language – Page 2

Getting it Right or Lost in Translation?

Posted on May 30, 2018July 3, 2018 by drawingboarddesign in Uncategorized

Emmanuel Macron—France’s handsome and charismatic President—made the news worldwide a little while ago for no other reason than his closing remarks at a recent speech in Sydney Australia. President Macron exact words, directed to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, were: “I wanted to thank you for, and your delicious wife, for your warm welcome and a perfect organization of this trip, thank you so much.” We know President Macron is fond of older women—his wife is twenty-five years older than him—however; I am certain this remark got lost in translation. What he probably meant was “delightful.” Luckily, PM Turnbull took it with a sense of humor and laughed it off.

Treading in the unknown territory of a new language, where would you be? Would you be getting it right or would you be lost in translation? There are many applications and gadgets nowadays that allow for a quick and cheap translation and promise to save you money and time. While they might be useful for travelers to translate words quickly from a menu, these gadgets will not be helpful in a business situation. These gadgets merely translate word by word—even when they claim to be intuitive. In fact, professional translators will not use translation devices since its more cumbersome trying to decipher the resulting “translation” than doing it from scratch. When doing a translation, many factors come into play that only the human brain can analyze such as complete ease and knowledge of the source language as well as the target language, understanding the culture and idiosyncrasies of the people who speak these languages and communicating the message without room for misunderstandings.

Friends of mine traveling in Taiwan took a picture of a plaque in Chiayi City high-speed rail station promoting the National Museum in Taipei. The English translation did not flow well, but this section was the most interesting: “In appearance, there seems to be a lack of closeness between cultures and arts in Taiwan and those in Asia. However, judging from Taiwan’s history of intercourse with other members in Asia, actually, Taiwan has been quite intimately connected to other cultures and arts in Asia.” It appears that the word lost in translation was “interaction.”

Such examples are not the only culprit: common and innocent words have different meanings in all languages. “I’m so excited, I just bought a new car!” means something else in Spanish since the word “excited” means “aroused.”; translated literally from English into Spanish it would be: ”I’m so aroused, I just bought a new car!” Your excitement over the new car would raise a few eyebrows and cause a lot of laughs among the Spanish-speaking folks.

It’s not a big deal to make mistakes and cause a few laughs—it happens; however, when it comes to business, you don’t want colleagues and potential clients laughing at you! You need to get it right since your investments and reputation, among many other things, are at stake! Poor translations are not just embarrassing, they cause costly mistakes for businesses; misinterpretations have also caused severe problems throughout history with repercussions for centuries thereafter—from wars to religious connotations. Translations need to be professional and render a faithful adaptation to avoid confusion. For such translations, you will require the services of a Professional Translator.

Professional Translators work hard to develop their skills and have a complete understanding of the language and culture. They will not only translate the written word, but they will also relay style and tone, and convert equivalent concepts. Translators consider cultural references, including slang which does not translate literally. Translations go through several revisions before becoming final ensuring the best outcome. Next time get it right, hire a Professional Translator and avoid being lost in translation!

Paulina Ponsford was born in Chile and has lived most of her adult life in Canada. She worked as an Accountant for thirty years in the Oil and Gas industry in Calgary. At the same time, she always wanted to connect with people at a different level and for this reason, she became a volunteer Fitness Instructor and later on a Certified Facilitator in the area of human interaction. Paulina is now preparing to become a Translator and Interpreter in the languages of English and Spanish. Paulina also loves to travel and embraces what different cultures have to offer. She is also an avid reader and some of her favorite authors are Paulo Coelho, Khaled Hosseini, Mark Mustian, and Isabel Allende. If you would like to know more about Paulina, check out her blog at www.paulinaponsford.com where she shares some of her thoughts, insights, and experiences.

Translating for Theatre as Performative Translation (Interview with Dr. Stefano Muneroni)

Posted on May 8, 2018July 3, 2018 by drawingboarddesign in Uncategorized

Translating a play for the stage may often be considered a form of literary translation, but it is a very different process. Unlike a novel or a poem, a play is meant to be performed, and the translator must consider how the language will be spoken and heard.

My own journey into translation started with an Italian to English translation of the play Three on a Seesaw (Tre sull’altalena) by Luigi Lunari. Since I am a novice at translating theatre, I decided to talk with a more experienced translator for insights on the process. I had a coffee with another Italian translator, Dr. Stefano Muneroni, who is Associate Professor in the University of Alberta’s Department of Drama and does translation as part of his academic work. He is a native Italian speaker and translates Italian to English and English to Italian, as well as Spanish to English.

During our conversation, Stefano confirmed my feeling that translating theatre is a different beast from other literature. Theatre does not remain on a page, but comes alive through actors in front of audience. Stefano described how a translator of theatre must account for the “speakability of the language.” He finds it essential to include staged readings of his translations in progress, in order to hear the language spoken aloud by actors. His translation would have at least two live readings before he declares it ready for rehearsal and production.

Since the words of a play are intrinsically linked to live performance, Stefano describes the translation of a play as performative translation, rather than literary translation. He explains the gap between the two: “[When translating theatre] it’s not just about words. There will eventually be actors speaking those words and embodying those words. The body and voice of the actor cannot be taken out of the operation of translating a text.” For this reason, Stefano says it is crucial that translators of plays have an understanding of the theatrical process, and ideally be theatre practitioners themselves.

Speech, language, dialect, and accent are important for creating characters in a play, and we talked about this while discussing how to handle the multitude of regional dialects in Italy. Stefano is currently working on an Italian to English translation of the play Finis Terrae by Gianni Clementi, which features dialogues between a character from Sicily and a character from Rome, both of whom speak their respective dialects. The characters’ dialects reveal a lot about their backgrounds, and are steeped in regional identities and history that Italians intimately understand. But the challenge is how to convey these nuances to an audience that may not have that same understanding. As Stefano explains, it would make no sense to put a Southern United States accent on the Sicilian character or a California accent on the Roman, since that would obscure the meaning of the play and who these characters truly are. The solution may be to play with different Italian accents in the English translation, possibly drawing on class, education, and age as ways to access how characters would sound in the target language. Another strategy could be about how the lines sound, thus looking closely at as lexical choices, intonation, rhythm, pace, or euphonics. Yet language is not the entirety of a play—an actor’s physical performance may be able to bring out nuances of a character that may not be expressed by the translated language. This is why it is crucial to have actors perform the translation and see and hear how they portray the characters.

While an audience for a translation may not understand all the historical and cultural nuances, it is our responsibility as translators to communicate the original ethos of the work. Stefano often uses bilingualism in his translations so the audience does not forget the culture or language of the source text. One technique he uses is echo-translation, which has a character saying their line in the source language, and another character responding in the translation language, while making sure the context is not lost. Another technique is using cognates, words that sound similar in both languages. Stefano’s Spanish to English translation of the Mexican play El Ausente, by Xavier Villaurrutia, left about 20% of the text in Spanish, but using echo-translation and cognates made the play understandable to the audience.

This conversation was certainly enlightening for me as a novice translator, and Stefano shared a lot of tools for the often daunting task of preserving the original intent of the language. If you are interested in translating for theatre but have no theatrical experience, getting involved in theatre practice is a good starting point. You might try a class in playwriting, theatre production, or acting, or even consider auditioning to act in a play. Getting first-hand experience in the theatre helps develop the understanding of the performability of language, the key for translating theatre.

This article was written as a guest blog for ATIA by community member, Giorgia Severini. Giorgia is a theatre director, playwright, translator arts administrator, and overall language enthusiast. Giorgia’s first foray into translation was in 2015 when she worked with Barrett Hileman on a new translation of Three on a Seesaw (Tre sull’altalena) by Italian playwright Luigi Lunari. This translation was produced by Fire Exit Theatre in Calgary, and Giorgia couldn’t resist directing her own production in Edmonton as well.

Essential Tips for Writing Your Translation CV

Posted on April 5, 2018July 4, 2018 by drawingboarddesign in Uncategorized

Translation agencies and organizations looking to hire in-house translators tend to receive a high volume of applications, even on a weekly basis. It becomes increasingly important then to ensure that your CV stands out in all the right ways. But what does this mean? Below, we explore the “dos and don’ts” of translation CVs.

Do:

Highlight your assets in education and experiences. It is not unusual to put the most relevant education and work in bold to draw the hiring officer’s eye to that first and foremost.
Tell them a bit about yourself. The most important part of your CV is you and you are what will make it stand out from the rest! Take the time to write a short description of yourself that includes your motivations, skills and language combinations.
List your relevant work experiences from the most recent to the oldest examples
Include your published materials, being clear to highlight any books or peer-reviewed articles, research work and translations. If you can include links to each item, this will help your case in terms of ready accessibility for the hiring officer
Include your professional associations, including your level of certification with ATIA
List your relevant education experiences from the most recent to the oldest examples.
Include any relevant awards, scholarships, bursaries or other recognitions you have received.
Be specific about your language skills including listing your specialized translation fields (such as medical, court etc), as well as the language combinations you hold and your level in each combination.
Include information about your computer skills including (but not limited to): knowledge of the Microsoft Office Suite or its equivalences (Mac OS, Google, etc); CAT tools or other management systems you may use; and any web skills you have.
Include a few other small details that help you stand out. These can be some of your interests, as well as other assets you have such as a driver’s license, if relevant.

Don’t:

Exceed 2 pages. One page is preferable.
Mess with formatting. Avoid strange fonts or making things difficult to read. Do not use colours or decorative elements to stand out – this just makes your CV look like it is not polished.
Include a photo of yourself. This will get you sent directly to the “toss” pile, no matter how perfect you are for the posting. It makes employers uncomfortable to see a picture of you which could influence how you and your application are received.
Include every job you have ever had in your “work experience” section. It isn’t relevant that you were a barista 8 years ago and worse, it can make your CV looks muddled. The “translation” to the hiring officer is that you aren’t very focused on your translation career.
Don’t include your grades with your education experiences. It takes up space and is not necessary unless you graduated with honours or distinction.
Write a separate cover letter – not many officers the time to read these anymore, especially if they receive a stack of them every week. A short email with your basic personal introduction, and some highlights from your attached CV are enough.
Forget to attach the CV. Everyone makes this mistake at some point and some places are more forgiving than others but it is best if you don’t make this mistake.

Why Become a Translator?

Posted on March 2, 2018July 4, 2018 by drawingboarddesign in Uncategorized

As soon as you begin to pursue a dream, your life wakes up and everything has meaning.

— Barbara Sher

Some people know what-they-want-to-be-when-they-grow-up shortly after they come out of the womb. For others, it’s a slow realization, and by the time they leave high school, they are on their way to realizing their dream career. Some, unsure, ponder the options and might change careers and jobs until they find their true calling. And then, there is me who thought I never really had a “calling,” until now that is.

After working thirty years as an accountant in the Oil and Gas industry in Calgary, I found myself without a job. The company I was working for was going through tremendous financial difficulties due to the recessive economy and—like many other companies—laid off many of its employees including myself. I loved my job, and it was great while it lasted, but I knew it was not my true calling

I was envious of people who had a dream and followed it! I never had a vision for myself. But I always loved languages, reading, and writing. After losing my job, I decided to start a blog, something I wanted to do for a long time. My first articles were in English; later on, to reach a broader audience, I decided to start translating them into Spanish—my mother tongue. One day, as I was happily pounding my keyboard while working on my translations, the idea of becoming a Translator hit me on the head like an awakening brick! At that moment I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up! I knew what my calling was!

I had no idea how to go about, but I was entrepreneurial and put an add on Kijiji advertising my services. Shortly, I received a call from a potential customer, after a few interactions she asked me if I was “Certified.” I did not get the business since I wasn’t a Certified Translator, but it opened the door to the exciting world of Translators and Interpreters. I started looking into it, and I found ATIA (Association of Translators and Interpreters of Alberta).

Since finding ATIA, I’ve been right on track with their program. I’ve attended every workshop ATIA has put on so far, and I’m preparing for the first two exams you must pass—Code of Ethics and English Comprehension. ATIA has welcomed me with open arms, and every member I have met so far has been warm, friendly, and talented!

The Translation and Interpreters industry is booming with the prediction that demand for their services will increase fifty percent by the year 2020; this is excellent news for people starting like me as well as for established translators and interpreters.

Can just anyone who speaks more than one language become a Translator? Not necessarily. To become a translator, you need to be familiar with the culture behind the languages you will be working on. You need to be extremely motivated and have the ability to work independently since most translators and interpreters are freelancers. You need to have excellent writing and reading skills. You also need to be very proactive in promoting your services and finding clients.

Strangely and whimsically, I realize now that I have been preparing for this my whole life. I’ve made a point throughout the years to be fluent in Spanish and English by speaking, reading and writing in both languages. Being at a “certain age,” while some people are thinking of planning on retiring, I’m excited and feel renewed at the opportunity of a new career!

The Best Online Tools for Professional Translators

Posted on January 19, 2018July 4, 2018 by drawingboarddesign in Uncategorized

If you are working as a professional translator, especially in a freelance capacity, you know that there are plenty of things that need to be managed in order to make your client work proceed smoothly. Luckily, there are plenty of tool available to aid with managing everything from your clients, to documents and invoices, and everything in between. Below are five of our favourite online tools for professional translators – check them out!

1. Online Encrypted Clouds like DropBox, Google Drive or Sync: Online clouds are essentially folders on the internet or downloaded to a folder on your computer which allow you to share documents easily. You can share with all of your devices by downloading corresponding apps on your phone, tablet and computers so you are never without a much-needed document, no matter which device you happen to be using! You can also access the content even without your devices through the internet by logging into your account. You can also easily share documents with anyone from around the world and have the ability to either share cloud accounts or single documents and folders instead of having to email attachments all the time.

Some benefits of these clouds include: all of your documents being a single place that cannot be destroyed, even if all of your devices break down; most of these options are completely free or very close to free; and they are highly secure as they are fully encrypted services. You can keep all of your business neatly organized in folders in your cloud, from translation documents to blog posts you write to invoices – it is a handy centralizing tool that can make your work a lot more stream-lined. And the more organized we are, the better work we do!

Great options: Google Docs and Dropbox – free

Best option: Sync.com – For a small monthly fee, you keep your cloud services based in Canada with this Ontario company.

2. Google Docs: Google Docs is an online, cloud-based word processing platform that is quick and helpful when you need to collaborate on documents with other people. Rather than doing your word processing in Microsoft Word or Apple Pages, you write and edit your document on a Google server that is connected to the internet. All documents can be downloaded at any time and are automatically saved as you edit. This can be handy for translators who use copy-editors or proofreaders, particularly as margin comments can be added and any changes by any involved users are highlighted. This helps with avoiding having to send documents back and forth via email and running the risk of working on the wrong versions or having messy formatting changes as the document is passed back and forth. Oh, and it’s free – you just need a Google account to access it.

3. Online appointment keepers: If you have ever had to set up a meeting with a client to discuss the details of a project in person or over the phone, you know there can be a lot of emails back and forth in an attempt to find a suitable time to chat. There are, of course, apps and webpages to help with that! One that is well-received by professional translators online is youcanbook.me which is cloud-based and allows you to easily set your availability and book appointments. All of these appointments can easily be synced with your Google Calendar to ensure continuity if that is your email host. Once you pass the link onto your clients, they will be able to see when you are available in your online calendar and can book themselves in whenever works for both of you!

4. Social Media Marketing Tools like Buffer or Hootsuite: Gone are the days where word-of-mouth can solely be relied upon for professional translators to get new clients and projects for work! The importance of self-marketing for freelancers cannot be overstated, and few places is this more important than on social media. Social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram and so forth, offer us the opportunity to connect with new and existing clients, to send updates to our followers with great ease, and to generate a buzz around ourselves and our services. This can feel overwhelming for some professional though – after all, their work is in translation, not social media management! Fear not as there are easy-to-use options online that will make your life a lot easier. These social media management tools allow you to schedule content to all of your social media accounts in advance. It also allows for centralized access to your analytics so you can see how your audience is interacting with what you do – all from a single, user-friendly dashboard.

5. Invoicing Templates: After all is said and done, professional translators still need to get paid and this leads to the sometimes arduous task of needing to invoice our clients. You can save time with your invoicing by using online software that can help create templates that you then store in your online, encrypted cloud for ease of access later on (especially during tax season!). Whether you search for free templates that you can download or you build the invoice yourself by using Google public templates, it is sure to make the management of your invoices a lot more professional and streamlined. And you will save time too!

What are your favourite tools?