Translation and interpreting - they're the same thing, aren't they? No! They're very different: but how exactly do they differ? In this article, Interpret the Future team member Lara Warburton analyses the main factors that distinguish the two activities. She also provides an insider's view of the different skills required and the subtle differences in character between translators and interpreters.
Q: WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETING?
A: Translation deals with written texts, while
interpreting is spoken. People sometimes use the word translation to mean
one, both, or either of the above, but I think it's a significant distinction
to make, if only from the point of the skills involved.
DIFFERENT
LANGUAGES, DIFFERENT WORLDS
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| Language differences go beyond words |
Speakers of different languages perceive the
world in different ways, and for this reason, languages don't map onto each
other word-for-word, or even concept-for-concept. For example, westerners
imagine time as horizontal, with the future ahead and the past behind. Chinese
speakers, on the other hand, imagine time as vertical, with the past above and
the future below. So a translator is dealing with the translation not only of words but of perceptions of the world.
Apart from different perceptions of the world,
languages also have their preferred styles of expression. For example, flowery,
convoluted language is considered beautiful in French but ridiculous in
English, while simple, direct language is considered satisfying and organised
in English but brutal and primitive in French.
TRANSLATION
a) Skills
A translator is above all a writer. She (because
more often than not it is a she!) understands what the original writer is
trying to express, and then expresses that in the target language, in a style
which sounds natural in that language. This will often require some
adjustments of style, vocabulary, and structure. The translator is, in essence,
creating a new text. For this reason, a translator is, above all, a writer, and
is discouraged from translating into anything other than her mother
tongue.
An example: An advert for a restaurant in France
publicised the smoking room, where customers could "se donner au plaisir
de fumer" - which is a very French concept. No English restaurant would
ever talk about a room where you could "give yourself over to the pleasure
of smoking". If anything, it would say something like "we are
slightly embarrassed to inform you that we have a Room of Shame, where you can
sneak a guilty cigarette." So the whole concept of the
text doesn't really transfer into English, let alone the individual words, and
it takes a skilled writer to make it sound convincing.
b) Character
Translators are solitary creatures,
perfectionists who spend inordinate amounts of time at their computers, rewriting
and polishing every sentence and researching the topic of the text. Translators
also tend to specialise in a specific field - medical, industrial,
certificates, etc.
INTERPRETING
a) Types of
interpreting
Public services interpreting (also called
community interpreting) is used in situations such as medical appointments,
applying for welfare, court cases, etc. The interpreter is the intermediary
between two or more parties, working in both directions between the languages.
This overlaps with business interpreting, which is a similar process used but in
business contexts.
Conference interpreting is divided into
consecutive interpreting (taking notes while listening to a speech, and then
giving the speech in the other language) and simultaneous interpreting
(speaking at the same time as the speaker).
In conference interpreting, in the majority of
cases, the interpreter works into her mother tongue only, because this is the
language in which we are most in control and best able to express subtleties of
tone and shades of meaning.
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| Lara interpreting at the Social Business Forum, Milan 2012
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b) The
process
Just as a translator is first and foremost a
writer, an interpreter is first and foremost a public speaker. Her job is
not to say “what the speaker said”, because, as we know, that is generally
awkward-sounding and frequently impossible. The interpreter’s job is to tell
the listeners what the speaker is talking
about, and to do it in natural-sounding, eloquent language.
The process is as follows:
(a)
Listen actively to what the speaker is
saying. (Try and listen actively to someone for three minutes yourself and
you’ll see how unnatural it is.)
(b)
Analyse the speaker’s ideas – not
what the speaker is saying, but what
he or she means.
(c)
Analyse the structure of the speech, paying careful
attention to links – words such as and,
but, however, in addition, in conclusion, etc., which signpost the
direction that the speech is taking and make it easier for the listener to
follow.
Part of the
analysis of the structure is differentiating between major and minor ideas (you
don’t want to over-emphasise a passing point, nor do you want to detract from
an important point), identifying repetition and deciding whether it is important,
and establishing the function of the idea within the speech – is it to
emphasise the last point, to provide a contrast, to start a new topic…?
You also
have to be on guard for contradictions. Speakers sometimes include
contradictions intentionally, for example to express sarcasm or to quote
somebody else’s viewpoint. So you need to decide whether it was intentional or
accidental – and if you are sure it was accidental, you need to decide whether
or not to correct it.
Above all,
you need to understand – not just the
words, but the intention behind those words.
The interpreter’s job is to explain to the listeners what the speaker is
talking about. And how can you hope to explain something to someone so that
they understand if you don’t understand it yourself?
(d)
If you are working in
consecutive, you need to take notes.
The notes are
not a transcription of the speech. Apart from anything else, who can write that
fast? You retain most of the speech in your memory, and the notes – symbols,
abbreviations and short phrases – serve simply to jog your memory. (All the
more reason to carry out a careful analysis of meaning and structure.) Fundamentally,
your notes record the speaker’s ideas
and not his words.
(e)
You now need to render the
ideas, in a natural, controlled, elegant manner in your mother tongue. If you
are speaking from notes, you need to develop the skill of converting a pageful
of symbols and isolated words into eloquent speech. You also need to make sure
you convey the speaker’s attitude – emotional, angry, neutral, sarcastic*. And if you are working in simultaneous,
while you are doing speaking, you need to keep part of your brain free to be
listening to and analysing the speech which is still coming in.
(*Note on sarcasm. Being sarcastic involves saying the opposite of what you
mean, as in, “What a fantastic idea!” meaning “What a stupid idea!” This is not
a universal concept . In many languages, if you say something, then that is
precisely what you mean. It is not even universal within English. Americans,
for example, do not make frequent use of sarcastic language.
It is a problem if the interpreter fails to recognise sarcasm. She could
end up saying, “Yes, chairman, we absolutely agree with you, and we think these
measures should be put in place immediately,” when the speaker really means, “That’s a dumb idea,
chairman, and if we implement these measures, havoc will break out.” Do you see the implications of working with
ideas, not words?)
And of
course, while you’re doing this, you must remember you are a public speaker, so
you must not say “Um”, you must not self-commentate (as in, “Oh dear, I’ve lost
my place. I’m not doing very well here!”), you must project your voice and
engage with your listeners, you must maintain an appropriately formal register,
and you must not start speaking until you can finish a sentence. Indeed, the
interpreter’s version is often an improvement on the original, because it is an
analysed, tidied-up version, and because the interpreter is a trained public speaker
while the original speaker may not be.
c) Character
Interpreters, in contrast with translators, are not solitary creatures.
They work consists of interacting with people. They are not perfectionists
either, because they cannot afford to be. When you are giving a live speech,
you cannot stop to go and do a bit of background research (you are supposed to
have done all your research beforehand!), neither can you produce a second,
polished, draft. In consecutive, you may be able to ask the speaker one or two
questions if you have not quite caught something, but in simultaneous, you
obviously cannot.
Another difference is that interpreters do not generally specialise in any
field. They can be called upon to interpret in a meeting about anything. And when the speaker opens his
mouth, there is no telling what is going to come out of it – and whatever comes
out, the interpreter must be prepared to deal with it. For this reason, having
a vast general knowledge is fundamental for an interpreter, and it is vital to
study of the subject of the conference carefully beforehand.
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| Lara (centre) with the Interpret the Future team at the SBF |
WHAT IF YOU
DON’T UNDERSTAND A WORD?
A frequently asked question. But, as you know by now, interpreters don’t
work at the level of words but at the level of ideas.
If someone is talking to you in your language and you don’t catch a
word, does that necessarily stop you understanding what they are telling you?
Of course not. You can often still understand the idea, even if a word is
missing.
There are several courses of action available if you miss a word. Frequently,
the word itself is not crucial to the overall meaning. If somebody is speaking
to you in your language and you miss a word, does that necessarily stop you
understanding what they are telling you? Of course not. You fill in the gaps
with logic and deduction. Otherwise, you can generalise – for example
“Production increased by X per cent” can become “Production increased
considerably”. You may choose to omit that section, continuing with the next
idea, and then when the speaker repeats the elusive word – because if it is
such a crucial word, he probably will repeat it – then you work the omitted
information back in. And in some cases, the idea can be omitted entirely
without doing any significant damage.
In the words of one interpreter I know: “People think that I work for
months and months, doing conferences on all sorts of specialist subjects, and
then one day, I don’t understand one word! If only!”
Lara Warburton is a freelance translator and interpreter. A native speaker of English she translates and interprets from French, Italian and Portuguese into English. She has experience in translating technical, journalistic, administrative and literary texts. Her interpreting experience includes providing simultaneous, consecutive and liaison interpreting in a range of situations including conferences and meetings. She is very familiar with public-services and charity-sector interpreting as well as in international business contexts.
Lara was a member of the Interpret the Future team which provided interpreting services at the Social Business Forum in Milan in June 2012.
With a BA (Hons) in Modern Languages and Translation and Interpreting Studies from the University of Salford (which included one year’s residence in Portugal and France), Lara also holds an MA in Conference Interpreting and Translation Studies from the University of Leeds, which is an AIIC-approved institution. She is a member of the Associate of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting.
Having obtained her CELTA (Cambridge Certificate of English Language Teaching to Adults), Lara has gained considerable experience in teaching English as a Foreign Language in a number of countries including Brazil and Italy.
Lara’s blog is both a lively and informative diary of her impressions of the countries she has lived in (Zimbabwe, the UK, Portugal, France and Italy, etc) as well as a cultural and linguistic voyage of discovery. You can also follow her on Twitter: @larawarburton
You can contact Lara by sending her an email to: lara_warburton@yahoo.co.uk
