If you’re reading this blog you may already
know things about translation and interpreting and therefore this post might be
obvious for you. Or maybe you don’t know anything about these subjects, because
you’re a “dancing reader”.
Anyway, I am here to write about reverse
translation and interpretation. You know, it’s this thing when you write a
translation or produce a speech from your mother-tongue into one of the
languages you have learnt during your life. In my case, this would be reading
in Spanish and translating into English, French, German or whatever. And the
same when it comes to interpreting: I listen to a speech in Spanish and I talk
in French or English (I can’t even think of German in this case).
I just want you to know that… this thing
exists, and it has a name, but it shouldn’t. Translators and interpreters work
with their mother-tongue as an active language, and the rest are their passive
languages. This means that they should always translate and interpret into their
own language (in my case, into Spanish). I am fully aware that this is not
exactly how the real world works, but I also know that it is what happens in
most cases.
Why am I telling you this? Well, because, as a
student of Translation and Interpreting, I have been asked more than once to
translate things into English or French. Or even worse: FROM English TO French.
My first reaction to this is usually something like: “wait, you want me to do
WHAT?” and then I explode in rage, saying that I can’t do that, that it is
impossible and blah, blah, blah. My “client” would say things like: “but why
not?! You’re almost a translator, aren’t you?” So my second reaction is: “oh,
ok. You don’t know WHY I can’t do that!” Because I DO speak many languages. I
do, and you know it. You know I can read books in other languages. You know
that I can go to a foreign country and speak with the people and that I can
listen to the radio in there and understand it! Yes, I can. Wow, that’s
awesome, yeah! Well, let me then explain why I can’t do the work you’re asking
me to do.
- When you're doing a reverse translation (or interpretation) you
are never completely sure of what you are writing (or saying). When you’re
writing your own essay in a foreign language, you will surely find
difficulties, but you can overcome them by writing something different or
by not writing anything at all. But wait! What happens when it is a
translation? You can’t change what the original text said, and obviously eliminating
sentences is not advisable at all! So what do you do? See? You have to
find a way to solve the problem, and it can obviously not be the best
option. Actually, and using my little experience, I can almost assure you
that it WON’T be the best option. From a native’s eyes, there is always
room for improvement!
- If
you really care about doing your translation properly, you will have to
check EVERY SINGLE SENTENCE out. I have read a ba-zillion novels in French
and I am pretty sure I can speak and write it quite well. But still, I
need to check out everything I write. I have to make researches of
frequency simply to make sure if I’m right. Even in those (rare) cases
when I KNOW I am right, there’s always a tiny, minuscule possibility of
being wrong. What do I do? I google!
- You
will never, ever be able to know a foreign language as well as a native speaker.
They grew up with it. They read their first books in that language and
their parents and teachers taught them everything using that language.
They will always be able to find this “something” in your text which just doesn’t
“sound right”.
- Oh,
and the culture! What is the culture you know best? Yours, isn’t it? And you
don’t even know everything about it. Haven’t you heard some days ago an
expression in your own language that you had never heard before? Well, I
have. Many of them, actually! And I also learnt a word that people use in
Extremadura, but not in León. Translation and Interpreting are about
expressing ideas in other languages, not just words. You have to be
perfectly capable of understanding your own culture. What if there is a
sentence without connotations in a language but you know it will surely
offend someone if you keep it with the same words in the target language?
Or even worse: what if you DON’T know that it will offend someone?
- This
one is related to interpreting. The situation is even worse when you are
interpreting, and so much worse when it’s simultaneous interpreting.
People with more than one first language are very rare. If you have two,
it means that you have the same level of knowledge in both languages. And
if you are an interpreter, you have to know your first language(s) very
well, so you should be able to speak in different registers without much
trouble. If you only have one active language (like normal people who are
not interpreting gods), it will be very difficult for you to produce a
correct speech in a foreign language, because you won’t really have time
to wonder if what you’re saying is completely right or not!
- And
finally, translators are not human dictionaries, ok?! So stop asking them how to say lenocinio, palimpsesto and oclorancia
in English; because they might not even know that they are in Spanish! They are not human dictionaries: they are humans that know which dictionaries to use!
I hope things are clearer now!
Nerea.
PS.: I’m not even going to tell you how many
times I have used the dictionary or Google to write this blogpost. And I know
there are mistakes. I’m so sure of it! ;)
