The Lasting And Memorable Dangers Of Not Using A Language Translator
Almost everyone can recall one funny moment when they’ve mistranslated a word. Such mistakes in business are costly, and can be deadly within the medical sector. Here are examples when hiring a language translator would have made enormous difference.
In 2004, patients receiving radiation treatment for prostate cancer suffered when the treatment was in English and staff tried to translate the instructions. If they had hired someone to translate English to French, they could have reduced the suffering of these patients.
Most translation mistakes are much less critical to health, and easily avoided through use of experienced French to English translation services for example. Something that happened with Parker pens with a Mexican ad campaign when a mistranslation turned ‘it won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you’ to ‘it won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant’. A mistake in one word completely changes the meaning of the sentence.
In terms of embarrassing, it would be hard to beat the Pepsi advert that change ‘come alive with Pepsi’ to the drink that ‘brings your ancestors back from the grave’. It’s hard to believe that failing to get a proper language translator didn’t get someone fired for that one.
