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?
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?
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