Translating Spanish

As a Brit living in Mexico, it's quite important for me to know about translating Spanish.  I began translating about eight years ago, and decided to share what I know about translations in order to avoid the kind of mistakes that people frequently make.

One thing to avoid is assuming that words which look the same as those in English are the same.  These are called false friends, and can cause all kinds of embarrassing situations. I just mentioned one, in fact. Embarrass looks like embarazar, which means to get someone pregnant. This could, of course, be highly embarrassing. It certainly was for Parker Pen when it mistranslated the advertisement "won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you" in entirely the wrong way.

Another thing to be careful about is context. Cultural norms are not the same throughout the world, and it is important to pay attention to the different ways people interact in different cultures. In Mexico, for example, it is important to pay attention to formalities and use people's titles (such as Doctor, Engineer or Architect) much more frequently than we would in English. Clearly, when translating these terms, you have to adapt to the conventions in English and make your text less stuffy.