Product Label Translation in Indonesia: Mistakes, Quality and Solutions

information and communication both oral and written. The result of translation is a form of written information and communication media for many people. A good and correct translation will provide accurate information about the message delivered. On the contrary, misinformation will mislead readers and be very dangerous and detrimental to many people. In regards to this, we found many grammatical, sentence structure, phrase structure, word choice, and spelling mistakes in the translation of product packaging labels. The translation quality is often inaccurate and unacceptable. This is why we investigate a variety of mistakes, qualities of translation and provide solutions for better packaging label translations. This research used a descriptive qualitative approach with a case study design. We used four documents of soft drink product labels produced in Indonesia. The data were analysed using content analysis referring to the American Translators Association (ATA's Framework for Standardized Mistake Marking). Based on the results of the study it was found that the product label translation had a misunderstanding of original text, mistranslation into the target language, addition or omission mistakes, defection in selecting a term or word choice, too much literal translation and word by word translation, mistakes in grammar, defects in punctuation and mistakes in spelling. It also showed fair quality in content and presentation of text and poor quality in mechanics.