Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2014 May 9

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May 9

What's in a name? Translation and proper English use question.

I am having some trouble trying to figure out how to properly transliterate/display a job title, this maybe be a language barrier issue. This is for a Colombian-related article. I am using the Template:Infobox Officeholder, and for the office field I need to include the title of the job. In this case the title in Spanish is Secretario General de la Presidencia, the more literal translation of this is "Secretary-General of the Presidency". According to Wikipedia:Naming conventions (use English), I should use the most used translation/interpretation of this, and the post/office/title is usually translated into English as "president's Chief of Staff", kinda like White House Chief of Staff since thats the American equivalent of the post and follows most of the same duties. That title is actually an ex officio title, since legally he is the "Director" of the Administrative Department of the Presidency of the Republic, but he is never referred to as such in every day speech.

Now that is fine and all, and I can certainly use "president's chief of staff" in the body of the article, but the problem is that, using the template, it is preferred that the title be accompanied by the country or entity it serves, such "White House" in the "White House Chief of Staff", or "Colombia", as in "Minister of Agriculture of Colombia". Given this I am finding it a little difficult to properly translate the title, these are what I have came up with:

• "Colombia's President's Chief of Staff"
• "President of Colombia's Chief of Staff"
• "Chief of Staff of the President of Colombia"
• "General Secretary of the Presidency of Colombia"
• "Secretary-General of the Presidenccy of Colombia

Can someone give me some feedback, what sounds better, what is more grammatically correct, what is ideal? mijotoba (talk) 00:09, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

General Secretary of the Presidency of the Republic, according to the English version of the government of Colombia's website. [1] OttawaAC (talk) 00:48, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

Unfortunately the English version of the website is a translation engine driven mirror site; it is full of translating errors such as "High Counsellor" which should be "High Advisor" since they are in fact political advisors (just of a higher legal standing than regular political advisor). Also the BBC and Reuters prefer using the term Chief of Staff. mijotoba (talk) 01:01, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

I'd go with Colombian General Secretary (unless there are other General Secretaries, not for presidencies). If you must use "Chief of Staff", and there's likewise just one, Colombian Chief of Staff. But that doesn't seem a fair translation, more a way of equating it for English readers. InedibleHulk (talk) 00:15, 10 May 2014 (UTC)