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Being a translator and studying more L2s | ||
Tags: Professionals | Translation | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Languages & Work |  | |
| bela_lugosi Hexaglot Senior Member Finland Joined 6456 days ago 272 posts - 376 votes  Speaks: English, Finnish*, Italian, Spanish, German, Swedish Studies: Russian, Estonian, Sámi, Latin | Message 9 of 31 22 October 2012 at 12:49am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I think it is equally important to know your mother tongue and the source language really well in order to be capable of rendering the original meaning in a different language. It is indeed possible to translate from a language you do not know at an exceptionally high level (it is enough if you understand 90-95% of the text without using a dictionary), BUT you always need to be able to write your mother tongue without any grammatical errors. That's the most important thing.
Based on this I would say that it is not impossible to study a language from scratch and then start to translate from it into your mother tongue. I think C1-C2 level should be enough for any non-technical translation work, providing that you have good dictionaries and that you turn down any translation job you consider too difficult for you. Interpreting is something completely different because when you're at it you really have no time to think. You must be able to understand everything in a matter of 2-3 seconds or less and find a way to express the same idea in the target language. I have worked as an interpreter from/into Finnish/English/Italian, and I can assure you that it is an extremely demanding job both mentally and physically. You cannot do it for more than 20-30 minutes at a time (here I'm obviously talking about simultaneous interpreting). Edited by bela_lugosi on 22 October 2012 at 12:56am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6905 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 10 of 31 22 November 2012 at 3:46pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
You won't find many professional interpreters who can work to and from more than two languages, but there are lots of them who work from multiple languages into their mother tongue.
Actually, some EU interpreters (and I suppose this applies to translators as well) add a new C language every couple of years. There're many interpreters who work from 5-6 languages into their A, especially in the "old" booths. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5383 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 11 of 31 22 November 2012 at 4:07pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
In Canada, where most of the work is between English and French, all interpreters are at least A-B, with some double A's. We are all required to interpret in both directions and interpreters take equal length turns, regardless of the language or direction being interpreted. In the case of interpreters with C languages working together (and I've only worked in groups of 2 or 3 interpreters), how does it work? How do interpreters share the work? Or are clients happy to let interpreters interpret into their C languages? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5768 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 12 of 31 22 November 2012 at 4:07pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Another related question: Do your fluent languages suffer when you work intensively on a new one? I mean this.
I personally experience that effect from intensive study alone, and it lasts until I have mastered the new material, or I switch back to my better languages and use them for several hours. So my question is, do you experience inhibition in your first/fluent language(s)? Is that effect strong enough to make your work as translator harder, or does it vanish when switching to work mode? And, after learning several foreign languages to working proficiency, do you still experience such an inhibition effect? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5383 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 13 of 31 22 November 2012 at 4:15pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I don't know about others, but I would tend to think that the level needed for translation -- and even more so for interpretation -- is such that unless one were to abandon it for years, it's unlikely to be affected by anything. I haven't read all of the article you present, but translators and interpreters are used to switching back and forth between their working languages, which is presumably different from first-time L2 learners put in an immersion situation for the first time. Edited by Arekkusu on 22 November 2012 at 4:15pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6905 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 14 of 31 22 November 2012 at 4:59pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
At the national markets in Europe you usually work with an A-B combination. That's for sure the case of e.g. Poland, where the large majority of interpreters are Polish As. In Western Europe there is a tendency to interpret mostly into the A language but that's obviously not always doable as the workload would rarely be 50-50 with a strict language division between the boothmates. Working for the EU is very different, though. There is a strong emphasis on working into your A only, although it's not always the case, especially as far as "new" languages are concerned. At a meeting, there is a booth for every language that the meeting is interpreted into, and the old booths mostly go one-way only. As e.g. the French booth does not provide the interpreting from French into other languages (that's the job of other booths), so it doesn't matter whether the interpreters work from their Bs or from their Cs. Edited by Julie on 22 November 2012 at 5:01pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5768 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 15 of 31 22 November 2012 at 11:19pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I'm not worried about existing language systems in use, I wonder about whether the introduction of a new language into such a system via immersion has the same effects on those with working proficiency in several languages as on such first-time learners, or whether more experienced learners tend to develop different strategies of dealing with the same problem, which is how to foster newly developed neural pathways against the overpowering preference for the much-used ones that exist for a similar concept in a different language.) But I guess the effect doesn't make much of a difference to people who don't have to struggle with working memory/inhibition problems from the start. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Journeyer Triglot Senior Member United States tristan85.blogspot.c Joined 6870 days ago 946 posts - 1110 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German Studies: Sign Language | Message 16 of 31 23 November 2012 at 7:50pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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What is meant by A, AA, B, or C languages? You certainly don't mean language levels, do you? I can't imagine a professional interpreter working with only an A or B level.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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