Archive for December, 2008

What kind of person might naturally be a good translator? Maybe this seems like a silly question but I, having been exposed to linguistic diversity relatively late in my life, sometimes find myself envying those who have been exposed to greater linguistic diversity and have an apparent facility with language learning and, especially, the use of different languages, and I have thought that such facility would make someone a good translator. Upon greater reflection, however, the facility to use different languages is far from the only skill or characteristic important for translation. Another important characteristic  is attentiveness or sensibility to audience and situation – that is, the facility to use different language appropriately in accordance with a particular audience and situation.

Might there be certain individuals or groups of individuals who naturally have a highly developed sensibility to audience and social situation, without having formal translation experience? The logical response as to who these individuals might be is those individuals who frequently have to adapt their speech or change their language for different audiences and contexts.

The first group of such people I can think of is politicians, who have developed the capacity to change not only their accent or register, but even their discourse. Politicians, however, are unlikely to begin translation careers. Another group I can think of, however, is bidialectal African-American English (AAE) (or Ebonics) speakers. Bidialectal African-American English (AAE) speakers, who naturally speak a minority social dialect, are especially aware of and used to choosing between AAE and SAE according to audience and situation. AAE speakers are especially attentive to audience and situation because their native tongue is generally stigmatized in the larger U.S. society, and the consequences of inattentiveness may be severe (unemployment, poverty, neglect, injustice). Since there is relatively little demand for AAE-SAE translation, these speakers would have to be proficient in another language, such as Spanish or Chinese, which has a lot of demand for translation to English – SAE English that is.

Any other “natural” translators??

1.    Open MultiTerm. Then open the already created termbase.

2.    Open the Workbench. Go to OPTIONS, and then go to TERM RECOGNITION OPTIONS and select your version of MultiTerm.

3.    Click on EXAMINE and with a click on the + sign select the local termbase. Select the source and target languages.

4.    When you click ACCEPT, you Hill see the MultiTerm window in the Workbench (in the extreme right).

5.    Now you can work. When you open a document, the saved glossary terms Hill appear in this MultiTerm window. If you notice that nothing appears in the MultiTerm window during too many segments of the translation, it’s possible that the MultiTerm has been disconnected. Open MultiTerm again or the Workbench.

6.    In the tool bar of Trados you will see new buttons, those of MultiTerm.

7.    If you click the middle button of those that have red brackets above (get current term), the program will insert the term as if it were a segment.

Wherever you are, whatever you may be doing for the next week, I wish you all happiness, warmth, health, food, family, and safety. Thank you for stopping by and reading this and any of the other posts. See you soon!

Trusted Translations has launched its multilingual translation sites in Portuguese, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Chinese and Japanese.

These are the homes of the main sites in those languages, as well as a short description of each site in its language.

• Portuguese Site:

Tradução
Líder em Traduções de Português: Trusted Translations, Inc. Traduções de português de qualidade ao melhor preço, realizadas por tradutor/equipes de tradução especializados.

• French Site:

Traduction
Leader en traduction en français: Trusted Translations, Inc. Des traductions en français de qualité aux meilleurs prix réalisées par des équipes de traducteurs spécialisés.

• Dutch Site:

Vertaling
Leider in Nederlandstalige Vertaling: Trusted Translations, Inc. Nederlandstalige kwaliteitsvertalingen door gespecialiseerde vertalersteams tegen de beste prijs.

• Italian Site:

Traduzione
Azienda Leader nella Traduzione in Italiano: Trusted Translations, Inc. traduzioni in italiano di qualità e ai migliori prezzi, effettuate da team di traduttori esperti.

• German Site:

Übersetzung
Führend auf dem Gebiet von Übersetzungen aus dem Deutschen: Trusted Translations, Inc. Übersetzungen von höchster Qualität aus dem Deutschen, angefertigt von professionellen Fachübersetzer-Teams zu besten Preisen.

• Japanese Site:

翻訳
リーズナブルな料金でご提供する経験豊かな翻訳家チームによる確かな品質の日本語翻訳。

• Chinese Site:

翻譯
专家级翻译团队以最优价格提供高质量中文翻译

Public policies aiming to preserve a national language are most commonly associated with small nations, whether they be small nation-states (i.e., Iceland, Ireland, and Estonia) or minority nations within a larger nation-state (i.e., Quebecois French, Basque, Catalan, and countless indigenous languages). Nevertheless, now many larger countries are taking action to preserve their majority languages.

The most well-known case (and least surprising to anyone familiar with stereotypes of the French) is that of France, with the Toubon Law of 1994 which mandates the use of French in all government documents, commercial contracts, commercial communications and advertising. In 2006, Malaysia began fining those who mix English words into Malay – so-called Manglish – in advertising and Iran it was decreed that all adopted foreign words be replaced with Persian equivalents (with the exception of Arabic, since it is the language of the Koran).

This week I’ve read that the ruling Christian Democrats of Germany are trying to enshrine the German language in their federal constitution as the country’s official language in order to protect the national language. Again, the main concern is the increasing use of English words. According to a study by Hanover University, cited by the December 16th The Independent article, “23 of the 100 currently most-used words in German were in fact English”.

There must be many other examples, but will any of them successfully ward of the apparent forces of language change and anglicization? Only time will tell.

These days it is impossible for a translator to do his or her job without using a computer. But let’s not forget that it wasn’t always like this…

A few decades ago, before there was such a thing as advanced technology, translators worked only with pen and paper. Research was a very difficult aspect, since it required a lot of effort to access texts from other parts of the world. In addition, those were different times, since the translations had to be written out by hand or, even better, on a typewriter. Finding out that some friend or acquaintance was traveling to another country was a big deal, since this gave the translator the perfect opportunity to get his or her hands on priceless material. Informational material handed out by certain foreign companies was also of great value.

Today this reality has changed. In certain ways we have become salves to technology. By this I only mean that a translator who does not have at least a fundamental understanding of software and other technological aspects of the job will not see as many opportunities. To work with a variety of clients, be it with companies or with translation agencies, we need to be well-versed in the finer workings of programs such as Acrobat, Excel, Word, Multiterm, Trados, among other. For this reason, it is highly important that we are certified in these tools. If we are already working with these software programs, we have to stay constantly up to speed on the latest features and changes. Unfortunately, a translator who fails to stay updated on technological issues will fall behind the rest.

I first came across this sign a few months ago, but I feel it’s important to complement justinb’s post to emphasize that ANYONE interested in translation, especially those looking to run an agency, really soak in what happened here. For those of us who have no knowledge of Welsh, we brush it off and turn left (provided that we are not a heavy goods vehicle). However, a Welsh-speaking truck driver with no knowledge of English is pretty much stuck. The sign in Welsh reads, “I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated.” At least that’s what they tell me.

As professional translators and people interested in someday running our own agency, this tells us a few things:

First, have more than one person who understands the target language look at what is being sent along, especially if it is being used for publication in a place where many, many people can see it.

Second, if a translator you normally work with sends you a translation with no additional comment, confirm that it is a translation and not an automatic message or something that they otherwise sent without thinking.

Third, if you’re generally working with one specific language pair (here, Welsh-English), make sure that your emails are correctly in both, in case someone is looking to contact you from either end.

Last, learn from your mistakes or those of others…mistakes like these can only be prevented by thorough attention to detail from every party involved.

There are dozens and dozens of errors like this out there…don’t have me add yours to the list later…

1.    Open MultiTerm. Go to TERMBASE > CREATE TERMBASE.

2.    Choose the folder in which you want to save the database and click ACCEPT.

3.    The Termbase Wizard will open. Click NEXT.

4.    Select the option LOAD AN EXISTING TERMBASE DEFINTION FILE. Click BROWSE… to search for the .xdt file in your system. Once you’ve found and selected the file, click NEXT.

5.    Write the name and, if you wish, the description of the termbase. Click NEXT.

6.    The languages of the termbase are already preconfigured in the .xdt file. Therefore, don’t do anything and directly click NEXT.

7.    The descriptive fields of the termbase are already preconfigured in the .xdt file. Therefore, don’t do anything and directly click NEXT.

8.    In this step the entry structure is configured, but it isn’t necessary to do anything. Directly click NEXT.

9.    Wizard has finished. Click FINISH.

10.    The MultiTerm window opens with the termbase just created.

11.    In order to import the glossary terms, go to TERMBASE > IMPORT ENTRIES… > PROCESS…

12.    Click BROWSE… to search for the .xml file. The log file path is created automatically. Click NEXT.

13.    Write the name of the exclusion file. This file will include the invalid entries or those that present problems during the importing process. Click NEXT.

14.    A summary of the previous steps appears. Click NEXT.

15.    When the program finishes importing, click NEXT.

16.    Click FINISH and then ACCEPT.

Following up on my last blog, it is worth discussing another important cause of language change: technology. While technological innovation and dissemination have always influenced language change, some speculate that the scale of such influence today may lead to more rapid and significant changes than in the past due to the nature of contemporary technological innovation and dissemination.

Historically, technological advances tended to increase the social and economic phenomena to talk about thus requiring new words, new phrases or semantic expansion of old words and phrases as well as to increase contact between peoples and the consequent impacts of such contact (and domination). These types of changes are obviously still occurring today and doing so on a greater scale. The contemporary extinction of minority languages and expansion of dominant languages, especially English, are the most drastic and sensational of the latter type of changes, and new words/phrases such as “google” (transitive verb), “infomania”, “hypermiling”, and “password fatigue” are interesting examples of the former type (of which Webster’s New World Dictionary language monitoring program finds about 2,000 examples a month).

In addition to these types of language changes, however, there is another speculated, if not evidenced, change that seems entirely novel, which we might call the minimization, the simplification or the “dumbing down” of language. This process is the speculated consequence of a new generation of speakers who have developed their daily use of language significantly, if not predominantly, through chat rooms and text messaging rather than through books, lectures, radio and face-to-face conversations. It is to be seen of course just how serious this process might be and the labeling of it as “dumbing down” or “making more efficient” (i.e., linguistic economy) may be more of a matter of value judgment than description.

We often ask ourselves if it’s important to be registered as a translator. I think it is. Belonging to an association that brings professionals of the same field together offers different benefits for all of us.

Professional registration is useful in marking a difference. Registered translators, regardless of the quality of their work, will have a significant advantage, since they can perform certifiable translations as long as their fees at the institution are paid in full. This is a very important aspect, since legalizing our translations grants them a sense of legitimacy, in the same realm that public documents give testimony to a specific situation.

In addition to legalizing them, the associations also allow us to share our experiences with colleagues and perhaps (why not?) develop our “political” inclinations. Maybe we are interested in doing something for ourselves and our colleagues, perhaps trying to change some aspect of the profession that many of us are unhappy about. In that case, we can officially approach the organization and have discussions, debates, and meetings centered around that issue. Let us not forget that taking part in a group that works for the benefit of our profession puts us in a good position.

Likewise, we can also benefit from the different opportunities that our association offers us, such as extra references in the library, discounts for courses, seminars and other types of qualification, among other things.

I recommend to all translators to register in an association. Having this opportunity opens many doors in the professional world, since by being part of an institution we are thus included in the database and there is always the chance that someone searching there will find us.

I hate to break the news to you, but I am officially declaring the language as beyond any point of hope in terms of understanding its systems, conventions, and rules. Wait…was I supposed to put that comma before the final item of the list? It depends on who you ask!

I was browsing through the updated version of the European Commission Directorate-General for Translation’s English Style Guide (PDF version available here) and was simply overwhelmed with how arbitrary so many things are, even when explained by a committee of experts. While this document is obviously essential for reference for anyone composing a work in English for use or publication within the European Union, it is still baffling in its choices. For example (I have not poured through the entire work, instead I simply clicked on different sections, so this list is far from thorough):

• The use of “-ize” vs. “-ise”. As someone who was raised with English in the United States tradition, where the “-ize” suffix is taught 100% of the time, I will personally never understand the British tradition of preferring “-ise” when the sound is a “z” and when the Greek roots where the words are derived from were formed with a “ζ” (zeta). Be that as it may, the Style Guide goes out of its way to say that there are generally 40 exceptions in British spelling where “-ize” is preferred, though it does not list any. Pick a horse and ride it, United Kingdom. I chose mine.
• Split infinitives. This is perhaps the most vexing aspect of English. There is no justifiable grammatical basis for it to be incorrect to split the infinitive, i.e. include an adverb between “to” and the infinitive, as in “to boldly go where no man has gone before”. Some claim that it comes from the fact that infinitives were never split in Latin and, therefore, they can’t be split in English. Seriously, that’s the only explanation I have ever heard (add more below if you know any…PLEASE!). Er, English is not derived from Latin so there is no need for any of their conventions to be similar, moreso when Latin infinitives were one word and, logically, cannot be split. The Style Guide shows deference to this practice by encouraging writers to avoid that practice. Why? What is the justification??? If you are a skilled writer, you can create sentences that are provocative and insightful by using a split infinitive when it would not be possible to have the same effect without it (the example above is a fantastic illustration). If you are a bad writer, you are going to mess a lot of things up so trying to avoid certain conventions will make little to no difference.
• Belgium. Stepping outside of strict English usage issues, but remaining within the scope of translation issues, is Annex 2 “Notes on Belgium”. Wow. Read that only if it is highly necessary. It lays out the various conventions concerning when to leave names in Dutch or French. Suffice it to say that I think we should treat that lovely little country like an Etch-a-Sketch, shake it up, and let them come up with clear and concise language guidelines so that we can work quickly without having to worry about which exact community we are working for and how angry they will be if we leave a word in the wrong language.
• Serial (”Oxford” or “Harvard”) comma. I purposely avoided it because there is no solution. And I will kick anyone in the shins who says they don’t think it should ever be used. My shoes are sharp, too.

In order to work with MultiTerm, first you must create a glossary for terminology in an Excel document, with the entries in column A and the translations in column B.

You must import this glossary Excel file into the MultiTerm Convert program in the following way:

1. Open MultiTerm Convert. Click NEXT.

2. Click NEW CONVERSION SESSION and then NEXT.

3. Choose the glossary format (Excel) and then click NEXT.

4. In INPUT FILE, click BROWSE and select the glossary. The rest of the boxes are automatically completed. Click NEXT.

5. In INDEX FIELD, select first the source language and then the target language. You can complete DESCRIPTIVE FIELD if the glossary has, additionally, some kind of extra information, such as references, for example. Finally, click NEXT.

6. The steps completed are shown, click NEXT.

7. A summary of the steps competed appears. Click NEXT.

8. The Excel file must be converted to .xml and an .xdt is to be created. When the process is finished, click NEXT. Then click FINISH.

Most translators these days work with Spanish and, especially if it is not their native language (or even if it is), they come across sentences and constructions that they don’t understand. That’s why I would like to take some time to talk about an essential tool for anyone doing work in the Spanish language: http://www.rae.es/rae.html, which is the Internet resource for the Real Academia Española.

To begin it is essential to make the distinction between the two tools available on the site: the RAE’s dictionary itself and the Pan-Hispanic dictionary of doubts, both available for searching on the home page.
The dictionary itself offers us all of the options that the printed version offers us: looking up, definition, and grammatical context of any term. For translators, it is important to remember that every term that is not in the dictionary is NOT accepted and, therefore, its use is not valid. In addition to multiple ways to filter the search of a word, we can also access a form to make queries and suggestions on this page.
The second option available on the site is what translators often refer to as “the pan-hispanic”, which provides us with a a plethora of possibilities for investigation. This dictionary is useful for looking up terms that generate doubts that go beyond their definition. For example, they could be doubts on use of the term, preposition usage, anglicisms, punctuation, etc. As one who works with the Spanish language regularly, I think this is one of the finest tools in my job, since it is common for us to have doubts about words that are not resolved just by reading a definition. Likewise, I recommend related articles, which are grouped in different aspects of the Spanish language that regularly present difficulties as we perform our job.

In summary, I would recommend that you become friends with the RAE’s web page, since it offers knowledge, clears away doubts, saves us time, and helps us to avoid mistakes in our work.

While language change may occur at varying speeds and due to diverse and numerous causes, many changes have political roots or explanations. Much of language change, obviously, has come about from human migration and the use of a language by non-native speakers, with the influences of the phonetic, syntactic and morphological rules of the migrants native tongue (not to mention cultural contributions).  Migration, in turn, almost invariably has political roots.

The massive immigration of Irish to the United States, which has made innumerable contributions to English slang, has been attributed by historians to British colonization of Ireland and its land tenancy policies which perpetuated poverty and exacerbated the Great Famine of the mid-19th century. The massive immigration of Italians to Argentina, which made its linguistic mark in Argentine slang and intonation, can be partially explained by political turmoil on the Italian peninsula (and the immigration policies of Argentina).

Beyond the language changes brought about by migration, politics often engenders language change in more immediate ways by the public debates it incites regarding changing economic and social realities. For example, increasing environmental awareness and environmental policies (both public and private) in recent decades has led to a number of new words and phrases such as “tree-hugger”, “eco-friendly”, “carbon footprint”, “greenwashing”, “locavore”, “eco-terrorism” and “green collar jobs” and has expanded the use and meaning of other words and phrases such as “gas-guzzler”, “sustainability”, “organic”, “capture” and “hybrid”. Likewise, the liberation of women and the struggle for gender equality has also brought about some important language changes, especially the use of “his or her” or “he/she” instead of using masculine pronouns for gender neutral or gender inclusive subjects and the gender neutralization of profession words, such as “spokesperson”, “congressperson”, etc.

Impressively random and insignificant political phenomena may also lead to important language changes. This year’s U.S. presidential election, for example, saw “the common citizen” or “average Joe” suddenly replaced by “Joe the plumber” due to one of thousands