[...] Translators just didn't get recognition, they didn't expect to make much of a living, just get by. Very few people were actually trained as translators, but most had a solid college education and a solid knowledge of languages, at least their own language. I had a friend who fell exactly into that category and my circle of friends expanded to include other translators. I found them to be much more interesting as people, and discovered that we often had similar life experiences. I never had trouble making friends, but I always felt "different" and I'm sure they felt it too. When my friend retired, she recommended me as her replacement. I now entered the realm of Reinsurance, of which I knew nothing. I was also the only translator there, and didn't have much to fall back on. However, it was another notch up....
On my new job, I started looking through the files, asking questions and got the company to enroll me in Insurance courses. The College of Insurance was across the street, and I consulted fire codes, insurance policies and fire extinguisher catalogs in their library. I was learning what I had never had the luxury of being able to do before: research. The first time I had to translate a proposal for purposes of insurance of a nuclear plant, I got a call from the head man in that department, congratulating me on the job I had done. "Compares favorably with what we are used to," he said. What an upper! What happened was that I consulted a document in the files similar to the one I was tackling for guidance, but when I saw that my predecessor had used the word "nucleus" instead of "core", I realized that the files were useless to me. I went across the street to the library and looked up "nuclear plants." I immediately found all the terminology I needed.
It takes a great deal more than that to be a good translator these days, of course. [...] | [...] Els traductors no reben reconeixement, no esperen guanyar molts de diners, només l'essencial per a viure. Molt poques persones han estat educades com a traductors, però bastants han tingut una educació universitària sòlida i bons coneixements sobre els llenguatges, almenys del seu propi. Vaig tenir amics que eren exactament com s'han descrit anteriorment i el meu cercle d'amics es va expandir per poder incloure altres traductors. Els vaig trobar molt més interessant com a persones, i vaig descobrir que en molts aspectes de la vida vam tenir experiències similars. No em molesto mai en fer amics, però sempre m'he sentit "diferent" i estic segur que per a ells també va ser així. Quan la meva amiga es va jubilar, em va recomanar com el seu substitut. Així vaig entrar al regne de la Reassegurança, de la qual no sabia res. També era l'únic traductor del lloc, i no tenia molt en què recolzar-me. De totes maneres, era un altre tant que havia anotat... En el meu nou treball, vaig començar a mirar els arxius, fer preguntes i vaig aconseguir que la companyia m'apuntes a cursos d'Assegurances. La Universitat d'Assegurances estava a l'altra part del carrer, i vaig consultar a la seva llibreria codis per a incendis, polítiques d'assegurances i catàlegs d'extintors de foc. Estava aprenent el que mai havia tingut el luxe de poder fer: recerca. El primer cop que vaig haver de traduir una proposta per a l'assegurança d'una planta nuclear, em va trucar el cap d'aquell departament, felicitant-me pel treball que havia fet. "És una comparació favorable amb relació al que estem acostumats", va dir ell. Quin afalac! El que va passar és que vaig consultar un document als arxius similar al que estava usant com a guia, però quan vaig veure que el meu predecessor havia usat la paraula "nucli" en comptes de "centre", vaig entendre que aquells documents no em servien. Vaig anar a la llibreria a l'altra part del carrer i vaig buscar "plantes nuclears". Immediatament vaig trobar la terminologia que necessitava. Es necessita bastant més que això per ser un bon traductor avui en dia, per descomptat. [...] |