Sep 1st, 2005 | Interpretation, Reports, Sign language | No Comments
By Wassim Nassif
After English and Spanish, the third most-used language in the United States is one that’s not even spoken! It’s American Sign Language, a marvelously robust means of communication. In this article, we explore its history and practice.
American Sign Language (ASL) is just one of over 200 distinct members of the larger worldwide family of signed languages. Developed within local deaf communities—which include deaf or hard-of-hearing people, friends and families of deaf or hard-of-hearing people, interpreters, and linguists—such languages use manual communication instead of sound to convey meaning and express a speaker’s thoughts to others.
While hand gestures are the main component of sign languages, they are not the only ones, as hand shapes and orientation are often combined with the movement of hands, arms, or body, and facial expressions. Indeed, facial features such as eyebrow motion and lip-mouth movements are extremely significant, as they form a crucial part of the grammatical system. In addition, many of these languages use the space surrounding the signer to describe places and persons that are not present.
As with virtually all signed languages, ASL is a robust, visual-spatial means of communication. Used by the deaf community in the United States and English-speaking parts of Canada, it is a linguistically complete, natural language—the “native” language of many deaf men and women, as well as some hearing children born into deaf families.
History
Because sign languages emerge within deaf communities, it is not difficult to see that they tend to be specific to the culture (even that of a small region), and not universal. For example, iconic signs excepted, British Sign Language and American Sign Language are different and mutually unintelligible, even though the hearing people of Britain and America share the same spoken language. Nonetheless, just as there have been attempts to create a universal spoken language (Esperanto being the main variant), so too have there been attempts to create a universal sign language. None of these, however, has taken solid hold.
In spite of this, general principles of non-spoken communication have been laid out, dating back to the sixteenth century, when Geronimo Cardano, an Italian physician, proclaimed that deaf people could be taught to understand written combinations of symbols by associating them with the thing they represented. The manual alphabet was introduced in 1620 by Juan Pablo de Bonet. In 1755 Abbé Charles Michel de l’Épée of Paris created and demonstrated a language of signs whereby each sign would be a symbol that suggested the concept desired. De l’Épée founded the first free school for deaf people where deaf people could develop communication through a system of conventional gestures, hand signs, and fingerspelling.
Another instructor, Samuel Heinicke of Leipzig, Germany, did not use the manual method of communication, but taught speech and speech reading. These two methods (manual and oral) were the forerunners of today’s concept of total communication. Total communication espouses the use of all means of available communication, such as sign language, gesturing, fingerspelling, speech reading, speech, hearing aids, reading, writing, and pictures.
In the U.S., Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, a Congregational minister, became interested in helping Alice Cogswell, his neighbor’s deaf daughter. He traveled to England in 1815 to study that country’s methods of communicating with deaf people. Gallaudet met Abbe Roche Ambroise Sicard, who invited him to study at his school in Paris. After several months Gallaudet returned to the United States with Laurent Clerc, a deaf sign language instructor from the Paris school. (Interestingly, because of Clerc, ASL shares many vocabulary terms with Old French Sign Language). An important milestone in the history of education for deaf people was the founding of Gallaudet College, in Washington, D.C. in 1864, which remains the only liberal arts college for deaf people in the United States and the world.
Grammatical structure
American Sign Language has its own morphology (rules for the creation of words), phonetics (rules for handshapes), and grammar that are very unlike those found in spoken languages. Its extremely distinctive and complex grammatical structure—in which a large part of the vocabulary is composed of words with many morphemes, or small pieces of words with meanings—is more like that found in Japanese or Navajo than in English. In terms of syntax, ASL employs what is known as a topic-comment syntax, while English uses Subject-Object-Verb. As distinct from spoken languages in which there is a single, serial stream of phonemes, ASL (as with other sign languages) reflects multiple communication events at the same time.
Sign language interpreting
It is typically the case that hearing persons who master sign language are children of deaf adults (often referred to as CODAs); such persons are often employed as sign language interpreters, whose function it is to mediate language barriers between people who are deaf and use ASL and people who can hear and speak English.
It should be pointed out, however, that it is neither necessary nor sufficient to be a CODA in order to be a good sign language interpreter. CODAs have an advantage in that they are born within the deaf culture and are thus automatically accepted, whereas a hearing interpreter must create his or her own ties to the community and its culture. On the other hand, because CODAs have (possibly) been interpreting for family members for many years, old habits may be difficult to break and new, professional ethical considerations difficult to learn.
In either case, as with other, spoken languages, much training is required to be an effective interpreter. For sign languages, interpreters must relay as accurately as possible the meaning of the messages being presented, including the nuances of feelings and attitudes conveyed by the participants, whether those messages are in spoken English or ASL or other types of signed communication.
In addition, interpreters must be able to modify their language use to fit the needs of the participants involved in an interpreted situation. For example, interpreters in ASL face particular challenges when multiple participants are speaking at the same time; in heated discussions in which people interrupt or talk over each other; where side comments, puns, and plays on words are used—all of which may be important to the conversation but which may be awkward to translate; and where specialized terms, for which no signs yet exist in sign language, force the interpreter to spend time fingerspelling them and/or explaining them using a longer sequence of signs.
Education and opportunities
Numerous sign language interpreter education programs have been established throughout the country. Most programs require general liberal arts courses as well as courses specifically related to the deaf community and interpreting.
The best of these programs cover a variety of subject areas, including the role of an interpreter, a historical overview of the interpreting profession, public speaking techniques, understanding of and sensitivity to the deaf community, linguistics and language development, the interpreter’s code of ethics, physical factors involved in interpreting, the various specialized situations in which an interpreter might function, and extensive guided practice in the skills involved in interpreting.
Sign language interpreters can qualify for National Interpreter Certification after completing a rigorous testing process that assesses the candidate’s skills, knowledge, and attitudes. The standards for testing are high, and extensive practical experience is often needed before trainees are able to pass. Once certified, qualified interpreters can be employed on either a full-time or part-time basis, salaried or freelance. Income varies, depending on certification level, experience, the interpreting situation, and other factors. Interpreters are needed in educational, medical, legal, recreational, mental health, religious, personal, financial, vocational, and other settings in which hearing, deaf, hard-of-hearing, and deaf-blind communicators need to facilitate the flow of ideas and information.
For members of the general public, who wish merely to learn ASL without the goal of becoming an interpreter, they can find classes at local colleges as well as through the continuing education department of the local school board, vocational rehabilitation office, and other organizations serving deaf, hard-of-hearing, and deaf-blind people.
Resources
More information on American Sign Language, and the deaf community in general, can be found with the following resources:
Sites
ASL Browser site
http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/aslweb/browser.htm
Gallaudet University
http://gspp.gallaudet.edu/
The Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center
http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/
Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf
http://www.rid.org/
Cybersigns Project
http://signserver.univ-lyon2.fr/
Books
American Sign Language: a student text units 10-18. Baker-Shenk, Charlotte and Dennis Cokely. 1991 [1981]. Gallaudet University Press. Washington, DC.
The American sign language phrase book. Fant, Lou. 1994. Contemporary Books. Chicago.
An introduction to the culture of Deaf people in the United States, content notes & reference materials for teachers. Humphries, Tom. 1991.
Sign Language StudiesSign and culture: a reader for students of American Sign Language. Stokoe, William C., ed. 1980. Linstok Press. Silver Spring, Maryland.
Sep 1st, 2005 | Interpretation, Movie Review, Reviews | No Comments
By Tetu Hirai
On April 19th, NCTA members got a rare treat in the form of a special, by-invitation-only screening of Universal Pictures’ release of “The Interpreter,” starring Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn. In conjunction with the development of an article on the making of the movie—written by NCTA member Carolina Arrigoni-Shea and appearing in the May issue of Translorial—the studio generously offered tickets to NCTA members for showings in four cities: San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, and Fresno.
In the film, Silvia Broome (played by Nicole Kidman), is an interpreter who works at the United Nations, and who overhears a plot to assassinate an African head of state. This plan is spoken in a rare dialect that very few people, including Silvia, understand. Silvia then becomes the target of the killers, and her world is changed as her own political background is slowly revealed to her FBI protectors.
For those of us in NCTA who are interpreters, we had the unique opportunity of assessing the movie from the point of view of our own profession. But both interpreter and translator colleagues had much to say, especially pertaining to the credibility of the interpretation done by Nicole Kidman’s character, and to the opportunity the movie offered in making the public more aware of the profession of interpretation.
Some attendees generally felt that Nicole Kidman did a credible job in depicting an interpreter. Sacramento attendee Michel Rousselin, a former United Nations interpreter, said, ‘’I felt that Kidman’s depiction of an interpreter was quite natural and very well done. She was speaking a bit slower at the beginning (as would be expected for a real interpreter) and then she spoke a bit faster as she heard more phrases.”
Others in attendance, including San Jose attendee Andrea Wells and San Francisco attendees Marianne Pripps and Anne Milano Appel, felt that the movie fell short in depicting the interpreter’s life—its demanding skills, fascinating subjects, and extreme stresses—in a way that truly represented the breadth and depth of the profession. Echoing the notion that the film was more of a suspense-thriller than a true examination of an interpreter’s life, San Francisco attendee Anthony Alioto noted that the movie “had little to do with the real activities of a U.N. interpreter.”
Overall, however, most attendees thought it was beneficial for the industry that interpretation was depicted on the big screen at all, and that the public became more aware of the profession. As attendee and Sacramento correspondent Tatyana Neronova said: “I believe that this movie allowed people to see how important our job is, and how careful and professional we should be so that we do a good job.”
We now hope that more opportunities lie ahead.
May 1st, 2005 | Interpretation, Interviews, NCTA Members | No Comments
By Michael Schubert
After working as an interpreter for over 25 years both in Taiwan and in California, NCTA member C.J. Phillips retired at the beginning of this year. Her résumé is a long and distinguished one. She worked as the chief translator and editor at the National Central Library and National Museum of History in Taipei, Taiwan, from 1980-1985, and as a freelance translator and editor before starting work in 1997 as a registered Mandarin interpreter for U.S. District Court in San Jose and for the Santa Clara County Superior Courts. C.J. translated statements made by Democracy Movement leaders following the Tiananmen Massacre for the San Francisco Chronicle in June 1989, and also did work for the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, among others organizations. Visit C.J.’s website, www.cjphillips.com, for more on her amazing career.
While an interpreter, C.J. was an active member of NCTA, as well as the Bay Area Court Interpreters (BACI) and the National Association of Judicial Interpreters and Translators (NAJIT), and is known among her colleagues for her mentoring of younger Chinese interpreters, her presentations at workshops and lectures on interpreter issues, and her work for interpreters’ benefits and rights. C.J. is married to Chinese scholar and author J.H. Huang. They have one daughter, Deborah.
Is your imminent retirement to be a clean break, or do you anticipate still dabbling in translation and/or interpretation?
C.J. Phillips: This should be a clean break from court interpreting, although I still have a few old cases and good clients that will keep me from going completely to pasture. I have some private translation work that will keep me busy, too. This mainly will be translation of classical Chinese works.
What has been the proportion of interpreting to translating over your career, and which activity do you prefer or find more fulfilling?
About 50-50, and I enjoy both types of work very much. From the standpoint of immediate gratification, I got a lot of pleasure out of working as a court interpreter, since I was able to work directly with people. From an intellectual standpoint, translation is wonderful because it gives me time to think about my work and hone it until I’m satisfied with the results. I’ve been very lucky in that I’ve worked in both fields from the very beginning.
I have heard Taiwanese acquaintances say that the simplified written Chinese, dominant on the mainland, is ruining the Chinese language. Do you see it in such stark terms, and do you believe traditional written Chinese can survive whatever eventual reunification there is between China and Taiwan?
I don’t know whether simplification will stand the test of time, but both forms are widely used in the Chinese-speaking world. However, even though government-mandated simplified forms remain the standard in Mainland China, they generally are not understood in the areas that still employ traditional characters. Some of this has to do with politics, but much of this has to do with how a culture evolves. One thing many people forget, though, is that not all the characters were simplified; in fact, only less than ten percent, or around 2,800, so it is only a small fraction.
The Chinese government has a new policy now of “yong jian, ren fan,” meaning that while simplified characters should remain the norm, people should begin to recognize the traditional forms, too. The problem is that while the evolution and sources for traditional script remain very clear, the synthetic creation of the simplified forms cut the language off from its cultural roots. China’s 5,000-year-old history is too closely intertwined with its written language for the traditional forms to be blithely discarded. And the Chinese people I know generally agree with this.
What I’ve found encouraging is that more and more people—particularly the intelligentsia and the young—have returned to traditional script. I’ve even seen everyday people come to the U.S. from Mainland China and start picking up traditional characters so that they can read the paper, watch Chinese television with the subtitles on, and be more a part of the local Chinese community. Of course, the media and the Internet have helped a great deal, too. But I haven’t seen this interest flow in the other direction!
As to which form will last, perhaps the two forms will evolve together into a new form. Who knows? Only time will tell.
I see on your website that you have experience in movie subtitling. Does the recent boom in Chinese martial arts/fantasy cinema represent the kind of Chinese cinema that is also popular in Asia, or are these films directed more toward a Western audience?
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was a hit, as have been films in the same vein such as Hero and House of Flying Daggers. Cross-cultural action movies such as the Matrix series, Shanghai Knights, Tarantino’s films, and so forth have also proved to be big at the box office, but then again, so have all the other big movies we’ve enjoyed here in the U.S.
I imagine you have traveled widely. What are some of your favorite places on Earth?
In no particular order: San Francisco, Chinese Turkestan, Xi’an, Tainan, Beijing, Vancouver, and the Big Apple.
May 1st, 2005 | Essays, Interpretation, Movie Review | No Comments
By Carolina Arrigoni-Shea
Interpreting, as a form of mediating oral communication among diverse language groups, has been with us since ancient times. Yet, its recognition as a profession—and as a field of study per se—is relatively recent. As many of us eagerly await the release of the film The Interpreter, our hopes are that this production will help bring the significance of the profession to the forefront of public awareness.
You are a member of the U.N. Security Council’s elite core of simultaneous interpreters. One day, in the course of your duties, you overhear an assassination plot targeting an African head of state, spoken in a rare dialect few people other than you can understand. As you report the threat to the FBI, you inadvertently become the center of an international crisis, and thus put your own life at risk. The U.S. Secret Service is now charged with your protection but, as events escalate, a dark shadow of suspicion is cast over you, as well. Will a protector who does not fully trust you be able to keep you safe?
Such is the dilemma of the lead character in Universal Pictures’ new film, The Interpreter. A tale of international intrigue, political tension, romance and, yes, interpretation, at the very highest levels of the profession. How did the film come into being? What behind-the-scenes maneuvering was required to get it produced? And how will it play to the uninitiated public?
A bit of history provides some context. The United Nations General Assembly established simultaneous interpreting as a permanent service in November, 1947, following the precedent set by the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg after World War II.
Since that time, the U.N. Interpretation Service has grown considerably, and today, the Chief of the Service sets the course for 120 permanent interpreters and 80 additional freelancers. These linguists are the force behind the six language sections of the United Nations: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish (otherwise known as the “official” U.N. languages).
Hollywood comes calling
When the U.N. linguists learned that a major film production featuring an interpreter as the protagonist would be shot at the organization’s headquarters, they were naturally very excited. “It’s always very interesting and we thought it would put the profession on the map,” commented Brigitte Andréassier-Pearl, Chief of the Interpretation Service at U. N. Headquarters in New York. If the curious and interested reactions of the film crew are any indication, the movie-going audience will certainly be awakened to the magic of the interpreting craft.
For the record: The Interpreter marks the first time a motion picture has ever been granted access to the inner corridors of the United Nations’ historic home in East Manhattan. Yet, initially, director Sydney Pollack was denied authorization to film inside the politically-charged sanctuary—just as others were before him, including Alfred Hitchcock. But Mr. Pollack argued the case before Secretary General Kofi Annan, stating that, although The Interpreter was a fictional thriller, the story was in line with the values of the United Nations. Highlighting the principle of “diplomacy over violence,” the theme of the film certainly carried a strong weight in the final decision. And as an added bonus, Mr. Pollack’s crusade received backing from key players within the U.N. Department of Public Information and the New York Film Offices (at both city and state level).
Filming began in March 2004, and had to follow strict guidelines. “They could only shoot on weekends,” recalled Ms. Andréassier-Pearl. “They would come at 6:00 PM on Fridays, and that went on for about four months … the whole neighborhood was invaded with trailers, trucks and equipment.” Somehow, despite the usual glitz and commotion which befits any true Hollywood production, filming The Interpreter did not disrupt the organization’s regular activities. It was understood that the film could pose no diversion to the Security Council whatsoever. Thus, each Monday morning when the U.N. staff returned to their posts, all was exactly back to normal.
Working with the stars
In her capacity as Chief of the Interpretation Service, Ms. Andréassier-Pearl was the ideal candidate to serve as consultant for the film, although her path up through the ranks was hardly traditional. She had first entered the organization 34 years ago, as a secretary. “I am not the typical case because I was already working in the U.N. before becoming an interpreter,” she said. “As a fringe benefit when you work for the United Nations, you can take language courses during lunch time. I was interested in Chinese and joined the Chinese class. There were a lot of interpreters trying to add languages, official languages, and I met several of them. That’s how I was introduced to the work of the interpreter at the U.N., and I got the idea of becoming one. But as you can imagine, it doesn’t happen overnight.” A few years later, Ms. Andréassier-Pearl joined the French Section staff and eventually went on to lead the unit for three years, prior to her appointment as head of the entire Service.
Given that her own language story is somewhat non-traditional, what is the more typical road to the much desired U.N. booths? Most interpreters come to the U.N. from interpreting schools. With a degree behind their names, interpreters the world over apply for jobs at the United Nations and sit for competitive exams when—or rather “if”—these are offered. “You have to understand one thing,” noted Ms. Andréassier-Pearl. “It is such a good job that nobody quits. There are openings when people retire. So that’s when we organize the examinations.”
As the film’s U.N. interpreting consultant, Ms. Andréassier-Pearl worked directly with Academy Award® winning actress Nicole Kidman. In order to help her prepare for her role, the Chief Interpreter led Ms. Kidman around the hallways of the U.N. Headquarters, showing her the imposing, and familiar, sites of the General Assembly and the Security Council, and accompanying her to the interpreters’ booths. “Everywhere we walked around in the U.N., people turned in awe—like we all do when we see celebrities,” said Ms. Andréassier-Pearl. “I felt like a million dollars when I was taking her around, that’s for sure.”
The actress observed regular U.N. meetings and sessions. She watched the interpreting process closely, and asked questions about the profession that would contribute to the depth of her character. In addition to this, Ms. Kidman worked with a dialect coach to become fluent in the fictitious African language dubbed “Ku” (her mother tongue on the screen), as well as to gain proficiency in French and Spanish.
As for director Sydney Pollack, he is known for his thorough research and desire for authenticity when making films. For this story, he probed to uncover the typically mysterious and anonymous life of an interpreter. “He’s a great professional to work with,” remarked Ms. Andréassier-Pearl.
In fact, a very unique contribution to the film originated from their collaboration. During one of their many conversations, Mr. Pollack inquired “What sort of hobbies do interpreters have? What do they do in their free time?” Ms. Andréassier-Pearl tried to explain to him that it was difficult to speak on behalf of the 100+ people that work at the Interpretation Service, but director Pollack insisted: “For instance, you—what do you do in your free time?” It turns out that the U.N. Chief Interpreter is also an accomplished musician, who belongs to an orchestra, and plays the bassoon. She talked with Mr. Pollack about her hobby and the idea stuck. In the film, he gave the character of the interpreter a musical bent. “Now, in the movie, it’s actually a flute,” explained Ms. Andréassier-Pearl. She wonders whether Nicole Kidman will appear playing music only briefly, but regardless of how long that shot lasts, she is pleased that her “hobby” made it into the film.
Into the public’s mind
Going beyond the realm of cinematography, what is the general public’s perception of U.N. interpreters, and the interpreting profession as a whole? In the words of Brigitte Andréassier-Pearl: “When we first started, everybody was in awe of the profession, wondering ‘How can this be done? Somebody is speaking a given language and the interpreters are rendering in another language at the same time—simultaneously—what is being said.’”
In all likelihood, the release of The Interpreter will contribute to a stronger, more widespread awareness of the highly demanding and specialized nature of interpreting. Already, the publicity leading to the event has generated much interest in this not-so-publicized calling. For sure, director Pollack promises to keep us on the edge of our seats because “In the right hallway, at the right time, all it takes is a whisper to tip the balance of power.”
Production Notes
The Interpreter
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Sean Penn, Catherine Keener; Directed by: Sydney Pollack; Universal Pictures; nationwide release April 22, 2005
Locations for the first film ever to be shot inside the U.N. Headquarters include the General Assembly and the Security Council, as well as corridors and hallways of the complex.
Alternative options in case authorization was denied included building a replica of the U.N. General Assembly in Toronto, using miniatures and resorting to computer-generated images.
Original U.N. rooms and furnishings were used in most cases, except for the actual interpreting booths, which were too small and cramped to allow for reverse camera angles. They had to be recreated on a soundstage.
Kidman’s character, and that of the threatened head of state, hail from an entirely fictitious African country named “Matobo.” Likewise, this nation’s language, dubbed “Ku,” is an imaginary tongue developed by linguists—a cross between Swahili and Shone.
The distinction “interpreter” vs. “translator” became an inside joke between the U.N. Chief Interpreter and director Pollack. Almost automatically, his typical utterance “you translators” would be followed by an, “oops, interpreters.”
Filming at the U.N. took place only after hours, on weekends.
Each member of the production—from the stars to the grips—was required to wear ID badges and go through security screening every day. Equipment was regularly inspected by bomb-sniffing dogs.
Some of the extras in the film are actual U.N. staff members.
Special thanks to Brigitte Andréassier-Pearl for her generous time; Universal Studios Publicist Tim Black for his timely assistance; and to the many NCTA interpreters who shared their valuable insights into the profession.
Feb 1st, 2005 | ATA, Conferences, Interpretation, NCTA Info, NCTA Meetings, Reports, Translation | No Comments
By Naomi Baer
It’s been a busy fall for NCTA, and several presentations on various members’ activities were given at the General Meeting in December. Tetu Hirai, Merav Rozenblum, and Celine Detraz all reported on their experiences at the ATA Conference held in Toronto in October, passing along highlights from presentations they attended and describing how they focused their time at the conference.
Tetu found that networking with other translators and agencies was especially useful to him, as was as a talk entitled “Digital Voice Recorder-Assisted Consecutive Interpretation,” in which a new technology was introduced that uses interpreter-controlled recording and playback devices to allow interpreters to free themselves from note-taking, and thus interpret simultaneously from their recording.
Céline had also attended this talk, and told us that she found it helpful to be exposed to new technologies in the industry. As a second-time attendee at the conference, she felt that she was better able to focus on the events that would be specific to her current needs. A highlight for her was being able to connect with colleagues and re-connect with the translation community after having been less involved after the birth of her child. She was particularly happy to have increased contact with NCTA, through other members attending the conference, and found that the conference was motivational for her both in her work and in her desire to be more active in the translation community.
A couple of other sessions as well stood out for Celine: “Internet Privacy for the Small or Home Office Environment,” where resources for addressing spam and spyware were discussed (see http://www.jill-sommer.com/en/presentation2.htm for details), and the session, “Self-Assessment and Quality in Simultaneous Interpreting.”
Merav, as a third-time conference attendee, also found it easier to focus her participation on those sessions of specific interest to her, and particularly enjoyed meeting colleagues and giving her own workshop on the Hebrew language. Other highlights for her were Peter Less’s talk on his experiences as an interpreter at the Nuremberg trials after WWII (read more in the ATA Chronicle’s September issue), the Literary Translation Division Café, and a talk by the first publisher of a Spanglish dictionary.
In local news, Michael Metzger reported on NCTA’s recent participation in the Localization World Conference in San Francisco, where workshops were given by Tuomas Kostiainen and Jost Zetzsche, and a panel presentation included participation by Sabine Hathaway and Christopher Niedermair. An NCTA table was maintained throughout the conference, where potential translation clients could stop by to learn about our organization and referral database, as well as pick up material from the ATA on how to go about getting high quality translations.
One of the biggest changes for NCTA this year has been our new website, and Laura Blijleven-Bergmans showed us how to use some of the site’s main features, including online renewals, updates of translator profiles, workshop registration, translator searches, and accessing the Translorial archive.
The meeting wrapped up with a chance to network as everyone helped with the end-of-year mailing, including ballots and candidate statements for the February 2005 election, along with renewal notices.
Feb 1st, 2005 | Chinese, Interpretation, Interviews, Localization | No Comments
By Anna Schlegel
Kaimeng Huang is a Senior Program Manager at Adobe Systems Inc. in San Jose, where she manages the enterprise-level internationalization and localization program of Adobe’s Intelligent Document Business Unit – the developer of Adobe’s flagship product, Adobe Acrobat. A native of the People’s Republic of China, Kaimeng speaks Mandarin and English and is a United Nations-certified conference interpreter.
Where did you grow up? How did your background influence you to enter the field of language and translation?
KAIMENG HUANG: I grew up in Beijing, China. In this wonderfully aesthetic and symmetric city which has been the cultural and political center of China for over 500 years, I acquired all my formal education from kindergarten to university. My father is a nuclear physicist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and an editor-in-chief with the Standards Press of China; my mother is a physician with a local hospital. Both learned Russian in college.
Because of my father’s passion for foreign languages, I started to learn Japanese and English when I was about five years old. Since China was closed to the rest of the world in the early 1970s, I got my first Japanese and English lessons from listening to the radio. I began to take language more seriously when I entered Beijing University in 1988.
In 1992, I applied for the United Nations-sponsored Training Program for Translators and Interpreters at Beijing Foreign Studies University, and received my Master’s in Translation and Interpretation the following year. As one of the first dozen professional conference interpreters in China, I took on an extensive range of assignments, working as an interpreter for many world leaders visiting China, as well as for international organizations including political, economic, and educational institutions. This eye-opening experience made me believe in the need for communication and understanding among different cultures, countries, and peoples.
How did you get started in the globalization business?
By accident. In 1995, I applied for and was awarded the prestigious Stilwell Scholarship at the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS). The timing couldn’t have made a bigger difference in my choice of a career and life, as when I received my Master’s from MIIS in May, 1997, Silicon Valley was just booming, and the MIIS campus was swamped with IT companies looking for new graduates to fill an explosion of openings. Within a month, I got four offers because of my business, technical, and language degrees although I knew almost nothing about working for American companies! I even declined an offer from a San Diego company called Qualcomm because I thought it was too “far away.”
I took an offer with Adaptec Inc., of Milpitas, as localization coordinator, and six months later, through the referral of a fellow alumni, I joined Adobe Systems. Little did I know then what a tremendously rich and rewarding experience working for Adobe would mean to me over the next seven years; and that I would be going through so many ups and downs as the IT industry went from boom to bust, and from depression to recovery again.
What type of translation and localization agencies do you look for and like to work with in your projects?
Because of my passion for language, technology, and culture, I like to work with agencies that share this passion and are willing to invest in tools and processes; with knowledgeable people who know how to strike a balance between these influences and deliver a high-quality localized product. Companies that neglect to capitalize on the emerging global potential will be blindsided, while those who find ways around obstacles and prepare for next stages will win out.
Can you describe what is happening in China as far as the translation business goes?
The translation business is going through a transition in China, becoming more integrated with the rest of the world as China strives to maintain its extremely strong, 8% economic growth over the past two decades. In spite of this, most locally based translation companies are either workshops that are outgrowths of the publishing business or small-scale software companies. Despite the enormous talent pool and low labor cost, they lack process maturity, professional human capital, and cross-disciplinary expertise, as well as exposure to international communication. The more promising ones are those that have been injected with foreign capital, with direct links to U.S. software clients, as well as to vertical industry domain knowledge.
Corporations have a CEO, and CFO; would you like to see a CGO (Chief Globalization Officer?)
Sure, why not? The CGO should be the one to define globalization’s full potential for his company. To realize it, organizational change is required. The bottom line is, globalization should be part of any company’s corporate strategy if it is to become a truly global company.
Feb 1st, 2005 | ATA, Interpretation, Outreach, Reports, Translation | No Comments
By Amanda Ennis and Lillian Clementi
In schools all over the United States, teachers are actively discouraging their students from studying foreign languages because “there aren’t any jobs besides teaching”- and this at a time when language capabilities are more critical to our national security and economic success than ever before. Some educators are so unfamiliar with our profession that they don’t even know the difference between translation and interpreting.
ATA is already working actively to change that. Along with the flashy press coverage the Public Relations Committee has garnered in its efforts to educate the public about translation and interpreting, there is another equally important side to the campaign – one that hums along quietly, often under the radar and away from the glare of the cameras. In 2003, ATA added a school outreach resource center to its website and began urging individual translators and interpreters to use the ready-made, age-appropriate materials now available online at http://www.atanet.org/ata_school/welcome.htm.
In the ten weeks following its debut, the school outreach page had over 8,000 hits. And in 2004, some 6,000 unique visitors have come to the site. From Surrey, UK to Sacramento, CA, translators and interpreters just like you are educating the next generation of language professionals – and the next generation of clients – in classrooms from grade school to graduate school. ATA is now actively recruiting volunteers to speak at schools in your area and to help coordinate the school outreach effort through a national speakers bureau.
And that’s not all. To encourage you to get your feet wet and see how much fun school outreach can be, ATA has launched a school outreach contest, with free registration for the 2005 ATA Annual Conference in Seattle, Washington, going to the winner. To enter, just have someone take a picture of you making a school outreach presentation at your local school or university and send it to the ATA Public Relations Committee at khendzel@asetquality.com (subject line: School Outreach Contest) or at 225 Reinekers Lane, Suite 590, Alexandria, VA 22314. Please include your name and contact information, the date, the school’s name and location, and a brief description of the class. The best photograph will win free registration to the 2005 Annual Conference in Seattle. The deadline for submissions is July 15, 2005, and the winner will be contacted by August 15, 2005. Any member of ATA or of any ATA-affiliated organization is eligible to enter.
We have made enormous strides, but there’s an enormous amount of work still to be done. It’s high time we got serious about this. The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is right now. Join us.
How To
Preparing and delivering an effective school outreach presentation can take as little as three or four hours, and one presentation a year is plenty.
Speakers bureau coordinators will essentially serve as relay points for requests from headquarters and need to commit only an hour or two per month. If you’re interested in volunteering or would like more information, please contact Lillian Clementi (lillian@lingualegal.com) or Amanda Ennis (germantoenglish@earthlink.net).
Feb 1st, 2005 | Essays, Interpretation, Opinion, Translation | No Comments
By Marianne Pripps-Huertas
What is interculturalism? As globalization moves to the fore as one of the most powerful socio-economic influences of the new century, communication and understanding across cultures become ever more important. Are our well-practiced services of translation and interpretation enough to help the peoples of a shrinking world understand each other? In this article, NCTA member and interculturalism expert Marianne Pripps-Huertas sheds light on this emerging field.
When I first discovered the world of intercultural communication back in 1986, it confirmed for me many of the ideas I had had for several years, especially after arriving at Stanford University, where I did my Master’s thesis in Applied Communication Research. At the time, I went through a difficult, and unexpected, period of culture shock: professors didn’t look out for their students; teaching assistants taught most of the classes; and, with the exception of a fellow student named Shining Chen, from Taiwan (to whom I shall always remain grateful for her constant help), students wouldn’t share their notes or provide assistance to their peers because of competition – all of which was completely unheard of, and even unacceptable, in my country.
Origins and practices
What is intercultural communication? What defines interculturalism? And more to the point, what role does it play in the life of a translator/interpreter? Noted anthropologist Dr. Edward T. Hall was the first to define the field and provided solid scholarship. Culture as such is now defined in several (and hotly contested) ways, but one of the simplest and most straightforward is the traditions, customs, norms, beliefs, values, and thought-patterning passed down from generation to generation. Communication is an element of culture. Godwin C. Chu observed that every cultural pattern and every single act of social behavior involves communication. Thus, to be understood, both concepts must be studied together. Intercultural communication generally refers to face-to-face interactions among people of diverse cultures, a slightly different concept from cross-cultural communication, which refers to comparing phenomena across cultures.
Consider the following exchange, excerpted from a court transcript:
Magistrate: Can you read and write?
Defendant: Yes.
Magistrate: Can you sign your name?
Defendant: Yes.
Magistrate: Did you say you cannot read?
Defendant: Hm.
Magistrate: Can you read or not?!
Defendant: No.
Magistrate: [Reads statement.] Do you recall making that statement?
Defendant: Yes.
As a court interpreter, I encounter similar exchanges frequently. Yet my duties as an interpreter forbid me to intervene to help clear things up. It would be in my role as an interculturalist that I could help unravel this obvious miscommunication. Permission to do so depends on the relationships the interpreter has developed with the parties involved. Personally, I have a very good and longstanding relationship with the judges, attorneys (on both sides of the equation), and others at my courthouse. They have understood and supported my intervention as a cultural specialist when they have recognized that there was an obvious issue. Indeed, many experts now believe that the traditional interpreter or translator role will give way to one where the professional in both fields will become a cultural mediator.
Beyond such courtroom intervention, what does an interculturalist do, exactly? On any given day, interculturalists may train a group of businesspeople on the finer points of a country’s business practices. Or help a businessperson and his family with the social issues involved with re-entering their native culture after a long sojourn abroad. Some interculturalists like myself do research on different aspects of culture. In my case, I’m interested in acting and media, and also the development of cooking. Yet, we might be teaching students who will be going abroad, or taking Rotarians on a virtual cultural tour of a country they will visit with the organization.
In many ways the saying “know thyself” is not well said. It is more practical to say “know other people!”
-Menander, Greek poet (343-292 B.C.)
Skills for the global community
Interculturalism as a field has been growing, most especially with the advent of globalization, as companies recognize the need to understand the cultures in which they do business. An example of this is the creation of Global Teams, a collection of specialists who work together virtually to resolve specific problems within a company. One of the first institutions to hire interculturalists was the U.S. Army, after it started opening up bases all over the world and needed to assess readiness to serve overseas. Today, many different types of companies, institutions, and individuals have a need for intercultural expertise.
Although it may at first seem counterintuitive, this expertise doesn’t necessarily involve language all the time. A question we’re asked often, in fact, is whether a monolingual person who’s never lived abroad can be an intercultural expert. My answer is always a resounding “Absolutely!” I work with quite a few trainers who are monolingual and excellent interculturalists because they share specific skills or traits that are necessary to perform competent training and intercultural work. These include the acceptance and respect of differences, an open-mindedness to new ideas, and the ability to listen carefully.
Dr. Fred Jandt, a researcher in intercultural issues, notes that good intercultural communicators have personality strength, communication skills (verbal and nonverbal), psychological adjustment, and cultural awareness?not all of which, obviously, automatically come with being bi-or multilingual. The mere fact of speaking more than one language, or having lived in another country, in and of itself does not make us instant cultural experts. Even though I grew up bilingual and bicultural, I had to acquire and practice some of these traits, just as I had to learn translation and interpreting skills that did not come easily. In fact, I know of interpreter colleagues who possess none of these traits and would not make good interculturalists. As unique aspects of each culture are reflected through its language, the translator/interpreter is well served if he can leverage these aspects – indeed if he can apply the very principles of interculturalism – to help in his work of the accurate transmission of thoughts and ideas.
Schools and programs
How can a translator/interpreter become an interculturalist? While, as noted above, such expertise is not automatic, what we do have is the base on which to build, and the way to achieve such expertise is through training. There are several places in the USA and Canada that offer training in intercultural work. I have personally done extensive training for several years at the Intercultural Communication Institute, located in Portland, Oregon. ICI conducts one-, two-, and three-week intensive training courses during the summer, led by leaders in the field at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon. ICI also offers three distinct certifications and a Master’s program with The University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. At present, I’m working on two new face-to-face seminars for interpreters and translators which will be submitted to the Judicial Council of California and ATA for continuing education credit. I also plan to establish a website from which I will offer online seminars for the benefit of colleagues who are unable to attend live seminars. This information will be available through the associations.
In addition, the Society for Intercultural Education, Training & Research (SIETAR), to which I belong, promotes and facilitates intercultural learning and work through professional interchange. SIETAR-USA is a membership organization for people from many cultural and professional backgrounds, who work within many environments and professions, including business and industry, consulting, training, K-12 and higher education, counseling, and all aspects of the media and arts, to name a few.
Regarding compensation, I can say only that one shouldn’t expect to become wealthy by doing intercultural work. As with translation and interpreting, the best-trained practitioners don’t necessarily work all the time or receive excellent compensation. However, a trained interculturalist/interpreter/translator who can market his skills successfully will get work and even have a niche that others don’t serve.
Interculturalism is an opportunity for translators and interpreters to go beyond our traditional framework. Gaining intercultural competence is something that I strive for every day; I hope that each year and every new encounter will get me there. In the meantime, I enjoy the ride.
Resources
Books on interculturalism:
- Hall, Edward T. (1959) The Silent Language Greenwich, CT: Fawcett.
- Jandt, Fred E. (1998) Intercultural Communication: An Introduction (Second Ed.) Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
- Katan, David (1999) Translating Cultures, An Introduction for Translators, Interpreters and Mediators. Manchester, England; St Jerome Publishing.
Many books, monographs, and other resources may be obtained through:
The author gratefully acknowledges the work of Dr. Fred E. Jandt and Professor David Katan as source and inspiration for parts of this article.
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.”
Dec 1st, 2004 | Conferences, Event Interpretation, Interpretation | No Comments
By Martin Hoffman
As a professional interpreter, you may find yourself working in the finely outfitted booth of a prestigious conference center or in the rough-and-tumble atmosphere of an emergency room. Somewhere in between lies the experience of Babels, the global network of volunteer translators and interpreters for the World Social Forum. In July of this year, it was in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, nestled high in the Andes, that these volunteers congregated to offer their services.
This past summer, an intriguing message was forwarded to the NCTA’s e-mail list. Its header was “Volunteer interpreters needed in Ecuador.” It went on to explain that Babels had been asked to cover the needs in simultaneous interpretation at the ASF (Americas Social Forum) for Spanish, Quechua, Portuguese, English, and French—all official languages of the pan-American Forum. I followed the instructions for signing up as a French-English interpreter. Six weeks later, I was on a plane bound for Quito!
My travel companions were Leda Beck, a Bay Area-based Babels coordinator who is originally from Brazil, and Mateo Rutherford, a freelance Spanish interpreter who lives in Berkeley. They were both veterans of previous WSF events, and during the long plane ride they filled me in on what to expect.
The only events scheduled for our first two days in Quito were an interpreter orientation and the opening ceremonies. We therefore had plenty of opportunities to visit Ecuador’s capital city, which was founded in a high narrow valley on the slopes of Pichincha volcano in the 16th century, and which is today a UNESCO world-heritage site.
There were about 60 interpreters at the orientation, which was held mostly in Spanish, with occasional asides in Portuguese, French, and English. Among the many interesting things I learned was the fact that half the interpreters at this Forum were non-professionals (mostly students). The plan was to pair professionals with non-professionals in the interpreting booths. The philosophy of Babels, an avowedly “non-hierarchical” organization, is that everyone should have the opportunity to participate, share, and learn.
The color of celebration
The next morning, Mateo and I went to the Plaza de San Francisco in the city’s historic quarter for the opening ceremonies. Combining elements of both a carnival and a protest, the event might be best described as “defiantly festive.” There were at least a thousand people in attendance, and two stages. On the main stage participants gave speeches, alternating with musical performances, including Quechuan drummers, a local hard rock band featuring Andean pan-pipe players, and an African-American civil-rights activist who sang “¡El pueblo UNIDO jamás sera VENCIDO!” (“The people UNITED will never be DIVIDED!”) to a gospel melody, with an endearingly thick American accent. On the other stage, a small group of Indian women in traditional garb were chanting and burning sage.
The crowd itself was quite diverse: a mix of locals and foreigners, ASF activists, hippies, real-life communists bearing red flags and distributing Marxists pamphlets, intellectuals with wire-rimmed glasses debating globalization, little boys looking at my scuffed shoes with avid disapproval and asking me “Shoeshine?,” tattooed punk rockers, banner-waving union members, voluble Brazilians wearing giant multicolored Afro wigs, and some folks wrapped in rainbow flags who were either gay-rights activists or indigenous-rights activists (in the Andes, both groups have laid claim to the same flag).
A new perspective
The next morning I went to the Babels office to get my interpreting schedule. I was bemused to discover that I had been assigned only to Spanish-English booths for the duration of the Forum. I reminded the coordinator (an otherwise charming volunteer from Argentina) that I only interpret between French and English, and have never interpreted Spanish (I only translate it) and she said, “Oh, don’t worry about that. We’ve already assigned all the events that have French presenters, but since you understand Spanish, I’m sure you’ll do just fine.”
Not being quite as confident as she was, I nonetheless went off to my first assignment. The panel topic was “Human Rights: Pathways and New Perspectives,” with speakers from Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, and Suriname. I was as nervous as I was the first time I had interpreted French, some eight years earlier. But it could have been worse. For example, some poor interpreter got stuck with “The Democratization of New Technology: Laser Odontology as a Tool for Improving People’s Quality of Life.” I figured that in a worst-case scenario, if I didn’t understand what the speaker was saying, I could just tune my FM radio to catch interpreting from one of my French colleagues and work with that. Or, maybe I’d get lucky and one of the local radio stations would up the wattage and drown us all out with the latest Ricky Martin single.
Somehow I managed to stay afloat in the Spanish-to-English booth. That is, when there was a booth. At the first event where I interpreted, there was no equipment, so my interpreting partner and I had to do whisper interpreting, sitting at the back of the hall with a crowd of English speakers sitting around us, leaning in to hear. Whisper interpreting leaves much to be desired, because without a direct feed into headphones, when you are speaking you can hardly hear what the presenter is saying. It didn’t help that a woman with a chatty, squirming little boy decided to sit right next to me!
Of war stories and peace
In spite of these distractions, when I was done, one of the people for whom I was interpreting told me I did an excellent job, which felt good, even if that particular morning it wasn’t true! But during the following days I also got positive feedback from my colleagues, most of whom were very talented and accomplished interpreters and who were sympathetic to the fact that I was a novice in the Spanish booth. It turns out that they had “war stories” of their own!
A number of other social, political and economic themes were discussed during the conference (see http://www.forosocialamericas.org/ejes_en.php). The other seminars and panels at which I interpreted were entitled “Demilitarization and Peace Proposals,” “The FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) and FTAs (Free Trade Agreements): The Crucial Moment for the Peoples of the Americas,” “Integration Alternatives for the Peoples of the Americas,” and “Free Trade: Resistance and Proposals.” I also had the honor of being among those chosen to interpret at the closing ceremonies, which featured some inspiring speeches and dazzling performances by local musicians and dance troupes.
Despite the organizational problems that I’ve mentioned, I was nonetheless impressed by the hard work of the Babels team (or “Babelit@s” as we call ourselves), who are all volunteers and are primarily involved with the World Social Forum through a desire to further social justice in the world. There was a real sense of esprit de corps among the interpreters, all of whom were warm, friendly, good-natured people.
A growing experience
Volunteering for Babels is an excellent way for beginning interpreters to gain experience in a supportive and non-judgmental environment, where skills certainly do count, but so does the fact that you’re simply trying your best. It is also a wonderful way for seasoned interpreters to participate in a worthy cause, while providing guidance to interpreters-in-training. I was inspired by the examples of the people around me, and by my own unexpected ability to perform adequately as a Spanish-to-English interpreter. Although I have been working towards being able to interpret Spanish for a number of years, had I not been given this opportunity, I think I would have waited another year or two before even attempting it. Granted, I still have a tremendous amount of progress to make, but for the first time I feel confident enough to volunteer my services locally, doing community interpreting between Spanish and English.
In the end, my Quito experience was a valuable one, and I made some real friends while I was there. I’m looking forward to meeting up with them in January 2005 for the next WSF, in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Volunteer interpreters (and translators as well) are still being recruited for this event, as well as for the Mediterranean Social Forum, to be held next summer in Barcelona (see below).
Building Bridges
Babels is the non-profit global network that provides volunteer translation and interpreting services for the World Social Forum. The WSF is an open meeting place where groups and movements engaged in building a civil, global society centered on the human person, come together to pursue their thinking, debate ideas democratically, formulate proposals, share experiences freely, and network for effective action. For more information about the WSF, visit www. worldsocialforum.org. If you think you might be interested in volunteering to be a Babels translator, interpreter, or coordinator, visit the Babels website at www.babels.org, where you can find more information on the group, and on registering for upcoming events.
May 1st, 2000 | Interpretation, Interviews, NCTA Members, Translation | No Comments
by Miriam Mustain
When I first met Sharlee at an NCTA meeting in San Francisco, it was obvious that she was a remarkable woman. She is so soft-spoken and unassuming that it can be difficult to realize the impact that she has had on the NCTA. I had read the December 1999 issue of Translorial (her last as editor) and had been very much impressed by the professionalism that it conveyed. The few words we exchanged made me want to know more about this dedicated and vivacious person. Sharlee graciously answered my simple questions with the following fascinating responses.-MM
Q. How did you acquire your foreign languages?
My parents encouraged their children to study French as the language of culture, which is now an old-fashioned view. I started with the first course offered, French in the eighth grade. Latin was not given until the ninth grade. That made five years of French and four of Latin before college.
During World War II when the United Nations Charter was signed in San Francisco, my mother suggested how wonderful it would be to interpret for them, but that was never my goal. I fell in love with the written word and, from the beginning, played at translating whatever literature we studied in school and anything else that interested me.
College gave me one more year of Latin, and French forever. I had French courses every year until I received my doctorate at age 34. In the meantime I had been required to study German and another Romance language, which I chose to be Italian. My very first paid translation job, offered to me by my professor, was a translation of an insurance survey into (!) Italian. I immediately ran out and bought myself a gold bracelet with the proceeds in honor of the occasion.
After I had been teaching high-school French for several years, a Fulbright scholarship sent me to France to study at the Sorbonne. That period and a two-year residence in Lausanne, where my husband’s work had taken us, were my only experiences in French-speaking countries.
One day in Lausanne I received a phone call from the United Nations in Geneva, saying they had my name from the UN in New York (where my doctoral advisor had sent me to take the UN exam for French). It was the era of the Kennedy Round trade talks under the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade), and Geneva needed more translators. The fascinating subject they assigned me was standardization of pallets!
I never formally studied Spanish, which has turned out to be my dominant spoken foreign language, but when I was living in the Canary Islands I did grammar exercises in Spanish school books and corrected them myself. I arrogantly considered myself an expert on Romance grammar, partly from teaching French for five years at the high-school level and two at the university level. As a mother with a small child, I spent baby-sitting hours memorizing irregular verbs and repeating to myself conversations I would overhear in social situations.
How we got to the Canaries is a long story in itself. In brief, my husband, departed from this world while we were there, wished to retire at a relatively young age. With very little money we researched in the local library where in the world to go for a good climate, an easy language to learn, and a low cost of living. Lo and behold, there was a book called You Can Live Cheaply in the Canaries. That convinced us, and off we went, with a new-born babe, our car and all our books and furniture, sight unseen to spend the rest of our lives there – that was the plan.
The thirteen years spent in Spain overlaid, for a time, the twenty-one years I had spent studying French and even made inroads into my English; but now, years later, l can work equally well translating from either language.
Q. Where did you earn your PhD?
The short answer is at the University of Pennsylvania, which in spite of its name is a private, Ivy League college and not part of the state university system as one might expect.
My doctorate is in Romance Languages. Because my advisor was writing a dictionary at the time (the then highly regarded University of Chicago’s Spanish English dictionary), I wrote my dissertation on problems of lexicography in monolingual French dictionaries, carefully comparing Littré, Larousse and Dauzat. The lessons of Professor Edwin Williams have stood me in good stead throughout my career, leading me to the ATA’s Dictionary Review Committee, on which I have served since shortly after I became a member, around 1985.
I probably would not have a doctorate if the U of P had accepted my University of California credits for the Master’s degree. It is hard to believe, but true, that Penn would not accept the graduate courses I had taken at night at Berkeley while teaching high-school French during the day. The direction of my life changed when I learned that those same units could be credited towards a doctorate if I cared to pursue it!
The second unbelievable quirk in graduate studies at Penn was their policy that all graduate courses had to be taught in English. When we had a visiting professor from France whose accent in English made his lectures on linguistics nearly incomprehensible, we petitioned the department to allow him to speak French. Petition denied!
Q. Have you traveled outside the United States?
Yes. It you count it, I was born in Toronto, but our family moved to the Bay Area (the company my father worked for expanded to the West Coast) when I was ten, the first of several long cross-continental train trips. (l commuted to Vassar as an undergraduate.)
My travels have been mostly in Europe: once to Russia (a boat cruise across from St. Petersburg, across Lake Ladoga, up the Svir River to Lake Onega), once to China (a five-week trip) and once to the South Pacific (for a two month’s stay in Raratonga). I’ve also made several trips to Mexico.
Last year I learned a few words of Turkish while touring Istanbul, Cappadocia and sailing and hiking the southern coast of Turkey.
This year I have earned enough to go to France and England. We’ll stay in a friend’s house near Toulon and then visit some literary sites in the south and southwest of England.
Q. How did you get into the translation business?
My first translation job was through my Italian professor. While I was a professor at the University of La Laguna in Tenerife, I did many translations for the physical chemistry department, not by asking for jobs but simply by being there and being English-speaking. The professors there knew enough English in their fields to understand technical articles, but when they went to symposiums and conferences they could not converse in English. So, during our lunch hour, I held conversation classes for them; subsequently, they gave me their monographs to translate into English so that they could be published internationally.
Q. Do you interpret as well?
When I returned to the United States after a 15-year absence, my Spanish was quite fluent, so I signed up to be a host with the International Visitor Center in Philadelphia. After studying up on the subject, I led busloads of Spanish tourists through America’s most cherished historical monuments.
One day, the Center called me to say that they had been asked to supply an interpreter at the federal court, where the regular interpreter was unavailable. Could l go? Although I had never interpreted, I boldly agreed to go and did a fine job of interpreting. However. I did not conduct myself very professionally. It was a drug smuggling case. A “poor” young Hispanic had been caught in the airport with a bundle under his arm. He protested that he didn’t know what was in it, and he had his mother and grandmother there to witness his character and swear that they would go hungry if he went to jail, for he was their sole source of income. While the grandmother spoke, I gravely interpreted while tears were running down my face. I fell for the whole thing, hook, line and sinker.
Regardless of the truth of the matter, later, after studying court interpreting at the nationally famous University of Arizona program, I was able to interpret without emotion almost anything thrown my way. For several years, at the Marin County Health Clinic, I interpreted for many legal and illegal Hispanics, many of whom were in desperate need, but some of whom were trying to take advantage of the system long after they were able to get along by themselves. Only because of my training was I able to be objective during interpretation. In addition, I have interpreted for the Parole Revocation Board at San Quentin, the Department of Motor Vehicles in San Francisco, the Department of Education in Fresno, the State Labor Relations Board in Sacramento, doctors and insurance companies, among others.
As time passed, and because I had already taken a two-year hiatus in interpreting while my husband was terminally ill. I gave up interpreting and now do translations exclusively.
Q. What are some problems (and possible solutions) that you encounter in your translation business?
Access to the Internet has solved a lot of research problems. I no longer feel so isolated from a big university library as I once did.
Some dictionaries in my office are on CD and others are books on shelves. It’s sometimes a toss-up which will be quicker, getting the book and leafing through it, or changing CDs on the computer and typing in the term. The ideal would be to have all dictionaries computerized and available at a keystroke. At present, the only dictionaries in my computer memory are the Word and WordPerfect spellchecker dictionaries and Stedman’s medical dictionary. The other electronic dictionaries are on CDs, which must be inserted, even after installation. I find myself taking a fair amount of time taking out one CD and putting in another and waiting for it to pop up, even at today s megahertz computer speeds.
If I had two monitors, I could have terminology up on one while working on the translation on the other screen, which is often split already between source and target texts.
Organizing my terminology lists has always been on my mind, but I m often too rushed to enter new data when a job is finished; then the next time I need the term. I remember I have it somewhere, but it takes an age to find it. I would like a macro written that would copy the term right out of my text and into the proper glossary on my computer. Then I could have that glossary open on another monitor while translating. I can do simple macros, but that one seems to me to be getting perilously close to programming – not something I can do, especially in Windows and Word. It is much easier in DOS and WordPerfect 5.1, where the codes can be seen on the screen.
There is no dearth of other problems to discuss, only a dearth of time and space…
Q. How did you acquire your expertise in journalism? (We’re all curious because you did such a great job as Translorial editor.)
First let me be flattered by your praise. Calling what I did “expertise in journalism” seems somewhat of an exaggeration. I filled the Translorial with articles from our own members, articles taken from other newsletters and sources that were not newsletters, such as comments on translation by literary figures, and helpful hints tor translators and interpreters still in a learning process. We were all adapting to the computer age, and there was a lot to learn that could be shared. I think one of my guidelines was “If it is of interest or helpful to me, surely it will be so to many other NCTA members.”
So much for the subject matter. As for actually editing someone s writing, that was natural, for I taught English and corrected compositions, essays and examinations for more than 17 years before “becoming an editor.” Now that we have a new editor, I still keep my eyes peeled for items of interest and send them in for consideration.
Q. What problems do you see facing the translation business today? High expectations (formatting, speed, etc.) because of computers? Customers using machine instead of human translations?
I really think there is nothing to stop the juggernaut or our growing industry. The world is a handkerchief as they say in Spain, and now that we can all be so easily connected on the Internet, and with the movement toward the formation of trade blocs, such as the European Community and the NAFTA countries, demand for our services can only continue to expand. There should be lots of work for us for the foreseeable future. However, we do have to contend with the possibility of competition at lower rates than prevail in our country. In the long run, though, I imagine there will be more than enough work for all professional translators and interpreters.
The once apparent threat of machines replacing us is now seen to be something for the distant future, if ever. Perhaps the next generation of translators will have to be even more specialized than today if machines do succeed in translating some boilerplate better than they do now, but that’s about the most fallout I can imagine.
In general, however, translators do need to keep abreast of fast-paced technological advances. That means a new computer every few years, new software to learn, especially translation memory programs. On the non-mechanical side it means moving with our subject field, generally by voracious reading or texts in the target language in search of the latest terminology.
The clients demand tor speed ( “I need it yesterday”) will probably not change. It could be mitigated if our public relations program were actually to get under way. Public ignorance of what we are what we do and how we do it needs to be transformed into awe, admiration and understanding. That will only happen if individuals take on a project to publicize our profession and if groups such as the NCTA make formal plans to carry out an educational publicity program. Our chapter seems to have been an innovator again in visibly going on screen to help public television raise funds. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, they say, and at least one other chapter of ATA has since done the same. So maybe the translation industry/profession will eventually make its mark on the public at large. I’m optimistic.
Interview with the Interviewer
by SMB
Although born in San Diego, Miriam Mustain was schooled in Belgium, one of the global stops of a father trying to support eight children. Her French accent is thus a genuine one.
Her specialty is editing English translations, especially those done by her sister, Theresa Lynch, a professional translator and current president of MITA (Metroplex Interpreters and Translators Association in Texas). Miriam looks for consistency of terminology in large and small projects and is an experienced formatter.
Her home is outside of “civilization,” forty miles from the nearest town – no electricity, even-where propane, a generator for the computer, and a passel of pets (six horses, two dogs and a cat) make for a happy life in northern California with her retired- from-law-enforcement husband.
