You’ve probably experienced something like it before: You’re on vacation and sitting in a restaurant in which there are several mistranslations on the English menu. An appetizer best described as “bacon-wrapped dates” might quickly become the rather mysterious “ham girdled trysts.” Such surprises on the menu are almost part of the experience when you’re on vacation, and the hilarious translations are often photographed and shared with friends. The phenomenon is so widespread that entire Facebook groups now specialize in drawing attention to such hysterically bad translations. While we are quite happy to turn a blind eye to translation errors in this context, mistranslations in other areas can have much more serious repercussions and can quickly cost a great deal of money. Such errors are not only embarrassing but can harm the reputation of an enterprise and lead to reduced sales. The most recent prominent example: Facebook`s just published new name "Meta" is very similar to the Hebrew word for "dead". Unfortunately, Facebook is not the only company that made such translation-mistakes, Bad and incorrect translations are funny – but they can also be expensive and risky for businesses. For example, some time ago Coca-Cola marketed its popular drink in China as “Kekoukela,” which means “female horse stuffed with wax.” Beverage bottler Schweppes also made a bad choice when an advertising campaign in Italy included a translation for “Schweppes Tonic Water” that made people think they would be buying “Schweppes Toilet Water.” In 2013, banking services company HSBC had to spend some €12 million on a complete rebranding after its straightforward slogan of “Assume Nothing” was mistranslated as “Do Nothing” in some countries. Poor translations cause economic, legal & security risks. The better the text, the greater the chance of converting potential customers into actual ones. And this applies to all languages! Because very few companies like to share information about the consequences of the business mistakes they have made, the additional costs of bad translations cannot be easily quantified. Nevertheless, a few clues exist as to the true extent of the damage: In 2005, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Education and Culture commissioned a study to be carried out by the National Centre for Languages (CILT). The primary objective of the study was to conduct research in regard to data and analysis of foreign language skills in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as their impact on business. In the study entitled “ELAN: Effects on the European Economy of Shortages of Foreign Language Skills in Enterprise,” 195 of the approximately 2000 companies surveyed stated that they had “missed out on actual or potential export contracts directly due to a lack of foreign language skills.” The majority (63%) of the 195 affected companies claimed that they had suffered business losses due to a lack of staff with foreign language skills. However, it is also interesting to note that 4% of SMEs recorded losses due to errors in translations or interpreting. Companies missed out on contracts worth €840,000 due to poor-quality translations. Of the 195 SMEs mentioned above, just 37 companies also specifically indicated the extent of the business losses. Across all categories, these losses totaled some €10 million (an average of around €270,270 per company). The 4% mentioned above therefore corresponds to €400,000 of these total losses due to mistranslations – which would be €10,810 per company. An additional 54 companies specified that they had lost out on potential contracts worth some €21 million. The share of this overall figure due to mistranslations would be €840,000. While such losses may not seem alarming at first glance, let us briefly engage in a thought experiment in which we estimate the approximate magnitude of these losses: The Bonn Institute for SME Research examined the degree of internationalization of SMEs between 2009 and 2011. Even back then, roughly 1.3 million companies (99% of them SMEs) were internationally active, corresponding to 37% of the companies in Germany. If we combine the results of the two studies (€10,810 per company for a total of 1.3 million internationally active companies), faulty translations could have already cost the German economy a total of some €14 billion (with the loss of potential contracts not included in this calculation!). Bad translations could have already cost the German economy some €14 billion. The reasons why translation errors occur are complex, and even small optimizations can have a big impact. This blog article might be interesting for you: Reducing costs by integrating terminology - 6 tipps Translations are all about context. If translators don’t have enough additional information about the product or service, they may not be able to translate the text very well. You should therefore provide them with access to relevant knowledge and informational material: style guides, previously translated documents in the final layout, corporate presentations, videos, manuals, and so on. Depending on the difficulty, scope, and nature of the job, translators may need more or less reference material. This checklist allows you to think of everything: Achieving success with machine translation If you have a text translated by 10 different people, you will get 10 different versions of the translation. Language features a great deal of diversity, which is why assessing the quality of a translation is often based on subjective criteria. Professional translators can spend hours discussing what translation of a text is “best.” Each individual has their own style. Nevertheless, there are also objective criteria for assessing translation quality. To get really good translations, you should take a closer look at quality management services when choosing a language service provider. Pay particular attention to compliance with DIN EN ISO 17100. Although this alone is no guarantee of good translations, it at least tells you that the language service provider has implemented a sound translation process that includes quality management. We have compiled more information on this topic in the article “Be Careful When Choosing a Language Service Provider.” The Federal Association of Interpreters and Translators also offers extensive information for customers, including a database of qualified translators, explanations of how orders are placed and processed, pricing details, and more. Regularly receive tips, insider knowledge, and valuable know-how on how to create high-quality translations: Subscribe to our newsletter