Posts Tagged ‘translators’

We frequently hear the word “teamwork”, especially in our work environments where so many people are working for the same company, all for a common end result.

Teamwork exceeds individual work by far, even if there is a member of the group that is an exceptional individual, since the sum of the parts always contributes more than each part individually.

Teamwork presents many challenges, since we must respect and accept the different individuals, overcome individual accomplishments, competitive working environments and rivals within the company. To sum it up, teamwork implies a superior degree of both personal and professional growth.

As this is one of my last few posts, I would like to thank all of my team members here for their helpful contributions and ability to work as a team. Thank you!

If you are a translator working with the Trados CAT tool, you may have seen a component called MultiTerm in your product package. So, just what is this tool and how practical is it for every-day translation jobs?

MultiTerm is ideal for translators working with bilingual glossaries or ongoing projects with highly specific terminology. Many times clients will send their glossaries in an Excel sheet with their own translations of product names or terminology for the sake of consistency between terms found in user manuals, online material, etc. In these cases, it is critical to use the glossary sent by the client. What the MultiTerm product does is convert the glossary into an .xdt file which is recognized by Trados and can then be linked to the Trados workbench. What this means for the translator is that instead of searching through countless entries of an Excel file looking for the right term, Trados will automatically recognize if the term is in the glossary, and if so, it will display the corresponding translation in the “Term Recognition” window on the Workbench.

While there are several steps involved in the process, I have found that it is well worth the time and energy to learn how to use this product, as well as its other features. Not only is this ideal for translators, but it is also great for project managers who are using several different translators for a document with very specific terminology.

Most translators have heard of the new online machine translation option called “Google Translate”. While many would argue that machine translations have several issues regarding accuracy and the inability to understand the text like humans do, this has become a widely popular tool, so much so that YouTube recently announced the launch of a Translate option for captioned videos.

This feature provides real-time translations of video captions with a variety of language options, all powered by Google Translate. While YouTube readily admits that machine translations have flaws, they hope to make their videos more accessible to a broader audience.
Here are the instructions from YouTube’s blog: “To get a translation for your preferred language, move the mouse over the bottom-right arrow, and then over the small triangle next to the CC (or subtitle) icon, to see the captions menu. Click on the “Translate…” button and then you will be given a choice of many different languages.”

Take a look at how this works with the link below.

YouTube Translation

So what do you think? Will the widespread use of machine translations, particularly Google Translate, cause a stir amongst more traditional translators? Or is this just another way to help tackle the language barriers?

“Many critics, no defenders,
translators have but two regrets:
when we hit, no one remembers,
when we miss, no one forgets.”

-Anonymous

This is a well-known verse among translators, but is it really true? Are translators really given due credit for their work or are we destined to deliver translation after translation without the thanks we deserve?

Our task is difficult for various reasons, but the underlying challenge in our work is to deliver a final product that not only reflects the source document as much as possible, but also ensures that the language used makes perfect sense to a native speaker. However, when clients request translations, how many of them really understand the effort that goes into finding the intricate balance between these two issues?

Aside from the fact that without translators, our world would not be as globalized as it already is, many people are still hesitant to use translators as they have the power to change the entire meaning of a phrase by modifying a single word. Unless a client is bilingual in both the source and target language, complete, blind trust is placed in the hands of translators to accurately deliver the message of the document in another language.

So, is this just the nature of our job? What do you think?

In our daily task as translators, we face several different possibilities for the translation of a text, so, what is the best option when there are multiple possibilities? Some may have a more sophisticated style, some were already used by others in works published on the Internet, and finally, some are found in dictionaries or glossaries.

In the case of dictionaries, the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española has a prestigious reputation within the Spanish language, but is it the bible for all correct words and expressions in the Spanish language? Certainly, specialists from different areas will find that words that are frequently used by them do not appear in this work of unquestionable, though incomplete, excellence.

It is worth mentioning that only a dead language that no longer has people that regard this language as their mother tongue can have a complete word listing  (for example, Latin, ancient Greek, Iberian and Celtiberian languages, etc.). But in the case of living languages, people are the ones who propel languages to evolve, thanks to the creation of daily expressions for communication. The specialists are the ones who create daily expressions to describe diverse inventions and devices appearing on the market. Then, these expressions are accepted and incorporated into the dictionary.

The term Spanglish came into existence between 1965 and 1970 and refers to any expression in Spanish that borrows parts of English, especially as substitutions of Spanish words.

The most common fields that use and abuse Spanglish are areas related to technology, since most of the products introduced into the market are in English. These terms are commonly used by industry experts and when professionals from other languages need the translation of a text, they don’t want a translation that is so foreign to them for a concept in English that has become widely recognized. They prefer terms that are familiar over terms that are perhaps more correct in their own language.

This is how we have coined words such as resetear (reset), zipear (zip), formatear (format), tipear (type) and bacapear (backup), for example.

As translators, we are frequently horrified when reading text in Spanish that “sounds like English” precisely because they mirror the original in English. We find ourselves saying, “I would never translate like this”. However, the problem is that at times, some clients present us with a dilemma. We can either respect their wishes and use their preferred terminology even if it sounds like English, or translate and follow our own linguistic criteria, creating a text that is less literal but sounds more natural.

As a product of this balance between keeping the client happy and respecting linguistic rules, Spanglish has emerged on the translation market as a linguistic invention situated halfway between English and Spanish. While it has proven to be very useful for clients, reading Spanglish, however, becomes a nightmare for Spanish-speakers who try to conserve the beauty of such a rich romance language as is the Spanish language.

As we already know, one word can have several different meanings which will be defined according to the context. For example, the word trial can have one meaning in a legal document about litigation and another meaning in a document about labor relations. What’s more, these meanings shouldn’t be confused with the meaning that the word has in a medical document.

Unfortunately, not all examples are as clear as this one, and in this case, the translator must have vast knowledge of the topic in order to properly translate the document. We have all been in uncomfortable situations where we are concentrated on reading the document and have found a rhythm when suddenly an unintelligible phrase or word makes us put on the brakes.

This phrase is unintelligible to us precisely because the person who wrote the document did not understand it and thus formulated a completely incoherent sentence lacking basic logic. Of course, we can’t all be specialists and translators in different areas at the same time, but we must rely on specialists in the diverse areas of our translations as much as possible in order to clarify questions or doubts. It is important to keep in mind that the client can act as the specialist and help resolve these types of problems as well.

From the beginning of time there have always been conflicts between mankind, and in order to settle these matters without violence or reprisal, these parties come together before the courts so that an impartial third party can analyze the evidence presented by both sides and ascertain their claims.
Without any kind of personal or commercial connection to either of the parties, this impartial third party must analyze a variety of evidence and as such, must use the assistance of individuals specializing in diverse matters.
These specialists are the experts, and in our case, translation or interpretation experts. Their task is to translate documents or interpret declarations so that the judge(s) involved in the case can analyze and understand the extent of the presented evidence or other matters that are essential for its resolution.
Similarly to how translators with the necessary experience and background are required in the business world, translators must also have the proper academic certification and experience in the case of legal translations, since only legal translators can act as experts. Aside from translating and interpreting, their task also includes presenting the corresponding documents according to the file’s procedural status.
As such, translators and interpreters who wish to work in this exciting field must be further trained in the specifics of this discipline.

Most translators are familiar with the expression “traduttore, traditore” meaning “translator, traitor” and have their own personal experiences with the difficulties in translation. We have all seen poor-quality translations, translated text that is virtually unintelligible for a native speaker, translations that misrepresent the original text and blatant mistakes whether in subtitles, song lyrics, or in day-to-day document translations. Translators become the villains in this story–the easy targets when pointing the finger. After all, translation is really about just taking words from one language and finding the equivalent in the target language, right? So how hard can it really be?

Well, for starters, translation is no easy task and involves much more than simply transferring the words into another language. It requires research, thorough understanding of both the original and target languages, cultural knowledge, and specific training on the topic you are translating. And even then, there are still inherent problems with the language itself that lend themselves to numerous interpretations and glaring mistakes. There are just some phrases that are so connected to cultural context that it is next to impossible to provide an equivalent translation of the text that also bears the same meaning.

So, what exactly is the translator’s job when faced with these difficult expressions? Is it better to translate them literally so as not to “betray” the text but at the risk of a lower quality translation, or is it better to find the closest alternative that makes sense in the target language, even though the translated version may slightly modify the idea? Most translators would say that their task is to effectively communicate the same idea so that it makes sense to native speakers, but does that mean we are doomed to constant criticism?

The accusations and criticism aside, translation is an essential and rewarding task. As Goethe puts it, “Say what we may of the inadequacy of translation, yet the work is and will always be one of the weightiest and worthiest undertakings in the general concerns of the world.”

As translators, we frequently work on high-volume projects, but keeping consistency within one or several documents can be tricky. In order to delivery a quality product to the client, we need to use the CONCORDANCE function within the TRADOS CAT (computer-aided translation) tool, which is widely used, or should be, among translators.

In order to apply this function, do the following:

1. Highlight the expression you want to search within the translation memory:

2. Click on the CONCORDANCE function in the TRADOS bar:

3. The translation memory will display the other occurrences of the expression you highlighted within this document or within the other documents used with this same translation memory:

If we make it a habit to utilize this Trados function when translating or editing, all documents that we deliver to the same client will always be consistent in the terminology.

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