This girl speaks more languages than most of us will do across ten lifetimes. Photo and original story from here: http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/1462076_word-to-the-wise-the-brilliant-ten-year-old-girl-who-can-speak-ten-languages
I came across the above story whilst reading the local paper, and, as I am a languages professional, was intrigued by it: Sonya, a ten-year-old girl who can speak ten languages. Did I ever feel inadequate reading that!
For those of you who haven’t got the time, those ten languages are Chinese, English, Taiwanese, Japanese, Lugandan, Kazak, Portuguese, German, French and Spanish. What’s impressive about this is not just the sheer number of languages she’s learnt but also the breadth of them. OK, fair enough, you could argue that there are some similarities between Taiwanese and Chinese or Portuguese and Spanish and even German and English. But Lugandan and Kazakh and Japanese are no mean feats in and of themselves!
However fluent she may actually be in each of these languages, it’s good to see a languages starlet emerge from British schools, which have been questioning whether or not languages should even be taught anymore. The answer, of course would be a resounding ‘YES PLEASE AND PUT A BIT MORE EFFORT IN THIS TIME AROUND’. As English has become the global lingua franca du jour (see what I did there?), English speakers have become complacent in their approach to foreign languages.
People learn languages for many different reasons: for fun, for work, to earn a living as a translator or interpreter. And it’s true that it’s easier to pick up languages as a child—that’s not to say it’s impossible as an adult, simply that adults learn differently and less intuitively than children do. It’s also true what Sonya says in that the more languages you learn, the easier they come (although she omits the bit about the easier it is to confuse them as well!).
But whatever your age, learning a language offers us the chance to step outside of ourselves and see the world through someone else’s eyes. Or in the case of Sonya, through ten other people’s eyes!
The Translation Process
Have you ever wanted to understand the content of a document written in a foreign language quickly and consulted an automatic translation programme like Google Translate? Did you find that some of the “translation” just did not make sense? For those of you who are not familiar with the translation industry. you may wonder why using machine translation is not sufficient. Allow us to explain why with our guide to the processes that a translator usually adopts when translating a document.
Step 1: Reading the source text
The translator receives the document and begins by reading it twice. The first perusal is at reading speed, to get the gist and an initial idea of the content. The second time, the translator carefully analyses the text to identify potential translation problems and specific terminology. They also scan for characteristics regarding style and register, level of specialization, syntax, cultural references, etc.
Step 2: Preparation and research
After the translator has completed Step 1, they would usually familiarize themselves with the subject area (unless they are already specialists in this field). They normally read information about the subject area as well as parallel texts (similar documents to the one to be translated, both in form and style) in both the source and target languages.
This research is crucial as it is here that the translator can verify the typical usage of certain terms in a given context. It also enables the translator to become familiar with the register and style that they are aiming to produce.
If the translator is unable to identify any problematic terminology at this stage, then they will consult other sources such as specialist dictionaries, encyclopaedias etc. The translator will always double check their terminological choices by verifying with more than one reliable resource.
Step 3: Drafting the first version
At this stage, the translator would normally draft their first version on a word processor and make a backup version to cover all eventualities. The last thing they want is to miss a client’s deadline due to IT faults. Once the translators have finished the first draft, they normally put it to one side for a while before they start to revise it, so that they can come back to it with a fresh pair of eyes.
Step 4: Editing and revising
The translator will then read over their first version and re-draft any sections that sound unclear, or that follow the language patterns of the source language rather than the target language. The aim is to produce a translation of the document which conveys the meaning of the source text accurately and reads naturally in the target language. Once the translator is happy with the revised version, they will usually put it to one side again, so that they can come back to it with a fresh perspective to carry out proofreading and quality assurance checks.
Step 5: Proofreading and Quality Assurance
At this stage, the translator will check the punctuation, grammar, spelling, and any numerical figures etc. In order to do this effectively, the translator might print out a version of the document and carry out their own comprehensive checklist to ensure that the translation is accurate and error-free. Upon completion of the proofreading and Quality Assurance checks, the translation is complete and ready to send to the client.
We hope that this guide has clarified the stages involved in the translation process that a computer simply cannot perform, such as verifying that a lexical item has been used in the correct context. Machine translation can be useful to get a rough idea of the meaning of a document, but in order to ensure accuracy and quality it is always a good idea to consult the services of a fully-qualified translator.