People already make a distinction in the profession which you’re probably already aware of. Translation refers to written work, when we take a written document and we essentially reproduce that document or essential content in another language. In contrast, interpreting is when we listen to a spoken message and we re-communicate that same message orally in another language. Therefore, translation is written and interpreting is oral.
There is one skill that kind of bridges both oral and written and that’s called sight translation, not “site” but “sight”. You know, on sight. In other words, somebody hands you a written document in one language and you read it out loud in another language. This is something that is often needed because in human communications, it’s really common that we need to refer to written documents that may not have been translated in advance and so it needs to be done on the spot and so that it is done with sight translation.
As a result, translation and interpretation are both acts of communication. Unlike regular communication when you have something that you want to say and you just say it or you just write it. Translation and interpreting of course are about communicating someone else’s thoughts whether orally or in writing.
Moreover, that has a couple of implications. The first is that the translator or interpreter actually understands what that person is saying and what they mean to say the message that they’re trying to get across. Secondly, you are sufficiently fluent and adept in the target language – the other language that you’re working into in order to be able to express those same ideas in the same way as the original speaker or author did. All of the tips and exercises and preparation that I’m going to talk about are ways to reinforce your ability to understand and then to re-express someone else’s thoughts.
In order to know clearly ‘understanding’, let me give you an example. There are a couple of things that go into understanding. Of course the language, you need to be able to decide what somebody is saying and make sense of the actual words, right? But even more importantly, you need to have the background knowledge – the background experience to know what it is they are talking about because you might understand the words but if you don’t understand the topic at all. Well, they might speak ancient Greek or something. You know it’s just not going to make sense.
For example, right now my advanced translation students just completed a translation on genetic engineering and I was really struck by how often in our discussing that translation they kept talking about their high school biology classes. They were able to understand that text on genetic engineering in French and translate it into English effectively. Not only because they had the words of their disposal but because they understood the structure of DNA. They understood transcription, they understood how our DNA is made up of these small sequences called Gene and that those Gene are made up of the basis A,C,T and G. I don’t know if you’ve had biology but that might be ringing some bells. And it’s really that background knowledge that gave them the mental models. They needed to make sense of what they were reading.
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