Aging and Translating

Recently a student asked for a copy of an old article of mine, The Difference Between Natural and Professional Translation. You can tell it’s old because it uses professional translation where today I would call it expert translation. Professional translation is expert translation done for money. However, I was drawn to reread the article; and having plenty of time to think during the Spanish lockdown, I wondered what differences might be added to those already mentioned in the article. One such difference is age.


Natural translation begins, we know from Ronjat (see References), as soon as child bilinguals can converse meaningfully, which is typically around age 3. On the other hand there are few expert or professional translators younger than 20, the age at which they start to get translation degrees or take the exams of the professional associations. Of course the older age of the latter can be readily explained by the education, knowledge of the world and cognitive maturity needed.  But the result is that for about 15 years of life a vast amount of everyday translating takes place that is almost all natural translation. “Almost” because there are some exceptions: for example the supervised school children who take part in the UK’s Young Interpreter movement that has often been mentioned in this blog; or the secondary school language students who compete in the European Commission’s annual competition. But those are islands in a sea of natural translation.
  
Now let’s look at the other end of life. A great many salaried professional translators cease work in their sixties because of their employers’ retirement policies. Yet there are also many, especially freelancers, who go on until much later. I have known a few expert freelancers, myself included, who were still working professionally into their eighties. I remember the surprise I felt many years ago when I met the first of these in Toronto. Yet even these survivors fade from the scene by 90, if they are lucky enough to live so long. In my own case it was for two reasons: one was that satisfactory professional translating demands not only high quality but also a cost-efficient and steady rate of output, and I was getting slow; and the other was that translating is tiring.

Freelance professional interpreters tend to fade away sooner than the translators of writings, usually by their mid-seventies, doubtless because interpreting demands faster speed and is more stressful. There's an amusing story listed on my Academia page about a conference interpreter who worked at the Olympic Games in his seventies, but it was exceptional: see My Greek Interpreter in References.

Literary translators follow the same timeline as either professionals or experts according to whether they are paid or not, although most of them are advanced native translators (i.e., self-taught from examples).

Teachers of translation likewise follow the timeline of professional translators; indeed most of them are professional.

As for late-age natural translation, there is a mention in this blog of a natural translator, a lady at a dinner party, in her seventies (see References); but in general there is little information. We can only speculate that it continues as long as the bilingual remains compos mentis.

So much for the age limits, but it tells us nothing about what happens in between them. Surely the natural translator at, say, five isn’t the same translator at ten or fifteen. In the case of expert translators, surely experience has an effect. There are organisations like the government of Canada that rank their translators and interpreters by seniority. But it always seemed to me an aberration that freelance professional conference interpreters just out of training are traditionally paid the same as ones with twenty years of experience.

Thus we know quite a lot about very young natural translators and there is a window of observation of expert translators around twenty, though the universities don’t publish the ages of their graduates and the professional associations don't list those of their members. That leaves big gaps to fill.

To sum up,

1.      Natural translation begins about age 3 and continues to the end of life, which in Western Europe averages about 80: a span of nearly 80 years.

2.       Expert translation begins at about 20 and continues steady into old age: roughly 60 years.

3.       Professional translation begins slightly later and tails off beyond 65: about 40 years.The difference in longevity is one of the reasons for distinguishing between profesional and expert translation.

These are big differences. Of course they are only rough guesses. They tell us nothing about the effects of language proficiency, cognitive development and world experience at different ages and in different contexts. I leave all that to others. It would be helpful if researchers always recorded the age of their subjects.


References

Jules Ronjat. Le développement du langage observé chez un enfant bilingue [Language development in a bilingual child]. In French. Paris: Champion, 1913. 155 p. Available online by clicking here or at https://archive.org/details/ledveloppement00ronjuoft.

Brian Harris. The difference between natural and professional translation. Canadian Modern Language Review, vol. 31, no. 1, 1977. Click HERE.

Translatology. Natural translation has no age limit. Unprofessional Translation, 27 October 2010. Click HERE.

Brian Harris. My Greek Interpreter. 2016. Click HERE.

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Source: Pinterest.

Professor Sylvie Lambert PhD, 1950-2020

It is with great sorrow that we have received news of the sudden death of Sylvie Lambert. In her younger days she was one of the generation of pioneer researchers of interpreting. She did her PhD thesis under another pioneer, the psychologist David Gerver, and she was encouraged by her father Wallace Lambert of McGill University, an expert on bilingualism. In later years she devoted herself to her teaching and her students at the University of Ottawa, to her beautiful golden retriever therapy dogs, to her many other animals and to her friends. She will be sorely missed.



Further reading Sylvie Lambert. La formation d'interprètes: méthode cognitive'. Meta 34:4.736-744. 1988.

NPIT in the Covid-19 Crisis

You have probably read that the NPIT 5 conference has been cancelled for this year. Hopefully 2021. Meanwhile NPIT continues unabated, indeed bolstered by the crisis as NPIT translators pitch in to help. Here follows an example.

Cao Yanyi never thought her self-taught Korean language would be so helpful.

An employee of Tangjing subdistrict office in Baiyun district, Guangzhou, Guangdong province {in China], she served as a translator for hundreds of South Korean nationals as part of the coronavirus epidemic control work.

Cao developed interest in Korean language through South Korean TV dramas. With the help of online resources, she learned the language during the summer vacation before starting the senior high school and during the university.

"I took the Korean language test in 2016 when I was studying in the university. Six was the highest level, and I reached level five," Cao said on Friday.

In late February, she received a call from a community worker who knew about her Korean language skills. The worker asked Cao to talk on the phone with a South Korean national about epidemic control.

Soon, the demand for her translation service kept growing.

Cao had been tasked with translation work at her office, which she joined in 2018 after graduating from the university.

Nearly 300 people from South Korea lived in the subdistrict, where she provided translation service for people on quarantine. She also served people being quarantined at a hotel in Baiyun district. During the peak of epidemic in the country, the hotel had accommodated up to 50 South Korean nationals.

Cao's task involved explaining the isolation measures, including duration of the isolation, to those living in the community. Besides daily reporting of their temperature, she also addressed some of their concerns.

Cao was always on call, day or night. She worked extended hours on days when she had to help those on quarantine at the hotel.

She went to the airport in full protective gear, escorted South Korean nationals to the hotel in a bus and explained to them about the quarantine measures, including how to order food.

Such trips would take at least two to four hours. Cao used to work overnight, receiving three to four groups of South Korean passengers at the airport.

With her telephone number having been printed on leaflets handed to the people requiring assistance, she would often be inundated with calls. Cao would also help dozens of people on WeChat.

She enriched her knowledge about the epidemic through online resources.

She kept the South Korean nationals informed about the end of their quarantine a day in advance. As the isolation of the people she was serving ended in mid-April, Cao resumed her regular work.

The district government had asked the subdistrict office to hire translators to serve the foreign nationals, and Cao had performed her task without any extra payment, said Tan Qiyong, deputy director of the subdistrict office.

Without Cao, it would have been difficult to carry out this work. She served as a bridge. It was no easy task," Tan said, adding that it was fraught with risks.

Reflecting on her role, Cao said it was a very good experience. "Some people thanked me for my help. I had a chance to meet so many people."

In a WeChat conversation, a South Korean national told her, "You have worked so hard today. It was difficult, wasn't it? I hope the disease disappears soon, and we return to quiet and happy life like before. Stay strong and keep good health."

Source: Li Wenfang. Translator helps in fight against virus. Chinadaily.com.cn, 11 May 2020.

Honoris Causa

Last month I emerged from hibernation in Valencia to travel to the southern city of Malaga, there to receive an honorary degree (Doctorado Honoris Causa) on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of its university's department of translation and interpretation. The ceremony was impressive and set the seal on my academic career. But then alas I fell ill on the journey home and spent the next three weeks in bed.

Now that I have recovered, I want to express my profound thanks to the Rector and his staff not only for the honour but also for their warm reception and for their attentiveness to the needs of an old man.

My acceptance speech, which relates the inception of the natural translation hypothesis, can be accessed on my academia.edu page at https://independent.academia.edu/BHARRIS.

Chinese doctors translate WHO coronavirus guidance

Coronavirus is all the news. As its spread goes international, translation is inevitably involved. Some of the translating is no doubt done professionally but a lot is emergency work by non-professional Native Translators who have a medical background. In any case, even among professionals, there has long been discussion as to whether it's better to have a translation by an Expert Generalist Translator or by a less expert Subject Specialist.

Anyway, here's a report just in (with emphasis added) about the work of a group of Chinese doctors.

As tens of thousands of Chinese doctors are fighting against the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), nine doctors from southwest China's Sichuan Province have offered support by translating a guidance of the World Health Organization (WHO).
In 19 hours, the doctors from a hospital in Chengdu, capital of the province, voluntarily completed the translation and proofreading of the guidance that is more than 7,400 words long and shared it online.

The guidance concerned the clinical management of severe acute respiratory infection in suspected cases of novel coronavirus infection, which can help more doctors use scientific methods to treat patients and protect themselves, according to the translators.

 "The epidemic attracted a lot of attention from people all around the country," said Yan Tong, a doctor of the translation team. "We hoped to help win the battle against the novel coronavirus through our efforts."

A total of eight of Yan's colleagues joined him within an hour after he posted a notice calling for help via WeChat. [WeChat is a Chinese multi-purpose messaging, social media and mobile payment app.]

The team managed to translate the guidance in plain language, aiming to help the medical staff find the necessary information as soon as possible when treating patients. Members of the team also invited five other doctors specializing in various fields to proofread the translation.

This is a textbook case of non-professional translators stepping in and organizing efficiently when there is an emergency.

Source
ECNS.cn, 4 February 2020.

Queen Elizabeth I of England, Lifelong Native Translator

There are translators who do it for money (salaried or freelance); there are those who do it pro bono (for friends, relatives, NGOs, love of literature, etc.); there are those who do it for their own self-improvement, perhaps as an aid to learning a language; and then there are those who do it for sheer pleasure, perhaps as a challenging word game like playing Scrabble.

When eleven-year-old Lady Elizabeth, the future Queen Elizabeth I of England, translated a long French religious poem in 1544 as a present to her mother Catherine Parr, the last wife of Henry VIII, she clearly belonged to the pro bono category.

However, she may also have done it as an intellectual game inspired by her Renaissance education. In our  paper Translating as an innate skill we mentioned children who translated between their parents even though they were aware that the latter understood one another without assistance.

Here's an extract from an earlier post on this blog about Elizabeth as translator:

"[The French poem] L'âme pécheresse was only the beginning of Elizabeth's lifelong affection for translating. She must have enjoyed doing it, for itself or for the prestige it gave her in the culture in which she had been educated. Translating was a major element in Renaissance culture and its value was justly recognised. She was an impressive polyglot who knew Latin, French, Italian and Spanish. Over the next four decades, amid the tumultuous affairs of her realm, she produced a considerable body of translations.
"They include her renderings of epistles of Cicero and Seneca, religious writings of John Calvin and Horace's Ars Poetica, as well as Elizabeth's [own] Latin Sententiae, drawn from diverse sources, on the responsibilities of sovereign rule and her own perspectives on the monarchy."

To retrieve the post, enter Elizabeth in the Search box on the right.

Now another document has unexpectedly come to light that reinforces the above. The discovery is the result of some clever detective work.

"A manuscript written by Queen Elizabeth I has been discovered after lying unnoticed for more than a century.
"A literary historian [John-Mark Philo] from the University of East Anglia made the startling find in Lambeth Palace Library in London. [Lambeth Palace is the London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury,]
"He turned detective to piece together a series of clues to establish that the queen was the author of the writings.
"The work is a translation of a book in which the Roman historian Tacitus wrote of the benefits of monarchical rule."

The detective work required an analysis of Elizabeth's "messy" handwriting and even her private letter paper. Her known translations were usually done in her own handwriting

"Philo noticed that the watermarks on the paper stock used for the translation – a rampant lion and the initials GB, with a crossbow countermark – were those used for the queen’s private correspondence and translations. But there was only one translator at court in the late 16th century known to have translated any of Tacitus’s Annals: the queen herself, whom her contemporary John Clapham ´[historian and poet] described taking 'pleasure in reading of the best and wisest histories, and some part of Tacitus’s Annals she herself turned into English for her private exercise'."

Perhaps she did the Tacitus translation partly for her own self-instruction. But we can scarcely escape the conclusion that it's yet another proof of how much, from childhood to advanced age, she enjoyed translating.

Sources
John-Mark Philo. Elizabeth I’s Translation of Tacitus: Lambeth Palace Library, MS 683. Review of English Studies, 29 November 2019, https://doi.org/10.1093/res/hgz112

Alison Flood. Messy handwriting reveals mystery translator: Queen Elizabeth I. The Guardian, 29 November 2019.

Janet Mueller and Joshua Scodel (editors). Elizabeth I: Translations, 1544-1589. University of Chicago Press, 2009.

Kerala Schoolgirl to the Rescue

Each year at the translation school of the University of Ottawa we used to host a group of sixteen-year-old students from local secondary schools and give them a chance to try their skill at interpreting. We didn`t expect an expert performance; we only wanted to give them an idea of the difficulty of the task, but sometimes we had a surprise. I always remember one girl who gave a flawless consecutive French rendition of a five-minute English speech taken from a bank of speeches that we used for training our advanced graduate students. I and my colleagues were floored. Why would we submit such a genius to even one year of classes? Therefore the following exploit doesn't surprise me as much as it seems to have done the reporters from The Indian Express and News 18.

"Rahul Gandhi lauds student for translating his speech. 

"A class 11 student earned praise from Congress MP Rahul Gandhi during his visit to Wayanad for flawlessly translating his English speech into Malayalam. He was addressing a group of students after inaugurating a new science block in the school on Thursday. During his previous visits to Kerala, Gandhi faced problems when his translators failed to articulate his speeches.

 "Fathima Safa, a 16-year-old student at the Government Higher Secondary School in Karuvarkkundu at Wadoor, stepped forward when Gandhi sought help from the audience.

"'Is there any student who would like to translate what I am saying?' Gandhi asked. 

"Safa lifted her hand and was promptly asked by the Congress leader to come to the stage.

The young student without any hesitation climbed onto the stage and translated Gandhi's speech into Malayalam without any trouble.

"Gandhi later thanked her and handed over a chocolate in appreciation.

An elated Safa later said she never thought she would get such an opportunity."

Malayalam is a Dravidian language with nearly 40 million speakers mainly in the state of Kerala. Kerala is on tte southwestern coast of India. Note that Ghandi gave his speech in English, not Hindi. English is still an official language in India, and it's still very much in use in its everyday life and its literature. It`s an enduring legacy of colonialism. which offers the advantage of neutrality, of not being associated with a particular region or people.to the detriment of others.

Sources
Express Web Staff. Kerala student wins praise for flawlessly translating Rahul Gandhi’s speech. The Indian Express, 5 December 2019.

Kerala Class 11 Student Turns Translator for Rahul Gandhi at Wayanad School. News 18, 5 December 2019.

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The above image is from a video clip that appeared in both the newspaper reports.