#Interpreting

[belle-keys]

Recommendations for media about translation, interpreting, and foreign languages

Movies and TV

Quo Vadis, Aida? (2020) The Interpreter (2005) The Last Stage (1948)

Books

Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi Translating Myself and Others by Jhumpa Lahiri The Interpreter by Suki Kim Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok Translation Nation by Héctor Tobar Alphabet of Thorn by Patricia A. McKillip Translation State by Ann Leckie

Other Important Topics and Subjects

La Malinche The Rosetta Stone The Tower of Babel The Adamic Language Esperanto Philology Goethean World Literature

Documentaries and History

The Interpreters: A Historical Perspective The Nuremberg Trials Biblical Translation St. Jerome - patron saint of translators Shu-ilishu's Seal (first depiction of an interpreter)

[mediocrelanguagelearner]

the long-term effect of studying translation and interpreting* is that you just have to suffer your whole life now listening to people refer to interpreting as "translation" and correcting them every time. And them continuing to say translation.

*very basically: translation deals with written content, interpreting with spoken content

[hala-macaron]

I know it is not that deep, but every single time I see or hear someone say “translation is a betrayal of the original source” or “translation means I can never truly grasp what was meant” and mean it, I die a little inside. Do you know how much time, effort, countless nights spent agonising over context, meaning, intention, historical context, research etc. goes into a translation? Do you know about the concept of translation loyalty, how we are taught that it is one of the golden rules? Our loyalty to readers and author alike? How much understanding of a topic does not only go into translation but into interpreting as well? How much determination, frustration and love it all takes? How informed you have to be about hot words, cultural peculiarities, language-specific concepts and the like?

Do you know how much adoration goes into providing another human’s words - one whom you may have never met but by all that is holy and damned, their voice exists and it is worth being heard by all, no matter if they have access to the original language or not -, their thoughts and dreams and hopes and whatever else there is, for all eyes and ears and fingers?

It is demanding work. It makes you doubt and doubt and want to pull your own teeth out sometimes. I have spent minutes analysing a sentence simply to find the correct translation for the word “as”. I have checked sources, researched novels and plays long forgotten, hours before I would actually get to translate. I have spent nights researching, swallowing tears and cries of anger older than me, for interpreting jobs. I have felt unbridled joy upon delivering a valuable translation, could have jumped in exhilaration when elderly people came to me, smiling and thanking me profusely because they are interested in working for a good cause but they would not have been able to understand this conference without my friend and I because the conference was held in English, not German.

My state exams are coming up. I am this close to being a state certified and court-sworn translator and interpreter. Something I’ve been training for for 3 years. I would have never discovered Neil Gaiman as an author without the translation of “Norse Gods”, which I needed as reference material back in school. I would not be able to teach my mum English if not for my Scottish teacher during my time becoming a commercial correspondent and then starting to train as a translator. Without translation, nobody would ever be able to learn another language, or even get to know a different culture.

Translation is an act of love.

It’s in the smile of the Ukrainian kid whom I’ve interpreted for at a gaming conference, who did not speak a lick of German. It’s in the eyes of the Canadian Paralympics delegation stopping in Munich, whom we’re interpreting a sports event, a state dinner and a welcome speech for. It’s in the laughter of refugees who have been here for months to years, shunned by the government and left to be unheard until the multiple conferences, projects, organisation meetings held to help them, to make sure they are not forgotten. Who joke around with us in bits of English and Farsi - through another interpreter -, forge connections with others attending the meeting, quipping and teasing in broken German and my mother tongue rings as sweet as bells. It’s in the hands of elderly people attending a talk about the banning of uranium weapons, shaking but full of strength, as they thank us for our help. It’s my mother’s smile as I translate medical articles for her, as she never learned English, growing up in the GDR.

Translation is an act of loyalty and love. Of adoration for those who were, who are and who will be, and all the echoes of ourselves.

[casual-artist]

A quick background (like ~2 hours) that I made during/after watching the Julia Drawfee background drawclass. Based on my own office! There's more I would change and add but I got tired tbh

[chiaraav]

Things I've learned in my first month as an over the phone spanish interpreter:

All the nurses and receptionists called Karen that I've encountered have been SO nice! Always understanding and forgiving if you make a small mistake and very willing to help out, not racist at all and many of them actually have learned a little bit of Spanish to help their patients! So nice, so cute, hope I keep encountering them on the job.

The Sharons though, I've had 5 Sharons and all of them were awful, treated the patients horribly and they also treated ME badly!! Like wtf Sharon, I'm here to help YOU. Racists all five of them.

Also this is specifically for the fourth Sharon, I may be able to call your patients for you, but I'm not your secretary, I CAN'T make calls where interpreting services are not required, no I don't care how busy you are, no I'm not lazy this just isn't my job, pick up the phone and make the english calls you need jfc

EVERYONE IN PEDIATRICS IS SO NICE I LOVE Y'ALL!!!!!!!!

No kidding, they're the nicest of them all, always happy to help and happy to see their patients! And so am I! I'm not someone who particularly likes babies or kids but honestly the cutest appointments. Everyone is so nice, EVERYONE: receptionists, nurses, doctors, everyone in between the absolute best, always a pleasure to receive a call from you.

Labor and delivery nurses are so nice too!!!! May be a little less enthusiastic but overall so nice and kind, love y'all!!!

On the other hand we have neurosurgery, god I hate this calls, it's not that the terminology is hard (it is, but I can look it up) but is2g neurosurgeons are SO unwilling to help out, they get annoyed of you can't do things quickly and perfectly, and if I ask for a repetition or a spelling they get annoyed and I'm like hello???? Your patient NEEDS to understand this and as such you should HELP ME understand otherwise we are all losing our time. Not racists tho, just assholes. Hope I find some nice ones.

Urologists! Please, you shouldn't be uncomfortable talking about penises and prostates with a female interpreter! You are a physician! But if you truly think that it would be better to have a male interpreter ask for one!!!! So there won't be any awkward silences, that just makes it way worse!!!!!!

Male nurses I love all of you, you are so kind and willing to help! Always saying please and thank you in a soft voice, love love love!

Actually tbh most of the nurses are very very nice, especially as I said pediatrics, labor and delivery and oncology!

Not u neurosurgery nurses, y'all are not exactly nice, can't blame you tho you have to spend so much time around neurosurgeons, there's no way you will stay nice around them.

Oncology you guys are the best, such a difficult specialty and so hard to give bad news, you deserve the best.

Family medicine! It's obvious that you guys are on a rush, so much respect for you really, you also deserve the best!

Don't even know what to say about gastroenterologists, you guys are really strong, definitely not for the weak

And that's all that I wanted to say about providers! Though here's a list of things that annoy me:

So hey, I know that some of you are in a rush, but could you PLEASE at least tell us when you are going to hang up? We don't want to be reporting calls as disconnected, it's annoying.

In the same line, hey I don't have this problem with my company but my friend's company has as goal to finish calls with their scripted goodbye if not those are detractor, so could you guys please at least allow us to say goodbye I know that it doesn't feel necessary (it isn't) but it may impact someone's income

Please could you speak a little slowly, some of us are relatively new and can't keep up with accents if you guys are running with your words

For some of y'all it's not even to speak slow, just at a normal pace! I can't understand terminology that way!

[madame-airlock]

Does anyone need a translator?

I know this is suuuuuuper random, especially for Tumbrl but I figured it wouldn't hurt to try.

Long story short: I'm an interpreter and translator. Got my master's in interpreting last year but not many people hire people with little experience so I'm looking if I can find something as freelance, online.

I work from Spanish and English into Italian and from Italian into English.

My rates are good, and in certant cases I'm fine with doing some work for free or at a reduced rate ❤️

(reblogs are appreciated)

[melinoegoddessofghosts]

So, I am studying to be an interpreter, specifically a court interpreter. (It'll be a while before I'm there, but I'm working on it.) Whenever I tell people who are monolingual and don't work in languages that I'm studying to be an interpreter, they always come back with something like, "That's one of those jobs that will be taken over by AI pretty soon."

I've always brushed that off as people not understanding the field. Interpreting can't be taken over by AI because AI doesn't understand nuance or culture and can't make decisions about meaning when there's more than one possible interpretation. I've always said, "Every bilingual who has used Google Translate knows how much machine translation sucks."

None of that has changed, but the WGA strike has me worried about job security for interpreters in a way I wasn't before. Not because AI will be as good as or better than human interpreters anytime soon, but because AI will be cheaper than human interpreters pretty soon. And the people making hiring decisions may not care about the quality of the work.

Even now, court interpreters have to fight their way into courtrooms all the time. Judges are trying to deny people their constitutional right to an interpreter just because they don't want to wait for an understaffed interpreting department to send someone running down five flights of stairs to jump right into the next interpretation with no break. If AI is more available, even if it sucks, are courtrooms, are TV networks, are schools, going to choose to use AI instead of a human interpreter?

And if that happens, people's rights are going to be trampled. I talked about the nuance and the word choice that AI doesn't get, but in this field, miscommunication can ruin lives. Misinterpretation in a courtroom can get an innocent person convicted or deny a victim justice. Misinterpretation in a job interview can lead to underemployment for linguistic minorities. Misinterpretation in a hospital can lead to wrongful death. Obviously, AI isn't going to catch up to human interpreters anytime soon, just like a human is going to be able to write better TV than AI. But if it's cheaper, are hiring managers going to care?

Make no mistake, the fight that WGA is fighting is the first front in a war that is coming for us all. AI is easier, but it is not better. And we have to protect people's rights; not just rights to work, but rights to live.

[kraymerman]

I am really excited about Animal Well and the interpretation of the lore that I came up with, so here's a map I made of the titular well, with the names I gave to the various locations that make up the world.

[kaevch]

d9es that mean we r mutuals now

[mist-the-wannabe-linguist]

[jinterpreterlanguage]

Spanish Interpreter Services In Delhi - Terakoya Multi Language Solution

Terakoya multi-language solution understands the importance of accurate and effective communication, especially when it comes to business, legal, medical, and other professional settings. we offer professional Spanish language interpreter services to help bridge the language barrier and ensure successful communication. Our interpreters are native speakers of Spanish and are fully trained and certified, guaranteeing you the highest quality interpreting services.

[lynothy]

Love when I’m trying to interpret a class and the prof says “yeah it’s this minus that plus this” like HUH???? My enemy in Christ, that’s saying literally nothing. And now I look like a damn fool in front of this student bc YOU make no sense. Just SAY the NUMBERS not the “this and that” BULLSHIT I swear to GOD.

[belle-keys]

just did a 5-hour interpreting extrance exam with only the power of God and Robin Swift on my side

[frivolous-pastel]

At one point I worked for over two years at a manufacturing plant as the interpreter for the Japanese vice President sent from the Japanese parent company to manage the plant

And I remember one time the plant manager refused to even bother explaining the function of some feature on the machinery to me when I asked because he said I wouldn't understand it

He wouldn't explain what the function of dummy switches were to me

[only-book-lovers-left-alive]

Rainy day in the ASL lab 🌧 trying to get some homework hammered out before a mock interpreting session