Learning by Translating

Spesso capita che i traduttori facciano dei lavori di revisione, un’attività che si distingue dalla redazione per il fatto che è fatta confrontando la lingua di partenza e quella d’arrivo, mentre la redazione, che ovviamente viene fatta dopo, viene fatta tenendo in considerazione solo le norme della lingua d’arrivo.

Brian Mossop, in Revising and editing for translators (St Jerome Publishing, 2001), ha stilato una lista di “regole” a cui un buon revisore si dovrebbe attenere.

1. Se ci sono molti errori, forse il testo è da ritradurre.
2. Se non ci capisce cosa sta dicendo la traduzione senza rileggere o senza consultare l’originale, è il caso di apportare delle correzioni.
3. Chiedersi non tanto se una frase “possa”, ma se “debba” essere migliorata. I cambiamenti vanno effettuati a seconda del fruitore della traduzione.
4. Fare piccoli cambiamenti invece di riscrivere.
5. Ridurre al minimo l’introduzione di errori se rimangono dubbi sui cambiamenti da apportare.
6. Ottimizzare il tempo di revisione con una lettura monolingua, a meno che la probabilità di errori di traduzione sia tale da giustificare un lavoro con testo a fronte.
7. Nel fare una correzione linguistica o un miglioramento stilistico, accertarsi di non aver introdotto un errore di traduzione.
8. Se introducete un cambiamento controllate che il testo non richieda poi altre modifiche nelle frasi vicine (creazione di cacofonie, ripetizioni).
9. Attenzione ai macroerrori (non “fissarsi” sul lavoro di pulizia dei singoli errori, sentire se la traduzione “funziona” complessivamente per quanto riguarda tono, stile, ritmo).
10. Nel controllare la forma, attenzione a non farsi sfuggire errori di significato, controsensi, contraddizioni e viceversa.
11. Controllare i numeri oltre che le parole.
12. Sfruttare al massimo la capacità di vedere il testo come il lettore lo vede per la prima volta.
13. Raggiungere un equilibrio tra accuratezza e grado di leggibilità.
14. In ultima analisi, dare la precedenza alle necessità del lettore piuttosto che a quelle del committente.
15. Attenzione ai refusi nella prima pagina.
16. Fare sempre cambiamenti giustificabili.
17. Non imporre agli altri il proprio approccio alla traduzione.
18. Non imporre agli altri le proprie idiosincrasie linguistiche.
19. Committente e lettore devono beneficiare al massimo della traduzione, verificare che ogni modifica scritta a mano sia stata inserita su file prima di inviare il lavoro di revisione finito.
20. Se non riesce a risolvere un problema è bene segnalarlo al committente.

Lord, help me to relax about insignificant details beginning tomorrow at
7:41:23 am PST.
God help me to consider my customers feelings, even if most of them ARE
hypersensitive.
God help me to take responsibility for my own actions, even though
they’re usually NOT my fault.
God, help me to not try to run everything.
But, if You need some help, please feel free to ask me!
Lord, help me to be more laid back,
and help me to do it EXACTLY right.
God, help me to take things more seriously,
especially laughter, parties, and dancing.
God, give me patience,
and I mean right NOW!
Lord, help me not be a perfectionist.
(Did I spell that correctly?)
God, help me to finish everything I sta
God, help me to do only what I can,
and trust you for the rest.
(And would you mind putting that in writing?)
Lord, keep me open to others’ ideas,
WRONG though they may be.
Lord, help me be less independent.
but let me do it my way.
Lord, help me follow established procedures today.
On second thought, I’ll settle for a few minutes.
Lord, help me slow down
andnotrushthroughwhatIdo.
Amen.

Found here.

(Warning: long post!)

Let’s go back to September 14. I went to Forlì, 300 miles away from the town where I live, to sit an entrance exam for a Laurea Magistrale course (Master’s Degree equivalent) in Specialised Translation (ITA: Traduzione specializzata). It took me five hours and a half to get there, and it was also raining that day! I visited the city centre, and went shopping (I bought a shirt I wore during the exam). On the following day I sat the entrance exam (it lasted four hours, starting at about 9:45 a.m.) . It was divided into two parts (that lasted two hours each): in the first one you had to translate two texts into Italian, and in the second one you had to translate two texts into the languages you study. In my case, I had to translate from English and French into Italian and viceversa.

On September 29, the results came out, and I got in! What I felt afterwards is something that is difficult to describe. I was very happy, and tears of joy soon covered my face. In four words, a dream come true. I had wanted to study at the Advanced School of Modern Languages for Interpreters and Translators for the last two years, since I was an undergraduate student. As some people already know, I wanted to become an interpreter, but I eventually chose to become a translator because I don’t think that I have the personality of an interpreter, and I also like translating written texts. Interpreters should translate quickly, and I am too much of a perfectionist when it comes to translating most of the times. I have to be sure that the words I’m using are the right ones for conveying the meaning of the source text I’m working on. I also think that learning words on lists in a decontextualised way is not for me (even if you can put examples on a glossary)… I prefer having dictionaries and other resources always at hand. I prefer working on something I can always proofread at a later time (unlike oral translations). I celebrated with a few friends of mine by inviting them at home, and we had piadinas for dinner.

On October 2, I started looking for a place to stay in Forlì. I found it on the 4th, and I moved there on the same day. Classes started on Monday (the first one I went to was an English Language and Linguistics one), which was my birthday. I celebrated by eating a crescione and a slice of Sachertorte for dinner. I started doing my first translations for the course (I’m studying literary, multimedia and technical translation), I met new people and got to know the School (SSLMIT from now on) and the city better.

On October 9, I went to my first translation-related conference (organized by the SSLMIT): “Technologies for Translation”. It was very interesting because I had the opportunity to discover CAT tools (especially TRADOS, since I’m going to learn how to use it during my M.A. course) and their latest versions, but also the latest developments in localization, machine translation and translation memory research. It was an international conference, so there were also presentations that were held in English. Simultaneous interpretation into Italian was available, and I alternated between the original speakers and the interpreters’ translation (by the way, they did a very good job!), otherwise I would have been mentally exhausted at the end of the conference, since I’m not used to listening to  another language for a very long time when someone talks using technical terms (and last, but not least, QUICKLY!!).

Okay, I think that’s all for now. As I’m going to be busy with my studies once again, I might update this site less often than usual, but I have to say: welcome back, student translator life!

First of all, I’m wishing all translators, interpreters and students a happy International Translation Day, which is celebrated every year on September 30th on the feast of St. Jerome.

According to Wikipedia,

The celebrations have been promoted by FIT (the International Federation of Translators) ever since it was set up in 1953. In 1991 FIT launched the idea of an officially recognised International Translation Day to show solidarity of the worldwide translation community in an effort to promote the translation profession in different countries (not necessarily only in Christian ones). This is an opportunity to display pride in a profession that is becoming increasingly essential in the era of progressing globalisation.

According to the International Translators Association (you can find more information on the International Translation Day here),

[...] the challenge of International Translation Day remains the same: to raise awareness of the translation profession.

For those who didn’t know, St. Jerome is the patron saint of archeologists, archivists, Bible scholars, librarians, libraries, schoolchildren, students and translators. You can read about his life and works on this Wikipedia article. Last year, Jill Sommers posted a very detailed post about him, which was also about the way he worked as a translator (he revised and translated parts of the Bible into Latin, and awarded sainthood thanks to the services he rendered to the Church). Quoting  the article posted on the TIHOF’s website:

Jerome’s humility regarding his own work set a good example for translators who followed him. He freely admitted ignorance, even embarrassment, when warranted, and revisited some of his translations, making corrections and additions. On the other hand, he also pointed out that a translation’s accuracy depended greatly on the reliability of the source text: copyists often inadvertently introduced errors, which would be compounded and passed down through the centuries.

The International Translation Day has a different theme every year. This year’s theme is Working Together.

Many translation-related events are organized on this day. For example, ProZ.com’s first virtual conference, starting at 10 am GMT, which runs for 12 hours and you can attend for free. Always speaking of ProZ.com, some members even organize pow-wows.

Worldaccent.com posted a themed greeting card here. Being keen on graphic design, I didn’t hesitate to make mine:

(Credits: font by Fonts for Peas and flower brush by buburu)

I know this topic has already been widely discussed, but educating our clients is (and will always be) a matter of the utmost importance.

A few days ago, when I visited some relatives of mine, we talked about my intention of getting an MA in Translation. I’ve been asked: “So, you’re going to work at conferences, aren’t you?”. It wasn’t the first time that somebody asked me if I’m going to work as an interpreter. I had to explain my relatives what’s the difference between the two professions. I came to the conclusion that lay people often confuse translators with interpreters: not only did I take my personal experience into account, but also posts I read on other translation blogs.

While translators deal with written texts, interpreters work with oral texts (speeches, conversations and utterances in general) and render them orally, either consecutively or simultaneously (with the exception of the so-called “sight translation”, which is the oral rendition of a written text, done immediately and without using dictionaries). There are also people who both translate and interpret, but a good translator doesn’t necessarily make a good interpreter, and vice versa. It’s just a matter of skills. According to James Nolan:

The translator relies mainly on thorough research with background materials and dictionaries in order to produce the most accurate and readable written translation possible. The interpreter relies mainly on the ability to get the gist of the message across to the target audience on the spot. [...] However, in practice, the translator is usually held to a higher standard of accuracy and completeness (including the ability to reproduce the style of the original), while the interpreter is expected to convey the essence of the message immediately. The translator’s activity is more like that of a writer, while the interpreter’s performance is more like that of an actor. A good translator will spend much time searching for the correct technical term or the right choice of words, but a good interpreter must come up with a satisfactory paraphrase or a rough equivalent if le mot juste does not come to mind, in order not to keep the audience waiting.

(“Interpretation Techniques and Exercises”, Multilingual Matters, 2005, pp. 2-3)

Julia K. Barbalace of English Russian Translations wrote:

In my opinion, the professionals who work with interpreters and translators should be aware of the difference between these two terms and use them appropriately. At the same time, we interpreters and translators, should also take a proactive approach and try to clear the misconceptions and promote our professions.

You can read the rest of Julia’s article (very useful and written in detail) about the difference between translators and interpreters here.

Source: Traduzioni Studio Tre

Versione italiana

The image I’m posting below is a screenshot from a Facebook application that has been machine-translated into Italian.

I found a translation particularly funny! It says: “Cerchi Sig. / Sig.ra DIRITTO?”. This is a word-for-word translation of “Are you looking for Mr. / Mrs. RIGHT?”. If you, like me, are a native speaker of Italian, or have a good knowledge of the language, you know that the English word “right” has several possible Italian translations:

• “Esatto”, “corretto”, “giusto” (“exact”, “correct”)
• “Giusto”, “opportuno” (“just”)
• “Diritto” (“right”, “ability”, like in “Women had to fight for the right to vote” => “Le donne dovettero/hanno dovuto lottare per il diritto al voto”)
• “Destra” (“right” as opposed to “left”, “sinistra” in Italian)
• Etc. (cf. Wordreference)

Given the context (informal) and the type of text (it is the title of an online test), a possible right translation of the sentence is “Cerchi il/la tipo/a giusto/a (per te)?”. I wouldn’t have translated “Mr. / Mrs.” with “Sig. / Sig.ra” (short forms for “Signore” => “Mister” and “Signora” => “Mistress”)  because, even if the sentence would be grammatically correct, “tipo/tipa” is a more natural translation, and “Sig. / Sig.ra” are used in formal contexts, as in letters (“Egregio Sig. XXX” => “Dear Mr. XXX”, “Gentile Sig.ra” => “Dear Madam”). Alternative translations might be “l’uomo / la donna” (“the man / woman”) or “il ragazzo / la ragazza” (“the boy / girl”), but I still prefer the first one.

This mistranslation reminded me of a video game included in Windows Vista, “Purble Place”. I have an Italian version of Vista, so the game is in Italian. I don’t know whether it was translated by a human translator or a machine, but when you get a character’s feature (and its colour) right in “Purble Shop”, a message saying “Colore destro“ appears.

You can clearly realize that it is a word-for-word translation of the English “right colour”. The right translation would be “colore giusto/esatto”. I don’t know the English version of the game, but I think that “3 caratteristiche giuste”  (“3 right features”) is correct. So, I suppose that the same word was translated in two different ways here, while the translation should have been the same in both cases.

You can find lots of other examples of Italian localization errors in the blog “Premere il tasto ANY”. The title is a deliberate mistranslation of the sentence “Press any key” (“Premere un tasto qualsiasi”).

If you speak Italian and are a translator / a translation student / interested in translation, you may find this twice-monthly webcast very interesting. It is about different aspects of translation and the translator’s job. Each month there is a different theme on which the webcast’s episodes are based (for example, April’s theme is the translator’s visibility, March’s one was the quality of translations). Tradurre (to translate, or translating) is a webinar, hosted by Andrea Spila and Melani Traini of the European School of Translation, that features a different guest (working in the translation field) each time. Quoting Wikipedia, a webinar is:

a specific type of web conference. It is typically one-way, from the speaker to the audience with limited audience interaction, such as in a webcast. A webinar can be collaborative and include polling and question & answer sessions to allow full participation between the audience and the presenter. In some cases, the presenter may speak over a standard telephone line, pointing out information being presented on screen and the audience can respond over their own telephones, preferably a speaker phone. There are web conferencing technologies on the market that have incorporated the use of VoIP audio technology, to allow for a truly web-based communication.

If you would like to participate, you can sign up for free a few days earlier (see the EST blog for dates and topics. You can also subscribe to the EST Newsletter). By participating, you can interact with the hosts and the guest(s). There are also polls related to the topic of the day. If you miss an episode, or would like to watch past episodes, you can watch videos on the Archivi (Archives) page. You can also watch videos of past webinars organized by the EST, like this one on WordFast, which I watched a few days ago. Two years ago, I downloaded WordFast Classic out of curiosity, and tried it with a text. Once I even got an 82% fuzzy match, because two sentences in the text were similar (since I wasn’t using a translation memory, I got mostly “no matches”, and zero 100% matches). Thanks to that video, I learnt something about WordFast I didn’t know before (CAT tools are usually taught during MA courses in Translation, while I attended a BA course in Translation and Interpreting, during which I studied translation theory and techniques, and translated different text typologies, but without CAT tools).

I signed up for the upcoming webcast (it is on April 30), which is going to be on the visibility and the status of the translator’s profession. I’ve never taken part in a webcast/webinar, but I watched the previous episodes of Tradurre, so I already know how it is structured.

I also realized that I’ve been blogging for two months today! Happy 2 months, Learning by Translating!

I’m back! I know, I haven’t posted in here for almost 3 weeks, but I have been busy with my studies.

I graduated in Translation and Liaison Interpreting!

I wrote a translation thesis (from English into Italian) about interpreters working on television. I translated two texts and wrote a comment, in which I explained the translation methods and the strategy I used. There were also references to technical terms, words used in a particular sense, idiomatic expressions and the typology of the texts I translated (not in that order!). It took me about 6 months to finish my thesis (I also had to study for the last 3 exams), but I enjoyed this experience from the very first moment, because I considered it as an opportunity to learn something new, and to start putting what I have learnt in the last 3 years into practice. I felt like I was translating a book! It was a very enriching experience, because it wasn’t just another translation exercise this time, but an opportunity to “take a closer look” at how a translator actually works. In addition, even if it may sound banal, I learnt words, concepts, expressions and idioms I had never heard before (I actually am a fan of idiomatic expressions and proverbs in any language).

Some lessons I have learnt:

• learning how to proofread a translation well is very important. I think that proofreading is a task that should be done very thoroughly.
• sometimes you might think that a translation is never really finished, because you happen to think about ways in which you might improve it (for example, you realize that “y” sounds better than “x” in that context)  everytime you (proof)read it… but at a certain point you also have to realize you have come to a possible final version of the text.
• I discovered a domain I would like to specialize in.
• For technical terms, it is better to use parallel texts or online glossaries than to use a dictionary, because you might not find them there. Thank God for the Internet! It is a very precious resource for translators/interpreters.

By the way, even if I’ve been writing in English more, I’ll keep this site bilingual, but I won’t be adding an Italian translation to every single post I will write from now on.

Comunque. anche se ultimamente sto scrivendo di più in inglese, continuerò a usare due lingue in questo sito, ma d’ora in poi non aggiungerò la traduzione in italiano a ciascun post che scriverò.

A year ago I found (while reading “From Our Lips to Your Ears”, one of my favourite interpreting blogs) a very interesting radio programme on language-related topics: “Talkin’ About Talk”. It was broadcast in 2005, the Year of Languages in America. There are different topics covered, e.g. bilingualism, translation and interpreting, dialects, threatened or dying languages, language learning, etc. Here you can find all the radio scripts and download the episodes. Actually, I’ve listened only to “What does it take to be an interpreter”?, but I would like to download some other episodes (like “Is British English Superior to Ours?”, which is about British VS American English, a topic that has always fascinated me; “Do you have to go abroad to learn a language?”; “What does it mean to be bilingual?”; “Can you make a living loving languages?”; “What does it take to learn a language well?”; “How good is machine translation?”; and “How are dictionaries made?”).

“What talent it takes to translate one language into another — listening and speaking at the same time! You can’t pick up a dictionary. And you can’t just spit out words like a robot. The interpreter’s job is to convey meaning. And since a lot of meaning is expressed by tone of voice or the nuance of words and phrases, his job is far more than translating word for word.

[...]

A translator needs somewhat different skills. But again, strong knowledge of two languages is just the beginning, because translating can get very complicated. There’s the question of technical terms. Lawyers file writs of mandamus. Physicians treat hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The terminology can be pretty daunting, and for translation you need to understand what it means. Because, like interpreting, translation isn’t about words. It’s about what the words are about. Simply looking things up in a dictionary isn’t enough. Not even close.”

(http://www.cofc.edu/linguist/archives/2005/10/what_does_it_ta_1.html)