[Flags of the United Kingdom and France*]
Profiting from some free time this Friday (to accentuate the positive as
Johnny Mercer wrote), I was directed to and listened to several podcasts
prepared by the French Division of the American Translators Association. I
found them very interesting and relevant both to translators and customers as
they presented issues and solutions in French-English translation (both ways).
They also reinforced the notion that wisdom is the knowledge of how much there
is still to learn.
In the podcast on financial translation, Amanda Williams strongly
demonstrated how important subject material knowledge is vital for accuracy.
Since French and English share many roots and almost as many false friends,
blindly using the shared root is often but not always incorrect. For example, the
French word contrôle can be translated as audit in English but also control,
depending on the context. Familiarly with the IFRS, which is the international
accounting regulations, is vital as exemplified by the English translation of
the French immobilisation corporelle: property, plants and equipment.
A final example is the catch-all French term operations, which is often
rendered activity in English. As the speaker said, the world needs more
great financial translation, with emphasis on the word “great”.
In their podcast on Translations that pop, Angela Dubois and
Andie Ho presented effective translation solutions of difficult source material
and made it clear how native-language familiarity with the target language and understanding
of the intended message are keys to the art. Citing a translation for the
marketing phrase gérer votre quotidien devient facile by Natalie Fadi [apologies in advance
for this spelling], they praised the effectiveness of managing your day to
day just got easier, noting that the subtle adding of the word just
and change in the form of easy made the translation seamless. Likewise,
the same translator translated the phrase Elegance à la plage, de la plage à l’ėlegance regarding designer
clothing into Elegance from dawn to dusk. The commentators noted the
primary element was the flexibility of use the clothing, not the beach, as well
as the switch from place to time. Finally, Ms. Dubois presented her French
translation of the English marketing phrase for an application. Acme, any
time and any place became Acme, dans votre poche [Acme in your
pocket]. In translating marketing material, both the intended message of the
source material and the sound and rhythm of the target language must be
considered.
Finally, Miranda Joubioux gave several examples of problematic words in
French that had been discussed in the Pet Peeves and Betes Noirs website. The
first terms she discussed were the French words accueillir and accueil,
mentioning several options, including host, house, include,
live, cater to and be open to. Similarly, the common French
word acteur can be translated into stakeholder, player,
insiders, movers and shakers, to name a few, or even be ignored. A
final example is the phrase dans le cadre de, which is generally too
formal for English. Options include as part of, in and at.
What arose from the discussions is that blind obedience to French syntax and
word choice is poor translation.
The fruits of my Friday labor were greater understanding and
appreciation of the differences between these two somewhat related languages.
Since I also translate into English from non-related languges (Russian and
Hebrew) in addition to from French the podcast reinforced my feeling that their
closeness actually made translation more difficult, not less. In any case, it
is a lifetime of work but a work of love to fully appreciate their varying
manners of expressing ideas. Vive la difference!
*Insert a picture description in your posts to allow full access to the blind. Picture credit: Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/baptiste_heschung-226926/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=1441871">Baptiste Heschung</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=1441871">Pixabay</a>
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