If I made this remark about checking translations, it is because I have over half a century's experience as a translator and still see that most people haven't a clue what this work involves.
From time to time I take a look at one of the latest IT efforts -- mostly into English, my native language. Some very straightforward texts come acr…
If I made this remark about checking translations, it is because I have over half a century's experience as a translator and still see that most people haven't a clue what this work involves.
From time to time I take a look at one of the latest IT efforts -- mostly into English, my native language. Some very straightforward texts come across quite well. The information is all there, maybe a phrase or two need correcting or improving. Messages that called for some hard thinking on the part of the writer risk coming out as gobbledegook.
This morning I read an obvious machine translation, and its broad meaning could only be construed if you had some inside knowledge of the subject matter.
I was reminded of a crucial scene in Andrei Tarkovsky's film The Mirror, in which a proofreader wakes up in the morning with a severe panic attack and rushes to the printing works where an important political text is already being turned out... to check a single word. Under Stalin, a single embarrassing misprint and she and others could have been shot.
I and my colleagues may never have run such risks, but every single word in an important policy statement was carefully weighed up. Not work that could be performed on automatic pilot...
Bear in mind that every language represents a different culture, a different way of thinking, so that a perfectly normal expression in English will sound very strange in Spanish. Even more so when we're translating from or into, say, Japanese.
Day in, day out, what the president says gets misconstrued or misrepresented by English-speaking fellow Americans... Need I say more?
Yet, even some insiders have trouble coping with cultural diversity... In France, where I live, the French way of doing things is often seen as the only conceivable way...
I'll never forget a French jurist arguing that a German expression was impossible because it couldn't be said in French...
Constant refrain of a naive young man observing the world of politics from the wings.
I am no cynic, except in the original doggie sense, but by the time that "What's in it for ME?" ousted "What's in it for us?" I'd understood how widespread cynicism and dishonesty are.
All that has become so much more flagrant since November 2016... when straight discussion with people holding different views was still possible and you could still understand where the other was coming from.
If I made this remark about checking translations, it is because I have over half a century's experience as a translator and still see that most people haven't a clue what this work involves.
From time to time I take a look at one of the latest IT efforts -- mostly into English, my native language. Some very straightforward texts come across quite well. The information is all there, maybe a phrase or two need correcting or improving. Messages that called for some hard thinking on the part of the writer risk coming out as gobbledegook.
This morning I read an obvious machine translation, and its broad meaning could only be construed if you had some inside knowledge of the subject matter.
I was reminded of a crucial scene in Andrei Tarkovsky's film The Mirror, in which a proofreader wakes up in the morning with a severe panic attack and rushes to the printing works where an important political text is already being turned out... to check a single word. Under Stalin, a single embarrassing misprint and she and others could have been shot.
I and my colleagues may never have run such risks, but every single word in an important policy statement was carefully weighed up. Not work that could be performed on automatic pilot...
Bear in mind that every language represents a different culture, a different way of thinking, so that a perfectly normal expression in English will sound very strange in Spanish. Even more so when we're translating from or into, say, Japanese.
Day in, day out, what the president says gets misconstrued or misrepresented by English-speaking fellow Americans... Need I say more?
Fellow translator here, Peter!
I'm sure you get the picture then...
Yet, even some insiders have trouble coping with cultural diversity... In France, where I live, the French way of doing things is often seen as the only conceivable way...
I'll never forget a French jurist arguing that a German expression was impossible because it couldn't be said in French...
Das kann nicht sein! (That can’t be - one of Germany’s favorite sayings!)
"But that's not possible!"
Constant refrain of a naive young man observing the world of politics from the wings.
I am no cynic, except in the original doggie sense, but by the time that "What's in it for ME?" ousted "What's in it for us?" I'd understood how widespread cynicism and dishonesty are.
All that has become so much more flagrant since November 2016... when straight discussion with people holding different views was still possible and you could still understand where the other was coming from.