Sep 1st, 2003 | Interviews | No Comments
By Rudy Heller (English translation by Andre Moskowitz)
Reinhold Werner, Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Augsburg, Germany, was the Spanish Language Division’s special guest speaker at the 42nd Annual ATA Conference in Los Angeles, California. The interview was conducted in Spanish by Rudy Heller, administrator of ATA’s Spanish Language Division, and has been translated into English by Andre Moskowitz.
RH: At the first talk you gave in Los Angeles, no answer was given to the title of the presentation: Into what variety of Spanish should one translate in the United States? Does this question have an answer?
RW: There is no single recipe. At best, the answer may be a list of criteria that need to be taken into account. In choosing the language I use in my message, I must take into consideration how important the target audience is versus how important the client is. The person who hires you to do the translation is often someone other than the target audience.
There may also be more complicated situations in which you have different target audiences with different levels of understanding. For example, people from different countries with different educational levels. In these cases, you have to find a solution that may entail using language that is more neutral. Of course, one must ask “what does ‘neutral’ mean?”
RH: How do you define it?
RW: One is never completely neutral. By neutral, I mean the ability to find common denominators, to avoid language that is very specific to one variety or another, and to always try to use language that is common to a majority of the target audience. Thus, it is not a neutral style or a neutral register, but rather the broadest common denominator.
RH: What role can “Spanglish” play?
RW: I think we need to be very careful with that term because it is not very clearly defined. Spanglish was originally conceived as a battle cry and was criticized. Lately, the trend has been just the opposite – to promote its use. One shouldn’t be afraid of creating a variety of Spanish that is specific to the United States. I believe it is inevitable, and even necessary, to create a vocabulary for the U.S.’s own realities and concepts. Of course, the first denominations for these objects, for these realities, and for these concepts were created in English. It would be very artificial to avoid using loanwords or calques from English. This must be accepted.
The other issue associated with “Spanglish” is that it is a very restricted and poor code, stemming from the mixture of English and Spanish elements in particular social situations. It is both a reduced Spanish and a reduced English. That should not be the goal. Although one should not be afraid of English-language influence when it is necessary to name concepts that are particular to this country, language shouldn’t be reduced by whittling away its vocabulary just to make it easier. The mixture of languages should contribute to their enrichment through mutual influence, not to their impoverishment.
RH: Are there other places, other areas of the world, where something similar takes place? But saying le weekend in French is quite different from saying vacunar la carpeta in Spanish. In le weekend, at least the full English word was adopted…but in Spanglish, what is often done is to invent a word, to “Spanishize” an English word when there is already a proper term or phrase for it.
RW: Yes, to a certain extent it happens all over the world. English is omnipresent. We have a strong English-language influence in German, also in Peninsular Spanish, and in French. Spanglish has developed parallel to the Franglais of the French. To an even greater extent, we also have this problem in many societies of the developing world. This is the case in societies that are not bilingual but multilingual (such as India and the Philippines), in places where the languages spoken are much less similar and have different historical backgrounds, and where the use of one language or another is much more closely related to one’s membership in a particular social group.
RH:
RW: The concept of a weekend did not exist. It was new. Because, in theory, there is an end to the week. Everything has an end. Here you can really see how one language has influenced another. In the background is another ideological world, another worldview, because the weekend is Saturday plus Sunday, which is a rather recent concept. It used to be that one was only assured of being able to rest on Sundays, and this idea of the “weekend,” which includes having Saturday off, was a gift. This is something that comes from the North American world.
RH: You addressed a topic in your presentation that I would like you to expand on a little. Please begin with the definition of “isogloss.”
RW: “Isogloss” is a term that comes from traditional dialectology, in which the goal is to delimit dialectal regions. One asks the question, where does one dialect start and another end? Linguistic atlases, generally based on different types of surveys, are drawn up. You find out how people say something in Town A or Town B. There is an entire network of points in a region, and at each point (location) you find out how people speak in terms of phonology, syntax, and lexicon. Then a comparison is made, and often the entire region can be divided up into different subregions. A subregion is where people speak a certain way, for example, using a certain word for something that is referred to by a different word in another part of the same region. The line that can be drawn between the two subregions is called the isogloss. On one side, for example, people pronounce the Spanish letter ll like the lli in “million,” and on the other side, they pronounce it another way (for example, like the y in “canyon” or the g in “prestige”). The lines that separate the areas where the letter ll is pronounced two different ways are called isoglosses. Similarly, in Colombia, for example, there are areas where people still use the word aguacate for “avocado,” and other areas of the country, such as in Pasto, where people now use the word palta. And there are other areas, for instance, a small region where the word cura is used in this sense. It seems that Colombia is the only place where cura is used that way. The lines, the borders, that divide one region from another are the isoglosses.
RH: In other words, the “isogloss” is always a geographic designation.
RW: The term comes from linguistic geography, from dialectology.
RH: In discussing this subject, you also spoke about diastratic differences…
RW: Yes, I discussed the terms diatopical, diastratic, diachronic, and diaphasic. These terms come from structural linguistics, which was first developed by Ferdinand de Saussure and other European linguists and later by North American linguists. Saussure distinguished between diachronic and synchronic linguistics. Before Saussure, people mostly did diachronic linguistic studies, which focused on linguistic changes over time. Saussure introduced synchronic linguistics on a large scale, so it no longer compared different periods in the history of a language, but focused on the way a language worked at a particular moment in time. Thus, when you consider a language at a particular moment in time, you are doing a synchronic study, that is, of the same time. When you compare different periods, you are doing a diachronic study.
Later, following the diachronic and synchronic models, other terms were introduced. For example, when a linguistic comparison is made among different varieties or different dialects (dialects in the sense of linguistic geography), you use the term “diatopical.” A diatopical study is one in which you examine and compare data from different parts of a linguistic region. For example, in Spain, comparing the Spanish of Andalucía to that of Castilla or, in Colombia, comparing the speech of Pasto to that of Bogotá. This would be a diatopical study. And you can do the same thing by focusing on social criteria. For example, a diastratic study would be when data from the speech of one social group is compared to the speech of another. And finally, the term diaphasic was introduced. This refers to different registers and different styles, but, in this case, it may be the same person who speaks in different registers. In other words, one speaks differently depending on the situation. When I speak to my friends, I speak differently than when I speak in an official situation. The register I use also varies depending on the form or medium. For example, the language I use when writing a letter is different from the way I write an e-mail message. This type of comparison is called diaphasic.
RH: So would “diaphasic” be equivalent to “register”?
RW: Well, the term register is more traditional and always assumes a clear cut hierarchy (starting from the top at the high register, then going down to a normal or neutral register, and from there down to registers such as familiar, slang, and vulgar). When you talk about diaphasic, you can focus on a whole range of factors. Who am I talking to, in what situation, and in what medium am I speaking or writing? It is a combination of factors and has no hierarchy. When you talk about registers you are immediately placing them into a hierarchy. That is, a neutral register is better than a vulgar register, although, of course, a low or vulgar register may be very appropriate in certain situations, much more so than a neutral register. If you want to insult someone, you often use a vulgar register. But when you talk about registers you are always making an assumption that one register is better than another, and you also somewhat confuse diastratic and diaphasic factors.
RH: I am asking you about this precisely because translators face this a lot here. We are often required to use a register (at least that’s how it’s called here within the translation industry), and are told to “keep the register at a very low educational level.” There is this notion out there that the reader has a very low level of knowledge. We see that people often write in an English that lacks formality. Writing is reduced to the lowest level, much lower – many of us believe – than what we feel Spanish should be written in.
RW: There you have it. One must also distinguish between social factors and situational factors…
RH: And educational factors…
RW: And educational factors, and many others. Because, of course, it may be fine for you to use the language of a particular social group to make yourself understood, but that does not automatically mean you have to speak in a less formal style. When all is said and done, it depends on what you’re writing. We write certain things in a particular style and that helps us recognize immediately what type of message it is. For example, a business letter is written in a particular style, and if we change its register, it is no longer a business letter and we do not achieve our objective. Thus, with every type of text there is always a tradition in the way things are formulated. If I don’t follow that tradition, I may also cause comprehension problems because the person I am addressing will say, “what the heck is this?” They won’t identify the type of message. There is almost always a struggle between a desire for ease of comprehension and a desire for accuracy. If I lower the register, I may also reduce the accuracy. There is a certain vocabulary that is appropriate for speaking accurately about certain realities: scientific terminology, technical terminology, legal, or administrative terminology. If I change the vocabulary used for a more common one simply because I am afraid someone won’t understand me, then I run the risk of not calling things by their name. As a result, the message becomes more vague.
The translator has the task of trying to transmit a message that, to the extent possible, will be understood at the target audience’s comprehension level. On the other hand, the target audience also has a job. Your reader or listener will sometimes have to make an effort to understand the message. For example, I must write legal texts using legal language, even though legal terminology causes problems, because if I eliminate the legal terms and replace them with terms from everyday language, they are no longer precise. As a result, I may create legal problems, because the terms are not unambiguous. I must maintain the legal language even though the other person may not understand it right away. In this case, the target audience has the task of trying to decipher it. It depends a lot on the situation, but there are cases where I cannot lower the degree of precision, and therefore must write using difficult language.
Reinhold Werner is a professor of applied linguistics in the Department of Romance Languages at the University of Augsburg, Germany. He is also the director of the university’s Foreign Language Center and its Instituto de Investigaciones sobre España y América Latina. Professor Werner has published extensively in the areas of languages in contact, lexicography, and lexicology. He holds a Ph.D. in romance philology from the University of Salzburg and a “Habilitation” degree in romance philology and applied linguistics from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. (A “Habilitation” degree is a second doctoral degree that is earned after a Ph.D. at many European universities.) He is a corresponding member of the Academia Colombiana de la Lengua and the Academia Peruana de la Lengua. He is also the director of the journal Lebende Sprachen (Berlin/Munich, Germany) and the book series Aspectos de Lingüística Aplicada (Frankfurt am Main/Madrid), and is on the editorial boards of the journals Revista de Lexicografía (La Coruña, Spain) and Lexis (Lima, Peru). Contact: reinhold.werner@phil.uni-augsburg.de
Notes:
1 The original Spanish-language version of this interview was published in the February 2002 issue of Intercambios, the quarterly newsletter of ATA’s Spanish Language Division. Andre Moskowitz translated it into English and it was published in the July 2002 issue of The ATA Chronicle. This revised version has been reprinted with permission from the ATA.
2 While Sunday is the traditional day of rest in the Christian world, Friday is the day of rest and prayer for Muslims (the Juma’a), and the Jewish sabbath is on Saturday. Note that the words for
Saturday in Italian and Spanish are sábato and sábado, respectively, which derive from the Hebrew word.
Sep 1st, 2003 | Business, Interviews, Localization, NCTA Members | No Comments
By Andrea Bindereif
At the May 2003 general meeting, Anna Schlegel, Global Content Manager at Xerox and long-time member of NCTA, presented a Q&A session about the localization market for translators. Originally from Spain, Anna had made the exciting transition from freelance translator to in-house translator and then project manager during the boom years, in the mid- and late 1990s. She has worked for some of the biggest companies in the industry, such as Cisco Systems and Xerox, and has experienced the transformation of the translation field firsthand. We captured Anna’s view of the localization industry in an interview.
TL: Anna, tell me a little bit about yourself. Where are you from, when and why did you come to the US, and how did you start as a translator in this country?
AS: I am Catalán. I come from a little beautiful village called Olot, at the foot of the Pyrenees, not far from Perpignan. I came to the States in 1992, and I had already started my own little translation business in my head flying over in the plane, thinking what I would do in this country if I were not accepted into an MBA Program.
TL: How was the translation industry when you started working here? And how was it in Spain back then?
AS: When I started here in the States I had WordPerfect, there were no translation tools, and I was already being paid 11 cents a word. Localization and Globalization were really scary words to me at that time, but I already wanted to learn more about them.
In Spain, I had worked at a software engineering firm, translating manuals into English, and I was being paid the equivalent of $5 an hour. That was in 1990. That was also my fifth year of studies in German philology, and I needed the cash to survive in Barcelona. Then I came to the States. To get by, I also had to teach English and German. I didn’t know how to get into the translation market back then.
TL: How did you make the transition from freelance to in-house translator at one of the biggest tech companies?
AS: I got a phone call one day from a desperate HR employee at Cisco saying, “We hear you are good, can you start tomorrow?” The next day I got an anxiety attack, but I started anyway. It was awful. I was sitting in a conference room with all these corporate folks with paradigms, visions and objectives, Q1s and levels of effort, suits and PowerPoints full of acronyms. I thought I would die.
I found out later that a Silicon Graphics employee for whom I had done telephony translations had recommended me for the position. He was Andreas Ramos. I will always remember his name, and I don’t know if I would ever have worked in these powerhouses otherwise.
TL: How important was translation work for high-tech companies in the 1990s, and how much respect did translators enjoy?
AS: The work was very well paid, we were already able to telecommute, and we learned TRADOS and other tools. It was fun, but also scary because we were just translators trying to navigate the bureaucracy in these really big corporations.
TL: How has your own role as an inhouse translator for high-tech companies changed over the years?
AS: I started as an in-house translator and was promoted several times in the course of three years. Those were the good old days… I went from consultant to in-house translator to project manager to program manager II to leading a small team. And now to leading the globalization effort for a bigger operation of 28 websites.
TL: Can you tell us a bit about the development of software localization and globalization?
AS: It is key to be part of the very first stages of whatever software application you’re working on, and you need to raise your concerns right at the requirements phase. You want to follow its development all the way until implementation. Some companies, or should I say groups, are better than others in engaging the global folks at the outset of software development. Globalization really happens through education of software developers and close collaboration with your stakeholders.
Also, you need to find the kinds of people who can bridge technology and the business side of why you need a global tool. Communication and being at the same level is key.
TL: Do you remember the early translation tools, and can you tell us how they’ve developed over the past few years?
AS: I remember working with TRADOS. I still own it, but I rarely use it anymore; I am more on the management side of globalization now. Our current vendor is moving away from creating an internal tool and going back to TRADOS.
I am still surprised to see all these companies spending humongous amounts of money trying to create tools that don’t integrate well.
TL: What is required from a translator today in comparison to the mid-1990s? What is a typical profile of a translator specializing in localization?
AS: I don’t think that much has changed for the profession in itself, other than the tools we use are better and computers are faster. What has changed in the newer versions of translation memory programs is that nowadays we have better tools to freeze tags. I can remember destroying all kinds of code…
I’d say that a typical profile would describe someone who uses computer-assisted translation tools, understands the business he/she is working for, asks about terminology, has a good relationship with the project managers. And is someone who understands what the project entails, who needs to know what not to touch in a translation, who knows about HTML, XML, or whatever format is needed. Although now we do have good file processing that can freeze code.
TL: What does a typical workday look like for you?
AS: As a Global Content Manager at Xerox, I am in meetings all day with translation project managers, web managers and my senior managers, trying to coordinate 28 countries. I am on the phone with South Africa, India, France, Egypt, Brazil – you name it. We brainstorm about what countries need to have, content-wise, to make their business successful. Most projects start in the US, then we follow up for other regions.
TL: How important is knowledge of translation tools for a translator today? And what is a good way of learning to use CAT tools?
AS: To those not familiar with translation tools, I would suggest downloading demos from TRADOS and IBM. I would start there. I think a translator who is here to stay in the profession and wants to go into localization needs those kinds of tools.
I am not talking here about translating resumes or fliers or business cards. I don’t think you have to have CAT tools for those, but it definitely helps on those bigger projects.
TL: What would you recommend to a translator to stay competitive in the field?
AS: Market yourself, get ATA-accredited, put yourself out there even if it is scary. And take those jobs that scare you; you can always take a partner in crime. Learn by doing, write to corporations, or take tests with translation firms that are looking for freelancers.
Keep evolving with whatever is needed.
TL: Where do you see translation five and ten years from now?
AS: More and more, US corporations are leaving globalization up to the foreign countries. I see less being paid from the US and more being relegated to other countries: it is up to them if they want something translated. That is where things are heading, to my mind. This is a tough business. Budgets are tight, and things get translated only if they will bring in money and are key to the success of the business. I also see less centralization. Globalization customers within the corporation are not forced to use a particular vendor or another corporate unit; it is preferred, but not mandated, in most of the corporations I know. This hurts the business, in my opinion. I am for a centralized approach, if it is well leveraged and well run.
TL: Thank you for talking with us, Anna.
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.
May 1st, 2000 | Interviews, Literary Translation, NCTA Members | No Comments
by Amy Russell
Jeannette Ringold,Ph.D., longtime NCTA member and until recently member of the NCTA Board of Directors, has completed the translation from Dutch into English of two novels by Anna Enquist, The Masterpiece (1999) and The Secret (2000), both published by The Toby Press Ltd., London. Jeannette graciously agreed to answer some questions about her experience translating these novels so that Translorial readers like myself, who see literary translation as a far-off dream, can get an idea of what it’s like.
AR: Can you give us some background on these books?
JR: The Masterpiece was originally published in Holland in 1994 as Het Meesterstuk and was Enquist’s first novel. (She had already published several very successful volumes of poetry.) It was a bestseller, with over 200,000 copies sold. The Secret was published in Holland in 1997 as Het geheim and also sold more than 200,000 copies. The novels are set in Holland, middle to late twentieth century. Both have as an important theme the way artists express themselves in their medium and can t express themselves emotionally outside it.
AR: How did you get involved in translating these novels?
JR: In January 1999 I was asked to translate The Masterpiece by the publisher of Toby Press, Matthew Miller. He had asked several of my colleagues w ho were unavailable and who referred him to me. Instead of having to do some sample pages to prove my ability, I could refer him to some of my published translations and to a review in The New York Times Book Review.
Matthew Miller is an unusual publisher. He had been in other types of business, and he finally decided that he really wanted to go into publishing. The books he publishes can be bought only through the Internet (www.tobypress.com) or by phone (800 810-7191). Instead of spending money getting his books into bookstores, Miller spends it on advertising. He may be ahead of his time and it’s risky. He is definitely an unusual man. Instead of waiting to see whether The Masterpiece was successful with the English-speaking public, he plunged ahead and had me translate Enquist’s second novel, The Secret, as well her collection of ten stories, The Injury, which I’m working on now. The manuscript is due in June, and after that I think I won’t be working on any Enquist translations for a while!
AR: Did you collaborate with the author on the translation? Is that standard?
JR: While I’m translating a novel. I make a list of questions to ask the author. These can range all the way from checking an obscure reference, to asking about an unusual expression, to asking to change the name of a character. Most authors are quite willing to help out in any way they can, and I have very good personal relations with the authors whose work I have translated. It can be very enlightening to talk to the author about a specific translating problem because it often gives new insights into the novel.
It isn’t until the translation is finished and edited that the publisher submits it to the author. Most Dutch authors are able to read English quite well, but they don’t necessarily know all the nuances. I therefore prefer to submit the whole book to them instead of having them second-guess every sentence and expression. Many of my colleagues seem to work in this way. Sometimes I wish I were translating into Czech, Russian, Hebrew, or any other language that isn’t as easily read by Dutch authors!
AR: What are the special challenges associated with translating literary works?
JR: In translating literary works I find that I have to pay special attention to how the authors exp.ess themselves. The Masterpiece which is a loose adaptation of Don Giovanni, has an operatic quality that shows in the short, dramatic sentences and phrases. It took me a while to get into that feeling. I have translated other authors, such as Marga Minco and Carl Friedman, whose style is much more understated, and then I follow their lead.
Since Anna Enquist is a poet, I have to make sure that I catch the sound as well as the meaning of the words in my translation. At times I find myself reading whole passages aloud in both languages, first in Dutch and then in English, whereas usually I read aloud only my translation.
A particular problem in these translations was that the publisher is in London and the British editors wanted to make some changes that might have made the books too foreign for the American market, which the publisher definitely wants to reach. We had some interesting transcontinental arguments about the merits of diapers versus nappies foe example.
AR: How do you think English-speaking audiences will react to these novels in translation?
JR: I have no idea how the English-speaking reading public will react. I don’t think the settings, the stories, or the language should strain anyone’s comprehension. The story of The Masterpiece will tend to sweep readers along. The question is, will people buy books exclusively through the Internet? That is the publisher’s gamble.
Editor’s note: Excerpts from Jeannette’s translations of The Masterpiece and The Secret can be read online at www.tobypress.com/books , where you can also order each of the novels in hard or soft cover.
Feb 1st, 2000 | Continuing Ed., Interviews, Translation | No Comments
by Amy Russell and Kerilyn Sappington
In the past couple of years I’ve seen more and more advertisements for translation courses and even entire certificate programs taught online. As a product of a traditional, face-to-face T&I program, I’ve often wondered how students evaluate this type of “distance learning.” last fall, when colleague and fellow Chinese-English translator Kerilyn Sappington told me she had enrolled in an online translation course offered by the University of Hawaii at Manoa, I couldn’t wait to find out what she thought of it. After the term ended Kerilyn graciously answered my questions about her experience.
The course Kerilyn took is titled IT411M Translation Techniques (English-Mandarin) and lT411J Translation Techniques (English-Japanese). The Mandarin and Japanese courses are taught together. The course is offered by the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Center for Interpretation and Translation Studies. The course is twelve weeks long and costs $185. Anyone who passes the screening exam is eligible to sign up. There were around twenty students when the course began, but that number dropped by perhaps one third.
AR: Could you describe how the course worked? Did you have to log in at certain times? Were there assignments you had to turn in?
KS: We did not have to log in at certain times. There was no fixed “lecture” time or “live” classroom setting. Generally we went to the syllabus/calendar area of the web site and received a list of assignments. A typical unit would consist of a source text (English or Mandarin or Japanese). Assignment one would be to analyze the language of the text, paraphrase it, look for areas that might be difficult to translate. We would post our analysis to the forum/bulletin board area of the web site. In assignments two and three of the same unit, we would proceed to translate selected paragraphs from the text, and then we would be asked to respond to the other students’ work on the bulletin board forum. The final assignment would have us rewrite the translation incorporating the other students’ comments. Most communication took place in this bulletin board area. Occasionally the instructors or students would use email to communicate with each other. It could be bothersome to scroll through the messages from the students in the Japanese section, as these messages were not relevant to those of us in the Mandarin section, and vice versa.
AR: What did you think of the discussions with the other students online?
KS: Week One, we all posted descriptions of ourselves and what brought us to the field of translation. I found it fascinating to learn about other translators and relate it to my own professional development. Some students had been translating for many years. Some were completely new to translating. We had interesting discussions about choosing the translation field versus falling into it by happenstance, about the qualities of an ideal translator, etc. As we got further into the course, we mainly discussed specific points in the texts we were translating. Sometimes issues would come up regarding the field of translation in general.
AR: What did you think of the texts that were used for the assignments?
KS: I found that overall the texts used for the assignments were not similar to the actual translation work I do, although we began with a birth certificate, and I have translated many of those. Subsequent assignments included texts on depression, Office 2000 and genetic engineering. Perhaps because I translate into English, my usual workload is not in these areas.
AR: How did the instructors provide feedback on your work? Was it helpful?
KS: Feedback came to us from the other students and from the instructors. Sometimes we were paired with other students to work on a translation as a team, and we gave each other ongoing feedback. The feedback was useful, especially when it specifically detailed problem areas in the translation and at the same time provided direction for future improvement.
AR: What was the most valuable thing about the course?
KS: The most valuable thing about the course was the opportunity to interact with other translators and people interested in the translation profession. I liked the sense of camaraderie and sharing ideas with those of like mind. The earthquake In Taiwan took place a few week into the course and all the students were supportive of those who had friends and family affected by the earthquake. The articles and discussions about the qualities of an ideal translator were valuable. I would have liked more readings of this nature. The actual translation assignments and feedback were valuable, but I did not have time to really get the most out of the class assignments. Text analysis and discussion of cross-cultural differences in communication were also valuable.
AR: Bottom line: would you recommend this course to another translator?
KS: I would recommend this course to another translator only if they have the time to work on the assignments and follow up on all the feedback and recommendations. It is difficult to get very much out of the course otherwise. Because the course did not have many supplemental readings or work other than translation practice, I could not get much out of the course with the constraints on my time. Thus I recommend this course to a translator new to the profession.
In my opinion, doing the coursework has the same instructional value as working on actual, paying translations. It seems to me that most translation courses take this approach: learn by doing.
AR: In your view, what should a translation course offer?
KS: In graduate school, I took three courses in Chinese linguistics. Sociolinguistics and pragmatics in particular were useful tools for looking at how different languages express concepts in different ways, and specific grammar points, such as how Chinese syntax reveals the focus of a sentence. I want a translation course that applies linguistic and sociolinguistic methods of analysis to the work of translating, analysis that clearly explains the concepts involved when we communicate in one language and when we translate from one language to another. Once the concepts have been identified, they can be used to develop specific techniques to aid translation. If possible I want translation training to put a name to the process I use each time I translate a text. I think that understanding at a theoretical level will help me in the practical work of translating texts.
To find out more about this course, contact:
(Ms.) Jung Ying Lu-Chen
Center for Interpretation and Translation Studies (CITS)
Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures (EALL)
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Tel: (808) 956-4420 Fax: (808) 956-2078
WWW homepage: http://nts.lll.hawaii.edu/lu/
For the CITS program brochure visit:
http://nts.lll.hawaii.edu/cits/
or for info via e-mail: cits@hawaii.edu
