4 Things You Should Not Say to a Translator
“Can’t computers do that for free?”
After completing my bachelor’s degree in literary studies, I decided that I wanted to work as a translator. To me, this felt like the ideal career that would combine my love of languages, my passion for writing and my intellectual curiosity perfectly. I have now just received my master’s degree in translation, and I am about to start working full-time as a translator. Even after only two years of studying and going through internships, I’ve already gotten to notice what people assume about the profession. I’ve thus decided to write about these questions and misconceptions that often amuse or annoy my colleagues and me.
“How many languages do you speak?”
This is often the first question that comes out of someone’s mouth when they learn I’m a translator. I almost feel like a disappointment when I have to reply that I can only speak two languages fluently. I am very passionate about language learning, but it has little to do with my profession. I did not decide to become a translator solely because of my love for languages, but mostly because I love writing, and I like researching all kinds of subjects.
Being a translator does not mean you are de facto a polyglot. No one should go into studying translation thinking they are going to learn many languages and work with them daily. In fact, for most translators, the most important language to master is their own, because most translators translate from their second (or third, or fourth) language to their native language.
I’ve had translation classes with plenty of native French speakers that had trouble with their English pronunciation and others who spoke four languages. That is barely an indication of how well they can do when it comes to translating a text. Unless you are actually thinking of an interpreter, which brings me to my second point…
“Wow! I wouldn’t be able to do that so quickly, you know, repeating what was just said in another language…”
Not that it’s a bad thing to say, but now you’re definitely thinking about an interpreter. In Canada, at least, translators and interpreters are usually considered to be closely related, but still different professions. Future translators and interpreters may sit in the same classrooms to complete their bachelor’s degree, but people looking into a career in interpretation usually need to study a little longer and get into specialized graduate programs that are offered only in a handful of universities across the country. It is thus possible for a translator to work as an interpreter from time to time, and an interpreter is probably qualified to do translations as well. However, from my experience, most professional translators are not equipped to be professional interpreters.
Personally, I have mad respect for interpreters. I can only imagine how tough and demanding the job has to be. I’ll just stick to translating written words, and being the occasional interpreter for my parents when we go on trips abroad.
“But nowadays, with auto translators, what’s the point of being a translator?”
If you have basic knowledge of at least two languages and have experimented with Google Translate, you already know that auto translators are not that great all the time — and that’s the nicest euphemism I can come up with.
Some companies will try to cut costs by using an auto translator without really knowing how to use it. And to them I say: we know. And we are laughing at you.
The greatest lesson I learned from my translation classes is something a professor once told us:
A good translation is expensive, but a bad translation will end up costing you much more.
And that is most definitely true. A mistranslation may be damaging to a company’s or someone’s reputation, and may even have serious implications when it comes to important documents such as legal forms. Or at the very least, it may cost a lot of actual money to reprint a bunch of papers.
I choose to believe that companies care enough about their image and their customers to hire professional translators, whether as an actual employee within their company or as the occasional freelancer.
Sure, auto translators and translation software in general are getting more powerful and accurate as the technology keeps improving. Computer-assisted translation is becoming more and more of a reality for a lot of translators, and it has its benefits. However, I do not see those tools replacing a human translator completely in the foreseeable future. Some types of texts, such as literary texts, cannot be as easily translated by a machine as others, such as highly specialized texts.
For now, translations still need a human touch to make sure that a human will be able to read them and understand them. In a world that is more globalized and connected than ever, I am not too worried that my job will become obsolete before I get to retirement.
“I’m bilingual, I could do translations too!”
Well, yeah, you could. Why not? You’d probably be able to do a nice, functional translation.
But you might find that it’s not that easy, or that it takes a long time. And you might think the text does not look natural in its new language.
Translation is not only about taking words and putting them in a different language. It’s about transferring meaning, and it’s usually about doing it in a way that does not feel like a translation to the target audience.
Being perfectly bilingual doesn’t guarantee that you will do great translations, or that you will enjoy it. While I believe it is better to let professional translators do translations, I still think people who are not translators could translate some texts more easily than actual translators, for example when it comes to highly specialized fields.
Still, translators are linguists who have studied the art of transferring meaning for many years. They are curious, detail-oriented, passionate people that can and will research grammar and typography rules for hours. While pretty much anyone can try to translate, just like pretty much anyone can try doing pretty much anything professionals are paid to do, no one can do it quite like a translator.
If you love languages and writing, I recommend looking into a career in translation. I’ll be sure to write more about my experiences as a translator!
