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What are some pitfalls specific to Canadian French a client should be aware of when translating into this language?
French tends to be "wordier" than English. So the client can expect that a text will be longer in French than it was in English.
When translating web content or software content, the client has to make sure that the application uses Unicode for character encoding and not ASCII which does not support letters with accents like è, é, and à.
Finally, it is very important to respect the local French spoken and written in the country where the target document is to be presented. Although all French countries use basically the same French grammar, there are many differences in vocabulary, and also in the use of English words in French. Certain French cultures accept more English words in their French than others do. One example is the use of the word "week-end" in France, which is not generally acceptable in Quebec. This underlines again the universal importance of localization.
What are characteristics of Canadian French that are unique or different from English and/or other languages?
French, being a Romance language, has many similarities with other Romance languages like Spanish and Italian. English and French are also closely related because of the intertwined history of France and Great Britain. But one great difference is that French gives a gender to all nouns, which is a concept that can be confusing for nonnative French speakers.
Other differences with English are the presence of accents (English practically doesn’t have any), the different conjugations for all persons (Regular English verb conjugations are the same for all persons except for third person singular), liaisons between words for pronunciation, and the subjunctive form in French to name a few.
How do these characteristics make it important to use properly qualified, professional translators?
Like any language, French has its own particularities, set of rules, and vocabulary. It is a very complex process to translate one language into another while respecting all the grammar and punctuation rules, and at the same time, conveying the essence of the source document. Most bilingual people can get along fine, but to create a text that is easily read by the target language population, and that doesn’t seem translated, takes training, practice, and skill in translation and writing.
Do you know examples where translation or localization mistakes have occurred with Canadian French, such as, problems with text expansion, date/time formats, counting errors, character encoding, etc., or mistakes with the translation itself? Perhaps you’ve been asked to review a translation that did not seem to be the work of a properly qualified, professional translator. You may mask the identity of the company, client, or translator in your answer.
In Quebec and France, the metric system is in use, so all measures have to respect SI rules. Also, the dollar sign comes after the dollar amount and not before. Punctuation can be quite different in French with more spaces between punctuation and text than in English.
As mentioned earlier, in Quebec, the French population is very sensitive to any inclusion of English words in a text, so everything needs to be translated properly—even product names, if possible.
The adjective qualifying a noun usually follows the noun in French. For example, in English we might say: "The blue car," but in French this would be: "The car blue" (L’auto bleue). This is a common mistake when translating from English into French.
Relate an example or two of times you found a website page or form difficult to use because it was poorly localized. How might a business lose money, prestige or incur legal risk due to this bad translation?
No specific example comes to mind, but any website that is poorly translated or that does not respect the local way of saying things doesn’t create a good image. As I mentioned earlier, and this came from my experience as a Quebec native living in a small French culture surrounded by English cultures (Canadian and American); French in Quebec is a political matter. So it is very important when deciding to enter this market to use translators from this culture. I think it’s the safest way to make a good impression with this population. I am sure the same can be said of the Walloons in Belgium or the Swiss French in Switzerland. This is also true of many other languages such as English, Spanish, and Portuguese which have many different variations of the "official" version around the world. It comes down to marketing; knowing your market and doing everything to speak to people in their own words.
If possible, provide one example of a particular phrase or concept that only a properly qualified, professional translator would be able to correctly communicate.
Humor and idiomatic expressions are very difficult to translate. For example, the expression in English "to nail it," meaning "to get it" or "to succeed," cannot be translated literally into French. So in one text I was translating, the expression "to nail it" was used to describe how someone could do a certain craft project by herself and succeed in doing so. This craft project happened to be a frame. The client was using this expression as a play on words with a double meaning, as a way to say "you can do it," but also, "to nail this frame to the wall." So a translator has to be very familiar with the expressions of his or her own language or know the right tools to find them, and "taper dans le mille!"
Again, humor is always very difficult to translate. I have had to translate video games for children in which many of the names for the characters, the places, or the games themselves had a funny twist or were rhymes. So mastering the target language is very important to render the comic intentions of the author.