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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
Unlock the intriguing world of translation and embark on a fulfilling career path
Becoming A Translator For Dummies is your gateway to the exciting world of translation. This comprehensive guide will equip you with the tools and knowledge to succeed in this dynamic field, regardless of the specific field you choose to enter. Dr. Regina Galasso unveils the secrets of becoming a successful translator. You'll explore the different facets of translation, understand the nuances between translation and interpretation, and uncover the myriad exciting career opportunities available in this ever-expanding industry.
- Learn about the skills you’ll need to master to become a professional translator
- Explore freelance, part-time, and full-time job options, and market yourself effectively
- Discover specialized translation opportunities like legal, medical, technical, and literary translation
- Find top-notch translator programs and certifications
Prepare yourself for a career that knows no boundaries! Language enthusiasts, novice translators, and those already studying to become translation pros will love the valuable insights and practical advice in Becoming A Translator For Dummies.
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Seitenzahl: 452
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024
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Becoming a Translator For Dummies®
To view this book's Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and search for “Becoming a Translator For Dummies Cheat Sheet” in the Search box.
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Introduction
About This Book
Foolish Assumptions
Icons Used in This Book
Beyond the Book
Where to Go from Here
Part 1: Understanding What Translation Is All About
Chapter 1: Turning Your Attention to Translation
Defining Translation
Seeing Translation All Around You
Busting Common Translation Misconceptions
Deciphering Key Translation Terminology
Chapter 2: Recognizing the Importance of Translators and Their Translations
Expanding Access to Information and Ideas
Supporting Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging
Preserving and Protecting Legal Rights
Leveraging the Symbolic Value of Language
Educating the General Public about Translation
Chapter 3: Becoming a Professional Translator
Choosing Your Path to Becoming a Translator
Mastering Two Essential Skills: Reading and Writing
Procuring Essential Tools and Resources
Taking a Proactive Approach
Doing More Than Translation
Part 2: Getting Your Head in the Game:Education and Training
Chapter 4: Building Your Skill Set
Knowing the Language and Understanding the Culture
Knowing What You Need to Know — Beyond a Second Language
Building Additional Skills for Success
Putting Your Translator Skills and Mindset to Work in Other Fields
Chapter 5: Checking Out University Programs
Exploring University Programming
Finding Translator Programs in the US and Abroad
Exploring the Depths of Undergraduate Programs for Translators
Taking a Deeper Dive
Chapter 6: Expanding Your Options with Non-University Programs
The Value of Establishing Credentials
Non-University Programs
Looking Into Mentorship Programs
Scoping Out Customized Skill and Educational Opportunities
Chapter 7: Focusing on Specialization, Certification, Certificates, and Professional Development
Determining Your Specialization
Pursuing Certifications and Certificates
Part 3: Creating Translations
Chapter 8: Adopting an Effective and Efficient Translation Process
Gathering Information Before You Translate
Reading and Understanding the Text
Asking Questions: Analyzing the Text
Translating the Text to Produce Your First Draft
Considering Post-translation Tasks
Chapter 9: Inviting Machine Translation into Your Office
Getting Up to Speed on Machine Translation
Understanding What People Mean When They Talk about Machine Translation
Providing Human Input for Machine Translation
Putting Machine Translation to Work for You
Developing Machine Translation Literacy
Meeting the World’s Translation Needs
Chapter 10: Accepting That Translation Changes Everything
Abiding by Language Conventions
Expecting Translation to Change the Space and Look of the Text
Understanding Why Translation Changes Everything
Chapter 11: Exploring Translator Ethics
Understanding Ethical Standards
Ensuring You Have the Skills to Do the Job
Knowing the Boundaries of Language
Disclosing and Avoiding Conflicts of Interest
Using Machine Translation Ethically
Honoring Confidentiality
Committing to Loyalty
Letting Your Supervisors Know What’s Right
Supporting the Professionalization of Translators
Part 4: Making Translation Your Career or Business
Chapter 12: Choosing a Way to Work: Employed or Self-Employed
Working for Yourself
Working for Others
Looking for Work
Chapter 13: Curating the Range of Professional Services to Offer
Directionality: Which Way to Go with Your Languages
Editing, Transcribing, and Other Language-Related Skills
Sharing Your Knowledge with Other Translators
Chapter 14: Setting Up Your Work Environment and Choosing Your Tools
Finding a Suitable Workspace
Procuring Equipment and Access to Resources
Gathering the Tools of the Trade
Keeping in Touch with Mentors and Colleagues
Recruiting Advocates and Allies
Chapter 15: Breaking Into the Profession
Getting Experience When You’re a Rank Beginner
Networking Your Way to Translation Opportunities
Building Your Portfolio
Chapter 16: Getting Paid and Recognized
Estimating Your Earnings as a Translator
Getting the Recognition You Deserve
Staying Active
Part 5: The Part of Tens
Chapter 17: Ten Tips for Getting Started as a Translator
Consider Your Qualifications
Live Language and Translation
Work with Others
Talk about Translation
Elevate and Support the Profession
“No hay reglas, solamente casos” — Javier Calvo
“Duda siempre” — Amelia Pérez de Villar
Determine How and When You’re Credited for Your Work
Keep Translating
Prepare to Add Your Own Tip to This List
Chapter 18: Ten Influential Translators and Supporters of Translation
American Translators Association
American Translation and Interpreting Studies Association
PEN America
American Literary Translators Association
Translators Without Borders
National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators (NAJIT)
Edwin Gentzler
Lynne Bowker
Lawrence Schimel
Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp
Chapter 19: Ten Additional Sources to Help You Succeed in Translation
Brand the Interpreter
Why Translation Matters
Fundamentals of Translation
Words Without Borders
This Is a Classic: Translators on Making Writers Global
MultiLingual
Slator
How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator
Dreaming Murakami
Smart Habits for Translators
Index
About the Author
Advertisement Page
Connect with Dummies
End User License Agreement
List of Illustrations
Chapter 1
FIGURE 1-1: How translation broadens horizons!
FIGURE 1-2: The building block translation metaphor.
Chapter 2
FIGURE 2-1: Nearly two-thirds of the world population speaks one of these 12 la...
FIGURE 2-2: A multilingual welcome sign.
FIGURE 2-3: Neighborhood Free Book Box.
Chapter 7
FIGURE 7-1: How translation broadens horizons!
Chapter 9
FIGURE 9-1: A translation transparency label.
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Begin Reading
Index
About the Author
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Becoming a Translator For Dummies®
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Introduction
As an educator, author, translator, and language access leader, I often find myself sharing what it takes to become an effective, efficient, and responsible translator because I run into too many people of all backgrounds and experiences who think that because a person speaks more than one language, they can translate anything and everything under any circumstances and at any time of day. Many of these people also think that by just changing the language button or flipping the language switch on a machine translation application or website, they’ll receive an effective translation that they can readily share with the world.
Many of these people have the best intentions. They want to provide written documents in more languages so that more people can understand their content. However, they’ve most likely never had the ample opportunity to hear translators speak about their work, to learn what a responsible translation process looks like, and to build their translation literacy. It’s not really their fault. It’s just that there aren’t too many places to find this information and to hear about these experiences. And because language, for most, comes across as being easy to produce, it doesn’t occur to most people that moving what’s said in one language into another would be challenging. Many people think that moving something from one to the other should be just as simple as the initial production of language.
At the same time, at least in the context of the United States, there’s little knowledge about the benefits of studying languages, literatures, and cultures. Most k–12 schools don’t offer languages other than English until an advanced grade. Universities are eliminating language requirements and doing away with language professors and programs. Ironically, universities and beyond are expressing a commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and belonging efforts. That can’t happen if the language needs and linguistic diversity of local communities and the world are overlooked.
In this context then, people aren’t aware of the range of advantages that their language skills can have for them as they build and transform their careers. They might have an idea that they can be a language teacher, an interpreter, or a translator, but they might not know that they can be project managers at a translation agency or even establish and grow their own language companies that provide language services to the world. It’s seldomly talked about at the general level that the language industry is one of the wealthiest and fastest growing in the world.
The lack of promotion of this information doesn’t incentivize the learning and continued learning of languages or even confidence in the fact that speaking multiple languages has value. What’s more, it helps to make the larger language companies even larger and limits the opportunities for new ventures.
Another part of the picture is that as people continue to be displaced by natural and human-provoked disasters, language access needs are growing and becoming more formalized through certain legalities and commitments by organizations of several types. Therefore, the provision of translation services is growing. Additionally, other more voluntary or strategic efforts of globalization call for translation and localization.
The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) also contributes to this picture. On the one hand, some AI can make translation seem as though it’s easy, fast, and cheap. You usually get a translation produced by AI when you click on the Translate button or your browser automatically offers you a translation without your asking for it. There’s a lot to know about AI and language production. To start, you need to keep two things in mind. First, these translations aren’t reliable and should be checked by a qualified translator before being distributed. This is especially true if it’s a high-stakes situation. Next, AI-generated translations don’t have the same quality for every language. Because some Spanish translations that AI generates might not be that bad (although a qualified translator always needs to check them), this doesn’t mean all translations are of the same quality for all languages. AI is better at some language pairs than it is others. And without getting too into the weeds, users of AI-generated translations need to be aware of the biases contained in these translations. Thus, some of the work that humans have worked hard to accomplish can be reversed in AI-generated translations. Overall, AI has the potential to get some poor language use into circulation. Although this is harmful for all languages, it’s especially harmful to those that don’t have as widespread circulation as others or that don’t have as many resources, including qualified translators.
A final thing I’d like to bring awareness to as you read this book is the disappearance of languages. The world is made up of a little over 7,000 human languages. Not all of them are written, and more than half may disappear over the next century. As Victor D. O. Santos shares in his book What Makes Us Human, “when one of them disappears, a culture may also disappear. A unique way to view and understand the world.” Translators can help prevent languages from disappearing. When people move around the world, they bring their languages with them. If their new location is committed to giving them access to information in their preferred language, until they no longer need it — because they’ve sufficiently learned the main language of the receiving culture — that effort keeps languages in circulation. Not only that, the translations make the languages visible, which is key for representation, inclusion, and awareness efforts.
I provide all this context to make it clear that translation is about so much more than just words and that the work of a translator, regardless of how many tools are at their disposal, is in need and must be done in a responsible manner to provide equitable opportunities and to prevent languages from disappearing, among other things.
I don’t tell you how to translate in this book. Yet, I do spell out a process for translation. Rather, the focus is on the becoming: how to get there, and the potential wrapped up in the required skills. This book is more about the mindset than the how-to. If you rush to the how-to without establishing the mindset, the path to becoming a translator will be rocky and the results will be unstable. Mindset is the foundation to becoming a translator. Then you can add tools, areas of specialization, services, marketing efforts, clients, and more. And I do touch on all those things. What I share in this book will get you to the starting line of being a translator.
With that perspective in mind, this book is for many different audiences. It is for those who want to become translators and for those who love a person who wants to become a translator. It’s for those who want to support translators in their workplace and beyond and for those who want to encourage someone already within their organization to become a translator. It can also be for those people who are interested in learning more about how human translators work.
About This Book
If you’re curious about becoming a translator, you’re a bilingual person who’s regularly asked to translate in the workplace, or you’re interested in learning more about translators, you’ve come to the right book.
Many of the examples in this book are from the Spanish-speaking world. That’s because I speak Spanish and have carried out most of my professional life until now in the United States where Spanish is widely spoken and translated into. If you work with languages other than Spanish, don’t dismiss the examples. I encourage you to think about the translation problem in the example and ask yourself if you might envision a similar problem in your language pair or pairs. As you grow as a translator, you’ll find that you need to work with translators of language pairs other than your own to find translation solutions. Translators don’t limit themselves to colleagues who work within the same languages. Translation itself is like a language.
This book offers something for different audiences. Check out the table of contents and start wherever you’d like. However, if you’re a beginner, it’s recommended that you make your way through the book from start to finish. Regardless of how you’re reading this book, mark the pages you think you’ll need to come back to in the future. Some of the information you might not need when you read it, but you can refer back to it later when you do.
Part 1 covers what translation is all about. If you can’t think about translation and what it is all about, it’s more difficult to translate. That said, I want you as a reader to get a foundation in defining translation, noting where it already exists in your daily life, breaking away from the common misconceptions about translation, and learning a few key translation terms. Part 1 then gets into recognizing the importance of human translators and the translations they produce, covering both the access to information that translators provide in addition to the more macrolevel contributions that translators and translations make for everyone. The intention is to make you aware that, as a translator, you spend a notable amount of time and energy advocating for the work and pushing for greater translation education for all. Then Part 1 covers the available paths to becoming a professional translator.
Part 2 picks up at the point of your decision to become a translator. It first discusses building your translator skill set and notes how you can apply your skills as a translator to other fields. Then it turns to where you can find translator education, including university and non-university programming, and covers specializations, certifications, certificates, and the importance of professional development.
After articulating what translators contribute to our world and how, and the credentials that translators often need and how to get them, the book, in Part 3, delves into the process of creating translations. It includes chapters on the process, machine translation, awareness and acceptance of the changes that translation introduces in the process, and the ethics of translation.
Part 4 gets into making translation your career or business. It explores doing the work on your own as an independent translator, having direct clients, working for an employer, and looking for work. It also takes you into the professional services you can curate as a translator, the tools you need to do the work, ways to break into the profession, and avenues for being paid and recognized.
The book ends with the Part of Tens. Here, you’ll find tips for getting started as a translator; ten influential translators, organizations, and supporters of translation; and ten sources for learning more about translation.
I hope you’ll find this content useful both today and years from now, when you’re a translator or work with a successful team of translators and can appreciate the foundations that this book helped you establish.
Foolish Assumptions
Translators have many things to say and many opinions. After all, translators are constantly asked to make decisions and to defend those decisions via the words they choose for each translation they make. Thus, translators don’t always agree with each other on the same topic. What’s more, translator decisions often depend on when, how, and where you were when you decided to become a translator, and your language pair or pairs.
Some experienced translators might say this book should have been organized in another way. Some readers might want more coverage about a certain aspect. Both of those are valid observations.
What I share in this book comes from my academic and professional experience as a translator, educator, author, and language access leader. I’ve been through several institutions and worked with many translators and other language professionals as well as with a variety of clients. I’ve also been a keen observer of how languages interact with each other (or don’t) by spending time in places where multiple languages are in circulation. Could I have presented this content in other way? Of course. My experience in translating, educating, working with organizations, and listening have taught me that the how-to needs to be accompanied by some reflection on what translation is and does and why it’s necessary regardless of the number of languages one speaks.
Just as there’s no perfect translation, there’s no perfect book about it. Translation is a work in progress and a reminder that humans have the capacity to reflect and adapt.
Translation teaches society to question everything. It’s a necessity and an avenue for personal growth and engagement with the world.
If you’re curious about learning more about what it takes to become a translator because you yourself want to become one or because you work with translators, I hope you’ll learn from reading this book.
Icons Used in This Book
Throughout this book, the following icons appear in the left margins to alert you to special information.
This symbol marks an important truth that’s worth repeating. Noting these ideas can help you make progress with your strategic plan.
The information next to the Tip icon always includes a helpful hint to keep your strategic plan moving forward as smoothly as possible.
Any information next to this icon is something you want to be wary about. Watch your step when you see a Warning icon. The info can include mistakes others have made that you can learn from or moments in which you have to weigh the cost of doing one thing over another.
Beyond the Book
In addition to the information and guidance you’ll find in the pages of this book, you can access the Becoming a Translator For Dummies Cheat Sheet online. Just go to www.dummies.com and enter “Becoming a Translator For Dummies Cheat Sheet” in the search box.
The Cheat Sheet includes even more information to help you get started as a successful translator. If you have any questions, please reach out to me via LinkedIn.
Where to Go from Here
Jump right into the book! If you’ve heard about translators and are interested in becoming a translator yourself, start at the beginning of the book and keep on going. The beginning is also a good place to start if you want to learn more about the translators you work with. If you’re already being asked to translate at your workplace but you have little or no training, try starting with Part 3.
Go to the Part of Tens at any time. You’ll find many goodies there that you can start reading or listening to while you’re reading this book.
And if you’re wondering where to go when you’re done with this book or even as you’re reading it, I’ve snuck in this extra list of nine (not to compete with the Part of Tens):
Listen to and read your working languages.
Start translating any interesting text you see around you. Pick short passages. Even if you don’t arrive at a translation you’re satisfied with, contemplating what it means to translate certain phrases or texts does offer a bit of practice.
Follow some translators, Translation Studies professors, or other language professionals on social media. You can detect from their number of followers, credentials, and quality of the posts if they’re worth your screen time.
Get into a translation class, if possible, at your local college or online.
Advance your education after reading this book if you think it would be helpful on your road to becoming a translator.
Note the ways that learning about translation has changed the way you look at written language.
Check out
How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator
by Corinne McKay if you’re ready to set yourself up as a freelance translator.
Read
Small Business for Dummies
for more on setting up your own operation.
Update job duties, descriptions, and compensation as necessary if you ask your employees to translate as part of their work or you plan to hire translators.
Part 1
Understanding What Translation Is All About
IN THIS PART …
Understand what translation is — and what it isn’t.
Appreciate the service that translators provide to communities.
Map your plan to becoming a professional translator.
Chapter 1
Turning Your Attention to Translation
IN THIS CHAPTER
Defining translation
Identifying translation in everyday interactions
Clearing up common misconceptions
Familiarizing yourself with key terms and concepts
Translation enables communication in a multilingual world. If you want to read something that was written in an unfamiliar language, it has to be translated into a language you understand. Translation has been in practice for more than 2,000 years, and it’s pervasive today in everything from books and product manuals to movies and advertising. Yet, few people understand what it is and what it takes to create a successful translation. It’s not as simple as looking up words in a bilingual dictionary or pasting text into a translation app.
In this chapter, I explain what translation is and isn’t and what it entails. I cover definitions of translation and their limitations, correct widespread misconceptions about translation, and introduce some of the basic terminology to get you started on your journey to becoming a translator.
Defining Translation
When you think about what translation is, you may surmise that it involves converting a text written in one language into another language. You may think it encompasses both spoken and written language. You may imagine a person working on a computer at a desk surrounded by bilingual dictionaries. You may think of the people who work in booths at United Nations meetings and conferences. You may picture a situation in which a person is standing between two people who speak different languages and helping them communicate. You might even think about an app or a website you’ve used at some time to translate a word or phrase. Broadly conceived, translation can be all those things and more. In general, translation encompasses any means of converting verbal expression from one language to another.
The English word translation comes from the Latin translatio, which means to carry across or to bring across. For English speakers, translation deals with written materials, whereas interpretation is the process of translating speech from one language to another. However, people often confuse the two words and use the word translator to refer to both translators and interpreters. The people who work in the booths at the United Nations and help two individuals who don’t speak a common language are interpreters. Translators are those who work with the written word.
As you set out on your path to becoming a professional translator, maintain the distinction between the two terms. Refer to yourself as a translator if you translate written documents and as an interpreter if you focus on oral communication. Gently correct future clients and colleagues when, in the English-speaking context, they refer to translation as interpretation and interpreters as translators. While you, as the professional, may know what service and task those people have in mind, others may not. Knowing and advocating to call the services by their correct terms can avoid unnecessary confusion and service delays.
Being a translator involves working in multilingual contexts. Keep in mind, however, that although many languages distinguish between translating and interpreting, some don’t. As a professional, you’ll need to rely on the context to determine which service is needed and to communicate clearly to everyone involved whether the situation calls for a translator or an interpreter.
Exploring traditional definitions
Translators read a text in one language and then write it in another language. The text that they write in the new language is called a translation. The word translation can be used to talk about three distinctly different things:
A process:
The series of steps taken to convert a message written in one language into another language. The process involves reading, analysis, translation, revision, and editing. It often calls for research and may involve formatting, graphics, and other forms of communication.
A product:
The end result of the translation process, which might be a book, brochure, legal document, movie script, or something else. You can think of the original text as the input and the translation as the output. For example, the Colombian-born, Nobel-Prize-winning author Gabriel García Márquez (1927-2014) wrote several novels in Spanish that were later translated into English and other languages.
A phenomenon:
Translation can refer to a phenomenon — something that can be observed and studied. In the study of translation, you can examine the social and cultural factors that influence translators’ choices, for example.
Practically speaking, as a translator, you’re going to be most consciously involved with the first two items: process and product. You’re going to be doing translation and creating translations. However, subconsciously, you’ll also be actively involved in the phenomenon of translation — you’ll be using knowledge outside the dictionary definitions of words to determine how to phrase expressions. You may even study the phenomenon to increase your awareness of what translation involves and to improve your skills.
Translation can also be broken down into various types to shed light on different approaches to it. Part of your job as a translator will involve educating people about what you do. The more information and clarity you have about what translators do and how they do it, the better you can explain what you do to future clients and others.
Roman Jakobson (1896–1982), a Russian-born linguist and literary theorist who eventually became a professor at Harvard University, identified three types of translation:
Intralingual translation:
Commonly referred to as
rewording
,
intralingual translation
involves rephrasing an expression in the same language; for example, you translate “I’m famished” to “I’m starving.” Yes, technically speaking, anyone who’s ever cracked open a thesaurus to find a more precise word or different way to express a thought has done translation. Anyone who’s ever said “in other words” before rephrasing what was previously said, has also done translation.
Interlingual translation:
Interlingual translation
involves converting text written in one language into another language; for example, in English, you think, “I’m hungry,” and then you write a note telling your Spanish friend, “Tengo hambre.” This is also referred to as “translation proper” and usually what most people are thinking about when they hear the word “translation.”
Intersemiotic translation:
Intersemiotic translation
involves converting a verbal expression into a nonverbal expression, and vice versa; for example, it might be turning a poem into music or a performance, or drawing the definition of a word.
This discussion may strike you as a touch too theoretical, but it can help you explain what you do to other people who don’t have a background or training in translation. Monolinguals who are asked to reword something can get a sense of the decision-making process you go through as an English-to-Portuguese translator, for example, by engaging in intralingual translation. Keep these terms in your back pocket to help people better understand how translation works and the decision-making process that guides the work of translators.
Expanding the definition
A simple definition of translation is reading a text in one language and then rendering it in another language. As you become a translator, you’ll become more and more aware of how limited that definition can be and how it affects the way you talk about your work. You won’t want to bore someone with all the details of what translators do, although they’re fascinating, so that basic definition is a good starting point. But keep in mind that the limited definition can lead to misunderstandings regarding what you do and what people expect of you. Working with an expanded, more nuanced definition of translation can help prevent misunderstandings and manage client and professional partner expectations. Here are some takes on translation that can help you expand your definition of it:
Translation is a critical part of communications in a multilingual world and especially in multilingual communities.
Translation must be considered at the onset of planning for any communication within a multilingual community. Treating translation as an afterthought compromises the translation’s quality and delivery time.
Translation extends beyond words.
Translators need technical skills to work with tools that efficiently and effectively help create quality translations. This ranges from knowing how to manage files to using translation memory tolls to ensure consistency among the use of terms.
Translation is education.
The recipients of a translation receive a text with information and ideas that they otherwise wouldn’t have access to had the translation not been done. For example, the translation process and products can increase familiarity of the languages and cultures in a given community so that community leaders have deeper insight into the unique needs of the different populations that make up the community. Translations also educate the individuals who do the work.
Translation requires advocacy.
Because those not in the field may not fully understand what translation entails, translators often find themselves advocating for appropriate timelines, planning, and resources, including compensation. Translators might also find themselves advocating for equality among different language groups in a given community.
Translations are originals.
Translations are often thought of as inferior to the original because the author of the original had to be clever enough to come up with the idea and have the creativity and skill to express it in words. People often assume that the original required far more work, creativity, and skill than the translation. However, every translation is an original. It has never existed before, and it has taken considerable knowledge, creativity, and skill to produce. The effort and expertise that a translator brings to a project is different from but not inferior to those of the author. Some translations, often including ones which have been highly localized, are even preferable to the original for multilingual audiences. For example, many people who are bilingual in Latin American Spanish and English consider the movie
Shrek
(2001), directed by Andrew Anderson and Vicky Jenson, to be more enjoyable in Spanish because of the quality of the translation.
As you grow as a translator, think of what you might add to the list that further defines translation and reflects translation’s value.
Seeing Translation All Around You
Translation is ubiquitous. All you have to do is pick up the phone, flip through a magazine, surf the web, turn on the TV, or browse the community bulletin board at your local grocery store to see translation in action. As the world becomes more global and our communities become more multicultural and multilingual, translation becomes an even greater necessity. After all, whenever people who speak different languages need to communicate or rely on the same resources in their everyday lives, there is a need for translation. This exchange enriches all our lives.
As demand for translation grows, so do the opportunities for trained translators who are able to efficiently and effectively be part of the translation process. Since this need grows along with the development of other translation tools, translators will continue to translate, revise, work in human and machine-translation hybrid situations, and perhaps be called upon for more consultation work.
In this section I highlight several areas where you can observe translation in action.
On the smartphone
You don’t have to go very far to encounter translation. Sometimes all you need to do is pick up the phone. From automated customer service contact centers to AI-driven text messaging apps, you can’t avoid bumping into translation services. Here are a few examples:
Automated customer support centers:
Whenever you call a customer support line, one of the first prompts you get is to press the number key for the language you want to use. Maybe you press 1 for English or 2 for Spanish. Maybe you’re given other options. You’re then presented options in the language you chose. All these systems rely on input from translators.
Operating system (OS):
Whether you have an iPhone or an Android, you can specify the language you want to use. Apple’s iOS can be localized to more than 100 languages and regions, and the iOS itself has been translated into more than 40 languages.
Smartphone apps:
Many smartphone apps these days are available in multiple languages. You access settings for the app and specify your preferred language. From that point on, the entire interface is presented in your preferred language.
Text messaging:
With most text messaging apps, you can specify your preferred language, and the app will function in that language. For example, as you type, the autocomplete feature will try to predict the word you’re typing in the specified language. Some text messaging apps may try to detect the language that they sense you’re typing (or speaking, if you’re using talk-to-text).
As you may have noticed, technology has a lot of catching up to do when it comes to living a multilingual life. For example, if you communicate with someone in multiple languages, texting can be a nightmare. How frustrating is it when you try to type a text message in a language other than English and your phone resists and keeps pushing what you type into English! Even worse is when your phone tries to help you by detecting the language it thinks you’re using and guesses wrong, creating a mashup of languages best described as gibberish.
Changing the language setting on your phone on a regular basis is one way to practice using all your languages. For instance, if you’ve always had your phone in English, try switching it to Spanish.
On the internet
On the internet, some sites are available in multiple languages, and some aren’t. Among the sites that are accessible in multiple languages, the quality of the translation can vary considerably. In fact, people who manage sites take different approaches to providing multilingual access. Some of these approaches are done by professionals and others are not. Here are some of the most common approaches:
Professional translation:
Some website administrators hire professional translators to adapt their site to accommodate differences in languages and countries, including differences in currencies. In fact, large global operations may have entirely separate websites for different countries, with a distinct address for each site. For example, in the United States, shoppers go to
Amazon.com
, but in Spain, they shop at Amazon.es. In addition, in the navigation bar at the top of the page, shoppers can choose to navigate the site in Spain in Spanish or in Portuguese.
Partial translation:
Some sites provide multilingual access to only relevant areas or content. In some cases, the website administrator hires a professional to summarize the website’s content and then translate that summary into other languages. For examples, help parts of a website are usually a big one for translation.
Crowdsourced translation:
Some sites crowdsource their translation. This means that they have volunteers translate their content. The quality of the translations can be questionable.
Automated translation:
Some sites employ the use of Google Translate, or another machine translation tool, to automatically translate the site’s content and menu options. Visitors to the site can click an icon to translate the site into the language of their choice. If you’re on a site that uses Google Translate, you’re reading a machine translation. You can usually tell because some of the wording can be awkward and unnatural, and depending on the language, not make any sense at all.
If you access social media content in multiple languages, you may have noticed that Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms seem to determine your preferred language for you. You pull up a post written by a contact of yours in German, and the platform automatically translates it into English because that’s the language you typically use. So even though you’re capable of communicating in multiple languages, the app pushes your multilingual life into a monolingual one. These translations aren’t done in the moment by human translators; rather, they’re done by machine translation. After using the app, you may be prompted to provide feedback to make the machine translations better.
The next time you’re on a social media app and read a post with language that sounds a bit off, check to see if it’s a translation. You’ll know if it’s a translation if you see “See original” usually located somewhere in the post. You might think that a user has a poor use of language when really it’s just a poor translation that you’re reading.
On television and in films
Thanks to the growing popularity of video streaming around the world, people have access to movies and series produced in distant countries — everywhere from Mexico to Norway to China and beyond. In many cases, you can still enjoy this video content even if you don’t know the language thanks to translators who create the subtitles or translate the screenplay so the shows can be dubbed. Sometimes the dubbing is so well done that you can barely tell that the actors are speaking in a different language from the one you’re hearing.
When you’re watching a film, enable both subtitles and dubbing and look for differences between the two. What an actor says and what appears in the subtitle are often different. When done with high standards, the dubbing needs to make adjustments so the words line up better with the movement of the actors’ lips. Subtitles also have parameters such as word economy. The industry standard is a maximum of 35-40 characters per line, two lines maximum, between one and six seconds per subtitle. Some of the first things to go when cutting down subtitles to make them fit will be a character’s name, for example. Often the people that translate for dubbing aren’t the same people that do subtitles.
Here are some important points about dubbing and subtitling that may come in handy as you pursue a career in translation:
Pros and cons of dubbing:
The primary benefit of dubbing is to increase engagement. It makes movies and series more accessible to a broader audience, which means they’re more profitable for the studios and creators. For some viewers, it also makes movies more enjoyable if they don’t like having to read subtitles. Despite these benefits, dubbing isn’t always the solution. It’s expensive because the entire soundtrack needs to be replaced, which requires a recording studio and a whole new cast of actors to deliver the lines. Critics of dubbing also claim that dubbed films lack authenticity due to subtle changes in meaning, tone, and cultural nuances. Language pride and politics also come into play — in some regions, audiences don’t want to or are discouraged from hearing anything other than their own language. Dubbing also allows for censoring, which was done by fascist regimes in Germany, Italy, and Spain. Fortunately, times have changed. Italy now hosts the annual Gran Premio Internazionale del Doppiagio, which is a ceremony for excellence in dubbing.
Challenges of subtitles:
Some languages with smaller markets choose to subtitle their content. This has been the case in the Scandinavian countries where English proficiency is high. Subtitling is usually a cheaper and faster option than dubbing, but it’s no less challenging. It’s not merely a translated transcription of what’s being said. Subtitles need to be concise, accurate, and readable. They need to comply with strict time and space requirements. They need to fit within a limited area on the screen so that they don’t distract from the action, and they need to be succinct enough to be read in the limited amount of time the actors are delivering their lines. Translators also need to produce a time code to indicate at what point in the action each line appears and how long it needs to remain onscreen. Subtitling requires technical and linguistic knowledge along with specialized software.
A transcription is a written, word-for-word record of what someone said orally in the same language. A translated transcription is a translation of that transcription. A film’s translated transcription isn’t the same as its subtitles.
Don’t confuse closed captioning with subtitles. Closed captioning is in the same language as the original video production or a translation of the original video production. Subtitles are translated from the original language into a different language. Closed captioning, even if it is a translation of what is being said, is not to be confused with subtitling.
The instructions you read
Many products — everything from games and home appliances to automobiles and yard equipment — come with manuals or instruction sheets. Often, they’re provided in multiple languages. Sometimes you turn to the English and it sounds great. That’s probably because the instructions were first done in English or, if they weren’t, the translator did an excellent job. When the instructions are poorly written in English, it could be because the company didn’t use a skilled translator. They might have used a person who spoke some English, but not a qualified translator. If you’re faced with instructions that have you scratching your head, try reading one of the other languages as a viable workaround.
Some companies are foregoing the process of trying to provide instructions in multiple languages for different audiences. Instead, they’re opting to communicate entirely with images. If you’ve ever put together a piece of furniture from IKEA, you probably followed the instructions, which are a series of drawings. IKEA has more than 450 stores in over 60 markets around the world. Their website is available in many languages, including Basque, Catalan, and Galician. However, providing instructions in all those languages wouldn’t be very cost efficient, so IKEA cleverly decided to use what can be considered a universal language: illustrations. Instead of telling customers how to assemble their furniture, they show them how. Customers don’t even need to be able to read in any language; they can just follow the pictures. Yes, sometimes the pictures can be difficult to decipher, but they typically provide all the instruction you need to get the job done, and they’re fun to look at.
Translated books
Some of the books you have at home might be translations. You can certainly find some at your local library and bookstore. Without translated books, thanks to the work of translators, there would only be books written by authors in the languages you know. If that language is English, you’d only have access to books by authors who write in English. That may not be a huge issue unless the leading author on a topic that interests you writes only in French or Swahili. In certain countries, having access to only those books written in the local language can pose an even bigger problem. As Mette Holm, Danish translator of the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, points out, if all you had to read were books written in Danish that weren’t translations into Danish, within your lifetime, you would run out of books to read. Is this accurate? It depends on how fast you read and what kind of books you want to read. But what it does tell us is that our reading list and our world would be impossibly limited.
The market for translated books certainly has room to grow, especially in the United States. Currently, it struggles for several reasons, including the following:
Publishers in some countries market a relatively low percentage of translated books.
In countries like France, close to 20 percent of all books on the market are translations. In Spain, the number is closer to 30 percent. In the English-speaking world, it’s about 3 percent. This imbalance can be attributed to a number of factors. When translation doesn’t happen it’s a missed opportunity for authors who write in languages other than English to expand their reach and for people who read books in English to expand their minds.
Many publishers in the English-speaking world have the perception that monolingual people who read books in English aren’t interested in reading a translated book.
This perception has been in circulation for some time, but the situation is like the chicken and the egg scenario; if publishers think that demand for translated books is low, they won’t publish them, but if readers don’t have access to translated books, they don’t have any idea what they’re missing. Book publishers can learn a great deal from video streaming services. When viewers have access to entertaining foreign films and series with quality subtitles and dubbing, they stream that content and often discover that some of the most innovative and entertaining content is coming out of lesser-known regions and cultures.
Translators aren’t named.
Because the translator’s name is omitted from the cover, people often read translated books without ever realizing that they’re reading a translation. By omitting the translator’s name, publishers are failing to advertise and promote translated books, and recognize the efforts, art, and skill of translators. As a result, they’re missing an opportunity to grow the market for these titles.
Finding translated books in bookstores is a challenge.
Most bookstores in the United States don’t have a translated book section or any way to draw more attention to translated books. As a result, little is done to attract shoppers to translations.
Pay more attention to the books in your hands. Are any of them translations? If not, make a concerted effort to read a translated book. Find an author who writes in a language you don’t understand and see if a translation of one of their books is available. In doing so, you’ll be supporting fellow translators! If you know someone who lives abroad, ask them about popular authors who live in that region and see if you can find a translation of one of their books.
Figure 1-1 illustrates the many ways reading translations benefits everyone.
Encouraging news! The Booker Prize Foundation shows that younger readers are interested in translated fiction. In the United Kingdom, for example, book buyers under the age of 35 account for almost half of the purchases of translated fiction.
FIGURE 1-1: How translation broadens horizons!
Busting Common Translation Misconceptions
People get funny notions in their heads about a lot of things in this world. We still have people walking around who are convinced that Earth is flat, that humans have never landed on the moon, that we use only 10 percent of our brains, and that if you shave hair it grows back thicker.
The world of translation has its own myths as well. In this section, I challenge some of the more common myths and share what you really need to know about translation.
