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The Role of the Translator
The translator works with the written word, meaning-fully re-assembling the fragments of communication from the source language to the target language. The translator provides their own view of the meaning of the original text.
It is important to see the translation as more than a
simple operation of swapping one word for another into the target language. The
finished article needs to be meaningful to the reader.
There are a number of circumstances that can challenge the
skills and expertise of the translator. These include:
- ambiguities,
abbreviations, jargon or colloquialism, puns, word play and sayings or
proverbs;
- where
there is no direct equivalent of an English term in the target language,
for example, there is no direct equivalent of "Council/Local
Authority" in Urdu.
This is often dealt with through the creation of vocabulary banks to
ensure a uniform approach, taking into account developments in client's
home languages and the fact that many of their local speakers may be
unaware of such developments;
- where the
layout of the target language version is likely to differ significantly
from that of the source version. This is likely to arise due to
differences in the length of text, from the fact that, in the case of Urdu
and Arabic; and
- where
queries will be followed up by an agency without the capacity to use the
target language.
Sometimes either the source or the target language is in a
non-written format ie audio-tape, Braille, video or just personal dictation or
reading. Agencies using these will need to consider how best they should be
handled in the target language(s). The production of these alternative formats
is often called transcription but "translation" is used to cover all
such approaches in this guidance note unless otherwise stated.
Public authorities should develop their own translation
guidelines. These can either be in the form of a policy or a procedure and,
among other things, should cover:
- the use of
plain, grammatically correct and idiomatically simple English in all
documents that require translation;
- the
recognising that translation should be seen as a supplement to
interpreting and other communication services, not a substitute;
- an
indication of the costs of translation at the very outset of any document
being prepared for public use;
- an
assessment of the benefit of translating documents against using an
interpreter or an audio tape;
- an
assessment of the need for a document to be translated in full, as against
a shortened version or summary;
- provision
for the proof reading of all documents for accuracy, readability and
appropriateness;
- consideration
of the target audience, how they will be reached and the best format for
their needs, for example, audio information may, in some cases, be
preferable to a written format.
The thirty nine steps for use of translation is available in the
Publications section.
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