BILINGUALISM –

And What To Do With Yours

Translator or Interpreter or Bilingual Specialist?

English-Spanish

M. Eta Trabing

Copyright 2008 Berkana Language Center. All Rights Reserved.

No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transcribed in any form or by any means, including, but not limited to electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or other means, without prior written permission.

What is Bilingualism?

• According to Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary: having or using two languages especially as spoken with the fluency characteristic of a native speaker

Definitions

• Source language: language you interpret or translate from

• Target language: language you interpret or translate into

• Dominant language: language you speak, read and write the best

• Native language: language that you speak/spoke at home with relatives, but didn’t necessarily go to school in. So many children of immigrants or first generation Americans fall into this category, as their schooling is now in the U.S. and in English only. Not many of these children take their native language in school as they already “know” it.

• Second language: language that you also speak, read and write, at more or less the same level as your dominant language. Obviously, it may be your native language if you study it at school or at home.

• Monolingual: a person who speaks only one language

• Translator: works with the written word only from one language to another

• Interpreter: works with the spoken word only from one language to another

• Bilingual specialist: a bilingual person who can do his/her job equally well in either language, without ever being asked or having to interpret or translate (i.e., psychiatrist, accountant, clerk, secretary, car mechanic, landscaper, etc., etc., etc.)

• T/Is: translators and interpreters

Being bilingual ...

How does one know a language?

Just for your amusement!

Now, let’s look at what each specifically does, so you can decide which would suit you best.

As we said:

• Translators work with the written language, but usually translate only into their dominant language. This means: books, documents, brochures, letters, instruction books, and anything else written that someone needs in another language.

• Interpreters work with the spoken language so must be able to speak well in both languages at the level of an educated monolingual speaker. This means: in court, in depositions and hearings, in hospitals and clinics, for Child Protective Services, for state/federal/local agencies and in any situation in which two people cannot communicate and need help.

• Interpreters and translators must also know local dialects and regionalisms, and the latest terminology in all their chosen fields. People who only speak a local dialect may also need an interpreter occasionally. People who speak the local version of “Spanglish” may also need help reading a book or speaking to someone who does not speak that version of Spanglish.

Few people are both translators and interpreters – most prefer one or the other, and it depends on their skills and their personalities. Interpreters prefer to speak fast and think fast and move fast and be where the action is, and interpret ing by it’s very nature is never absolutely perfect; translators prefer to think more in depth, have the time to do more research, and prefer to be perfectionists; and they don’t mind sitting in front of a computer all day!

• Do you already have a career, but also know two languages? Maybe you didn’t know that a second language might be a great asset to you. Maybe you spoke it as a child but never kept it up into adulthood.

• With some extra study, you could do your job or career or profession in both your languages equally well – which would give you a tremendous advantage over monolinguals in your same job or career or profession, and open many new doors! Not to mention a higher salary commensurate with your additional knowledge. And additional profit for your employer!

You could update your second language and learn the terminology of the job, career or profession you already have so as to make yourself twice as good and twice as needed!

There are some requirements for T/Is that overlap

• Be bilingual at a college graduate level. If you’re going to work, you need a good, adult, educated, level of language, beyond high school. If at all possible, go live in another country for a year or so, your language skills will improve enormously!

• Be prepared to use other people’s idiolects. It is a very different matter to speak a language well enough to duplicate other people’s words, meanings, grammar and syntax, and not just those you know. Idiolect means the language or speech pattern of a person at a particular moment in time.

• Be prepared to do a lot of research (libraries, internet, etc.). There are so many new things appearing every day, in technology and the sciences and in every day speech, that you need to keep up with. Before the internet, T/Is lived in libraries or phoning other T/Is to ask for help. Nowadays, things are very much easier, just about everything you could want to know is available on the internet. Sometimes not in your languages, but maybe in another language that is close to one or the other of yours, which you could use to triangulate with. For instance, knowing Spanish and English, you could triangulate with French or Portuguese and maybe see a word that reminds you of just the right word you needed in Spanish. You need to know how to use the internet properly, know what is believable, and not get caught with some of the garbage on the internet.

• Possibly specialize in 2 or 3 subjects and know them in depth. There are so many hundreds of subjects, that it would be very hard for you to know them all in depth, so pick a few and become an expert in those. Make sure your specialties are marketable, you do need to earn a living, I assume! If you study more in depth some of the subjects that you already know a lot about, it’ll be quicker and easier for you. Do you have a particular affinity for or interest in a subject, something you liked before but never pursued? Now’s the time! The more you like something, the more effort you will put into it.

• Know business and computer terminology. Everything in this day and age has to do with computers and their software and terminology, so you must know these well enough to use them properly and quickly – time is money! And if you are self-employed, you’ll have to know how to run a business also. Those two subjects are included in just about every and any subject – sooner or later, there is business and computers, and taxes and accounting and banking. And if you think you can’t learn how to use a computer – think again. You’ll be left out of all sorts of business and personal situations if you don’t have e-mail. You’ll be left out of all types of business, period, if you don’t know how to use a computer. If elders at 70 can learn, so can anyone!

• Read a lot in both your languages and in your specialties. Keeping up with reading in both your languages will help you develop a better vocabulary and will let you see how new words are used in sentences. There are foreign newspapers available on the internet, pick at least one a day and read the news in both your languages. If you have specialties, read documents and papers written by the top experts in that field, so you can both learn and keep up.

• Be prepared to study new subjects and words for ever! As long as you work, you’ll need to keep up with new subjects and words – they will never stop and neither should you! It’s exciting to challenge your mind every day with something new! It stops you from being bored and being boring, so keep on learning.

• Know the cultures that go along with your languages – they are important! “Culture is the total pattern of human behavior and its products embodied in thought, speech, action, and artifacts and dependent upon man's capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations through the use of tools, language, and systems of abstract thought.” (Merriam Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary – CD-ROM version). This will help you not make mistakes such as, “travel on leather” (an airline slogan) that got translated as “viaje en cuero” (travel naked!) If you are aware of words or gestures that might be bad words or obscene gestures in another country, you won’t use them. If you know both the cultures you work in (which is a whole separate course!) you won’t offend people or get them upset. And remember never to use the American OK sign in almost every country in Latin America. It’s obscene there!

• Be more than just computer literate. You need to know how to work a computer well, not just the bare basics. Take some classes in the various programs of MicroSoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc., etc. So much of what we do is in that software you want to know it well.

• Have appropriate dictionaries (monolingual, bilingual, in all your specialties) Although good dictionaries are not cheap, you need good ones. The Oxford Spanish and the Pequeño Larousse, both English-Spanish, Spanish-English, are two of the best, and come in pocket size ($15) and full size ($60). These are general dictionaries. You will also need good English-English dictionaries (Webster’s, Oxford, Cambridge, etc.), with lots of definitions and good Spanish-Spanish dictionaries (Diccionario de uso del español and the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española) with lots of definitions. And you need good dictionaries in your specialties; these may have to be updated every 10 years or so. In the meantime, there is the internet, but be careful, there is garbage on it, too. So if you have the same definition from 3 reputable sources, you can accept it. If it only shows up in one dubious source, keep looking! There are also millions of typos on the internet, so be aware of those, too.

You must (in no particular order):

• know how to write the target language almost perfectly and know how to write well. If you don’t like writing, you won’t write well. If necessary, take some writing courses, both literary (essay writing) and technical; many if not all community/junior colleges offer them.

• be very detail-oriented and precise. Remember, every comma and apostrophe must be in the right place, not to mention correct spelling and grammar. Translations ARE written in stone, all mistakes will come back to haunt you for a long time! Make sure you never leave out a sentence, or part of one, or a key word in a sentence; a “not” will make a huge difference. And you are liable, if the client loses money and sues you!

• know your way around a research library and the internet. We’ve commented on this already, the more you know, the better you’ll be.

• pick some subjects that you know in depth or are willing to study in depth What were your favorite subjects in school? What hobbies do you have? What subject strikes your fancy because you think it’s interesting? All these are indications of some of the things you might like to specialize in.

• Gardening, horticulture, trees, forestry

• Pottery, clay sculptures, porcelain

• Knitting, quilting, sewing, patterns

• Music and musical instruments

• Arts and crafts

• Clothing, fashion, fabrics

• Furniture designs, woods and upholstery fabrics

• There are so very many things to chose from.

• know what subjects you already know and love and can use. See if what you love is also marketable (music, art, mechanical engineering, animal science, agriculture, medical, landscaping, etc., etc.)

• comprehend the source language completely; it helps if you can also speak it fluently, your clients might have more confidence in you, but it is not absolutely necessary What is necessary is that your translation into your dominant language be perfect.

• be prepared to study grammar again (as an adult writer and editor, not as a school child). The grammar you took in elementary and secondary school may be a fond memory somewhere in your past, or not! Learning grammar again from a translator’s point of view requires an adult’s perspective, a college graduate’s perspective. There are so many new rules since many of us were in school, so we need to keep up, not just with English (difference between British and American English), but Spanish is changing rapidly also. Many words that we used to accent, we no longer do. We now put accents on all capital letters also, which we didn’t before, except for the ñ. Before you start translating, be sure you know the latest grammar!

• be a good proofreader of your own work. All work must be proofed more than once. It is best to have someone else proof it for you, new eyes see things we missed. But even before you give it to a proofreader, let your translation sit for a day or some hours (depending on your deadline) and then proof it on paper, rather than on the screen. Run the spell check, but that won’t pick up all mistakes, it can’t tell the difference between their (adjective “su”), there (adverb and pronoun, “ahí, allí”) and they’re (contraction for they are) in a sentence.

• know your audience for every job. The register you write in is the level of language you use to transmit the information. It is important that you know who will be reading what you are translating – children, farmers, housewives, professors, engineers. Obviously, you must stick to the original writer’s way of saying things, but knowing your audience will help you decide whether to use this or that syntactical form or this or that word instead of another. What country is it going to? Mexico, Spain or Argentina? The Spanish will be very different.

• not fall into “translatorese” – your work must stand on its own. Remember that the people who will read the translation are NOT bilingual, so your version must be totally understandable to those who are monolingual.

• ensure that your work makes total sense in the target language. The last proofreading you do, should look at this aspect of your work – does it make sense all by itself? If not, rewrite the portions that are confusing.

• always deal first with meanings, then with words. If you understand the meaning, the right words will fall into place.

• ask, if you do not understand something in the original, or there will be errors in the translation Don’t be afraid to ask the client what something means if you don’t know or if it sounds wrong. Many times, the translator is the last person that can catch a possibly very expensive mistake, so speak up (after you’ve done your homework and knowing that something is definitely wrong!) If you know your subject, you won’t have to ask very much.

You must (in no particular order):

• know both the source and target languages equally well. You need to speak clearly and well, with as little accent as you can manage; monolingual people must be able to understand you easily. Interpreting is public speaking, if you’re shy and speak in a very low voice, you may need to go to an acting coach or to a Toastmaster’s Club, there is a group in almost every city. They will teach you to overcome shyness and speak out!

• use the tone, register and words of the original speaker. If the speaker is angry, your interpretation should sound angry or at least a little angry, and not be a monotone. If a speaker uses slang or idioms, you must use slang or idioms in the other language; if a speaker is erudite you must sound the same; if a speaker is a child, you must sound like one, too, with the words and syntax you intend to use. If you are a woman interpreting for a man, you must use the words that a man would use in your target language, not your words. The same applies to a man interpreting for a woman, of course.

• convey the speakers’ exact messages. Do NOT summarize; repeat the message exactly in another language, don’t leave out anything, don’t add anything, don’t change anything. That is the most important thing that interpreters do. Do not give additional explanations, either. The interpreter’s sole purpose is to bring the non-English speaker to the same level as an English speaker with the same intellectual level, nothing more, nothing less.

• a speaker can be very erudite or have little formal education, you must be able to reflect both faithfully.

• have a great store of knowledge in your short- and long-term memory (time and experience will add to it!). You must know as much or more than the people you will be interpreting for, so that no matter what they say, you will be able to interpret it. If you interpret from a relaxed state, words will sprout from you long-term memory and come to your aid when you need them. If you are up-tight or nervous, everyone will know it very soon. Under those circumstances someone may begin to doubt your interpretation.

• be a people person. You are with people all the time, it helps if you like people! You will interpret often for people who are sick, frightened, angry, mentally challenged, almost always in crisis situations, you must keep your cool while some of your clients cannot. You will act differently in a business situation, in a court or in a hospital. You should be adaptable and flexible.

• keep up with all the modern language changes. Languages change daily. Slang changes quickly, certainly from one generation to another. Ask your children and grandchildren what the latest words are. Learn them! Whatever subject you work in there is slang that you must keep up with. Many people don’t speak well or properly or grammatically, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t have to.