Translator or interpreter?

A lot of people don’t seem to know the difference between a translator and an interpreter. In fact, many people don’t even know there is a difference and think the terms are synonymous. They’re not.

Dictionaries don’t seem to be very helpful either when it comes to explaining the difference. Here’s what the Oxford Dictionary of English has to say about it:

interpreter: a person who interprets, especially one who translates speech orally.
translator: a person who translates from one language into another, especially as a profession.

The Oxford Thesaurus of English only adds to the confusion by listing “interpreter” and “translator” as synonyms.

The Dutch Dikke Van Dale says:

tolk iem. die t.b.v. personen die elkaar niet verstaan het gesprokene mondeling of in gebarentaal overbrengt van de ene taal in de andere
synoniem: vertaler
vertaler iem. die vertaalt

The media are struggling with it too. On 22 August, the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant wrote in an article titled “Proces Joran stagneert door ontbreken tolk” (correct) that a legal process was hampered because there was no “officiële vertaler” (incorrect) available. And the book The Translator is really about an interpreter. The title of the Dutch translation (De tolk) is correct by the way, undoubtedly because it was translated by a translator who does know the difference between an interpreter and a translator.

Confused? It’s quite simple actually:
An interpreter (Dutch: tolk) deals with oral speech, whereas a translator (Dutch: vertaler) deals with written text. Some language service providers offer both services, others only offer either interpreting or translation services.

So if you are looking for a language service provider, make sure you look for the right person: if you need someone to interpret the discussions during your meeting, look for an interpreter; if you need someone to translate the minutes of the meeting, look for a translator.

Transcreation: translating and recreating

Some clients may ask you to “transcreate” (or “adapt”) a text rather than simply translating it. But what is transcreation?

Transcreation basically means recreating a text for the target audience, in other words “translating” and “recreating” the text. Hence the term “transcreation”. Transcreation is used to make sure that the target text is the same as the source text in every aspect: the message it conveys, style, the images and emotions it evokes and its cultural background. You could say that ranscreation is to translation what copywriting is to writing.

One could argue that any translation job is a transcreation job, since a good translation should always try to reflect all these aspects of the source text. This is of course true. But some types of texts require a higher level of transcreation than others. A technical text, for example, will usually not contain many emotions and cultural references and its linguistic style will usually not be very challenging. However, marketing and advertising copy, which is the type of copy to which the term transcreation is usually applied, does contain all these different aspects, making it difficult to create a direct translation. Translating these texts therefore requires a lot of creativity.

Required skills
In addition to creativity, a transcreator should also have an excellent knowledge of both the source language and the target language, a thorough knowledge of cultural backgrounds and be familiar with the product being advertised and be able to write about it enthusiastically. In addition, it certainly helps if the transcreator can handle stress and is flexible, since the advertising world is a fast-paced world and deadlines and source texts tend to change frequently.

Types of texts
Types of texts offered for transcreation vary from websites, brochures and TV and radio commercials aimed at end clients, to posters and flyers for resellers. They could be about any consumer product: digital cameras, airlines, food and drink, clothing and shoes and financial products. Transcreators are often required to deliver two or three alternative translations, especially for taglines, and a back translation, to help the end client, who typically does not understand the target language, understand the translated text. Transcreators are also expected to provide cultural advice: they should tell the end client when a specific translation or image does not work for the target audience.

What makes transcreation difficult?
In addition to the difficulties posed by creating a target text containing all the aspects of the source text (message, style, images and emotions, cultural background), marketing and advertising copy often poses other difficulties for the transcreator as well. Taglines, for example, often contain puns or references to imagery used by the company. They tend to be incorporated in a logo or image, with limited space and a fixed layout for the text. In addition, they are often used for multiple target groups: not just consumers, but also resellers and stakeholders, which means the text should appeal to all of them.

Want to give it a try?
I will be presenting a workshop about transcreation at the 7th ProZ.com International Conference in Prague on 2 and 3 October 2010.

Poll: Is the recession over?

Worst excuses to keep your rates low

Rates are always a hot issue among translators, especially low rates offered by clients. Some translators are tempted to accept these low rates or to lower their rates just to get work. However, there is no excuse to accept low rates.

“If my rates are too high, I won’t be able to find any clients”
If you raise your rates, there will always be clients who will find them too high and who won’t hire you. But do you really want to work for clients who underpay you for a job that requires specialised skills? There are plenty of clients out there who know what it takes to create a professional translation and who are prepared to pay a decent rate for quality. There are even clients who will not work with translators offering low rates, because they don’t trust “cheap translations”. If you offer quality translations, you will be able to find quality clients who are willing to pay for what you have to offer. It will take time and effort, but that’s all part of running a business.

“I only see job offers on the internet offering low rates”
There always have been, and always will be, clients who are only interested in making a quick profit and they won’t go away, not as long as there are translators who are prepared to work for these low rates. If you are serious about your business and you are able to offer quality translations, you don’t want to work with these clients. And you don’t have to, because there are plenty of serious clients out there who are willing to pay for quality. It just takes more effort to find them, or have them find you. Make sure you market yourself professionally, provide samples of your work and be active on the internet and/or in networks so clients can actually find you. You are in charge of your business, so you set your rates.

“I’ve only just started and am not very experienced yet”
Obviously, more experienced translators can ask higher rates than less experienced translators. Be careful, however, not to charge rates that are too low when you are just starting, because it will be very difficult to raise those rates to a decent level once you have gained some experience. If you start too low, you will most probably lose most of your current clients and you will have to find new clients, which means you will basically have to start all over again.

“A client asked me to lower my rate in exchange for a high volume of work”
Whether you are working on a 1500-word job or a 15,000-word job, the average number of words you translate per hour will remain roughly the same. So why should you be paid less for a big job? In addition, taking on a big job also means you will have to turn down other jobs and may lose (potential) clients. So why should you settle for less during the whole time you are working on this big job?

“I don’t need to earn that much, my partner earns enough to pay the bills”
Good for you, but that doesn’t mean that your work is worth less. Besides, there are plenty of translators who do have to earn a living translating. By underselling yourself and your work, you are damaging the profession’s reputation and you are ruining the market for others.

Post-hbo-cursus Ondertitelen

De Vertaalacademie in Maastricht organiseert een post-hbo-cursus Ondertitelen van vier dagen (plus een terugkomdag) voor afgestudeerde vertalers die de beginselen van het ondertitelen onder de knie willen krijgen. Tijdens de cursus komen de basisvaardigheden van het ondertitelen aan bod en is er de mogelijkheid om in een ondertitellokaal aan oefenopdrachten en een individueel ondertitelproject te werken met behulp van de onderstitelsoftware SPOT.

Voor 2010 zijn twee cursussen gepland: de eerste cursus begint op 26 februari 2010 (inschrijving sluit op 9 februari) en de tweede cursus op 21 mei 2010 (inschrijving sluit op 4 mei).

Meer informatie: Cursusinformatie (PDF-bestand) en Aanmeldformulier (PDF-bestand).

Nieuwe versie Groene Boekje in 2015

De Volkskrant meldt dat er in 2015 een nieuwe versie komt van het Groene Boekje:

De Nederlandse Taalunie begint volgend jaar met de voorbereidingen voor de nieuwe versie van de Woordenlijst Nederlandse Taal, beter bekend als het Groene Boekje. Het is de bedoeling dat een sterk uitgebreide, digitale versie in 2015 uitkomt.

Sommige mensen hopen dat de spelling op sommige punten zal worden aangepast en vereenvoudigd, maar volgens Rik Schutz, projectleider spelling van de Taalunie zal dat niet het geval zijn:

Het is juist niet de bedoeling om de regels opnieuw te veranderen, uitgezonderd een individueel geval waarin een andere spelling meer voor de hand ligt. ‘We willen vooral veel meer samenstellingen opnemen, nieuwe woorden die in de maatschappij ontstaan en het geheel beter doorzoekbaar maken.’ Volgens Schutz hebben de verantwoordelijke ministers besloten dat de huidige spellingsregeling nagenoeg compleet is en niet meer veranderd hoeft te worden.

Lees het volledige artikel.

21-22 November 2009: First ProZ.com Netherlands Conference

On Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 November 2009, ProZ.com organises its first Netherlands Conference in Soesterberg. The programme includes sessions on subjects such as translator-agency communication, online networking, freelance career building, translation quality, transcreation, video game localisation and interpreting.

For more information, check out the conference website.

Actie “Vertalers worden zichtbaar”

Op 17 oktober 2009 bezoeken verschillende boekvertalers een aantal boekhandels om met het publiek in gesprek te gaan en hun werk te presenteren. Ook worden er speciale boekenleggers over de vertalers gemaakt. De actie is een initiatief van literair vertalers Andrea Kluitmann, Nicolette Hoekmeijer en Gerda Baardman en wordt ondersteund door het Fonds voor de Letteren, de Vereniging van Letterkundigen en het Expertisecentrum Literair Vertalen.

Meer dan de helft van de titels in de boekwinkels in Nederland en Vlaanderen is oorspronkelijk niet in het Nederlands geschreven. Dat we die boeken toch kunnen lezen, is te danken aan het bijna onzichtbare werk van de boekvertalers: iets wat de meeste lezers zich niet realiseren. De actie Vertalers worden zichtbaar wil hier verandering in brengen.

Ga naar de website van het Fonds voor de Letteren voor meer informatie.

Yankees, cookies, dollars, coleslaw and stoops

Dutch linguist Nicoline van der Sijs has written a book about the influences of the Dutch language on North American languages. The book will be published in September, both in Dutch (Yankees, cookies en dollars: De invloed van het Nederlands op de Noord-Amerikaanse talen) and in English (Cookies, Coleslaw, and Stoops: The Influence of Dutch on the North American Languages).

From Santa Claus (after the Dutch folklore saint Sinterklaas) and his sleigh (the pronunciation of the Dutch slee is almost identical) to a dumbhead talking poppycock, the contributions of the Dutch language to American English are indelibly embedded to some of our most vernacular terms and expressions.

“The Translator” by Daoud Hari

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.”