The Linguist is a languages magazine for professional linguists, translators, interpreters, language professionals, language teachers, trainers, students and academics with articles on translation, interpreting, business, government, technology
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thelinguist.uberflip.com april/May The Linguist 11 FEATURES Translating questionnaires across many languages involves complicated collaboration, says Ilse Freiburg t here is hardly any process or event nowadays where participants are not asked to give their opinions by completing a questionnaire. Since companies are increasingly expanding their activities on a global scale, surveys are conducted across an ever-widening variety of nations, and for numerous purposes. But to what extent can we measure the same thing across widespread cultures and languages? Where exactly lie the challenges and the limits as regards asking all the respondents the same question? those who want to measure the responses, or have to translate the questions into their respective languages and cultures, need to know this. the prerequisites for a successful cross-cultural survey are well-designed questionnaires and top-quality translations that ensure comparability. to prevent inconsistencies, it is vital that the coordinator, client and translator work closely together and learn from each other. i have worked as a coordinator for several consultants who are acting on behalf of a customer – usually a German company with affiliates around the globe. together, the consultant and customer design the questionnaire, focusing on their particular objectives, such as: • involving employees • retaining employees • promoting communication among employees • discovering potential deficits in working processes • establishing a homogeneous corporate culture • Measuring satisfaction with the company • implementing changes smoothly (e.g. after a merger) Whatever the surveyors' priorities may be, the respondents should benefit from the survey by starting to communicate their personal issues and objectives, and expressing their disapproval if applicable. Once this process of communication followed by change has been triggered in the first survey cycle, the second cycle, after one or two years, provides an insight into what has changed for better or worse, e.g. whether the follow-up process has been properly carried out in the meantime. Extensive preparation preparing the questionnaire is usually an extensive procedure entailing numerous discussions between board, works councils, designated employees and consultants, until they all agree on the principal purpose of the survey and how to formulate and select the questions. this process involves considering cross-national relevance and the varying educational attainment of respondents, particularly with a view to creating a group- wide corporate identity. potential misunderstandings for translators are minimised by keeping questions clear Posing the right questions If the intended meaning is not clear, the quality suffers and employing qualified translators becomes indispensable © ShutterStOck