The other day I was watching an English movie with Chinese subtitles and found out an interesting word “deal breaker” was mistranslated.
The reason why I say this word “deal breaker” is interesting is because it can be used in various and totally different contexts so that it can be translated in different ways. But it’s hard to find an equivalent word in Chinese. “Deal breaker” cannot be used in the context of a merger/contract/deal between two companies, or in a relationship etc.
I found a good explanation of this word “deal breaker” online: Some aspect of a deal you make with another person (could be anything from a job offer to a relationship) that prevents you from being able to do it. A lot of people translate it into “交易破坏因素”(literally it’s correct), but in my opinion, we may use different Chinese phrases according to its context.
For example, in this movie, a middle-age female told her friends what kind of guy she wants to marry. She said: “hopefully he has some hair on his head, but you know, having no hair is not a deal breaker nowadays.” The second half of this sentence was translated into “不会失约”(won’t stand you up) , which is totally wrong. But even if it is translated into “交易破坏因素”, it sounds awkward in Chinese because in such context we don’t use this phrase “交易破坏因素”.
If I were the translator, I would have translated into “希望他头上还是长了些许头发,不过现如今秃头也不见得就没有机会” or “当然了,如今秃头也不是不可以忍受” or “不秃头也不是我找对象的一个必要条件”
Of course the above translations are not perfect. I feel they are kind of wordy, but I haven’t figured out a simple phrase to match “deal breaker” in this context.
Another context:
After looking at this job offer, I could tolerate the lousy shifts, poor pay and even the job being not great. Having to put up with a two hour drive to and from work every day? Sorry but that’s the deal breaker.
My translation: 看了那份工作合同, 换班、薪水不高、工作本身也不咋地，这些我都还能忍。但是每天上下班都要开两个小时的车？ 对不起，那算了吧。/对不起，这我实在无法接受只能拒绝那份工作。
If you have better translation for this word, please kindly let me know. Thanks!