Some years ago, a client came to us to tell us that our translations were incorrect. I panicked, so we quickly scheduled a call between the client’s reviewer and our lead linguist.

Mistake #1: As the reviewer started calling out mistakes, we quickly realized that they were not mistakes at all and that the client’s reviewer was not only not a native speaker but did not have a good command of grammar.

Mistake #2: We provided our thoughts on proper terminology and grammar, thinking that was our job.

Result: We lost the client.

The Point: While I believe that championing a correct translation in front of a client, can be a thorny move, as a Language Service Professional, sometimes we need to back up and say, “if the client wants to call a pig a frog in French… c’est la vie.”