Translating is an Art

The novel The Translator - A Tribesman’s Memoir of Darfur by Daoud Hari is

a suspenseful, harrowing, and deeply moving memoir of how one person has made a difference in the world — an on-the-ground account of one of the biggest stories of our time. Using his high school knowledge of languages as his weapon — while others around him were taking up arms — Daoud Hari has helped inform the world about Darfur.

The Translator tells the remarkable story of a man who came face-to-face with genocide– time and again risking his own life to fight injustice and save his people.

“I am the translator who has taken journalists into dangerous Darfur. It is my intention now to take you there in this book, if you have the courage to come with me.”

Evan Osnos writes in The New Yorker about the Li Yang Crazy English training camp for volunteers to the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Li, who is thirty-eight, has made his name on an E.S.L. technique that one Chinese newspaper called English as a Shouted Language. Shouting, Li argues, is the way to unleash your “international muscles.” Shouting is the foreign-language secret that just might change your life.

Read the full article.

An example of one of Li Yang’s lessons:

The International PEN China Campaign Poem Relay was set up by International PEN with the aim of “Celebrating Linguistic Diversity and Carrying the Torch for Freedom of Expression in China”.

The poem ‘June’ by imprisoned Chinese poet and journalist Shi Tao is relaying around the world, country to country, language to language, until it reaches Beijing for the Olympics in August.

PEN Centres around the world have translated ‘June’ to over 90 (and still counting) of the world’s languages.

When the poem arrives at a new location, you can read and hear a new translation.

Ann All writes on IT Business Edge about Facebook using volunteers to have their site translated into a dozen languages.

(Wikipedia is) an altruistic, charitable, information-sharing, donation-supported cause. Facebook is not. Therefore, people should not be tricked into donating their time and energy to a multimillion-dollar company so that the company can make millions more — at least not without some type of compensation.
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In addition to the compensation question, some experts have complained about the quality of the translation. A professional translator based in Madrid tells the Times that the Facebook Spanish translation is filled with “outrageous spelling mistakes” as well as usage errors. Renato Beninatto, a member of the Common Sense Advisory consulting firm and spokesman for the Globalization & Localization Association, says conventional wisdom dictates that using fewer translators results in a better product. Facebook competitors MySpace and Friendster both use professional translators.

Read the full article.

In his Jerusalem Diary on the BBC website, Tim Franks writes about the different languages spoken in Jerusalem and whether it helps if opposing parties speak each other’s language.

The question is how far those people within Jerusalem, and more broadly within Israel and the Occupied Territories, want to speak each other’s languages.
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“Let’s think of Northern Ireland,” Prof Spolsky told me. “They spoke English on both sides. That didn’t make them friendly. Language follows rather than leads. It’s sad. I’m someone who encourages language-learning. But being able to speak someone’s language doesn’t make you like them.”

UEFA is to bring out a tri-lingual (English, French and German) football dictionary with about 2,000 entries.

It will contain “official terms used by UEFA and FIFA, as well as terms used by professionals and ordinary fans in everyday football life,” UEFA said on Wednesday.

Subjects covered will include the game itself, stadiums and security, equipment, medical matters, the media, management and administration.

Read the full article.

A translator translating the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by British author Mark Haddon into Galician ended up changing the sex of certain characters in the book.

But a Spanish translator has been sacked for allegedly refusing to stick to the genders chosen by the author. Maria Reimondez is taking the publishers to court over claims that her contract to translate the novel into Galician was cancelled because she refused to reinforce sexist stereotypes. “The translation strategies I use include not using the masculine form systematically,” said Miss Reimondez in a statement.

“I haven’t invented this; it’s nothing new, and, linguistically, one cannot find fault with it.”

Read the full article.

Op zaterdag 17 mei 2008 vindt in Amsterdam de Grote Vertaaldag plaats met als thema: “Vertalen, een hele kunst”.

Vertalers staan altijd in de schaduw van hun werk. Daar moet wat aan gebeuren! Vertalen is een kunst, een vak en een wetenschap. In de literaire wereld klinkt de roep om heroprichting van een goede universitaire vertaalopleiding, waarbij in het bijzonder het culturele belang van het literair vertalen wordt onderstreept. 2008 is het Europese jaar van de interculturele dialoog en Amsterdam is dit jaar Wereldboekenstad. Goede redenen om een Grote Vertaaldag te organiseren die het belangrijke werk van de vertaler in de schijnwerpers zet.

De Grote Vertaaldag mikt op een breed publiek en bestaat uit een plenair gedeelte met tussendoor parallelsessies: vijf vertaalworkshops Vertalen in de krant en vervolgens vijf parallelsessies In de keuken van het vertalen. Aan het eind van de dag wordt een Vertaalpleidooi aangeboden aan minister Plasterk waarin wordt gepleit voor de heroprichting van een universitaire vertaalopleiding.

Aan de Vertaaldag is een Vertaalwedstrijd gekoppeld. Deze wedstrijd wordt uitgeschreven in samenwerking met NRC Handelsblad en verschijnt vrijdag 4 april in het Cultureel Supplement van NRC Handelsblad met een oproep aan de lezers om mee te doen.

De website Vaagtaal organiseert de Vaagtaal-verkiezing 2008. Inzendingen kunnen worden ingestuurd tot 15 augustus 2008. Tussen 1 september en 1 november 2008 kan er op de website worden gestemd op vijftig woorden en uitdrukkingen die door een groep taaldeskundigen zijn genomineerd. De uitslag van de vaagtaal-verkiezing is op 14 november 2008.

Op de website staat een selectie uit de inzendingen.

Vaagtaal is het gebruik van woorden en uitdrukkingen die onduidelijk, dubbelzinnig, misleidend, overbodig of storend zijn. Veel schrijvers van zakelijke teksten lijden aan vaagtaal en besmetten andere schrijvers via hun teksten; vaagtaal is namelijk een loa, een door lezen overdraagbare aandoening. Tekstsoorten die vaak vol staan met vaagtaal zijn beleidsbabbels, managementspeak, personeelspraat, ambtenaritis, nieuwsgeneuzel, onderwijslingo, zorggezemel en reclamegereutel.

According to an article in the Daily Mail, English will disappear and be replaced by a global language called “Panglish”.

Linguists say the language of Shakespeare and Dickens is evolving into a new, simplified form of English which will be spoken by billions of people around the world.

The changes are not being driven by Britons, Americans or Australians, but the growing number of people who speak English as a second language, New Scientist reports.

According to linguists, Panglish will be similar to the versions of English used by non-native speakers. As the new language takes over, “the” will become “ze”, “friend” will be “frien” and the phrase “he talks” will become “he talk”.