Found in Translation

Baby, You Can Drive My Car
Auto manufacturers have often seen that a car model name that works well in one country must be
modified to have success in another. Ford launched a car in Europe named Kuga, which means
“plague” in Croatian and Serbian. Mitsubishi produced an off-road vehicle called the Pajero, an
offensive term for “wanker” in some Spanish-speaking countries. The Honda Fitta had to be renamed
to the Honda Jazz for the Nordic market because fitta is a profane word for female genitals. One
car that didn’t have to be renamed? The Chevy Nova. Contrary to popular belief, the word nova is
not easily confused with the words no va (doesn’t go) in Spanish because they are pronounced
differently, with stress on different syllables. General Motors reported that the Nova actually
surpassed its expectations for sales in markets like Venezuela.
The Economist Speaks Chinese
Of course, some imports have experienced the exact opposite of Harley-
Davidson in China—wild popularity without really having to try. This is the
case with the Economist. The weekly magazine has a team of such devoted fans

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that they routinely volunteer their free time to translate the popular British
periodical into Chinese. That’s three hundred pages’ worth of articles per
week.
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They’re called the Eco Team, a group of volunteers connected through a
web-based interface. Every two weeks, they produce and publish a Chinese-
language version of two full magazines, making them available online at no
charge. Founded in 2006, the forum was originally funded through donations.
An insurance broker, Shi Yi, heads up the effort.
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More than two hundred
volunteer translators form the full group, and it takes about forty members to
produce each issue.
The process the team uses is straightforward. First, translation volunteers
pick stories to translate based on their areas of interest. Another volunteer
oversees the process, moderates the group, tracks the assigned articles, and
monitors their completion status. Once an article is translated, other members
of the community use a comment section to suggest improvements to the
translations. Last, an editor applies the corrections and delivers the final
proofed version for publication. Their volunteer translation task is not a
simple one. The Economist is notorious for its wordplay and double meanings,
requiring a high level of proficiency in English. Consider this actual sentence
from an article in the February 4, 2012, print edition: “Insiders crow that the
gumshoes found no smoking gun.” Try replacing the key terms in that sentence
with synonyms—in English—and you’ll get a sense of the translators’
challenge.
These translating fans are not paid for their work, and they do not charge
for the end product. In fact, they encourage the individuals who visit their
website to subscribe to the Economist in English. It’s a noncommercial effort
that is focused on sharing knowledge, and because they are not making any
money from it and actually drive new subscribers to the Economist, they don’t
believe themselves to be in violation of any copyright.
So far, the publishers of the Economist seem to agree. As Andrew Baio
reported in the New York Times, Mr. Yi met with the publication’s editorial
staff, including executive editor John Micklethwait. Yi’s team was granted
approval to continue their pro bono translation work for the time being.
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It’s
no wonder why. In May 2011, one of the site’s moderators mentioned that it
had surpassed ninety thousand registered users. At no cost and minimal risk to
the publisher, it’s not a bad way for a magazine to open up a new market,
especially considering the changing nature of traditional publishing. (The
Economist isn’t the only publisher benefiting from this trend. Recently, Chinese
mothers have formed online groups at websites such as Dreamkidland.cn,

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where English-speaking mothers can translate children’s books into Chinese
for their children. Many of the translations have been used by publishers to
produce actual books. And because the mothers ask for input from the
children, kids actually have a say in which books get translated.)
The volunteers do put themselves at risk, however. Because some of the
magazine’s articles cover taboo subjects, such as Tibet, the team performs the
translations within the safety of a protected forum. The Eco Team also advises
its members to err on the side of caution and avoid controversial topics to
protect the project itself and make sure that it is allowed to continue. Still, for
these fans, the risk seems worth the reward. Not only do thousands of Chinese
readers get access to the Economist thanks to the fruits of the team’s labor, but
in the process of translating, the volunteers become exposed to news from
around the world and the associated social, political, and economic concepts
embedded in the articles. Is China warming to the West through translation?
Perhaps.