Background
Yesterday, The Guardian ran a story about the winner of Spain’s Junior Masterchef, a twelve-year old boy called Victor Beltrán. Having completed a challenge, the show’s presenter advised the contestants to start clearing away, to which Victor, surrounded by his female contestants, replied: “Madre mía. Estoy rodeado de chicas… las chicas ya sabéis limpiar, genéticamente“. Or, to use the translation provided by The Guardian, “My goodness, I’m surrounded by girls, and girls already know how to clean because of genetics”.
Discussion
“My goodness…” is precisely what I thought when I read the English translation. (My thoughts on the actual content of what Victor said are neither here nor there for the purposes of this blog.) What struck me was the difficulty I had in reconciling those words with what is likely to come out of the mouth of most twelve-year old boys, even one talented enough to win Masterchef. “My goodness” has, for me at least, the marks of somebody much, much older, in a not dissimilar vein to “Golly!” or “Deary me!”.
Of course, with everything else currently going on in the world, a quality translation for a relatively minor article is hardly a priority for newspapers. But then, in an article which is telling its readers that a twelve-year old Spanish boy is accused of having made sexist remarks, the media surely have a duty to quote his words accurately, with the right nuance and in a voice that matches that of the accused. The use of “my goodness” adds a certain quaintness to his words, and perhaps even detracts from their seriousness. Something slightly more Bart Simpson-esque (as an extreme example) might have been more appropriate to capture the boy’s age and attitude – how about “Jeez”, or even just “My god!”?
It’s entirely possible in this instance that the translation was produced by a non-native English speaker; there’s something about the “in” of “In my point of view, that’s just how it is” later in the article that strikes me as awkward. Or perhaps it’s simply a case of translationese. Either way, I wouldn’t say “in my point of view” is wrong as such (though others do), but personally I find it jarring and unidiomatic.
Conclusion
Opinions will always differ over what is and is not a suitable translation. Each individual’s experience of language means they attach different connotations and inferences to words. But what’s important is to achieve as accurate a representation of the speaker’s reality as possible, particularly in cases like the above. When facts matter, words need to be translated thoughtfully and convincingly, avoiding any incongruous match between language and its apparent user. For me at least, Victor Beltrán in this English translation seems worlds apart from the Spanish Victor Beltrán.
L.S. TRANSLATIONS 