| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4] | Hi. I am new registered to this site Thread poster: Maria Elena Santa
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| It is much different with English | Jul 9, 2012 |
It is much different with English than with most other languages. English is after all the unofficial Lingua Franca. It is very hard to lose English L1 proficiency, no matter where you live. You can get TV channels, education, books, newspapers in English almost everywhere. I have never heard about anyone losing English L1 proficiency.
I have never assumed that the OP lost all her ability to use Romanian for translation purposes, but she would not be able to translate into that l... See more It is much different with English than with most other languages. English is after all the unofficial Lingua Franca. It is very hard to lose English L1 proficiency, no matter where you live. You can get TV channels, education, books, newspapers in English almost everywhere. I have never heard about anyone losing English L1 proficiency.
I have never assumed that the OP lost all her ability to use Romanian for translation purposes, but she would not be able to translate into that language if she had just a few years of elementary education in that language, perhaps just things at the level of a fourth grader. She could most likely translate from Romanian, especially if she uses a dictionary to verify the meaning of more complex terms.
[Edited at 2012-07-09 21:47 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Sheila Wilson 
Spain
Local time: 01:48
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
Stanislav Pokorny wrote:
What I am talking about is the fact that in interpreting you can get away with things like a missing article now and then, while in translation you can't for obvious reasons. I don't think this compares to a murder.
I think an important point here is that we are not talking about the OP (or anyone in a similar situation) being "unable to translate". This is someone who undoubtedly has a very high command of both languages. We are talking about "the most appropriate career choice".
Translating, interpreting, bilingual editing... they all require excellent general language skills and the ability to communicate in two or more languages. But then each one has a different priority of skills:
An interpreter needs to be able to change language from minute to minute, listening in one then speaking immediately in another. Of course the output needs to be correct - that's obvious. But slight errors of grammar and register will simply pass unnoticed. If the listener understands perfectly then the interpreter has done a good job. And seeing as how there are so few truly bilingual people in the world (I think most of agree they are pretty rare), surely one direction will be slightly better than the other i.e. they won't both be perfect.
A translator can cogitate for hours over the choice of one word if necessary, researching the term etc. But what finally gets delivered must be 100% perfect. That doesn't mean simply spell-checked and researched. It means that it reads completely naturally. I often work as a proofreader and the first thing I do when I receive work is run it through a spell-checker. Very often there are no errors. Then I start reading and the "red ink" starts flowing. Misuse of articles, slightly misplaced adverbs and incorrect/variable register are all common errors which I believe would never be noticed if made by interpreters but which can make a translation totally unsuitable for publication.
I really don't think that suggesting a linguist's skill-set may be more suited to interpreting than to translating is suggesting they are a worse linguist. Far from it.
Sheila
| | | | Russell Jones
United Kingdom
Local time: 01:48
Italian to English
Kirsten Bodart wrote:
The English ... got BBC (which is pactically the best you can get anyway).
You can see from my profile picture how I have torn my hair out in response to the constant stream of mistakes that are made on our once illustrious premier TV channel.
Learning English from the increasingly language-illiterate English can be a hazardous occupation!
| | | | | If a translator makes slight grammatical mistakes | Jul 10, 2012 |
If a translator makes some, slight grammatical mistakes, or punctuation mistakes, it is the the job of an editor to fix them -- this does not constitute the essence of translation. The essence of translation is to convey the right meaning into another language. Even great writers make some punctuation mistakes. This is what editors and proofreaders are for. Of course every translator should try to make as few mistakes as possible, but some punctuation mistakes, or other small mistakes are almost... See more If a translator makes some, slight grammatical mistakes, or punctuation mistakes, it is the the job of an editor to fix them -- this does not constitute the essence of translation. The essence of translation is to convey the right meaning into another language. Even great writers make some punctuation mistakes. This is what editors and proofreaders are for. Of course every translator should try to make as few mistakes as possible, but some punctuation mistakes, or other small mistakes are almost unavoidable.
To be a good interpreter you have to be almost bilingual, and an absolute expert in both languages. Yes, sometimes interpreters may skip some words, or create shortcuts which result in slight grammatical errors, but interpreting is not really what it looks like on the surface to people who a have never done it. ▲ Collapse
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Ty Kendall
United Kingdom
Local time: 01:48
Hebrew to English
| Laissez-faire | Jul 10, 2012 |
LilianBoland wrote:
If a translator makes some, slight grammatical mistakes, or punctuation mistakes, it is the the job of an editor to fix them -- this does not constitute the essence of translation. The essence of translation is to convey the right meaning into another language. Even great writers make some punctuation mistakes. This is what editors and proofreaders are for. Of course every translator should try to make as few mistakes as possible, but some punctuation mistakes, or other small mistakes are almost unavoidable.
To be a good interpreter you have to be almost bilingual, and an absolute expert in both languages. Yes, sometimes interpreters may skip some words, or create shortcuts which result in slight grammatical errors, but interpreting is not really what it looks like on the surface to people who a have never done it.
Almost bilingual? Almost??? To be an interpreter? I'd say you have to pretty much ACTUALLY BE bilingual to be an interpreter. You don't exactly have the luxury of time to ponder over a terminology problem or point of grammar.
I also find the "laid back" attitude to translation rather disturbing. I agree that nobody's perfect and mishaps will slip through the net, but we can't afford to be so complacent as to think "it's ok, that's what proofreaders and editors are for".
[Edited at 2012-07-10 13:21 GMT]
| | | | | No, you don't have to be bilingual but you have to be almost bilingual | Jul 10, 2012 |
If there were only bilingual -- 100% bilingual, if there is such a thing, interpreters, most conferences and trials would never take place due to lack of interpreters.
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LilianBoland wrote:
If there were only bilingual -- 100% bilingual, if there is such a thing, interpreters, most conferences and trials would never take place due to lack of interpreters.
As everyone can listen to also in TV during interviews (just as an example) interpreters often (if not always) have a slight accent (well sometimes not so slight) in one of the 2 languages involved, so yes "almost bilingual" .
| | | | Ty Kendall
United Kingdom
Local time: 01:48
Hebrew to English
LilianBoland wrote:
If there were only bilingual -- 100% bilingual, if there is such a thing, interpreters, most conferences and trials would never take place due to lack of interpreters.
"Bilingual" just means speaking two languages. "Almost bilingual" means "almost speaking two languages".
I don't think it's too radical to suggest an interpreter actually be bilingual. (I don't mean having been raised with 2 languages, I meant being proficient enough in both languages to interpret professionally).
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Ty Kendall wrote:
"Bilingual" just means speaking two languages. "Almost bilingual" means "almost speaking two languages".
This can apply to people in general but not to linguists, I think, otherwise, someone speaking say.... 4-5 languages how can be considered according to your statement? Quadrilingual? Pentalingual? (don't even know if this word exists).
[Edited at 2012-07-10 16:13 GMT]
| | | | Michele Fauble
United States
Local time: 17:48
Member (2006)
Norwegian to English
+ ...
Angie Garbarino wrote: Ty Kendall wrote:
"Bilingual" just means speaking two languages. "Almost bilingual" means "almost speaking two languages". This can apply to people in general but not to linguists, I think, otherwise, someone speaking say.... 4-5 languages how can be considered according to your statement? Quadrilingual? Pentalingual? (not even know if this word exist).
monolingual - only able to speak one language
bilingual - able to speak two languages
trilingual - able to speak three languages
multilingual - able to speak several languages
The confusion associated with bilingual arises because many people now use bilingual to mean growing up speaking two languages.
| | | | | Thanks for the explanation | Jul 10, 2012 |
I was aware of that, but I was also aware about what Lilian intended to say
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Hi, Angie. I used bilingual in the sense of two native languages. You understood me correctly. I don't think that only people who grew up speaking two languages could be interpreters but their proficiency should be close to native in both languages.
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