2. When Translation Changes the Evidence
- Ann Desseyn
- 6 days ago
- 3 min read
Every auditor who has worked across borders knows that translation is both essential and dangerously easy to trust. We lean on interpreters, bilingual colleagues, AI, translation software and English-speaking staff because the audit must move forward — but very few auditors stop to consider how much precision is lost the moment a technical phrase leaves its original language.
Unquestioned translation is one of the most underestimated risks in global auditing. The conversation feels accurate. The interview flows naturally. The answers make sense. And yet, pieces of meaning quietly shift. Those small adjustments can change the entire trajectory of a finding.
Where Translation Breaks the Audit Trail
In multilingual audits, translation rarely fails in dramatic ways. It fails in quiet, predictable, almost invisible ways:
1. Technical nuance disappears
Many languages don’t map neatly onto ISO terminology. Words like procedure, work instruction, evidence, validated, applicable, authority, or verified have different conceptual boundaries in other languages. A single mistranslated term can shift the conclusion from “compliant” to “noncompliant” — or the reverse.
2. Local substitutes change the meaning
When a concept doesn’t exist in the local context, people often choose the closest term. Not the right one — the familiar one. This creates “interpretation drift,” where the final explanation is technically different from what was originally said.
3. Politeness reshapes negative statements
In many cultures, direct phrasing is considered rude or risky. Translators instinctively soften language:
“We didn’t do it” becomes “We may not have done it consistently.”
“There is no record” becomes “The record might be located elsewhere.”
“This is incorrect” becomes “This could be improved.”
None of these reflect the original statement. But they shape the evidence the auditor records — and therefore the finding.
Why This Matters More Than Auditors Realise
A multilingual audit finding is only as reliable as the least accurate step in its communication chain.
Unquestioned translation can:
weaken the validity of evidence
create disagreements between sites
cause NCRs that don’t match original intent
produce corrective actions based on watered-down language
damage trust between departments and regions
and generate disputes long after the audit closes
Many cross-border audit conflicts can be traced back to nothing more than a mistranslated phrase that no one verified.
Why Standard Audit Methods Aren’t Enough
ISO 19011, IATF guidelines, internal audit manuals — none of them provide safeguards for multilingual communication. They assume auditors and auditees share the same vocabulary and interpretation.
But when you audit across languages, the risk profile is fundamentally different. Translation becomes an operational control point, not a soft skill. And like any control point, it must be verified — not assumed.
What Auditors Should Do Immediately
To strengthen evidence reliability in multilingual environments, auditors should adopt three practices:
1. Verify key terms in writing
Ask for the original wording and the translated version side-by-side. This single step has saved dozens of findings from collapse.
2. Pause when language seems “too smooth”
Fluent conversation does not guarantee accurate transmission. If the phrasing feels unusually polished, something may have been softened.
3. Challenge interpretations respectfully
Not the people — the wording. “Can you show me exactly how that was phrased in your language?” This one sentence prevents entire chains of error.
The Takeaway
Global audits do not fail because people are careless or unskilled. They fail because language shifts in subtle ways that no one notices in the moment. Unquestioned translation sits at the heart of many of those failures.
Once auditors start treating translation as a variable that must be tested — not trusted blindly — the reliability of cross-border audits increases instantly.
Hidden Risk #2 is simple. But it’s powerful. And it’s everywhere.
