Mind your French (and English)!

[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&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=1441871">Baptiste Heschung</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=1441871">Pixabay</a>

Je ne sais. Quoi!

[the word "what"*]

One occasional and regrettable challenge for translators is highly ambiguous source texts. Specifically, the text allows for many different interpretations, says nothing or is so busy implying only those in the know can understand. In the first two cases, the solution is relatively simple: ask the source of the article and “elegant garbage in, elegant garbage out”. Examples of these include technical texts written by engineers that never learned how to write and descriptions of art, respectively. The third case is much trickier for the translator as the writer does not want the general public to understand.  The experts of this type of intentional vagueness are lawyers and politicians. Fortunately, in English speaking cases, the Plain English movement has gained influence, forcing English-speaking legislatures and administrations to at least attempt to write clearly, resulting in much clearer laws and government directives. As for politicians, their case is hopeless.

Unfortunately, the movement seems to fear large water barriers, specifically the English Channel and Atlantic Ocean as cryptic writing has even attained official state-of-the-art status in France. As an example, in an article titled « Le profs ensevelis sous le jargon” [The teachers buried under jargon], the French magazine Le Canard enchainé from the February 12, 2020 edition cites the official site of the French Ministry of National Education in regards to the ongoing dispute with the teachers over salaries. I quote [italics in original]:

Le site gouvernemental de “modernisation de l’action publique va plus loin.” Selon lui, les “tiers lieux éducatifs” servent à “faire émerger un patrimoine informationnel commun : mutualiser des outils libres and open source et des dispositifs de documentation est la seule garantie d’une non-enclosure d’une circulation des savoir.” Comme dans les bibliothèques, quoi…

Xavier Marand, secrétaire général adjoint de Snes – première organisation syndicale dans le secondaire -, apporte sa traduction : “Il apparait clairement que la revalorisation salariale sera conditionnée à l’acceptation de nouvelles tâches : coaching d’élèves à distance ou missions de replacement dans les autres lycées, par example. Quant aux 10 milliards promis bar Blanquer sur quinze ans, il n’a pour l’instant mis que 500 millions sur la table pour 2021…”

Chapeau l’artiste !

Translated into English:

The government website for “modernisation of public action goes further.” According to it, “educational third-places [neither home or work]” act to “create a common informational asset: sharing the free and open source tools and information services is the only guarantee of unblocking of a circulation of knowledge.” As they say in the library, what?

Xavier Marand, assistant general secretary of Snes, the leading secondary school union, provides his translation: “It is obvious that that the proper restoration of salaries will be conditional on the acceptance of new tasks: distance coaching of students or replacement assignments in other high schools, for example. In regards to the 10 billion [euro] promised by Blanquer [the minister of National Education], he has only committed 500 million for 2021...”

We take our hat off to the artist!

I do too. I had no idea what the French text actually meant. While a bit extreme, this use of code words combined with the unsaid succeeds in rendering the translation of this text an extremely difficult task, crossing the border into interpretation. By the way, this example should also make it clear why subject knowledge is no less important than language skills in translation. If the translator “does not know” the subject, the customer may end up saying “what?”.

* Help the blind by adding a picture description. Picture credit: Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/GDJ-1086657/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=2730753">Gordon Johnson</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=2730753">Pixabay</a>

The upcoming train of pent-up demand

                                         [Railroad track with clouds in the distance*]

Worldwide, the corona virus has shut down almost all businesses, big and small, and hit the income of almost workers, salaried and independent. In regards to the day after, when social and business activity is allowed to fully restart, the latter group, the independents, are especially worried. While it is difficult to accurately predict the future, one concept seems relevant in regards to forecast for the short-term future: pent up demand. It is clear that certain professionals will be extremely busy for months to come.

Accountants, doctors and attorneys always finds a way to profit. Given the need to take advantage of the various government support programs and their complexity, accountants will be quite busy and even gain new customers. Their cousins, the financial service providers, will be active helping people manage their debt and get into more debt. On the medical side, the stress of these months on everybody, not just healty care workers, will be boom of those doctors that treat the effects of it, including dermotologists, alergists, cardiologists, dentists, psychologists and psychiatrists, as if their clientelle was not large enough already. However, the lawyers will enjoy the greatest boom. Whether handing divorce, estates, breach of contract or payment issues, the courts are going to be busy. Jewish mothers knew something when they wanted their children to enter these professions.

The busiest service providers, at least in the short term, will be in the beauty care industry. Tens of millions of women will not have had a proper heart cut, dyeing, manicure, pedicure, injection or skin treatment for months. To clarify, I do not state that in derision but in appreciation of their need and its impact on those that provide this service. In fact, it is possible that these businesses will more than make up for the lost income. I also expect to prices to rise in these industries as many women will not want to wait an additional month for an appointment.

To misapply Newton’s 3^rd law of motion, every action has an equal but opposite action. After several months of no serious physical exercise or social activity, people are going to go extreme on sport and going out. The gyms, sports centres and country clubs are going to be jammed the minute such activity is considered safe. Many people will feel the absolute requirement to lose the kilos (or pounds) that they gained while stuck at home. It is unclear how long these people will maintain their enthusiasm but demand for such services will be initialy very strong. Cafes, bars and sports stadiums will be also be packed. These places represent the polar opposite of being stuck at home: lots of noise, talk, non-family and vicarious pleasure. The coffee or beer may the same but everything else is different. Vive la difference! Flights probably will  be packed as people travel to see their “long-lost” loved ones. Any professional involved this social approaching will gain.

Time will tell if how correct these predictions are. Clearly, for some independents, the return to the “good old days” before the corona device will take time, possibly years.  For others, the shutdown period will be an unpleasant but short hickup in their business development, even a shot in the arm. It is the challenge of independents to figure the route of the recovery train and somehow catch it.

* For the sake of the millions of blind, always post a description of your picture.

Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/Larisa-K-1107275/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=163518">Larisa Koshkina</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=163518">Pixabay</a>

The uniqueness of translating Hebrew

Comparison of several words in Hebrew with and without vowels.*

Translation is the art and skill of translating an idea in one language to another language while both faithfully transmitting the various levels of meaning of the source language text and respecting the integrity of the target language. As each language is unique, even if they sound similar, such as Spanish and Italian, this conversion of ideas can be sometimes quite challenging, even incomplete. It is not always possible to full capture the layers of the word or create a seamless text. For example, in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, the Russian word сознающий [soznayushi] implies both knowledge and conscience, a combined meaning difficult to transmit into English (and vital for the story). Clearly each language has its unique aspects that pose challenges to the translator. For example, modern Hebrew is a both very young and very old, in linguistic terms, Semitic language. This affects its alphabet, vocabulary, structure and registers.

The first aspect of Hebrew that strikes non-readers is its alphabet, which initially appears alien. However, fundamentally, it is not difficult to learn how to recognize and read Hebrew letters. The process of learning a foreign alphabet is essentially a mechanical process, a matter of practice, not actually cognitive. The difficulty with Hebrew letters for a new learner and an experienced translator alike is the fact that in most text the vowels sounds are not presented, i.e., the reader is given the consonants only and is assumed to be able to insert the right sounds. As Hebrew words follow strict rules in terms of form, it is possible to most cases to properly ascertain the sounds, such as a short or long e or a. The greatest challenge comes with foreign words, especially names, that are transcribed into Hebrew and don’t follow established patterns. For example, a drug begins with a short a, as in tap, or a short e, as in bed, would both begin with the letter aleph. It requires to knowledge or research to discover the original name in English unless the vowels are marked, which is rare. When I receive a “simple” birth or marriage certificate to translate into English, I often have no idea how to spell many of the names, which are extremely idiosyncratic by nature. Thus, the challenge of the Hebrew alphabet is not in what is seen, but what is not seen.

One characteristic of Semitic languages, which include Hebrew and Arabic, is their extreme genderification. All nouns and personal pronouns, singular and plural, reflect gender. There is no way to express neutrality. For example, if the staff at an elementary school has 20 female teachers and 1 male teacher, teacher being a neutral word in English, in Hebrew, the writer must decide whether to apply the standard rule, the masculine gender applies for all mixed groups, or the minority approach that majority rules, the feminine form in this case. Since the verb also reflects the gender, in academic writing, the translator must find out who exactly is A. Jones in order to insert the right form of the verb. My wife, a medical translator, has a whole series of tricks to figure this out but it can be a very time-consuming task. The fun really kicks in second-person texts, including questionnaires and marketing materials, where the translator has to understand who the potential audience is and find an elegant way to address it. For example, since there are men that suffer from breast cancer, the masculine form may be appropriate in some medical forms. Sex is everything in Hebrew and complicated.

Almost uniquely, Hebrew is both an ancient and new non-Latin-based language. Its root date some 23 centuries but its modern form is not even 150 years old. In terms of vocabulary, this ancient past and newness create some strange versions of rich and poor. On the one hand, some areas of activity have numerous words, including putting on a piece of clothing, each type with its own verb, and types of rain, depending on when it falls. On the other hand, while English has effective and efficient, two clearly distinct meanings, pure Hebrew has only one word, יעיל [ya’il], leaving the translator to use a borrowed English word, effectivi, or use multiple words, a less than elegant solution. Starting off with such a limited pool of words for modern concepts, Hebrew is still in its lexical growth period, adding words at an incredible pace and creating numerous disputes on which Hebrew-rooted word should be used to describe the concept or whether an English word recognized by most Israelis should be applied. This uncertainty forces translators to choose between readability, the understood English borrowing, or purity, the new Hebrew word, if it exists at all. In terms of vocabulary, the lexical earth for a Hebrew translator is not very stable.

Finally, there is the curious issue of register. More established societies, almost without exceptions, have social classes. The relations between these social classes are reflected in the form of address and vocabulary. Examples of distinction include titles, such Mr. and Mrs., use of first names, different forms of the word “you” and the choice of active or passive structure. Israel is a young society essentially composed of generations of landless, poor immigrants of all religions. This economic equality was reinforced by a socialistic/communistic ethos of the rejection of European formalism. Thus, everybody from the youngest to oldest is addressed by their first name without titles. In fact, the best way to shock, if not insult, a woman is to call her “giveret”, Ms. Her reaction probably would be “What, do I look that old?” Not only that, having such a small number of roots, there are simply almost no sources for alternative “high-fulutin” alternatives, except for the Bible, which, alas, is to modern Hebrew what Shakespearean English is to modern English, artificial (except in certain subgroups). So, Hebrew essentially has really only one register, so different from more complex and older societies.

These features of Hebrew are far from negative. They enrich the language and process of working to and from it. Translators enjoy their job specifically because it involves the effort in finding the right turn-of-phrase that transmits the idea to the target language in the best possible way, even if something often gets lost in translation. In point of fact, translators are no less writers than the original writers, especially when working with Hebrew.

* As my friend from yesteryear Len Burns has reminded me, blind people also should be able to know what the picture is. Please label your pictures.