I know we have translators on the dope. I have always wondered how a translator deals with the following
Simultaneous translation of a speech. I presume they have a copy and have done so already. What about when there is no set speech, say during an interview or a meeting.
Written translations of documents. I suppose formal documents are easier to translate than those with a lot of colloquial terms used?
What about where there is no direct translation, say of a word that does not exist in the language. In Urdu for example, there is no word for cousin, how woukd you handle such a situation?
1 - I’ve only translated informally, and never with a hard copy of what was being said. Imagine you are hearing someone talk to you over the phone and then telling that information to your friend who is sitting in the same room with you. Now switch languages as you go. Not really that hard but it does not require precision. Not like I am translating speeches at the United Nations.
2 - Formal is easier. Much easier. Idioms and colloquialisms can vary locally within the same language.
3 - Rather than use a word-for-word approach you either define the term in the other language (no word for “cousin”, but can explain saying the children of my uncle) or otherwise convey the meaning but lose some precision (extended family members instead of “cousin”)
4 - Idioms. Explain the intent if the idiom does not translate. It frequently does not.
“Nos llevamos como perros y gatos” pretty closely translates as “We get along like dogs and cats” and has the same meaning as its English counterpart
“Y quien pidio el pollo?” literally translates as “And who ordered the chicken?” It is a phrase used to indicate that someone who is complaining somehow got themselves into the situation. A child comes home from school with a bad exam score because he did not study. The mother replies, “Y quien pidio el pollo?” meaning the child only has himself to blame.
Simultaneous interpretation is a very different skill and requires special training to do well. I’m amazed at those who can do it for Japanese and English given how different the sentence structures for those languages are.
Formal documents are usually easier, yes.
Depending on the target audience for the translation, I would either leave it in the original language (possibly with a footnote explaining it), try to find a way to rephrase the term, or skip it (if it’s not particularly important).
Usually try to substitute in a similar idiom from the target language or just rephrase it into normal language.
I think every translator has their own personal philosophy on how faithful they need to stay to the wording of the original text. Some are far more rigid than others. I’m an academic, so try to err on the side of caution, but people who translate things like video games, comics, etc., for popular consumption often just treat the original text as a guideline to follow.
In a nutshell - my ultimate goal as a translator is to make the text seem like it was originally written in the language I’m translating to, while retaining the essence of the source. Usually I do business and financial stuff, so it isn’t that hard; colloquial texts are harder and slower, but ultimately more rewarding.
Just to be clear, translation refers to the written word, and interpretation refers to the spoken word (although people often refer to both as translation, I wanted to make that distinction).
I do simultaneous interpretation between Japanese and English (thanks cckerberos!). There are a few tricks, as it were (I’m referring to interpretation only, not translation):
“Simultaneous” refers to the fact that we are interpreting at the same time as the speaker is speaking–it doesn’t mean we are saying the exact same words at the exact same time. Usually I am anywhere between a half to 1-2 sentences behind the speaker. So while I’m interpreting what I just heard, I am also listening to what’s being said now, if that makes sense.
Another thing that helps is that people give lots of clues as to what they’re going to say–you can often tell, for example, when someone is going to respond “yes, but…” to something you’ve said, right? This gives me hints and helps me prepare my interpretation, as I can see where the person is going. This isn’t 100% infallible, though! :smack:
People repeat themselves quite a bit in the course of normal conversation, sometimes on purpose, sometimes not, and this also gives interpreters breathing room.
As cckerberos mentioned, if the material is academic (I work in medical), the terms are right there, and improv is out of the question.
I would rather chew my own arm off than have to simultaneously interpret a speech that someone is reading. In those cases, we beg/threaten/steal/whatever is necessary to get that damn copy ahead of time. Because when people read a speech, there is usually much less hesitation, repetition and helpful clues as to where they’re going, and so depending on how difficult the speech is, we’ll either write out a translation and then just read along with them, or get the speech contents down cold so we can interpret at a more rapid pace to keep up.
Idioms and jokes are killer, man. Again, we always try to get a meeting with the speaker beforehand, and then we can usually come up with something. Once in awhile things do work, though, even between English and Japanese, and then it’s like the damn heavens open up/angels singing etc. Heh.
I have two things to relate. First is a mathematician I know moderately well who grew up in Detroit to a French Canadian family. He tells me he worked his way through college as a simultaneous interpreter. He once demonstrated his ability. This was at dinner in a restaurant. One of the people there was French speaking (also fluent in English) and we had a conversation, he speaking French and I English with our interpreter giving simultaneous (nearly) translations. It was absolutely amazing. Afterwards, he explained that he hadn’t the faintest idea what either of us had said. He also mentioned that if one of us, say me, he thrown in a French phrase (e.g., I had said “déjà vu”) he would put that phrase into English since he was on total automatic. It was as though he was in some trance state.
My wife was a professional translator, French to English. She claims the ability to translate consists of two skills: good knowledge of the source language and ability to write well in the target language. Her ability in French is good, but she is far from a native speaker. But she is an excellent writer in English. What she did (she is now retired) was to take a French phrase, work out what it meant and then work out the best way to express that in English. Since she was a better writer than many of the people she translated, she sometimes felt that the translation was an improvement over the original. And if she found really poor writing, she would point it out and sometimes get the original changed. It would sometimes happen that after she had produced the translation, she was given a revised version of the original and told to update the translation accordingly. On at least one occasion no change was needed in the translation because she had improved it so much. The Canadian government maintains a database of technical terms (called Termium) that was extremely useful to her. Occasionally, she would have to ask the writer what was meant, but not often.
I can’t answer the OP, but I have a friend who is fluent in 6 languages. In a car with him one day (neither of us driving) and he had a series of phone calls- all in a different language (I guessed when it was English- I’m smart like that).
Anyway, when we had a moment I asked him if in his head he translated everything back to English and retranslated ( or interpreted - thanks Kinki) to the language he was speaking. he said no- it was just natural.
I have a lot of admiration for folks who can do this. (He is an American living in Germany BTW).
To be good translator you need to read, read, read, and read, especially if you’re doin a specific tranlsation so you can get the “hard” words
True, UN-style translation is exhausting if you’re not a professional. You can nver rest and you need to cope with different grammar that makes you stop mid-sentence until the clause is finished. That hard is not to pay attention to what you are saying, becuase it only distracts you.
This is why the tone is very monotonous, computer like. You need to use as little brain as possible to speak so you can use all your “RAM” for the quick tranlsation.
Done a few times, hate it (it pays well, though).
Formal documents can be easier, until you get specific name of things like work titles or law terms. For example in Peru the equivalent of VAT (value-added tax) is IGV (GST, general sales tax, but actually a VAT). This is the kind of thin for which dictionaries are sometimes not that useful
Paraphrase, always.
Idioms requiere extensive knowledge of the language, and then, explain,
Yeah, once you get proficient in a language, you skip using English as an intermediary. It comes quicker for some people that others, and it helps if you grew up with more than one language around you. Especially with languages structured quite differently than English, forcing everything into English first can be an exercise in frustration, but is generally a necessary step at first.
I know one professional UN interpreter (it’s her career) who works in multiple languages (I believe she’s certified in English, French, Polish, Dutch, and Hungarian), and even she says it’s exhausting. IIRC, she said they are given breaks or switch off every 30 minutes or so, generally. (And I found this PDF which agrees, that they are limited to 30 minute stints.)
The really hard (often impossible) thing to translate is puns.
Witness the Asterix comics, which are written originally in French (I think), filled to the gills with puns (including most of the characters’ names) and other word plays, and then translated into several dozen other languages!
Typically, the translators have to just discard all the original puns (and often, much of the surrounding dialog with it) and just invent all-new stuff from scratch.
In theory, yes. In reality, the client may not be aware of the rule, or may not be inclined to put business on hold every thirty minutes to give the interpreter a break, and the interpreter may not be in a strong position to insist on it.
My wife is a qualified interpreter (Japanese-English). One thing she learned very early is not to order any food at dinner time, only water. While the working day (meetings, conference, etc.) is over for everyone else, she is working harder than ever, and there is no opportunity to put a forkful of food in her mouth.
Sure, but I’m talking about the UN (and, actually, it’s EU interpreting in Brussels that my friend does; I misremembered). They’re pretty strict about rules there. My point was that it’s mentally exhausting even if you’re a professional. She says that when she interprets, she typically does not remember the content at all when she is finished.
I haven’t done this kind of interpretation (not quite the same as translation) but I understand that yes, usually if there is a set speech you get a copy in advance. Mind you: having been given a speech doesn’t mean the speaker will follow it to the letter…
This is usually done with the interpreters in cabins, thus “cabin interpreters”.
If it’s small enough, you get “chuchotage interpreters”; it’s the kind of situation where the interpreters shadow the people they’re interpreting for. Depending on the case, the interpreter may be able to ask for clarification (for example, someone interpreting in a doctor/patient situation, or at a customs office) or she may need to wing it.
What’s easier are those documents involving vocabulary you’re familiar with. Many translators get heavy training in legal terms (which I did not) and zero science background beyond compulsory education; for them, a legal document is easier than a scientific one. For me, a scientist, a scientific document is relatively easy and a contract which needs to be translated “to be legally binding” (see below) is noli me tangere.
Well, d’uh, Urdu still has a way to say “cousin”, doesn’t it? So, use that. English doesn’t have a word for concuñado, yet I have talked about “my sister in law’s brother” many times. In Spanish, that guy is my concuñado.
This will depend on the legal and contractual requirements. In Spain, a traducción jurada (lit. sworn translation) is legally required to be as literal as possible; they were defined by people who think in terms of “direct translation” (to use your expression) rather than of meaning-based translation, and defined thinking of legal documents. This leads to some horrible translations when idioms are translated word for word. The general public believes that a traducción jurada means the translator is going to be “extra careful to convey the exact meaning”, but too often the result is the exact opposite. Also, many times the people performing traducción jurada mistakenly believe that “most literal” means “pick the first word provided by the dictionary”, leading to even-more-horrible translations when there is a direct translation but it doesn’t happen to be the first one in the dictionary for that particular case. Example: the first translation and often the only one provided in a dictionary for catarata(s) is waterfall, but in an article about eye medicine the correct term, which is indeed a direct translation, is cataracts.
When there is no such legal requirement, the client should indicate, or the translator ask, how to deal with idioms and other culturally-dependant items. What do I mean for “culturally-dependant items”? See anecdote below.
I once was given a ppt to translate, a presentation on “the importance of being careful with data records”; it came from a factory in the US and the translation was for one in Spain (where I worked). It contained three examples of mis-documentation involving maintenance personnel, all of them men who had been in the company’s employ for over 20 years.
I made two translations and presented both to the factory manager; she sent both to Central with the explanation of why there were two of them, and picked the one I’d hoped she would:
keeping the examples “as is”. This followed the instructions from Central.
keeping the examples but changing the people involved in them, to three people who did not match the description of anybody in the Spanish factory.
Why? Because the presentation was for the whole factory, not only for the maintenance department*; the maintenance department in the Spanish factory had the oldest, most-veteran workers by far, so the original examples looked like finger-pointing. Leaving them in would have sent our maintenance guys into a collective pout from which they wouldn’t have broken in weeks… Thee Shalt Not Piss Off The [del]Healer[/del] Maintenance Guys.
my guess, which I later verified to be true, was that the original had been intended for a factory department where nobody was over that 20-year mark which is so significant in the US** but meaningless in Spain, and where every worker was male.
** in many companies, it’s when you can retire with fulll benefits