Customers/Kunden

Some (non-native) customers' reactions to English expressions (some stolen anonymously from a list): Don't like façade - 'doesn't sound very English' - prefer facade. Don't like well (for drawing water from) - well is the adverb from good. A German reviser forbids an English translator to use the word erection (of an installation) in English, because the word has other meanings in German. (That one reminds me of being told not to translate Glaubhaftmachung as prima facie evidence because prima facie has a different meaning in legal German). Don't translate Klausenburg as Cluj this time - the American official said it doesn't exist. A few more from an old entry (August 2004). Client says, 'The translation was first-class. But just one thing - why did you write express agreement and not expressive agreement?' Author's English expert (a native German, Leipzig): 'I have the impression the translator has researched the terminology very well, but her grammar is certainly not that of a native speaker, as I can tell from my university study of English.' Translator spends several hours refuting grammar 'errors' that never were errors except to a non-native speaker…