What Is A Good Translation?

When Pepsi launched itself into the Chinese market, it had an issue with its marketing slogan. I don’t know which kind of translation service they hired, but there popular slogan “Come alive with the Pepsi generation” was mistranslated as “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave” in Chinese characters.

So you know now what a good translation is? It is not words to be translated but meaning of the text. Focusing on translating only the words of the text will result in blunders like the one mentioned above. Some times, these blunders can be corrected, but during crucial situations like dealing with medical things or discussions between nations, translation blunders are not affordable.

As in the case of many crucial jobs, it is the experience that teaches a person to translate more effectively.

Thus, it is better to rely on experienced translation firms rather than cheap translators.