The Language of Money - Translation in the Financial Sector

As is the case with most things in life, the communications within the financial sector become a little bit more tense when things aren't going quite so well. With the current economic distress being such a global issue, financial translation services have become an increasingly crucial aspect of, not only the economy, but too, of international relations as a whole.

It can be complicated enough for most of us to understand the 'language of money' within our native tongue, but once this is translated, especially within a tense environment, things can become rather fragile.

Take, for example, a mistake by the conservative Government Accountability Institute (GAI), whilst investigating funding for Obama's re-election campaign. They falsely stated that foreign funds were being illegally funnelled into the campaign, after relying on Google Translate to interpret a Danish man's blog. In the end, it was determined that what had actually been said was something along the lines of - “If I could have contributed funds to Mr. Obama, I would have", rather than any kind of admission of having done so.

The above story is a classic example of relying on an automated translation service, when perhaps professional financial translation services would have been more appropriate. Luckily, in this case, the damage was minimal, but mistranslations have in the past had much more dire consequences.

The EU Meets Babel

A report by professors at Princeton University, entitled " ‘Lost in Translation’ Meets Political Thought: Some Modern Tales of Misreception", in 2009, suggested that translation errors within the initial European Constitution treaty, in 2004, contributed a great deal to 12 out of 25 countries refusing to proceed with the ratification process. This also led to the EU becoming mockingly associated with the 'Tower of Babel', in direct opposition to its multi-lingual and multi-cultural premise. 

This was despite a large chunk of the budget - 2.6 million euros - having been spent on translation experts. With the current economic situation in the EU being less than perfect, there are real concerns that, without the presence of quality financial translation services, the road out of the euro crisis may well be made more turbulent than it needs to be, as a result of linguistic barriers.

Mistranslations That Changed the World

Although not all in the realm of financial translation services, there have been a number of mistranslations within the political sphere that have changed the world.

1. "We Will Bury You!"

With the Cold War in full swing, a speech by the then Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev, which ended with the line - "We will bury you" sent shock waves through the United States. The fact that the Soviets had just successfully tested a H-bomb made his statement all the more ominous and had the American people fearing imminent attack. 

Only later was it revealed that a more accurate translation of the closing sentence would have been - "We will still be here when you are buried" - and as it turns out it is actually a very common Russian phrase of defiance. 

As a consequence of the misinterpretation came the United States' space obsession, fuelled by the Soviet's Sputnik, and who knows, perhaps there would never have been a man on the moon without the error in translation.

2. Carter Returns the Favour

In 1973, the then US President Jimmy Carter, flew put to Poland to face questions from actual Communists in a Communist country - quite a daunting prospect, given that the Cold War was still well and truly alive. Assisted by a $150/day freelance translator, unfortunately the ex-President's visit was littered with translation errors.

Carter's opening line - "I left the United States this morning," was interpreted as, "I left the United States, never to return." Not the most promising of starts, but it was later when "I have come to learn your opinions and understand your desires for the future," was translated into, "I desire the Poles carnally," that things really began to go wrong.

The translator was sacked after day one, only for his replacement to choose to remain silent as opposed to making similar gaffs, leaving it down to the Polish leader's own translator to step in.

3. The Atom Bomb Translation Error

The translation error, which has undoubtedly led to the biggest consequence was the one that led to an Atom bomb being dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. The then Japanese Premier, Kantaro Suzuki's response to the Potsdam Declaration, which demanded complete surrender and threatened utter destruction, was supposed to be - "No comment, we are still considering it." 

Unfortunately, his decision to use the Japanese word 'mokusatsu', which can also mean "we're ignoring it in contempt," led to the dropping of the Atom bomb on Hiroshima just ten day later. Whether it was the Japanese Premier's fault for not being more careful with his choice of words, or the translator's for not understanding the various meanings of the word, it all could so easily have been avoided with clearer communications.

Final Thoughts

With the global economy becoming an increasingly important aspect of international relations, it is crucial that high quality financial translation services are deployed, in order to ensure the communications remains at a high level and thus successful resolutions can be made.