It’s fair to say that, when you do translation work for someone, if they get back to you and ask you to have a look at something, there’s a fair chance that they want you to correct is not the mere actual wording; they need more convincing that you actually know what you’re talking about. In one recent document I did there was a bit where the author said a little bit about health measures, and in my translation I wrote that something “decreases susceptibility to infection.” Now, I could have put “decreases chance of infection” and it would have worked equally well, but I believe that there is a specific subtle reason why the former phrase “is better” than the latter. The latter can sound too generic and vague, whereas when you look at the former you are reminded that the chance of you being infected by something depends specifically on how susceptible to infection you are.
Another piece of work I recently did – a test – was some business marketing; original language: German. A bit of it in the original read “Fortlaufend investieren wir einen hohen Umsatzanteil in aktuellste Labortechnik und die Weiterentwicklung unserer Mitarbeiter, um permanent auf Basis neuester wissenschaftlicher Erkenntnisse arbeiten zu können.“, which I translated as, “We continuously invest a high portion of our turnover in the most up-to-date laboratory technology and the further development of our staff, thus ensuring that we always work on the basis of the latest scientific knowledge.”. In retrospect, I think that I should have written, “We continue to invest a high portion of our turnover…” i.e. “we have done it before, and we continue to do it today, for a reason which we believe we have made evident here”; to me, this hypothetical viewpoint would reveal conviction, and customers respond well to any business that shows signs of conviction, don’t they? I think that “We continue to invest” would have been more likely to enhance the company’s credibility in its claims compared to “We continuously invest…”, and having said that I can’t imagine why the company would reveal details of its economic policies to everyone who wants to know them and everyone who doesn’t. Also, when you’re doing business and pursuing customer satisfaction and income, and you have to deal with the concept that “anything can happen”, wouldn’t you appreciate your company being flexible as far as its spending is concerned? “We continuously invest…”… so this company spends a high portion of its turnover in the most up-to-date laboratory technology and the further development of its staff and for a reason that is not slow to explain, which is all very well, but does “We continuously invest…” suggest that they are determined to do this come what may? Surely they would soon choose to review their spending policies if something like a force majeure circumstance happened?