used a "cheaper" translator. However, the report is still comprehensible, so do the grammar mistakes really matter? After all, the foreign shareholders of this company aren't native speakers of English either and probably won't recognise the mistakes.
Why should this company pay extra money, just to make a perfectly sounding document that nobody actually appreciates? I do feel sorry for the English language that is tortured, abused and paying dearly for being the lingua franca of modern times. But what can I tell a potential customer, who has every right to argue that the quality of English in their document doesn't really matter, because their audience won't know the difference anyway?
This scenario may seem strange to all the lucky translators out there, who only work into their mother tongue. This is all very nice, however there are very few (if any) translators working from Slovak into their native English and I imagine there may be other small languages with the same fate. Hence, if the companies wanted to use native speakers only, they'd probably have to pay exorbitant prices because the supply of translators is very limited.
As a result, native speakers of smaller languages end up translating into English or German or other "bigger" languages a lot. We do our best, but we'll never be able to match native speakers. We could rely on proofreaders, but that adds to the bill which nobody is willing to foot.
Especially when the customers cannot judge the quality of the result or even if they can and they still say it doesn't matter because no native speaker will ever read it.
What's your opinion?

Human translation telephone

A couple of months ago, I read an article about the "translation telephone" powered by Google Translate. You have probably read about it too, just as about the "Bad translator" that I came across this morning.
I had my fun with that, tried out a few sentences and mostly, when I started with a Slovak sentence, the resulting sentence was utter nonsense, sometimes ridiculous.
It's too easy to make fun of computer "translators", they have no possibility to defend themselves. And they can only give us what they have been "taught"by humans.
But let's test the "human translation telephone".
My idea is that I'd start with a sentence in Slovak and ask someone to translate that into his or her mother tongue and forward this translated sentence to the next person with passive knowledge of the new source language. I'd like to have my original sentence translated at least 19 times, to imitate what the "translation telephone" does. The 19th translation should be into either English or German or French so that I could have it translated by someone into Slovak ... someone who doesn't know my original.
I think it would be quite interesting to see, how much of the original gets through or gets lost in this "translation Chinese whispers". So I'm calling my fellow linguists, if you want to help me with this little experiment, send me an email. Let me know your active and passive languages. It would be fun to include someone with non-European languages or languages not written in the Latin Alphabet. I'm looking forward to hearing from you!

Do clients recognize quality?

In her article Ewa Erdman correctly pointed out that low cost translation equals poor quality and it can be seen across the market.
It is of course true and logical. When we buy cheaper products or services, we know they'll be of lower quality. However, when I buy cheap shoes or have a cheap manicure I see the difference in quality even without knowing how shoes are made or how artificial nails are put on. In order to be able to judge the quality of a translation or an interpreter you really need to have a profound knowledge of the foreign language in question. Otherwise, you won't be able to tell whether you're getting the best service for your money. Thus, it is safe to say that in most cases clients can't judge the quality they paid for.
There are so many providers on the market I imagine it must be extremely hard to choose one. They all claim they offer top quality at low prices. Of course they do, have you ever seen someone claiming they're not offering top quality? Well, I haven't.
But what makes clients think that if they choose the cheapest option, the quality won't suffer? I think it may simply be the lack of feedback. Unless you're a law firm and a poor translation loses you money, how do you actually find out whether the translation is any good or whether your interpreter is truly and adequately interpreting your words?
How many times have you come across a poorly translated user's manual? I think I lost count. But have I ever complained to the seller that there are mistakes in the translated version? Of course not. Well, then how is the manufacturer to know that their manuals are funny? And if they're only funny, that's the least of all evils. Imagine someone getting hurt due to a poor translation.
As a hotel guest have you ever pointed out to the receptionist that their website is nowhere near perfect? If so, what was their reaction?
And the list of examples could go on ...
Without having real background knowledge to judge what you're getting you might as well think that the cheaper option is just as good as any other.
It's funny how we associate "low cost" with either lower quality or hidden costs, when we see advertisements for airlines or cheap imported products from Asia or anything "manufactured", but in translations and interpreting everybody seems to assume that quality is constant and so they make their buying decisions solely on the basis of price.