Translating marcom copy: How to avoid a world of trouble.

Brochures are not required to carry a passport. Maybe that’s a mistake.

In a global economy, brochures, data sheets, sales guides, and other marketing communications are often written in one language (let’s say American English), then read in another. Along the way, writers spend hours trying to find just the right words—which end up with translators who manage to find just the wrong ones.

And it doesn’t take a whole brochure to mess things up. There’s a true story of how a simple slogan like “Finger lickin’ good” was translated into Chinese, quickly becoming, “Eat your fingers off.”

And during a 60 Minutes interview with Vladimir Putin, a translator made it sound as if Mike Wallace had just called the Russian President a hippopotamus. Wallace was shipped off to the Gulags and never heard from again.

Okay, that wasn’t totally true. But it helps make a point: Writing and translating marcom copy is tres problematique. At best, translations are like listening to the violin part played on an oboe; it doesn’t sound quite right, but you can still get the idea. At worst, they’re like listening to the violin part played by someone who never took lessons.

Unfortunately, preventing all translation errors is probably impossible. That makes it doubly important to prevent the ones we can. With that in mind, here are a few helpful (but not infallible) guidelines that help Harding writers avoid translation confusion.

Write short, declarative sentences. For most of us, simple sentences work best even when we’re writing in our native tongue; when we’re being translated into someone else’s, they’re almost mandatory. When sentences get too complex, translators have a tough time figuring out which verb goes with what noun and who’s the antecedent of whatever.

Avoid contractions. We’re talking about words like you’ve. Or don’t. Or should’ve, could’ve, would’ve. It seems contractions are very difficult for translators to cope with—especially those digital translators that work sans human intervention.

Admittedly, MarComments scatters contractions willy-nilly. But when our writers write marcom copy for translation, our editors in San Jose and Grenoble, France, review it to eliminate any stumbling blocks.

Humor is hard. This is sad, but true. Okay, when Stan dumps a bucket on Ollie, the laughter is universal. But wordplay depends on the words—which aren’t the same in other languages. And jokes are hard enough to tell in one language, much less in five or six. So at Harding Marketing, we avoid using humor. As you’ve probably noticed.

Skip American cultural references. Many readers in Marseilles can discuss the presidency of Pierre Mendès-France but have never heard of Warren G. Harding. Obvious, right? Yet many cultural references are so deeply embedded that we forget that people in other countries don’t have a clue about our local songs, TV shows, sports stars, and celebrity scandals. The following incomplete list helps us remember what to avoid when writing marcom copy for translation.

• The whole nine yards, double play, pickup game, and any reference to American sports or sports stars. Yao Ming might be okay.
• Anything political. You wouldn’t go there anyhow, but keep it in mind.
• Assumptions about the readers’ living standards, income, value systems, etc. They might not share the amenities we take for granted. Like parking meters.
• And most important, American pop culture. True, Angelina Jolie is probably known everywhere. But Rush Limbaugh isn’t. There is no absolute rule on this—only eternal vigilance.

None of this would be terribly important if marcom materials weren’t terribly important to the success of your business. And come to think of it, to ours.

Because we work with so many global companies, Harding copy is frequently written with translation in mind. “HP Virtualization Bundles” was written knowing that it would be translated into seven languages, plus UK English, which almost counts as an eighth. Click here to see how it turned out in German.

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