Editing translations: sorting the sheep from the goats

Time to flag a dodgy business practice that sometimes crops up in the translation world.

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by what I would call a low-end private bank in Geneva which basically said the following:

We are looking for a French> English translator with proven experience (proven by whom?) in legal and financial language...

So far, so good. Then, the punchline:

... to REVISE an English translation of a key document for the Bank. 

Alarm bells. But it's good to stay polite and professional so here's what I replied:


Je vous remercie de votre mail et l'intérêt porté à mes services.

Il ne m'est pas possible de vous faire un devis ni donner un délai pour une révision sans examiner au préalable le document en français et en anglais. Si, par exemple, la traduction actuelle n'est pas de bonne qualité, il s'avérerait plus judicieux de refaire la traduction, tout simplement. 

Je compte parmi mes clients des banques privées genevoises de premier ordre. 

Mon activité principale consiste à fournir des traductions de qualité à une clientèle exigeante.

Je reste à votre disposition. 

So to sort the sheep from the goats, simply ask to see the original text and the brilliant translation that requires your revision skills. The deliberately haughty tone of the email is my way of saying that I'm going to charge you a high fee to absolve you of your sin of choosing a cheap-o translation option (I assume...) in the first place. 

I never heard back... 

Lease vs rental

Here's a useful tweet from Grant Hamilton:

Misstranslation alert: Location d'un véhicule is "vehicle rental" if short term and "vehicle lease" if long term...

FR > EN: "Gestion"

This from Vinay and Darbelnet (Stylistique comparée du français et de l’anglais: méthode de traduction)

In general, French words are mostly situated at a higher level of abstraction than are the corresponding English words.

This is the most important lesson I learned at university, and it pays to bear it in mind when translating from French to English.

So we come to a term in French, "gestion", which often gets translated as simply "management" in English, much to my disdain and horror.

My erstwhile employer, Oddo & Cie, many years ago changed the name of their fund department, incorporated as Oddo Gestion, to Oddo Asset Management. They got it right.

So when translating financial blurb, if you come across "gestion", don't forget an adjective such as "asset" or "investment" (depending on the company and their legacy texts). Don't simply write "Company A specialises in management"!