There are a significant number of people who can both interpret bidirectionally and translate into their A language professionally. Not a handful – a significant number, I’d say. If you start with trained interpreters and work “outward”, you’ll probably find more than if you start with translators and try to find the ones who also interpret. Interpretation is usually more specialized, requires more training to be able to avoid severe self-embarrassment, and as mentioned before leaves no damning document behind to be forwarded by e-mail as proof of one’s incautious assessment of powers.
People who can interpret AND translate bidirectionally to a professional level? I have met only one or two. One of them is a double-A – this person truly has two A languages, was educated abroad and raised in a household that used the other A language intensively and at a high level. (Think “diplomatic brat with overbearing Chinese parents”.) The other is just one of those freaks of nature who acquired his second languages to such a level that it scares native speakers of both. But it should also be said that this freak I’m talking about worked his f***ing a$$ off to perfect his technical skill as an interpreter, and doesn’t much do translation (and probably would be professionally okay but not stellar at it IMO).
SatTV, you just don’t know much about this industry. I’m not going to go around telling you how to orient a dish. You might want to stop arguing any time now.
To summarize for you: what we’re saying is for people who are not true double-As, virtually no native speaker of Chinese (educated in a Chinese-speaking country, with a Chinese “A” language as per the AIIC system of classification) can translate into English to a professional level. A professional level of writing for a translation means that you convey all the meaning and nuance of the original in the target language without errors of usage or mechanics. Likewise, virtually no English-A can translate into Chinese to a professional level. I have met one in my 23 years in the business and as noted he is well-known among interpreters as something of a genius.
I have the gray hairs from “fixing” Chinese-A work into English to back this up, too. I wish I had photos of my grad school translation-into-Chinese professor’s face during class to show you; that would go a long ways toward proving how crap I am translating into Chinese (as if proof were needed). Nope, on second thought I and probably all my classmates would prefer to forget that whole class.
Fluency = the person can automatically manipulate the grammar (structure) of the language and use a limited subset of vocabulary to express or understand the meaning. There may be some gaps when it comes to rhetoric, and things like higher level persuasion or complex arguments may flounder a bit.
Professional fluency = the person can do this using a much larger set of vocabulary. The person either has automatic command of specialized terminology for his field (or for most fields, in the case of an interpreter who cannot specialize), knows how to research and can “get up to speed” about a new field overnight (literally)…or has damn good technology to provide himself with the needed vocabulary on the fly.
Where did I suggest that they could? All I queried was that you claim that no Chinese person could ever aquire the skills that you have and I believe otherwise.
However the people with these skills usually do not work as translators or interpretors only as they have other specialist occupational skills as well.
SO what about the OP. No work experience and wants to get an ARC… you failed to get one so don’t know how he thinks he will.
That is precisely what we are saying. A native Chinese speaker will not have the level of precision and flexibility in their written English to work as a professional translator into English in a market that knows the difference.
Taiwan, however, is not one of those markets.
I, likewise, will never acquire the skills that an educated native Chinese writer has to translate into Chinese. Fortunately, I am okay with that, and don’t try to push the envelope. Chinese people (in my experience) frequently DO try to push the envelope, and not generally successfully, judging from a professional standard.
[quote=“ironlady”]SatTV, you just don’t know much about this industry. [/quote] :ohreally: :ohreally:
Yes I guess you are correct, not.
I must have wasted my time working in Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra as they had the audacity to send me to the RAAF School of Languages at Point Cook, where I studied Malay 40 hours a week in class for several months, with both native and non native teachers of the language. Then I took further language training in Malaysia. I even studied in professional language labs and all before I went on to work at the Australian High Commission in Brunei, where part of my duties were to translate from documents written in Malay, to English. Yep, I know nothing at all about translating.
Then I had my own immigration business in Taiwan where we did our own translations of documents. I was the numpty doing the English part.
Taiwan is the wild wild west where you can do anything you want. You should know that.
I must have wasted my time working in Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra as they had the audacity to send me to the RAAF School of Languages at Point Cook, where I studied Malay 40 hours a week in class for several months, with both native and non native teachers of the language. Then I took further language training in Malaysia. I even studied in professional language labs and all, before I went on to work at the Australian High Commission in Brunei and Singapore, where part of my duties were to translate from documents written in Malay, to English.
Yep, I know nothing at all about translating.[/quote]
In other words, you translated into your native language, English. As it should be.
Brunei! I visited there for a couple days, when I was vacationing in Sabah in 2007. Interesting place. Hopped on the KK-to-Labuan ferry, then the Labuan-to-Brunei ferry.
In other words, you translated into your native language, English. As it should be.
Brunei! I visited there for a couple days, when I was vacationing in Sabah in 2007. Interesting place. Hopped on the KK-to-Labuan ferry, then the Labuan-to-Brunei ferry.[/quote]
Yes and we also translated some information and simple visa application documents into Malay as well. Simple forums are not difficult to translate from English into Malay.
We used to take our own private power boat out to Labuan to spend a day on the beach and have BBQ’s and go water skiing. The water in that area can get pretty choppy though.
Some good diving on some ww2 wrecks out there as well.
Yeah, you’re right. Now that you mention it, I recall that I took ten years of piano lessons back when I was a pup. That was all I needed to become the internationally known and supremely competent Steinway technician I am today. I regularly consult for piano tuners and repair people with decades in the business, in fact!
In other words – for the intransigent – learning a language has nothing to do with being able to translate it (other than providing the necessary prerequisite of proficiency in the language in question).
After all, nobody on this thread ever put forth that learning a language was going to enable them to become professional tranlsators. At least you are proficient in Chinese so that you can work as a translator.
Guess I should edit my previous posts to mention that an ability to read between the lines and recognize literary and rhetorical devices, such as sarcasm and understatement, could perhaps be another prerequisite to professional translation.
[quote=“Chris”]
On the rare occasion when I translate into Chinese (as I did for the FBI background check for my APRC), I do my utmost to produce what I think “sounds” like native Chinese…[/quote]
I translated my FBI background check as well. I doubled checked everything with native speakers.
Sat TV mentioned NAATI a few pages back. I’m curious to know how F.com’s pro translators view the Australian NAATI qual.
I hated it with a passion in Australia, mostly because it’s bloody expensive to take the test and they wouldn’t even let me take the test because I didn’t have a Bachelor’s degree. Nevermind that I had JLPT Level 1, and most undergrads graduate and (with a bit of hard work) then go on to pass JLPT Level 2. I remember being sooooooooooooo pissed :aiyo:
It’s heralded as an ‘international qualification’ etc. etc. in Aus, but since leaving I’ve neither seen nor heard a trace of it. Reckon it’s worth the cost and hassle?
The fact that NAATI was so often touted as “the” qualification for people going through the overstuffed Taiwanese translation-and-interpreting buxiban system leads me to believe that either there were massive kickbacks going on somewhere, or the credential was pretty darn easy to get – because most of those who completed those programs had very little in the line of professional T&I skills.
I wish I had photos of my grad school translation-into-Chinese professor’s face during class to show you; that would go a long ways toward proving how crap I am translating into Chinese (as if proof were needed). Nope, on second thought I and probably all my classmates would prefer to forget that whole class.
We are both stubborn and rightly so.