In a nutshell, only the references drafted by native speakers of the target language should be used. Otherwise, we may put ourselves in an awkward position.

For example, I edited a file translated from Chinese to English today. It's an introduction to specific immigration services in Japan, in which 行政書士 is mentioned.

Upon a quick research, we can find that there are several translations of this concept, including (1) Certified Administrative Procedures Specialist, (2) Administrative Scrivener, and (3) Gyoseishoshi Lawyer with ease.

However, for English native speakers, the second option is odd. Because 'scrivener' is an archaic term used to describe a person whose job involved writing documents or dealing with written documents. When you look it up in a dictionary, 'scrivener' is marked as old use, which means that it's outdated and almost nobody uses it today.

However, we can see the Japanese still use it anyway. For example, I quoted the following from a blog written by a Japanese, "Administrative Scrivener (行政書士: Gyosei Shoshi) is the national license holder who can create documents for visa applications on behalf of the client."

The issue, I believe, it's because that non-English native speakers tend to omit the nuance behind a term and use them as they see fit. This practice, in the end, became part of the reason why a lot of 'new languages' were created, such as Chinglish, Engrish, Tinglish, Singlish, Konglish, Manglish, and so on.

As a translator, we definitely want to avoid Chinglish or Engrish or something like that. But how?

When working on something new, we usually need to do some research to better understand the stuff we are working on, maybe it's about a specific provision in a jurisdiction that we are not familiar with. The research is almost inevitable. Therefore, the question turns to how should you find solid references or parallel documents.

Taking legal translation for example. Usually, I would use sec.gov, a good database where you can find authentic references. For example, you can type lease agreement in and get a lot of them. But, there are a number of translated documents mixed with authentic ones. Those translations are usually of a low level or standard. You would need to kick them out before you can spend valuable time on the reading.

  • For questions, comments, suggestions, etc. please email me at joeythetranslator@foxmail.com. As always, the views expressed herein are mine alone and do not contain legal advice.