Museums engage their audiences through multiple means – from wall texts near artworks, to brochures introducing exhibitions, audio guides and website content.
Idealistically, those handling museum translation will have access to ample reference material and be given ample opportunity to view exhibits before their opening date. Unfortunately, however, this doesn’t always happen.
Why Translation?
Museum text translation has long been the subject of debate. While discussions often center on language errors and methods to produce better texts, this issue goes deeper than simple equivalence between original and translated text. Instead, debate takes place in multiple contexts such as interlingual practice at museums, museology, cultural transfer etc.
Museums must use quality as a framework to measure all forms of communication beyond translations, including exhibition displays, multimodal communication channels (audio/video/interactive media) as well as content produced for websites/apps and promotional and scholarly publications.
As museums increasingly become destinations for international visitors, thick translation has become more essential. This is especially true of museums looking to engage diverse audiences while giving a richer experience of their collections and exhibits.
Thick translation involves making sure that a museum’s message reaches all audiences regardless of linguistic, cultural and cognitive differences among them. To achieve this objective, target audiences’ information needs must be identified before providing it in a way that is meaningful, accessible and suitable to each of their individual circumstances.
An art museum can increase its educational impact for international visitors by including translators as early as possible in the exhibit creation process, so they can make sure the text aligns with both their goals and overall museum experience – thus cutting down time required for subsequent revisions.
Types of Texts
Museum texts consist of not only labels or wall texts, but also catalogues, brochures and other written material accompanying exhibitions, events or other museum activities. Not only are these texts intended for visitors’ benefit, but they can also promote the museum itself – thus serving an integral role in its communication strategy (Ravelli 1996:370). As a result, museum text translation is a demanding endeavor which necessitates special training and guidelines.
Traditionnally, scholars have paid particular attention to micro-level linguistic issues surrounding Museum Text Translation such as language errors and translation standards; however, macro-level cultural considerations like museum role or text style often remain unsustained, since any discussions related to them require going beyond translation studies to encompass museums and museology as a field.
This study seeks to address this gap by exploring the multilingual and multimodal aspects of Museum Text Translation. Utilizing quality management theory as its framework, an agile quality monitoring approach was proposed for museum communication that goes beyond more rigid translation standards.
Translating museum text translations can be an arduous and demanding endeavor, involving negotiations between two cultures and multiple text types. Furthermore, this endeavor necessitates an in-depth knowledge of museum context as well as interlingual and multimodal communication that exists within institutions. As a result, designing and producing museum text is complex process requiring careful consideration from translators as well as museum professionals working together towards successful outcomes.
Audiences
Museums exist to serve society and its development, increase knowledge, and foster appreciation of heritage (ICOM 2022). One way museums do this is through ensuring visitors from diverse backgrounds can engage with exhibits and appreciate them; translation is one effective tool in fulfilling this obligation.
One way of reaching a wide audience is with bilingual presentations. Most museums now provide audio guides in multiple languages with exhibits displayed, and wall texts that translate. This allows visitors to have full access to all information regarding exhibits or objects displayed, regardless of language proficiency.
Cultural mediation can also help broadening an audience. If an exhibit’s text contains overly proud and assertive rhetoric in Chinese, translators must take care not to carry this over into English translation and should also attempt to limit use of high-language registers such as ideograms and four-character expressions that may be difficult for non-native English speakers to understand.
Communication between translators and exhibition teams should also take place regularly during translation to identify any issues early and ensure that the final text meets its goals as part of an exhibit as a whole.
Though these three strategies for inclusion can be useful, fostering diversity requires more than translation alone. Museums must establish initiatives that go beyond language translation alone to focus on accessibility, community engagement and accepting differences – museums must recognize that their diverse audiences may have various needs and expectations depending on factors like language background and education level.
Reference Material
As museums seek to reach more visitors, language becomes ever more essential to communication between museum employees and their visitors. Communicating in multiple languages while providing a range of text types ranging from information plaques to e-newsletters presents translators with a formidable challenge; to be effective translators they must possess both extensive knowledge and skills as they strive to handle this increasing complexity of museum text translation.
Museum text translation seeks to produce easily readable texts that provide accurate information in an easily understandable format without diluting its scientific integrity. Furthermore, its language must remain coherent and logical for target audiences – which necessitates taking cultural context into consideration as well as avoiding idioms or metaphors unsuitable for said target audiences.
Museums must adapt their texts in line with current trends and changes in society, working closely with translation specialists and monitoring how visitors use the information provided by museums. Furthermore, it’s necessary to consider their wider impact such as social anthropology on society as part of this consideration.
As museums seek to provide more interactive experiences for their audiences, including audio guides and mobile apps for visitors, the nature of museum texts is also evolving rapidly, necessitating translators with skills in handling an array of sources in multiple formats in addition to making sure texts remain readable in both languages.
Checking the Translation
Museum visitors often don’t understand exhibit topics, so it is necessary for museums to communicate basic information in clear and straightforward language. Any overly poetic or metaphorical expression should also be avoided so non-native English speakers can comprehend it easily. This is especially applicable for science topics where technical terms should be written so they are easily accessible for non-native English audiences.
While the translation process includes checking grammar and punctuation, an equally essential step is ensuring the text is easy to read. Both translators and translation checkers should read through target-language text in its entirety, looking out for any areas that seem awkward or incomprehensible and making notes; then compare this version with source language text to carefully compare each section for accuracy, format, language style terms etc; finally conducting readability test by having someone read passages aloud before noting whether they comprehended them without difficulty.
With more people speaking multiple native languages than ever, museums must adapt their displays in order to engage multilingual audiences and show that your institution cares about its community. Museums should partner with a reputable translation service that offers accurate yet culturally nuanced translations for exhibits, websites and other communication materials.
