English translation: duly noted (no agreement implied)
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German to English translations [PRO] Bus/Financial - Management / office communication - a reaction to a memorandum
German term or phrase:zur Kenntnis nehmen
I have been sent the following cry for help from people in an office. I think it is in the academic administration of a university in Switzerland :
"We have a Memorandum of understanding to which we do not full heartedly agree. Therefore we would like to make a note in front of the signature where it says that we have taken notice of the text, therefore implying that we do not agree. In German this would be: zur Kenntnis genommen. In English we thought it might be: taken notice."
They go on to say that they are not sure if "to take notice" would imply non-agreement with the content of the memo., which is obviously important in this case. I rather doubt it - but what is the English equivalent? I would like to be of assistance, but am stumped myself, so Kudozers, please help!
Diana
P.S. I couldn't find a suitable field for this, there seems to be no provision for "office communication".
Explanation: 'duly noted' would not, however, express the lack of agreement, so how about something like:
duly noted, no agreement implied ... or
duly noted, without agreement
My client decided on this one, with the option of "no agreement implied" in cases where it is really necessary to emphasise the disapproval. Not knowing the context myself (and its possible legal implications), I am going along with this.
Thanks to all for your help! 4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer
"Noted" or "Duly Noted" implies agreement, to my mind.
As regards MoUs, there cannot be an MoU until both (or all) parties understand and agree with each other on all content of the MoU. There is no such thing as "half-signed".
This speedy reaction is great! Thanks!
Unfortunately I know nothing about the nature of the memorandum in question, least of all about the reasons behind my asker's wish to indicate that they have reservations. Thus I'm afraid we must continue to imagine a hypothetical situation and what could be written in this situation.
BTW it isn't an academic department but the Swiss Bundesamt für Berufsbildung und Technologie.
True. Or just, "acknowledge" on its own. I have seen it in this context, I am sure. It depends how formal or direct the translation needs to be, and how the rest of the sentence is formed. I think noted/duly noted both denote receipt and not necessarily their agreement. I wonder if acknowledge might be stronger.
I've often seen "We acknowledge the receipt of..." in this situation in the UK.
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Answers
10 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +4
duly noted
Explanation: 'duly noted' would not, however, express the lack of agreement, so how about something like:
duly noted, no agreement implied ... or
duly noted, without agreement
Katie Croxall Local time: 21:59 Works in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 4
Grading comment
My client decided on this one, with the option of "no agreement implied" in cases where it is really necessary to emphasise the disapproval. Not knowing the context myself (and its possible legal implications), I am going along with this.
Thanks to all for your help!
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +4