There was a scenario today where I was talking to a person about a translation job a company did in order to try and appeal to a specific culture. At first he was expressing how it sounded too formal where no one actually communicates like that in real life which often happens with translations. That then brought up the topic of when you are translating things which costs time and money would you try to be perfect or simply enough to get the point across?
I guess an example would be you are trying to tell someone why something is good where you can opt to just says something awkward like “This is top good” where many people will get the point versus saying “this is delicious” as that sounds more “normal.” It’s interesting as a point came up where if you don’t translate it properly people could get offended too where you aren’t taking the time to actually cater it to that specific group of people.
I suppose like many times we all want to see the effort behind bringing something to you in those cases right? I would think the only time that would be acceptable is if people understand you are say a one man operation and you make it clear that you don’t really have the budget or resources to translate things perfectly. I would imagine there people would appreciate the effort. It’s all about perception I suppose too where if people feel you did have the resources to do something which you tried to skimp on then that can reflect badly.