Dec 1st, 2007 | ATA, Conferences, Reports, Russian, Translation | No Comments
By Nina Bogdan
How are changes in a language over the years noted and measured? One little-considered way is to identify the presentations made on it at successive ATA conferences.
One role of ATA in our modern world is to follow certain trends in the evolution of language use. These trends are linked to the commercial need for translators and interpreters in certain language pairs. The evolution of language in general is a fascinating topic, but love of language alone is not enough to ensure a language professional’s economic survival. The varied selection of Russian language workshops at the ATA conference this year covered many of its “flavors,” from “1001 Ways of Translating Children’s Poetry from Russian into English” to “Chemistry 1: Basic Nomenclature of Organic and Inorganic Compounds.” The latter workshop was, unfortunately, cancelled, but deserves mention as it represented the far end of the specialty spectrum.
The last twenty years have been significant for the Russian language. The breakup of the Soviet Union has actually caused a decrease in the use of Russian, as many former republics have moved to revive use of their own native, and neglected, languages and to discourage the use of Russian as the primary means of communication. In fact, according to Nicholas Ostler, in his book Empires of the Word, A Language History of the World, Russian is the only current top ten language which is “…set to lose speakers in the twenty-first century.”
The rejection of Russian is not difficult to understand if one is at all cognizant of the role of the Soviet Union on the stage of world politics in the 20th century. Nevertheless, it was during Soviet rule that literacy rose to unprecedented levels in Russia and its republics, and the success of this policy was due to the standardization of Russian in the schoolroom and beyond.
The ironclad control of the Soviet government over every facet of its citizens’ lives is no more, and the evolution of Russian continues as Russian society itself and its institutions continue to evolve. One of the workshops offered at the conference, “Translation and Corporate Governance in Russia,” would not have been offered twenty years ago, simply because there were no corporations in Russia—as the Western world knows them—until relatively recently. With the vocabulary of the commercial and financial worlds having become an integral part of the Russian language, terms such as “Joint-Stock Company” and “Limited Liability Company” are now commonly used and known. Nevertheless, the word “business,” which is directly transliterated into Russian, still does not have positive connotations for most Russians.
A workshop that delved into the vocabulary of the world of law was titled “Translating Court Forms: Lessons Learned.” Legal terminology in general is another evolving branch of the Russian language. The main idea of this particular workshop was that, to better serve the Russian émigré community in the U.S., the Russian language must be manipulated and massaged to encompass American legal terms and concepts—no easy task, to be sure.
Workshops on grammar are, by necessity, ubiquitous, and this year was no exception, with the offering of “Aid for the Imperfectly Articulate: Tips on English Article Usage.” The Russian language does not have articles such as “the” and “an”, which can make translations into English rather challenging. This is unlikely to change no matter how much Russian evolves.
Finally, a workshop at the conference titled “The Susanne Greiss Lecture: Lost in Translation—the Verbal Content of Visual Art,” discussed the concept that works of art are deeply rooted in verbal culture. This particular topic had a specific interest for language professionals but the topics of Russian art and literature in general are of endless and timeless interest. Interestingly, even during the Soviet era, when the Russian language was undergoing what might be termed forced or unnatural change (the language of political repression or the penchant for acronyms to disguise real meaning, for example), there was never any real attempt to negate the contributions to language by Russia’s greatest 18th and 19th century writers and artists, specifically, of course, Alexander Pushkin, who is generally acknowledged to be the creator of modern Russian.
Of course, “modern” Russian is a relative concept like anything else, since the Russian of Eugene Onegin, one of Pushkin’s most famous works, is not the Russian of today’s high-tech, computer-driven world. The opening of Russia to the West by Peter the Great gave impetus to the introduction of many “foreign” (that is, Western European) words which unquestionably changed the language but also made it richer. And today, few, if any, people will say “электронно-вычислительная машина” (electronic calculating machine) rather than the English import “компьютер” (computer). Some may argue that this is a pollution of “real” Russian by imported words, but what is Russian, if not the culmination of centuries of linguistic imports and infusions, adopted and adapted, that have served to create the multi-faceted, complex and uniquely beautiful language that we speak today?
As we move forward in the 21st century, we wonder with interest what new presentations will be offered on the language at upcoming ATA conferences.
Sep 1st, 2007 | Interpretation, Mentoring, Translation | No Comments
By Christopher Paul Queen
Last April 23rd, in a one-evening back-to-back outreach effort, Jacki Noh offered her insights and advice on translation and interpretation to students at both San Jose State University (SJSU) and The National Hispanic University (NHU). Certificate, upper-division, and graduate students in attendance at both locations learned about the pitfalls of complacency and the need to constantly update their skills while actively pursuing networking contacts in order to become truly in-demand translators and interpreters. Many already had translation or interpretation experience on some level, while others were looking to find a way to break into the field.
The first session of the presentation packed the SJSU Clark Hall classroom with students eager to learn about translation and interpretation, and how they can use their foreign language skills to supplement their income while in school or as a career after graduation. The audience at the second session, at NHU, comprised members of the 2007 Translation Studies Certificate Program class.
Volunteering her experience in the form of personal anecdote, Jacki pointed out the need to be affiliated with as many translation organizations as possible, specifically ATA and NCTA. “I would attend all events I could go to in any combination of languages that included English, just to learn the principles of translation,” she stated. As Korean is Jacki’s source language—considered a “Least Commonly Taught Language“ that has few associated exams with which to demonstrate competency, no academic training program to learn the craft in the U.S., and scant translation and interpretation events in the Korean- English combination—Jacki inferred that translation skills aren’t always learned in a classroom. A lesson that translates to life, as well.
Sep 1st, 2007 | Essays, Interpretation, Translation | No Comments
By Stafford Hemmer
In the May issue of Translorial, we learned of the history and mission of the Civilian Language Reserve Corp., the U.S. government’s 2004 initiative to widen the scope of qualified volunteer language professionals in the wake of the September 11th attacks. In this concluding segment, we hear from representatives of the program and the president of ATA about this unusual effort to invigorate American foreign language abilities.
On May 8, 2007, the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs) for the Department of Defense issued an official News Release: “DoD Announces Pilot Language Corps.” Initially proposed to Congress shortly after the devastation of September 11, 2001, the U.S. Department of Defense was one of several agencies working jointly to originate “a vital new approach to address the nation’s needs for professionals with language skills … an integral component of the Department of Defense’s language roadmap, and the President’s National Security Language Initiative.”
According to Gail McGinn, Deputy Undersecretary for Defense for Plans, “the department is confident that a successful Language Corps will not only address gaps in federal preparedness, but also serve to reinforce the importance of language skills in the American population and the U.S. education system.” Yet true to the Leviathan nature of the U.S. bureaucracy, organizing, funding, approving, revising, debating, and moving forward with the Corps has turned into a multi-year process. Even the name of the group—originally the “Civilian Linguists Reserve Corps”— has been changed several times and is now the “National Language Service Corps.,” according to Robert Slater, Director of the National Security Education Program.
Further, while the original charter stated that “the pilot Corps will include no fewer than 1,000 members drawn from all sectors of the U.S. population,” to date no volunteers have been recruited; enrollment is not likely to start until 2008.
According to DoD information, the newly christened NLSC, which “will be an entirely civilian organization managed by the DoD for the federal sector, composed of members who will voluntarily join and renew their membership,” begins with a pilot effort involving approximately 10 languages (see Part I). Although not able to indicate which languages have been identified for the pilot project, Mr. Slater confirmed that “the final list of languages is still in development, and will be announced in the fall.”
Organization and structure
The NLSC is basically divided into two groups of participants: the “national pool” and the “dedicated pool.” All volunteers will have their skills certified by the NLSC, and it is likely that renewal procedures will involve coursework or projects that hone or elevate current skill sets. But while the national pool of volunteers is intended for deployment in the event of “war, national emergency, or other national needs,” the dedicated pool will consist of a smaller number of participants, who will serve specific federal agencies on a contractual basis, and “agree to perform specific responsibilities and duties.”
According to Mr. Slater, “the major difference between the two pools is the nature of the contractual relationship involving the individual member. In the case of the national pool, members are not obligated to serve. They will be activated only depending upon their availability. In the case of dedicated members, they will actually enter into contractual relationships with specific federal agencies. They will be expected to be available up to the days specified in their contract.” Volunteers in both pools will be expected to travel, both within the U.S. and abroad.
When asked if volunteers in either pool will be involved in the interrogation of enemy combatants, or other individuals detained by what the U.S. government deems to be terrorist-related activities, Mr. Slater replied “we are not nearly at a point where this question can be answered.”
The ATA viewpoint
Back in July 2006, ATA President Marian Greenfield announced to the organization’s membership that the government would soon be enrolling volunteers in the CLRC. Since that message, Ms. Greenfield reports that “there was no measurable response from membership, other than members who were grateful to know about such translation/interpreting volunteer opportunities, particularly those that could potentially lead could lead to paying jobs.” Compensation for the “volunteer” work, in fact, is still intended under the NLSC. “Compensation plans are still under development, explained Mr. Slater. “The assumption at this point is that national pool members will be compensated only if they are activated. However, all members will derive other benefits from membership in the Corps.”
Ms. Greenfield remains optimistic about the prospects for the NLSC and interested linguists, although there is no official ATA position on the project. As Ms. Greenfield explains, “If the [NLSC] works as planned, it will be of tremendous value to those who need help during times of local and/or national emergencies. It has the potential to possibly create jobs for ATA members. And, once again, the important role that professional translators and interpreters play in bridging the languages, customs, and cultures of different communities will be highlighted.”
May 1st, 2007 | Essays, Interpretation, Translation | 1 Comment
By Stafford Hemmer
In an attempt to widen the scope of qualified volunteer language professionals in the wake of the September 11th attacks, the U.S. government in 2004 instituted the Civilian Language Reserve Corps. In this first of a two-part series, we examine the CLRC’s history and mission. In the concluding segment, in the September Translorial, we’ll hear from many parties involved in this unusual effort to invigorate America’s foreign language abilities.
In July 2006, NCTA members who also belong ATA received an email appeal from ATA President Marian Greenfield. As a follow-up the ATA’s successful response to the Red Cross request for volunteers, Ms. Greenfield extended an invitation to interested translators and interpreters to consider joining the national Civilian Linguist Reserve Corps. “CLRC volunteers may be called upon during a national crisis of one sort or another, such as supporting preparations for evacuations before and after natural disasters,” she explained. According to the CLRC’s own mission statement, the Corps aims “to provide and maintain a readily available civilian corps of certified expertise in languages determined to be important to the security of the nation.”
History
The Corps is operated today under the auspices of the National Security Language Initiative, launched by the Bush Administration in 2004 as an endeavor to “dramatically increase the number of Americans learning critical-need foreign languages.” In this context, “critical need” refers to nine specific languages, including Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Hindu, Korean, Urdu, and Farsi. The NSLI is a department of the U.S. Departments of State, Defense, and Education, as well as the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The initiative is comprised of: 1) programs to encourage the learning and teaching of foreign languages; 2) scholarships, exchanges, and projects to promote international learning and exposure; 3) the creation of “feeder programs” to educational institutions, from kindergarten through university level; and finally 4) “strategic partnerships” between the national government and U.S. universities to promote instruction in “critical languages.” The CLRC itself falls under this latter prong of NSLI agenda. In fiscal year 2007, the Bush administration requested $114 million from Congress to fund this program.
The National Guard model
On the face of it, and as reflected by Ms. Greenfield’s email, this battalion of linguists should operate like the National Guard, except that it will take command of language-related issues instead of public disorder during national crisis situations. Its genesis actually precedes the NSLI itself, in a proposal to Congress in 2001 by the National Security Education Program of the Department of Defense’s National Defense University. Following the government-funded initial feasibility study, NSEP’s Dr. Robert Slater, in his testimony of April 1, 2004, asked the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to “consider how effective and beneficial it would have been for the nation if, on September 12, 2001, the Director of the FBI had been able to request an immediate call-up of a select number of Arabic specialists who were commissioned as part of a Civilian Linguist Reserve Corps.”
Dr. Slater’s words had their effect on Capitol Hill. When the feasibility study, operational plan, and implementation plan were completed, the time had come in mid-2006 to launch the CLRC’s pilot program. Over the next three years, the Corps’ goal is to assemble a list of no fewer than 1,000 linguists by the year 2010 in the nine critical-need languages. Enrolled language professionals would be matched to the requirements stipulated by the more than 80 federal government departments, bureaus, and agencies that need their service. Reservists have to be certified not only in terms of language acumen, but also in terms of their national loyalty, in order to garner the necessary U.S. Government security clearance. With that imprimatur, members of the Corps would be available to take on sensitive defense-related work. Skills will have to be maintained and certified on a consistent basis. In exchange for the demanding level of paperwork, background clearance, and ongoing skills maintenance, the candidates in the program would be treated as federal civilian employees, receiving pay, benefits, and other incentives when finally called into service.
Mobilizing the Corps
According to a press release during the feasibility stage, the Corps was touted as an opportunity for U.S. civilians to help out during national emergencies—hurricanes Katrina and Rita being recent examples of such situations. To be clear, the CLRC would not be a military reserve; its members would have the right to refuse deployment, but should they do so, they would be required to reimburse the government for their training and education. Despite the non-military nature of the Corps’ charter, however, there appears some evidence that the Department of Defense’s intentions for this program may include grooming these language specialists to work on more delicate security matters—such as, for example, interrogations of so-called “enemy combatants” in the war on terror. Whether this falls within the purview of a “volunteer” corps is a matter for further investigation. 3
May 1st, 2007 | Localization, Reports, Translation | No Comments
By Farah Arjang
On February 24th, four professional translators from the localization industry gathered at the Monterey Institute of International Studies to talk about their experiences in the localization industry. This session was one of the many in the roundtable series that Romina Marazzato, head of the Master of Arts in Translation and Localization Management program at MIIS, has been organizing to familiarize students and freelance translators with real world of translation and localization management.The presenters at this roundtable were Jean-François Vanreusel of Adobe, who works as an Internationalization Engineer, Moon Ju Kim, a technical translator and Project Manager at Apple, Lutz Niederer, a technical translator at eBay, and Stephan Lins, CEO of Medialocate.
Translation vs. localization
The translators first talked about internalization and localization as the most important aspect of globalization, and then they explained the difference between localization and translation. Translation is just translation, with no consideration for any local audience, whereas localization is modifying the translation so that it makes more sense to the local audience who are the eventual recipients of the translated document.Lutz of eBay takes pride in the localized German eBay website, whose success, he believes, is due to the company’s local translator in Germany—who is in contact with eBay in real time—and to the three to four times a year that Lutz travels to Germany for an update of the culture and language, as well as working in person with the local German translator.
In order to correctly incorporate all provisions when a program or web content is initially created, there needs to be a close relationship between the localization team and the software developers, programmers, or the original designers of the websites. When the format and the content in the source language are created, the programmers need to consider all the limitations that the target language translators might have in conveying the same idea in the same format. None of the four companies represented by the panel is currently using machine translation in localizing their websites or products, but they do use proprietary software programs for their translation memory.
Trial runs
To tackle some of the problems of localization before a program is developed, Adobe, for one, has a process called “pseudo” programming, in which a fake program goes through the process of translation to catch problems or issues such as the differences in the alphabet or use of a particular string that might arise in the real translation.“Sim Release” (simultaneous release) is another challenge for the localization team. Every product at Adobe, eBay, and Apple is released simultaneously around the world, which means extra pressure for the translators and the localization team, who always receive changes at the last moment. Software companies are now planning to sell their shrink-wrapped products online, which means yet more pressure on translators and localization teams.Translators also need to know the ins and outs of the product being localized. Jean-François pointed out that anyone localizing Adobe Photoshop is expected to know digital imaging and basics of photography; similarly, the translator working on Adobe InDesign localization should know the program well and be familiar with the basics of the publishing world.
Moon Ju Kim of Apple, a graduate of the Monterey Institute, talked about her experiences as a technical translator and project manager at Apple. While she agreed with most of the other speakers, she also could not emphasize enough the importance of communication among the translators working on the same localization project. Her advice on work ethic was to be a team player, have a problem-solving attitude, and be up for working in a fast-paced environment, as the localization industry is changing in large ways almost every day.
Lutz, in fact, was amazed at how much the industry has evolved over the past five years since he first started working at eBay, and added his advice to be multi-tasking, detail-oriented, and persistent in order to be a successful localization team member. His last word was “Believe in yourself and make the engineers or content writers develop the programs in a way that works for any other language!”
Feb 1st, 2007 | British English, Essays, French, Spanish, Translation | No Comments
By Jonathan Goldberg
We have of course all been exposed to various—if not many!—examples of the differences between British and American vocabulary, but can we ever get enough? The answer, thankfully, is “no.” So let’s explore some bathroom … well, terminology, if not exactly humor (with help from the French and Spanish).
Restroom
This word, most commonly used in the United States, is a euphemism for lavatory, because it eschews any mention of toilet activities performed there. Lavatory, meaning a place where one washes (as well as the apparatus itself), is itself a euphemism, as is W.C., which is short for water closet. Both of these terms are more prevalent in Britain than is restroom.
Bathroom is another word used in the U.S. to mean a restroom, toilet, lavatory, or W.C. Other synonyms in American English, although far less frequently used, include lav, john, loo, and can. Spanish displays the same modesty in the expression cuarto de baño, literally bathroom (or simply baño). In some Spanish-speaking countries, the term W.C. is adopted as is from the English, although pronounced differently. But Spanish has three other words used to indicate public toilets. One is servicios, meaning services, obviously a euphemism. Another is aseos, which without the s has a variety of meanings in Spanish, including cleanliness. The third is lavabo, from the word lavar, meaning to wash.
The common denominator of all these low-key words is that they suggest only the bodily cleaning-up activities performed after the toilet has been used for its primary purpose. The English word toilet is derived from the French toilette. Originally, the French word meant “a cloth on which items used for grooming are placed,” vaguely similar to the present-day (British) English toilet or toilet-bag—“a waterproof travel bag for holding toiletries (soap, toothpaste, etc.).” Later, the French cabinet de toilette came to mean the room in which one washed, from whence its present-day meaning of a W.C., or restroom. British English has adopted the word toilet to mean also the act of dressing and preparing oneself, as in “he made his morning toilet and went to breakfast.”
Queue
In the U.S., one stands in line; for example, waiting to use the restroom at a sporting event. (Although in New York, one stands on line.) In Britain—and indeed in English-speaking countries where British English is in use—one waits in a queue. Queue is, in fact, used in the U.S. in this sense, but only in the field of information processing, to mean “an ordered list of tasks to be performed or messages to be transmitted.”
French has the same word, queue (pronounced differently). This has at least two meanings. The first is that of a line or queue, identical to the British use. (In French you don’t stand in line, you make the line—faire la queue). The second meaning is “tail”—as of an animal. The visual similarity between a line of people and the tail of an animal is clear.
A further use of queue, “a braid of hair at the back of the head” (albeit a somewhat arcane definition) also bears that visual association. The Spanish word for queue (line of people) is cola. As in French, this has the additional meaning of “tail.” However, the word tail in English is used not only to denote the wiggly protrusion of animals but also (among other interpretations) the tail end of an animal or object—such as the tail of an airplane.In the latter respect, the meaning is similar to that in French and in the Spanish of some Spanish-speaking countries, because queue and cola are both used in those two senses of tail. (The Spanish word cola has the additional sense of glue. Cola also exists in English, as in the brand names Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola, having acquired the meaning of a carbonated soft drink, but it has its origin in the fact that Coca-Cola was originally composed of an extract from the kola nut, as well as from the leaf of Peruvian coca. Kola is also a language spoken south of Lake Chad, in Africa.
Underwear
Many Americans might be unfamiliar with the term knickers, commonly used in England to mean women’s panties. Paradoxically, the word from which it is derived, knickerbockers, has its origin in New York. (The New York Knicks basketball team takes its name from this word.)
In England, women’s underwear is probably more typically designated today by the more chic French word lingerie, originally used to mean anything made of linen but now well ensconced in English as women’s underwear. The word bra is a short form of brassière, imported into English and still used in French. But the common French word is soutien-gorge, meaning literally a throat-holder, devised presumably by someone with a poor knowledge of female anatomy. (Brassière should not be confused with brazier, meaning “a container for holding hot coals,” or brasserie, a restaurant serving alcohol—although certain men might be excited by all of these concepts.)
There are many words in Spanish meaning bra, depending on the country of use. Sujetador—literally a subjugator—sounds daunting enough to make any woman want to burn her bra. Sostén, literally a support, also stays well clear of mentioning that part of a woman’s body which the bra serves to keep in place. Vive la modestie! As for men’s wear, knickers was originally used to denote men’s as well as women’s underwear, but the expressions in vogue today are shorts (boxers and briefs) in America and underpants in England.
This article appeared in an abridged form in the Dec. 2004/Jan. 2005 issue of Toga, the newsletter of the Plato Society of UCLA (www.uclaextension.edu/plato). NCTA is grateful to the Plato Society for granting us its permission to reprint.
Feb 1st, 2007 | Essays, French, NCTA Info, NCTA Members, Translation | No Comments
By Danièle Heinen
A new opportunity, half a continent away; an exciting job, an exotic locale, a chance to make a difference for a company relatively new to the intricacies of translation. What could be better? Well, read the story of our intrepid reporter, NCTA member Danièle Heinen, to find out exactly what could have been better.
I guess I could mimic Lauren Bacall who recalled “How I went to Africa to shoot the African Queen and nearly lost my mind” and say, “How I went to Brisbane, Australia to create and run a translation department and nearly lost my mind!”
In February of 2005, a long-standing client of mine referred me to the position of translation manager for a Canadian-based mining company located in Brisbane, Australia. Inco, at the time the world’s second-largest producer of nickel, was constructing a nickel mine and processing plant on the island of New Caledonia, a French overseas territory that holds about 30% of the world’s nickel reserves.
With the Project Engineering Office in English-speaking Brisbane and the mine facilities in French-speaking New Caledonia, the need for translation services—even more, for a structure for translation services—was obvious. Business practices in New Caledonia follow a variety of customs and regulations, most of which are European or French in origin, and which therefore require documents in French, including work permits and visas. On the other side, the requests for translations into English came from managing engineers in Brisbane responsible for the various portions of the project; these engineers were mostly monolingual English speakers, and it was often only at the last minute that they realized a translation was needed—on topics that ranged from mechanical to electric to fire protection and more—which then compounded the urgency. Most of these engineers, obviously, had no idea of what translation entailed.
Translation? What’s that?
Prior to my arrival, the translation requests were handled by a competent, yet already overworked administrative assistant who acted as translation coordinator within the Contract and Procurement Department. Although she had no experience with translation and did not know French, she nonetheless developed a useful translation request form and tracking worksheet. Still, hers was purely a processing role. The local translation vendors were two French women who lacked translation training, and yet who were asked to handle virtually any subject and work in both directions.
The quality of the locally delivered translations was variable and unreliable; there were also spelling and grammar mistakes, and accents missing: a case of “I didn’t know I could reconfigure my keyboard under Windows,” and blaming the Microsoft Word spellchecker. Termium was unknown, while the GDT and the use of an electronic bilingual dictionary was known by one translator only.
Reviews, both technical and linguistic, were done by the requesting department, provided there was a bilingual (French or Canadian) engineer in the department. The translations came back with a number of terminology queries, but reviewers lacked time, and so coped as best as they could, amending the translations themselves.
A low level of support
Process problems were compounded as the technical documents went through a review cycle within the Engineering Department, where the translation requests would often be made at different steps of the process without anyone noticing that there might be only the equivalent of five to six pages of changes from one revision to the next; the entire set of documents was retranslated, sometimes by a different vendor.
In addition, the source and the target documents would sometimes be amended separately; to deal with this, a bilingual document format, with English on the left and French on the right, was designed to ensure matched text. The lack of secretarial staff that could read French, however, worked against the best intentions of this system. Problems with converting text from PDF documents further complicated things.
As if the existing process at the mining company were not difficult enough, the translation scene in Australia posed further obstacles. Translation and interpretation in Australia is mostly linked to immigration and medical concerns, not mining and engineering. AUSIT, the Australian translators association, includes members whose primary profession is not necessarily translation. NAATI, the national translation certification body, has three levels of certification, and very few translators working from English to French had reached the advanced level listed on the NAATI website; understandable, perhaps, as this was a paid listing. Finally, French is not the lead foreign language in Australia.
Digging in
Where to start? During my first trip to the country, I made a number of recommendations on procedures, looked at resumes, and interviewed people. I found one excellent professional translator with a translation degree from an institution in Belgium (but who could only work part-time), and set out to find freelance translators in the various technical fields that the project covered. In terms of tools, I decided that a translation memory tool would be in order, and also made lists of dictionaries in both paper and electronic format to order for in-house use.
Back in Canada before returning to Australia the second time for the duration of my commitment, I put a call out to ATA’s French Language Division and to NCTA to look for certified translators with technical knowledge. I also contacted professional colleagues from Canada and Europe (the time difference would be much easier to deal with from Brisbane). I also found a lone French Canadian translator who had been working in Brisbane—and who had connections with New Caledonia and mining for some years—and was very knowledgeable about various translation tools. My final team incorporated members from California, Canada, Australia, and France: a truly international effort!
Seeds of change
Once in Australia for good, I implemented SDLX with the use of both Elite and Professional licenses and encouraged the freelancers to use SDLX Lite to start with; some already used WordFast or Trados so we swapped TMs in TMX format. As I was far from knowledgeable about all the intricacies of SDLX (which resulted in a few nightmares!) I enlisted the help of the local translator I had found who already knew SDLX, and trained the newly hired inhouse translator/reviewer and the translator working on our HR documents. In turn, we offered training for the local freelancers.
My colleague put herself to the task of developing a TermBase, starting with an excellent glossary put together independently by some of the Canadian and French engineers. We also installed various electronic dictionaries and a French spell and grammar checker as standard tools for inhouse use. We also researched and purchased various software programs to deal with the PDF issues, all the while arguing for the need for native source files.
Administratively, we redesigned the translation request form and tracking spreadsheet, allocated a sequential number for each request, insisted on the need to nominate a native speaker for each translation request to review the translation from a technical point of view, and initiated searches for possible existing translations before assigning any work. Those searches—and the building of libraries from what we found—turned out to be extremely time-consuming, as there was no reliable archiving system of the matching source and target files. Eventually we started building translation memories, which were still quite rough because there was no manpower to do much review of the texts we decided to process. We deemed a number of them unusable and had to discard them.
The final tally
There were other issues: procedures that someone else had to establish and implement as I had my plate full; the impossibility of planning the workload as there never was an estimate of the number of documents that would require translation; the inability to find another professionally trained inhouse full-time translator (our normal working week was 45 hours); the need to deal with new types of documents for translation, as often is the case when a new translation department is established; and more into-English translation than had been expected, which created the need to find more translators in other fields and in a different language direction.
Above all, the main challenge and frustration came from having to constantly educate our internal clients as to the translation process, explaining that we were, like the engineers, university trained, and that a mistranslated document could pose huge risks.
Like Lauren Bacall, I almost lost my mind. But I survived, and the new system we put in place is now humming along—thanks mostly to my first colleague and the good people who have followed.
Still, having learned a bit, I’m ready for another assignment.
Dec 1st, 2006 | ATA, Medical Translation, NCTA Info, NCTA Meetings, Reports, Translation | No Comments
By Raffaella Bushiazzo
This year our fall general meeting was a very special event, as translators and want-to-be translators were able to dedicate an entire weekend to increasing their professional knowledge and exchanging business cards and tips with fellow translators and agencies in an elegant environment.
To coordinate with ATA’s Medical Translation Seminar and our own NCTA MultiTerm Workshop for Trados users, we moved our quarterly meeting to Sunday, September 17th at the Embassy Suites Hotel in South San Francisco. The NCTA general meeting started with the traditional New Member Orientation, to help those who have recently joined NCTA learn more about the association.
Trials and questionnaires
Since the ATA seminar was on medical translation we chose to present on a connected topic. We invited David Himmelberger from Health Outcomes Group in San Francisco (http://www.healthoutcomesgroup.com/) to explain how clinical trials and health care questionnaires are designed and translated for multinational use; the translators role in this process; and what is expected from translators. Dr. Himmelberger’s presentation was rich in practical examples, detailed guidelines, and, not least, hilarious anecdotes.
Since the mid-1970s, Mr. Himmelberger has been involved in analyzing the results of medical treatments in terms of cost and quality of life. After many years as a biostatistician at Stanford University and experience in the pharmaceutical industry in strategic planning, international marketing research, and outcomes evaluation, Mr. Himmelberger founded Health Outcomes Group in 1987.
Today, there are no medical tests to prove that a treatment for a disease is working. For this reason, questionnaires are needed, to calibrate medical procedures to a common standard. But often these questionnaires need to be translated before they can completed by patients in different environments.
The translated documents must be absolutely true to the source, but at the same time in readable, natural-sounding language. Typical projects involve twenty countries at a time, where English is almost always the source language translated into other target languages, and adapted to each culture. The translation process is usually lengthy, involves a number of people, and presents difficult challenges to be solved.
The person who writes the original questionnaire, the source author, has an interest in staying involved at each step of the translation process—both to ensure accuracy and to make sure he or she shares in any additional fees. Two translators will then translate the text, working independently of each other. The resulting translations are sent to a linguist living in Italy who combines the two versions into one. This version is then back-translated back into English. At this point the translation is reviewed by the author, as well as by doctors and experts for a linguistic validation.
They take a small sample of users and conduct a dialogue with the patients to see if they fully understand the questionnaire and all of its nuances.
To be effective, a translation of this kind needs to meet two nearly paradoxical requirements, which is what makes the task so challenging. First, the source text is fixed and unalterable; since the developer doesn’t want to change the questionnaire in the original language, the linguist has to work around that to come up with solutions. Second, the translation also needs to sound natural in all the target communities and cultures!
How do we know what patients understand when they answer a questionnaire? Several techniques are used, often involving putting the patient at ease, listening to the vocabulary he or she uses, watching for visual cues, having questions prepared that address issues identified in the translation process, and the use of different interview techniques. Lastly, the translation is sent back to the target language linguist for a final approval.
Networking and goodies
Dr. Himmelberger’s fascinating talk was followed by a treat—a buffet of delicious cheeses and exotic fruit, elegantly served on the hotels fine china. It was a landmark weekend for NCTA, because we were able to offer our members so many professional enrichment events in such a short time. I was pleased to see the enthusiasm shown, as well as the number of first-time NCTA attendees and attendees from outside Northern California who joined us for this first-class event and presentation.
Dec 1st, 2006 | Chinese, Essays, Translation | No Comments
&tBy Yu Zhang
One of the unique challenges in the translation of Chinese terminology relates to the ways in which Chinese words are created. Discover how words are formed, from the basics of the language to technical terms, and why their translation, and the task of maintaining consistency, is often so difficult.
The written Chinese language has a history of over 5,000 years. Today, it is the only modern language that is entirely based on ideographic characters. The total number of Chinese characters is over 60,000, of which about 6,000 are commonly used. With few exceptions, each Chinese character has one, or more than one, complete and independent meaning, in accordance with the fact that in the early history of the language each word consisted of one character only.
Multi-character words developed over the course of the language’s evolution, and two-character words became the preferred word form by the time of the Han dynasty (206 B.C. – A.D. 220), when fu (赋), a classical Chinese prose genre, flourished. Fu works were written using gorgeously stylish words, of mostly two-characters, that were articulately arranged to create a strong but elegant sense of metrics. Today, two-character words dominate in the written Chinese language, although words with other numbers of characters are not uncommon. Most modern Chinese words are thus compound words, because each single character in a multi-character word still has its own meaning and still is a single-character word.
There are a number of ways to arrive at two-character word formation. One common way is to use two characters of similar or identical meaning to form a word that has a meaning similar to, or the same as, that of these two characters, as illustrated in Table 1. (Since we are addressing only the basic language features common to both Simplified and Traditional Chinese, these two versions of the language are not distinguished in this article, although the examples are all given in Simplified Chinese characters.)
In another type of two-character word, the first character modifies, specifies, or describes the second one, as illustrated in Table 2.
In a third class of two-character compound words, the first character is a verb and the second is a noun; together they form a mini verb-object structure. Table 3 shows several of these words.
|
TABLE 1
|
| CHINESE TERM |
CHARACTER MEANING |
ENGLISH MEANING |
| 健康 (jian-kang) |
strong-well |
health |
| 和平 (he-ping) |
harmony-peace |
peace |
| 会议 (hui-yi) |
meet-discuss |
meeting |
| 现实 (xian-shi) |
appear-real |
reality |
| 变化 (bian-hua) |
change-transform |
change |
| 显示 (xian-shi) |
appear-show |
display |
|
TABLE 2
|
| CHINESE TERM |
CHARACTER MEANING |
ENGLISH MEANING |
| 生物 (sheng-wu) |
living-thing |
organism |
| 铁路 (tie-lu) |
iron-road |
railroad |
| 电压 (dia-ya) |
electric-pressure |
voltage |
| 化学 (hua-xue) |
transform-study |
chemistry |
| 飞机 (fei-ji) |
fly-machine |
aircraft |
| 火车 (huo-che) |
fire-vehicle |
train |
Higher level compounds
In yet another class of two-character compound words, the first character is a verb and the second character indicates the result or status of the action specified by the verb, as shown in Table 4.
Three-character compound words can be formed by combining two of these two-character forming methods or using one twice, as shown in Table 5.
Since each character has at least one independent meaning, reversing the character order of a two-character word often forms a different word with a meaning that can be similar to, or very different from, the original word. Table 6 shows the four words formed by reversing the character order of the first four words in Table 1.
Listed above are only a few of the many ways multi-character Chinese words can be formed. Because each character can combine with dozens or even hundreds of other characters to form multi-character words, using the character modules to create multi-character words is like a puzzle game that can be played with almost unlimited possibilities.
This can be illustrated by a series of Chinese characters such as this: 中国家访问题目录取消… The meanings of these ten characters are: center, nation, family, visit, ask, question, item, record, take, and eliminate, respectively. Each two adjacent characters form a two-character word which in turn means China, country, home visit, visit, question, topic, table of contents, admission, and cancel. Randomly picking up almost any Chinese character, one can start a long or endless series of overlapping words such as this one. In ancient times, Chinese poets enjoyed the game of writing reverse-text poems that can be read forward or backward for each line and the entire poem, all making perfect sense.
|
TABLE 3
|
| CHINESE TERM |
CHARACTER MEANING |
ENGLISH MEANING |
| 救火 (jiu-huo) |
rescue-fire |
fire-fighting |
| 开会 (kai-hui) |
open-meeting |
run/attend meeting |
| 唱歌 (chang-ge) |
sing-song |
singing |
| 搬家 (ban-jia) |
carry-home |
moving (relocating) |
|
TABLE 4
|
| CHINESE TERM |
CHARACTER MEANING |
ENGLISH MEANING |
| 完成 (wan-cheng) |
finish-completed |
complete |
| 放大 (fang-da) |
let-large |
enlarge |
| 关紧 (guan-jin) |
close-tight |
close tightly |
| 改进 (gai-jin) |
modify-improved |
improve |
A Multitude of Combinations
Combining characters—each of which has a more general meaning—creates compound words that have more specific meaning. For example, Chinese does not have characters that mean bull, cow, rooster, or hen. Instead, Chinese uses characters that mean male, female, bovid, or fowl to combine into words that mean bull, cow, rooster, or hen. To describe how crowded an open place is, Chinese uses a four-character adjective that literally means “people-mountain-people-sea.”
Two-character and multi-character Chinese word formation can be largely considered a matter of range and combination in the mathematical sense. In an English-speaking country, only a small percentage of people have a vocabulary of 30,000 English words. To form this many two-character Chinese words theoretically would take only 175 Chinese characters. As mentioned earlier, there are about 6,000 Chinese characters that are commonly used. With this many characters, one has the theoretical potential of creating about 36 million two-character words. Although the number of compound words that are in practical use must be considerably smaller than the number of mathematical possibilities, it’s still much more than the common vocabulary of any other language. The Chinese-English Dictionary by Shanghai Jiaotong University Press lists about 10,000 characters—but 400,000 multi-character words. Using this 40/1 ratio, the 6,000 common characters would convert to 240,000 compound words. Non-native Chinese language students are often told that they can be reasonably functional in China with as few as 1,000 characters. This of course does not mean 1,000 single-character words; based on the 40/1 ratio, someone who knows 1,000 characters should be able without trouble to read 40,000 multi-character words.
With these numbers in mind, one can easily see that translating into Chinese involves considerably more complicated mental processes than translating into other languages. And as the number of choices in word combinations increases, the level of difficulty both in translating and in maintaining consistency also increases—not in a linear, but in a geometric, progression.
A Chinese translator has to face these exceptional linguistic challenges if he is chosen for a translation project. The challenge for a translation project manager, on the other hand, is to identify and select only those few professional Chinese translators who have this ability, which is a necessity for ensuring on-time, on-budget and high-quality delivery of technical Chinese translation projects or multilingual projects that include Chinese. Even without considering the factor of source language reading comprehension ability, the challenge of terminology translation alone requires that Chinese translators have the highest level of linguistic capability. Since most professional Chinese writers, journalists, or translators have an educational background in language or literature, they have natural difficulties in using technical terms correctly and precisely. For this reason, an educational background in science or technology is also a must—in addition, of course, to proven professional experiences in technical translation practice.
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| CHINESE TERM |
CHARACTER MEANING |
ENGLISH TERM |
| 生物学 (sheng-wu-xue) |
living-thing-study |
biology |
| 无线电 (wu-xian-dian) |
no-wire-electricity |
radio |
| 计算机 (ji-suan-ji) |
count-compute-machine |
computer |
| 显示器 (xain-shi-qi) |
appear-display-device |
monitor |
| 电压表 (dian-ya-biao) |
electricity-pressure-meter |
voltmeter |
| 救火车 (jiu-huo-che) |
rescue-fire-vehicle |
fire engine |
| CHINESE TERM |
CHARACTER MEANING |
ENGLISH MEANING |
| 康健 (kang-jian) |
well-strong |
health |
| 平和 (ping-he) |
peace-harmony |
peaceful |
| 议会 (yi-hui) |
discuss-meeting |
congress |
| 实现 (shi-xian) |
real-appear |
realize |
This article is also available non-abridged, as published in LISA’s Globalisation Insider, at http://tinyurl.com/yguymz.
Sep 1st, 2006 | Court Interpretation, Essays, Hebrew, Interpretation, Translation | No Comments
By Jonathan Goldberg
Given the choice of offering a literal, by-the-book interpretation that you are certain the recipient won’t understand and offering a less-than-exact equivalent of the original that you are confident he will understand, what would you do? It’s tempting to speculate that most of us would opt for the latter. But are there consequences to doing this? Especially when the setting is a legal one? Jonathan Goldberg dives in.
The verb “to interpret” has two common meanings, which in a sense are somewhat contradictory. The first relates to the act of interpreting written documents or oral statements, in the sense of giving one’s “take” on them. The use of the word in this sense suggests circumstances in which a fair degree of subjectivity is permitted.
The second sense, with which NCTA members are likely to make an association, relates to the art of oral translation, whose practitioners are expected to eschew subjectivity and to render the target language with an almost scientific precision.
Translations are often chiseled out of rough source language and fashioned in their final form with the aid of dictionaries, by consulting colleagues and, as a last resort, by asking the client for a clarification of the intended meaning. Interpretion assignments, such as the cross-examination of witnesses, allow no such luxury. Rather, the thrust and parry of these verbal brawls sometimes makes one yearn for the days when one knew only a single language and life seemed simpler on that account.
While driving back from one such assignment, a Hebrew-language deposition, I was mulling over one or two of the trickier terms that the deposing attorney had been pitching across the table at his victim. The deponent for whom I had been interpreting was a flower seller. The deposing lawyer, confident that he was about to establish a case of forgery, dramatically flourished the document he held and asked the deponent: “So does this purport to be your signature?” As the word “purport” comes up fairly often in legal settings (and being myself a retired lawyer), I knew the Hebrew equivalent. But I anticipated a familiar trap.
While I had no doubt that the flower vendor could, if called upon to do so, expound at length on the subtle differences between various types of chrysanthemums, I was equally confident that he had never heard the Hebrew equivalent of “purport.” If, therefore, I rendered a translation of that word so precise as to qualify me for a top grade in any Hebrew-language test, I knew that the deponent was highly likely to reply “I didn’t understand the question.”
This kind of situation is pregnant with danger for the interpreter. At best, furtive glances are likely to be thrown in the interpreter’s direction, with all present assuming that the correct rendition of the lawyer’s question had proven beyond the interpreter’s language skills. At worst, the deponent’s counsel, looking up from his newspaper, is likely to see in the deponent’s state of bamboozlement a golden opportunity to come to his client’s defense (which he may well not have done in any juridical sense), by stating for the record “We seem to be having a problem with the interpreter,” or some such gratuitous comment.
Determined not to become a victim of the blame game, I decided, on the spur of that fateful moment, to break all the rules of professional interpreting, and to take a little professional license, by lowering the register of the question. I therefore rendered, in Hebrew, the equivalent of “So are you claiming that this is your signature?” I held my breath as I waited to see whether my self-protective, unprofessional sleight-of-tongue would have the desired effect. Would it, I wondered, elicit an answer that would demonstrate that the deponent had understood the question and if he had not, would it be he or I who would take the rap? His reply, in Hebrew, was: “Not only do I claim that this is my signature, but it is in fact my signature.” I took one more small step, if not for humanity, then at least for the interpreting profession, and rendered the answer back into English as “Not only does it purport to be my signature, but it is in fact my signature.”
My gamble had paid off. The pair of distortions had cancelled each other out. I had demonstrated beyond all reasonable doubt that the deponent’s powers of comprehension extended far beyond the realm of chrysanthemums. I had allowed the deponent’s counsel to continue reading his newspaper without the need to sort out any bothersome misunderstandings. I had in fact performed a valuable service to all parties.
I am hoping that the parties who paid me to interpret for the flower vendor are not regular readers of Translorial, because they may not fully appreciate the interpreting resourcefulness that I displayed while on contract to them. But if this frank discovery of mine (in the legal sense of that word) should elicit a complaint, or a demand to stick to the straight and narrow
path of interpreting when carrying out future assignments, I intend to plead argumentum ab inconvenienti.
Sep 1st, 2006 | Medical Translation, Reports, Translation | No Comments
By Karl Kaussen
If you are a translator of medical and pharmaceutical texts, or even if you have never translated a medical text before, it’s never too late to learn about the remarkable new developments in biotechnology and how they might affect your life and occupation. This article introduces some of the concepts and special terminology commonly used in the field.
Recent spectacular discoveries in biotechnology have placed the field at the center of pharmaceutical research, and the structural and functional analysis of the human genome promises to trigger new advances in the fight against disease and illness. This new technology is one of the most important fields of innovation in the 21st century, and its growth potential is enormous. With companies worldwide scrambling to get a slice of the pie, it’s probable that there will be much work for language specialists who can translate not only research papers and reports but also study protocols, informed consent forms, patents, and legal documents in connection with new drugs and medical procedures.
Political biology
Biotechnology is a cross-sectional field, in which not only biologists, chemists, and engineers are involved, but also lawyers, business managers, and financial experts. Translators who want to offer their services to any of these professionals need to familiarize themselves with the jargon of the specific groups of specialists. They will need to be able to facilitate communication between these experts in different languages, and they must also be able to translate their respective voices into a quotidian register that lay people who are not experts in those fields can understand.
This is especially true as the political landscape in biotechnology is changing as well, with the topic of stem cells in the national dialogue as never before. Despite what seems to many to be a too-slow pace by the federal government, the State of California is forging ahead with ambitious research plans, based on voters’ approval in 2004 of a bond proposal that paves the way for a $3 billion, 10-year project to study embryonic stem cells under the auspices of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. (Note: funding for the program is currently being held up pending the resolution of two lawsuits.)
Scientists believe that understanding how these cells develop will allow medical researchers to one day correct the “errors” that cause serious medical conditions such as cancer and birth defects. Additionally, stem cells can be used to make cells and tissues for medical therapies to treat diseases such as juvenile diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injuries, stroke, burn, and many others, because the cells can morph into virtually any type of tissue or cell.
Biotech 101
Biotechnology is based on the increasing knowledge of mechanisms that keep organisms alive and facilitate procreation. At the center of it all is deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), a long, double-helix molecule that carries genetic information. The genetic prerequisites of an organism (genotype) determine its physical characteristics (phenotype).
A human being’s genetic blueprint—its genome—consists of multiple DNA strands with an overall length of approximately 1.6 m but which are only about 2 millionths of a meter thick. Every single cell in our body contains this blueprint in the form of 46 parts of a defined length, known as chromosomes. Human chromosomes consist of approximately 3 billion building blocks that are also called bases. There are four types of bases: adenine (A), thymine (T), cytosine (C), and guanine (G). The sequence in which these are arranged in the DNA strand determines the biochemistry of the cells and the physiology of the organisms.
Although DNA is an efficient source of information, it is relatively inactive. Most activities within a cell involve proteins—large molecules that evolve through the sequencing of many small building blocks, the amino acids. Biochemists express the relationship between DNA and proteins as follows: DNA turns into ribonucleic acid (RNA) and finally into protein. RNA is similar to DNA in its structure except that RNA contains the base uracil (U) instead of thymine, and it usually occurs as a single strand, whereas DNA always occurs as a double helix.
Translating the code
The decoding of the DNA codes for the development of protein begins in the cell nucleus with a process called transcription. In this process, an RNA copy is created from a section of DNA (gene) that contains the blueprint for the desired protein. As soon as a certain amount of the copy, or messenger RNA (mRNA), has been produced, the “protein manufacturing plants” or ribosomes, convert it into proteins. This process is called, appropriately enough for us, translation. The ribosome always reads a sequence of three bases of the mRNA, called a codon, at once. The codon determines which respective amino acid is going to be added to the growing protein chain. Certain codons define the beginning or the end of the protein. A single mRNS strand is read sequentially off several ribosomes so that a single gene turns into many protein molecules.
The decoding of the DNA codes for the development of protein begins in the cell nucleus with a process called transcription. In this process, an RNA copy is created from a section of DNA (gene) that contains the blueprint for the desired protein. As soon as a certain amount of the copy, or messenger RNA (mRNA), has been produced, the “protein manufacturing plants” or ribosomes, convert it into proteins. This process is called, appropriately enough for us, translation. The ribosome always reads a sequence of three bases of the mRNA, called a codon, at once. The codon determines which respective amino acid is going to be added to the growing protein chain. Certain codons define the beginning or the end of the protein. A single mRNS strand is read sequentially off several ribosomes so that a single gene turns into many protein molecules.
Humans have long been able to use living organisms in breweries, bakeries, and dairies, and microbes that are used today in the development of antibiotics resulted from the mutation of those earlier organisms. Biotechnology creates so much excitement today because scientists are now able to influence basic biological processes and cause organisms to produce certain proteins in larger quantities or change their form with the help of recombinant techniques. By inserting DNA fragments into unrelated organisms, scientists can cross the boundaries between different species. Thus, human genes that have been transferred into yeasts and bacteria are used in making valuable new medicines.
The development of new drugs is a lengthy and involved process, and it will probably be some time before we can enjoy the full benefits of new discoveries in biotechnology. But in the meantime, the increased activity and ongoing research in the field of biotechnology will result in the publication of study reports and research papers in many languages, and language specialists—in virtually every possible combination—will be needed to translate them.
crash course
Commonly used biotechnology concepts and terminology
Antisense molecule A molecule that binds specifically to the DNA or RNA strand that contains the genetic information (sense DNA/RNA). This bond inhibits the translation. Antisense molecules are usually chemically related to the DNA or RNA.
Downstream processing Techniques such as centrifugation, filtration, and chromatography that are used to purify products of an enzyme conversion of a microbiological development process.
DNA bases or base pairs The DNA bases consist of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen. There are four different DNA bases: adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G), and cytosine (C). The sequence in which they are arranged contains the genetic information. One base or one base pair represents one bit in computer language. The two terms are used synonymously.
Enzyme A protein that facilitates or speeds up a biochemical reaction.
Genexpression The conversion of genetic information into the respective proteins with the help of the cellular mechanisms.
Genetherapy A process in which RNA and DNA are used to heal illnesses.
HUGO The Human Genome Organization, an international organization that runs the Human Genome Project.
Immobilization A process in which biomolecules, enzymes, organisms or cells are anchored on surfaces or enclosed in a matrix. This protects sensitive biomaterial and at the same time makes recovery possible.
Monoclonal antibodies Antibodies are part of the body’s immune response, and bind to substances—called antigens—that are alien to the body. In a natural immune reaction the contact with a single antigen causes a mixture of antibodies.
Open Reading Frame (ORF) A part of the DNA that could possibly be considered a gene, but whose capacity to code a protein is undetermined.
PCR The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) facilitates the duplication of minute traces of DNA and thus creates volumes of DNA that can be analytically determined. PCR is often used in criminal investigations in obtaining genetic fingerprints.
Plasmid Small, ring-shaped bacterium chromosome that contains specific characteristics such as antibiotics resistance that can be transferred from one organism to another.
Somatotropine Human growth hormone that is produced with gene technology and is used in children afflicted with dwarfism.
TPA Tissue plasminogen activator (TPA) is a protein that dissolves blood clots and helps prevent heart attacks and strokes.
Transposon A small section of DNA that moves from one chromosome to another or from one place to another on the same chromosome. Genes on a transposon are also called jumping genes. An antibiotic’s resistance to bacteria is often located on such transposons.
resources
A Multilingual Glossary of Biotechnological Terms; H.G.W. Leuenberger, B. Nagel and H. Kölbl, VCH Weinheim, Weinheim (D), 1995, ISBN 3-906390-13-6
Biotechnology from A to Z; W. Bains, Oxford University Press, Oxford (GB), 1993, ISBN 0-19-963334-7
Biotechnology Glossary GB, D, F, I, NL, DK, E, P, GR; EC Commission Translation Services, Elsevier Science Publishers Ltd., London (GB), 1990, ISBN 1-85166-569-2
Genetics for Beginners; S. Jones and B. van Loon, Icon Books, Cambridge (GB), 1993, ISBN 1-874166-12-9
Glossary of Biotechnology Terms; M. Fleschar and K. Nill, Technomic Publishing Corporation Inc., Lancaster Pennsylvania (USA), 1993, ISBN 0-87762-991-9
