The other day I was translating the website of a company that makes products of interest to mothers of babies and young children. A part of it was already in English for me to check and I found this:
Are you willing to teach your baby in your videos and photos?
Clearly something had gone wrong but I was at a loss as to what it could be. I was thinking of simply referring it back to the client when the solution occurred to me. I will leave a spoiler space so that readers who know Spanish can think about it.
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
When I mentally translated it back into Spanish instead of thinking purely in English terms, I realised that it was caused by the ambiguity of enseñar, which is the standard equivalent of teach but can also sometimes mean show (the root enseña is related to English ensign). The question should be:
Are you willing to show your baby in your videos and photos?
It relates to privacy and is asking for permission to use uploaded pictures of babies online.
Comments