Tomedes pointed me today to Google Keyword Tool, so I had a play and here are some stats on what people have been looking at in my language pair in March:
Keyword Hits in Mar-09
arabic dictionary 6600
arabic english 18100
arabic english translator 1000
arabic language translation 140
arabic language translator 6
arabic online translator 91
arabic text 1000
arabic to english translation 2,400
arabic to english translator 720
arabic translate 2400
arabic translater 320
arabic translation 8100
arabic translations 590
arabic translator 2400
arabic translators 390
arabic word 1600
arabic words 1900
arabic writing translation 58
english arabic translation 3600
english to arabic 8100
learn arabic 4,400
online arabic translation 390
translate english arabic 1300
translate english to arabic 1000
translate from english to arabic 170
translation from english to arabic 320
translation to arabic 2900
Sunday, April 12, 2009
A Picture is Worth Whatever..
..provided you can read the meaning intended by this sign:
My partner and I spent a few minutes trying to read into it. Here are the results:
1) Don't carry explosives in your boot
2) Try and avoid crashing backwards into this sign
3) Car farting prohibited
4) Keep your six-tentacled monster out of sight while driving
5) Setting cars on fire is not permitted
6) No burnoffs
7) Use of yellow phosphoric gas from the exhaust pipe not permitted
8) Turn off fireworks when approaching
9) Don't run over the bikies - they might explode
"Yi" and the Clash of Empires
A blogger (sorry, I lost the link) led me to look for a book by Lydia He Liu called "The Clash of Empires". I was luck to be able to read almost the whole thing on Google Books.
From the publisher's review:
"What is lost in translation may be a war, a world, a way of life. A unique look into the nineteenth-century clash of empires from both sides of the earthshaking encounter, this book reveals the connections between international law, modern warfare, and comparative grammar--and their influence on the shaping of the modern world in Eastern and Western terms.
The Clash of Empires brings to light the cultural legacy of sovereign thinking that emerged in the course of the violent meetings between the British Empire and the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Lydia Liu demonstrates how the collision of imperial will and competing interests, rather than the civilizational attributes of existing nations and cultures, led to the invention of "China," "the East," "the West," and the modern notion of "the world" in recent history. Drawing on her archival research and comparative analyses of English--and Chinese--language texts, as well as their respective translations, she explores how the rhetoric of barbarity and civilization, friend and enemy, and discourses on sovereign rights, injury, and dignity were a central part of British imperial warfare. Exposing the military and philological--and almost always translingual--nature of the clash of empires, this book provides a startlingly new interpretation of modern imperial history. "
Liu argues for semiotics as the defining aspect of the invention of China in the modern world, and as the defining moment of modern sovereign thinking in the nineteenth-century clash of the British and Qing Empires. Yet, if these are primarily semiotic events, what historical claim is being made? As Liu notes toward the end of the book, the science of philology privileged a putative transparency between language and culture. Liu's semiotics twists the emphasis: it retains language in its privileged position, even as the focus on historically produced translingual practice disavows transparency. This focus allows for a number of fascinating insights and accounts that should alter the narratives China studies textbooks continue to hold dear. Not many post-modernist academics would enjoy/accept her findings, though - they find them too reductionist. One of those unhappy readers' reviews can be read here.
I did find Chapter 2, discussing the semiotics of "yi" fascinating. Maybe not many would agree, but it kind of reflects my understanding of the term "goy" - something crass, vulgur, unclean, impure. I wonder if one could take Liu's discussion further, and do a cross-cultural study on terms used to describe the other in Arabic - kafir, khawaja, etc.
From the publisher's review:
"What is lost in translation may be a war, a world, a way of life. A unique look into the nineteenth-century clash of empires from both sides of the earthshaking encounter, this book reveals the connections between international law, modern warfare, and comparative grammar--and their influence on the shaping of the modern world in Eastern and Western terms.
The Clash of Empires brings to light the cultural legacy of sovereign thinking that emerged in the course of the violent meetings between the British Empire and the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Lydia Liu demonstrates how the collision of imperial will and competing interests, rather than the civilizational attributes of existing nations and cultures, led to the invention of "China," "the East," "the West," and the modern notion of "the world" in recent history. Drawing on her archival research and comparative analyses of English--and Chinese--language texts, as well as their respective translations, she explores how the rhetoric of barbarity and civilization, friend and enemy, and discourses on sovereign rights, injury, and dignity were a central part of British imperial warfare. Exposing the military and philological--and almost always translingual--nature of the clash of empires, this book provides a startlingly new interpretation of modern imperial history. "
Liu argues for semiotics as the defining aspect of the invention of China in the modern world, and as the defining moment of modern sovereign thinking in the nineteenth-century clash of the British and Qing Empires. Yet, if these are primarily semiotic events, what historical claim is being made? As Liu notes toward the end of the book, the science of philology privileged a putative transparency between language and culture. Liu's semiotics twists the emphasis: it retains language in its privileged position, even as the focus on historically produced translingual practice disavows transparency. This focus allows for a number of fascinating insights and accounts that should alter the narratives China studies textbooks continue to hold dear. Not many post-modernist academics would enjoy/accept her findings, though - they find them too reductionist. One of those unhappy readers' reviews can be read here.
I did find Chapter 2, discussing the semiotics of "yi" fascinating. Maybe not many would agree, but it kind of reflects my understanding of the term "goy" - something crass, vulgur, unclean, impure. I wonder if one could take Liu's discussion further, and do a cross-cultural study on terms used to describe the other in Arabic - kafir, khawaja, etc.
Translating Iraq
I wish I could read French.
I have been picking vibes about this new book by Mathieu Guidère (who, incidentally, is on PROZ) , called "Irak in translation: de l'art de perdre une guerre sans connaître la langue de son adversaire."
Dr. Mathieu Guidere is professor at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. He is also Senior fellow at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (Washington DC.). He published many books on Al Qaeda, especially on Al Qaeda in North Africa. Leading researcher in cognitive linguistics and multilingual monitoring. Guidere was born in Tunisia, in 1971. He holds a Master's degree in Arabic language and literature and a Ph.D in Translation Studies and Applied Linguistics from the University of Paris-Sorbonne. He was Assistant Professor at the University of Lyon 2 (France) in Arabic language and Translation Studies. His current research interests include Applied linguistics, in particular, Multimedia Translation and Machine-aided Translation from a linguistic point of view.
He has some interesting things to say about the war in Iraq being one which set out to win hearts and minds and was also one in which translators and interpreters played an important role.
Later in the interview he says that "translating in a time of war is about the art of using words of dialogue, diffusing situations which are filled with tension, using communication in a way which helps conflict resolution."
Would the war might have been won if Bush had been able to use more translators and interpreters? Guidère replies that "It not so much the quantity of as the quality which was the problem in this war. Taxi drivers or pizza delivery delivery people were recruited so long as they had three words of Arabic. The people recruited were both badly trained and badly managed"
“At the end of 2006, of 130,000 active US soldiers in Iraq, only 130 knew Arabic, but only at a rudimentary level.”
“There was only one interpreter for every company (around 150 men). This fact can be explained in part by the phrase: ‘Quite evidently, languages did not enjoy much interest in the superpower which had made English the chief language worldwide, and tended to satisfy itself with that.’”
‘According to a high-level CIA official, learning Arabic is not so easy: ‘it is easier to teach a pilot to fly a fighter jet than to speak Arabic with precision.’”
‘Private companies hired interpreters in Iraq and other Arab countries for the US army. The chief motive of most of these language auxiliaries for doing this particularly risky work was the ability to make much money. Among these ‘interpreters’ we often found taxi drivers, pizza delivery men, without a true knowledge of English: “Interpreters babbled in broken English and essentially communicated by signs with the soldiers.”’
“Most of the many Arabic speakers who were accepted to work as interpreters spoke English poorly; and most of the Arabic-speaking American soldiers or interpreters spoke Arabic poorly and had no knowledge of Arab culture, let alone Iraqi, which led to many misinterpretations and errors. Not only did US military personnel depend on the competence and trustworthiness of these interpreters, but journalists, prison guards, and the tortured too, whose fate could depend on only one word being misinterpreted on purpose or by mistake.’‘
Profiteers have been many and on both sides and in the most varied ways. Instead of receiving 6,000 USD as per contract with Titan, the chief US language enterprise in Iraq, some interpreters received only 1,500. As an anecdote, an Iraqi interpreter had exploited the naivety of newly arrived US soldiers on their travels. For example, to buy an Iraqi flag as a souvenir, the seller would asked for 5 dollars; the interpreter interpreted it as 45 dollar, and pocketed the difference.’
A reader from Ottawa kindly translated the introduction provided by Amazon.fr:
‘In every war, there is an original error. The U.S. mistake in Iraq was to believe that we could democratize a country without even knowing its language. That technology could replace man, that manipulation could substitute persuasion. In short, that we could win the hearts and minds by ignoring culture. This book offers a journey into the heart of the chaos in Iraq by following the footsteps of those who know it best: the auxiliaries, translators and interpreters who have worked or are still working for the Americans, but are seen and treated as "traitors" and "collaborators" by their countrymen. Those whom the Americans call “linguists” have paid the heaviest price in this war that never ceases to create victims. But these cultural intermediaries who are essential to the pacification of the country have been accused of treason and felony on both sides, on the part of Americans as on the part of Iraqis. Who are these auxiliaries of the U.S. military? Where are they from and what do they do? How are they recruited and what becomes of them afterwards? An investigation into a real scandal, this book explores the root reasons for the American failure in Iraq. It explains, from unedited and detailed investigation, why the coalition forces have never reached their first objective in this war: to win the hearts and minds against extremism and barbarism.’
Unfortunately, French is not one of my languages, and I will have to bid my time until someone either translates the book, or bed-side reads it to me. Or maybe do what a colleague of mine did many years ago - locked himself up in a library with a massive book on philosophy in German, and a few dictionaries and glossaries, and started translating.. Six weeks later, having gone through this torture from 9 AM to 9 PM, he could not speak German, or pronounce the words, but he could read with understanding.
Time, and the need to make money, are of course to factors that make such an exercise prohibitive at the moment.
Chaucer for Dummies - or how not to learn your own language
An interesting article from Chanhassen Monitor (Minnesota), about the need to read English literature in its original language, and not in modern translation:
"When I was in college, I once took a class on Chaucer. We studied “The Canterbury Tales.” I was a little nervous about the class because it was a graduate level course, and I was a junior at the time. Plus, reading 14th-century English is like reading a foreign language.
Wanting to do well in the class, I went to the library and got a book that had a modern translation of “The Canterbury Tales,” and started reading it before the class even got under way. I was quite proud of myself for being so industrious and motivated, and taking that extra step.
The first day of class was a lecture, and the instructor gave us some general background information about the author and the book, as well as about the time period and the setting. He also spoke about the language and the poetry of Chaucer’s writing.
“And by the way,” he said, “if I catch anyone reading a modern translation, I’ll throw you out of class.”
(...)
The reason he was so adamant about not reading a modern translation was that the language was a major component of what we were studying. He told us we’d understand it better if we read each tale out loud as we were studying it, and he even joked that the best way to get a feel for the language would be to go over to Ike’s – a bar just off campus – have a few beers, and then read the material in a loud and boisterous voice. At least, I think he was joking.
The point was that we weren’t just studying the words, their meaning, and the stories they told. We were studying the language, and so we had to immerse ourselves in it. And, as with studying an actual foreign language, the more we did, the easier it would be to understand and appreciate the material.
(...)
I made a reference to “Macbeth” in something I was writing recently, and I needed to refresh my memory on the details. I went to the library to get a copy of the play, and came across a volume called “No Fear Shakespeare.” It included the notation, “The play plus a translation anyone can understand.” In addition to “Macbeth,” there are No Fear Shakespeare copies of over a dozen other Shakespeare plays. In each book, the actual text appears on the left page, with a line-by-line modern translation on the right.
I checked the book out of the library, although I felt a little guilty about it and realized that my old Chaucer instructor was still with me. After I found the passage I was looking for, I skimmed through the rest of the book to sample some of the modern translations of Shakespeare’s famous lines. I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. Much is lost in translation. Not the meaning, but the mood – the richness of the words, and the atmosphere of the world in which the story is taking place. The drama, the depth, the foreboding. All this is lost when you replace the original words with a quick, concise, easy-to-swallow and easy-to-digest version.
I don’t think there’s any real solution to this dilemma, not in a world or at a time when the words we use to communicate with each other are being reduced even further to single letters and abbreviations.
It is interesting that this article comes at the same time as the reviews of Anne Carson's new translation of Aeschylus Agamemnon and how it compares to the previous one by Lattimore. Apparently, Lattimore was clunky. Carson is supposed to be "modern". An example:
Carson's
Cassandra: The fact is we wrestled.
Chorus: Had sex?
Cassandra: I said yes but defaulted.
Lattimore’s : “Did you come to the getting of children then, as people do?”
And some more here:
Carson's: propped on the roof of Atreus,
chin on my paws like a dog.
I’ve peered at the congregation of the nightly stars.
Lattimore's: I lie awake
elbowed upon the Atreidae’s roof dogwise
to mark the grand processionals of all the stars of night.
Both are clunky. English is not Greek, it lacks the music. Try playing Mozart on a tuba and you'll get what I mean. But if I was to choose, I would stick to Lattimore, because Carson's makes me visualise Cassandra with a mobile, in a Hyundai, SMSing on the highway. Aeschylus for Dummies.
"When I was in college, I once took a class on Chaucer. We studied “The Canterbury Tales.” I was a little nervous about the class because it was a graduate level course, and I was a junior at the time. Plus, reading 14th-century English is like reading a foreign language.
Wanting to do well in the class, I went to the library and got a book that had a modern translation of “The Canterbury Tales,” and started reading it before the class even got under way. I was quite proud of myself for being so industrious and motivated, and taking that extra step.
The first day of class was a lecture, and the instructor gave us some general background information about the author and the book, as well as about the time period and the setting. He also spoke about the language and the poetry of Chaucer’s writing.
“And by the way,” he said, “if I catch anyone reading a modern translation, I’ll throw you out of class.”
(...)
The reason he was so adamant about not reading a modern translation was that the language was a major component of what we were studying. He told us we’d understand it better if we read each tale out loud as we were studying it, and he even joked that the best way to get a feel for the language would be to go over to Ike’s – a bar just off campus – have a few beers, and then read the material in a loud and boisterous voice. At least, I think he was joking.
The point was that we weren’t just studying the words, their meaning, and the stories they told. We were studying the language, and so we had to immerse ourselves in it. And, as with studying an actual foreign language, the more we did, the easier it would be to understand and appreciate the material.
(...)
I made a reference to “Macbeth” in something I was writing recently, and I needed to refresh my memory on the details. I went to the library to get a copy of the play, and came across a volume called “No Fear Shakespeare.” It included the notation, “The play plus a translation anyone can understand.” In addition to “Macbeth,” there are No Fear Shakespeare copies of over a dozen other Shakespeare plays. In each book, the actual text appears on the left page, with a line-by-line modern translation on the right.
I checked the book out of the library, although I felt a little guilty about it and realized that my old Chaucer instructor was still with me. After I found the passage I was looking for, I skimmed through the rest of the book to sample some of the modern translations of Shakespeare’s famous lines. I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. Much is lost in translation. Not the meaning, but the mood – the richness of the words, and the atmosphere of the world in which the story is taking place. The drama, the depth, the foreboding. All this is lost when you replace the original words with a quick, concise, easy-to-swallow and easy-to-digest version.
I don’t think there’s any real solution to this dilemma, not in a world or at a time when the words we use to communicate with each other are being reduced even further to single letters and abbreviations.
It is interesting that this article comes at the same time as the reviews of Anne Carson's new translation of Aeschylus Agamemnon and how it compares to the previous one by Lattimore. Apparently, Lattimore was clunky. Carson is supposed to be "modern". An example:
Carson's
Cassandra: The fact is we wrestled.
Chorus: Had sex?
Cassandra: I said yes but defaulted.
Lattimore’s : “Did you come to the getting of children then, as people do?”
And some more here:
Carson's: propped on the roof of Atreus,
chin on my paws like a dog.
I’ve peered at the congregation of the nightly stars.
Lattimore's: I lie awake
elbowed upon the Atreidae’s roof dogwise
to mark the grand processionals of all the stars of night.
Both are clunky. English is not Greek, it lacks the music. Try playing Mozart on a tuba and you'll get what I mean. But if I was to choose, I would stick to Lattimore, because Carson's makes me visualise Cassandra with a mobile, in a Hyundai, SMSing on the highway. Aeschylus for Dummies.
Friday, April 10, 2009
How Not To Write a Covering Letter
Got this in my past-midnight mail :-D I have deleted any identifying info.
[If you received this kind of letter from me before or our relationship has already been established, please just ignore this letter]
Dear,
First of all, I would like to introduce myself, I am a professional translator searching for steady flow of translation projects. I offer translation service in ZYX to English and English to ZYX. ZYX is the national language of ZYX, a Southeast Asian country. I'm eager to offer my service to well-established translation agencies like yours. I earned my Bachelor's Degree from Blah-blah University (Leading, probably the best, university in ZYX), Faculty of Industrial Engineering. I have 7 years of translation experience in many fields. In fact, I can work and have been working with any type of translation. My rate is only US$0.08 per source word. Proofread rate is US$0.05 For job less than $10, minimum charge of US$10 will apply. For difficult to read text, eg. handwriting, additional charges applies I don't accept Paypal, credit card or check. Please pay by wire transfer. If you are interested in my service, please contact me via my e-mail address.
Best Regards,
XXXX. (Native speaker)
P.S. All of my details are in my resume. So, unless inevitably necessary, kindly do not send any contract or other kinds of document for me to sign or fill in.
**************
ANALYSIS
[If you received this kind of letter from me before or our relationship has already been established, please just ignore this letter]
Dear,
First of all, I would like to introduce myself, I am a professional translator searching for steady flow of translation projects. I offer translation service in ZYX to English and English to ZYX. ZYX is the national language of ZYX, a Southeast Asian country. I'm eager to offer my service to well-established translation agencies like yours. I earned my Bachelor's Degree from Blah-blah University (Leading, probably the best, university in ZYX), Faculty of Industrial Engineering. I have 7 years of translation experience in many fields. In fact, I can work and have been working with any type of translation. My rate is only US$0.08 per source word. Proofread rate is US$0.05 For job less than $10, minimum charge of US$10 will apply. For difficult to read text, eg. handwriting, additional charges applies I don't accept Paypal, credit card or check. Please pay by wire transfer. If you are interested in my service, please contact me via my e-mail address.
Best Regards,
XXXX. (Native speaker)
P.S. All of my details are in my resume. So, unless inevitably necessary, kindly do not send any contract or other kinds of document for me to sign or fill in.
**************
ANALYSIS
- Dear, ???? I have a name. If you are going to send someone a proposal for work, at least go figure out what their name and position is.
- If you allege that you translate into English, please ensure your punctuation matches your claims.
- "offer my service to well-established translation agencies like yours" - do your research before writing. I am not an agency, and if anything, I manage a team of independent colleagues who all work in my language group.
- "ZYX is the national language of ZYX, a Southeast Asian country" - this is offensive. You tell me I have a well-established agency and then assume I don't know where your country is? I must be a well-established incompetent nitwit.
- Make your education reflect your proposed skills. B.Eng has nothing to do with working with any type of translation.
- Be specific: "I have 7 years of translation experience in many fields" means nothing to me. Which fields? Sorghum? Clover? Chives? Elysian Fields? The fields of Monte Casino?
- If you provide very low rates, and not differentiate between types of work (in terms of delivery deadlines, content, specialization, etc.) then you are attracting the attention of Mr. Kumar from Nordic Services (see my posts yesterday). Not to mention that going up from that to anything decent would be nigh impossible.
- Be flexible - wire transfers cost the payer money. Besides, if you can't accept Paypal, your SE Asian country must be one hell of a dump.
- Use a proprietary email address. After 7 years of work, one would have expected you to have a domain name. Yahoo is just so unprofessional.
- Your name is (Native Speaker)???
- The PS is a classic. One, he is telling me what I should and shouldn't do, like he was the only ZYX translator on earth. Two, he wants to work without contracts. Keep dreaming. Oh, the eloquence of "inevitably necessary" :-D
He should apply for the Adult Website translations. ZYX country has a bit of a reputation that way.
The Politics of Translation
I am writing about this because I have a few Chinese colleagues, mostly new immigrants to Australia, and I was very aware of this ambivalence towards the Tibetan protests prior to Beijing Olympics. So what happened with the Canadian newspaper does not surprise me.
********
The top editor of Toronto’s Sing Tao Daily was fired after he edited out criticisms of the Chinese regime from a front-page story published during the thick of the heavily repressed protests in Tibet last year. Wilson Chan, then managing editor at the Chinese-language Sing Tao, was let go in the fall.
The story, which ran on April 13, 2008, was written by a reporter for the Toronto Star, an English-language newspaper owned by Torstar Corporation. Torstar also holds a majority share in the Canadian edition of Sing Tao an international Chinese-language newspaper headquartered in Hong Kong. Sing Tao is owned by a certain Charles Ho, who is a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a select group of the communist party’s most loyal friends. So what did they expect at the Toronto Star???
The controversy first erupted after The Epoch Times reported major differences between Sing Tao’s translation of the Tibet story last April and the original English version that appeared in the Star on the same day.
Sing Tao and Toronto Star each ran the same story at the top of their front page, an article by Toronto Star immigration and diversity reporter Nicholas Keung. Sing Tao labeled the article "Special from The Toronto Star, " but it had some noticeable differences from Keung's original as it appeared in the Star.
The Star ran the story under the headline "Chinese Canadians Conflicted on Tibet." The article probed the feelings some Chinese Canadians have in hoping for more human rights in their homeland while also feeling nationalist sentiment towards the upcoming Olympics and what they perceive as interference by Tibetan protesters. The Star also quoted observers – including the publisher of this newspaper, Cindy Gu – who said the Chinese regime has intentionally confused national pride with support for the communist party its policies, such as its handling of Tibet.
Those comments were cut in the Sing Tao version, which used instead a page-width headline: "The West Attacks China With Tibet Issue, Inciting Chinese Patriotism Overseas." By the time Sing Tao's editors were through with the story, criticism of the Chinese regime had been removed. There was no mention of an effort to distort facts to stir up nationalism. Instead, the story opened with two paragraphs apparently added by Sing Tao editors, berating Western news coverage and critics of the crackdown in Tibet. "When China is suppressed by the West," it read, "overseas Chinese generally feel outrage, and would not forget to step forward to defend China." Sing Tao offered as examples of this "suppression," Western media's reports on the Tibet crackdown and the recent protests that met the Olympic Torch. The article continued: "Most Mainland Chinese immigrants stand on the side of the Chinese government, supporting the suppression of the rampant Tibet independent forces before the Beijing summer Olympics."
Even critics of Chinese human rights "think it is not necessary for the West to use Olympics to 'bash' China," it said.
Sing Tao's cuts included some mid-article paragraphs quoting a Chinese broadcaster on how Chinese nationalism had begun to erode the support for democracy in Hong Kong. Sing Tao's editors also broke the article into sections under four conspicuously pro-Beijing subheadings: "Harming Chinese People," "China Is Like a Mother," "Human Rights Will Gradually Improve," and "Unfair to China." Comparing the Sing Tao version with the original Toronto Star article, The Epoch Times noticed that Sing Tao appears to have added "so-called" in front of "human rights violations" in a quote from the radio broadcaster. And "Tibetans" were changed to "Tibetan separatists" in the comments from a Markham investment advisor.
*********
Often, the Canadian media executives are unable to read the contents of the newspaper, and, as in the case of Sing Tao, much of the content is provided by Hong Kong-based parent companies that they have no control over, and which have in recent years been accused of tilting increasingly in favour of Beijing.
Wilson Chan defended the changes, saying that the radical revision of the headline fell within an editor's right to use whatever headline best suited the story. "Different editors have different readings; if this is the way the editor reads into it, then it's the way he reads into it." He said criticism of the regime was cut because some of these comments were "not something new," and that these quotes appeared toward the bottom of the article, where editors frequently cut if a story runs too long.
My question is - what happened to the freedom of expression? It obviously was not a mistranslation, it was an opinion. So would it have been all right if they had altered the text enough to make it clear they were not quoting verbatim from the Star?
Doesn't the same apply to all non-English publications published in English-speaking countries?
********
The top editor of Toronto’s Sing Tao Daily was fired after he edited out criticisms of the Chinese regime from a front-page story published during the thick of the heavily repressed protests in Tibet last year. Wilson Chan, then managing editor at the Chinese-language Sing Tao, was let go in the fall.
The story, which ran on April 13, 2008, was written by a reporter for the Toronto Star, an English-language newspaper owned by Torstar Corporation. Torstar also holds a majority share in the Canadian edition of Sing Tao an international Chinese-language newspaper headquartered in Hong Kong. Sing Tao is owned by a certain Charles Ho, who is a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a select group of the communist party’s most loyal friends. So what did they expect at the Toronto Star???
The controversy first erupted after The Epoch Times reported major differences between Sing Tao’s translation of the Tibet story last April and the original English version that appeared in the Star on the same day.
Sing Tao and Toronto Star each ran the same story at the top of their front page, an article by Toronto Star immigration and diversity reporter Nicholas Keung. Sing Tao labeled the article "Special from The Toronto Star, " but it had some noticeable differences from Keung's original as it appeared in the Star.
The Star ran the story under the headline "Chinese Canadians Conflicted on Tibet." The article probed the feelings some Chinese Canadians have in hoping for more human rights in their homeland while also feeling nationalist sentiment towards the upcoming Olympics and what they perceive as interference by Tibetan protesters. The Star also quoted observers – including the publisher of this newspaper, Cindy Gu – who said the Chinese regime has intentionally confused national pride with support for the communist party its policies, such as its handling of Tibet.
Those comments were cut in the Sing Tao version, which used instead a page-width headline: "The West Attacks China With Tibet Issue, Inciting Chinese Patriotism Overseas." By the time Sing Tao's editors were through with the story, criticism of the Chinese regime had been removed. There was no mention of an effort to distort facts to stir up nationalism. Instead, the story opened with two paragraphs apparently added by Sing Tao editors, berating Western news coverage and critics of the crackdown in Tibet. "When China is suppressed by the West," it read, "overseas Chinese generally feel outrage, and would not forget to step forward to defend China." Sing Tao offered as examples of this "suppression," Western media's reports on the Tibet crackdown and the recent protests that met the Olympic Torch. The article continued: "Most Mainland Chinese immigrants stand on the side of the Chinese government, supporting the suppression of the rampant Tibet independent forces before the Beijing summer Olympics."
Even critics of Chinese human rights "think it is not necessary for the West to use Olympics to 'bash' China," it said.
Sing Tao's cuts included some mid-article paragraphs quoting a Chinese broadcaster on how Chinese nationalism had begun to erode the support for democracy in Hong Kong. Sing Tao's editors also broke the article into sections under four conspicuously pro-Beijing subheadings: "Harming Chinese People," "China Is Like a Mother," "Human Rights Will Gradually Improve," and "Unfair to China." Comparing the Sing Tao version with the original Toronto Star article, The Epoch Times noticed that Sing Tao appears to have added "so-called" in front of "human rights violations" in a quote from the radio broadcaster. And "Tibetans" were changed to "Tibetan separatists" in the comments from a Markham investment advisor.
*********
Often, the Canadian media executives are unable to read the contents of the newspaper, and, as in the case of Sing Tao, much of the content is provided by Hong Kong-based parent companies that they have no control over, and which have in recent years been accused of tilting increasingly in favour of Beijing.
Wilson Chan defended the changes, saying that the radical revision of the headline fell within an editor's right to use whatever headline best suited the story. "Different editors have different readings; if this is the way the editor reads into it, then it's the way he reads into it." He said criticism of the regime was cut because some of these comments were "not something new," and that these quotes appeared toward the bottom of the article, where editors frequently cut if a story runs too long.
My question is - what happened to the freedom of expression? It obviously was not a mistranslation, it was an opinion. So would it have been all right if they had altered the text enough to make it clear they were not quoting verbatim from the Star?
Doesn't the same apply to all non-English publications published in English-speaking countries?
Combatant Linguistics
In November, the US military launched the 09L, short for “09 Limas,” a new company of linguists trained as soldiers. Serving mainly as translators and interpreters, the Limas represent the army’s new ideology that it’s easier to train linguists to be soldiers than it is to turn soldiers into fluent Arabic speakers.
And they are pumping 270 million dollars into it this year, which is almost 190 million more than eight years ago. But not enough of them are learning Dari or Pushtu. Why should they? When the war is over, what will they do with these languages? Translate hilly-billy poetry? Provided they don't get killed, of course..
And the situation is dire:
The number of Pashto speakers in U.S. uniform is significantly less than the more than 30 percent of Afghani citizens who are fluent in the dialect. Many locals are currently working as translators for the U.S. officers and servicemen stationed in Afghanistan. At NATO’s headquarters, where every Dari and Pashto interpreter and translator was an Afghan, the language barrier affected the translation of highly technical military information. “Even if they have very, very good English skills, they may not have the technical knowledge or ability,” said Col. Jim Helis, who served last year as Chief of Plans at NATO’s Afghanistan headquarters. “You can literally lose items in translation.”
Apparently, during an operation briefing to senior Afghan military officers in Afghanistan last year, overhead slides were presented. One side of the slide panel was in English, and the other in Dari. One of the senior Afghan generals, who was fluent in English, called attention to a discrepancy in the translation. ‘Your Dari slide doesn’t say what your English slide says,’” he said. It is all a challenge to the US Army – they are handing off the translations and have no way of doing any content control.
That's an alliance whose US side does not know what its Afghan side is doing, to quip it biblically. Scary that you send people to a battlefield not knowing if they know what they should be doing. Such lack of QA results in the by now well documented civilian collateral damage we keep reading about in the news: weddings, villages, hospitals and schools being blown up, US shooting UK soldiers, etc. etc.
And pouring money into LIMAS won't create fluent soldiers in a year. Where will they get their trainers from? What about immersion in the culture? Ooops, couldn't finish that unit - was shot by a local interpreter??
And they are pumping 270 million dollars into it this year, which is almost 190 million more than eight years ago. But not enough of them are learning Dari or Pushtu. Why should they? When the war is over, what will they do with these languages? Translate hilly-billy poetry? Provided they don't get killed, of course..
And the situation is dire:
The number of Pashto speakers in U.S. uniform is significantly less than the more than 30 percent of Afghani citizens who are fluent in the dialect. Many locals are currently working as translators for the U.S. officers and servicemen stationed in Afghanistan. At NATO’s headquarters, where every Dari and Pashto interpreter and translator was an Afghan, the language barrier affected the translation of highly technical military information. “Even if they have very, very good English skills, they may not have the technical knowledge or ability,” said Col. Jim Helis, who served last year as Chief of Plans at NATO’s Afghanistan headquarters. “You can literally lose items in translation.”
Apparently, during an operation briefing to senior Afghan military officers in Afghanistan last year, overhead slides were presented. One side of the slide panel was in English, and the other in Dari. One of the senior Afghan generals, who was fluent in English, called attention to a discrepancy in the translation. ‘Your Dari slide doesn’t say what your English slide says,’” he said. It is all a challenge to the US Army – they are handing off the translations and have no way of doing any content control.
That's an alliance whose US side does not know what its Afghan side is doing, to quip it biblically. Scary that you send people to a battlefield not knowing if they know what they should be doing. Such lack of QA results in the by now well documented civilian collateral damage we keep reading about in the news: weddings, villages, hospitals and schools being blown up, US shooting UK soldiers, etc. etc.
And pouring money into LIMAS won't create fluent soldiers in a year. Where will they get their trainers from? What about immersion in the culture? Ooops, couldn't finish that unit - was shot by a local interpreter??
Branding G-d in English
This morning, the Melbourne Age blessed us with some insight into translating the name of the Almighty:
"WHAT'S in a name?" the Bard once asked. Well, quite a lot if you're the Son of God! Many good Christian people would be surprised to know that Jesus Christ was never known as "Jesus" or "Christ" to His Mum or His Mates or by anyone else, for that matter, during His Lifetime.
Oh, I see. My respect for the level of ignorance of these "many good Christian people" has plummeted already. But then media in Australia are aimed at 8-year olds who think milk comes out of supermarket fridges, and my neighbour who is still fully convinced the Jews crucified his Messiah, and Russians should have been annihilated in Berlin by the allies in 1945.
"In fact Jesus' real name was closer to Joshua than Jesus. Oddly, He, we, and dare I say His Omnipotent Heavenly Father, have for the past two-and-a-bit millennia been victims of the Hebrew, Greek, Latin and eventually English translators."
Well, they weren't NAATI accredited, were they? Did they have ISO certification? Or an AUSIT code of ethics? I don't recollect St. Jerome having a webpage on Proz.com!
Have we been led into a valley of conspiracy and deceit of biblical proportions? Well, probably not deliberately - what we have here is just a small glitch in communication that occurred during His Name's journey from its Aramaic original to its present English form. The name Jesus proves to be an Anglicisation of the Latin "Jesus" (Yeezus), which is a version of the Greek "Iesous", itself a Hellenisation of the Hebrew "Yehoshua", which in turn is taken from the Aramaic "Yeshua", which means "Yahweh is salvation". The English "Christ" comes from the Greek word "Christos", which means the "Anointed One", which in Hebrew is "Messiah".
They probably used some inbuilt translating function on their Rosetta Stone V5.0, or Parchment 03. Or was it the famous Widget?
So there you go. But I still feel a bit ripped-off. The original "Yeshua" sounds so cool and has meaning, where the name we find ourselves left with is an impostor, a creation of lesser men, which has usurped the original and taken on a meaning of its own. This, however, leaves us with an even greater problem. Firstly, that a group of pre-scientific biblical translators could usurp the Almighty and secondly, that if the translators could get a simple name wrong, albeit an important one, then where does that leave the rest of the good book?
You really don't want to know. Not before Easter.
But maybe there isn't a problem with the translation issue at all. To quote a former governor of Texas, who during a debate concerning the introduction of Spanish biblical studies in Texan state schools, held up his St James and informatively stated to the state legislature that, "if the English language was good enough for Jesus Christ then it was good enough for (him)". Problem solved, God willing.
Only in the USA!
"WHAT'S in a name?" the Bard once asked. Well, quite a lot if you're the Son of God! Many good Christian people would be surprised to know that Jesus Christ was never known as "Jesus" or "Christ" to His Mum or His Mates or by anyone else, for that matter, during His Lifetime.
Oh, I see. My respect for the level of ignorance of these "many good Christian people" has plummeted already. But then media in Australia are aimed at 8-year olds who think milk comes out of supermarket fridges, and my neighbour who is still fully convinced the Jews crucified his Messiah, and Russians should have been annihilated in Berlin by the allies in 1945.
"In fact Jesus' real name was closer to Joshua than Jesus. Oddly, He, we, and dare I say His Omnipotent Heavenly Father, have for the past two-and-a-bit millennia been victims of the Hebrew, Greek, Latin and eventually English translators."
Well, they weren't NAATI accredited, were they? Did they have ISO certification? Or an AUSIT code of ethics? I don't recollect St. Jerome having a webpage on Proz.com!
Have we been led into a valley of conspiracy and deceit of biblical proportions? Well, probably not deliberately - what we have here is just a small glitch in communication that occurred during His Name's journey from its Aramaic original to its present English form. The name Jesus proves to be an Anglicisation of the Latin "Jesus" (Yeezus), which is a version of the Greek "Iesous", itself a Hellenisation of the Hebrew "Yehoshua", which in turn is taken from the Aramaic "Yeshua", which means "Yahweh is salvation". The English "Christ" comes from the Greek word "Christos", which means the "Anointed One", which in Hebrew is "Messiah".
They probably used some inbuilt translating function on their Rosetta Stone V5.0, or Parchment 03. Or was it the famous Widget?
So there you go. But I still feel a bit ripped-off. The original "Yeshua" sounds so cool and has meaning, where the name we find ourselves left with is an impostor, a creation of lesser men, which has usurped the original and taken on a meaning of its own. This, however, leaves us with an even greater problem. Firstly, that a group of pre-scientific biblical translators could usurp the Almighty and secondly, that if the translators could get a simple name wrong, albeit an important one, then where does that leave the rest of the good book?
You really don't want to know. Not before Easter.
But maybe there isn't a problem with the translation issue at all. To quote a former governor of Texas, who during a debate concerning the introduction of Spanish biblical studies in Texan state schools, held up his St James and informatively stated to the state legislature that, "if the English language was good enough for Jesus Christ then it was good enough for (him)". Problem solved, God willing.
Only in the USA!
That this makes news is amazing
Sgt. Karen Alsup, head of the police Crime Prevention Unit in Norfolk, hit on the idea of translating a robbery-prevention tip sheet to Chinese restaurants after 17 businesses were robbed last year and three more were victimized in January. There hasn't been a Chinese takeout robbery since.
From The Virginia Pilot
Sometimes it's not what you say, but how you say it.
Sgt. Karen Alsup, head of the police Crime Prevention Unit and a former robbery detective, kept hearing about local Chinese takeout restaurants and their delivery drivers getting held up. After being asked in October to conduct a security survey for Dragon City, off Colley Avenue, she wanted to do more.
She knew the department had an officer dedicated to working with the Spanish-speaking community, including acting as a translator.
Then Alsup was nosing around on her office computer and came across a built-in translation function in her word-processing program.
A robbery-prevention tipsheet for businesses was on her screen. She clicked the tab for "Chinese" - and a new crime-fighting effort was born.
Police distributed the newly translated tipsheets to the 17 businesses robbed last year and the three victimized in January. They began handing them out around town, to an additional 20 eateries so far.
There hasn't been a Chinese takeout robbery since January, Alsup said. She doesn't entirely credit the tipsheets, but she and others say they've helped.
"If you talk to them in Chinese, they know better," said Peter Chang, who with his wife has translated Chinese for the Red Cross. "It will help them quite a bit."
Alsup had contacted the Red Cross to verify her computer's translation, knowing the organization used translators. Chang sent the documents to a retired university professor with whom he taught at Norfolk State University, who pronounced them accurate.
The workers at Dragon City have said they feel "much safer," said Tina Chen, the manager's niece. "They said it was easier" to understand.
And the business added a security alarm system, she said, which was one of the tips. Others include not keeping back doors propped open, not covering windows with signs, and reducing the amount of cash kept on the premises.
"They gather around and look at it, like it's a trophy," said Officer Sandy Parker, who helps distribute the Chinese fliers. "So we've gotten a great response." Alsup, a 13-year department veteran, said another intent is to improve the rapport between police and Norfolk's varied residents.
"It's not really any kind of rocket science," Alsup said. "It's just an idea I had."
*****
No, it ain't, Alsup. We actually have bilingual liason officers in Australia. And most important info gets translated. Oh, and when we go to a crime scene and people don't speak English, they get interpreters for free.
I dread to think what came out in Chinese when Alsup pressed the "built-in translation function button". Somethink like the menu stuff I wrote about last night?
And all these little take-away workers gathering around a piece of paper as "if it was a trophy" is just so patronizing, it makes my stomach heave.
Adult Websites Need Translations, Too
Apparently.. not that I would ever dream of doing this. I am just not qualified. Erotica, maybe. But not the hardcore stuff.
However, businesses that cater to the adult market are part of one of the largest industries on the world-wide web. And to reach to a world-wide customer base, they need to localize.
Except that this kind of stuff is highly cultural. And if it is to resonate with the overseas clientele, it has to be localized in a culturally tasteful way. All these breaches of taboo subjects, etc., they need to be addressed by someone who is very comfortable with both the target and source sexual sub-cultures as well as the languages.
Something I may write about a bit more some time in the future.
However, businesses that cater to the adult market are part of one of the largest industries on the world-wide web. And to reach to a world-wide customer base, they need to localize.
Except that this kind of stuff is highly cultural. And if it is to resonate with the overseas clientele, it has to be localized in a culturally tasteful way. All these breaches of taboo subjects, etc., they need to be addressed by someone who is very comfortable with both the target and source sexual sub-cultures as well as the languages.
Something I may write about a bit more some time in the future.
"It Is Always English First..."
Talking Alaska is a blog about native American languages. The most recent post deals with translating from English into these languages. One particular bit caught my attention:
"I've been thinking a bit about translation lately. At ANLC we get many request to translate slogans, idioms, mottos, etc. from English to a particular Native language -- or even into "Alaskan."
While these requests are for the most part well-intentioned, many speakers have expressed their reluctance to fulfill such requests. One problem is that people don't realize just how difficult such requests can be.
But I wonder if it is not only the difficulty of the task which bothers people. Perhaps an even greater problem is that taken together, all of these requests might be viewed as trivializing or patronizing rather supporting Native language. There seems to be a lack of reciprocity. I have yet to receive a request from someone seeking a translation of a Native language idiom into English. No, it is always the other way around. Someone comes up with a usually highly idiomatic English phrase, and then wants to translate it into Native language. It's always English first, Native language second. English is always given priority. No one seems interesting in the rich idiomatic language of Alaska's indigenous languages. Instead, they are interested in forcing an awkward translation of an English idiom. And typically the goal is to advance some non-linguistic cause by appeal to the cachet of Native language. That's what seems patronizing. Don't get me wrong. I know these people are well-intentioned. And I would very much like to see more Native language out there. But I am beginning to understand the reluctance on the part of some speakers to participate in translation work. "
Hmmm. Tell me about it. How many of these slogans was I asked to translate into "Sudanese"? Some of them were puns on words, some rhymed in English, but would mean bugger all in Arabic, some were culturally inappropriate. Not to mention that there is no such language as "Sudanese" anyway. Maybe educating your well-meaning clients would be the way to go? But is it achievable? Some of these Mr. Do-Goodies are so ethnocentric and so ignorant that one would need a can-opener to get into the cranial cavity.
"I've been thinking a bit about translation lately. At ANLC we get many request to translate slogans, idioms, mottos, etc. from English to a particular Native language -- or even into "Alaskan."
While these requests are for the most part well-intentioned, many speakers have expressed their reluctance to fulfill such requests. One problem is that people don't realize just how difficult such requests can be.
But I wonder if it is not only the difficulty of the task which bothers people. Perhaps an even greater problem is that taken together, all of these requests might be viewed as trivializing or patronizing rather supporting Native language. There seems to be a lack of reciprocity. I have yet to receive a request from someone seeking a translation of a Native language idiom into English. No, it is always the other way around. Someone comes up with a usually highly idiomatic English phrase, and then wants to translate it into Native language. It's always English first, Native language second. English is always given priority. No one seems interesting in the rich idiomatic language of Alaska's indigenous languages. Instead, they are interested in forcing an awkward translation of an English idiom. And typically the goal is to advance some non-linguistic cause by appeal to the cachet of Native language. That's what seems patronizing. Don't get me wrong. I know these people are well-intentioned. And I would very much like to see more Native language out there. But I am beginning to understand the reluctance on the part of some speakers to participate in translation work. "
Hmmm. Tell me about it. How many of these slogans was I asked to translate into "Sudanese"? Some of them were puns on words, some rhymed in English, but would mean bugger all in Arabic, some were culturally inappropriate. Not to mention that there is no such language as "Sudanese" anyway. Maybe educating your well-meaning clients would be the way to go? But is it achievable? Some of these Mr. Do-Goodies are so ethnocentric and so ignorant that one would need a can-opener to get into the cranial cavity.
Thursday, April 09, 2009
US Department of Justice's Reminder Music in the Ears of LSPs
In March, as federal agencies prepared to hand out funds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the DOJ issued an important reminder about the role of language services.The Department of Justice highlighted the fact that all recipients of federal dollars — and that includes private companies — must comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which expressly prohibits national origin discrimination, “including language access for limited English proficient persons.” In other words, before beneficiaries dole out AIG-sized bonuses, they would be wise to make sure that their budgets account for translation needs.
What does this mean for the language industry and practitioners inside corporations?
What does this mean for the language industry and practitioners inside corporations?
- Savvy language service providers (LSPs) will alert their clients and prospects of the obligations under Title VI, to help raise awareness and alleviate potential hefty fees related to investigations and penalties that may ensue if these language duties are ignored.
- The program is designed to help the economy recover, and the language services industry is in a good position to directly benefit. To determine which verticals and organizations will receive funding, suppliers should follow the money trail. And so should the freelancers.
- The federal attention to language issues coincides with other state and industry-specific language access issues that have taken place since the new president entered the White House.
Even with cutbacks in many commercial accounts, beneficiaries of recovery monies — both public and private — will not be able to slash language services from their budgets without costly consequences. Since most of these LSPs cannot find enough freelancers inside the US, it looks like we may get a piece of the cake, or at least sizable crumbs. I would suggest that freelancers stop being shy and start looking for direct clients, too. After all, middlemen in recession are not always a persona grata.
Cheaper, cheaper.. and on video
I said a few months ago that when the recession really hits, governments will tighten expenditure precisely where there will be the least complaints - NESBS, even if they do complain, do so in languages alien to the governmental ears. I predicted that whereas translators may survive the worse - if they navigate the waters correctly - community interpreters will fare much worse.
Now, it has been our experience that what Uncle Sam does, ACT will soon adopt. So beware, my down-trodden colleagues who refuse to consider other income-making options. Here we go:
Illinois hospitals enlisting video translators
Under live system hospitals with patient diversity do not have to communicate via children or expensive in-person translators
Worried about the potential for medical errors as the number of non-English speakers grows, Illinois hospitals are rolling out a live video system that can translate from medical-care providers to patients in 150 languages(...) Translators, versed in medical jargon and health-care terminology, are available by video or telephone 24 hours a day and can be seen on the system's portable screen that sits atop a mobile cart. (...) Hospitals say the system is cheaper and more efficient than the traditional method of helping patients who can't speak English. It costs 80 cents per minute to use the Illinois Video Interpreter Network, compared with several times that to hire interpreters who often require a two- or three-hour minimum of service, said Michael King, director of development for the Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council.
Now, it has been our experience that what Uncle Sam does, ACT will soon adopt. So beware, my down-trodden colleagues who refuse to consider other income-making options. Here we go:
Illinois hospitals enlisting video translators
Under live system hospitals with patient diversity do not have to communicate via children or expensive in-person translators
Worried about the potential for medical errors as the number of non-English speakers grows, Illinois hospitals are rolling out a live video system that can translate from medical-care providers to patients in 150 languages(...) Translators, versed in medical jargon and health-care terminology, are available by video or telephone 24 hours a day and can be seen on the system's portable screen that sits atop a mobile cart. (...) Hospitals say the system is cheaper and more efficient than the traditional method of helping patients who can't speak English. It costs 80 cents per minute to use the Illinois Video Interpreter Network, compared with several times that to hire interpreters who often require a two- or three-hour minimum of service, said Michael King, director of development for the Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council.
Three Quotes
George Puttenham - an early advocate for the visibility of the translator:
“[...] for in deede as I would wish euery inuentour, which is the very Poet, to receaue the prayses of his inuention, so would I not haue a translatour to be ashamed to be acknowen of his translation.”
The Arte of English Poesie, 1589
George Chapman - arguing in favour of translation that transposes the true sense and cultural depth of the original into the target language:
“The worth of a skilfull and worthy translator is to obserue the sentences, figures, and formes of speech proposed in his author, his true sence and height, and to adorne them with figures and formes of oration fitted to the originall in the same tongue to which they are translated”
(From Preface “To the Reader” in the first draft of George Chapman’s translation of Homer, entitled Seauen Bookes of the I Hades of Homer, printed by John Windet in 1598)
Lewis Carroll - again emphasising the importance of the sense:
‘Tis so,’ said the Duchess: `and the moral of that is–”Oh, ’tis love, ’tis love, that makes the world go round!”‘‘Somebody said,’ Alice whispered, `that it’s done by everybody minding their own business!’‘Ah, well! It means much the same thing,’ said the Duchess, digging her sharp little chin into Alice’s shoulder as she added, `and the moral of that is– “Take care of the sense, and the sounds will take care of themselves.“‘`How fond she is of finding morals in things!’ Alice thought to herself.(The Mock Turtle’s Story from Alice in Wonderland)
“[...] for in deede as I would wish euery inuentour, which is the very Poet, to receaue the prayses of his inuention, so would I not haue a translatour to be ashamed to be acknowen of his translation.”
The Arte of English Poesie, 1589
George Chapman - arguing in favour of translation that transposes the true sense and cultural depth of the original into the target language:
“The worth of a skilfull and worthy translator is to obserue the sentences, figures, and formes of speech proposed in his author, his true sence and height, and to adorne them with figures and formes of oration fitted to the originall in the same tongue to which they are translated”
(From Preface “To the Reader” in the first draft of George Chapman’s translation of Homer, entitled Seauen Bookes of the I Hades of Homer, printed by John Windet in 1598)
Lewis Carroll - again emphasising the importance of the sense:
‘Tis so,’ said the Duchess: `and the moral of that is–”Oh, ’tis love, ’tis love, that makes the world go round!”‘‘Somebody said,’ Alice whispered, `that it’s done by everybody minding their own business!’‘Ah, well! It means much the same thing,’ said the Duchess, digging her sharp little chin into Alice’s shoulder as she added, `and the moral of that is– “Take care of the sense, and the sounds will take care of themselves.“‘`How fond she is of finding morals in things!’ Alice thought to herself.(The Mock Turtle’s Story from Alice in Wonderland)
Azazeel
An Egyptian writer reminds the Christians that intolerance is not limited to Islam alone.
From the Guardian (26/03/09) by Maya Jaggi
I was in Abu Dhabi last week to see the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, won by Youssef Ziedan of Egypt for his novel Azazeel. The book, whose English title is given as Beelzebub, has disturbing echoes for today with its tale of religious fanaticism and mob violence - in this case among early Christians in Roman Egypt. Ziedan, a genial scholar aged 50, told me it sparked an outcry among some of Egypt's 10 million Coptic Christians, who wanted it banned. Yet beyond dispute is that the IPAF, dubbed the "Arabic Booker", has made its mark as an influential literary award in only its second year.
In the realm of books, there are encouraging signs. The IPAF is awarded during the Abu Dhabi international book fair, a joint venture with the Frankfurt book fair that has zero tolerance of book piracy. Curbing piratical presses, improving distribution and building industry pressure against censorship are crucial steps towards enabling more writers in Arabic to earn a living from their books. (Good luck with this. How about improving the readers' living standards so that they can buy books, or eradicate illiteracy??)
The IPAF was launched last year to some heavy attacks in the Arab press, not least for aping western models. But the longlists and shortlists are widely discussed, and disputed, across the Arab media. In its aim to widen readership of new Arabic fiction, both in the Arab world and in translation, it has already chalked up successes. Last year's inaugural winner, Bahaa Taher's Sunset Oasis, is to be published by Sceptre in the UK in September - and soon in seven other languages. Set in the 19th century at the Siwa oasis on the Egypt-Libya border, and obliquely reflecting the political despair of successive generations in Taher's native Egypt, it was translated into English by Humphrey Davies with funds pledged by Granta owner Sigrid Rausing. According to London literary agent Andrew Nurnberg, who has represented Taher since the prize, the availability of an English translation to sample will open the gates to many more.
Quick off the mark, Nurnberg also took on Ziedan on the strength of the shortlist announced last December. He read sections of Beelzebub translated by Reuters journalist Jonathan Wright, who was intrigued by Cairo pavement vendors flogging stacks of the bestselling novel. Like Sunset Oasis, it was published by Dar El Shorouk in Cairo, also publishers of Alaa Al Aswany's phenomenal bestseller The Yacoubian Building. Judging from deals struck by other shortlisted writers, the prize will widen access to novels that might otherwise never have been translated.
Over morning coffee, this year's winner told me enthusiastically about the award. Born in upper Egypt, Ziedan moved as an infant to Alexandria, where he is professor of Islamic philosophy and history of science at the university, as well as founding director of the new library of Alexandria's manuscripts centre. He has written more than 50 books, but turned to fiction in his 40s, his mission to turn dessicated parchment into live debate. Beelzebub, his second novel, purports to be the memoirs of a fifth-century doctor-monk and passionate lover named Hypa, whose scrolls are unearthed by a 20th-century translator. Born in AD 391, when Christianity was imposed as Roman Egypt's official religion, Hypa wanders east to the Holy Land after witnessing a mob of Alexandrian Christians lynching a woman, Hypatia, the neo-platonic philosopher and mathematician who defended science against religion. Ziedan sees the lynching as a symptom of religious intolerance, and the start of a scientific dark age.
The fictional monk stumbles on another historical conflict, between the Coptic Bishop Cyril of Alexandria, and Nestorius, the Syrian-born patriarch of Constantinople whom Cyril deposed as a heretic in a schism of AD 431. The novel by Muslim-born Ziedan was controversial partly for portraying Saint Cyril as a fanatic who kills Jews and pagans, and partly for wading into theological disputes over whether the Virgin Mary was the mother of God. Ziedan traces this notion of heresy to underlying differences between Greco-Egyptian and desert Arab cultures and their view of divinities. But in an urgent parallel with the extremists of today, he sees the novel as "not against Christianity but against violence, especially violence in the name of the sacred". That such humane, questioning - if provocative - voices should be more widely heard is an auspicious beginning for the prize.
*******
My comment: Anything Davies has translated so far, and he has translated a hell of a lot, is as much representative of Arabic literature as Salman Rushdi's drivel is representative of Indian Islam. But Davies translates for money, and the real stuff would not sell in the Occident. The Occident, still showing serious signs of Orientalist fever, wants now to believe that the Arab World, no longer full of exotic harems and odalisques, can be reshaped to become more Occidental.
One day, Davies will go. I pray someone more ideologically and politically aware will then come to translate, not novels, but works of modern Arab philosophers and writers such as Ashmawi, Sadek Nayhoum, Hamed Abu Zaid, Al-Alem, Emara, Al-Jabri, Foudah, Firas Al-Sawwah, Tarabishi and Qimni.
From the Guardian (26/03/09) by Maya Jaggi
I was in Abu Dhabi last week to see the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, won by Youssef Ziedan of Egypt for his novel Azazeel. The book, whose English title is given as Beelzebub, has disturbing echoes for today with its tale of religious fanaticism and mob violence - in this case among early Christians in Roman Egypt. Ziedan, a genial scholar aged 50, told me it sparked an outcry among some of Egypt's 10 million Coptic Christians, who wanted it banned. Yet beyond dispute is that the IPAF, dubbed the "Arabic Booker", has made its mark as an influential literary award in only its second year.
In the realm of books, there are encouraging signs. The IPAF is awarded during the Abu Dhabi international book fair, a joint venture with the Frankfurt book fair that has zero tolerance of book piracy. Curbing piratical presses, improving distribution and building industry pressure against censorship are crucial steps towards enabling more writers in Arabic to earn a living from their books. (Good luck with this. How about improving the readers' living standards so that they can buy books, or eradicate illiteracy??)
The IPAF was launched last year to some heavy attacks in the Arab press, not least for aping western models. But the longlists and shortlists are widely discussed, and disputed, across the Arab media. In its aim to widen readership of new Arabic fiction, both in the Arab world and in translation, it has already chalked up successes. Last year's inaugural winner, Bahaa Taher's Sunset Oasis, is to be published by Sceptre in the UK in September - and soon in seven other languages. Set in the 19th century at the Siwa oasis on the Egypt-Libya border, and obliquely reflecting the political despair of successive generations in Taher's native Egypt, it was translated into English by Humphrey Davies with funds pledged by Granta owner Sigrid Rausing. According to London literary agent Andrew Nurnberg, who has represented Taher since the prize, the availability of an English translation to sample will open the gates to many more.
Quick off the mark, Nurnberg also took on Ziedan on the strength of the shortlist announced last December. He read sections of Beelzebub translated by Reuters journalist Jonathan Wright, who was intrigued by Cairo pavement vendors flogging stacks of the bestselling novel. Like Sunset Oasis, it was published by Dar El Shorouk in Cairo, also publishers of Alaa Al Aswany's phenomenal bestseller The Yacoubian Building. Judging from deals struck by other shortlisted writers, the prize will widen access to novels that might otherwise never have been translated.
Over morning coffee, this year's winner told me enthusiastically about the award. Born in upper Egypt, Ziedan moved as an infant to Alexandria, where he is professor of Islamic philosophy and history of science at the university, as well as founding director of the new library of Alexandria's manuscripts centre. He has written more than 50 books, but turned to fiction in his 40s, his mission to turn dessicated parchment into live debate. Beelzebub, his second novel, purports to be the memoirs of a fifth-century doctor-monk and passionate lover named Hypa, whose scrolls are unearthed by a 20th-century translator. Born in AD 391, when Christianity was imposed as Roman Egypt's official religion, Hypa wanders east to the Holy Land after witnessing a mob of Alexandrian Christians lynching a woman, Hypatia, the neo-platonic philosopher and mathematician who defended science against religion. Ziedan sees the lynching as a symptom of religious intolerance, and the start of a scientific dark age.
The fictional monk stumbles on another historical conflict, between the Coptic Bishop Cyril of Alexandria, and Nestorius, the Syrian-born patriarch of Constantinople whom Cyril deposed as a heretic in a schism of AD 431. The novel by Muslim-born Ziedan was controversial partly for portraying Saint Cyril as a fanatic who kills Jews and pagans, and partly for wading into theological disputes over whether the Virgin Mary was the mother of God. Ziedan traces this notion of heresy to underlying differences between Greco-Egyptian and desert Arab cultures and their view of divinities. But in an urgent parallel with the extremists of today, he sees the novel as "not against Christianity but against violence, especially violence in the name of the sacred". That such humane, questioning - if provocative - voices should be more widely heard is an auspicious beginning for the prize.
*******
My comment: Anything Davies has translated so far, and he has translated a hell of a lot, is as much representative of Arabic literature as Salman Rushdi's drivel is representative of Indian Islam. But Davies translates for money, and the real stuff would not sell in the Occident. The Occident, still showing serious signs of Orientalist fever, wants now to believe that the Arab World, no longer full of exotic harems and odalisques, can be reshaped to become more Occidental.
One day, Davies will go. I pray someone more ideologically and politically aware will then come to translate, not novels, but works of modern Arab philosophers and writers such as Ashmawi, Sadek Nayhoum, Hamed Abu Zaid, Al-Alem, Emara, Al-Jabri, Foudah, Firas Al-Sawwah, Tarabishi and Qimni.
Interpreting Computer Geek
From "The Useless Translator", about an American language teacher in Brazil (IT-illiterate), who has been given the task of interpreting an IT training session run by Germans (in some sort of English) for Brazilian technicians (non-English speaking):
“Who are you here to see?” I explained that I was the translator. The receptionist didn’t respond at all and since I didn’t know what I was doing, whom I was to see or actually anything at all, I phoned the school. They didn’t know anything either. The situation was at an impasse until a car pulled up and two burly looking guys got out of a car. They were obviously foreign, their skin many shades lighter than everyone around.
A guy who was standing in the reception went to greet them and spoke in English. “Welcome Mr. Klein, nice to see you again. And you, Mr. Schwartz, always a pleasure.”
I took my cue and introduced myself to the man who was talking to the Germans. Everything then became clear as one of the guys, Mr. Klein, was to give a training session on the computer system for the information technology people in the company. I was to translate this session. All three men worked for Seamens, a German company based in Hanover which provided most of the machinery for the tire factory. The Brazilian talking with them had lived in the States for six years.
We were led into a meeting room. It was empty.
“And where are the participants?” asked Mr. Klein. Marcos the Brazilian told me to stay while he left with the Germans to find out what was going on. I waited for half an hour when a couple of guys showed up and asked if this was where the training was to be. I said it was and we talked for a while. Still no Germans for another hour. Shamefully perhaps, I couldn’t help thinking that this wasn’t so bad, getting paid for doing nothing. After the small talk, as it inevitably does, led to a conversational dead end, I got back to my book.
One German guy came back, Mr. Klein, alone and flustered. “This can’t be, impossible. This training is for the IT people who speak English. Instead they send to me maintenance people who don’t not speak English. It makes not sense. In Germany when we organize something, everything go ok.”
He took out a bound publication the size of a telephone directory. “If you have to translate word for word, it will take two months or more.”
An IT guy came into the room. He spoke English. “I am afraid I won’t be able to attend the training, Mr. Klein.”
“But you are the most important person. You are the reason we come all the way for Germany, to teach you.”
(...)
Then the fun started.
“The mixer control is a PC and the PLC functionality is provided by conventional hardware PLC. The mixer system software programs are called in Windows by means of a terminal server connect. The program call for mixer visualization is performed using a web server connect (WinCC web client) or PCS7 client software. The actual basic programs therefore execute on the servers of the mixer control desk.”
Translating is hard enough when you understand the material in your own language. But excuse me, what the fuck was this guy on about? This might as well have been Chinese or Swahili or Estonian or sign language or something. I was stumped.
“Could you repeat that please?” This was a phrase I would use many times over the course of the week. Repetition did little good. I hadn’t a clue even how to start trying to convey this.
“Which of both Server is the Master or the Slave can be declared by administrator with the program Serve-Switch and also the status of the master/slave server can be displayed with the program.” Huh?
“By total crash of the Master-Server it’s also possible to activate with this program an forced switch over. That means the program forced the previous slave-serve to Master without connecting the previous, not available master-server. Sometimes I get these bizarre emails that are just streams of words totally unrelated with each other. Maybe Mr. Klein had been sending them to me.
At this point, I had a serious anxiety attack. This was simply going to be impossible to make any sense of. Firstly, I had no idea of the subject matter and would be unlikely to understand it even if it was being explained by someone with a firm command of the English language.
The maintenance guys would look at me with puzzled expressions at the nonsensical drivel I was feeding them. After every mangled translated sentence, I would ask if they were clear about it. They said they were. Lunch finally arrived. "
(...)
The agony resumed after lunch. When I thought that I’d begun to understand something and hence was able to translate it with some accuracy, I would quickly be plunged back into a dark knowledge vacuum. There were flashcards, ODAM-M and ODAS-M, WinCC, MEC address, and terms that only the most inveterate of nerds would be able to define with no problems. My group would nod their heads at my completely incomprehensible translation. Somehow three hours passed and Mr. Klein declared the day’s session over.
“Otherwise your head it become fill with too much informations.” I wanted to kiss him.
Next day the same scenario occurs.
As soon as the session started, I was back in the minefield of terms that mean nothing to anyone outside those for whom a computer is a fifth limb.
“The mixer system software can be used provided that Windows supports the functions of a terminal server connect, web server connect of PCS& client software. Is that clear?
“Could you repeat that please?” Klein looked at me with the kind of concern you would when you thought someone was normal but then found out that their IQ was well into the retarded zone. Of course, the repetition was equally meaningless.
By now my cover was blown with the maintenance guys who realized I had no idea what I was doing. But Brazilians are nicer than other people about things like that. In the States I would probably quickly (and deservedly so) been denounced as a fraud, but here they just accepted that they were going to learn very little all week, but it was still better than working on the assembly line or somewhere else.
“Who are you here to see?” I explained that I was the translator. The receptionist didn’t respond at all and since I didn’t know what I was doing, whom I was to see or actually anything at all, I phoned the school. They didn’t know anything either. The situation was at an impasse until a car pulled up and two burly looking guys got out of a car. They were obviously foreign, their skin many shades lighter than everyone around.
A guy who was standing in the reception went to greet them and spoke in English. “Welcome Mr. Klein, nice to see you again. And you, Mr. Schwartz, always a pleasure.”
I took my cue and introduced myself to the man who was talking to the Germans. Everything then became clear as one of the guys, Mr. Klein, was to give a training session on the computer system for the information technology people in the company. I was to translate this session. All three men worked for Seamens, a German company based in Hanover which provided most of the machinery for the tire factory. The Brazilian talking with them had lived in the States for six years.
We were led into a meeting room. It was empty.
“And where are the participants?” asked Mr. Klein. Marcos the Brazilian told me to stay while he left with the Germans to find out what was going on. I waited for half an hour when a couple of guys showed up and asked if this was where the training was to be. I said it was and we talked for a while. Still no Germans for another hour. Shamefully perhaps, I couldn’t help thinking that this wasn’t so bad, getting paid for doing nothing. After the small talk, as it inevitably does, led to a conversational dead end, I got back to my book.
One German guy came back, Mr. Klein, alone and flustered. “This can’t be, impossible. This training is for the IT people who speak English. Instead they send to me maintenance people who don’t not speak English. It makes not sense. In Germany when we organize something, everything go ok.”
He took out a bound publication the size of a telephone directory. “If you have to translate word for word, it will take two months or more.”
An IT guy came into the room. He spoke English. “I am afraid I won’t be able to attend the training, Mr. Klein.”
“But you are the most important person. You are the reason we come all the way for Germany, to teach you.”
(...)
Then the fun started.
“The mixer control is a PC and the PLC functionality is provided by conventional hardware PLC. The mixer system software programs are called in Windows by means of a terminal server connect. The program call for mixer visualization is performed using a web server connect (WinCC web client) or PCS7 client software. The actual basic programs therefore execute on the servers of the mixer control desk.”
Translating is hard enough when you understand the material in your own language. But excuse me, what the fuck was this guy on about? This might as well have been Chinese or Swahili or Estonian or sign language or something. I was stumped.
“Could you repeat that please?” This was a phrase I would use many times over the course of the week. Repetition did little good. I hadn’t a clue even how to start trying to convey this.
“Which of both Server is the Master or the Slave can be declared by administrator with the program Serve-Switch and also the status of the master/slave server can be displayed with the program.” Huh?
“By total crash of the Master-Server it’s also possible to activate with this program an forced switch over. That means the program forced the previous slave-serve to Master without connecting the previous, not available master-server. Sometimes I get these bizarre emails that are just streams of words totally unrelated with each other. Maybe Mr. Klein had been sending them to me.
At this point, I had a serious anxiety attack. This was simply going to be impossible to make any sense of. Firstly, I had no idea of the subject matter and would be unlikely to understand it even if it was being explained by someone with a firm command of the English language.
The maintenance guys would look at me with puzzled expressions at the nonsensical drivel I was feeding them. After every mangled translated sentence, I would ask if they were clear about it. They said they were. Lunch finally arrived. "
(...)
The agony resumed after lunch. When I thought that I’d begun to understand something and hence was able to translate it with some accuracy, I would quickly be plunged back into a dark knowledge vacuum. There were flashcards, ODAM-M and ODAS-M, WinCC, MEC address, and terms that only the most inveterate of nerds would be able to define with no problems. My group would nod their heads at my completely incomprehensible translation. Somehow three hours passed and Mr. Klein declared the day’s session over.
“Otherwise your head it become fill with too much informations.” I wanted to kiss him.
Next day the same scenario occurs.
As soon as the session started, I was back in the minefield of terms that mean nothing to anyone outside those for whom a computer is a fifth limb.
“The mixer system software can be used provided that Windows supports the functions of a terminal server connect, web server connect of PCS& client software. Is that clear?
“Could you repeat that please?” Klein looked at me with the kind of concern you would when you thought someone was normal but then found out that their IQ was well into the retarded zone. Of course, the repetition was equally meaningless.
By now my cover was blown with the maintenance guys who realized I had no idea what I was doing. But Brazilians are nicer than other people about things like that. In the States I would probably quickly (and deservedly so) been denounced as a fraud, but here they just accepted that they were going to learn very little all week, but it was still better than working on the assembly line or somewhere else.
More Recession Tactics
(a) How do large translation companies survive recession? By becoming software companies.
(b) How do you make money from that software? By convincing clients they can do away with at least some of the translation and technical writing costs if they use your software.
"Crimson Life Sciences, the specialized medical device division of global language and business services leader TransPerfect, today announced the successful client implementation of ABREVE®, an integrated solution that combines cutting-edge software with an industry-leading content-reduction methodology to reduce the costs and risks associated with multilingual product labeling. "
What does this mean in English?
"Multilingual product labeling is a regulatory requirement for medical device manufacturers selling overseas, but the high cost of translation compliance can be burdensome in the current economic climate.” By implementing ABREVE, manufacturers can attack the problem at its source with an innovative approach that systematically reduces the volume of source content—thereby reducing translation cost and risk. "
Forget about the "risk" - that is scaremongering - what is important here is the bit about reducing the volume of source content. This is a newish trend: we are now writing for the machine, so that the machine can translate us.
"Prior attempts to condense documentation through so-called “guided authoring” have been met with resistance from technical writers—many of whom are wary of technology-only solutions. ABREVE removes this obstacle through specialized author training and powerful feedback built into the ABREVE support software. "
I am not sure if TP employs technical writers, but they sure like hell use freelancers (those who haven't seen the light yet). By selling a software that writes simple English, they can now also make more money by utilizing MT better. Not such a stupid idea.
(b) How do you make money from that software? By convincing clients they can do away with at least some of the translation and technical writing costs if they use your software.
"Crimson Life Sciences, the specialized medical device division of global language and business services leader TransPerfect, today announced the successful client implementation of ABREVE®, an integrated solution that combines cutting-edge software with an industry-leading content-reduction methodology to reduce the costs and risks associated with multilingual product labeling. "
What does this mean in English?
"Multilingual product labeling is a regulatory requirement for medical device manufacturers selling overseas, but the high cost of translation compliance can be burdensome in the current economic climate.” By implementing ABREVE, manufacturers can attack the problem at its source with an innovative approach that systematically reduces the volume of source content—thereby reducing translation cost and risk. "
Forget about the "risk" - that is scaremongering - what is important here is the bit about reducing the volume of source content. This is a newish trend: we are now writing for the machine, so that the machine can translate us.
"Prior attempts to condense documentation through so-called “guided authoring” have been met with resistance from technical writers—many of whom are wary of technology-only solutions. ABREVE removes this obstacle through specialized author training and powerful feedback built into the ABREVE support software. "
I am not sure if TP employs technical writers, but they sure like hell use freelancers (those who haven't seen the light yet). By selling a software that writes simple English, they can now also make more money by utilizing MT better. Not such a stupid idea.
Another "handsome chris"?
In 2005 I wrote about a fraudulent Chinese translation agency run by a certain Handsome Chris. In the following 4 years, I came across an Nigerian bishop who was married to an Egyptian wife and was coming on a visit to my suburb (I live in a country town where the only attraction are the cows in the paddocks), a guy from Gaza who purported to have offices in Cairo and London and wanted me to complete a 5 pages long questionnaire that would have given him all my business secrets (he did it with lots of other colleagues) and who is apparently known in Gaza as suffering from serious neurosis; an Indian "translator" who could not spell in English but wanted to provide me with work in Dari, Pushtu, Punjabi and Arabic (!!); and a few more interesting items of humanity.
Tom Ellet, who is a member of the Translator Cafe and writes The Wor(l)d Weary Translator blog has recently come across one of those interesting creatures:
"The Scandinavian translation world is a fairly small one, so my curiosity was aroused when this "agency," which I had never heard of, began posting jobs on TC. So I checked out its profile and alarm bells started ringing. The email address was a free one, the URL took me to a holding page indicating that the domain was for sale, the mailing address was given as "Buchingham [sic] Palace Road" in London, England, while the phone number began with +44 121, which is the code for Birmingham, not London. posted a request for feedback in the Hall of Fame and Shame, drawing attention to these discrepancies. Sure enough, it was not long before several unfortunate colleagues reported that they had been cheated by a barely literate individual calling himself Daniel Creig [sic], trading as Scandinavian Network, with an IP address in India. When one colleague became suspicious and decided to ask for a down payment before undertaking any more work, poor "Daniel" turned into quite the cry-baby, practically begging him to send the translation anyway. (Presumably Danny Boy had offered the end client a ridiculously short turnaround time, in keeping with his fictitious agency's absurd promise of "the quickest turnaround time in the industry.")"
So the guy got uncovered, and one would have thought this was a dead-o by now. Don't underestimate a fraud. Less than a month later, the creature was back:
"Now, if you were a fraudster and your operation under the name of "Scandinavian Network" had recently been exposed, wouldn't you choose a completely different identity for your next scam attempt? Something to do with Asia or Latin America, maybe—as far removed from Scandinavia as possible? Not so the nincompoops behind this operation, who are now attempting to get back in the game as "Scandic Net". (Perhaps they hope to take advantage of the higher rates associated with Scandinavian languages.) All the tell-tale signs are there: the badly designed website full of bombastic bullshit in poorly written English, the domain name registered to an Indian company, the "British" phone number in a completely different city from the one in which they purport to be located (even though they can't spell its name and don't know the postal code). Sure enough, it wasn't long before "Scandic Net" aroused the suspicions of one translator they were trying to con, who posted a request for information on TranslatorsCafe.com. Several members of the site, myself included, made the connection with "Scandinavian Network" and with "Gyanendra Kumar," another notorious Indian fraudster. Just to prove its dishonesty, "Scandic Net" refused the translator's perfectly reasonable request for a 50% down payment."
What next, one wonders??
Tom Ellet, who is a member of the Translator Cafe and writes The Wor(l)d Weary Translator blog has recently come across one of those interesting creatures:
"The Scandinavian translation world is a fairly small one, so my curiosity was aroused when this "agency," which I had never heard of, began posting jobs on TC. So I checked out its profile and alarm bells started ringing. The email address was a free one, the URL took me to a holding page indicating that the domain was for sale, the mailing address was given as "Buchingham [sic] Palace Road" in London, England, while the phone number began with +44 121, which is the code for Birmingham, not London. posted a request for feedback in the Hall of Fame and Shame, drawing attention to these discrepancies. Sure enough, it was not long before several unfortunate colleagues reported that they had been cheated by a barely literate individual calling himself Daniel Creig [sic], trading as Scandinavian Network, with an IP address in India. When one colleague became suspicious and decided to ask for a down payment before undertaking any more work, poor "Daniel" turned into quite the cry-baby, practically begging him to send the translation anyway. (Presumably Danny Boy had offered the end client a ridiculously short turnaround time, in keeping with his fictitious agency's absurd promise of "the quickest turnaround time in the industry.")"
So the guy got uncovered, and one would have thought this was a dead-o by now. Don't underestimate a fraud. Less than a month later, the creature was back:
"Now, if you were a fraudster and your operation under the name of "Scandinavian Network" had recently been exposed, wouldn't you choose a completely different identity for your next scam attempt? Something to do with Asia or Latin America, maybe—as far removed from Scandinavia as possible? Not so the nincompoops behind this operation, who are now attempting to get back in the game as "Scandic Net". (Perhaps they hope to take advantage of the higher rates associated with Scandinavian languages.) All the tell-tale signs are there: the badly designed website full of bombastic bullshit in poorly written English, the domain name registered to an Indian company, the "British" phone number in a completely different city from the one in which they purport to be located (even though they can't spell its name and don't know the postal code). Sure enough, it wasn't long before "Scandic Net" aroused the suspicions of one translator they were trying to con, who posted a request for information on TranslatorsCafe.com. Several members of the site, myself included, made the connection with "Scandinavian Network" and with "Gyanendra Kumar," another notorious Indian fraudster. Just to prove its dishonesty, "Scandic Net" refused the translator's perfectly reasonable request for a 50% down payment."
What next, one wonders??
Dragon Speaks Impolitely
A German colleague who tried using his Dragon Speaks Freely to dictate a translation about the current USA government got this as a result:
When translating an interview regarding the new president's administration in Washington the software produced this is amusing result: "her bum Administration"
Either he is rolling his "o"s too much, or there is something the Dragon knows about the new US administration that we don't.
Speaking of which - only four months ago we celebrated Obama's "language policy" and heaved a big sigh that we will finally have an intelligent, multilingual president for that "superpower" in the West. What a disappointment then when at the news conference held by him in Strasbourg five days ago, Mr. President had the following to say:
"It was also interesting to see that political interaction in Europe is not that different from the United States Senate. There's a lot of -- I don't know what the term is in Austrian -- wheeling and dealing -- and, you know, people are pursuing their interests, and everybody has their own particular issues and their own particular politics."
In what??? Oh, God. What's Bushism in Obama's time? I can tell you: "her bum administration".
When translating an interview regarding the new president's administration in Washington the software produced this is amusing result: "her bum Administration"
Either he is rolling his "o"s too much, or there is something the Dragon knows about the new US administration that we don't.
Speaking of which - only four months ago we celebrated Obama's "language policy" and heaved a big sigh that we will finally have an intelligent, multilingual president for that "superpower" in the West. What a disappointment then when at the news conference held by him in Strasbourg five days ago, Mr. President had the following to say:
"It was also interesting to see that political interaction in Europe is not that different from the United States Senate. There's a lot of -- I don't know what the term is in Austrian -- wheeling and dealing -- and, you know, people are pursuing their interests, and everybody has their own particular issues and their own particular politics."
In what??? Oh, God. What's Bushism in Obama's time? I can tell you: "her bum administration".
Delight of Delights - or food in translation
A good friend of mine, who is a translator and an agency owner in Brisbane, sent me these:
The explanation?
The Chinese word for dry-frying sounds the same as 'having/forcing sex with a woman' in Mandarin. Up there with "Roguefart cheese", "Fried Crap" "Steamed dumpings" and "Hot bowels".
Some more appetising meals:
Our wine list leaves you nothing too hope for (Austria)
Customers who find our waitresses rude should see the manager (Kenya)
Cumpulsory Breakfast Buffet (Vietnam)
If you are satisfactory, tell your friends. If you are not, warn the waitress (Bulgaria)
As for the tripe served you at the Hotel Monopole, you will be singing it's praises to your grandchildren on your deathbed (Poland)
You are invite to visit our restaurant where you can eat the Middle Eastern foods in a European ambulance (Turkey)
Seafood brought in by the customer will not be entertaines (Malaysia)
We do not re-use the food (New Zealand)
After one visit we guarantee you will be regular (India)
Buttered saucepan and Fried Hormones (Japan)
Dreaded Veal Cutlet (China)
Toes with butter and jam (Bali)
Pork with fresh Garbage (Vietnam)
Many more but it seemed had to top this one from France:
"Nut of Holy Jacques jumped, guniea fowl stinks to it and it's farce with cheese-topped dish, almost of cheese-dish of mould in spice".
Or this from Venezuela: "Fried Chicken babies, fungus cream, and grilled cattle bowels".
I hope I did not spoil any one's lunch.
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
No-style, no contemplation
From the Article Alley, a Chinese (I assume) translator has a few words of wisdom with which I strongly agree:
"The prevalence of online free translation benefit countless communicators who may be professional translators or merely foreign web page browsers whose English is not good enough to access the relative information. However, depending on the online translation too heavily sometimes leads you to the opposite direction.
Of course we can not fully deny that the translation software can do nothing with the translation process. To me the Trodos is quite helpful. Here I do not mean to discuss or compare the advantage and the disadvantage that Trodos and Google own respectively. What I want to say is that any software however powerful it may be is only assistance in essence. However, the internet has changed translators’ mental habit when they work on a translation project. The contemplation that used to come naturally is become a struggle. I am worrying that the style of translating that promoted by the internet, a style that puts “efficiency” and “immediacy” above all else, may be weakening our capacity for the kind of deep reading and translation. In this money-worshipping world, academic excellence seems to have been relegated to a role of secondary importance. The translator, a kind of intellectual, tends to become “mere decoders of information”, instead of weighing our words when we translate. And the hustling and bustling to routine life makes deep-reading and intensive study a kind of luxury.
As a translator with a decade of experience I ever never surrender myself to any machinery servant but to boost its utilization to the utmost."
Amen, amen!
"The prevalence of online free translation benefit countless communicators who may be professional translators or merely foreign web page browsers whose English is not good enough to access the relative information. However, depending on the online translation too heavily sometimes leads you to the opposite direction.
Of course we can not fully deny that the translation software can do nothing with the translation process. To me the Trodos is quite helpful. Here I do not mean to discuss or compare the advantage and the disadvantage that Trodos and Google own respectively. What I want to say is that any software however powerful it may be is only assistance in essence. However, the internet has changed translators’ mental habit when they work on a translation project. The contemplation that used to come naturally is become a struggle. I am worrying that the style of translating that promoted by the internet, a style that puts “efficiency” and “immediacy” above all else, may be weakening our capacity for the kind of deep reading and translation. In this money-worshipping world, academic excellence seems to have been relegated to a role of secondary importance. The translator, a kind of intellectual, tends to become “mere decoders of information”, instead of weighing our words when we translate. And the hustling and bustling to routine life makes deep-reading and intensive study a kind of luxury.
As a translator with a decade of experience I ever never surrender myself to any machinery servant but to boost its utilization to the utmost."
Amen, amen!
Mobile Interpreters
Wall Street Journal reports that interpreting companies are increasingly providing services over the mobile phone to language-stranded businessmen and tourists. These services aim to give you access to a 24-hour bilingual interpreter; you call the service on your mobile, explain your dilemma in English, then hand over the phone to whomever you need to speak with -- cab driver, waiter, police officer, doctor, or the object of your affection in a bar.
"Over-the-phone interpretation, mostly aimed at companies that conduct business in several languages, is expanding. The industry saw $700 million in sales in 2007, and is expected to grow to $1.2 billion by 2012, according to Common Sense Advisory, a research firm specializing in business globalization and the language-services industry."
That is the same Common Sense that common-cynically played with statistics of language services providers outlook in Q1 of 2009, but never-mind. We are starved for good news.
"Across the board we found the services fairly expensive. In Jakarta, we spent about $30 on dinner and the cab ride, but about $40 for 10 minutes or so of the interpretation service we used to order dinner and direct the taxi. The cheapest service we tested was chinaONEcall, at $1.48 per minute initially but cheaper as minutes are added."
Did you hear that? $40 per 10 minutes. How much is the interpreter paid? I wouldn't dare guess, having just blogged about the "lower your rates" advice from "Asia's Leading Translation Agency". But I assume that it is close to the cost of a peanut. And for the peanuts, the WSJ team got some interestingly peanutty results:
"We asked the interpreter to take us to the Moma Towers, but didn't get an immediate translation, so we assumed the interpreter didn't know the correct word in Mandarin. After a back and forth, we mentioned the Mandarin name and got on the road (...) We ate at a Middle Eastern restaurant in Beijing, but when we asked the interpreter to order humus, kebab and mint tea, the interpreter didn't recognize those foods even after we spelled out a few of the words. In the end, the interpreter asked us to tell him the numbers next to the food we wanted and he told the waiter. The company says interpreters want to complete the call as quickly as possible because customers are paying per minute, so decided that asking the customer the numbers was faster then researching a translation for the cuisine."
Bon apetit!
"Over-the-phone interpretation, mostly aimed at companies that conduct business in several languages, is expanding. The industry saw $700 million in sales in 2007, and is expected to grow to $1.2 billion by 2012, according to Common Sense Advisory, a research firm specializing in business globalization and the language-services industry."
That is the same Common Sense that common-cynically played with statistics of language services providers outlook in Q1 of 2009, but never-mind. We are starved for good news.
"Across the board we found the services fairly expensive. In Jakarta, we spent about $30 on dinner and the cab ride, but about $40 for 10 minutes or so of the interpretation service we used to order dinner and direct the taxi. The cheapest service we tested was chinaONEcall, at $1.48 per minute initially but cheaper as minutes are added."
Did you hear that? $40 per 10 minutes. How much is the interpreter paid? I wouldn't dare guess, having just blogged about the "lower your rates" advice from "Asia's Leading Translation Agency". But I assume that it is close to the cost of a peanut. And for the peanuts, the WSJ team got some interestingly peanutty results:
"We asked the interpreter to take us to the Moma Towers, but didn't get an immediate translation, so we assumed the interpreter didn't know the correct word in Mandarin. After a back and forth, we mentioned the Mandarin name and got on the road (...) We ate at a Middle Eastern restaurant in Beijing, but when we asked the interpreter to order humus, kebab and mint tea, the interpreter didn't recognize those foods even after we spelled out a few of the words. In the end, the interpreter asked us to tell him the numbers next to the food we wanted and he told the waiter. The company says interpreters want to complete the call as quickly as possible because customers are paying per minute, so decided that asking the customer the numbers was faster then researching a translation for the cuisine."
Bon apetit!
Asleep at the Wheel Again, my Aussies
Language skills in a society = ability to reach global markets (apparently!). In Australia, about a quarter of people speak a second language AT HOME, but schools have been folding down whatever Bahasa and Japanese courses they had, and the second language acquisition among Anglo-Saxon population is dismal. Compare to this:
"Twenty-seven students from EU secondary schools received a prize and a diploma for having produced the best translation in their country. The prizes will be presented by the European Commissioner for Multilingualism, Leonard Orban with the aim to promote and to give visibility to the profession of translator.
The victorious students won a two-day trip to Brussels for themselves and an accompanying adult. In addition to the award ceremony hosted by Commissioner Orban, the winners will be going on a tour of Brussels and visiting the Directorate-General for Translation of the European Commission. There they will meet professional translators, and see the tools and working methods that translators use in their day-to-day work.
2 247 selected pupils from 593 schools in the EU took part in the second edition of the contest, held on 27 November 2008 at the same time in all Member States. The participants had two hours to translate a text on the subject of multilingualism from any of the 23 official languages of the EU into any other official language.
The translations submitted to the Commission covered all official languages and 147 language combinations."
Ok, our PM speaks Mandarin. And that's it. Even the US President has beaten us to this, as he speaks more than two languages.
Wake up, mates!
"Twenty-seven students from EU secondary schools received a prize and a diploma for having produced the best translation in their country. The prizes will be presented by the European Commissioner for Multilingualism, Leonard Orban with the aim to promote and to give visibility to the profession of translator.
The victorious students won a two-day trip to Brussels for themselves and an accompanying adult. In addition to the award ceremony hosted by Commissioner Orban, the winners will be going on a tour of Brussels and visiting the Directorate-General for Translation of the European Commission. There they will meet professional translators, and see the tools and working methods that translators use in their day-to-day work.
2 247 selected pupils from 593 schools in the EU took part in the second edition of the contest, held on 27 November 2008 at the same time in all Member States. The participants had two hours to translate a text on the subject of multilingualism from any of the 23 official languages of the EU into any other official language.
The translations submitted to the Commission covered all official languages and 147 language combinations."
Ok, our PM speaks Mandarin. And that's it. Even the US President has beaten us to this, as he speaks more than two languages.
Wake up, mates!
Taking Advantage Of the Recession
There is a reason why I don't work for agencies from certain parts of the world - parts which do not subscribe to my Aussie values, lets say, of fair dinkum. Here is one of these reasons.
Point Blank is a blog allegedly run by "Asia's Leading Translation Agency" (says who?). Today, they are blessing us, poor freelancers with some advise about how to survive recession:
(1) Cut down on expenses - yeah, ok. Must be food, as my overheads are not really that high. Maybe I will work better on bread and water?
(2) Here is the big WOW. First the STICK: "work offers must have dwindled down to alarming levels, which is probably why you are reading this piece." No, ya dork! I am reading it because Google spewed it into my inbox. Then MORE STICK: "Why aren’t you getting work like before? Because your clients do not have sufficient money to pay you." And the SOLUTION: "Lower your rates! " Apparently, "it's alright to receive less pay for the work you do, rather than not receiving anything at all. You can always go back to charging your regular rates once things are hunky dory."
Question: Is Asia's Leading Translation Agency going to lower its rates too? And who decides when "hunky dory" starts? It has been very busy in my inbox in the past few weeks, and none of my European, Aussie or US clients are talking about lowering rates. I have heard rumours on PROZ about an agency emailing their contractors asking for a discount (and getting shooed off), and rubbish about this being a purchaser's market and therefore freelancers need to "cooperate" with agencies - in my opinion, they should get the purchaser to buy directly from them, not cooperate to their own disadvantage. But to put this on a blog and market is as "advice for surviving recession" is unethical.
Please correct me if I am wrong.
Point Blank is a blog allegedly run by "Asia's Leading Translation Agency" (says who?). Today, they are blessing us, poor freelancers with some advise about how to survive recession:
(1) Cut down on expenses - yeah, ok. Must be food, as my overheads are not really that high. Maybe I will work better on bread and water?
(2) Here is the big WOW. First the STICK: "work offers must have dwindled down to alarming levels, which is probably why you are reading this piece." No, ya dork! I am reading it because Google spewed it into my inbox. Then MORE STICK: "Why aren’t you getting work like before? Because your clients do not have sufficient money to pay you." And the SOLUTION: "Lower your rates! " Apparently, "it's alright to receive less pay for the work you do, rather than not receiving anything at all. You can always go back to charging your regular rates once things are hunky dory."
Question: Is Asia's Leading Translation Agency going to lower its rates too? And who decides when "hunky dory" starts? It has been very busy in my inbox in the past few weeks, and none of my European, Aussie or US clients are talking about lowering rates. I have heard rumours on PROZ about an agency emailing their contractors asking for a discount (and getting shooed off), and rubbish about this being a purchaser's market and therefore freelancers need to "cooperate" with agencies - in my opinion, they should get the purchaser to buy directly from them, not cooperate to their own disadvantage. But to put this on a blog and market is as "advice for surviving recession" is unethical.
Please correct me if I am wrong.
Missing the Dialect
Jerome Rothenberg Encinitas is an internationally known American poet, translator and anthologist who is noted for his work in ethnopoetics and poetry performance. Here he speaks about how his own poems get translated:
Q: So we just have to learn every language, if we want to translate our own poems.
A: Well, recently on a trip to South America, I was doing my own reading of the Spanish translations. Could I follow while I was doing my own reading? No, I really couldn’t. It definitely sounded pretty good. And often too I work very closely with the translators. That works out better, for instance, in Spanish than Chinese. In Chinese, I can’t in any sense become a reader. I can answer questions, but I can’t otherwise work too closely. Sometimes it becomes very strange. Somebody, maybe even now, is working, trying to do a translation of “Cokboy,” which is very culturally specific, both Jewish and American in its language and thematics, and that makes translating wildly difficult. For example, in “Cokboy,” I play for a few lines with a kind of fake Yiddish accent, trying to imitate it or pretending to: “vot em I doink in dis strange place,/ mit deez pipple mit strange eyes.” The Chinese translator asked me, “Why does Cokboy resort to African-American dialect?” [laughter] I don’t know in what way dialect is expressed in Chinese writing, whether the written system is flexible enough to duplicate that peculiarity of sound that we think of as a dialect.
I hope he did not use that translator ever again!
Q: So we just have to learn every language, if we want to translate our own poems.
A: Well, recently on a trip to South America, I was doing my own reading of the Spanish translations. Could I follow while I was doing my own reading? No, I really couldn’t. It definitely sounded pretty good. And often too I work very closely with the translators. That works out better, for instance, in Spanish than Chinese. In Chinese, I can’t in any sense become a reader. I can answer questions, but I can’t otherwise work too closely. Sometimes it becomes very strange. Somebody, maybe even now, is working, trying to do a translation of “Cokboy,” which is very culturally specific, both Jewish and American in its language and thematics, and that makes translating wildly difficult. For example, in “Cokboy,” I play for a few lines with a kind of fake Yiddish accent, trying to imitate it or pretending to: “vot em I doink in dis strange place,/ mit deez pipple mit strange eyes.” The Chinese translator asked me, “Why does Cokboy resort to African-American dialect?” [laughter] I don’t know in what way dialect is expressed in Chinese writing, whether the written system is flexible enough to duplicate that peculiarity of sound that we think of as a dialect.
I hope he did not use that translator ever again!
Sunday, April 05, 2009
Nifty, But Does It Work?
Wired on a new translation tool from Korea:
It may look like something you’d buy from an expensive art gallery, but this concept from four Korean designers is actually a high-tech translation device.
Gyo-Ji is a scroll decorated with inlaid mother of pearl to mimic Korean "Najawnchilgi" lacquerware, but rolled up inside is a flexible touchscreen monitor. Users can either write directly on this surface and then choose the language that they want the text to be translated into (which will then appear on the screen) or they can scan text under the screen, thanks to a built-in camera, using a finger to highlight certain phrases for translation. It’s certainly a lot easier than hefting around a dictionary, and particularly useful for languages which use a completely different script. Perhaps the device’s designers Soonkyu Jang, Taehee Woo, Yonghuk Yim, and Chung Lee could team up with Sony, which unveiled its flexible OLED screen in January.
(Picture credited to Ubergizmo).
One Lousy Reason To Learn English
I have been coming across an increasing number of blogs that complain about people who LOTE, or businesses who "squander tax money on translations" or advocating the whole world uses English. Most of them are written by English-speakers from that currently rather sad part of the world out West. But today, I cam upon the most hilarious advocacy for learning English:
"There are many different reasons that you may find learning English to be of benefit in the business world. The most prominent of these reasons is that it helps you do business in America. Many international businesses are very interested in doing business in America because it can be a very profitable venture."
Oh, I see!
And then a few stabs at translators (or is it interpreters):
(1) Translators create a rift between the negotiating parties. You can never be sure that a translator is relaying what you say in the most effective manner; and what they say is true: if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. This is also true with presenting business deals to a company who does business in a different language.
Never heard of the Code of Ethics, that one.
(2) If you are looking for a job in the international field, then English is definitely a requirement. You may ask “why?” and “couldn’t I just hire an interpreter?” but what you must understand is that without knowing the language yourself, communication can be rudimentary at best. A great deal of meaning is often lost in translations, and certain subtleties in word usage can also be lost.
Then a few lines later:
(3) People who know English can a better appreciate poetry and prose written in that language. Why? Well, as mentioned before, a great deal of meaning can be lost in translation. This is especially so if you are talking about word play. It is often the case that riddles, jokes and poetry rely on word play in order to make sense. Translations are just no good for this sort of thing.
Is this person dumb, or dumb, or what? All these wonderful literary translators over the ages, and he/she is saying we are no good at it? Pardon me, but the person who made your Bible into English was a translator!
I won't even link this nitwit to here!
"There are many different reasons that you may find learning English to be of benefit in the business world. The most prominent of these reasons is that it helps you do business in America. Many international businesses are very interested in doing business in America because it can be a very profitable venture."
Oh, I see!
And then a few stabs at translators (or is it interpreters):
(1) Translators create a rift between the negotiating parties. You can never be sure that a translator is relaying what you say in the most effective manner; and what they say is true: if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. This is also true with presenting business deals to a company who does business in a different language.
Never heard of the Code of Ethics, that one.
(2) If you are looking for a job in the international field, then English is definitely a requirement. You may ask “why?” and “couldn’t I just hire an interpreter?” but what you must understand is that without knowing the language yourself, communication can be rudimentary at best. A great deal of meaning is often lost in translations, and certain subtleties in word usage can also be lost.
Then a few lines later:
(3) People who know English can a better appreciate poetry and prose written in that language. Why? Well, as mentioned before, a great deal of meaning can be lost in translation. This is especially so if you are talking about word play. It is often the case that riddles, jokes and poetry rely on word play in order to make sense. Translations are just no good for this sort of thing.
Is this person dumb, or dumb, or what? All these wonderful literary translators over the ages, and he/she is saying we are no good at it? Pardon me, but the person who made your Bible into English was a translator!
I won't even link this nitwit to here!
Systran On the Move - Lets Shoot Language
If you are not interested in the nitty gritty of Machine Translation, skip most of the first page of the interview with SYSTRAN CEO Dimitris Sabatakakis. The scary parts for us, as human translators, and as future readers and speakers of language is this promotion of a stilted usage for financial gains:
Sabatakakis: Today, we have no monopoly but Google and Microsoft created a real market. The primary use of machine translation is to translate from one language to another. There is a second use that is more complex and sophisticated and very interesting. When a corporation localizes content, it needs to provide technical support, [translation of] databases, marketing material, Web material and so on. Up to now, that was a human process. Companies would pay per word and rely on human capacity. Suddenly and progressively, translation software is starting to be used by corporations willing to standardize the way they translate complex documents. Translation software is becoming a key software for [translations by] international corporations. It is not for SMEs or local corporations, but big corporations with employees and people talking different languages who want to communicate more efficiently.
Then further on in the interview:
Weinschenk: Is translating general material – whatever comes through a Web portal – fundamentally different from translating technical information?
Sabatakakis: The more the text is technical, the more restricted the language, the better the translation of the document. Translation works much better with technical material. If you read the New York Times, there are tens of subjects, much general language, many journalists, many different styles. The creators are not offering tools or obliging the writers [to follow specific conventions] in the same way that it is done for technical documentation. Symantec writers [for instance] follow specific rules. They do not have the freedom of the journalist. Their documents contain very little general language that is ambiguous.
Weinschenk: So there is a lot more predictability when people aren’t involved.
Sabatakakis: When you use translation software, the translation always is consistent. In other words, a human being may say “plane,” “aircraft” or “airplane.” When using translation software, you select the terminology depending on the domain or the profile you are creating. The first thing it brings is consistency. It is not a human being, and does not make the mistakes or have the freedoms of a human brain. You also can reuse translated content, which creates more efficient and faster translations. (He is making some seriously mistaken assumptions here).
Weinschenk: How evolved is this technology and the market?
Sabatakakis: Five or 10 years ago, the software was not working properly. You could not use it without extensive training. Machine translation is not a commodity market, but tremendous progress has been made during the last two years. We’ll see in two years what the adoption rate will be. I believe more corporations will automate the process. I cannot say the human translation industry will stay as it is. Up to now, human translators were using little translation software because it was not working properly. Now with the tremendous increase in quality, more and more translators are using our software. Most will adopt it progressively. This will have a very important impact on their jobs. They will translate more and some of the [monetary and other] benefits will accrue to the client and some to them.
Weinschenk: How big is the market, and how does it compare to the human translation market?
Sabatakakis: The human translation industry produces between $10 and $20 billion per year. I do not know the precise figures. The translation software tools industry produces less than $100 million. There is enormous potential for growth.
Let me get out and purchase my R2D2 dictionary.
Sabatakakis: Today, we have no monopoly but Google and Microsoft created a real market. The primary use of machine translation is to translate from one language to another. There is a second use that is more complex and sophisticated and very interesting. When a corporation localizes content, it needs to provide technical support, [translation of] databases, marketing material, Web material and so on. Up to now, that was a human process. Companies would pay per word and rely on human capacity. Suddenly and progressively, translation software is starting to be used by corporations willing to standardize the way they translate complex documents. Translation software is becoming a key software for [translations by] international corporations. It is not for SMEs or local corporations, but big corporations with employees and people talking different languages who want to communicate more efficiently.
Then further on in the interview:
Weinschenk: Is translating general material – whatever comes through a Web portal – fundamentally different from translating technical information?
Sabatakakis: The more the text is technical, the more restricted the language, the better the translation of the document. Translation works much better with technical material. If you read the New York Times, there are tens of subjects, much general language, many journalists, many different styles. The creators are not offering tools or obliging the writers [to follow specific conventions] in the same way that it is done for technical documentation. Symantec writers [for instance] follow specific rules. They do not have the freedom of the journalist. Their documents contain very little general language that is ambiguous.
Weinschenk: So there is a lot more predictability when people aren’t involved.
Sabatakakis: When you use translation software, the translation always is consistent. In other words, a human being may say “plane,” “aircraft” or “airplane.” When using translation software, you select the terminology depending on the domain or the profile you are creating. The first thing it brings is consistency. It is not a human being, and does not make the mistakes or have the freedoms of a human brain. You also can reuse translated content, which creates more efficient and faster translations. (He is making some seriously mistaken assumptions here).
Weinschenk: How evolved is this technology and the market?
Sabatakakis: Five or 10 years ago, the software was not working properly. You could not use it without extensive training. Machine translation is not a commodity market, but tremendous progress has been made during the last two years. We’ll see in two years what the adoption rate will be. I believe more corporations will automate the process. I cannot say the human translation industry will stay as it is. Up to now, human translators were using little translation software because it was not working properly. Now with the tremendous increase in quality, more and more translators are using our software. Most will adopt it progressively. This will have a very important impact on their jobs. They will translate more and some of the [monetary and other] benefits will accrue to the client and some to them.
Weinschenk: How big is the market, and how does it compare to the human translation market?
Sabatakakis: The human translation industry produces between $10 and $20 billion per year. I do not know the precise figures. The translation software tools industry produces less than $100 million. There is enormous potential for growth.
Let me get out and purchase my R2D2 dictionary.
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