Learning by Translating

Larger version here.

Yes, I’d like to get into photography.

• AIIC (International Association of Conference Interpreters)
• Biblit, idee e risorse per traduttori letterari - it also includes a page with tips on how to become literary translators and various resources (ITA)
• DG Interpretation’s YouTube channel
• English Russian Translations – Interpreter vs Translator – an article about the difference between translators and interpreters
• European Masters in Conference Interpreting – EMCI
• European Masters in Translation – EMT
• European School of Translation (ITA)
• Heriot-Watt Language Careers (YouTube channel)
• Interpreter Training Resources – the only dedicated site for conference interpreting students. There is also a forum for student interpreters (I used to post there). Definitely a must-see.
• Interpreting for Europe
• Live ETI – Online lectures at ETI in Geneva.
• ProZ.com – A community for translators, interpreters and language students.
• SCICNET – DG Interpretation (EU)
• The Interpreter’s Friends (ENG)
• The Whisperers – A documentary about interpreters.
• Tradurre – A documentary about translators. (ITA)
• Translation and Interpreting Glossary (ENG)
• Translators Café – Another community for translators.
• Watercooler – Tips, tricks and networking for translators.

Latest update: March 9, 2010.

Found a dead link (i.e. one that isn’t working anymore)? Please let me know by posting a comment below! Thanks in advance!

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.

Ecco una bibliografia contenente riferimenti a libri e pagine web sull’interpretazione televisiva, argomento della mia tesi di Laurea triennale dal titolo “Gli interpreti del piccolo schermo: On-screen Intercultural Mediation”.

• AAE-ESIT, ARTE: la chaîne des langues, 1998 (http://www.geocities.com/Eureka/office/1936/audio2.html).

• AIB, Interpretation on television, ESPaiic, 2001 (http://www.aibcnet.com/consejos_traduccion/television.php?id=en).

• AIIC, Essential do’s and dont’s when using simultaneous conference interpreting on TV (http://www.aiic.net/ViewPage.cfm/article28).

• AIIC Technical and Health Committee, Media Interpreting – a different sort of world (http://www.aiic.net/ViewPage.cfm/article91.htm).

• BROS-BRANN, E., Checklist for TV Interpretation, 1989 (http://www.aiic.net/community/attachments/ViewAttachment.cfm/a456p635-734.pdf?&filename=a456p635-734.pdf&page_id=635).

• BROS-BRANN, E., Simultaneous interpreting and the media: interpreting live for television (http://www.aiic.net/community/attachments/ViewAttachment.cfm/a452p630-726.pdf?&filename=a452p630-726.pdf&page_id=630).

• CHIARO, D., “Linguistic mediation on Italian television: When the interpreter is not an interpreter: a case study”, in GARZONE, G. – VIEZZI, M. (a cura di), Interpreting in the 21st Century. Challenges and opportunities. Selected papers from the 1st Forlì Conference on Interpreting Studies, 9-11 November 2000, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, John Benjamins Publishing Company (Benjamins Translation Library, 43), 2002, pagg. 215-225.

• GAMBIER, Y., GOTTLIEB, H. (a cura di), (Multi) Media Translation: Concepts, Practices, and Research, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2001.

• KALINA, S., “‘Microphone off’ – Application of the process model of interpreting to the classroom”, in Kalbotyra, 57 (3), 2007, pag. 116.

• KATAN, D., STRANIERO SERGIO, F., “Look Who’s Talking. The Ethics of Entertainment and Talkshow Interpreting”, in The Translator, Manchester, St. Jerome Publishing, 7, 2, 2001, pagg. 213-237.

• KURZ, I., “Physiological stress responses during media and conference interpreting”, in GARZONE, G. – VIEZZI, M. (a cura di), Interpreting in the 21st Century. Challenges and opportunities. Selected papers from the 1st Forlì Conference on Interpreting Studies, 9-11 November 2000, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, John Benjamins Publishing Company (Benjamins Translation Library, 43), 2002, pagg. 195-202.

• KURZ, I., BROS-BRANN, E., L’interprétation en direct pour la télévision, in GAMBIER, Y. (a cura di), Les transferts linguistiques dans les médias audiovisuels, Presses Universitaires du Septentrion (attualmente in fase di ristampa).

• MACK, G., “L’interpretazione in tv: vecchie e nuove ipotesi di ricerca”, Relazione presentata al Congresso di fondazione dell’Associazione italiana di linguistica applicata AITLA, Pisa, 22 e 23.10.1999 (http://home.sslmit.unibo.it/~aitla/pisa/mack.htm).

• MACK, G., “New perspectives and challenges for interpretation: The example of television”, in GARZONE, G. – VIEZZI, M. (a cura di), Interpreting in the 21^st Century. Challenges and opportunities. Selected papers from the 1st Forlì Conference on Interpreting Studies, 9-11 November 2000, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, John Benjamins Publishing Company (Benjamins Translation Library, 43), 2002, pagg. 203-213.

• NIEMANTS, N., 2001 Unomattina: a case study in media interpreting, tesi di Laurea Specialistica non pubblicata, SSLMIT, Università di Bologna, 2008 (http://www.dailynterpreter.com/my-writings).

• RICCARDI, A., Dalla traduzione all’interpretazione. Studi di interpretazione simultanea, LED, 2003.

• STRANIERO SERGIO, F., “I (Paolo) Limiti dell’interpretazione, ovvero i mediatori antagonisti del testo televisivo”, Relazione presentata al Congresso di fondazione dell’Associazione italiana di linguistica applicata AITLA, Pisa, 22 e 23.10.1999 (http://home.sslmit.unibo.it/~aitla/pisa/straniero.htm).

• STRANIERO SERGIO, F., “Norms and quality in media interpreting: the case of Formula One press conferences”, in The Interpreter’s Newsletter, n. 12, 2003 (http://www.openstarts.units.it/dspace/bitstream/10077/2480/1/06.pdf).

• STRANIERO SERGIO, F., Talkshow Interpreting. La mediazione linguistica nella conversazione spettacolo, Trieste, EUT – Edizioni Università di Trieste, 2007.

This is not really a “Learning by Translating” Special post because I received less translation quotes than expected. I actually expected more participation… maybe not everyone has a favourite translation quote?

Anyway, I’m starting my post with a quote that Chris (Textklick on Twitter) sent me:

Translation is that which transforms everything so that nothing changes. (Günter Grass)

He also wrote me (in Italian) that he loves translating as much as he loves Italian food! Thanks for participating, Chris!

Now I’m posting some other translation quotes I’ve found online lately.

Translation is a bit like shoveling coal. You scoop it up and toss it into the furnace. Each lump is a word, and each shovelful is another sentence, and if your back is strong enough and you have the stamina to keep at it for eight or ten hours at a stretch, you can keep the fire hot. (Paul Auster, The Book of Illusions)

Simultaneous interpretation is like driving a car that has a steering wheel but no brakes and no reverse.(Preter Pyotr Avaliani)

Translators can be considered as busy matchmakers who praise as extremely desirable a half-veiled beauty. They arouse an irresistible yearning for the original. (Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, Art and Antiquity)

All I require of a translator is that he or she be a more gifted writer than I am, and in at least two languages, one of them mine. (Kurt Vonnegut)

Jakob Grimm compared the task of the translator with that of a sailor: the latter mans a ship, directs it with full sails to the opposing shore, but then has to land ‘where there is different earth and where different air plays.’ (Birgit Stolt)

It were as wise to cast a violet into a crucible that you might discover the formal principle of its color and odor, as seek to transfuse from one language into another the creations of a poet. The plant must spring again from its seed, or it will bear no flower – and this is the burthen of the curse of Babel. (Percy Bysshe Shelley, A Defense of Poetry)

Last, but not least, now “Learning by Translating” has an Official Facebook page! Click here to view it and become a fan of my blog!

You read right, another post about interpreting.

Last night I dreamt that I was shadowing a simultaneous interpretation from English into Italian! I was doing an actual reformulation, not a mere repetition of words! No, I wasn’t interpreting, just rephrasing what was being said in Italian. Maybe that dream is a reminder: practice.interpreting. I haven’t done interpreting practice in a while, I should catch up with it.

When I practice interpreting, I do it just for fun. I download podcasts and play them using VLC media player (if they’re too fast for my level, this software allows me to “slow them down”… it’s rare to find audio files that are slow enough for beginners like me). I record myself using either Audacity (you can also play the audio file you’re interpreting with it, and listen to the original and the interpreted versions after you’ve finished) or a digital audio recorder (before buying one, I used my cell phone’s audio recorder that allowed me to record up to 5 minutes at a time).

Ways in which I practice interpreting:

• Simultaneous interpreting (I think this is self explanatory enough)
• Consecutive interpreting (you take notes using a spiral-bound notepad and a pen/pencil while the speaker is speaking, then you translate after he/she finished his/her speech. You can’t note every single thing, because you don’t have the time to, and you have to pay a lot of attention to the speech. I noticed that the more I pay attention to taking notes, the more I get distracted. Interpreters must learn to split attention between two activities, and I think this doesn’t apply only to simultaneous interpreting, in which you listen and speak at the same time, but also to consecutive interpreting. Most interpreters use abbreviations or symbols while taking notes)
• Sentence-by-sentence interpreting (a kind of interpreting that is usually done in a liaison interpreting context. First there is the sentence in language A, then you interpret it into language B, then the language B speaker replies to the language A speaker, and you interpret what he said into language A, etc. It is not done simultaneously, but it is rather a form of consecutive interpreting without notes)
• Shadowing (like I wrote at the beginning of the post, it is an exercise in which you reformulate, or repeat, what a speaker says in the same language. You can also do it after a few seconds from the original utterance, trying to lag behind the original speaker as if you’re doing simultaneous interpreting)

(I know, I wrote that I’m more of a written translation person, but I’ve got bitten by the interpreting bug from the very first moment)

I want to study and get my MA in Translation.
You read right.
Not Interpreting, t r a n s l a t i o n .
The interpreter’s job still fascinates me, though. Whenever I see photos of interpreters behind the booth’s glass I think “Wow!” and start daydreaming… but I realized that I feel more confident when it comes to translating written texts.
I just wanted to write this, I don’t have much inspiration to write a detailed post today.

EDITED on 05/18/2009

I still want to become an interpreter.
I eventually decided to try both the entrance tests: the one for the Translation MA course and the one for the Interpreting MA course, just to have two possibilities.
At least I will have said I gave the Interpreting one a try.
Sometimes I get discouraged because I’m afraid of not being able to deal with a fast speaker while doing simultaneous interpreting, but I realized that there are techniques that are taught during the Interpreting MA course. I never really did simultaneous interpreting, I actually gave it a try on my own, but I’ve just started. I have a degree in Translation and Interpreting, but liaison interpreting (which I studied) and conference interpreting are different. I still have a lot to learn and, for the moment, I do simultaneous interpreting practice with speeches which aren’t fast.
Maybe Interpreting is the course for me… or maybe it is Translation… but only the future will decide which one is better for me.
I won’t change my mind anymore.

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)

Let’s start with a post about all my favourite quotes on translation and interpreting.

Inauguriamo il blog con un post contenente tutte le mie citazioni preferite sulla traduzione e l’interpretazione.

• Nel 1968 e 1969 “Lo scherzo” fu tradotto in tutte le lingue occidentali, ma con quali sorprese! [...] In un altro Paese incontrai il mio traduttore, un uomo che non sa una parola di ceco. Gli ho chiesto: “Allora come ha fatto a tradurre il libro?”. E lui mi rispose “Con il cuore”, e ha tirato fuori una foto dal portafoglio. (Milan Kundera)
• La vita di ogni creatura potrebbe dipendere un giorno dalla traduzione istantanea e precisa di una singola parola. (Paul Engle)
• Translating is communicating. (Eugène Nida)
• Without translation, there is no history of the world. (L. G. Kelly)
• An interpreter is like a mathematician. She approaches language as if it were an equation. Each word is instantly matched with its equivalent. (Kim)
• Communication is the very raison d’être of interpreting. (Vuorikoski)
• Translating a poem, if the creator is a craftsman, is like rescoring a piece of music for a different kind of musical ensemble. (Smith)
• Per tradurre un libro bisogna essere disposti a trasferirsi armi e bagagli nel libro stesso, e poi a restarci dentro: al libro, alla storia e anche all’autore, con il suo carattere e la sua vita, che non possono essere ignorati, visto che si dovrà conviverci almeno tanto a lungo quanto dura il lavoro di traduzione: dunque mai per poco tempo. (Laura Bocci)
• What I very much admire in interpreters is their unending curiosity, their boundless thirst for knowledge and their almost painful precision of their work [...] But without a doubt all interpreters love talking. That certainly seems to be linked with the profession. Some of our interviewees have described this spontaneity of communication as déformation professionnelle. (David Bernet)
• Interprète, mon frère, pour le client, l’auditeur, le seul orateur, c’est toi! (J.-D. Katz)
• Mentre un cattivo traduttore fa tutto il possibile per tradurre parola per parola, un buon traduttore si distacca dalla versione letterale solo quando questa è evidentemente inesatta. (Peter Newmark)
• Il traduttore non deve comprendere solo l’ovvio contenuto del messaggio, ma anche le sottili sfumature di significato, i valori emotivi importanti delle parole e le caratteristiche stilistiche che determinano il “sapore e la sensazione” del messaggio [...] In altre parole, oltre a conoscere due o più lingue coinvolte nel processo traduttivo, il traduttore deve conoscere a fondo l’argomento in questione. (Eugène Nida)