| User | Thread poster: Olly Pekelharing Off topic: Editing quotes |
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Olly Pekelharing 
Netherlands
Local time: 18:10
 Member (2009)
Dutch to English
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What do you do when faced with a book you're supposed to edit full of quotes uttered by non-native, poor speakers of the language to journalists who are also non-native and poor speakers of the language they are writing in and who moreover obviously couldn't read their own shorthand afterwards so that the result is bordering on gobbledygook? Commit suicide?
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Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 18:10
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
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| | Talk to your client | Nov 15, 2011 |
And tell them what a gray zone you are entering when altering other people's quotes, which should be cited word for word.
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David Wright
Austria
Local time: 18:10
Member (2007)
German to English
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| | Suicide is a little extreme | Nov 15, 2011 |
and I tend to save it for cases like yours where in addition the client doesn't speak a language I understand. As this has not yet happened, I have not yet had to resort to this rather terminal approach to customer relations.;-)
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Robert Forstag
United States
Local time: 12:10
 Member (2003)
Spanish to English
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| | If viable, consider changing the structure of the book... | Nov 15, 2011 |
...so that as many of the direct quotes as possible are replaced by paraphrasing. This leaves you less susceptible to charges of misrepresentation and overly creative translating.
Yet another option would simply be to back out gracefully from a project that sounds like a thoroughly thankless task.
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Olly Pekelharing
Netherlands
Local time: 18:10
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
TOPIC STARTER | | Lighter side | Nov 15, 2011 |
I put this in the 'lighter side' because it's not quite as bad as it sounds, and I've nearly finished it (before people kindly start offering me professional advice). Although the characters in this drama are really non-native, poor speakers of the target language (yes, there's a source language too, but that's another story), the subject matter was also so simple and mundane that it wasn't hard to decipher what the interviewee meant and what the journalist thought he meant, and the resultant translation-cum-edited work really isn't important enough to lose any sleep over. Just wanted a little grumble.
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Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 18:10
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
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| | Fiction, seriously? | Nov 15, 2011 |
You didn't even tell us it was a drama/fiction book with nonnative characters, which changes the background altogether. Basically, you failed to point the key facts. If you wanted us to laugh, again, the key facts were missing.
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Wolfgang Vogt
Argentina
Local time: 13:10
Member (2011)
English to German
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Hey, that sounds a bit like those crime-prevention days at school...
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Michael Wetzel
Germany
Local time: 18:10
German to English
| | "Drama" with non-natives takes a surprising turn | Nov 15, 2011 |
Hello Olly,
In the spirit of your original post: 1. Charge for the quotes, 2. Don't change them because they are quotes, 3. Use this extra time and money to purchase and consume liquor to drown your sorrows (far superior to suicide).
NOT(!) sincerely,
Michael
P.S.: That said, Robert's suggestion is interesting (even if it is not on the "lighter side") and had never occured to me in such a strong form. Still, the danger of misrepresenting someone's (already obscure) statements remains - regardless of whether they are paraphrased or quoted.
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Tina Vonhof
Canada
Local time: 10:10
Member (2006)
Dutch to English
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Whatever you do, please don't say "sic" with every quote as if the readers can't figure that out for themselves - that makes me "sick".
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The translation workplace 
