This employer's jobs are all translating jobs--primarily translating legal documents into English. If you have been following me, you know I only translate from Italian, French, and Spanish into English and not the other way. She once asked me to check a translation into Spanish, but I try to avoid those. Nothing is more stressful or upsetting to me than when an employer whom I have been happily translating things into English for suddenly decides to ask me to go the other way in translation. Written translating is usually a one way street. Even my mother-in-law who is German only prefers at this point in her life to translate INTO English because she has been living in America most of her life. This does not mean she is no longer proficient in German or unable to translate it. To translate well both ways, you have to actively participate in the culture into which you are translating (i.e. Living on the border of two countries where you need to continuously use skills in both languages or living in a country where you are in a group of people who speak one language but the language of the country is different).
Translation errors are frequently responsible for wars, so even people whose sole job is to translate important documents, who have obtained certification, and who spend much time translating can still get it wrong. Why? (1) They are not familiar with the culture only the language (2) They don't leave footnotes that explain alternate translations. (3) They insist on word-for-word translations instead of looking at the meaning of phrases.
Translation errors are frequently responsible for wars, so even people whose sole job is to translate important documents, who have obtained certification, and who spend much time translating can still get it wrong. Why? (1) They are not familiar with the culture only the language (2) They don't leave footnotes that explain alternate translations. (3) They insist on word-for-word translations instead of looking at the meaning of phrases.
A couple projects ago, M-Att. sent me an awful job. The first problem is that it was that it was a huge court transcription written entirely in CAPITAL LETTERS. The second problem is that it was seriously lacking in punctuation. Why is this a problem, well try reading the following humorous examples from the Internet in English:
HUNTERS PLEASE USE CAUTION WHEN HUNTING PEDESTRIANS USING WALKING TRAILS
Was that "Hunters, please use caution when hunting pedestrians using walking trails." or "Hunters, please use caution when hunting. Pedestrians using walking trails."? Now imagine this was written in a foreign language and you were trying to translate it into English. Which punctuation would you use? In this case, most of us would choose the second option because the first one does not make ethical sense. Some translators would use the first as an option. The problem is that in the court document I had, there wasn't an ethically ridiculous choice versus a probable choice. It was two probable but entirely different meanings, and this wasn't one incidence but many incidences per page of the 27+ page document. Totally not fun.
Needless to say, this document was probably the most difficult thing I have ever translated. And it should show that if you want to get your point across no matter what you are writing (including comments on blogs and in online forums), you should never use ALL CAPS for the entire thing and you should also attempt some punctuation.
Was that "Hunters, please use caution when hunting pedestrians using walking trails." or "Hunters, please use caution when hunting. Pedestrians using walking trails."? Now imagine this was written in a foreign language and you were trying to translate it into English. Which punctuation would you use? In this case, most of us would choose the second option because the first one does not make ethical sense. Some translators would use the first as an option. The problem is that in the court document I had, there wasn't an ethically ridiculous choice versus a probable choice. It was two probable but entirely different meanings, and this wasn't one incidence but many incidences per page of the 27+ page document. Totally not fun.
Needless to say, this document was probably the most difficult thing I have ever translated. And it should show that if you want to get your point across no matter what you are writing (including comments on blogs and in online forums), you should never use ALL CAPS for the entire thing and you should also attempt some punctuation.
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