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Thursday, April 28, 2005
The Best Of Both Worlds In one of my incarnations, that of a translator, I often encounter a lot of ignorance and misinformation. Every one, of course, has a general idea of what translation is all about, but only few people know the true nature of this wonderful and, at times, tiresome profession. Translating a text from language A into language B is not the same as replacing one word in A with a word in B – even though, this is exactly what a lot of people assume, including buyers of translation services. Translators, in fact, translate meaning and information, and not words. Think of it this way: you listen to a speech (for example, by President Bush on TV), and later, a friend asks you to tell him or her about the speech. Naturally, you will not be able to reproduce the speech word for word; instead, you will concentrate on the information contained in the speech and render it “in your own words.” This, in a nutshell, is how the translation process works. Or, put differently: translation involves the “transmission” of the original text’s message into the target language using the tools (grammar, style, register, vocabulary, terminology, etc.) of such target language. This example also shows that you need to have understood the text first in order to translate it – that is, to put it into your own words in another language. In other words, translating a contract or a technical manual requires a sound knowledge of law or engineering. Knowing a few legal terms in two or more languages will not help you much if you do not know how to string them together in a perfect sentence or paragraph. Relying on a bilingual dictionary is not much help. Dictionaries only give you lists of words, a few phrases and the occasional idiomatic expression. Unfortunately, a lot of people, including “self-anointed” translators, believe that a good dictionary is all they need by way of qualifications. They view translators as “human writing machines” that simply retype the original text in a different language. Translation, in fact, requires years of training and practical experience. Just as not every one is cut out to be a brain surgeon, not every one who speaks two languages is automatically a translator. There are a large number of bilinguals in the U.S., particularly when it comes to Spanish and English, but only a microscopic fraction of these would be qualified to work as translators, because the vast majority of them have never been to translation school. Bilinguals often find it difficult to keep their languages apart – linguists speak of “interference” in this case. People raised on two languages, therefore, require special training to enable them to “compartmentalize” their languages in a way that prevents them from speaking or writing “Spanglish.” For those that aspire to be translators, such specialized training is an absolute must. Another issue that comes up frequently is that of the “native language principle.” Professional ethics require that translators translate only into their native or dominant language – a rule that, sadly, is not taken seriously by every translator out there. Even bilinguals have only one dominant language, which may change throughout life depending on one’s circumstances, surroundings, etc. Whenever possible, they should only translate into such dominant language – although properly trained bilinguals can easily translate into both their languages when they have managed to maintain their two languages at more or less the same level. At the start of this article, I mentioned that this job can sometimes be tiresome. Since a lot of clients consider translators “human writing machines” or “walking dictionaries”, they do not have much respect for the work of translators, which is reflected in the pittance that many clients pay. People offering a mere two or three cents a word of translated text are not rare, even in such high-price countries as the U.S., Canada or most European countries. Keep in mind, though, that a translation professionally done cannot be had for under twelve cents a word or so. Those that agree to work for “peanuts” are usually “translators” who help perpetuate the myth of “walking dictionaries”. In other words, they do literal, word-for-word translations that even a computer could have produced – and often of better quality at that. Professionals do not work like that: they study the original text, understand it, “internalize” it, and then set about translating it. The translation of a thousand words can easily take up an entire working day or two – e.g., in the case of marketing copy, legal contracts or highly specialized technical documents such as patents. There is no such thing as an “easy” text when it comes to translation. This very article would be considered pretty straightforward and non-technical and, therefore, “easy” by most people. But try capturing its style, nuances and so on in another language, and you will quickly understand why no text is deemed easy by professional translators. Werner George Patels blogs at The Calgary Observer. Blogger News Network is advertiser-supported, and your visits to our advertisers help BNN to meet its expenses. Help keep us afloat! posted by BNN Archive at 4:28 PM |
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