Legal Translation Solutions
]]>That’s the problem with foreign languages — one can memorize all the vocab, perfect all the grammar, work on the pronunciation, and yet there will be an unknown slang work lurking around somewhere. On the other hand, English has so many regional slang words that there are, say, Australian ones, that an Englishman wouldn’t know. There are also native speakers who struggle with their mother tongues; remember Bush’s famous ‘misunderestimate’?
I am glad you told her the truth; I am sure she will have a great laugh sharing that story with her grandkids one day.
I remember mispronouncing ‘crêpe’ as ‘crap’ while ordering lunch back when I first came to the US. It is how one pronounces it in French, but I had no idea that its pronunciation had been Americanized… the waitress was very confused.
]]>On another continent, some years earlier I went to the office of a senior director of a large multinational national corporation.
His pretty new secretary greeted me politely, no H. WM was not in, would I like to wait? So we chatted pleasantly over a cup of coffee to while away the time. I thought she was English from her fluent, flawless English and excellent London accent, but no, she was a German national who had worked in London as a translator/interpreter German to English for six years. I asked her how she liked her new position, she was enthusiastic about it and then looked up at me with a bright smile and said “I feel so randy”.
Well my mind went into overdrive as I tried to resolve the complex conflicting emotions that overwhelmed me. After all, what is the appropriate response to such a statement in the middle of a corporate environment? No it couldn’t be! So I asked hesitantly, do you know what that word means? “Oh it means I am feeling excited about my work” !!!. Now I had a dilemma, should I disabuse her or simply say nothing. No, saying nothing was too dangerous, someone else might take her quite literally. So I gave her the crude German translation. The poor girl, she was utterly overwhelmed, destroyed by shame and embarrassment.
Who would have thought that a translator/interpreter with such a fluent command of English would make such a mistake? ]]>
I have read several autobiographies of esteemed interpreters (the ones who worked for famous politicians etc), as I am really interested in foreign languages and considered becoming an interpreter as a career. It is a very difficult job, and its difficulty is often underestimated. But the main message was that the more professional an interpreter is, and the higher rank his/her employer has, the less s/he should factor his/her feelings into his work. English is also such a common language that Putin’s interpreter should have been able to do his job well. On the other hand, remember the recent story with Clinton and Lavrov? Who would have though the Department of State does not have fluent speakers of Russian on hand…
]]>I came away from that posting with enormous respect for my interpreter and great sympathy for the difficulties of her job.
One of the things I learnt was that, since interpreters have their own feelings and biases, I should factor that into the translation.
So what I suspect in this case is that Putin’s interpreter was outraged by Dell’s condescension and in the stress of translation unintentionally coloured the words with his/her feelings. ]]>
Putin did emphasize that protectionism is not a solution, but all of his comments were completely taken out of the context, and plastered all over the Internet with a “Putin gets in a fight with Dell” title. It’s so annoying when it happens.
]]>The question was raised because Putin stressed on the fact that protectionism is not the solution, so mr. PC simply asked what role the private sector might have ]]>
The real translation is of course still a strong statement. It just annoys me when the translators do such a poor job. At least the Bushisms were the ex-President’s, um… original work, not a translation flaw.
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I always like it when Putin make strong tough remarks.
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