Beginning Translator’s Survival Kit

May 1st, 2005 | Book Review, Translation | No Comments

by Susana Greiss and George Fletcher

Review by Sharlee Merner Bradley

All translators will enjoy and can benefit from this timely contribution to the profession. The 100-plus pages of the Beginning Translator’s Survival Kit are divided into two parts, each written separately by one of the authors, but both in an eminently readable style.

Part One was written by Susana Greiss, M.A., an experienced translator, interpreter, and mentor who was awarded the Gode Medal for her contributions to the profession, and offers recommendations about language combinations, training, mentoring, contacts, job hunting, sources of work, tools, client relations, clients abroad, and more. Part Two was written by George Fletcher, Ed.D., an experienced translator, interpreter, and now translation agency owner, and gives a theoretical overview of types of translation, as well as basics such as time, rates, proofreading, obtaining and maintaining clients, and what not to do. The contrast and balance of the two points of view make for a unique narrative structure and contribute to the benefits of the overall instruction.

Among the more interesting and valuable topics is Fletcher’s advice on translating diplomas and academic transcripts, and Greiss’s recommendations of keeping your old computer as a backup when you buy a new one. It is also handy to have dictionaries and other references open on that computer or a laptop while you are translating on your new one. Other helpful hints include turning on the Verification of Delivery function when you email your invoice, and printing it out for possible future reference; and keeping your cell phone handy when you are away from the office, or calling back frequently for messages so you won’t miss a job offer.

No doubt a second edition is planned, and for that, here are a few suggestions, mainly concerning design and readability. The type on both front and back covers (except for the title) could be made easier to read (and the misspelling of one of the author’s names corrected!); at least one reader has apparently offered to donate a design for a second edition. The cover is nicely scored to open easily, but it would be helpful if the inside pages were made to lie flat; pages in the second half should have the same margins as those in the first half.

The bottom line: If you are an experienced translator, you will enjoy the anecdotes in this extended FAQ. If you are a beginning translator, this handbook will give you essential advice.

Beginning Translator’s Survival Kit by Susana Greiss and George Fletcher.
Globe Language Services, Inc. 2005.
ISBN 0-9631999-3-5.
Available from www.globelanguage.com for $15, postage included.
Net proceeds go to the New York Circle of Translators (NYCT).

Medical Interpreting and Cross-cultural Communication

Feb 1st, 2005 | Book Review, Interpretation, Medical Translation, Reviews, Translation | No Comments

by Claudia V. Angelelli

Review by Miriam Hebé López-Argüello

Interested in exploring the role of the interpreter in a medical setting, researcher Claudia Angelelli conducted an ethnographic research study in a bilingual Northern California hospital between 1999-2001, shadowing and working with a team of medical interpreters. Her research was recently published in her new book Medical Interpreting and Cross-cultural Communication, Cambridge University Press.

Bringing together theories of sociology, social psychology, and linguistic anthropology, the author joins other researchers in challenging the established notion that the interpreter should be invisible, and in asserting that such invisibility, as portrayed in the literature at large and prescribed by professional associations, is a myth. (The citations provided in the referenced fields are particularly extensive, and a great help for researchers).

The concept of visibility that Ms. Angelelli proposes as an alternative to the current model considers interpreters as “ … powerful parties who are capable of altering the outcome of the interaction, for example, by channeling opportunities or facilitating access to information. They are visible co-participants who possess agency.”

To arrive at her conclusions, Ms. Angelelli analyzed typical scenarios of cross-cultural communication mediated by an interpreter. Although the cases she cites offer a good starting point to describe the visible role of the interpreter, she does not address any truly complex scenarios where such visibility might be questionable on ethical grounds (i.e., dilemmas posed by taboos, cultural idiosyncrasies, or other peculiarities within a context exacerbated by extreme pressure). As a medical interpreter myself, I am interested in the question of where one draws this line—a question to which Ms. Angelelli offers no insights.

Medical Interpreting and Cross-cultural Communication makes a valuable contribution to the task of defining the appropriate role for a medical interpreter, a task that behooves all professional interpreters, professional associations, medical institutions, and the government to undertake. In Ms. Angelelli’s own words: “Addressing the visibility of the interpreter is an ideological imperative for the field. Breaking through the ideology of invisibility becomes a political imperative for all.”

The Genius of Language ed. by Wendy Lesser

Dec 1st, 2004 | Book Review | No Comments

By Shayesteh Zarrabi

Being bilingual and living in two cultures shapes the identity of many people in today’s world of easy relocation and communications. The Genius of Language, edited by the Bay Area’s own Wendy Lesser, is a wonderful collection of articles by 15 contemporary bilingual writers, reflecting on their journeys of learning and writing in a second language or culture, or of being born bilingual and bicultural.

The Genius of Language goes far beyond simple comparisons between two languages or cultural mindsets, however. It is a treasure of human feelings and cognitive capacities. The writers share stories of their childhoods and the memories that construct the genius of their literary works, both in English and their other language; in other words, their “Language,” as a faculty of expressions. As Ms. Lesser says in her introduction, “What mattered most to me … was to uncover the sources of writing … behind the acquired layers and get at the inherent nature … the genius of work.”

There are many factors involved as to why a bilingual feels a certain way about the two languages he or she speaks. The essays in The Genius of Language offer a rich account of the events that make a language memorable or a challenge to explore. Certain authors related the biographies of their parents as immigrants, and the impressions they handed down of the languages and cultures in which they spoke and lived. Other early influences—school, books, community, traveling, and settling down in the new environment—are the recurring elements that have combined to cultivate a sense of identity in the writers, and to suggest the subjects of the literary works that eventually followed. In the end, it is revealing to see how the authors “feel” in their different languages, and which language they choose to write in to express those feelings.

As a translator, one finds much to recommend in The Genius of Language. During the course of reading through the stories, a translator will keep asking how the worlds of two languages and cultures are bridged in translation. Am I, as the translator, standing in the middle of the bridge or am I pulling or pushing the other world into or away from the one I am standing on? And really, are they two different worlds or just universal human feelings better expressed in one of the two languages? Isn’t it wonderful to know that bilingual writers wonder the same thing? Wendy Lesser has given us a thought-provoking start in undertaking this exploration.

DICTIONARY REVIEW:
DICCIONARIO DE TÉRMINOS DE COMUNICACIONES Y REDES
DICTIONARY OF NETWORKS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Feb 1st, 2004 | Book Review, Reference, Spanish, Translation | No Comments

Cisco Press, US, and Pearson Educación S.A. in Madrid, © 2003, by Anna N. Schlegel

by Dee Klein Braig, MIL, MBAIB

Dictionaries being such important beings in our lives as translators, when you see a good one it’s easy to simply fall head over heels in love and tell everyone that it is wonderful and to go out and get it forthwith, and move on.

Such was my case after I had received the Diccionario de términos de comunicaciones y redes, by fellow NCTA member Anna Navarro Schlegel, and had dipped into it here and there. However, a formal review calls for analyzing and substantiating one’s feelings, and in doing so, the odd “but if only …” will inevitably materialize. As opposed to people, though, books successfully undergo revision for their next edition and, unlike leopards, actually do readily change their spots.

Anna Navarro Schlegel, born in Spain and educated in Spain, Germany, and England, is a fluent speaker to native level in Spanish, Catalan and English; her husband is German, and she has been fluent in German at least since her Humboldt University days in Berlin. She has brought over a decade of translation and interpretation experience, plus her technical knowledge honed by her time as a program manager at Cisco Systems’ Localization Group, where this dictionary saw its inception, to bear in the creation of this focused and extremely valuable work of reference.

The author’s Dedication and Acknowledgments pages reflect her multilingual, multicultural background in a touching way through her thanks to the various parties who contributed to the dictionary’s genesis, formulated in each contingent’s own language; to her parents in Catalan, to her family in German, to her colleagues at Cisco in English, and to the publishers and editors in Spain, in Spanish.

The Spanish-English and English-Spanish Diccionario de términos de comunicaciones y redes [Dictionary of Networks and Telecommunications] was published earlier this year by Cisco System’s Cisco Press, together with Pearson Educación S.A. in Madrid. It is a handsome and handy volume, with a jaunty graphic image and cleancut physical solidity that are Cisco-reminiscent. For me, the physical attributes of a dictionary are important: how it sits in your hand, how the pages open [and hopefully stay open], the quality and thickness of the paper, the typeface and layout, the white space, the contrast between categories within the entry, the logical organization … and then, of course, the content.

This single volume dictionary comprises 632 pages in a 17 x 24 cm format. It is approximately an inch thick. The paper is thick enough that you *just* don’t see the print showing through from the other side, a feature that becomes more and more important as time goes by and one’s eyesight is apt to experience greater fatigue sooner. The print itself is large enough that the dictionary can be open on the desk by one’s side and not require to be picked up every time a term needs to be looked up. I am happy to report that the weight of the paper is such that the book will remain open at the selected page despite its relatively small format. Entries are laid out fully across the page, separated by thin continuous lines and listed in bold, with the other language equivalent slightly less emphasized.

The work almost resembles an encyclopedia in that it gives definitions and examples as well as translations. The first part, English to Spanish, contains the English term, followed by its full definitions and application examples in Spanish, while the second part, Spanish to English, is organized rather like a cross-reference index, listing only the terms and their translations. Acronyms and abbreviations are recorded in strict alphabetical order. In fact, its educational value is extremely high, and in some ways it approximates the effect of a communications hardware, software and technology crash course. One example will suffice:

“Ethernet” is a word we have all heard, but here is what it actually is: “Especificación LAN de banda base, inventada por Xerox Corporation y desarrollada conjuntamente por Xerox, Intel y Digital Equipment Corporation. Las redes Ethernet utilizan CSMA/CD y funcionan con diversos tipos de cable a 10 Mbps. Ethernet se asemeja a la serie de estándares IEEE 802.3. Véase también Fast Ethernet.” You can then proceed to look up “CSMA/CD” and find it explained in equally abundant detail. An added bonus is that these definitions teach you how to “talk” about the subject, i.e. the vocabulary and turns of phrase used in Spanish in the subject specific discourse.

As a Cisco Systems sponsored publication, many of the references are to Cisco proprietary products or processes, which is useful because, since Cisco has for a long time set the industry standard, such mentions help the bilingual practitioner orient his or her further research by using them as keywords.

Alas, in delving deeper one finds that even one’s darling is not perfect in the cold light of dawn. As a translator who happily doubles as a proofreader and editor, what irks me most are the typographical errors. Evidently the publishers did not see it fit to review the manuscript (can we even call it that in our day and age? Yet Anna assures me that it does not exist in soft version, yet it should; more about that later) in depth prior to going to print.

Thus we gnash our teeth at items like compatability, conmuatción, Automated Attendand Feature (AA), and many others … too many in my view. Given the situation, and if it were within my purview, I would publish some sort of errata card to be included with each volume.

These are errors, and unavoidable. What is more puzzling is why some things were apparently left out while other items of a similar importance or category were included. The most glaring example, in my opinion, is the acronym SSL for Secure Socket Layer (and its varieties), an everyday item on secure sites, and which is probably not completely obvious to every translator who suddenly needs to understand and translate it while recreating, say, consumer information on a banking or online shopping website.

On the other hand, much more complex items such as the various AALs (ATM Adaptation Layers) and also a much more common acronym, FAQ, are listed, translated and explained.

Similarly, Freeware is included, but not Shareware. Also, not all terms are equal, which shows how a lexicologist is not an island: The definition of the abovementioned Automated Attendant Feature (Operadora Automática) is “Dispositivo automático para la marcación directa de las extensiones en una centralita”. But Centralita is not defined [not even for us non-Iberians], nor is an English equivalent given in the relevant section, while right under where it should be, we find Centrex and its equivalent-Centrex.

These examples sent my mind reeling with questions and thoughts and implications and ideas and connections, all in an intercommunicating network.

Obviously a dictionary is a work without end, both intrinsically and, most particularly, in a cutting-edge high tech subject such as communications. So the immediate question is twofold: how to make it better, more complete, more targeted to any one user’s needs (aside from publishing a list of errata), and how to ensure that it can continue to evolve and not become outdated in two or three years’ time, when the Cisco products mentioned have become obsolete and much more in the way of communications will take place over infrared and RF paths?

A potentially ultimate solution is given in the Author’s Profile page, which states that new terms can be added by visiting www.annanschlegel.com. Anna requests that such contributions be made by email to her, with as much detail as possible; this should ensure dynamic growth and survival for the baby.

As regards my puzzlement in connection with apparently missing terms, I would suggest a foreword explaining criteria for inclusion or exclusion, as the case may be; and, of course, adding them as and when it becomes evident that the omission should be remedied.

An appendix listing Cisco Systems specific or proprietary terms would also be useful. In this day and age of fast paced change we become so accustomed to technical buzzwords that it is hard to keep track of whether we may actually be calling a vacuum cleaner a Hoover without noticing. A section of this nature could also fulfill a “historical” function by explaining how a certain concept or product may in the meantime have superseded another included in an earlier definition.

All in all, this work is manna from heaven to the intelligent translator, to him or her who wants to understand what they are translating and who ultimately becomes part of that rarer breed, the linguistic professional who knows enough about the client’s business to be able to point out mistakes of fact in source texts and prevent their potentially catastrophic propagation.

The Diccionario de términos de comunicaciones y redes, ISBN 84-205-3471-4, carries a price tag of 29.95 Euros in Spain and can be obtained www.casadellibro.com searching for Diccionario de terminus, or by its ISBN.

The dictionary will also be available via www.amazon.com in the month of March.

RUINED BY THE TRANSLATION?

Feb 1st, 2004 | Book Review, Italian, Translation | Comments Off

A book review by Sharlee Merner Bradley

Slow Food: The Case for Taste
By Carlo Petrini; translated from the Italian by William McCuaig
Columbia University Press; 157 pages; $24.96
Reviewed by Karola Saekel in the San Francisco Chronicle of Sunday, July 26, 2003

Because few reviewers comment even briefly on the English translation of books from other countries, the following quotation from this article in the San Francisco Chronicle struck me as an instructive piece for teaching translation or for translation editors.

Written in Italian by the founder of the Slow Food movement, an international organization “which champions, among other things, cultural and biodiversity, regional noncorporate food production and ‘quiet material pleasure’- the antithesis of fast food,” this book was negatively reviewed, partly on the basis of the tone and poor organization, partly due to the translation, which merited the following thought on the part of the reviewer:

“Petrini’s pursuit in this book is not advanced by Canadian translator William McCuaig, whose dogged adherence to Italian syntax makes for such convoluted sentences as ‘The decline of imperialism in taste, or rather its revival in the seemingly more democratic form of fast food, made an effort to bring new roles and strategies into being imperative, along with the acceptance of diversity as the principle of unified action for quality in food.’ Pair that with such oddities as the repeated reference to vine dressers (wine growers?), the static terms ‘alimentation’ and ‘alimentary’ and such gaffes as talking of cucumbers being left off Italian McDonald’s burgers (one assumes he means pickles), and you want to fast-forward to far more persuasive books on the subject, such as Eric Schlosser’s eloquent Fast Food Nation.”