Feb 22, 2006 05:33
18 yrs ago
30 viewers *
English term
India
Fast, accurate, elegant translation
Native in: Hindi 
Works in: English to Hindi, Hindi
Translating Addresses in source documents
English
Art/Literary
Linguistics
Style/usage/convention
I seek your advice on this problem which I repeatedly face.
Suppose you have a document to be translated, say from English to Japanese. It is a set of instructions to be followed, and there is an address in it with street name, Locality, city zip code etc., where one can write for further info. The question is which of these should be done:
1. Translate translatable portions of the address into Japanese (for example, if it contains a term like Post Office Box No xx, give the equivalent of Post Office Box in Japanese in your translation;
2. Keep the address as it is (that is, no translation), only transliterate it, that is, write the address in Japanese script;
3. Leave the address in English itself, as an English postman (who is the ultimate target group of this information) will not be able to make head or tail of an address written in Japanese; (The problem in this approach is, the person who is supposed to write the address may not know English at all, and would not be able to write the address in English!).
4. Do as in 1 above; and give the address in English below it in brackets;
5. Do as in 2 above; and give the address in English below it in brackets.
Suppose you have a document to be translated, say from English to Japanese. It is a set of instructions to be followed, and there is an address in it with street name, Locality, city zip code etc., where one can write for further info. The question is which of these should be done:
1. Translate translatable portions of the address into Japanese (for example, if it contains a term like Post Office Box No xx, give the equivalent of Post Office Box in Japanese in your translation;
2. Keep the address as it is (that is, no translation), only transliterate it, that is, write the address in Japanese script;
3. Leave the address in English itself, as an English postman (who is the ultimate target group of this information) will not be able to make head or tail of an address written in Japanese; (The problem in this approach is, the person who is supposed to write the address may not know English at all, and would not be able to write the address in English!).
4. Do as in 1 above; and give the address in English below it in brackets;
5. Do as in 2 above; and give the address in English below it in brackets.
Responses
| 4 +5 | My rule of thumb |
Tony M
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| 3 +3 | Write both source and target |
Dina Abdo
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| 5 +1 | Keep it in English |
Can Altinbay
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Responses
+5
1 hr
Selected
My rule of thumb
I would say your option 5 is best, except I presume you meant give the adresss in JAPANESE in brackets.
It all depends what the intended use is; as you say, if it is a mailing address, one really ought to keep it in the form that will be understandable to the delivery postperson; the only exception I make to this rule is to adapt the COUNTRY into the language of the sending country (if feasible), just to make sure it gets on the right plane! However, in practice most international mail sorting offices will have lists of country names, so there's no real excuse for confusion, at least when using Western alphabets.
If, however, the address is for information rather than mailing, then I usually adapt it into a form most easily recognizable to the reader in the target language; for example (going into EN), I invert the order of the address so that it starts with the street, then the district, then the town, then country (as would be the usual order in a UK address), and I often bring the street number to the front too. I also translate town names, where a specific EN version exists --- for example, Bruxelles > Brussels, Wien > Vienna, Londres > London.
It all depends what the intended use is; as you say, if it is a mailing address, one really ought to keep it in the form that will be understandable to the delivery postperson; the only exception I make to this rule is to adapt the COUNTRY into the language of the sending country (if feasible), just to make sure it gets on the right plane! However, in practice most international mail sorting offices will have lists of country names, so there's no real excuse for confusion, at least when using Western alphabets.
If, however, the address is for information rather than mailing, then I usually adapt it into a form most easily recognizable to the reader in the target language; for example (going into EN), I invert the order of the address so that it starts with the street, then the district, then the town, then country (as would be the usual order in a UK address), and I often bring the street number to the front too. I also translate town names, where a specific EN version exists --- for example, Bruxelles > Brussels, Wien > Vienna, Londres > London.
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
Dina Abdo
: I agree ... but if we're talking about a standard form, then I guess there's no need to invert the address :) Hope you're doing much better today Dusty :)
12 mins
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Thanks a lot, Dina! And yes, thanks, everything's pretty much fine now :-)
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| agree |
Jack Doughty
1 hr
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Thanks, Jack!
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| agree |
William [Bill] Gray
8 hrs
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Thanks, Bill!
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| agree |
Alexander Demyanov
10 hrs
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Spasibo, Alexander!
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| agree |
conejo
: I think it also depends on what country and language pair you are talking about. In some countries with non-Roman alphabets/writing systems, pretty much everyone is familiar with the Roman alphabet (as in Can Altinbay's example), so it's not a problem.
10 hrs
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Thanks, Conejo! Yes, you're right, it all depends...
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Thank you very much, Dust, for your patient explanation. "
+3
1 hr
Write both source and target
Well ... If the postman doesn't speak Jap. then he'll never get the information filled by the sender no matter the language the printed form is written in. And it's as same as to the sender, whether you wrote the form in Jap/ Eng ... it should make the same if he/ she doesn't speak English in the first place.
Accordingly, I'd suggest you translate all the terms possible into English and then write the Japanese words right next to it or below it within brackets (We do so sometimes in Arabic translations when the target aud. is an English speaker) AND as long as you're sure that the target aud. in this case will more likely be unable to read the Japanese text, then I'd recommend you write down a note informing the sender that it's "highly recommended" to fill the address form in English.
I think that someone sending mail from Japan to England should be able to fill in the adress spaces in English no matter how good or bad his/ her English language is. And so, a similar note should make sense in my opinion.
The thing about writing both source and target terms in here, is helping the sender knowing WHAT is he/she is supposed to be writing in those spaces, and also assisting the English postman (in this case) finding out what is that poor English he may not be able to understand is talking about (at least).
Writing the form in Japanese only (in my opinion) would be .... well! and writing it into English should be of help but only to some senders. Writing them in both languages, on the other hand, should apply the form to a wider range of people both in Japan and England.
Regarding your last two suggestions,
Accordingly, I'd suggest you translate all the terms possible into English and then write the Japanese words right next to it or below it within brackets (We do so sometimes in Arabic translations when the target aud. is an English speaker) AND as long as you're sure that the target aud. in this case will more likely be unable to read the Japanese text, then I'd recommend you write down a note informing the sender that it's "highly recommended" to fill the address form in English.
I think that someone sending mail from Japan to England should be able to fill in the adress spaces in English no matter how good or bad his/ her English language is. And so, a similar note should make sense in my opinion.
The thing about writing both source and target terms in here, is helping the sender knowing WHAT is he/she is supposed to be writing in those spaces, and also assisting the English postman (in this case) finding out what is that poor English he may not be able to understand is talking about (at least).
Writing the form in Japanese only (in my opinion) would be .... well! and writing it into English should be of help but only to some senders. Writing them in both languages, on the other hand, should apply the form to a wider range of people both in Japan and England.
Regarding your last two suggestions,
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
Morad Safe (X)
: With you on the point
37 mins
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Thanks Morad :)
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| agree |
Iren Rad
: Hi,...
4 hrs
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Hi Iren :) Thank you :)
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| agree |
conejo
: This is a good point for countries where people may not be familiar with the Roman alphabet. When sending mail to Japan, I typically write the address in Japanese and write the country name only in English, so that the postman will know where to send it.
10 hrs
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That's my point conejo :) Thank you :)
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+1
9 hrs
Can Altinbay
Native in English
&
English
Mr. Meticulous
Native in: English 
, Japanese
Works in: Japanese to English, Turkish to English, English to Japanese, and 3 more.
Related KudoZ points
:
12
Keep it in English
You might look at how it's done on Japanese Web sites. Try those of, say, US or UK companies with Japanese presense.
The Japanese get English education in elementary school. The Roman alphabet is used everywhere. So Japanese people will be able to write the original version of the address with no problems.
Going the other way is another issue. In this case, look at Web sites of Japanese companies. Kirin, Seiko Instruments, etc. You do have to turn it around, of course.
The Japanese get English education in elementary school. The Roman alphabet is used everywhere. So Japanese people will be able to write the original version of the address with no problems.
Going the other way is another issue. In this case, look at Web sites of Japanese companies. Kirin, Seiko Instruments, etc. You do have to turn it around, of course.
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
conejo
: I agree with you for the specific example between English and Japanese, but in other countries where people may not be familiar with the Roman alphabet, it could be different.
3 hrs
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Thank you. Of course, but even there, they will have to somehow enter the English address, and the transliteration isn't really of any help to them.
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Discussion
Thank you very much Can and Dina.