Whether it be the United Nations, or a company trying to expand to different markets, translation is crucial to their success, but not just any type of translation. Translating a campaign the way you would a UN resolution or vice versa would be disastrous and that is because they both involve two very different styles of translation. When you are translating a campaign, you must be aware of who you are marketing to, who you are trying to reach out to, and what message you are sending. Certain phrases that appeal to one audience may not make any sense to another. Sometimes the product or service a company is offering has to be marketed in a totally different way to attract a different set of consumers. For example, if you look at the way Cafe Bustelo is marketed to its Hispanic consumers compared to its American consumers, it is very different. For the Hispanic audience, Cafe Bustelo is percieved as a product that brings your family and friends together, but for the American audience, it is marketed as a coffee that is superior to other brands like Starbucks and it is the new coffee that everyone is drinking. The message that a campaign sends to different consumers does not necessarily have to be translated word for word, whereas translating a UN resolution can be considered the opposite. For a UN resolution, translators do not have much room to play with their translations. They cannot search for different ways of saying the same thing, and in fact they typically have only one option of translating words and phrases. An example of this would be translating “Resolution adopted.” There is no room for trying to say adopted in different ways, rather the only way to translate this would be “Resolución aprobada,” and anything else would be considered wrong and can be interpreted differently in each of the six languages. When translating documents such as a UN resolution, it is important for each country to agree and follow the same rules and regulations.
Excellent analysis, Samantha.
One of the many things that makes translation so interesting is that the very nature of what you’re doing depends entirely on what your translating, and who you’re translating it for.
You’d need to be fluent in both English and Spanish in order to work at the UN and in order to work as a translator of marketing campaigns — but after that the skill sets and personality types most suited to the two jobs couldn’t be more different.