अनुवाद तथा शब्‍द चयन

कोई भी प्राणी किसी भी कार्य में जन्‍मजात पारंगत नहीं होता है। वह जन्‍म के बाद ही सीखना शुरू करता है तथा आजीवन सीखता ही रहता है। जब वह मृत्‍यु को प्राप्त होता है तो अपने बाद की पीढ़ी के लिए सीखने की प्रेरणा बन जाता है। ठीक इसी पद्धति पर आधारित है हमारी अनुवाद शैली। अनुवाद करना तो सभी जानते हैं और अपने आप में सर्वश्रेष्ठ अनुवाद भी करते हैं, लेकिन ऐसा अनुवादक विरला ही होगा जिसके लिए लोग कहते हों कि वह सर्वश्रेष्ठ अनुवादक है, कोई भी उससे उचित अनुवाद नहीं कर सकता है। इसका कारण उसका बौद्धिक ज्ञान अथवा कार्यकुशलता नहीं बल्‍कि शब्‍द चयन होता है।

किसी भी भाषा में एक शब्‍द के कई अर्थ अथवा पर्याय होते हैं और सभी अपने आप में तार्किक होते हैं, लेकिन अपने अनुवाद में उपयुक्त शब्‍दों का चयन कर उचित वाक्‍य संरचना करना ही अनुवाद शैली है। कोई व्‍यक्ति इस कला को जीवनपर्यन्त सीखता ही रहता है, क्योंकि यह एक आजीवन चलने वाली प्रक्रिया है। इस कला को विकसित करने के लिए पर्याप्त समय तथा कठिन परिश्रम की आवश्यकता होती है। यह सर्वविदित है कि किसी शब्‍द चयन को सही ठहराने के लिए आपके पास अधिक संख्‍या में तर्क भी होने चाहिए, क्योंकि आपके शब्‍द चयन को गलत ठहराने के लिए समीक्षक का मात्र एक अधिक तर्क भी पर्याप्त है। इसलिए किसी भी अनुवादक को सदैव प्रयासरत होना चाहिए कि वह नवीनतम तथा यथासंभव शब्‍द भिन्‍नताओं को समझे और उसे अपने अनुवाद में प्रयुक्त भी करे। इसके लिए यह आवश्यक है कि वह कभी पढ़ना न छोड़े।

Hindi Translator

Translator: A Puppet or Einstein!

Is a Translator a puppet or an einstein? As a translator do you want to be counted as a person who solely follows the glossary and terminology and give damn about the other things and make the translation dreadfully prosaic or we want to be simply like Shakespeare, The Master of Words!

In my opinion a translator should be a mixture of both Einstein and Shakespeare i.e. he should be inventive like Einstein and innovative like Shakespeare.

Since scope of Translation Services is vast and it is the requirement of almost every single sector, from business catalog, pamphlets, manuals to games guide, movie, subtitling etc., thus it is very important to maintain the rhyme and essentials of the project from beginning till the end, and still make it easy for the user to read. Most translation when taken out of context becomes more difficult to understand. It’s not the translators fault but he is certainly the one to be blamed for. It’s not his fault as he was just following the basic translation rules but his fault is that he only followed the glossary and ignored what the source is actually expressing. Sometimes some words and phrases are used as a references for which we should write appropriate word and phrases that convey the same meaning in target language. For this one has to be either sensible enough to put the suitable phrase in target language or skilled enough to play with words and form the same meaning with the same expression.

As a translator, we are bound with so many norms and rules like ‘following this and that’; which is necessary of course but the question is till what extend… Because of this incertitude, a question always come to my mind that when bounded with the rules, does a translator ever get the opportunity to open up and show his creative and ingenious professional side!

The answer is creativity can never be caged. If you have creativity and know to use it with words then one day it will surely going to get noticed. But, it’s up to you and will always be, whether you want to use it with your creativity and beautify it or let the machines overpower your sensibility.

All you need to remember is…

Never let anything prevent you from doing what is right…

This quote should not be taken as a kick against action but should be taken as a simple truth that rights can never be wrong. Of course to maintain consistency throughout the project you got to follow glossary and terminology etc. But if you feel that you can give it a better shape, even if you have to include words not present in source or exclude words from source, then why not. And, if the creativity has been used in the right manner without hindering the glossary, then Bingo!! You Got it.

Translation is just as creative as writing a film script, rather than making it complicated for us, all we need to do is to play with words rather than becoming a puppet of glossaries. Remember we created the glossaries and we can always make it work our way.

Importance of Reputation for Freelance Translators

Your personal reputation is one of the most valuable things that we will own regardless of where we are of what we do. It is something that is with you always, affects parts of your daily life and is very difficult to change.

A good Freelance Translator provides good quality of work and they work to mutually agreed deadlines. The saying goes ‘a salesman is only as good as his last sale’. A similar saying could also be applied to translators. ‘A translator is only as good as their last translation’. In both circumstances there is the detail to consider.

A Freelance Translator generally seeks a situation where they have a regular client base who considers them first. Ideally, if they are too busy the client will still come to them first for the next project and the next project. Reputation for a freelancer allows them to earn better rates even though there will always be someone else offering to do the same job for less money. It allows the freelance translator to discuss the issues of a project openly with the client or Translation Project Manager and have them work with them to complete their service.

The reputation of a freelance translator can be most easily maintained by:

1.Staying within their capabilities: - It is not advisable to take on highly complicated specialised texts that you have no experience with unless you have discussed this with your client and have a clear plan how you will complete the project. Otherwise you might perform below what is reasonable.

2.Work to deadlines: - Ensure that you assess the deadline and only agree to what is achievable. If you are upfront and say when the translation can be achievable this may well turnout fine and avoid loss of your personal standards for quality.

3.Check your work: - It is advisable to take a short break and then review your translation before you send. You may have made some simple error or missed something that this last scan can pick up. This will also avoid you sending the wrong file. Checking you own work is not proofreading. Proofreading in my opinion involves a 2nd independent translator.

4.Problems: – If you have a problem or require extra time it is important to tell the client ASAP. This allows the issue to be addressed as soon as possible and a solution found. The problem might be legibility of part of the source text or you might be delayed due to a personal problem. If possible, the more warning notice the better for everybody.

Meaning of Translation

Translation is, above all, an activity that aims at conveying meaning or meanings of a given-linguistic discourse from one language to another, rather than the words or grammatical structures of the original. The meaning of a given word or set of words is best understood as the contribution that word or phrase can make to the meaning or function of the whole sentence or linguistic utterance where that word or phrase occurs. The meaning of a given word is governed not only by the external object or idea that particular word is supposed to refer to, but also by the use of that particular word or phrase in a particular way, in a particular context, and to a particular effect.

Translation requires a high standard of knowledge of a language and a meticulous approach to words and processing text. Many specialise in specific fields such as legal or medical texts. Translators also usually only translate into their native language. A translator would need a high degree of fluency to translate out of their native language, as no matter how long you’ve lived in a country, there will always be forms of the language you don’t know.

Use of Dictionary

As a language learner you should never be far from a good dictionary. Learn how to use it properly and you will enrich your language skills. Besides using your dictionary as a quick reference book for words you’re not sure about, use it as a source of increasing your knowledge of how your new language works. This doesn’t mean you need to read it from cover to cover. However you should understand how your bi-lingual dictionary works.

Familiarise yourself with the list of abbreviations usually found at the front of the dictionary. You should also find grammar tips, verb tables, cultural notes, pronunciation tips, numbers, weights and measures and times and dates. Knowing how to find these quickly can be very useful to the language learner.

In the middle of a good language dictionary there is often a section on common language phrases. This will be split into categories such as: job applications, commercial correspondence, opinions, likes and dislikes, the telephone and e-mail. Use this section to improve your language skills. Many people don’t even know it’s there!

Difficulties with translation

Despite having the support of a good dictionary, it’s always a good idea to try and ‘stretch’ your language skills. When you come across a word you don’t know don’t automatically turn to the dictionary. By all means use it as a back up to check words, but first of all try and get the meaning of the word.

Look at the whole context of the paragraph and see if it gives you any clues. Consider the tense of the word. It may be a familiar verb in a tense you don’t recognise. Try and take a step back and look at the meaning of the text you are trying to translate, to see if the unfamiliar words fall into place. This method doesn’t always work, but when it does it’s much more satisfying then turning the pages of a dictionary.

Translation Services in india

Role and status of Translators and Interpreters

In the colonial context, we find translators and interpreters, but particularly interpreters taking on an amazing range of responsibilities which go far beyond linguistic mediation. Interpreters in the colonial context acted as guides, explorers, brokers, diplomats, ambassadors and advisers on Indian or local affairs; that is why they were sometimes branded as traitors, because they were indispensable to the colonial authorities. In other contexts, too, translators and interpreters, in oral traditions such as the African tradition were expected to act as spokesmen for their communities, not just as linguistic mediators. In the eighteenth century in Turkey, the duty of the Naval Dragoman included the supervision of the collection of taxes from non-Muslim subjects, though later on the 1839 Tanzimat limited his responsibility to interpreting again, i.e. strictly linguistic mediation.

In terms of status, the highest status attained by translators and interpreters seems to have been linked to the profession being hereditary, as in the case of the 'wise men' in the oral tradition of Africa, who passed on their skills to their sons. Other examples include the TSUJIIS in Japan, who exercised family monopolies on interpreting in this area from the seventeenth century until the end of Japan's isolation in the second half of the nineteenth century. There are also the Greek Phanariots in Turkey in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, who similarly had sole control of the profession. All these groups were highly regarded by their communities and earned a very respectable living.

WORKING FRAMEWORKS

Another interesting area worth investigating concerns the use of Interpreters in contexts where we very rarely see them used today. The role of interpreters in educational contexts is of entry on the Hungarian tradition to bring it up to date, following the unfortunate death of Dr. Gyorgy Rado in 1994. Sara Laviosa-Braithwaite provided invaluable support as my Research Assistant for practically the whole of 1995. Juan Sager helped edit a number of entries in the summer of 1996, and Kirsten Malmkjaer stepped in later that summer to give the editing a final push.

Even with so much good will and generous assistance from a large number of people, there are bound to be some errors and infelicities, given the scope of the enterprise.

In the view of aforementioned description, the Translators as well as the interpreters are playing an important role in the society while they are called traitor. However, their role neither ignored nor be abolished from the society because of their role for the society. They are the indiscernible part of the society.For more Information Plz visit our Website here :- www.somyatrans.com

Subtitling: A Real Art...

When we talk about what subtitling is, we can say in simple words that it is a printed translation. Which surely is true, but what if we take it as an art. You’ll not agree with me on the first place. When given some deep thoughts to it, nobody can deny the importance and skills required to be a subtitler.

On a simple note subtitling is one of the several processes commonly used in the translation of audio-visual products. It can be in the form of captions or simple subtitles shown at the bottom on the screen.

Subtitling is much cheaper than dubbing, and it takes less time, so it is common in smaller countries for which the audience is too small to justify dubbing on a large scale.

Now lets discuss it further.

From a linguistic point of view, subtitling can be divided into two types: a) Intralingual subtitling, also known as captioning, which is primarily aimed at the deaf and hard of hearing, but also extremely useful for people learning a foreign language; b) Interlingual subtitling, the spoken/written message of the original product which is translated into the language of the target audience. From technical point of view it can again be of two type: a) Open Subtitling, which refers to subtitles that appear permanently on screen and cannot be ‘switched off’ by the viewer; b) Closed subtitles, which the viewer can choose to see or not.

Translation of Subtitling is sometimes very different from the translation of written text. Usually, when a film or a TV program is subtitled, the subtitler watches the picture and listens to the audio sentence by sentence. As subtitling doesn’t just mean to translate the dialogue, thus other meaningful language in films such as signs, letters, captions and other written words are also an important area needed to be considered upon. When a film has lots of written language and dialogue happening together, this can result in some very difficult choices for the subtitler.The subtitler may or may not have access to a written transcript of the dialog. Especially in commercial subtitles, the subtitler often interprets what is meant, rather than translating how it is said, i.e. meaning being more important than form. The subtitler does this when the dialog must be condensed in order to achieve an acceptable reading speed.

The subtitler’s task is already difficult because subtitles are so limited in space (about 37 characters per line, and a maximum of two lines) and time (subtitles should not stay on the screen longer than six seconds). The result is that the content of the dialogue has to be cut down to fit in the subtitles. Not only that, but the content has to be translated, and the subtitles also have to be ‘spotted’ or timed carefully to match the dialogue.

The basic aim of any Translation is to reformulate a source language message in a given target language, avoiding at all costs any misunderstandings in the process. In other translation practices mistakes can easily pass unnoticed, but this is rarely the case in a mode of translation as uniquely vulnerable as subtitling. Hence it will no be incorrect to project subtitling as another real art form of contemporary time.

Tips for Translation

There is no need to explain what translation means in our everyday non-professional understanding. It is a process when a text – be it oral or written - created in one language is transferred into another language. But translation has never been just a word for word substitution – it is a difficult and creative process that requires real professionals with a wide experience in Translation Industry. It is the language differences that made people resort to this hard yet vitally important job and made the translation itself one of the oldest occupations in the world. Different cultures, mentalities, levels of development, traditions – all of them come forward when a need arises to translate. It is easy to make oneself lost in this ever-changing world of words and meanings.

Many people believe that translation is an easy thing and all you have to do is to change words from the source text into the equivalent words of a target text. However, this is not true since some phrases, if translated literally, would make no sense.

Translation is a very complicated process which has to consider many factors - the genre and the style of the original text, the translator's competence, and the timeline allocated to the project and many more. There are a great number of useful translation tips available online and offline, yet every translator have their own reliable methods and techniques, built on expertise and time. Here, are few of the most essential translation tips that can come in handy both for the oral translation and the written translation.

Oral Translation Tips

Interpreting - simultaneous, consecutive and whispering - is considered to be the most difficult type of translation. To achieve great results in this domain, an interpreter is expected to have a high level of competence in different areas, to understand and critically analyse the translated information, to know how to highlight the key elements in the text, to constantly enrich their professional vocabulary, etc. The personal features of an interpreter - such as a quick reaction, clear articulation, and bright mind - are also of great importance.

The most essential interpretation tips are as follows:

• In advance familiarize yourself with the topic of the speech
• Note down main points of the speech – it will help you when interpreting
• Translate and clarify the meaning of special terms and key words prior to interpreting
• Establish friendly relations between you and the speaker at a consecutive interpretation
• Remember to pronounce words distinctly and clearly
• Produce a brief summary at the end of the speech - it helps to clarify conclusions
• React quickly and be ready to work under pressure
• Enjoy what you are doing - there won't be a second chance
• Transmit a clear message to the target audience.

Work, in Translation Industry

A glimpses of work in translation Industry

The Job: Translator/ Interpreter

The Nature of the Work: Translators and interpreters work fluidly with languages, but their responsibilities differ. Translators work with printed copy. Interpreters specialize in the spoken word and serve as liaisons between two parties, such as a doctor and patient or defendant and attorney. They typically must consider ethical obligations; translators often have to massage copy to make sense of pop culture references. "Being bilingual isn't enough," says Judy Jenner, who co-founded Twin Translations with her sister. "We have to shape a message to an international audience."

The Pay: Many jobs are free-lance. Interpreters can earn between $15 and $30 per hour, according to Common Sense Advisory, a Boston-based research firm. Translations are paid per word. Ms. Jenner, for example, charges 24 to 27 cents per word, depending on the skill level. Savvy translators can earn six figures per year, says Milena Savova, academic director of the department of foreign languages, translating and interpreting at New York University. Full-time staff at language-services firms earn from $40,000 to $60,000, according to a recent survey from the Globalization and Localization Association, a language-services trade group.

The Hours: Hours are often flexible. Ms. Jenner, who lives in Las Vegas, says she completes her assignments while lounging by the pool. Her twin sister and fellow translator/interpreter works from Austria. Elizabeth Chegezy, a translator and interpreter in Philadelphia, says free-lancers can work as much or as little as they like. However, she warns that the high-paced role technology plays in the business means some clients will demand unreasonable deadlines. At language-services firms, business hours are the norm.

The Benefits: Free-lancers are responsible for their own health-care and retirement-savings plans. At language-services firms, traditional health-care packages are common, as are retirement-savings programs.

Globalization and Localization Association Website Becomes Industry Portal

The Globalization and Localization Association (GALA) has completely updated its website www.gala-global.org to offer more resources for members and the industry.

One of the major new features is the Knowledge Center. In addition to a wealth of articles, case studies, and survey data, the Knowledge Center includes the association’s quarterly GALAxy newsletter, its LocalizationCAREERS.net job board and its updated Language Technology & Services Directory. The searchable directory offers users easy access to information on vendors around the world.

Another new feature is the Localization Overview, which lives within the Knowledge Center. Developed by industry experts, the overview is a first stop for anyone who wants more information on taking products and services global. It covers everything from definitions of localization and internationalization to localization technologies to working with localization vendors.

“We have made the website a portal to be used by our members and their customers for greater knowledge,” said Laura Brandon, GALA Association Manager. “Our goal is to make it the premier resource in the language and localization industry.”