Translators make us united in a diverse world

Let us honour the translators on the International Translation Day which is celebrated on the 30th of September. Translators’ job is crucial as their endeavors have an impact on relationships between cultures and countries.

Through their effort, they bring people together to share new and captivating information that was previously only accessible to specific groups of people. We need to pay tribute these language professionals for the significant role that they play in bringing nations together, facilitating dialogue and thereby strengthening world peace.

They make the world smaller by breaking down language barriers and help immensely in matters related to globalization. George Steiner said: “Without translation, we would be living in provinces bordering on silence”.

International Translation Day is celebrated on the 30th of September as it is the feast day of St. Jerome who is considered to be the patron saint of translators.

St. Jerome studied the bible written in Hebrew language and translated it into Latin. Martin Luther King had said that St. Jerome had done more for translation than anyone had or ever would. As 2019 is declared as the year of Indigenous Languages, this year’s theme on the International Translation Day is Translation and Indigenous Languages.

Language is the vehicle through which we communicate, learn and participate in the functions of the society. It defines our identity. It is through language that we preserve our traditions and customs.

There are about 7000 languages in the world. But about a third of these languages are now facing extinction, often with less than 1,000 speakers remaining. Only 23 languages account for more than half the world’s population. Globalization may be one of the reasons for the threat of disappearing languages. It is said that every two weeks a language disappears taking with it an entire cultural heritage. 46 languages are known to have only 1 native speaker, while 357 languages have fewer than 50 speakers.

Translation of literary, scientific or technical work from one language into another is fundamental to preserving its accuracy and productiveness in interpersonal communication. Some of the problems that arise when translating are context, untranslatable words are idioms. Context is important as the meaning of a word in a language may be determined by its relation to other words.

As an example, to understand the meaning of the word ‘extra’ in a sentence, you also need to be aware of related words such as additional, fresh, leftover, surplus and redundant. Also, all languages contain words that have no equivalent in other languages. The word ‘interesting’ is quite difficult to be translated to Sinhala. Idioms cannot be translated easily as its meaning cannot be worked out from the meanings of the words that it contains. ‘Beat around the bush’ is a popular idiom in English. Try translating that to Sinhala.

The importance of proper translation is clearly seen when things go wrong. In 2009, HSBC had to spend ten million dollars on a correctional campaign when its slogan ‘Assume nothing’ was mistranslated as ‘Do nothing’ in many other languages. In the 1960’s, Pepsi came up with the slogan ‘Come alive! You’re in the Pepsi generation’. In Taiwanese it read as ‘ Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead’. The famous KFC phrase ‘ Finger licking good’ when translated to Chinese, it read as ‘Eat your fingers off ’.

Here are some entertaining examples of mistranslations.

In a cocktail lounge in Norway: “Ladies are requested not to have children in the bar.”

At a Budapest zoo: “Please do not feed the animals. If you have any suitable food, give it to the guard on duty”.

In a Nairobi restaurant” “Customers who find our waitresses rude ought to see the manager”.

At a hotel elevator in Paris: “Please leave your values at the front desk”.

At a hotel in Japan: “You are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid”.

At an Airline ticket office in Copenhagen: “We take your bags and send them in all directions”.

In a tailor shop in Hong Kong: “Ladies may have a fit upstairs”.

In a Bangkok dry-cleaning shop: “Drop your trousers here for best results”.

At a dental clinic in Hong Kong: “Teeth extracted by the latest Methodists”.

At a Medical clinic in Rome: “Specialists in women and other deceases”.

At a cemetery in Italy: “Persons are prohibited from picking flowers from any but their own graves”.

These examples highlight the importance of good translation and that it is one of the most critical jobs in the modern society. These unfortunate errors could have been prevented with the right expertise, thought and judgement. To evade this kind of embarrassment, it is best not to depend on automated translations as it is not possible for a machine to understand the context. It is also important to carefully proofread the translated material to check whether the correct idea has been conveyed.

Let us appreciate the important contributions that the professional translators make towards enhanced communication. As Anna Rusconi quoted “Words travel worlds. Translators do the driving”.

R.N.A. de Silva ndesilva@osc.lk

The writer is a member of the faculty of the Overseas School of Colombo.