Mistranslation and the perils of using daft jargon

[John Dunn]

I stand corrected.  We (ex-)academics live very sheltered lives.  Though I notice that most British media have found it necessary to explain the phrase – a reflection, no doubt, of different ice-cream cultures.  Perhaps significantly, one report used the phrase in the form 'vanilla futures', which makes the mistranslation even more understandable.  And, while others will disagree, I do find something vaguely comforting in the idea that Russian journalists (though not Paris bankers, it seems) have the same problems as I do with American slang.

John Dunn.

-----Original Message-----
From: "Paul B. Gallagher" <paulbg at PBG-TRANSLATIONS.COM>
To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU
Date: Sat, 26 Jan 2008 09:13:09 -0500
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Mistranslation and the perils of using daft jargon

...

"Plain vanilla" is not limited to financial jargon, nor is it obscure or 
arcane, as any native speaker of American English will tell you. It's a 
widely used metaphor in hundreds of different fields, but it's 
especially common in sales & marketing and technology fields where 
gimmickry and bells & whistles are commonly used to drive sales.

....
John Dunn
Honorary Research Fellow, SMLC (Slavonic Studies)
University of Glasgow, Scotland

Address:
Via Carolina Coronedi Berti 6
40137 Bologna
Italy
Tel.: +39 051/1889 8661
e-mail: J.Dunn at slavonic.arts.gla.ac.uk
johnanthony.dunn at fastwebnet.it

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