| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Are you a born translator or a well-skilled professional??? Thread poster: Ewa Nitoń
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Kay Denney 
France
Local time: 18:49
French to English
| Natural curiosity | Mar 27, 2012 |
Ewa_Nitoń wrote:
Dear Fellow Linguists,
I would like to engage all of us into a discussion about what is more fundamental the translation and interpreting theory and all strategies pointed by scholars or using senses and intuition only when the translation or rendition is produced? Do you really need to be a bilingual??? Is it any boundary where a linguist has to make the decision to forget about theory and rely on the intuition only??
Any though will be a huge help for my investigation and research; plus it will be good to know what you think about theory and practice nowadays.
I am looking forward to hear from you.
Ewa
I was answering Ty and didn't answer you, Ewa, how rude of me!
Translation theory: I have never seen the point. In the only course I ever followed, the professor seemed to be simply stating the utterly obvious, and just dressing it up in long-winded convoluted language to make it seem important, intellectual and inaccessible to Joe Bloggs. I agree with Neil that "it's translators who drive the theory", but they could just as well leave the car in the garage
I started out learning the hard way and my first translations were probably pretty bad, but they were good enough for the clients who paid and came back. I was lucky to work in an agency with a colleague to proof me and discuss how to improve my work for several years and learnt a lot that way.
I don't know about how useful intuition is. Do you mean a feel for the language perhaps? Or a feel for what the client needs?
What I would say is more important is my natural curiosity that prompts me to research extensively, thus absorbing the tone of language needed and stumbling across texts in which I hit on very useful terminology, and the fact that I love learning new words and often jot them down for future use, whatever I happen to be reading.
Being bilingual, or at least highly proficient in both languages helps of course. Extensive knowledge of both cultures is every bit as important, at least for the stuff I prefer to handle which is now called transcreation.
| | | | Allison Wright (X)
Portugal
Local time: 17:49
| Theory is simply a manifestation of what someone intuitively felt | Mar 27, 2012 |
Neil Coffey wrote:
Ewa_Nitoń wrote:
Is it any boundary where a linguist has to make the decision to forget about theory and rely on the intuition only??
Remember that "translation theory" is the construction of models of What Translators Actually Do In Practice. In other words, it's translators who drive the theory, not the other way round.
Similarly, pandas don't study zoology in order to determine how to eat bamboo...
When I first discovered the various joys of translation theory at university, it seemed to me that some theories were a convenient structure upon which to hang what I already intuitively felt or thought about the translation process.
Practice - actually translating, and then translating some more - whilst bearing these theories in mind was useful up to a point within the university environment. Honing your skills by practising (and receiving feedback/supervision) is far more valuable in the real world than an encyclopaedic knowledge of theory. As others have already said, there is no substitute for practice - and no substitute for hard work and developing a thorough the knowledge of your language pairs and subject fields.
Fast-forward 28 years (since I first discovered translation theory): I internalised what I needed then from the theory boffs. I do not care much for it now.
What I do find fascinating is how my own technique differs slightly from one language pair to another; each pair requires a slightly different set of mental gymnastics, if you will. This knowledge is possibly of interest to me only. One thing is for sure: I came by this knowledge empirically, and intuitively, over time. That's the "self-taught" part you won't find in books.
If you're lucky, you don't make the "decision" to cross the boundary from theoretical knowledge to making smart intuitive translation choices; it happens without you even realising it.
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 18:49
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
| Theory helps form your intuition | Mar 28, 2012 |
Ewa_Nitoń wrote:
Is it any boundary where a linguist has to make the decision to forget about theory and rely on the intuition only?
You always trust your intuition. It is a misconception that translators apply theory while they work. That does not mean that the theory is worthless -- to the contrary, learning theory helps shape your intuition -- but theory isn't something you use when you do a translation. Student translators may use models (i.e. workflow recipes) when doing a translation test, but hardly anyone use the models in real life. If you're a very new translator that has had very little practice, then following the models and attempting to put the theory into practice would be a very helpful and useful exercise for you, but once you find your feet you'll discover that intuition takes over.
| | | | | Bilinguals Do Better? | Mar 28, 2012 |
Now, within this thread, let's speculate about the following:
I dare to state that the being innate or, literally, post-natal bilingual (in my case - Ukrainian-Russian), builds up the good translator/interpreter, at some extent quicker. Sure, I have gift for languages (additionally to RU, UKR I work with English and French) but believe, this had been conditioned greatly with TWO mother tongues.
BTW, this feature is ignored largely by the agencies - these often assume ... See more Now, within this thread, let's speculate about the following:
I dare to state that the being innate or, literally, post-natal bilingual (in my case - Ukrainian-Russian), builds up the good translator/interpreter, at some extent quicker. Sure, I have gift for languages (additionally to RU, UKR I work with English and French) but believe, this had been conditioned greatly with TWO mother tongues.
BTW, this feature is ignored largely by the agencies - these often assume only ONE native, or mother tongue. ▲ Collapse
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Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 18:49
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
| Let's expand this point | Mar 28, 2012 |
Neil Coffey wrote:
Ewa_Nitoń wrote:
Is it any boundary where a linguist has to make the decision to forget about theory and rely on the intuition only??
Remember that "translation theory" is the construction of models of What Translators Actually Do In Practice. In other words, it's translators who drive the theory, not the other way round.
Similarly, pandas don't study zoology in order to determine how to eat bamboo...
Yes, but physicians do study anatomy to be able to treat people. We should be thankful it's not based on intuition only, as we could argue we all have bodies and thus intuitively know about its structure and processes.
And about what came first the chicken or the egg, actually theory and practice are a two-way street (the influence goes in both directions).
| | | | | I enjoying translating | Mar 28, 2012 |
Although I can't remember, when I arrived home after my first day at school, I burst into tears because I STILL couldn't read. Everybody had told me that when I started school I would learn, yet no one had remembered to tell me it would take me more than a day to master the art. Finally, according to my mother, it took me just two weeks.
At the age of six, I had started to devour Enid Blyton's "Famous Five" novels and I can remember asking my parents permission to disappear into m... See more Although I can't remember, when I arrived home after my first day at school, I burst into tears because I STILL couldn't read. Everybody had told me that when I started school I would learn, yet no one had remembered to tell me it would take me more than a day to master the art. Finally, according to my mother, it took me just two weeks.
At the age of six, I had started to devour Enid Blyton's "Famous Five" novels and I can remember asking my parents permission to disappear into my bedroom so I could get my nose into a book! On one of my birthdays I was given a torch, so I could read in bed at night. I can also remember having lengthy conversations with my sister in "pretend French"!
However, I was "programmed" to train for a different job and it wasn't until I was 40+ I decided that I had earned the right to finally do what I felt I needed to do.
In the 1980s, I started translating out of sheer enjoyment for friends and acquaintances, although I used to refuse payment claiming I wasn't a professional; my friends used to give me bottles of wine and take me out for meals, etc. At that time I hadn't studied theory - translating was something I enjoyed and it enabled me to help people who had never been able to master the English language - and my only tools were my decent level of written English and my common sense. Not to mention my pens, paper and dictionaries! I can remember on one occasion someone spilling a glass of water all over a page I had finished translating! Can anyone remember how we used to manage without computers?
Since then, I have studied theory and although I found it interesting I can't say I really learnt very much. I think most of the theory I studied affirmed what I had instinctively known. Admittedly I did study my langauge degree after the ripe old age of 40! Nowadays, I learn more from reading comments published in the forums here and from answering and discussing questions in Kudoz, than from books written by one person. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Michele Fauble
United States
Local time: 10:49
Member (2006)
Norwegian to English
+ ...
I have found that my studies and knowledge of linguistics have been far more helpful for translation than the translation theory I have read.
| | | | Ewa Nitoń
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:49
English to Polish
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TOPIC STARTER | Big big thank you | Apr 14, 2012 |
Thank you so much for all your precious comments that definitely will be a huge help for me to investigate this subject further.
Regards,
Ewa
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