International Translation Day celebrates breaking down language barriers
30 Sep 2020
7 min read
When you ask a translator why they chose their profession, many will cite their love of languages and the ability to help people communicate across languages. Others love the learning and research required by their profession because the content and topics they work on is always changing. Some fondly describe their job as a puzzle, where they have to search for the right word, and once it’s found, everything fits together perfectly.
Each year the world celebrates International Translation Day on September 30. This year, we thought we’d ask our translators to share a short video, explaining what being a translator means to them. Check out their inspirational insights below!
We also took the opportunity to speak to Maria Schnell, Vice President of Global Language Offices at SDL, about the important role that translators play, the challenges they face and what she loves most about working with SDL’s large global network of translators.
Tell us how you became involved in the world of translation?
When I was at university in Germany, I studied translation, but I never actually worked as a translator. Back then the translator world was very different than today—no CAT, no MT, literally pencil and paper. It didn’t matter that there were no CAT tools, what was important was determining what the text was for and what it would mean to the target culture.
What I liked best about the program is that it taught me mental flexibility and how to research and learn quickly. Translators are fortunate to have the chance to work on such diverse topics and for so many of the top companies and brands. I loved diving into different topics in-depth, and I’d guess this is one of the things that translators like best.
When I was studying, being a translator had a certain glamour where you imagined you’d be wearing black clothes and translating intellectually deep literature. In reality, you may be translating lists of different types of screws, which I thought was very boring. But what one translator thinks is boring, another will find fascinating. It’s important to discover your specialty and get in the right mindset.
What kinds of challenges do translators regularly face?
One of the biggest challenges is “what is good quality?” Good quality always lies in the eye of the beholder. Of course, it includes proper grammar and spelling, but when does a translation sound good? What does sounding good mean? It depends on the company or brand.
As they work, translators have to take who they are—their own identities—and put them aside. They need to think like the customer’s target group. For example, one customer told SDL that their product was targeted at hipsters, so the translator had to consider what does a French, German, American hipster think? The translator team didn’t have any hipsters, and in some countries hipsters don’t exist, so the translator had to figure out how they think and translate from that point of view. What makes a good translator is the ability to do a lot of research, think about end users who will use the translation and truly understand what each subject is about.
What skills are best suited to being a translator, beyond being good at languages?
The huge volumes for translation are one of the biggest challenges translators face today. Organizing the tsunami of work so the job gets done within the required timeframe demands a high degree of organization and efficiency, and technology helps make this happen. People don’t always realize that translating is a creative job. In order to have time to be creative, while still generating the amount of content required, translators today have to be tech-savvy and incorporate technology into the translation process.
Even with technology like machine translation and post-editing, translators still have the opportunity to create something. When post-editing, translators actually notice how unsophisticated the machine can be. Machine translation provides speed and efficiency but it will never replace trained human linguists. Humans engage with humans—and that’s why translators will always be needed.
What do you love about working with translators and linguists?
They really, really care about what they do. I’ve managed so many different teams, and translators stand out because they have a special selflessness. They are always striving to produce something they can be proud of—this is why they are extremely quality aware. Translators tend to be insanely cultured, by this I mean they have read so much and touched so many different text types in the course of their lives.
One of my favorite things is going out to dinner and spending private time with the translator teams I work with. I learn from them every time. They read so much and know so much. I remember one dinner with the Russian team. At dinner they taught me things about Spanish and Latin American literature that I didn’t know—and I’ve studied this subject extensively myself! I like moments like this when they open up and show me the magic and culture within them.
Why is celebrating International Translator Day important to you?
I read a book called “Talking to Strangers.” Part of the book talks about when Cortez met Montezuma and the way they communicated, which was very complicated. Cortez said his question to a Spanish interpreter, who translated from Spanish to Mayan, then a woman called Malinche translated from Mayan into Aztec. There were many misunderstandings about the ownership of the land, where people stemmed from and each side’s intentions. These misunderstandings resulted in Cortez having the Aztec leader killed only three days later. If the Aztec leader had a translator to explain the cultural nuances of what was being said, he might have realized that Cortez was a threat and things may have turned out differently.
Cultural nuances are also very important in games, which contain a lot of inside humor and jokes. Humor can be so local. There is a German comedian called Loriot that not many people outside Germany understand—this is why you need translators and why MT still has a way to go, because cultural nuances are missed.
International Translation Day is important to celebrate because translators are a rare breed and possess rare skills. Despite all the effort with MT, translators will always be needed because of cultural nuances and their skills will never go away. It’s important to celebrate their skill that continues to grow and is very much alive and thriving!
Maggy Heimer
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