How can the experience of a 170-year old translation have relevance to business today?  Managing the politics of a translation is as important as cultural adaptation.

The Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840 by Māori chiefs and representatives of the British Crown.  Consisting of three articles, it is on permanent display in the Constitution Room of the National Archives in Wellington, New Zealand.

The treaty was prepared in four days without the assistance of a lawyer and then translated into Māori by a Missionary and his son.  As demonstrated below, the English language and Māori language versions are different in emphasis.

For example, in the English version, the first article grants the Queen of England sovereignty over New Zealand.  Unfortunately, the word 'Sovereignty' had no direct translation in Maori and the translation states the term ‘kāwanatanga ’, a transliteration of the word ‘governance’.  The Māori therefore, understood that they were only ceding to the Queen a right of governance, for which they would receive protection, that is, they still retained authority to manage their own affairs.

With this ongoing controversy, including that of ownership and use of land, the Waitangi Tribunal was established under the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975.  Its purpose was to determine the meaning and effect of the Treaty as understood from the Māori and English texts and to decide issues raised by these differences between them.

Questions have been asked regarding the wording of the original material and the expertise of the translation team. There was also a failure to understand cultural differences.

The above scenario demonstrably proves why language providers need to offer cultural adaptation as a step in the language process and why linguists need to be in-country native speakers with an understanding of the subject matter.

As well as cultural adaptation, it is, however, equally important to understand the political significance of a translation and the related beliefs of the linguist.  This applies to the above Treaty.  It also applies to the translations eTeams performs with respect to the human-rights abuses of refugees and our requisite need for the careful selection of in-country linguists.

The political opinions of the translator can also affect commercial companies.  A distributor responsible for the translation may bias it towards enhancing their related products or services.  This may not be a problem, until you wish to change the distributor.  Or, a fully-owned subsidiary marketing representative may decide that he/she does not agree with a corporate marketing message and revises it as part of the translation without informing corporate management.

eTeams includes both cultural and political alignment as part of our client discovery process.  For some clients, this may take a few minutes to assess, for others much longer.  Irrespective, it is important for eTeams, and also for your preferred provider, to discuss this as part of their language service provision.

“eTeams – translations you can trust”.