Picture a seed swap at a community garden in Germany. At the gate, a visitor opens the invitation on their phone to check whether they can join in with nothing to swap. A volunteer at the tables is looking at a task brief to see which packets to put out first. A supporter opens the project update to find out what happened to the seeds collected the previous year. The London group helping to organise the event has written all three documents in English, and each German reader will need something different from them.
Dialektikus UK Ltd translates written English documents into German. When the files belong to one project, share the full set and say who will use each one. The invitation, task brief and update can use the same names where they refer to the same activity, and each file needs to make sense in its own right when it is forwarded, printed or opened on a phone.
What each reader needs
As the invitation does the rounds in local gardening groups, someone may see it without knowing how a seed swap works. The details that help them decide whether to come belong with the event information. If visitors can look round and take part even if they bring no seeds, put that in the invitation. Say whether people need to register or can turn up on the day, especially if the invitation will reach a reader through a calendar with its own booking link.
The volunteer needs to act on the brief when someone arrives. Where the invitation says ‘ask us at the seed table’, the brief may name the person taking questions and describe what to do when the first box is empty. If your German partner prefers the informal plural for volunteer groups and formal address for the public, mention that convention so the German wording suits each audience.
The supporter may read the update a week later and want to know what the group will do with seeds left over after the event. If the English mentions packets donated last year alongside plans to share more with a school, identify what has already happened and give the planned handover its own date. This matters if the update will be read again after the new year, when ‘next spring’ could point to a different season.
Keep shared terms and timings clear
The invitation may call a place the swap table and the task brief may shorten that to ‘the exchange’. If both refer to one place, a common German name helps the afternoon volunteers pick up where the morning team left off when they answer questions from people who have read the invitation. If one of the tables is set aside for seeds the group will sow later, tell us how it is identified in each file. A consistent name for each table matters when someone is working from an instruction to refill it.
A partner who takes ‘doors open at nine’ at face value might put that time in a public event listing. In the volunteer brief, the phrase may mean that the shed opens for set-up an hour before visitors are due. Identify who is expected and what is opening, especially when short headings leave the subject unstated. The German invitation can give visitors the arrival time, and the German brief can state when a volunteer will have access to the shed.
Include what will travel with each file
A map key can slip through the net when an invitation is copied into a listings page or sent as a screenshot. If the English says ‘follow the path by the tool shed’, send the map as well and tell us which version of it the visitor will see. Give us the file names or display titles readers will recognise when one document sends them to another. If a link in the update points to the volunteer brief, say whether the German reader will have access to that file.
The invitation may also have a shorter version for a community calendar. If the listing has a character limit, tell us which details must fit there and where readers will find the full invitation. A listing might give the time, place and booking details, with a link to the explanation of the seed swap. Send both English versions so we can check the details that appear in each.
Draw a line between notes that help explain the project and the text that people should receive. A volunteer brief and the public invitation might share a working document with comments about who is bringing the tables. Mark the parts for translation and send the remaining material as background if it helps explain a reference. If a German reader needs a caption that currently exists only in the working comments, show us where it will appear in the final file.
Review the set with your German partner
If the partner garden will review the German versions, ask someone who knows its usual terms to check the shared names. A volunteer can read the brief against the tasks on the day and a colleague can check the update against the project figures. If the reviewers suggest different names for the same activity, tell us who has the last word. Collect feedback with the file and passage it applies to, so a change can be checked wherever that wording recurs.
If you have an earlier German invitation to hand, send it alongside the new English text and point out any wording already used by your partner. A name can stay familiar while what happens at the event changes, such as when a seed swap adds a table where visitors can get advice. A note on what is new helps us identify where the earlier translation is still relevant and where the current English needs its own wording.
Request English to German translations
Send the English files you want translated and a short note on who will read each one. Include planned formats and tell us which files the recipients will have together. When one document will be shared first, say whether it needs to carry details from a later attachment. If the files are intended for different German-speaking communities, mention where each will circulate and share any terms already in use there.
To get in touch with Dialektikus UK Ltd about English to German translations, email london@dialektikus.co.uk or use the London contact page.