De mensen zijn nog steeds de belangrijkste flessenhals

21:04 Jan 31, 2009 

IMHO as translator you do not always have to rewrite the original. If you want to go back to your client and criticise their original and you have a good relationship with them now, fine and I hope you keep your good relationship, but quite frankly, I would not consider this "imperfect Dutch" so unclear as to really impair understanding of the passage. I would just translate it as bottleneck and get on with it, without agonising over something like this. Bottleneck is what it says. You can understand it if translated as written. I would save having recourse to your client for things which are likely to give rise to real misunderstandings if not perfectly clear.

18:57 Jan 31, 2009 

IMHO, there's nothing really wrong here. The writer is just trying to emphasize the importance of getting the right man or woman for the job. A 'flessenhals' here is a critical position in the organisation, and, for that reason, employing well-qualified staff ('goede mensen met sterke competenties') is given high priority. That's the basic message. Of course it could have been phrased a lot better ;-)

17:41 Jan 31, 2009 

I must admit my first instinct was to translate this as something like 'People are still the most important resource a company can have' before I started thinking about the negative connotations of bottleneck. It does seem odd to say something negative here, so Paula's and Erik's suggestions are persuasive. I'm going to check back with the client to see if I can get any clarification.

15:55 Jan 31, 2009 

It seems to me that the author has indeed used 'flessenhals' incorrectly here. I would expect a more positive tone when describing the 'ideal profile'. I wonder whether something like 'people are the prime movers' is meant here.

14:36 Jan 31, 2009 

Sorry dat vertalers dit soort problemen op moeten lossen. De auteur heeft de klok horen luiden maar weet niet waar de klepel hangt. Yes, people are the bottleneck, but what that is supposed to mean....?

14:35 Jan 31, 2009 

This is merely pretentious and bad Dutch. The writer is trying to say that business progress is limited by the qualities and performance of the employees, of which the writer, of course, is one. I would write around it

14:20 Jan 31, 2009 

Yes, bottleneck is what van Dale suggests but I don't like it here. Probably sounds as daft as flessenhals ;-)

14:09 Jan 31, 2009 

Denk dat dit geschreven is door iemand die Dunglish praat. Flessenhals is imho gewoon bottle neck op zijn Nederlands.

HTH,
Jacqueline