French to English: Business Letters, Part 3

 

Have you ever requested a recommendation letter from a past employer, co-worker or family friend only to wait days and days for it?  You're imagining how your prospective employer is interpreting this delay.

Is she unable to get a recommendation letter because none of her previous employers thought she was a good employee?

Want advice?  Make life easier for the people you request recommendation letters from.  Suggest that you write the letter yourself and send it to them for editing. 

Here is what Joyce Lain Kennedy and Alain Dumesnil say in their book, Les lettres d'accompagnement (covering letters), published by Éditions Générales First, France, ISBN:  2-87691-652-5.  Their advice is written in three paragraphs; let's take one paragraph at a time.

First paragraph:

French:  Vous attendiez une réponse impatiemment et vous venez de recevoir un e-mail de votre employeur potentiel vous demandant de lui envoyer plusieurs lettres de recommendation.

English translation:  You've been waiting impatiently for a response and then you receive an e-mail from your potential employer requesting you to send him several letters of recommendation.

Second paragraph:

French:  Pas de panique - rédigez vous-même vos lettres de recommandation !  N'oubliez pas que les personnes susceptibles de vous recommander (anciens employeurs, professeurs, responsables d'associations ou de clubs) sont aussi débordées que vous.  Si elles sont prêtes à faire votre éloge, proposez-leur d'écrire un brouillon qu'elles n'auront plus qu'à peaufiner.

English translation:  Don't panic - write the letters of recommendation yourself!  Don't forget that the people who can recommend you (former employers, professors, association or club officials) are as busy as you are.  If they are willing to recommend you, offer to draft a letter so all they need to do is polish (or edit) it.

Third paragraph:

French:  Pour plus de commodité, identifiez le traitement de texte utilisé par chacune de vos références et saisissez votre brouillon sous le même logiciel.  Envoyez votre letter par e-mail en fichier joint ou bien enregistrez-la sur une disquette que vous acheminerez par La Poste ou remettrez en main propre avec une version paper.

English translation:  So it's more convenient, find out what word processor each of your contacts uses and type the draft using the same software.  E-mail your contacts with the letter attached, or save it on a CD which you will send by mail or submit a hard copy personally.

That's good advice.  If someone were to ask you for a letter of recommendation, and you're not exactly a letter-writer, you'd be ill at ease.  It's not because you don't think highly of the person's skills or experience, but the thought of writing a letter - something that takes you hours, even days - is an encroachment on your time.

But if the same person requesting a recommendation offers to write it herself, you'd be more open to the idea!

Let's face it:  not many people are comfortable writing letters.  The words don't come that easily.  I even heard of one case where a person was requested and it took him three weeks to produce one, because he agonised over what to say and how to say it.

These days, this is no longer a problem.  There are two solutions:  the first one is to search the Net for an example of a letter of recommendation, and the second solution is to ask the person requesting a recommendation to write it himself.  If you agree with what's written, all what's left is for you to sign it.

Just for fun, I googled "examples of recommendation letters", and I got over 9.2 million results.  Assuming half of those are bogus or poor quality sites, your chances of finding the perfect letter that you can tweak are still very good.

So you see, you have no excuse.  Do a good deed and write that letter pronto! 

Your bonus lesson:  some French phrases to avoid, how to say them better, and their English translations:

Don't say	Say	English
année académique	année scolaire	school year
engager du personnel additionnel	engager du personnel supplémentaire, complémentaire	hire additional staff
l'agenda de la réunion	l'ordre du jour de la réunion	meeting agenda
code régional	indicatif régional	area code
compléter un formulaire	remplir un formulaire	fill out a form
nom corporatif	nom de société, raison sociale	corporate name, head office
paie de vacances	indemnité de congé	vacation pay
plan d'assurance	régime d'assurance	insurance plan
faire du surtemps	faire des heures supplémentaires	do overtime
tentativement	à titre d'essai; provisoirement	tentatively

French to English: Business Letters, Part 2

In my last blog, I gave examples of closing sentences in French business letters which can't be translated into English literally.

Today, I'd like to mention some opening lines commonly used in French business correspondence.  I'm afraid you won't see anything that closely resembles "Hey Dude".  We're talking business letters, remember? 

Occasionally, however, when two business people happen to be also good friends or golf buddies, the "Cher Monsieur" is crossed out manually, and replaced by "Salut Jean" or "Mon Cher Jean." 

This is the same practice in English.  At least in the companies I worked, it was customary for my boss to strike out the "Dear Mr. Jones" to replace it with a more personal greeting like "Dear John."

I'll translate a handful of French letter opening lines into English and will dispense with the table format this time.

French:  En réponse a votre lettre du 8 juillet 2008...
English:  In response to your letter of July 8, 2008...

French:  À la suite de l'annonce publié dans le journal...
English:  Following the announcement published in the paper...

French:  Nous avons reçu votre candidature pour le poste d'adjointe administrative...
English:  We received your application for the position of administrative assistant...

French:  C'est avec grand plaisir que nous avons appris votre nomination...
English:  It gave us great pleasure to learn of your appointment...Alternately, you can also translate this as: We were delighted to hear of your appointment...

French:  C'est avec regret que nous vous faisons part de...
English:  We regret to inform you that...

French:  Nous sommes actuellement dans l'impossibilité de...
English:  It is presently impossible for us to...

French:  Nous avons pris connaissance du document que vous nous avez fait parvenir...
English:  We received the document you have sent us...

When I started my translation courses at McGill University, I was afraid to "deviate" from the French and fell into the trap of translating literally.  The outcome left much to be desired. When you're starting out as a translator, you may feel this same hesitation.  Go with your instincts.  Ask:  does this sentence sound awkward?  Can this sentence be further improved without altering the meaning of the original?

My advice is to translate sentences in business letters the way they're normally written in English.  Let's take the last example above.  "Nous avons pris connaissance du document que vous nous avez fait parvenir." 

The phrase "pris connaissance" (infinitive:  prendre connaissance) is literally "to recognize" or "to learn about."  However, we can't begin a formal business letter by saying that "we recognize the document" or "we learned about your document."

The correct translation would be:  "We read the document you sent us."  But if I were to translate that, I would write it this way:  "Thank you for sending the document which we have read."

Given that English tends to use fewer words, try to be as brief as possible while still reflecting the essence of the original - or source - language.

Note:  "Faire parvenir" - this is a phrase you will encounter often in French correspondence.  It means "to send."  In less formal correspondence like in e-mails, the French would simply say "envoyer" or "transmettre" as in "envoyer une lettre à quelqun (to send somebody a letter), or "je peux te transmettre les documents" (I can transmit the documents to you). 

Pick up a book that contains examples of French business letters and try translating them for fun!

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French to English: Business Letters, Part 1

Starting today, I'll be taking a different approach for this blog.  You will still get your lexicons, but there may be fewer terms in certain posts in exchange for more translations of phrases and sentences.

As I start this new theme on business letters, I'll take common paragraphs used in various types of business correspondence and then translate them into English. 

You may have read business letters in French and thought, "the French write in a different manner."  That observation is accurate.  They write the address and dates differently, they don't capitalize days and months of the year, and their closing lines are a tad more elaborate, unlike the more direct and brief English business letter.  There's an engaging tone in their closing lines that can be described as "flowery", but that's the charm of the French.  Didn't someone say that French was the language of diplomacy? 

Here's an example of a closing line in French:

"Vous remerciant à l'avance de l'attention que vous porterez à ce document, je vous prie d'agréer, Madame la Directrice, mes salutations distinguées."
(source:  Office de la langue française, Le français au bureau, 1996)

English translation:  Thank you for taking the time to read this document. I look forward to hearing from you."

You're going to say that's a wrong translation.  It is.  It isn't an accurate reflection of the French message.  But while it is a wrong translation, it is the right way to express it in English.

Which takes us to the theory that says that literal translations will not work.  If we were to translate this closing line literally, it would read like this:

"Thanking you in advance for the attention you will give to this document, I sincerely offer you, Madame Director, my distinguished sentiments." 

Sounds awkward, doesn't it?  It may have been perfect in the days of King Henry VIII, but today, we subscribe to the notion that business letters should be brief, to the point, and devoid of clutter. 

I still receive letters written in French that close this way.  That's fine.  I'm not going to argue against tradition, but when translating a French letter into English, we should translate it in the most appropriate manner possible.

If you need more convincing, my Harrap's Shorter dictionary (2006) translates "je vous prie de croire à mes sentiments distingués"  as simply "sincerely" or "yours sincerely."
This is one reason I love translation.  It's like having two brains, forcing you to absorb the nuances of language and culture of two different worlds. 

Types of business letters:

FRENCH	ENGLISH
réponse à une offre d'emploi	letter of application (in response to a posted job announcement)
lettre de présentation accompagnant un curriculum vitae	covering letter (to a CV)
convocation à une entrevue	notice of interview
demande d'emploi	job application letter
réponse défavorable à une demande d'emploi	rejection letter (to a job application)
démission	letter of resignation
première lettre de recouvrement	first collection notice (to an account that's past due)
félicitations	congratulatory letter
recommandation	letter of recommendation
demande de renseignements ou d'information	letter to request information

Here is another sentence commonly found in acknowledgement letters:
"Nous accusons reception de votre lettre du 8 juillet 2009 et vous demandons de fournir les informations supplémentaires suivantes..."

English translation:  We acknowledge receipt of your letter dated July 8, 2009 and request that you provide the following additional information...

That's a good translation.  A better one, however, is:

Thank you for your letter of July 8, 2009.  We request that you provide additional information listed below...

"Acknowledge receipt" - even if still used - sounds stiff and too formal, so my preference is to simply thank the sender for his letter!