In twenty-five years of multilingual A/V and broadcast work, I've heard the following a few times, meant as reassurance that we have a good foreign-language script for a new project: “The script is OK because it was written (or translated) by a native speaker.”

Reality Check

Since when is being a native speaker of a language the sole prerequisite for writing good copy? Following that rationale, finding a good scriptwriter would be quite simple: You look for someone with English as their native language and a college or graduate degree, and if they are available and interested, you hire them to write your next script.

Even a Good Translation Is Not Enough

To avoid this “native speaker” syndrome, production teams often hire a translator or translation agency for the task. However, a translation that’s accurate and error-free can be terribly off the mark from a branding, positioning, or messaging point of view. After all, do we evaluate creative copy only by the absence of typos and grammatical errors? Yet many translations are still deemed “very good” by professionals in our industry just by this “error free” standard. They get very excited when a “no mistakes” finding is reported, as if this guaranteed that the script would prompt an audience to action or help develop a relationship with consumers.

Red Flag

Next time you hear someone say “we need a translator” for a script, think of the skills needed to write a script. Then consider this: 99% of the translation business consists of technical copy, and consequently most translators tend to be technical writers. In 20 years as agency executive and creative director, I've found that of thousands of professional Spanish translators who sent me impressive résumés (with equally impressive client lists), only a handful were able to work on copy for Hispanic consumers. In most cases, the technical manuals that they translated for Fortune 500 companies didn't give them the right experience.

The Bottom Line

Get a creative, not a translator. Translators think of ACCURACY as first and foremost in their work, and seldom have the training, experience, or creativity to depart in a disciplined way from what’s written in English. On the other hand, a true creative writer keeps the spirit of the piece, the brand, and RELEVANCE top-of-mind, and is able to translate, adapt, contextualize, transcreate, do concepting, and write new copy as needed. Very different concepts, a vastly different set of skills, and dramatically different results.