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Glossary entry

Dutch term or phrase:

This overcome making trans Atlantic arrows in our goals

English translation:

This prevents us sabotaging the achievement of our own trans-Atlantic objectives and ensures we end up with concrete plans

Added to glossary by Andrea Macarie (X)
Jun 27, 2007 07:21
16 yrs ago
Dutch term

This overcome making trans Atlantic arrows in our goals

Dutch to English Other Economics
Though the text is in English, it was written by a Dutch manager, so I was wondering if maybe it´s a literal translation from Dutch into English, since it doesn´t really make sense in English.

Thank you.

The text is: "In our plan we follow the same way of planning as we have done in the overall plan. From financial to personnel perspectives. This overcome making trans Atlantic arrows in our goals and end up in concrete plans."
Proposed translations (English)
3 +1 No, no, it's great Dutch, and wonderfully put!
3 See **

Discussion

Albert Stufkens Jul 12, 2007:
What kind of reasoned logic was followed to chose a sarcastic joke?
Albert Stufkens Jul 5, 2007:
Asking this can be dilemna. You could ask him to EXPAND a bit on this part of the text - in English.
Andrea Macarie (X) (asker) Jul 5, 2007:
I understand your point, the thing is I cannot ask the Dutch manager to rewrite it in Dutch, it would be offensive, don´t you think?
Thank you very much for your ideas and help!!!!
Harry Borsje Jun 27, 2007:
Hi Andrea, does the 'transatlantic' reference make any direct sense in this context; is it about establishing a foothold in the US, expanding exports, international flights? Or is he just trying to say "this way we avoid thinking too far ahead"?
Albert Stufkens Jun 27, 2007:
First of all, you have not made it clear whether the assignment is to translate into Dutch or English. I would get back to the author and request him to formulate his thought in pure Dutch first.
Adam Smith Jun 27, 2007:
I agree with Marijke's comments. That was my first impression as well: "komt over" has been literally translated into "overcome"! Best to follow writeaway's suggestion though and ask the author, if possible.
Marijke Singer Jun 27, 2007:
Another interpretation: Dit komt over als het maken van transatlantische pijlers in onze doelen/doelstelling
What it specifically means is a mystery :-)
Margreet Logmans (X) Jun 27, 2007:
So here's my interpretation: 'This similarity is an important part of our goals when reaching out across the Atlantic and will result in concrete plans. ' I think you should ask your client, though. This could mean anything.
Margreet Logmans (X) Jun 27, 2007:
How bad is the rest of the text? Typical Dutch management talk or better? Thinking from Dutch, 'overcome' could be meant as 'similarity'. and 'arrows' - Dutch managers love to talk about 'spearheads', meaning 'important parts of a plan' - even as a verb..
writeaway Jun 27, 2007:
Hi -I have a friend in France who goes mad trying to 'translate' original Dunglish texts into English so she can then translate them into French. Best bet is to ask Author to explain what s/he meant. This one is so bad that not even backtranslation works.
Kate Hudson (X) Jun 27, 2007:
I'll have a stab at this, if as I assume he's writing for a US audience.
This comes across in our goals as trans-Atlantic arrows, resulting in concrete plans (I'm assuming he's talking about some form of flow chart). Otherwise this is Dunglish
vic voskuil Jun 27, 2007:
unfortunately, this baffles me as just as much...I can't even work out if "Trans Atlantic arrows" are a good thing or not....(whatever they are...)
Adam Smith Jun 27, 2007:
Hi Andrea - I'm afraid this is a perfect example of Dunglish. It doesn't make any sense to me either as a native English speaker! I guess you don't have the original Dutch?

Proposed translations

+1
18 hrs
Selected

No, no, it's great Dutch, and wonderfully put!

"In our plan we follow the same way of planning as we have done in the overall plan. From financial to personnel perspectives. This overcome making trans Atlantic arrows in our goals and end up in concrete plans."

1. overcome = voorkomen = prevent

2. the new plan is for activities somewhere across the Atlantic

3. making arrows in our goals = pijlen schieten/richten op eigen doel = sabotage the achievement of our own objectives

[a different planning for the new project that is not in line with the overall plan, might be detrimental to the entire operation or never result in anything]

4. and end up in... = so that we end up with...

So:
This prevents us sabotaging the achievement of our own trans-Atlantic objectives and ensures we end up with concrete plans.

Sounds good, doesn't it?
Peer comment(s):
agree vic voskuil : beautiful bit of spin ;) ...although your 3rd point I have never run into before (scoring an own goal, sure, but putting arrows in it?), shame no refs//malapropism. "ergens pijlen in zetten" could be "killing it" (ps. not sure what Albert's point is)
5 hrs
Dunno either, so I didn't respond. But I do know that when people (esp. politicians) are making suspicious efforts to speak posh, they mix up their sentences and lose track. Then, suddenly, it's no longer simply raining, 'it's pouring down cats and dogs'!
neutral Albert Stufkens : WHAT IS THIS?? An expression of lack of analytical imagination?
16 hrs
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "wow, thanks!"
3 hrs

See **

Your target language is, of course, Rumanian or Spanish. So my remark would not do.
I made an attempt to rewrite Dunglish into English:
**
We intend to follow the same pattern as in the overall plan. This goes for the financial as well personnel viewpoint.
Sketching the interaction between the transatlantic goals resulted in concrete plans.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 4 hrs (2007-06-27 11:40:28 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

I assume that the arrows indicate certain flows both ways.
In the case of one way flows I would rewrite as follows:
"Visualizing the transatlantic flows regarding our goals, concrete plans came out of it."
I guess that this manager wanted to say in Dutch: Dit overkwam mij toen ik de pijltjes neerzette om ........... aan te duiden.
Peer comment(s):
neutral writeaway : a bit of oil added to the fire. is your interpretation of what you think it might mean. but it's not at all clear what the person is trying to say.
11 mins
As I see it: this manager was trying to visualize his thoughts. The concrete plans thereby crystalized themselves out of his sketches.
neutral Ken Cox : pure guesswork, rather inventive. and of questionable benefit to the asker\\Perfectly true, and quite possibly the underlying cause of this bit of linguistic confusion.
1 hr
It is a fact well known that the Dutch language and the English language have seemingly common terms that came to have diverging meanings which often tempts Dutch speakers into believing they have the same meaning.
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