Let’s test something here. Which out of the two translated sentences below would you believe to be more reliable and trustworthy in the information it is presenting:
🍊 The orange is next to the apple on the table.
🍊 Mandarin is located in situation aside apple above table.
With nothing else to go by, the top sentence, using idiomatic language and correct grammar, appears to be more reliable and trustworthy in providing accurate information than the odd-sounding sentence below.
But what if I was to tell you that the bottom sentence actually has the correct information; the top sentence has ‘mandarin’ translated incorrectly as ‘orange’.
This is the dilemma with ‘good enough’.
We’ve all seen how AI can be deceivingly convincing – even though the information could be partly or totally wrong, given AI text presents as fluent and confident, people will tend to believe whatever it produces.
There’s an opposite effect when writing is poor – even when all the facts are correct, if the text reads strangely, then people will doubt the veracity or quality of the information being presented.
I recently had a case where I was told I was being ‘too harsh’ in giving scores for reviews of translations from Balkan languages into English. Apparently, I shouldn’t be giving a low score if all the information in a translation is correct, regardless of questionable grammar and writing. ‘Good enough’, apparently, is good enough.
My response to this was information presented in a poor way leaves an impression the readers that whoever wrote this had no idea what they’re saying. This sows the seeds of doubt and renders any information, no matter how factual, as untrustworthy. And when this involves sensitive or delicate subject matter, then this gains greater importance.
So when translating into another language, it’s crucial that text be written in a proper and idiomatic way for the sake of credibility. You want your message to get across clearly and with integrity. Ultimately, ‘good enough’ is never really good enough.
Photo: does this scream 'quality'? Well, it's 'good enough'. T-shirt for sale in Japan. Credit: Sgroey, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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