Translation with the speed of thought

The language of international communication is English. But sometimes, for various reasons, at meetings and conferences, round tables and public discussions, other languages ​​have to be used. Then you can not do without the help of translators-synchronists. The profession is not easy, especially if you have to translate scientists for scientists. Mikhail Peregudov answers the questions of Sergei Popov about the difficulties in the synchronous translation of scientific discussions.

- You often have to translate the performances of scientists and scientific journalists who are replete with special terminology and difficult concepts. Do you have a scientific education? How often do synchronists working at meetings with the participation of scientists have scientific education?

-I do not have a scientific education, in the specialty I am a linguist-translator, graduated from the Faculty of MSLU (formerly injaise named after Maurice Torez). The vast majority of Moscow synchronists working with the language couple “German/Russian” also have no scientific education (although there are candidates of philological sciences among them), they graduated from the same university. As far as I know, the situation with written translators is somewhat different: it happens that they received an education, for example, in one of the natural science disciplines, and they taught the language and, accordingly, came into translation later.

- What is the source of information to expand the dictionary towards scientific terminology and for the assimilation of the detailed meaning of scientific terms and concepts? In general, does the synchronist really understand what he translates if we are talking about a scientific discussion?

- I'll start with the second part of the question. Of course, a synchronist, and indeed a translator, must understand what he is translating about. And it doesn’t matter what this is: scientific discussion, installation of equipment, a tour of the museum or something else. Without understanding the content of the text, no translation is impossible, because we translate not individual words one after another, but the meaning of the statement, albeit with an eye on its shape. To translate this very meaning, you must first understand it yourself. Therefore, you need to prepare for the translation, so as not to be in a situation where it seems to be a language you know, but nothing is clear. Often this preparation takes much more time than the translation itself.

The most important source for us is the materials sent in advance. Each time we insist that the customer demands from the participants the texts of their performances or at least the thesis. Unfortunately, the texts are not always sent to us, and if they are sent, then often at the last minute, when they can no longer talk about thorough processing. In addition, there is an Internet, without it in our profession nowhere. Sometimes you have to sit in the library. But this, of course, is possible only with a sufficient amount of time for preparation.

If the speakers say, as they say, “without a piece of paper”, then they save the same preliminary preparation on the topic and background knowledge. This knowledge is taken from anywhere: from books, from the press, all from the same Internet. You need to read, read and read again. The most important thing here is curiosity, it seems to me that any translator should have this quality. You need to be interested in a variety of things, because you never know where and what will come in handy.

- What are the main problems and difficulties in the work of the synchronist, when should scientists translate?

- If you distract from the difficulties accompanying any synchronous translation - the pace of the speaker’s speech (oh, how often people forget that they are translated and speak at an incredible speed!), Problems with equipment, natural fatigue caused by the need to constantly maintain high concentration - I would say that the main difficulty is special terminology, especially if you translate the representatives of scientific disciplines from those who are far from those who are far from those who are far from those who are far from those who are far from those who are far from those who are far from those who are far from those who are far from those Studied or which you are interested in yourself.

- Are there any special synchronists in different fields of knowledge? For example, those who specialize only in medicine, or only in physics?

- Rather, not. The situation in the synchronous translation market is such that it is impossible to deal with only one topic. As a rule, you take up everything, although it is impossible, of course, to forget about professional ethics: if you feel that the topic is unfamiliar, but it will not work to prepare for the translation, it is better to refuse to transfer and offer the customer to contact another colleague, who has more knowledge on the topic or time to prepare. Each of us has some areas that are closer to us for one reason or another that are more interesting to us more than others. And colleagues usually know about each other who is better than understanding.

- Is it easier for you to transfer from Russian to German or vice versa?

- It’s easier for me to translate from my native language, that is, from Russian to German. This is due to the fact that in this case the problem of understanding the sounding text disappears. Speech in the native language is easier to understand, even if there are interference during the operation of synchronous equipment, the speaker has a dialect or diction defects. Understanding speech in a foreign language in such conditions is much more difficult.

This is not the first time they ask me such a question and, having heard the answer, often wonder: how is it - after all, you have to speak a foreign language all the time! Is it really easier than on your native? I will answer this way: not easier, but not more complicated. The synchronist must speak a foreign language at such a level as to be able to express almost everything on it. This is achieved by many years of work on language competence.

- What were the most remembered errors or curious situations in your work?

- Perhaps there were no very rude mistakes, but from the curios, one conference dedicated to the embassy gifts is remembered. She came to an end, my colleague and I were already decent tired, and now another speaker rose to the podium and began to read his pre -written text with a wild speed. She performed in Russian, but the speed was such that I simply did not have time to capture the meaning of what she speaks, even in her native language.

I suspect that I am not alone. With sin in half, I translated a couple of phrases and realized that during this time she had already taken off about about the paragraph forward. I don’t know what happened in my head at that moment, but I paused, and said in the microphone in German “I am very sorry, but this is too fast” and turned it off. After that, several people from the first row shouted to the speaker at once to speak more slowly. Usually, when you ask a person to speak slower, this is enough for five minutes, no more. But then a miracle happened: the speaker withstanding a convenient pace for us to the very end of the text. During the break, we rushed to meet each other: she was to apologize, and my colleague and I - thank her for fulfilling our request.

-Is a synchronist for a lifetime, or are there any popular life trajectories with a change in specialty or specialization?

- I think for a lifetime. Despite the considerable number of difficulties that this profession is fraught with, there are many pluses: a flexible work schedule, a constant change in the height, lack of routine, the opportunity to find out, see or survive something that would never encounter something else.

But it also happens that someone decides to change, although usually people do not stop translation at all: someone just changes the main working language (say, from German-to English), someone opens their translations of translations, someone just begins to do something else in addition to translation. If you are imbued with this matter, if it is given to you, it is not so easy to part with it.