Comments on: The Mother-Tongue Principle: Hit or Myth?

By: Tony Parr

Tony Parr — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 10:19:22 +0000

In reply to Charles Ek. Dear Charles, You're absolutely right about the failure of the translation industry to establish a meaningful, reliable quality standard. The mother-tongue principle is just one aspect of this problem, which is something we'll be looking at in more detail at the next edition of the Dutch National Translation Conference in June 2017 - see you there?

By: Tony Parr

Tony Parr — Sun, 12 Jun 2016 18:44:06 +0000

In reply to Eva. Glad to hear you enjoyed it, Eva.

By: Charles Ek

Charles Ek — Sat, 11 Jun 2016 13:51:47 +0000

“The conclusion? Even if there is such a thing as a ‘mother tongue,’ the mother-tongue principle is no guarantee of quality.”

No, the conclusion is that a tiny sample, consisting of four translations of 300 words, doesn’t come close to satisfying any requirement for statistical rigor. And we’re not even told the qualifications of the “English-speaking language professionals” on the panel – were they all native speakers or not?

This article is emblematic of the widespread failure in the translation industry to establish any meaningful, reliable quality standards.

By: Eva

Eva — Tue, 24 May 2016 06:36:51 +0000

Fascinating! I sometimes proof-read native speakers who have lived many years abroad, and they definitely tend to lose their grip of grammar and word usage. So this is a more complex problem than it might seem, not just a question of ‘Mac vs PC’. Thanks for an interesting article!