Language Professors Teach New Interpretation Skills To Improve Accuracy

Posted on February 4, 2010
Filed Under Writing and Speaking | Leave a Comment

When it comes to errors in the interpretation of documents, the general public has difficulty in understanding how they can be made. This article will attempt to do so. In addition, new college offerings will be discussed. The art of translation and interpretation is subject to error at all stages of the process that include the process of receiving and handling requests to do specific translations, assigning the right translator to the job, doing research, networking, translating words, phrases, and registers, editing the translation, delivering the finished text to the employer or client, billing the client for work completed, and getting paid. Due to the large number of errors found in translations of literature works, leading universities began to develop translation programs of study. Eventually, complete degrees began to be offered in universities that had the objective to teaching the skills necessary to deliver quality translations that are equivalent to source documents.

Within the next decade, more universities began offering programs in German Translation studies that included coursework in historical translation theory from Roman times and moving forward into modern times. As students moved forward in the translation program, they would take classes that focus around common problems in literary translation, beginning with simple problems and then progressing to more complex issues.

As a student in a translation program, one of the first things that is learned involves determining what makes some documents more difficult than others. Perhaps the first lesson that students learn is that simple word by word translations have tremendous disadvantages. Anyone who has ever used an internet translation product has encountered the weakness of online translation systems. Even experienced translators use this type of translation at time, particularly when the subject matter involves Medical Translation, Engineering Translation, Legal Translation or another form of highly technical translation. The following true story attests to the difficult issues encountered by professional translators.

As part of a Medical Document Translation project for a major pharmaceutical company, an associate from the United States had to travel to Berlin, Germany. Although his native language was English, he spent a semester in college at a German university. However, it’s important to note that while this person was a native speaker of English, his German language skills were somewhat limited. At the hotel, a service desk attendant asked him if the temperature in his room was acceptable. He understood the question, how he would reply in his native language and the translation of those words into German. Since he was quite warm, he responded answered by saying that he was feeling a tad bit too hot. He made a common mistake that people from English countries overlook. There is a huge different in what he should have said, “it is warm to me.” and what he actually said, “I am hot.” Unfortunately, the service worker looked befuddled and amused which suggested that the reply was incorrect for the occasion. The American had inadvertently suggested something about romance instead of something about his level of comfort. In German, there is a big difference between the two statements, even though in English the statement “it is hot to me” is a bit awkward and cumbersome.

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