Translating a Café Sign: Literal Accuracy versus Genre Equivalence
During a unit on food and service encounters, students translate a café sign that the teacher has transcribed on a handout: «БИЗНЕС-ЛАНЧ 12:00–16:00. Комплексный обед. Горячее на выбор. Кофе из зерна. Приятного аппетита!» One student, M., submits: «Business lunch 12:00–16:00. Complex dinner. Hot on choice. Coffee from grain. Pleasant appetite!» The teacher's rubric awards points for literal accuracy and for 'natural English.' M. argues that his version is accurate because each Russian word has an English equivalent. The class is mixed: some students have visited Russia, most have not. The teacher has 25 minutes and wants to use M.'s translation as the basis for a lesson on equivalence, register, and genre, not just to mark it wrong. The department's translation standard says meaning, function, and register must be considered.
1. Evaluate M.'s translation against meaning, function, and register. Identify errors and any defensible choices.
Read the worked answer
M.'s version is word-for-word but fails the sign's function: to sell a midday meal quickly and clearly. «Комплексный обед» is a set meal or prix fixe lunch, not a 'complex dinner'; «обед» here is the midday meal, and «комплексный» means a fixed combination, not 'complicated.' «Горячее на выбор» means a choice of hot main dishes, not 'hot on choice.' «Кофе из зерна» means coffee made from beans, often freshly ground, not 'coffee from grain'; «зерно» can mean grain, but coffee beans are «зёрна» in this collocation. «Приятного аппетита» is the standard 'Enjoy your meal' or 'Bon appétit,' not 'Pleasant appetite.' «Бизнес-ланч» is a defensible loan translation in an urban café context; English readers may understand 'business lunch,' though 'set lunch' or 'lunch special' better conveys the genre. The time expression is fine. The main pattern is that M. translated lexical items rather than the sign's communicative purpose and register.
2. Produce a revised English translation of the sign and justify each major change.
Read the worked answer
Revised version: «SET LUNCH 12:00–4:00 p.m. Fixed-price meal. Choice of hot main course. Freshly ground coffee. Enjoy your meal!» Justification: «Set lunch» or «lunch special» conveys «бизнес-ланч» and «комплексный обед» in natural menu English; «fixed-price meal» makes the combination explicit. «Choice of hot main course» translates «горячее на выбор» as a menu category, not a literal phrase. «Freshly ground coffee» renders «кофе из зерна» as a quality claim about beans, which is the sign's likely selling point; if the café means only 'bean coffee' rather than instant, «coffee from beans» could be justified, but it is less natural. «Enjoy your meal» matches the conventional function of «Приятного аппетита.» The time format changes to English convention for a U.S. audience; if the translation is for a British audience, «12:00–4:00 p.m.» is still clear. The revision preserves meaning, genre, and register rather than one-to-one wording.
3. Design a 25-minute activity using M.'s translation to teach equivalence, register, and genre, with a formative check.
Read the worked answer
Spend 4 minutes establishing the genre: show the Russian sign and ask what a customer needs to know in five seconds - price, time, food choice, coffee, politeness. In the next 8 minutes, groups compare M.'s version with a natural English café sign and mark three types of problem: wrong referent («complex dinner»), unnatural collocation («hot on choice»), and ignored convention («Pleasant appetite»). Then 8 minutes of revision: each group rewrites only two lines and must state the function of each change. The teacher circulates and asks, 'Would a customer understand this faster?' In the final 5 minutes, hold a formative check: project two anonymous revisions and have the class vote on which is more natural and why, using the criteria meaning, function, and register. Exit ticket: students write one Russian phrase from the sign and one natural English equivalent, plus a one-sentence justification. This uses M.'s literal version as productive data rather than as a public error to be mocked.